Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance happens when your body becomes insensitive to insulin causing your cells not to respond to the insulin being produced by the body. This condition is considered a symptom of prediabetes.

Insulin acts like a key to open the 'doors' of your cells allowing the glucose to enter.

After you eat, the body turns the food into energy by converting it into glucose. Once glucose enters the blood stream insulin allows the glucose to enter your cells, giving the cells the energy they need to function.

When your cells become insensitive to insulin your muscle, fat, and liver cells are not able to respond to the glucose in your blood stream resulting in high blood glucose levels. The body counter-acts by releasing more insulin.

This cycle can continue for a period of time without you being aware of it, however, when the pancreas can no longer keep up with you body's need for insulin your blood sugar levels stay high. You are now considered diabetic.

It seems strange to have high levels of both glucose and insulin circulating in our blood at the same time.

Other factors that contribute to this condition are:

• the metabolic syndrome
• possibly a strong genetic factor (an inherited component)
• certain medications
• obesity
• pregnancy
• infection or severe illness
• stress
• during steroid use

• Type 2 Diabetes
• Fatty liver
• Arteriosclerosis

A detailed patient history, a physical examination, and laboratory testing using the risk factors maybe used by a doctor.

Usually, a test is done to show the glucose levels in conjunction with fasting insulin levels. The results can give your doctor a clue as to whether you have become insensitive to insulin.

• overweight people with a body mass index (BMI) more than 25


• men with a waist more than 40 inches or a woman with a waist more than 35 inches


• people over 40 years of age


• Latino, African American, Native American or Asian American


• people who have close family members with type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or arteriosclerosis


• women who have had gestational diabetes


• people who have high blood pressure, high blood triglycerides, low HDL cholesterol or arteriosclerosi (for example, have other components of the metabolic syndrome)


• women who suffer with polycystic ovarian disease


• people with acanthosis nigricans

1. Reduce the need for insulin.

You can reduce your need for insulin by changing the way you eat. Research has shown that carbohydrates are changed to blood glucose and absorbed into the bloodstream faster than other foods. The faster the food is converted into glucose the greater the need for insulin causing the pancreas to work harder to control the blood sugar levels in the blood.

2. Increase the sensitivity of the cells.

Weight loss and aerobic exercise (even if we do not lose weight ) help make your muscle cells more sensitive to insulin increasing the cells' ability to utilize the glucose in the blood.

3. Medications

There are diabetic medications that have been developed to increase the cells sensitivity to insulin thus lowering our blood glucose levels.

Knowing and understanding insulin resistance is the first step toward making the simple lifestyle changes that will help you or any family member avoid developing the more serious condition, diabetes.