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You know what I hear a lot? Hey Steve, you look great! What kind of diet are you on? I laugh inside and say that it is not a diet, it is a life change. I have diabetes and I have to eat differently if I want to remain healthy. Immediately I get the, I’m so sorry, that must suck. I smile and say, just the push I needed to get healthy. So often the comment is about body weight and how I look. Personally, I am not after a look, I am after health, the look is just a benefit. But in today's world diets, weigh lose, and personal appearance sells products. But if I did say that chronically elevated insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) and insulin resistance revolves around their relationship to body weight, I would get the blank stare, people don’t understand “Insulins Role”. People generally don’t want to hear about being healthy unless they have a disease that causes them to look at their health. More people are concerned about how they look. This article has nothing to do about your looks, but it still may help you in that area.
In my world of improving health, improving insulin sensitivity and reducing fasting insulin levels is the key to my longevity, and resistance to diabetes. I have diabetes, so yes, it is a big factor. Insulin itself, in excess, exerts seriously damaging effects whether your diabetic or not. Let’s set body weight aside and look at the importance of controlling our insulin, by reviewing a few health problems that come from not controlling it.
I have to tell you that I am not a doctor and I am no expert, but I have read a lot and these things make a lot of sense to me.
Hyperglycemia
If you’re insulin resistant, insulin doesn’t work to its best ability. You need more of it to get the same effect as an insulin sensitive person would get. When insulin doesn’t work, its ability to shuttle glucose out of the blood suffers, and blood glucose goes up and stays up. That’s hyperglycemia.
Hyperglycemia inhibits the production of nitric oxide and taking an L-Arginine product like ProArgi 9 can help. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator that helps our blood vessels widen to increased blood flow and reduce stress. Without enough nitric oxide, our blood vessels could increase high blood pressure and our risk for heart disease.
Hyperglycemia could reduce the size of our neurons, reducing our brain function.
Hyperglycemia reduces cell mass in the pancreas, induces oxidative stress, and reduces functionality. Since the pancreas secretes insulin, the stuff used to deal with excess blood glucose, then the vicious cycle begins.
Heart Disease
One of the biggest threats of diabetes is heart problems. With that Diabetes becomes a big predictor of heart disease risk. The HDL/Triglyceride ratio happens to be an accurate barometer of insulin resistance. The lower your HDL and the higher your triglycerides, the more likely you are to be insulin resistant. The two go hand in hand—it’s not just coincidence. As I have been eating a keto lifestyle, these two numbers are slowly moving in the right direct. This ratio is improving.
Insulin resistance can increase the risk of heart disease by increasing hyperglycemia and reducing endothelial function. This impairs the blood vessels’ ability to react to stressors and makes them more vulnerable to atherosclerosis.
Cancer
Insulin helps with cellular growth, and cancer is a disease of unchecked cellular growth. There are many differences in this arena of cancer, could this play a role? hyperinsulinemia definitly could be a risk factor for most cancers, if not all, cancers.
People who are obese and people of normal weight have found that hyperinsulinemia has been shown to increase cancer incidence and mortality. This can be for people with genetics and over sugar consumption.
Alzheimer’s Disease
Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia are characterized by a form of brain insulin resistance. Researchers can simulate the brain diabetes by administering drugs known to induce brain insulin resistance, it looks almost exactly like Alzheimer’s.
Alzheimer’s patients have high blood sugar, but their neurons are so resistant to the effects of insulin that they’re unable to utilize the available glucose for energy. Many have stated that a Nutricional Ketosis Diet may help some forms of this debilitating disease.
The more insulin resistant you are, the less cerebrovascular reactivity you show. Cerebrovascular reactivity measures the ability of the brain’s blood vessels to dilate and react to changing conditions.
Do you want to change?
I am not writing this to scare or panic you, these are just real world notes that demonstrate the effects of to much sugar in our system.
A vital step when you are insulin resistant with hyperinsulinemia (or even just suspect you are) is to reduce your intake of carbs. Yes, all carbs. All carbs are some form of sugar and increase our glucose. I currently eat between 30-40 carbs a day, yes, a day.
Some of it is genetic, people who simply make more insulin than others, or who are more insulin resistant, but this not a reason to give up. What we eat makes a difference reguardless of our genentics.
Don’t just take my word on this, do your own studying and find out for yourself. I am finding that reducing my carbs long term is having some great benefits in my life and yes, I am diabetic. But maybe you have been told your prediabetic or that you are just struggling with your weight. Maybe this is a solution for you.
One bit of advice I will give you is figure out how much carbs you're really eating each day. This will require you to read labels and track your food. I think you will be surprised. Then start by cutting that in half for a few weeks, then half it again and again until you reach the number you want to achieve. Going cold turkey will most definitely set you up for failure. Sugar is as addictive as any drug, you must treat your reduction the same way.
I hope this article is a benefit to someone out there. Good luck in your health endeavors and remember, Take Control of Your Age and Live a Healthier Life!
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