On your quest to reduce insulin - how does that equate to this thread?
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/forum/thr...carb-diet-find-they-need-more-insulin.127884/
I realise that these are type 1 folk - but the context is the same - isn't it?
Low carb requires more Insulin....
I have to say - every day I read stuff on this site and I think - I really haven't got this yet
I am not sure you can equate what happens in T1 with what happens in T2 , they are so fundamentally different I am not sure why they even have a similar name! As far as I understand it - in T1 there is no insulin in the body to speak of and so a person suffering from it must take insulin . There will be a complex interplay of how to take that insulin in the context of the person's actual diet depending on the proportion of carbs,proteins and fats and I do not pretend to understand what that might be.
The posters that followed that thread tried to explain this and also explained that high fat also contributes to insulin resistance itself - this is another reason I am trying to see if I can get my metabolism working a bit better with slightly more carbs and slightly less fat overall. Many individuals withT1 find that they need less insulin when following an LCHF and there will be many examples of that here and elsewhere and perhaps one of those people might be able to comment on their own experience of that. There are other individuals with T1 on here who do not find LCHF conducive to their personal health and no doubt they have theories on that too.
Generally speaking ( and no doubt those with T1 will correct me if necessary ) I understand that T1 is not characterised by obesity, instead most will be quite slim, at least initially, though they may subsequently then put on weight because the insulin that they have to take is indeed the "fat making hormone" Thus its very possible to end up with the symptoms of both T1 (no insulin) and T2 (metabolic syndrome) after being diagnosed T1 and then injecting insulin.
Look up Dr Jason Fung on the subject of double diabetes if you would like to understand more about this.
For T2 diabetes the dynamics tend to be different. At the point of diagnosis, many people will be at the fattest that have ever been, it is likely that each of their insulin levels, blood glucose, triglycerides will all be sky high and their HDL will be very low.
I do not know if ALL of those people will have high insulin, I am not a doctor, though I suspect that generally speaking those generalities will be true . Such people will find it very hard to lose weight and it is only when they start reducing the insulin load on their body, which eating LCHF does do, that they start to lose weight, reduce fasting insulin, blood glucose levels and triglyicerides and their HDL starts to recover. As the posters on that thread point out one of the side effects of the LCHF diet is that it does tend to make your body even more insulin resistant , so actually getting the right proportions of carbs to minimise this is difficult . In practice with a true LCHF diet, that additional insulin resistance is not too big a problem, simply because there is little insulin requirement at all. That is why though, that if one wants to do an OGTT test - then in order for that to be a true test of your " insulin resistance" it is necessary to carb load first ( as I did in the test I posted on here).
For some people T2 diagnosis will come at a different stage in development and it will be diagnosed when the individual concerned may start to lose weight rapidly for no apparent reason. Again I am not a doctor, I can only try to interpret what I have read in a layman type format. My understanding is that these individuals will no longer have very high insulin levels, instead they will have become very low, similar to T1 and a curve of their insulin using an OGTT would look more like the kraft curve no 5, with little insulin and very high blood sugars, whereas the previous ones show high insulin and high blood sugars.
As far as I understand it - having high levels of insulin in the body is a precursor to many diseases and as such the lower it is the better. At the same time, having too little is even more of a problem. The optimum level is one which is low, but highly insulin sensitive so that your body responds to the insulin it gets either of its own creation or via injection .
The way to make your body insulin sensitive is to have low levels of circulating insulin and little pancreatic fat , whilst also not eating things that cause it to spike ( processed foods and omega 6 oils) - and doing things that help improve insulin sensitivity of which - eating adequate fibres ( 20g per day ) and getting exercise - to the high intensity variety - are considered to be the best ways to do that. theoretically if one can improve all of the above, then it should become more possible eat more carbohydrates because your body will need less insulin to process them. Until that happens limiting eating them in the first place is a sensible choice.
That's the best I can do in trying to explain what I think is happening. if you would like to follow it up further please get hold of for example Dr Robert Lustig - Fat Chance - I think you might find it enlightening.
