The Function of Insulin and Insulin Resistance
Each time we eat a meal or snack, insulin is released into the bloodstream. This hormone is secreted by the pancreas and it encourages our muscles to use up the glucose in the bloodstream broken down from our meal.

Glucose in the bloodstream is pretty dangerous because it can stick to proteins and destroy their ability to do their job. Kidney damage, blindness, and amputations are just some of the results of too much glucose remaining in the blood for too long. These are common complications of diabetes since diabetics do not make the necessary insulin to clean the sugar out of the blood.

Additionally, insulin stops the liver from releasing any fat, a potential metabolic fuel, into the blood after a meal because these fats are released as triglycerides which are also dangerous if they hang out in the bloodstream too long.

Insulin has many jobs but it also plays a role in affecting lifespan since protecting the blood from these harmful substances protects the vital organs and their functions.

Insulin, Sugar, and Glycogen
When your body notices that sugar levels are elevated, it realizes that there is more sugar than you can use right now so it immediately tries to figure out how to store it. Your body stores a small amount as glycogen but this is not a huge storage system. In fact, all the glycogen stored in your liver and muscles would not last you through a single active day.

Once you have filled up your glycogen storage points, the excess sugar has to be stored as saturated fat.
The idea of eating a high complex-carbohydrate, low-saturated-fat diet is a huge mistake. A high complex-carbohydrate diet is nothing more than a high-glucose (sugar) diet. Your body is just going to store it as saturated fat.

Insulin in the bloodstream also prevents you from burning fat, so the more there is a need for insulin, provoked by the presence of sugar in the system, the less able you are to burn fat for fuel.

High Insulin Levels Cause Health Problems
High levels of insulin cause several problems: one of them is high blood pressure. One of the roles of insulin is to assist in the storing of excess nutrients. For example, insulin plays a role in storing magnesium. If your cells become resistant to insulin, you can’t store magnesium so you lose it through urination. Since magnesium relaxes muscles and vessels, when you lose too much magnesium, your blood vessels constrict and this causes an increase in blood pressure. Insulin also causes the retention of sodium, which causes fluid retention, which causes high blood pressure and ultimately congestive heart failure.

Osteoporosis is another potential problem resulting from insulin resistance. Insulin is a master hormone which controls many anabolic hormones such as growth hormone, testosterone, and progesterone. In insulin resistance, the anabolic process is reduced. These hormones, among other roles, control the building and re-building of bone so when these hormones are reduced, the amount of bone building is reduced, and the amount of calcium excreted is increased.

Insulin also increases cellular proliferation, meaning cells are allowed to grow unchecked. This can have a significant effect on cancer cells. There are some new studies with strong evidence of a link between insulin resistance and both colon and breast cancer.

Insulin Resistance
When your cells are exposed to insulin at all, they get a little bit more resistant to it. So the pancreas just puts out more insulin. Cells become insulin resistant because they are trying to protect themselves from the toxic effects of high insulin. They slow down their receptor activity and decrease the number of receptors so that they don’t have to constantly be subjected to all that stimuli. The liver becomes resistant first, followed by the muscle tissue and lastly the fats. As all these major tissues become insulin resistant, the pancreas is putting out more insulin, trying to compensate. However, the pancreas can’t keep up that high level of insulin production forever. Once the production of insulin starts slowing down, or the resistance goes up, then blood sugar goes up and the person becomes a diabetic.

Insulin Resistance Syndrome or Syndrome X
“Insulin resistance syndrome” refers to a combination of risk factors for type 2 diabetes, including chronically elevated insulin levels, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, abdominal obesity and high blood pressure. Excessive intake of all carbohydrates, especially the high-glycemic type, is the primary culprit in the development of insulin resistance. These include processed grains found in most bread and pasta products along with a huge percentage of other packaged foods available today. Type 2 diabetes occurs when the body no longer responds to insulin. As a result, levels of insulin in the blood become elevated and over time, can raise the risk for kidney failure and blindness, as well as heart disease.

