Side effects of Insulin Resistance: Hyperinsulinemia - Hunger.

A lot of people with Insulin Resistance don't like to talk about this. People automatically seem to assume that you just eat because  you're bored, and you gain weight. I've had dietitians when I was younger say I just ate too much. My entire life revolved around food for so long. So I would never admit when I was hungry. I would force myself not to eat when I was younger, even though I was absolutely starving, because I was under the impression that food was toxic.

There are so many directions that I could go, with this post. So I'll probably continue this, or maybe turn it into a series of posts.. Explaining different aspects of Insulin Resistance, and how it can affect your life. -- But where I'm going to go for this post is; Hunger. Why you are so hungry. (Or most people, anyway. Obviously not everyone has the same side effects all the time.)

This doesn't necessarily apply to me anymore, because of the VSG I had last year. I'm never hungry anymore. But I have dealt with this my entire life. I completely understand where people are coming from when they say they're always hungry.

So here we go. (Side note: I am not a doctor. This is just my understanding of the condition and how it works.)

With IR, you have high insulin levels in correlation with high blood sugar, after you eat. Hyperinsulinemia is the technical term for it. What causes high insulin levels? Your body's cells not reacting to the Insulin hormone your pancreas produces to help break down energy from the food you take in.. (Therefor, all the food is just stored as fat instead of used as energy.. explaining the whole weight-gain with Insulin Resistance.). Then, your pancreas produces more.. that your body still doesn't react to efficiently  So you have a lot of free-floating insulin.. and chances are if it hasn't already, your blood sugar is rising (and then will eventually drop rather quickly once your body realizes there is nothing it can do with it.)

One of the multiple side effects of high insulin levels, is hunger.

It's kind of a vicious cycle..

Make sense? -- Not the best chart type visual aid thing I've ever made.. But it'll do.

Your hungry, so you eat. Your blood sugar jumps, causing your pancreas to create more insulin (which your body resists.. It doesn't react to it. Insulin Resistance. The name is kind of self explanatory.) that wont work. Your blood sugar eventually drops, making you hungry again.. and it just repeats. and repeats. and repeats. 

How is this stopped/treated? Well. Weight loss is the main goal. Because a lot of the time, weight gain is what causes IR. Obviously, there are a ton of other factors. Diet & exercise are two of the main ways of treating this. For a lot of people that isn't enough though, and medications are involved. Personally, I've always been on Metformin. Since i was 8 years old. But I know there are other medications, if you can't tolerate Metformin. Talk to your doctor about it all. They'd have more information.

So I hope this helps some people understand the hunger that is correlated with IR.

I'll probably continue these with other symptoms/side effects of Insulin Resistance because there are so many factors involved that a lot of people don't seem to understand or get explained to them.

Let me know if you'd like to see more!

Have a good day. (:

-Ashley.

What is insulin resistance?

I've been asked this a few times lately, and I realized I've enver actually posted about what it is... So here we go. (:

(side note: other names for insulin resistance: metabolic syndrome, pre-diabetes, syndrome x, IR, being insulin resistant.)

"Insulin Resistance (IR) is a physiological condition where the natural hormone insulin becomes less effective at lowering blood sugars. The resulting increase in blood glucose may raise levels outside the normal range and cause adverse health effects, depending on dietary conditions. Certain cell types such as fat and muscle cells require insulin to absorb glucose. When these cells fail to respond adequately to circulating insulin, blood glucose levels rise. The liver helps regulate glucose levels by reducing its secretion of glucose in the presence of insulin. This normal reduction in the liver’s glucose production may not occur in people with insulin resistance.^{[citation needed]}

Insulin resistance in muscle and fat cells reduces glucose uptake (and also local storage of glucose as glycogen and triglycerides, respectively), whereas insulin resistance in liver cells results in reduced glycogen synthesis and storage and a failure to suppress glucose production and release into the blood. Insulin resistance normally refers to reduced glucose-lowering effects of insulin. However, other functions of insulin can also be affected. For example, insulin resistance in fat cells reduces the normal effects of insulin on lipids and results in reduced uptake of circulating lipids and increased hydrolysis of stored triglycerides. Increased mobilization of stored lipids in these cells elevates free fatty acids in the blood plasma. Elevated blood fatty-acid concentrations (associated with insulin resistance and diabetes mellitus Type 2), reduced muscle glucose uptake, and increased liver glucose production all contribute to elevated blood glucose levels. High plasma levels of insulin and glucose due to insulin resistance are a major component of the metabolic syndrome. If insulin resistance exists, more insulin needs to be secreted by the pancreas. If this compensatory increase does not occur, blood glucose concentrations increase and type 2 diabetes occurs."

