Insulin...and how it could be affecting your health

Have you ever heard of a vicious circle? Well, that's what this post is about. Insulin, the hormone that our bodies use to remove excess sugar(glucose) from the blood stream is also very influential concerning fat storage, hunger, and damage to our bodies.

Many overweight individuals even have an insulin disorder called "insulin resistance". It is estimated that as many as 1 in 4 Americans are insulin resistant.

This means, that as they eat more and more sugar (refined carbs, bread, anything that causes blood sugar to go up) their bodies becomes less and less responsive to remove the same amount of sugar from the blood stream. SO the body has to release MORE and MORE insulin to remove the same amount of sugar. Hypothetically, it could take a 25 year old drinking a coke twice as much insulin to remove the sugar as it would a 12 year old drinking the same size coke. And a 50 year old, twice as much insulin as a 25 year old. (We're focusing more on principles here, not actual amounts), but this is a primary reason you don't burn calories like you did when you were young, and why your metabolism seems to have crawled to a snail's pace.

Why does this matter?

It matters because insulin is a storage hormone. It tells your body to store excess blood sugar (if you aren't active enough to burn it off). You can either store it as glycogen in your muscles and liver, or it goes on a fast track to being a FAT cell. And you can't store much glycogen at any one time, so most excess sugar will be stored as a fat cell (especially if you are inactive).

The circle part I mentioned above is that insulin also triggers hunger. Have you ever gorged yourself on Chinese food, only to be starving within a couple of hours? You think it is IMPOSSIBLE that it is time to eat again, and yet you are starving. That is insulin sending all these signals throughout your body. What is Chinese food full of: Rice, sugary sauces, and things that are deep fried -egg rolls, sweet and sour pork, fried dough covered in sugar. It's a diabetics nightmare, and it should be yours too.

But why does it "make you hungry?" Well, when you eat all that "sugar" in it's many forms, your blood gets a higher concentration of glucose than it needs to survive, so it release insulin to get kick it out. But oftentimes, it over-corrects and releases more insulin than needed to bring it back in balance.

-Here is a brief blog entry over at the Heart Scan Blag by Dr. William Davis
- http://heartscanblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/quieting-insulin-storm.html

Now the see-saw has gone all the way over to the wrong direction and you have low blood sugar. This is characterized by being very sleepy, you may not think clearly, sometimes you will have a headache, and oftentimes you will crave something sweet. (This may characterize your mid-afternoon at the office. Think about it the next time you complain of needing some coffee to wake up around 3:00p.m.)

Why does your body do this to you, you may ask.

Well, it's simple, your body is trying to tell you to bring your blood sugar back up to be in balance.

But WAIT! There's more.....

You see, because while your body is riding this roller coaster of high/low blood sugar:

"Our blood sugar is too high........... release the insulin............. no, that's too much, now we've got low blood sugar......................do something! Eat something sweet...............No wait! That's too sweet.................. release more insulin..............No that's too much...........we've got low blood sugar................... now eat something sweet....."

You are releasing signals that tell your body to STORE...STORE...STORE!

If you'll notice the theme above, there is always MORE INSULIN being pumped out by your pancreas to correct the blood sugar imbalance..... and we've already established that a "high insulin environment" tells your body to store excess energy as fat. So is it any wonder that you can't lose any weight when your food selections are constantly telling your body to store more fat?

Our collective pancreas is wearing out and Type II Diabetes is at an all time high? All this insulin is aging our bodies prematurely.

Here is an in depth website that discusses some of the damage that insulin disorders can do to our bodies elevating your risk of disease.
http://www.lammd.com/A3R_brief_in_doc_format/insulin_and_aging.cfm

Symptoms of Metabollic Syndrome and Insulin Resistance
Abdominal fat – in men this means a 40 inch waist or larger, in women 35 inches or larger
High blood sugar levels – at least 110 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL) after fasting
High triglycerides – at least 150 mg/dL in the blood stream
High LDL "bad" cholesterol
Low HDL "good" cholesterol – less than 40 mg/dL
High Blood pressure of 130/85 mmHg or higher

The good news is that it IS reversible (maybe even without medication)
http://www.articlesnatch.com/Article/How-To-Prevent-Insulin-Resistance-With-Atkins-Diet-Menu/140608

Here is an article that goes into some of the ways that a low carb lifestyle will help to reverse the damage that we have done to our bodies from overloading our pancreas all these years.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZHgGYKCnNc

Jimmy even blogged about some dietary changes that helped his wife reverse some of her negative health indicators.