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INSULIN RESISTANCE

Jude

Jude

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone

Could someone explain insulin resistance to me please in simple words.
Was put on Lantus last November and up to 70 units at night since January but have been decreasing it over the past 6 weeks as I am now taking Byetta - Lantus down to 20 units. However, the other week when I saw the consultant for the first time, my diabetes nurse said that I was insulin resistant - so my logic says why am I still taking it?? My morning numbers are still high and I am frustrated & fed up.
Last night my evening meal was rather late - about 8.30p.m. and my glucose reading at 11.30p.m. when I went to bed was 6.3. For some unknown reason I had a terrible night - felt like I did not sleep - so when I got out for the 4th time at 3a.m. I thought I would take my glucose - it was 8.3 - then at 9a.m. it was 8.9. :?
I feel that I am taking so much medication (blood pressure too) am doing my best to eat less etc. etc. and am just getting nowhere fast. This has now been going on for 2 years and to be honest there is a part of me that feels like stopping all my drugs - probably foolish I know, but I am just so desperate and no-one seems to have an answer for me.
Sorry to go on - thats just how I feel right now and on such a gorgeous day its not right.
 
Hi Jude.
As plain and simple as I could get.

Insulin Resistance
The body's inability to respond to and use the insulin it produces. Insulin resistance may be linked to obesity, hypertension, and high levels of fat in the blood.

Ken.
 
Hi Ken

So if the body is unable to use the insulin it produces - can it use insulin which we put into it?? I am just wondering whether the Lantus isnt doing me any favours. Jude
 
Ken,

just wandering and probably fantisising....

If my insulin resistance is due to fat in my blood and obesity (I dont have hypertension), then why if I lose excess weight and get my blood fats to normal am I not cured?..

Steve.
 
Insulin resistance tends to be a consequence of the body's overproduction of insulin. All body cells have insulin receptors to enable them to utilise the fuel in our diet. When insulin is overproduced, typically as a result of the consumption of too many carbohydrates, the receptors become blunted and insulin doesn't work as effectively. The body then produces more insulin, which blunts more receptors, and on it goes until you become diabetic.
The buildup of poor lipids (fats) and obesity tends to be a consequence of this insulin overdose.
So you're right Jude, adding Lantus to the mix doesn't address the insulin resistance, it only gives your pancreas a break from its overtime shift of insulin production.
The most effective way to reduce insulin resistance is to reduce the need for insulin (by reducing carbohydrate in the diet) and adding physical exercise (which wakes up the receptors.)

fergus
 
I have just started testing my blood sugar regularly over the last 3 days. I was AMAZED at how much lower it went after exercise. Motivation or what!
 
Hi Jude

If it's any consolation, I was diagnosed as insulin-resistant last July. I was taking about 48 units morning and evening of fast acting insulin and 78 units of Lantus in addition to 1500 mg Metformin daily. Although my BS were fine, my weight wasn't (BMI of 32) although it had been roughly the same for about 10 years or more! The consultant prescribed me Reductil (sibutramine hydrochloride) and since last August I have lost 20 kg (BMI now down to 24.8). Insulin doses went right down to 12-16 am, pm and overnight. Since end of March the insulin has been substituted with Glicazide and Metformin with initially good results. However, I am finding it a constant struggle to keep the BS down with very little carbs, lots of exercise etc. And sometimes just a blip (feeling poorly or over indulging in carbs) sends the BS sky high. It is sometimes easier with insulin but I am determined not to go back on it! For me the key to the insulin resistance was weight loss, reducing my carbs intake (cereal for breakfast and small amount of rice, pasta or potatoes for dinner) and exercise. Has anybody else had a similar experience?
 
Metformin is #1 drug for reducing IR. It works synergystically with the exercise. It's yet another circular problem, high BG tends to induce IR in itself so anything you can do to get the BG down will decrease the IR and make it easier to get your BG down.

Some Type 2s are so insulin resistant the doses they need to take would kill a Type 1 stone dead.

Fergus gave you the short version, here's the long version

http://www.angelfire.com/md/fwrhp/insul ... tance.html

a bit complicated eh? and I don't know if Frank's been keeping this updated with recent findings
 
fascinating reading, i'd been on gliclazide and metformin for about two years until i got a chest infection last xmas, my levels had been going up and had regularly been over 20 for a few weeks, regardless of what i did, rather than call my diabetic nurse i decided to wait till i saw my own doctor on a pre-arranged appointment on the 31st december, didn't want to call my nurse what with it being xmas and all. i'd had a flu jab a few weeks earlier, delayed as i'd been on antibiotics for one of those diabetic related things!!! i now know i got a chest infection, didn't feel great on xmas day, my son had what we thought was flu, can't remember anything after that till i woke in the ICU of glasgow southern general late at night on the 11th of jan.
seems i'd been ill for days, wouldn't go to the doctor as i had an appointment coming up, stubborn but i remember nothing, wife called ambulance on night of 30th dec, they took me to hospital where the doc on call gave me something for a migraine and sent me home, three hours later the ambulance took me back and this time another doc had me stuck in a bed and sedated, i was left like that all night, on morning of 32st my wife went to see my own doc and he went to the hospital to see me, immediately arranged for me to be flown to glasgow (live in kintyre on west coast of scotland, nearest big hospital is four hours by road so they use plane or helicopter for emergancies) i had double pneumonia, multiple organ failure etc etc, was resussed twice, took in new year with wife and kids told to say their goodbyes, pulled thru thanks to tireless work of the nurses and after 11 days i woke up on dialysis machine, came off that five days later and they had me on insulin sliding scale 24/7 and had taken me off the glic and met.
when i came out of hospital two weeks later i was on insulin twice a day, now i take 70 units twice a day, and here is my problem, i lost over three stone while in hospital, i had been between 15.5st and under 16, up and down for previous two years that i was getting regularly checked, prior to that my weight had been pretty constant around 15st. i was 84kg when i came home on 23rd jan, yesterday my diabetic nurse weighed me at 113kg, doctors theory? i eat too much, rubbish, my diet is better than it was last year, better than its ever been in my life, hell i even stopped smoking at xmas, i don't cheat, i don't eat the wrong things, hell i am really careful about things like white bread and pasta and rice and potatoes which put up my levels, i get as much exercise as i was getting prior to xmas even tho i still have breathing problems.
my diabetic nurse says it is the insulin and my body is not using all that i take or can't use it or something?? and this is the cause of the weight, i see the specialist in three weeks and she wants to get him to put me back on metformin and hope that it will allow a lower dose of insulin to do the work, the alternative is that for some reason after my illness i've developed the amazing ability to put on weight by eating very little, i practically live on a diet of coffee and diet coke.
my question is and sorry for not getting to the point quicker, can insulin do this to you? the alternative i have no answer for, other than living on fresh air, the doctors i've seen have practically called me a liar when i say i eat little, why else would i be fat? i must be eating non stop, i am diabetic, i eat as a diabetic should other than the fact i don't eat often enough, today is average day where i ate at 6pm, no breakfast, no lunch, just a single course evening meal with my wife and kids, tonight it was pasta, i'll eat nothing else till tea time tonight and my weight will still go up, 3kilos since last tuesday, six days. what is the answer? anybody????
 
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