What Is Insulin Resistance And How Does It Affect Your Health?

Insulin resistance is a common condition in which our cells reject instructions from insulin, the most crucial of our bodies; chemical messengers. Insulin has many functions; primarily it pushes glucose out of the blood and into muscle tissue, where it is converted into energy. After food in eaten, blood sugar levels rise, and insulin does its work. Some glucose gets stored in the liver as glycogen. Typically, the liver stores about a day’s worth of glycogen. In times of stress, hormones from the adrenal glands cause the liver to turn glycogen back into glucose.

The pancreas also produces another hormone called glucagon. Glucagon’s role is to suppress insulin, ensuring that your brain has the glucose it needs.

Normally, insulin and glucagon take turns balancing the amount of glucose in your blood. Insulin stores glucose in your liver and muscle cells and glucagon removes it from storage according to your current need for energy. For this to work properly, though, there must be times when the demand for insulin subsides. Frequent snacks and meals that consist mainly of carbohydrates create an insulin requirement that can overpower the insulin receptors in the cells. When this happens, the receptors turn themselves off. The pancreas lacking the signal that insulin has done its job, responds by releasing even more insulin.

Insulin resistance occurs when the body’s cells stop listening to insulin’s instructions. Although the pancreas responds appropriately to the demand for insulin production, the body can no longer use its own insulin to convert sugar into energy, not can it suppress the liver’s release of glucose into the bloodstream. At this point there is too much insulin circulating in the blood. When the body can?t respond normally to insulin, it begins to store excess glucose as fat, both in body tissue and in the blood.

Elevated blood fats, that is cholesterol and triglycerides can result from prolonged excess blood insulin levels. High insulin levels in the blood are associated with high LDLs (harmful low-density lipoproteins), and low HDLs (beneficial high-density lipoproteins). Excess cholesterol gets stored in a variety of places: for example in the ovaries as fatty cysts and in the arteries as plaque. Left unattended, this may result in heart attacks and heart failure. High blood pressure can also develop as a result of high insulin levels.

Conditions associated with Insulin Resistance:-

• Autoimmune disorders, including arthritis and multiple sclerosis
• Cancer in some forms
• Candidiasis (yeast overgrowth)
• Celiac disease
• Chronic fatigue syndrome
• Compulsive overeating/food addiction
• Depression
• Type II diabetes Digestive disorders: heartburn, irritable bowel, inflammatory bowel disease
• Gallstones
• Gestational diabetes
• Heart disease
• High blood fats
• High blood pressure
• Infertility
• Obesity
• Panic/anxiety attacks
• Reactive hypoglycemia
• Osteoarthritis
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
• Thrombosis (blood clotting disorder)

Tags: glucose intolerance, hypoglycemia, impaired fasting glucose, insulin resistance, insulin resistance diets, insulin resistance symptoms, metabolic syndrome
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