How to Reverse Insulin Resistance and Avoid Type 2 Diabetes
You may have heard the terms “insulin resistance” and “metabolic syndrome,” but what actually are these problems that plague millions of people worldwide, opening the door for type 2 diabetes and a host of other health problems? And what can be done to reverse it?
Insulin & Insulin Resistance
Insulin is a necessary hormone — none of us can live without it. It’s what “tells” our cells to absorb the glucose (or sugar) from the food we eat and use it for energy. It also signals our body to store excess glucose in the liver to use later (which is why it’s sometimes referred to as the “fat storage” hormone).
But you can have too much of a good thing.
When our bodies create excess insulin — driven by unhealthy, carb laden diets and toxins — our cells become resistant to it.
I like to compare insulin resistance to yelling at your kids (hear me out, I promise you’ll see the connection!). What happens the first time you yell at your child? They’re startled, right? They listen and immediately do whatever is being asked of them. But what happens if you yell at your child day in and day out? They’ll start to tune you out, and your message is lost. They’re not listening anymore.
This is exactly what happens to our cells when they’re overwhelmed with too much insulin in our bloodstream — they no longer receive the “message” from the insulin like they once did, they become resistant to it.
And, as a result, our body pumps out even more insulin, yelling louder, if you will, because it sees that the message isn’t getting through — it’s a vicious cycle!
The Negative Effects of Insulin / Hormone Resistance
While carb heavy, processed food diets are primarily to blame for this problem, toxins play a huge role, too. In fact it’s now estimated that 30% of type 2 diabetics are suffering from the disease because of exposure to toxic chemicals like BPA (found in plastics), insecticides, pesticides and the like. These toxic hormone disruptors settle in to our bodies and wreak inflammatory havoc on our cells…and inflamed, damaged cells can’t operate the way they were designed to.
If our cells are compromised, the good stuff (like hormones and nutrients) can’t get in, and the bad stuff can’t get out.
When our cells stop responding to insulin like they should, our bodies lose the ability to effectively utilize glucose and it builds up in the blood. Eventually this can lead to issues like obesity, high blood pressure and cholesterol (which collectively you might hear referred to as ‘metabolic syndrome’), type 2 diabetes, and a cascade of other health problems like strokes, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, cancer…the list goes on and on. Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) is even tightly linked to insulin resistance.
This same type of resistance can develop toward other hormones as well, especially thyroid hormones — I see a lot of people in my practice who are told their thyroid numbers on a blood test fall in the “normal” range, but they’re still experiencing symptoms and feeling terrible.
Just because the hormones are present in the bloodstream doesn’t mean they’re being absorbed by the cells to do the work that needs to be done at a cellular level.
Fun fact: Thyroid hormone is so important that every cell in the body has a receptor for it!
In order for us to get hormones and nutrients into the cell, we have to have a healthy cell membrane with healthy receptors.
How do I know if I’m insulin resistant?
You can’t rely on how you’re feeling to know whether you are insulin resistant. Things like high blood sugar, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol can be “silent,” for the most part. Obesity or a large waist circumference would potentially be the only visible sign.
A blood glucose test may reveal consistently increasing numbers — I like to see a fasting blood glucose around 80. The more you creep up from there, the greater the chances that insulin resistance is taking hold.
The most telling test, however, will be a glucose tolerance test, as it measures your body’s response to sugar.
What’s the solution?
The great news is that insulin resistance — and hormone resistance in general — can often be reversed with diet and lifestyle changes.
Reducing inflammation is key to restore health to the cell membrane.
Cut back on sugar and refined carbs, under 100 grams of carbs a day is ideal. And switch to eating a nutrient-dense, whole food diet — cut out the processed food and see what a huge difference that makes! Increase your consumption of healthy fats as well, things like extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut or MCT oil, nuts, cold water fish, etc.
Intermittent fasting (and fasting in general) has also been shown to increase the body’s sensitivity to insulin — try restricting your eating to an eight hour window as early in the day as possible, and avoid nighttime eating and snacking.
If you’re overweight, it’s important to lose weight, too, and exercise at least 30 minutes a day most days of the week. You can check out my tips for the best exercises to burn fat here.
It’s also important to reduce your toxin load as much as possible — choose safer alternatives for beauty and cleaning products, water bottles, cookware, and food storage.
I wrote an article on this previously, which you can find here.
We all have the power to positively affect our health outcomes, let’s start today!
