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insulin resistance question to clarify situation.please

sky

Active Member
well, here goes --- can someone please explain if i got this all wrong or what... ok so if insulin resistance means that the cells won't take up the insulin our bodies are creating ( or something along those lines ) and therefore there is to much insulin floating around our bodies perhaps or is causing harm & even making us fat; or is it the other way around, anyway would it be logical to be injecting even more insulin into oneself lantus/ solostar... it seems wrong or counterproductive, would i be correct in thinking that perhaps it's best not to add more insulin ?. thanks for any advice given
 
Just a guess but I thought insulin was taken if the pancreas wasn't producing enough. Metformin reduces the glucose production by the liver and increases insulin sensitivity so that would help insulin resistance.
I don't take drugs so haven't researched it much.


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Hi. You have sort of got it right. If you are taking large amounts on insulin and you have insulin resistance then you may get into a vicious circle swimming in insulin and still have high'ish blood sugar. If you are overweight and on insulin it is very important to try to get the weight down thru low-carbing. As this happens the injected insulin can usually be reduced and you end up with much better control. The Metformin will help reduce the insulin resistance as well but the right diet is the first priority.
 
our pancreas produces the insulin to act as a exit into our cells to allow the glucose to exit our blood stream into our cells, if you dont produce enough insulin then you have to inject it so that the glucose can escape, if however you do produce enough insulin but our cells are resistant to it, ie the key no longer fits then we must either take a drug that changes the locks (or insulin) so that the glucose (or keys) fits or reduce our weight and do more exercise etc. because that also make us less insulin resistant, the extra glucose not entering the cells is what does the damage running around in our veins basically rotting the smallest capillaries, so if you are insulin resistant then yes indeed injecting more insulin would not make much sense, however if you are fit and healthy the the keys not fitting the locks has to be genetic i reckon, i have zero medical background and only half a brain so please feel free to correct me

also when you insulin resistant your cells are screaming out for glucose but it cant get in but your pancreas dosent know thats the problem so it answers your cells request and produces more therefore wearing out your beta cells because they are working really hard and think sod this im knackered and give in, apparently by eating less glucose and taking meds you give your pancreas a hoilday and it can come back revived from its week in the bahamas and work better than before which is why we do well when we do the right things
 
the rationale for prescribing the lantus, was because metformin and diet failed to get my readings low enough, but i was told i was insulin resistant awhile back so then i am asking ---does it make logical sense to prescribe even more insulin --thereby giving even more insulin to be resistant too--and flooding my system with loads more insulin going nowhere, if there is some logic to this, could i be given that information through this forum, seriously thinking of getting off the insulin, albeit in a slow fashion.. any advice on this query is appreciated thank you
 
hi and thanks daibell, yes overweight and struggling to get it down as thyroid isn't co-operating & working hard at lo-carbing thank you sky....
 
thanks andy,good to hear i sort of got it right, i will be gradually come off the 24 hour lantus and perhaps increase the metformin to 4 pills not just the two, and also working on the lo-carbing,i always feel so much better when i eat smaller amounts and more protein, the weight will hopefully get sorted when the endo finally pulls his finger out and prescribes the right meds, which they are loath to give anything but the bog standard levo... well again thanks -- needed to hear these responses as i figured i had better have second and third forum opinions..... ta sky
 
Insulin doesn't just help admit glucose to the cells. It is actually possible for skeletal and muscle cells to use glucose without insulin. Muscle cell insulin transporters react to both exercise and to insulin, If one is exercising then they don't need insulin. That's why those of us using insulin have to be careful not to take too much whilst exercising.
A second function of insulin is the one that is thought to produce most problems with high glucose.Insulin ( in parallel with another hormone, glucagon)also serves to control the release of glucose from the liver. If there is insufficient insulin then the liver will 'think' that the cells need more glucose and release it . http://science.howstuffworks.com/life/h ... betes1.htm
If the cells in the liver are insulin resistant (and they are thought to be made so by excess fat) then some people can produce and release 3 times more glucose from the liver than non diabetics: Metformin helps to reduce this hepatic (liver) insulin production/release. http://diabetes.diabetesjournals.org/co ... l.pdf+html. This is one reason that many treatments including the 'Newcastle' diet focus on reducing fat around the organs


Lantus is a background insulin . It's whole purpose is to deal with the glucose produced from your liver. If you have insulin resistance, then you will need higher doses.
The academic answer to reduce background insulin dose is to reduce any excess fat around the liver and other organs.
Pragmatically , you need to use sufficient insulin to control high background glucose levels to help prevent subsequent problems
 
Andy12345 said:
nah your answer was beyond my intelligence threshold i blurred out lol
Click to expand...

ME TOO... fried my poor brain... so since it sounds like the opposite to what others have said --i will just have to carry on & reduce my lantus and con't lo carb get metabolism running so can exercise and then see the results.... if getting rid of lantus and doing all the above as well shows no better control over glucose, i can then go back to the lantus and see what happens, this is indeed a mine field..... :crazy:
 
I'm sorry that I didn't make it simple enough.
Please look at the diagram on the how stuff works link. Not all glucose comes from your immediate meal. It is produced in and released from the liver and that's why many peoples glucose levels rise overnight. The purpose of a background insulin like Lantus is to deal with it.
Insulin helps put a brake on this release. If you are more insulin resistant, possibly because of fat in the liver, then you will need more insulin to do this.
 
hi sky ,
i have a thyroid problem to have had it for years om on 200mg tyhroxine , 4 months ago i came out in a rash no one knew what it was , then i was diagnosed 2 weeks ago with diabetis , im very overweight to but on diet controll at moment , but my hubby takes lanctus and nova rapid injections his used to be in the 17s 18s, but since i was diagnosed he follows what i eat now and his has come down to in the 5s 6s , he has lowere his nova rapid and lowered his lanctus . and ithink the diabetic team will lower it again ,
 
so, if i follow this information as to having to much glucose being produced from wherever,ingested food or the liver etc. then i must ask-if i may--which is worse to have to much- glucose running amok or to much insulin running amok... is one worse than the other? and wouldn't it be preferable to keep the one my body is creating on it's own,glucose--- rather than by me injecting a substance in to it/insulin?
 
sandysan, have you heard about--natural desiccated thyroid NDT rather than levothyroxine levo only has T4 and we need T4 T3 T2 T1 calcitonin.. etc. etc. to have a fully functioning thyroid & to alleviate all our horrible symptoms you might want to check out these links ---- http://www.thyroiduk.org.uk/tuk/treatme ... cated.html
http://www.stopthethyroidmadness.com/na ... yroid-101/
http://thyroid.about.com/od/thyroiddrug ... oidism.htm
 
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