Insulin resistance and insulin production?

[mattrix]

Probably a silly question.
They say that as you develop resistance your pancreas makes more insulin to compensate.
And this effort exhausts the pancreas.

Has any one actually seen this, by having your insulin or c-peptide regularly measured?

 

[EllieM]

Probably a silly question.

Not a silly question at all to me, a very interesting one, and I've put your thread on watch to see if there are any answers. (As a T1 I can't answer.)

 

[Mark Rawlinson]

The way I heard it is as your cells can get a layer over them like a membrane of fat, your own insulin isn't always enough to get the message to the cells to open to allow sugar in. By using insulin injections it provides a stronger army to tell the cells to open the way. There is also the other reason your pancreas just isn't producing enough insulin as well

 

[Tony337]

Hi
As a type one my pancreas doesn't produce any insulin at all.
But types ones suffer resistance as well.
Nobody knows why this happens but i worked out how to stop it but it only applies to me.

As @EllieM says its an interesting question.

Tony

 

[jaywak]

Hi
As a type one my pancreas doesn't produce any insulin at all.
But types ones suffer resistance as well.
Nobody knows why this happens but i worked out how to stop it but it only applies to me.

As @EllieM says its an interesting question.

Tony

Dare I ask you Tony how you overcame your own insulin resistance ? it may work for others as well ,

 

[Tony337]

Dare I ask you Tony how you overcame your own insulin resistance ? it may work for others as well ,

Hi
I have posted this before on other posts but here goes.....

My starting point is type 1 diabetes is an equation involving 3 things...
Insulin carbohydrates and exercise.
When i become resistant i stop consuming carbs and increase both insulin and exercise and by exercise i mean plain and simple walking.

There are other considerations peculiar to me and me alone....
I have always been sensitive to exercise and as a boy i once lost half a stone in 6 weeks and the doctors were worried but the weather that year was good and i had joined a tennis club and played every day for 6 weeks!
i also have a dodgy stomach that i won't go into but i find it very easy to avoid food.
Input and output as it were!

I have a member of staff off at work which has increased my daily step count and have become sensitive and am taking less insulin.

I have not found the holy grail but i have found a bit of one which only works for me.


My last hba1c was 39 or 5.7 and my libre predicts 37 or 5.5 on the last 3 months which is ok for a MDI dinosaur!

I walk to work and live on the very edge of the pennines so even walking is easy.

Tony

 

[mattrix]

I have heard a lot of theories for insulin resistance.
Lipotoxicity as @Mark Rawlinson said.
Glucotoxicity.
A recent one that I read recently, applies to people using insulin (and probably secretagogues). It went that cells like to receive pulsatile insulin and that continuous insulin causes the cell recepters to dysfunction. He was hooking Type 2's up to an IV pump for sessions of some hours. Supposed to reverse the dysfunction.

But anyway, this thread is about the panceas' response to resistance.

 

[jaywak]

Hi
I have posted this before on other posts but here goes.....

My starting point is type 1 diabetes is an equation involving 3 things...
Insulin carbohydrates and exercise.
When i become resistant i stop consuming carbs and increase both insulin and exercise and by exercise i mean plain and simple walking.

There are other considerations peculiar to me and me alone....
I have always been sensitive to exercise and as a boy i once lost half a stone in 6 weeks and the doctors were worried but the weather that year was good and i had joined a tennis club and played every day for 6 weeks!
i also have a dodgy stomach that i won't go into but i find it very easy to avoid food.
Input and output as it were!

I have a member of staff off at work which has increased my daily step count and have become sensitive and am taking less insulin.

I have not found the holy grail but i have found a bit of one which only works for me.


My last hba1c was 39 or 5.7 and my libre predicts 37 or 5.5 on the last 3 months which is ok for a MDI dinosaur!

I walk to work and live on the very edge of the pennines so even walking is easy.

Tony

Thanks Tony , that is pretty much what I do myself going for a walk when i'me high it can sometimes drop like a stone , I was just thinking you may have found some trick for getting it down without me having to go for a walk when it's chucking it down with rain .

 

[Tony337]

Thanks Tony , that is pretty much what I do myself going for a walk when i'me high it can sometimes drop like a stone , I was just thinking you may have found some trick for getting it down without me having to go for a walk when it's chucking it down with rain .

My friend and neighbour suffers from resistance quite alot and my methods don't work for him.
He can suffer for weeks at a time whereas mine only lasts half a day as as soon as i recognize resistance i'm up and out and such is my obsession with decent levels i don't fret over the rain as i am not made of sugar lol.
I have a dreary job but i'm my own boss so i can be as active as i need to be which also helps in the activity department.
I'm 4.3 now after clearing the hall (school caretaker) and sat at my computer with no fast acting insulin on board.

I don't know whether i've modified my life to suit my diabetes or vice versa.

I hope i have not derailed the original post!

Tony

 

[LittleGreyCat]

I assume that you would have to go private for such measurements.
Diagnosis as T2 means that you are never offered a c-peptide test as standard.
It may come after a 20 year "honeymoon period" to confirm that your pancreas is no longer producing enough insulin (anybody had this?).

I paid for a HOMA-IR test a good few years back and it reported that my insulin production was at the lower end of normal, and that my BG was slightly elevated, so I had mild insulin resistance.
Which was interesting but not very helpful, except to rule me out of the usual category of insulin over producer.

I find that what I assume is my insulin resistance (higher BG readings) reduces after prolonged exercise.
By prolonged exercise I mean a 10 mile cycle ride, coffee break, and another 10 miles back.
After the last cycling holiday in September which involved 20-30 miles a day for 4 days my BG levels came right down.
However they didn't stay down for more than a few days.
I conclude that if I rode over 10 miles each day I might have better control, but 10+ miles of vigorous cycling can lay me out for the rest of the day.

More drugs or devote my life to exercise?
Difficult call.

I would be very interested if any T2 had regular (annual?) c-peptide tests.

 

[Melgar]

@LittleGreyCat , like you I have low/normal C-Peptides . Why my blood sugars are impaired , given I was a competitive runner for much of my life , I do not know. I’m still very active, with a BMI of 19.
My C-Reactive proteins are raised, likely because I suffer with arthritis , but I think systemic inflammation may be associated with insulin resistance.
I have my C-Peptides tested every year, I pay for the test, but the cost of the test is low here - $35 / £20 ? I have my C-Peptides tested every year because my body produces low titres of IAA autoantibodies which puts me at risk of T1 . Thankfully my C-Peptides have remained relatively stable.

 

[mattrix]

Diagnosis as T2 means that you are never offered a c-peptide test as standard.

I think the situation is the same here.
I am somewhat spoilt with my lab tests. My endo clinic is at a teaching hospital, and they are always adding odd tests depending on their students research at the time.
So I have quite a lot of c-peptide tests over the past few decades since I was given LADA. I thought they all were in low "normal" to "subnormal", apparently a lot of T1's have some c-peptide. But looking back there are a few episodes when my pancreas suddenly jumped back into active duty.

However I don't have any before that, so don't know if I was ever hyperinsulinemic.
I was originally given 'adult' diabetes.