Insulin Resistance

[Rayza]

I've suffered with problems with blood sugar levels and insulin resistance for a few months now. I did a fasting blood test at my GPs last Monday and I'll get the results in a few days. I'm pretty sure I have type II diabetes.

Any tips on modifying the diet bearing this in mind? I had to take some of my dad's metformin today (he's type II) to get myself out of severe hypoglycemia.

The ATP cycle seems to have shut down in my body; I can't get explosive power like I used to on deads for instance. Stomping through the ground I don't seem to have the elastic strength in the muscles.

I was never obese. I tried to adopt a raw food diet unsuccessfully for almost a year but often ended up going on massive binges of all the worst baked goods Sainsburys had to offer.

High fat, low carb, moderate protein seems like a wise move. Fasting seems quite risky. Any advice people?

Many thanks

Mark

[Was_once_fat_dave]

have ya had a read thru this thread bud??? http://forum.myprotein.co.uk/diet-nu...o-attacks.html

[hailtotheking]

Please bear in mind that giving out advice for severe medical conditions is not allowed on the forum. However, general dietary and supplementation advice for controlling blood sugar is ok, as long as you take into account your doctors advice as well.

[Victoria]

Best wait for the blood test results. I can't understand the hypos if you have type 2 diabetes, your blood sugar would be too high not too low.

If you are diagnosed with type 2, your GP will probably refer you to a specialist for dietary advice.

Low carb high fat would probably be ok, but perhaps not the best option. Wait and see

[Rayza]

High fat is maybe not such a good idea:
Development of muscle insulin resistance after liver insulin resistance in high-fat-fed rats -- Kraegen et al. 40 (11): 1397 -- Diabetes

I think I went into ketosis today. I had almost no carbs after quite a hard training session and got no sleep last night due to some herbal product I took that kept me up all night. Messed me right up.

[NU_nutrition_TS]

That study does not really support the theory it is supposed to substantiate!

With the proviso that a) rats are not humans and b) they were fed a "synthetic high-fat or high-starch" diet (anyone who has looked up what goes into lab rat 'chow' will realise that it's similarity to 'food' is purely fictional! Certainly for humans if not for rats!) let's look at the specifics:

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Further in vivo [3H]-2-deoxyglucose uptake studies...demonstrated adipose but not muscle insulin resistance after 3 days of high-fat feeding.

Well this is desirable surely? Any glucose you have in your body you want to be taken up by muscle tissue - to either replenish muscle glycogen or directly synthesise ATP - rather than be taken up by adipose cells and converted into fat?

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Muscle triglyceride accumulation due to fat feeding...had doubled by 3 wk in red muscle (P less than 0.001) compared with starch-fed controls.

Again, certainly in human terms, it shows that a high fat diet provides more fatty acids - from these accumulated muscle triglycerides (IMTAG) - for the mitochondria to convert into ATP.

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By 3 wk, high-fat-fed animals had developed significant glucose intolerance.

If a human was following a low carb/high fat diet he would not be consuming large amounts of glucose so being intolerant to it is neither here nor there. These rats were fed sufficient calories for their needs from a high fat and (one assumes) low carb diet yet were artificially infused with glucose - hardly indicative of a natural feeding/metabolic response!

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Basal and insulin-stimulated glucose metabolism were assessed in the conscious 5- to 7-h fasted state with the euglycemic clamp (600 pM insulin) with a [3-3H]-glucose infusion.

As Dr Mauro DiPasquale has commented: sometimes insulin resistance - depending on what tissue is resistant - is a good thing (or not always a bad thing!).

[Victoria]

It's definitely not a bad thing from your body's point of view, it's defending itself Too much glucose can seriously damage the cells.

[Ripped Barbarian]

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Well this is desirable surely? Any glucose you have in your body you want to be taken up by muscle tissue - to either replenish muscle glycogen or directly synthesise ATP - rather than be taken up by adipose cells and converted into fat?

Actually you are damn wrong and when trainers say "you want insulin resistant fat cells to keep you lean with insulin sensitive muscle cells" they are DAMN WRONG

Here's the problem.

When fat cells become insulin resistant (peripheral insulin resistance) they are constantly under the metabolic state of 'low insulin' (i.e fasting, starving etc) they release fatty acids.....
If more fatty acids are released that need be this increases triglycerides, the liver ends up storing these and you end up with non alcoholic fatty liver disease and further insulin resistance and eventually diabetes.

