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Trying to understand insulin resistance

V

vit90

Well-Known Member
Messages
843
Location
UK
Type of diabetes
Type 2
Treatment type
Diet only
I'm pretty sure I understand how you become insulin resistant (the vicious circle of more and more insulin needed to remove higher and higher levels of blood glucose) but I don't actually know what insulin resistance is. I have heard that it is a function of visceral fat behaving like a pseudo organ interfering with the action of insulin but other descriptions seem to suggest all the cells in your body exhibit the resistance. Are either or both correct?

Eventually there is a risk that your pancreas gets whacked by having to produce too much insulin and of course the worst case scenario is that it fails. I would like to know how effect my natural insulin production is - is this easily done on the NHS - should I just enquire with my doctor? My blood sugar is well controlled through diet and exercise alone (HbA1c average of 35).
 
vit90 said:
I'm pretty sure I understand how you become insulin resistant (the vicious circle of more and more insulin needed to remove higher and higher levels of blood glucose) but I don't actually know what insulin resistance is. I have heard that it is a function of visceral fat behaving like a pseudo organ interfering with the action of insulin but other descriptions seem to suggest all the cells in your body exhibit the resistance. Are either or both correct?

Eventually there is a risk that your pancreas gets whacked by having to produce too much insulin and of course the worst case scenario is that it fails. I would like to know how effect my natural insulin production is - is this easily done on the NHS - should I just enquire with my doctor? My blood sugar is well controlled through diet and exercise alone (HbA1c average of 35).
Click to expand...

Hi @vit90

This should help you out.....
http://www.diabetes.co.uk/insulin-resistance.html
 
One controversial opinion is that the last thing fat Westerners need is more food when their cells are replete and their fat cells are full and yet they still eat carbohydrates. The body cannot cope with finding places to hide the triglycerides and they blame the insulin for not doing its job.
 
kokhongw said:
This intriguing study shows that we may have misunderstood how insulin resistance actually developes...
http://cen.acs.org/articles/94/i22/brain-offer-target-treating-type.html


http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27213816
Click to expand...

Interesting.. My T2 dad had vascular dementia the last few years of his life. I felt that lowering his carb intake was a factor of him coming off metformin, though his BS still had it's bad moments.. Shortly before he died, he was in hospital. The food in there did his bloods no favour.. (Nothing new there.) but the day he died his bloods kept dropping like a stone..

I felt the dementia affected the part of the brain that acts a little like an ECU on a car..? The engine managment system, so to speak..
 
I thought this was interesting :

"
What are the symptoms of insulin resistance and prediabetes?
Insulin resistance and prediabetes usually have no symptoms. People may have one or both conditions for several years without knowing they have them. Even without symptoms, health care providers can identify people at high risk by their physical characteristics, also known as risk factors. The section "Who should be tested for prediabetes?" lists these risk factors.

People with a severe form of insulin resistance may have dark patches of skin, usually on the back of the neck. Sometimes people have a dark ring around their neck. Dark patches may also appear on elbows, knees, knuckles, and armpits. This condition is called acanthosis nigricans."

http://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-inf...esistance-prediabetes/Pages/index.aspx#causes
 
OK, that's interesting about cytonkines interfering with the action of insulin. Next question is what causese the cytokine secretion and where does it come from? How does this connect with the visceral fat factor?

Has anyone here had an insulin test as opposed to a glucose or or glucose tolerance test?
 
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