Some thoughts about Insulin Resistance

[first14808]

Its a test I would like to see done on some people who have "reversed" their Type2 with very low carb, as it would confirm if the beta cells recover with very low carb, or if, very low carb is just a great way to live with broken beta cells.

From my own reading, I'm thinking T2 may be too broad a brush, and one size doesn't fit all. So we're brilliant creatures. Loads of homeostatic processes all working away to keep our internal chemical refineries in balance. Except for when that goes wrong, like diabetes.

So as I understand it, for glucose there's two main processes controlling BG levels. Beta cells triggered by high BG, producing insulin and alpha cells triggered by low BG, producing glucagon. In non-diabetics, those balance and can constrain BG, with diabetics, we can't, and need more help. So T1s need insulin, T2's we probably have too much and/or insulin resistance preventing BG's storage or elimination.

So then we have management. Official advice to T2s seems to be lose weight and take metformin. But if we have hyperinsulemia, ie producing too much insulin, that's harder because insulin's job is to encourage the body to store glucose as fat. To lose that fat, it seems like we'd want to reduce insulin production to get the alpha cells working so glucagon converts that back to glucose.

So we can try to help that by reducing carbohydrates, which if the beta cells are semi-functional, should reduce insulin production. Then it'd become easier to lose fat/weight via exercise as low BG should stimulate alpha cells to produce more glucose, which our muscles can then burn. Which is where I'm curious about whether metformin is a good or bad thing. As I understand it, that could make weight loss harder as it inhibits the liver's glucose production, and the effects of glucagon.

So for tests, and similar to Kraft's studies, I'd like to know how my beta and alpha cells are doing, so being able to monitor/measure insulin and glucagon levels. I'm mainly curious because I've been avoiding carbs and have generally reduced the amount I eat, but my BG still reads high sometimes.. So where's that glucose coming from? I'm hoping that's my alpha cells doing their thing, but it would be nice to know if that's true. And problems with the alpha cells may also explain the 'thin but T2' people.

 

[CherryAA]

I starting off doing this having as many "Fat Bomb" as I felt like because no diet had ever worked for me to lose weight, but clearly swapping fat/protein for carbs/sugar was a good option given how high my BG was (started at over 30 mmol/L). Then I found I was losing weight doing it, and did not want to eat as much, so listened to my body and stopped most of the "Fat Bombs"".

Fat bombs are an interesting phenonemon. I know a couple of people who are not diabetic , but want to lose weight and find they put on weight with carbs. For them, deliberately stuffing themselves with fat bombs at the beginning of a diet seems to work in that it allows them to wean themselves off the carbs. It does not take long before losing the carbs results in falling hunger and as such the fat bombs no longer seem so appealing or necessary. My personal view would be eat as much fat as you need to keep going at the start and then revisit that as you get rid of the sugar addiction because it will probably come naturally.

 

[first14808]

So I found this via the Fruit thread :-

I don't know much about the ketogenic diet theories, but the presentation and research seems to support the idea that we gain weight because of hyperinsulemia, so weight gain may be a symptom of T2 rather than the cause. And it seems to support a ketogenic diet as a way to both reduce insulin levels, and encourage fat reduction via acetyl-CoA. Not sure if eating lard and turning the heating off is the best or safest way to lose weight though..