Does high Insulin cause weight gain?
Over the years Americans have been getting higher fasting insulin and hemoglobin A1c blood levels. A study from Life Extension Magazine showed that Americans A1c is 66% higher than desired fasting insulin. Twenty-Two percent had hemoglobin A1c levels that placed them in a pre-diabetic state.
What is A1c level and why is it important?
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.
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.
What is Hyperinsulinemia?
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 triglycerides, low HDL and type II diabetes along with obesity.
High insulin levels and 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, kidneys, 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.
Take charge of your health!
We highly recommend having an Advanced Diagnostic Lipid Panel. 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.
But don’t despair; you can now request your own metabolic profile, fasting insulin, blood glucose and hemoglobin 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.
Non- alcoholic fatty liver
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. It is important to keep GGT levels below 24 ng/dl otherwise hyperinsulenemia is starting due to fatty liver disease.
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 created 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.
Alzheimer’s disease and high insulin levels
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 study 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.
Starch consumption and insulin levels
The first step to creating an environment that prevents the rise in blood glucose and insulin (high insulin) is to restrict starch consumption that is all starches (breads, pastry, pasta, and flour based products).
What steps can you take to utilize healthy grains?
Around 35 years ago, the federal government revised the dietary guidelines and advised Americans to consume 60% of their dietary intake from carbohydrates. The latest guidelines from the Institute of Medicine recommended a daily carbohydrate intake of 65% of the daily food intake.
This recommendation has created catastrophic results in an epidemic of obesity, type II diabetes, metabolic syndrome, and other diseases. The reason is simple starch is one of the largest dietary sources of blood sugar and dangerous after-meal blood glucose spikes.
Even with so called “Healthy grains” such as whole wheat, brown rice and ancient grains.
Recently, researchers have uncovered a dual-action enzyme known as transglucosidase that blocks the conversion of starch into sugar and transforms it into beneficial fiber.
While it is impossible to eliminate all starch from your diet, you can neutralize its negative impact. Laboratory studies have shown when transglucosidase combines with starchy foods and natural enzymes in the digestive tract, there can be a 31% reduction in rapidly digested starch and an 11% increase in slowly digested starch.
This means approximately 40% of the starch you ingest is less likely to be rapidly absorbed into the bloodstream.
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. Another product that can be helpful to process sugars is Glycemic Pro and Irvingia to reduce leptin levels.
Call Serenity Health Care Center 262-522-8640 for more information on testing or if you are a candidate for transglucosidase.
With the help of transglucosidase, you can achieve multiple life-saving goals with a single supplement:
- Convert less starch to sugar, ensuring smaller glucose load in the after mealtime.
- Release insulin, thus reducing risk of excess insulin’s deadly health effects.
- Provide with additional prebiotic fiber, reducing the risk of diabetes and enhancing intestinal health.
Dosing transglucosidase is an enzyme; the dosages are measured in units of enzyme activity not milligrams or International units (IU).
A 450,000 unit dose is typically the amount found in one capsule. High doses are around 900,000 units both doses in studies showed a reduction in hemoglobin A1c, lowering it by an average 0.18 and 0.21%. Insulin levels were lowered by 2.70 and 3.59 uIU/ml. While transglucosidase does not replace medical management, it can support and assist in beneficial cytokine activity to reduce triglycerides and diastolic blood pressure.
If your fasting glucose is over 85 mg/dl or other indicators of glucose impairment such as hemoglobin A1c or elevated fasting insulin, take transglucosidase before your two heaviest starch-containing meals.
Call Serenity Health Care Center 262-522-8640 for more information on testing or if you are a candidate for transglucosidase.