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Does high insulin cause weight gain?

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Over the years Americans have been getting higher fasting insulin and hemoglobin A1c blood levels. A study from Life Extension Magazine showed 66% higher than desired fasting insulin. Twenty-Two percent had hemoglobin A1c levels that placed them in a pre-diabetic state.

What is Hemoglobin A1c?

Hemoglobin A1c measures the percentage of glycated hemoglobin in one’s blood. Hemoglobin A1c levels should be below 5.6% yet more than one in five people test over 6%.

Gaining access to this kind of information can prevent severe diabetic related illness.

Insulin is a hormone that regulates carbohydrate and fat metabolism. Insulin enables liver and muscle cells to take up blood sugar (glucose) for energy production or storage. Insulin also helps to pack glucose into the fat cells as triglycerides.

Once a burst of insulin is released in response to food ingestion, insulin levels should drop below 5 uIU/ml and only a small amount of insulin should be needed to maintain balance.

When the fasting insulin levels are above 5 uIU/ml, this indicates a pre-diabetic state that increases the risk of degenerative disease. In people with metabolic disorders or obesity insulin levels remain elevated. While this creates cellular damage it also prevents weight loss by forcing glucose into the fat cells as storage.

Insulin Resistance

In a condition called hyperinsulinemia the pancreas stimulates the uptake of glucose from blood into the body’s cells. The inability of the body’s cells to utilize the insulin is called insulin resistance.

In hyperinsulinemia the pancreas produces more insulin than normal so there are higher levels of insulin circulating in the blood stream. Normally to process 10mg of sugar a person would have to produce one unit of insulin, but in a person with hyperinsulinemia, ten units of insulin may be needed to balance that same 10 mg of glucose.

Hyperinsulinemia also called insulin resistance create many health problems including high triglycerideslow HDL and type II diabetes along with obesity. If you haven’t tested your lipid levels you should consider having a Lipid Panel Test done this test gives you more than just a basic lipid panel, it also tells you the particle size of cholesterol.

This provides a great deal of information about early stage heart health and if reactive insulin is causing your lipids to be abnormal.

Unfortunately, despite the numerous peer-reviewed studies mainstream medicine has not made a priority in measuring these levels and doing what is needed to prevent chronic illness with early intervention.

High insulin levels promote hypertension

High insulin levels promote hypertension by impairing the proper release of sodium. High insulin harms the kidneys and prolongs exposure to high insulin damages the vascular system. It can also increase the risk of certain cancers.

High insulin can also promote formation of beta-amyloid brain cells, which may contribute to the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Over production of insulin also contributes to prostate enlargement by promoting the overgrowth of prostate cells.

High insulin is also associated with abdominal obesity, which contributes to atherosclerosis and impotence.

The excess elevation of blood sugar after eating meals can create as many complications as having a high fasting insulin level.

High postprandial (after meals) blood sugar, accompanies an insulin surge, are significant to the development of age-related disease, along with microvasculature (small blood vessel within eye, kidney’s, and nerve supply).

Studies show that men with the highest levels of post-load glucose, insulin and measurements of glycemic imbalance had the greatest number of blocked coronary arteries. Studies like this prove that blocking that surge in after meal blood sugar and insulin is an important goal for optimal longevity.

You can now request your own metabolic profilefasting insulinblood glucose and haemoglobin A1c on your own. You may want to add it to a Female and Male weight loss profile.

These test results can assist in measuring what type of risk factors you may be dealing with and more importantly will let you know what type of lifestyle changes are necessary.

What is Hyperinsulinemia?

There is a form of liver disease caused by hyperinsulinemia also known as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. It is noted by an infiltration of fat into the liver, which impairs the livers function. A 2013 study reviewed patients affected with primary liver cancer and found a high prevalence of liver cancer in type II diabetics.

A 2012 study looking at college students found 8 out of 22 subjects had hyperinsulin with fasting insulin levels greater than 19 uIU/ml. Studies of older people with this conditions reveals damaging processes occurring early in life.

A 2013 study showed over a ten-year period of time that type II diabetics treated with insulin augmenting drugs had an 80% increased risk of experiencing cancer, an adverse cardiac event or death from patients who only received the drug metformin, which lowers insulin levels.

A drug class known as sulfonylureas stimulates pancreatic insulin secretion and temporarily reduces glucose. By giving type II diabetics insulin-augmenting therapies instead of lifestyle changes, nutrients, and metformin the medical community has creates higher risks of weight gain, neuropathy, renal failure and atherosclerosis and cancer.

Once a person is diagnosed with cancer, it is essential to suppress excess insulin secretion. This is because insulin not only initiates cancer it stimulates the proliferation of malignant cells.

Insulin has long been implicated in Alzheimer’s disease

Alzheimer’s disease is the fastest growing threat to the United States, according to a 2013 team of researchers from University of Washington in Seattle.

Known causes of Alzheimer’s include mitochondrial dysfunction, oxidative stress, and chronic inflammation. A 2012 described how insulin is involved in the metabolism of beta-amyloid and concluded that insulin resistance is involved in the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer’s.

This information could be devastating if we did not have lifestyle changes and ways to adjust these high insulin levels. Most people do not realize that starches are broken down in the intestines and produce rapid elevation of after-meal glucose and insulin blood levels.

Even if your fasting blood levels are normal but you have spikes in blood sugar/insulin after meals too high or too fast there will be increased risks of cardiovascular disease.

A natural enzyme has been discovered to reduce after meal blood sugar and insulin spikes in a unique meal. This enzyme converts rapidly digestible starch in the intestines into a fiber that is not readily absorbed as glucose.

Wide spread use of this enzyme before starch containing meals could help reduce the epidemic of glucose intolerance and hyperinsulinemia that plagues the modern world.

The first step to creating an environment that prevents the rise in blood glucose and insulin is to restrict starch consumption that is all starches (breads, pastry, pasta, and flour based products).

Begin doing daily activity, move your body! Begin doing activities like Yoga, walking, biking or your favorite physical activity. Begin using nutritional support that helps to break down starch, enzymes that promote good digestion, carnitine that helps promote weight loss these are just a few items that can help weight management.

Call Serenity Health Care Center for assistance with your lifestyle changes today 262-522-8640!

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