Commonly known as “blood sugar”, glucose in the blood stream is the main way the human body transports and absorbs energy. Blood glucose interacts with the body by way of the hormone insulin. Think of insulin as the gatekeeper for energy to be able to enter the cells.
When you digest food from a meal, the glucose is sent into the bloodstream to fuel the body and give you energy. The pancreas creates insulin to assist your absorption of the glucose. If you are insulin resistant, it means that your body does not allow insulin to do its job correctly.
To continue the gatekeeper analogy, your cells have changed the locks, and your insulin is no longer carrying the correct set of keys. In short, your cells resist the entry of both insulin, and the blood glucose.
What Happens When All of Those Cellular Doors are Locked?
First, the brain picks up how much sugar is in your blood stream and thinks that perhaps there isn’t enough insulin in your blood stream, that there just aren’t enough gate keepers to maintain the pace. So, it tells your pancreas to make more insulin.
Then, because your body senses all of this insulin in your system – in fact far more than your blood sugar can use – your body sends you signals that you have low blood glucose levels. This means the symptoms of low blood sugar kick in: you might feel dizzy, light headed, sleepy, irritable. Most of all, you’ll crave sugar and carbohydrates to fuel your body because it’s getting signals that you’re starving.
Now, you have too much insulin that isn’t working properly, too much blood sugar that can’t get into any of the cells, and you’re craving more food to add to the chain reaction.
Eventually, the only thing your body can do with the leftover blood sugar is store it as fat.This means that the insulin resistant person is gaining weight at an alarming rate, feeling hungry most of the time, and their pancreas is working overtime to keep up with the demand.
Insulin resistance puts you at risk for developing type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Insulin Resistance vs. Pre-Diabetes
The amount of insulin and blood sugar present in a person’s blood stream is what determines their diagnosis. Blood tests such as the fasting glucose test or the glucose tolerance test are administered to determine this.
In an insulin resistant patient, insulin levels and blood sugar levels are both elevated due to the chain reaction described above.
In a pre-diabetic patient, the blood glucose levels are higher than normal but not high enough for a diagnosis of diabetes. The lack of elevated insulin levels may indicate some level of pancreatic failure or fatigue, placing the pre-diabetic patient at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services estimates that about one in four U.S. adults aged 20 years or older—or 57 million people—had pre-diabetes in 2007.
Insulin Resistant Patients and Pre-Diabetic Patients can Prevent the Onset of Diabetes!
Most endocrinologists recommend a three-pronged approach to the treatment of insulin resistance or pre-diabetic conditions in order to prevent their patients from developing Type 2 Diabetes:
- Medication - 1 in 10 patients taking Metformin lose weight as a result. It also limits the body's response to blood glucose by about 1/3, saving the pancreas a lot of extra work.
- Diet and Nutrition - by making small changes in the way one eats, and by following a basic Glycemic Index Diet, one can take control of weight gain and start healing the body immediately.
- Exercise - Experts recommend anywhere from 200 to 300 minutes of exercise per week to begin losing harmful weight and actually healing the insulin receptor sites in the body.
The great news is that you have the power to "change the locks" back, and to get insulin to work properly in your system once more if you are willing to work for it!
Alicia King - Alicia King has been writing for Suite 101 since June of 2007. For over a year, she was the Featured Writer for the Suite section about ...
