Insulin

Insulin resistance is a metabolic syndrome that affects the way your body responds to the hormone insulin. Insulin regulates the way food metabolises in the body. It plays an essential role in metabolising carbohydrates, proteins and fats specifically. Insulin is responsible for converting the body’s glucose in the blood, into fat.

Insulin Resistance

A normal insulin response is when the body is triggered to take glucose to the body’s cells and used as energy instead of being stored as fat.

When this process is interrupted by insulin resistance the body enters survival mode and the insulin does not trigger this conversion properly; oftentimes the majority of the glucose is stored as fat instead of being used as energy.

It is easy to get disheartened when you are trying to lose weight and can’t understand why it’s not working. Visit a doctor to investigate the problem and have your insulin levels tested with a fasting blood test which measures your fasting blood sugar level. If you are insulin resistant you need to be made aware of the fact so that you can get it under control before it develops into pre-diabetes or even type 2 diabetes.

Signs and symptoms

• Insatiable appetite
• Fatigue
• Difficulty focusing (brain fog)
• High blood sugar
• Difficulty losing weight
• Weight gain (especially in the mid-section around the belly)
• High cholesterol
• High blood pressure
• Lethargy
• Acanthosis nigricans (dark patches on the neck, groin and armpits)

Treatment

There is no cure, per se, but there are lifestyle changes you can make and treatments you can use to minimise the symptoms and to avoid developing pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. If you gut high sugar and carbohydrate rich foods from your diet and take up regular exercise you should see improvement in your condition and lessening of the symptoms

You may want to visit weight-loss doctors to kick-start your weight-loss. It is believed that losing even seven percent of your body weight can lower your risk of developing diabetes. So consider joining a medical weight loss programme – you can lose 4kgs in the first few months alone!