Thankyou Wikipedia.. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Insulin_resistance

Now.. Lets break this down.

Insulin.. a hormogne that is used to break down all the food/liquid we take into our body, to use as energy... The pancreas makes it.

With Insulin Resistance, the Insulin doesn't work properly. It has trouble breaking down the food and drinks that we take in, and the body notices this. so the pancreas continues creating insulin to use.. and none of the insulin works. So its just free-floating in your blood, while everything you take in... is basically just stored as fat, in your body, because your body doesn't know what else to do with it.. resulting in you not getting the energy you need from the food, and your blood sugar is raised.. which causes a whole bunch of other issues, in itself.

Signs and Symptoms of IR?

**Fatigue.
**Having a hard time focusing.
**Bloating
**Feeling tired, especially after eating.
**Weight gain, fat storage, and difficulty losing weight.
**High blood trigliceride levels.
**Hypertension (high blood pressure)
**Depression (because of a messed up metabolism with IR, depression isn't uncommon.)
**Increased Hunger
**Acanthosis Nigricans (dark patches of thick velvety-feeling skin onyour neck, chest, back, groin, or underarms.. caused by high insulin levels in your blood.. I have pictures of this in a post about signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome, here: http://ourfightnow.blogspot.com/2011/12/metabolic-syndrome-signs-and-symptoms.html )

and here are Risk Factors:

Genetic:
**Family history of Type 2 Diabetes
**LMNA mutations
**African American's, Hispanic;s, American Indian's, and Asian-American's are at higher risk for IR.


Physiological and Enviromental:
** age 40+
**Obesity
** central obesity (again, look at this post i made a few weeks ago: http://ourfightnow.blogspot.com/2011/12/metabolic-syndrome-signs-and-symptoms.html )
**Lack of much exersize, not a very active lifestyle.. "Couch Potato".
**Hypertension
**Low levels of 'Good Cholesteral" (HDL)
**Gestational Diabetes during pregnancy
**Giving Birth to a baby more than 9lbs.

Causes? There isn't any one specific cause for IR... poor diet, and a sedentary lifestyle and/or obesity have been known to cause it. Other causes:

Cellular, Molecular, and Disease..

"Recent research and experimentation has uncovered a non-obesity related connection to insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes. It has long been observed that patients who have had some kinds of bariatric surgery have increased insulin sensitivity and even remission of Type 2 diabetes. It was discovered that diabetic / insulin resistant non obese rats whose duodenum has been surgically removed also experienced increased insulin sensitivity and remission of Type 2 diabetes. This suggested similar surgery in humans, and early reports in prominent medical journals (January 8) are that the same effect is seen in humans, at least the small number who have participated in the experimental surgical program. The speculation is that some substance is produced in that portion of the small intestine that signals body cells to become insulin resistant. If the producing tissue is removed, the signal ceases and body cells revert to normal insulin sensitivity. No such substance has been found as yet, so its existence remains speculation." Thankyou wikipedia, yet again..

(side note: I had the Verticle Sleeve Gastrectomy.. Which doesn't mess with your intestines at all... Which is why i'm slightly worried my type 2 diabetes won't be fixed, like i had thought before.. I guess we'll just have to wait and see..)

HCV has also been known to increase the likelyhood of getting Insulin Resistance.

and PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) has been linked to IR being known to cause it, or be caused by it..


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Most of that is on the wikipedia page that i posted before, but i tried to make it a little easier to understand... If any of this concerns you at all, bring it up with your primary care doctor.. See what they have to say, and they'll probably order some bloodwork.. but a quick way to tell?

If you have access to a kit, check your fasting blood sugar on one or more occasions.. if its higher than 80-90 you should call your doctor. that is a pretty tell tale sign of insulin resistance.



So, I hope this helped whoever's reading this. Have a good day, anddd i'll talkto you all later. (:

If you have any questions or comments feel free to comment me n here, or talk to me on facebook, or email me! i'd be glad to help in any way i can. (:

-Ashley

Sources: Wikipedia & Google & own knowledge.