The Process Of Developing Insulin Resistance And Diabetes!
Any one can become diabetic.
It is not a must to have a family history of diabetes to develop the disease.
Yes, you have a greater chance of developing the disease if you have a family history of diabetes.
But you will see that many develop the disease irrespective of a family history of diabetes these days.
That is why it is vital that we understand that the process of becoming diabetic starts much before the actual onset of the full fledged disease.
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Carbohydrates, Insulin And Blood Sugar
Normally insulin, the hormone produced by pancreas, regulates our blood sugar levels precisely.
The carbohydrates that we consume in our food, enter our blood in the form of sugar and as soon as it enters our blood, the pancreas releases insulin in our blood to regulate the blood sugar.
The cells of every tissue in the body take up the sugar from the blood under the influence of insulin and use it for the energy that they need for their functions.
The liver also stores more sugar under the influence of insulin, for later use, when the body needs energy in between two meals.
This brings down the blood sugar to normal and in response, the pancreas cuts down on the insulin production.
A few hours, typically around four to five hours, the blood sugar levels dip before the next meal.
At this time the liver releases the stored blood sugar in the blood to provide the energy that the body needs and the stored sugar in the liver goes back to normal.
This process is smooth and works seamlessly when we are healthy.
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Insulin Resistance And Pre Diabetes
But when we eat too much of sweets or carbohydrates, a lot of sugar enters the blood.
This forces the pancreas to produce more insulin than normal, to influence the cells of various tissues to take up more sugar to control the blood sugar levels.
But if we continue to eat a lot of sweets regularly, after some time the various cells of the body respond less efficiently to the available insulin and do not absorb the sugar from the blood adequately.
This means that they become insulin resistant.
With the result, the blood sugar levels increase and so does the level of blood insulin.
This raised blood level of insulin is called hyperinsulinemia.
Under the influence of these raised levels of insulin, the liver and muscles store more sugar and when their capacity of storing sugar is full, this excess sugar is converted into fat and stored in various fat depots.
This leads to weight gain.
This means our blood insulin, blood sugar and weight, all go up.
At this stage, not only our blood sugar and insulin, but also our blood triglycerides and the LDL (harmful to the heart) cholesterol levels are likely to go up and our HDL (beneficial to the heart) cholesterol levels are likely to drop below normal.
These are all signs insulin resistance.
This is the pre diabetic stage which eventually can lead to diabetes, heart disease and strokes.
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We yet do not know the exact reasons of insulin resistance, but family history of type 2 diabetes, sedentary lifestyle, total lack of exercise and obesity can all be the contributing reasons.
Stress and lack of adequate sleep too could worsen the situation.
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How to reverse insulin resistance
Getting physically more active and exercising regularly, walking adequately is the safest exercise, improves the insulin sensitivity of the cells of different tissues of our body.
That is the reason why exercise is the key to not only diabetes management, but also to our overall health and well being!
Keep your consumption of sweets low, so it helps keep your blood insulin from rising unnecessarily high.
If you have uncontrollable craving for sweets, eat ample fruits through the day. It will take away the abnormal craving for eating sweets and also add valuable nutrition to your food.
Stay away from sweets with determination for a fortnight, to allow the taste buds on your tongue to get adjusted to not eating them. Once they are retrained, you won’t be able to eat as much sweets anyway.
So, to reverse your insulin resistance, you need to develop healthy food habits, eat nutritionally balanced food, exercise regularly, reduce your weight, keep stress low and sleep well.
And don’t wait to do all these things till you catch diabetes!
Start now, so you don’t develop insulin resistance in the first place!
Also read the articles ‘Preventing Diabetes’, and ‘Dangers Of Eating Too Much Sugar’ on this website.