Symptoms of Insulin Resistance
Here is a list of some of the most common symptoms of people with Insulin Resistance. Many symptoms are evident immediately following a meal of carbohydrates, and others are more or less always present. Keep in mind that these symptoms may also be related to other problems.

1. Fatigue. The most common feature of Insulin Resistance is that it wears people out. Some are tired just in the morning or afternoon while others are exhausted all day.

2. Brain Fog. Sometimes the fatigue of Insulin Resistance is physical, but often it’s mental. The inability to focus is the most evident symptom. Poor memory, loss of creativity or poor grades in school, often accompany Insulin Resistance, as do various forms of “learning disabilities.”

3. Low Blood Sugar. Mild, brief periods of low blood sugar are normal during the day, especially if meals are not eaten on a regular schedule. But prolonged periods of this “hypoglycemia,” accompanied by many of the symptoms listed here, especially physical and mental fatigue, are not normal. Feeling agitated, jittery and moody is common in Insulin Resistance, with almost immediate relief once food is eaten.

4. Intestinal bloating. Most intestinal gas is produced from carbohydrates in the diet. Insulin Resistance sufferers who eat carbohydrates suffer from gas, lots of it.

5. Sleepiness. Many people with Insulin Resistance get sleepy immediately after eating a meal containing more than 20% or 30% carbohydrates. This means typically a pasta meal, or even a meat meal which includes potatoes or bread and a sweet dessert.

6. Increased Weight & Fat Storage. For most people, too much weight is too much fat. In males, a large abdomen is the more obvious and earliest sign of Insulin Resistance. In females, it’s prominent buttocks.

7. Increased Triglycerides. High triglycerides in the blood are often found in overweight persons. But even those who are not overweight may have stores of fat in their arteries as a result of Insulin Resistance. These triglycerides are the direct result of carbohydrates in the diet being converted by insulin.

8. Increased Blood Pressure. It is a fact that most people with hypertension have too much insulin and are Insulin Resistant. It is often possible to show a direct relationship between the level of insulin and blood pressure: as insulin levels elevate, so does blood pressure.

9. Depression. Because carbohydrates are a natural “downer,” depressing the brain, it is not uncommon to see many depressed persons who also have Insulin Resistance.

Insulin and Aging
People who live to over 100 years don’t have much in common. For example, many are smokers. They come from all over the world without a favoring any geographic location in particular. However, there are 3 blood metabolic indicators of all centenarians which are relatively consistent: low sugar, low triglycerides, and low insulin. Among these 3 variables, insulin is the common denominator. The level of insulin sensitivity of the cell is one of the most important markers of lifespan.

Controlling your insulin levels is one of the most powerful anti-aging strategies you can possibly implement. Sugar and grains cause your body to produce insulin, so if you want to slow down aging and become healthier, you need to change your grains for greens.

Insulin resistance also plays a role in cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, obesity, diabetes, cancer, all the so-called chronic diseases of aging. Fortunately, insulin is the variable most easily influenced by a healthy diet of no sugar and few grains and regular exercise.

In addition to diet and exercise, you may want to consider chromium supplementation. Chromium helps insulin to work efficiently. As little as 500-1,000 mcg daily of a GTF chromium shows dramatic results.

Another helpful aid is the addition of a fiber supplement to your daily routine. Fiber absorbs the acronym F.A.T.S. which stands for fats, acids, toxins and sugars. There are some who think that this phrase is a bit redundant since sugar in the bloodstream is regarded as acidic and toxic. There are also herbs that help to regulate sugar levels and rebuild the structure of the cells to overcome their resistance.

Here’s to your health!
Lahni for Ralph & Lahni de Amicis
Herbal Solutions… your guides to motivated health!

Just a few of Nature’s Sunshine Products that are helpful in battling insulin resistance are:
GTF Chromium (controls blood sugar and turns off sweet/carb cravings)
Nopal (helps to regulate blood sugar)
Noni (detoxifies and re-sensitizes the cells to insulin)
Carbo-Grabbers (helps trap carbs before they’re broken down & absorbed)
Psyllium Hulls (or other fiber product) (absorbs F.A.T.S.)

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