Insulin Resistance: an early warning sign of poor health
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases in the United States. It is a major contributor to heart disease, kidney disease, vascular disease, retinopathy that can lead to blindness, and an overall decrease in quality of life. We all know Diabetes is a problem but many people do not realize that it starts 10+ years before it’s diagnosable. I see this as one of the major limitations to the conventional model of medicine. The most commonly used marker for diagnosis of diabetes is an A1C of 6.4 or higher. So, in many doctor’s offices an A1C of 6.3 is considered ‘fine’. Or, if you are lucky, you’ll hear something along the lines of, ‘Hey, your blood sugar is a little high so just be careful about that.’ I believe this to be woefully insufficient.
Before Diabetes occurs, Pre-Diabetes occurs which can be seen with an A1C between 5.7-6.3. This is a critical time to make diet and lifestyle changes to halt the progression to diabetes and, in the best case scenario, reverse it. (Yes, this is entirely possible and I have guided many patients along this path)
But before Pre-Diabetes, Insulin Resistance occurs! This one is more nuanced and takes a little more insight to recognize. Insulin Resistance, or IR, will usually have a normal A1C and required additional lab tests to identify. But it can become even more apparent when you look at common symptoms:
Fatigue after meals (food coma)
Cravings
Energy crashes before meals
Brain fog
Getting ‘hangry’
Weight gain, especially around the waist
Mood swings
Hormonal fluctuations/issues
Poor sleep/waking up during the night
PMS
Insulin resistance occurs years before Diabetes develops and is, by far, the best and easiest time to reverse course. This is not only because the severity of the disease is much lower but also it tends to occur at a younger age when making changes to daily habits can be easier. In Functional Medicine we recognize the far-reaching impact of IR. Having dysregulated blood sugars is highly inflammatory and stressful to the body which leads to hormone imbalances (especially for middle aged women), sleep disturbances, fatty liver, decreased detoxification pathways, weight gain, oxidative stress, damage to mitochondria, decreased immune system effectiveness, and hormone imbalanced (did I mention that one already? Huh, must be important)
The best thing you can do if you are concerned about your risk of IR or if you have any of the symptoms listed above, is to reach out to a Functional Medicine provider and get properly tested. At Elemental Wellness, we interpret labs results by looking at ‘optimal ranges’ rather than the reference ranges provided on the lab report. We also utilize resources like CGMs (continuous glucose monitoring) in order to get real time blood sugar data.
But there are some great life hacks everyone can use to promote healthy and well-regulated glucose levels every day:
Avoid overeating carbs. Around 5 servings per day is good for most, non-diabetic, people.
Know what a carb is. This includes the obvious things like sugar and sweets but also grains, flour based foods, starchy vegetables, and yes, even fruit.
Awareness to serving sizes. In general a serving is about ½ c of rice or pasta, 1 slice of bread, 1 medium sized banana, etc.
Pair carbs with protein and/or healthy fats. This slows down absorption of glucose giving the body a greater ability to process it.
Take a 10 minute walk after high carb meals. Or just move your body in some way such as dancing, housework, or anything else that uses your muscles.
Eat regular meals but not too frequently. This is about every 4-5 hours for most people. Enough to avoid dropping your sugar (i.e. getting hangry or shaky) but not grazing throughout the day either.
Keeping well regulated (not too high and not too low) blood sugars through the lifespan is a foundational element of wellness. It becomes especially important for some people with certain conditions and having a helping hand to get things on track can be very important. If you need a little (or a lot) of extra support, please don’t hesitate to reach out. We are here to help!
