Contents:
- Medical Video: Too Much Protein, Fat, May Lead to Insulin Resistance
- What is insulin resistance?
- Causes and symptoms of insulin resistance
- What is insulin sensitivity?
Medical Video: Too Much Protein, Fat, May Lead to Insulin Resistance
For those of you who suffer from diabetes or the person closest to you suffering from diabetes, maybe you have often heard of insulin resistance and insulin sensitivity. These two terms are very related to diabetes. Do they have the same or different ways of working? And, why is it related to diabetes? Find out the answer below.
What is insulin resistance?
Insulin resistance is a condition when the body's cells do not respond to the insulin hormone properly. The hormone insulin is responsible for helping the body absorb glucose (sugar), so that the body can burn glucose into energy for use or stored as fat.
When the body is resistant to insulin, the body cannot absorb much of the sugar in the blood. Thus, blood sugar levels increase and then cause diabetes. People with insulin resistance usually produce more insulin than is needed, so that glucose absorption is not effective.
Causes and symptoms of insulin resistance
Many factors can cause you to be resistant to insulin. Some of the factors that influence it are:
- Weight. People who are overweight (obesity) are usually more susceptible to insulin resistance. High levels of free fatty acids in the blood can cause cells to not respond to insulin properly. In addition, excess fat stored in the liver and pancreas also makes insulin work disrupted so that it can cause you to be resistant to insulin.
- Diet and activity. Eating habits that are high in carbohydrates or high in sugar and high in calories can make you experience insulin resistance over time. Plus, with a little activity makes you more able to develop weight gain.
- Chronic stress. Stress triggers the body to experience high levels of inflammation. This then makes insulin work disrupted. Some evidence also shows that disturbances in the intestine due to bacteria can also cause inflammation, which worsens insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance usually has no symptoms. However, if insulin resistance has led to higher blood sugar levels, this can cause symptoms, such as fatigue, hunger, and difficulty concentrating.
What is insulin sensitivity?
Insulin sensitivity is a term to describe how sensitive your body is to insulin. People who are very sensitive to insulin need less insulin to reduce blood sugar levels. In contrast, people with low insulin sensitivity need more insulin to keep blood sugar stable. Well, low insulin sensitivity is also referred to as insulin resistance.
Both low or high insulin sensitivity can both cause various health problems. Low insulin sensitivity can make the body produce more insulin in response to keeping blood sugar under control.
However, excess insulin production is then associated with blood vessel damage, high blood pressure, heart disease, obesity, osteoporosis, even cancer. Meanwhile, high insulin sensitivity can increase the risk of hypoglycemia (very low blood sugar levels) in people with type 1 diabetes.
