Insulin Resistance: Symptoms and How to Reverse It?

Insulin resistance occurs when cells in your muscles, fat tissue, and liver don’t respond as they should to insulin, a hormone made by your pancreas that’s essential for life and for regulating blood sugar levels. Insulin resistance can be temporary or chronic, and isn’t always treatable.

What is insulin resistance?

Normally, this is how it works: Your body breaks down food into glucose (sugar), which is your body’s main source of energy. Glucose enters your bloodstream, which causes your pancreas to release insulin. Insulin moves the glucose in your blood into your muscle, fat, and liver cells, so they can use it for energy or store it for later use. When the glucose enters your cells and the level in your bloodstream drops, your pancreas signals to stop producing insulin.

With insulin resistance, your muscle, fat, and liver cells respond incorrectly to insulin, meaning they can’t efficiently absorb or store glucose from your blood. As a result, your pancreas produces more insulin to try to overcome your rising blood glucose levels. This is called hyperinsulinemia.

Symptoms of insulin resistance

A waistline of over 40 centimetres for men and 35 centimetres for women can be an indicator, as can blood pressure of 130/80 or higher, but a definitive diagnosis can only be made through a blood test, to check your blood sugar levels. With insulin resistance there is:

• A fasting glucose level of more than 100 mg/dL
• A fasting triglyceride level of more than 150 mg/dL
• An HDL cholesterol level of less than 40 mg/dL in men and 50 mg/dL in women

People with insulin resistance may also experience dark, velvety skin patches (acanthosis nigricans).

Also read: Diabetic dermopathy: what are sugar spots?

Risk factors and causes of insulin resistance

• Obesity, especially abdominal fat
• Inactive lifestyle
• Carbohydrate-rich foods
• Gestational Diabetes
• Health problems such as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and PCOS
• A family history of diabetes
• Smoking
• Ethnicity (higher risk if you have African, Latino, or Native American ancestry)
• Age (the risk increases after 45 years)
• Hormonal disorders such as Cushing's syndrome and acromegaly
• Medicines such as steroids, antipsychotics and HIV drugs
• Sleep problems such as sleep apnea

Also read: Insulin and diabetes

From insulin resistance to type 2 diabetes

When you have insulin resistance, your pancreas produces extra insulin to make up for it. This works for a while and keeps your blood sugar levels normal, but over time your pancreas can’t keep up. If you don’t make lifestyle changes (diet and exercise), your blood sugar levels will rise until you have prediabetes.

Also read: Prediabetes: symptoms and how to reverse it?

How to reverse insulin resistance?

As mentioned above, there are several things you can do to reverse insulin resistance and thus prevent diabetes:

• Exercise. Schedule at least 30 minutes of moderate activity (such as brisk walking) 5 or more days a week.
• Maintain a healthy weight.
• Eat healthy. Think fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, beans, fish, legumes and other lean proteins.
• Take medications that control your blood sugar.

If you don't, metabolic syndrome can lead to serious conditions such as blood sugar levels that are way too high or way too low, heart attack, stroke, kidney disease, eye problems, cancer, Alzheimer's disease…

Also read: What are the early symptoms of diabetes?

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