Insulin Resistance

Photo by Nataliya Vaitkevich: https://www.pexels.com/photo/blood-sugar-meter-and-medication-on-the-blue-background-6942015/

Insulin resistance is a condition in which your body no longer responds properly to insulin due to chronic high levels of it – usually due to unhealthy eating over an extended period of time.

Under normal circumstances, insulin facilitates the conversion and storage of blood sugar from meals into fat cells to provide you with a readily-accessible steady source of fuel throughout the day. With insulin resistance, the storage process no longer works efficiently and blood sugar levels fluctuate out of control. Eventually, diabetes is the usual result, as well as a variety of serious health effects associated with it.

If you’re getting regular health checkups, your doctor will most likely have tested you for insulin resistance, but sometimes the condition goes undiagnosed and/or untreated, so it’s useful to know some basic signs that your body’s insulin mechanisms may not be working optimally.

Of course, various blood sugar monitoring devices are available, but for the purposes of this article, I will be focusing on observable signs that indicate the need for more in-depth evaluation.

The first one is being overweight, particularly with weight accumulation around the midline. Now, not everyone who is carrying extra weight has insulin resistance, but it is a common early sign of the problem.

A somewhat more distinctive sign of insulin resistance, particularly if it has been going on for a while, is darkened skin on the backs of the knees, elbow creases, and/or back of the neck. Skin tags too are a common sign of insulin resistance. These skin changes occur when insulin no longer efficiently stores excess blood glucose as fat, and the excess sugar starts to get deposited in other tissues, such as the skin.

The excess sugar in skin and similar tissues may also result in chronic or recurring yeast infections, as yeasts feed on that sugar and multiply aggressively with that plentiful food source.

In addition, the body tends to accumulate fluid with insulin resistance. This is most obvious in the ankles and lower legs. Fluid retention obscures the normal bony contours of the ankles and may cause what’s called “pitting edema”. To check for pitting edema, push in on the lower portion of the front of your shin with firm pressure for several seconds and then release it. If an indentation remains after you stop pressing, this is a sign of significant fluid retention, possibly due to insulin resistance.

One other subtle sign of insulin resistance is changes in one’s speech about 30 minutes following eating a high carbohydrate meal. People with insulin resistance sometimes experience slight swelling around the brain following carbohydrate consumption, and this manifests as a slower speech cadence than normal, and even potentially mildly slurred speech.

So, now that you know what to look for, what can you do if you find, or have been formally diagnosed, that you have insulin resistance?

The most effective non-drug strategies require some dietary changes. You may already be aware that eating too many carbohydrates causes problems with insulin resistance, and eating a higher fat “ketogenic” diet is typically recommended for those with insulin resistance, but there are some other things to be aware of as well.

While carbs are definitely the biggest culprit in insulin resistance, all food stimulates insulin release, including protein and fats, but there are a couple of things that can greatly effect how much of an effect they have.

One thing that has been found to be a significant factor is the size of food particles consumed. Finely ground flour (even when it’s been turned into things like bread or pasta), for example, is going to cause a greater release of insulin than more coarse sources of carbohydrate, such as whole oats.

This particle size issue apparently holds true for non-carbohydrate foods as well. For example, protein powders for shakes and alternative flours such as coconut or almond flour can cause insulin release similar to that of refined carbohydrates in insulin-resistant people.

So, the basic recommendation here is to consume foods you chew to break them down and eat foods that are in as close to their natural state as possible.

The other major factor is the timing of when you eat. The body’s normal circadian rhythm stimulates a release of stored glucose upon waking in the morning in response to light. This natural release of glucose in turn causes an insulin response. You can’t really get around this, but you can time your eating to work with your natural rhythms.

For those with insulin resistance, it is highly recommended to eat your biggest meal early in the day so that it’s during the time when your insulin will be high anyway. Then limit your eating to daylight hours only – don’t eat after sunset. Combining this with good sleep habits will give you a better “rest period” for your insulin mechanisms each night, which gives the body a chance to re-set in terms of insulin sensitivity.

By making some changes in what you eat and when you eat them, you can often correct insulin sensitivity before significant lasting problems occur.

Until next time,

George Best, D.C.