What is insulin resistance?
Put simply, insulin is a hormone the body produces to move sugar (glucose) from inside the blood vessels to inside cells so it can be used as fuel or stored away as fat. In type 1 diabetes, the body doesn’t produce insulin and therefore blood sugar gets too high, the cells are starving and we thus have diabetes. With insulin resistance however, the body is producing insulin but the receptors that detect said insulin loose their sensitivity and don’t function properly which left unmanaged can lead to increasing blood sugar levels and ultimately type 2 diabetes.
What causes insulin resistance in the first place?
There are multiple factors that contribute to insulin resistance. Ultimately having too much insulin for too long a period of time can damage the receptors. I like to use the lock and key analogy – insulin is the key, the receptor is the lock. If you were constantly fiddling with a key in a lock, the lock would eventually become damaged.
We know that over nutrition, stress, poor sleep, and gut health are just some factors that contribute to those chronically elevated insulin levels.
The way in which we most accurately test for insulin resistance is by using an inexpensive blood test with a sugar challenge where both glucose and insulin are measured periodically. This provides us with the information on how the body responds to a sugar challenge. The pattern of the response provides us with a ton of information in how to address and reverse it.
Correcting Resistance
In order to properly reverse insulin resistance, we first need to identify which factors are contributing to it’s development and address those specifically given it’s a multifactorial condition. Some commonly considered treatments are listed below. Please note that none of this information should be interpreted as medical advice, treatments need to be targeted to your specific needs and aren’t without risk especially if utilized inappropriately.
Berberine
Berberine is a compound that is found in a number of medicinal plants that has been shown in studies to reduce both fasting and fed blood glucose, insulin and lipid levels. We know it to be an antimicrobial herb. We suspect it works in this case by means of addressing the gut microbiome and more specifically impacting gut hormones called incretins, which modulate insulin secretion from the pancreas.
Diet
There are many ways in which we can utilize the diet to decrease insulin levels to allow receptors to become sensitive again. One of which is fasting. Insulin levels, if not stimulated, will gradually decrease over time. Fasting allows for periods of time where insulin isn’t necessarily being secreted to allow levels to decrease and again allow for receptors to resensitize. Nausea or lack of appetite in the morning is a sign that insulin may not have reduced enough to give your body the signal for hunger.
We also know that there are certain foods that stimulate insulin to a high degree. Limiting those foods for a period of time allows for insulin sensitivity to improve. This is not the same as glycemic index or glycemic load.
Stress
Ultimately in the face of stress (be it emotional, physical or physiological) the body is prepared to fight or run away (flight) in which case we flood the blood with sugar to provide energy to our heart and muscles. Inevitably, most of the time we are not running away from a bear when we’re stressed and that sugar isn’t utilized and insulin kicks in to decrease blood sugar. This further perpetuates resistance. Identifying the stressors (ex: work, chronic allergies, nutrient deficiencies etc.) and correcting them can make drastic differences.
Wrap Up
There are countless means of impacting blood sugar and insulin levels and I could write a book given there are so many of them. The most affective means of addressing this is with thorough intake of all the systems (stress, gut health, diet, exercise, medications and supplements, environment…) and running specific lab work to determine which contributors are at play. Making a custom treatment plan to address those specifically while meeting people where they are at and willing to do to address said issues is where real change happens! If there’s any take home message from this it should be that insulin resistance is very reversible!
References
- PMID: 18442638
- PMID: 31870938
- PMID: 30813546
- PMID: 29510179