Believe me you do NOT want insulin resistant ANYTHING.

High fat diets DO produce 'overall' insulin resistance both as an adaptive response and as a metabolic consequence, do not follow one.

Now if you stick to eating fats you are somewhat 'protected' of course but hardly anyone (except you mabye) is likely to follow a very high fat diet for the rest of their lives, it dosn't even fit in with evolutionary thinking, which was higher in protein and carb than you imagine.

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As Dr Mauro DiPasquale has commented: sometimes insulin resistance - depending on what tissue is resistant - is a good thing (or not always a bad thing!).

He's a **** then.
Insulin resistance in fat cells (peripheral insulin resistance) is what OBESE people get (along with resistance liver and finally muscles) and this brings with it all of the problems of syndrome X etc.
Do you want to follow a diet that gives you the metabolic advantage of an OBESE person?

Overall insulin sensitivity is the bodies ability to react to insulin and take in glucose, the more cells are insulin sensitive the more overall insulin sensitivity you'll have (keeping insulin low)

Now, muscles are often relatively 'well fed' as you have to keep moving, they provide quite a small aspect of glucose disposal, at least at rest.

The liver is the key player being able to sink several hundred grams glucose in a depleted state.

Fat cells, taking in triglycerides are important in the cycle too.

Here's the basic thinking.

-You do not want to overload the liver (this is why excessive fructose/ sucrose (50% fructose) produces insulin resistance), too many calories generally will produce this too, alcohol too, ask my uncle who was on 2 bottles whiskey a day for years....diabetic now (but still alive at 75 some how)

-You want to keep everything sensitive, keep lean, keep training.

-If you lose weight (fat) your fat cells become more insulin sensitive, a good thing.........yes you'll gain fat easier but imo health comes way before aesthetics.

-If you increase muscle mass you'll have more hungry muscles, more insulin sensitive.

-You want your body to burn fat at times but not 24/7 as per high fat diet, if your body is burning fat it won't accumalate in the liver of muscle cells but the key is that when on a high fat diet if carb intake rises then triglycerides will rise, activities like sprinting and weight training have all sorts of benefits like an increase in AMPk, which promotes fat oxidation, you don't need to eat fat to burn fat, it's a rediculous fallacy

-A 'sensible' diet will work, as i say controlling calories, nutrient partitioning through training hard/physical activity are much better than any dodgy fad diet.

-It's true that a diet high in carbs will produce this, but that is overall carbs related to activity not really carb percentage of diet, yes eating loads of chocolate, white bread, bagels pasta will produce insulin resistance but that does NOT vindicate eating a high fat diet, i have noticed this in peoples logic if one thing is 'bad' then the other must be 'good' it is NOT the case!

Ok

[NU_nutrition_TS]

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Insulin resistance in fat cells (peripheral insulin resistance) is what OBESE people get (along with resistance liver and finally muscles) and this brings with it all of the problems of syndrome X etc.

That defies all logic!

If adipose cells are insulin resistant and insulin is required for fatty acids to be stored as triglycerides within the adipose cells (insulin enables the conversion of glucose into alpha glycerol phosphate which binds the fatty acids onto the glycerol backbone and creates triglycerides: the storage form of fat in adipose cells) then they won't take up the glucose or insulin, convert glucose into alpha glycerol phosphate and store fat as triglycerides.

So how can obese people be insulin resistant in their adipose cells?!!!!

Obese people are insulin resistant in their muscles and not their fat cells. This is borne out by the fact that there are more FT type II(x) muscle fibres than ST type I muscle fibres in obese people's muscles than in lean people's muscles (who have the opposite arrangement) and these FT fibres do not use insulin so make those muscles, as a whole, less sensitive to insulin.

Also, if you are saying that, as a consequence of the adipose cells being insulin resistant, there would be an increased amount of free fatty acids in the blood stream (which is true, because the adipose cells would be releasing triglycerides and not making more of them!) these people would be getting leaner not fatter to the point of obesity!


The liver also does not require insulin as it uses the insulin-independent GLUT2 transporter to take up glucose - so saying the liver becomes 'insulin resistant' is a nonsense!

[Ripped Barbarian]

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If adipose cells are insulin resistant and insulin is required for fatty acids to be stored as triglycerides within the adipose cells

Well that's the thing, it's not.....