What Does “Insulin Resistance” Mean?
Q: What does “insulin resistance” mean? I see and hear the terminology sometimes but no one explains it. Damn, if only I had attended a well-funded school then I would’ve been taught the skills to do independent learning on my own instead of having to rely on somebody who did so they could spoon-feed shit to me *sigh*
A: Given the poor education you acknowledge yourself as receiving because you didn’t have the support of a wealthy tax base, there’s a strong chance that you’re among the 54 percent of American adults who have a literacy proficiency rate at or below level 2. As such, were you ever inclined to do the research on your own to find an answer to your question, you may have been able to read the information but would’ve likely had difficulty understanding, interpreting, and synthesizing it, as you’re about to have now with my following response because I write at a college level. Nevertheless, try to keep up!
*ahem*
I’m going to go out on a limb and assume that you’re not some carnivore diet whack job. That being so, you more than likely eat carbs. Lots and lots of delicious carbs.
Well, when you eat your Cap’n Crunch cereal, Krispy Kreme donuts, Chef Boyardee Beefaroni, and other fine delicacies, the carbohydrates are broken down and turned into glucose, which enters the bloodstream. Glucose is a sugar molecule that’s the body’s main energy source and a high amount of it in the blood triggers the release of insulin from the pancreas.
Insulin is a powerful hormone that regulates how much glucose is in the bloodstream, in addition to other functions. Now, if insulin helps shuttle the glucose from your blood into cells for further transport to tissues and organs throughout your body so the sugar can be used as fuel, then your blood sugar level will lower as the concentration of sugar in your bloodstream drops. In that instance, your body is responsive to insulin, which is termed as “insulin sensitivity”.1Basically, insulin sensitivity describes when glucose is immediately burned as fuel or gets stored as glycogen in the liver and muscles as an immediate reserve source between feedings or when you’re active, such as when you’re in the gym and need to muster all your strength to get the barbell off your neck because your spotter was distracted by the fit chick doing RDLs in leggings that become see-thru every time she bends over (which she has no clue about, of course…wink, wink).
Impaired insulin sensitivity, or insulin resistance, occurs when the body doesn’t respond to insulin appropriately. Instead of glucose moving from the blood into cells, the sugar builds up in the bloodstream. To compensate for the increasing blood sugar levels, the pancreas produces more insulin, which can have the effect of funneling some of the excess glucose into the cells. However, instead of the sugar going to the cells in your muscles and liver for immediate energy, the hyperinsulinemia from your body’s impaired response to the hormone signals for the storage of the sugar in your fat cells. And rather than that stored energy getting used later, the presence of too much insulin in the system precludes it from being tapped into between meals or when you just need a quick burst of energy. As such, the glucose remains in long-term storage as fat and can lead to weight gain over time.
As we see, the accumulation of fat is one way that insulin resistance can have a negative effect but that’s not the only concern, as the inefficient use of glucose for energy can also result in prediabetes and the development of type 2 diabetes from hyperglycemia, or chronically elevated blood sugar levels.
Insulin resistance can happen to anyone. The risk is higher depending on age, ethnicity, family history, and body fat percentage, as well as certain hormonal disorders and medications. Physical inactivity, poor food choices, alcohol abuse, and smoking are among the behavioral habits that can also play a role in insulin resistance.
Without going to a doctor for a health exam or blood work, you won’t know you have insulin resistance on your own until your pancreas can’t produce enough insulin to keep your blood sugar levels stable. When that happens, you’ll experience the symptoms of someone with hyperglycemia, which include but aren’t limited to frequent urination, increased thirst and hunger, fatigue, blurred vision, and yeast infections.
While insulin resistance can be treated and reversed in some cases depending on the cause, it’s in your interest to prevent the condition from happening by making yourself more sensitive to insulin with modifications to your lifestyle. These changes include drinking tea, using cinnamon, supplementing magnesium, and getting more sleep, in addition to more obvious shit like eating a balanced diet, engaging in more physical activity, and losing weight.
Now, does anyone else have a fitness or nutrition question of their own that they want to ask?
Glossary: barbell, diet, exercise, fat, fit chick, fitness, gym, hormones, leggings, muscle, nutrition, spotting, supplement
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