Insulin Resistance and Your Health – What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You!

One Third of Americans Have this Dangerous Condition – Do You?

The media is full of reports of the dangers of today’s lifestyle.  We are warned regularly about too much sugar and convenience foods and too little exercise.  You’ve probably heard that health professionals are worried about the number of people with type 2 diabetes who have never been tested for it or diagnosed, but are you aware of insulin resistance and the dangers it poses?  Experts estimate that up to a third of Americans has this condition.  Do you know what the risk factors are and what symptoms can indicate insulin resistance?  If not, it is important to educate yourself and protect your health from this stealthy and serious health condition.

Insulin resistance, which is also known as metabolic syndrome, is an indicator that a person is likely to develop type 2 diabetes, but it is far more than that.  Insulin is a hormone that the pancreas produces when we eat.  It takes the sugar from the bloodstream so the body can use it for energy.  With insulin resistance, the body does not react properly to the insulin produced, so the pancreas produces more and more insulin to remove the sugar from the blood stream.  But despite the larger volume of insulin, because the body is resistant to it, less sugar is removed leading to very high levels of blood sugar.  This becomes dangerous and can lead to a range of serious health conditions including heart disease and type 2 diabetes.  A wide range of health conditions are connected to insulin resistance/ metabolic syndrome.

• Heart Disease: Insulin resistance causes many problems for the cardiac system, including high blood pressure, raised triglycerides (fat in the blood) and abnormally low levels of HDL (the good cholesterol).  Scientists are unsure exactly why, but higher levels of insulin in the blood seem to be linked to higher blood pressure.   Insulin resistance can also cause hardening of the arteries, which increases the risk of a heart attack, and blood clots.
• Kidney Damage: The kidneys can also be damaged by insulin resistance, but this does not happen in all cases.  Protein in the urine is an indication that the kidneys have been damaged by insulin resistance.
• Type 2 Diabetes: If left untreated, insulin resistance leads to type 2 diabetes, which is a serious condition that can even result in limbs needing to be amputated.  Diabetes also damages the eyes and the kidneys.
• Obesity: A waist size of 35 inches or more in women and 40 inches or more in men is a risk factor for insulin resistance.
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome: PCOS is a hormone disorder in women that can increase the risk of diabetes and heart disease.  Women are at greater risk of developing high triglycerides if they have PCOS, and high triglycerides are linked to insulin resistance.

The good news is that you can take action to reduce your risk of insulin resistance.  The best preventative measures are simple, but not necessarily easy!  Regular exercise and a healthy diet, especially the “Mediterranean Diet” are your best tactics to keep yourself safe from insulin resistance and the risks and dangers associated with the condition.  Cutting back on desserts and being sure to get 20 minutes of brisk walking a day can make a huge difference to your health by helping you stay fit, maintain a healthy weight and have stable blood sugar levels.  A number of nutritional supplements such as alpha lipoic acid and a variety of others can help to reduce the tendency towards insulin resistance, so adding this type of ingredient to your daily consumption can help ward off this problem.

Be aware that weight gain itself also causes insulin resistance to worsen, so the more fat that builds up in the body, the more resistant it becomes to digestion.  So, make every effort possible to keep your weight in a healthy range.  To learn more about the healthy weight that is right for you, you can read more in this article about your body metabolic index or BMI