NicoleC1971
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- Type of diabetes
- Type 1
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- Pump
Maybe resistance isn't a helpful term as it implies it is the cells which are somehow faulty (the gummed up lock and key analogy) whereas it could be looked at as an insulin signalling fault.That's the bit I don't understand, what has permanently changed in the body so that it remains insulin resistant. I am not saying it doesn't happen, I just don't know what the mechanism is.
The analogy I've heard is that the cells of the liver, muscles and fat become 'deaf' to the request of insulin to enter in with it's delivery of fuel. This develops over a number of years until a point is reached when the pancreatic cells can't shout any louder so the energy (glucose) can't get in and is then found in the blood (type 2 diagnosis).
I think it was believed and still is by some GPs that the beta cells can't keep up production hence the belief that eventually all type 2s need insulin which as many here can attest isn't so and the Direct study also refuted this idea of inevitable progression due to failing beta cells however not everyone got into 'remission'.
In this study those that had been diabetic and therefore insulin resistant for longest were also the slowest to reverse their diabetes/insulin resistant and I am sure in some cases it is not going to be possible to get back to the insulin sensitivity we had in our youth. Possibly because even with a low carb diet we may struggle to regain the muscle mass we had then.
However because the medical profession measures blood glucose rather than insulin levels, the hyperinsuliemia goes undiagnosed unless the patient eventually becomes diabetic. Whether or not you get to be type 2 seems to be based on their individual fat threshold (genes) e.g. Asians struggle to expand their fat cells whereas others can become very fat but their pancreases can produce huge volumes of insulin (loudspeakers) to amplify the force of the insulin so that it does get into the cells or get turned into fat cells.
This is what I've gleaned from reading Jason Fung and latterly Ben Bikman (Why We Get Sick).