Learn how Insulin resistance increases your risk of heart attacks, prediabetes, diabetes, and more
A third of people living in the United States (including about half of the senior citizens aged 60 and above years) have insulin resistance.
The condition increases your risk of developing prediabetes, heart attacks, type 2 diabetes, as well as many other severe health conditions like strokes and cancer.
Read along as this article digs deeper into this discussion of what you need to know about insulin resistance. But before that, let’s find out what insulin resistance means.
What Is Insulin Resistance?
To discuss more what you need to know about insulin resistance, it is essential to begin by understanding what insulin resistance is.
Insulin resistance is a health condition that occurs when your cells in the muscles, liver, and body fat resist or ignore the signals from the hormone insulin.
Insulin helps the body store excess glucose in the blood in body cells. Note that insulin (sometimes called blood sugar) is the primary source of body fuel.
You can get a higher amount of glucose when you consume grains, carbohydrates, fruits, dairy products, and vegetables.
If your body fails to respond adequately to the signals sent by the insulin hormone, then there will be more than enough glucose in your bloodstream. High blood sugar can cause prediabetes which can develop into full-blown diabetes.
How Insulin Resistance Causes Diabetes
When the insulin resistance condition develops, your body responds by producing more insulin hormones. Trying to match the insulin demand in the body, beta cells in the pancreas overwork themselves, eventually losing pace.
Years after insulin resistance starts, the amount of sugar in your blood rises, leading to prediabetes and, in some cases, type 2 diabetes.
Some people with insulin resistance develop the non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). NAFLD is highly associated with insulin resistance, and it boosts the risk of developing heart disease and liver damage.
Research studies help readers like you by fronting what you need to know about insulin resistance and other conditions associated with it.
Signs and Symptoms to Determine if You Have Insulin Resistance
Some of the factors that trigger the occurrence of insulin resistance include age, ethnicity, body weight, smoking, lack of sleep, and genetics.
Look for the following signs and symptoms to determine if you are developing insulin resistance:
- Development of a large waist circumference
- Having high triglycerides
- High blood pressure
- High fasting blood sugar
- Development of dark skin patches
- Low HDL cholesterol
- High-density lipoprotein levels
Health Conditions Associated with Insulin Resistance
Research shows that more than 87 million adults in the United States have prediabetes, and of these, close to 50% may end up developing full-blown type 2 diabetes in the long run. Surprised? That’s right.
Additionally, about 8 out of 10 people with type 2 diabetes develop NAFLD. However, these are not the only health threats caused by insulin resistance.
After spending several years with high insulin levels and high blood sugar, people with type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and insulin resistance can develop cardiovascular disease.
You may have double the risks for stroke and heart attacks with insulin resistance. The International Diabetes Federation predicts that having insulin resistance triples your chances of developing a deadly brain attack or heart attack.
Moreover, studies link the conditions of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome with higher risks of developing cancers of the colon, pancreas, uterus, prostate, cervix, breast, and bladder.
High insulin levels in your blood when you have insulin resistance fuel the development of tumors. It also suppresses your body’s ability to protect its cells by killing off any malignant cells.
Studies have also linked insulin resistance with memory function decline. A continued decline in memory function can lead to increased risks of developing Alzheimer’s disease.
Insulin Resistance Diagnosis
Most doctors don’t usually test patients for insulin resistance; instead, they test for prediabetes through blood tests to determine the level of sugars in your bloodstream.
According to a branch of the National Institute of Health (NIH), the National Institute for Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the most viable test for insulin resistance is complex and complicated and is primarily helpful in research.
There are two standard blood tests for prediabetes; A1c/hbA1c blood test and a standard fasting blood sugar test. These two tests measure the amount of blood glucose in your bloodstream for about three months.
Doctors measure A1c in percentages whereby results of under 5.7% indicate that you are healthy, outcomes between 5.7% and 6.4% indicate the presence of prediabetes, and any other result greater than 6.5% shows that you have diabetes.
Ways of Preventing or Reversing Insulin Resistance
Your body cells require regular attention, such as getting enough sleep, getting regular exercise, and losing weight to improve insulin sensitivity. Relying on one or just a few measures may not be adequate to boost your insulin sensitivity.
A study done by the University of New Mexico School of Medicine showed that overweight people willing to lose at least 10% weight using exercise and diet experienced an 80% improvement in insulin sensitivity.
The study continued that those that used diet alone to lose 10% of weight loss attained about a 38% increase in insulin sensitivity. Additionally, those who followed the exercise routine but did not lose any significant weight gained almost no boost in their insulin sensitivity.
Another study presented at the Obesity Society in 2015 showed that a night of sleep deprivation increases the condition of insulin resistance, similar to consuming high-fat substances for 180 days.
Final Thoughts
Insulin resistance starts when your body resists the storage of excess blood sugar into the body cells, as it usually happens.
Excess glucose in the bloodstream can cause health conditions such as diabetes, heart attacks, strokes, cancers, and prediabetes. However, you can reverse or prevent insulin resistance through exercise, weight loss, getting enough sleep, and diet.
I hope this article has helped you with what you need to know about insulin resistance.
