Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity!

We’ve written before about blood sugar management, for example:

10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars ← this one really is the most solid foundation possible; if you do nothing else, do these 10 things!

And as for why we care:

Good (Or Bad) Health Starts With Your Blood

…because the same things that cause type 2 diabetes, go on to cause many other woes, with particularly strong comorbidities in the case of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, as well as heart disease of various kinds, and a long long laundry list of immune dysfunctions / inflammatory disorders in general.

In short, if you can’t keep your blood sugars even, the rest of your health will fall like so many dominoes.

Getting a baseline

Are you counting steps? Counting calories? Monitoring your sleep? Heart rate zones? These all have their merits:

• Steps: One More Resource Against Osteoporosis!
• Calories: Is Cutting Calories The Key To Healthy Long Life?
• Sleep: A Head-To-Head Of Google and Apple’s Top Apps For Getting Your Head Down
• Heart Rate Zones: Heart Rate Zones, Oxalates, & More

But something far fewer people do unless they have diabetes or are very enthusiastic about personal health, is to track blood sugars:

Here’s how: Track Your Blood Sugars For Better Personalized Health

And for understanding some things to watch out for when using a continuous glucose monitor:

Continuous Glucose Monitors Without Diabetes: Pros & Cons

Writer’s anecdote: I decided to give one a try for a few months, and so far it has been informative, albeit unexciting. It seems that with my diet (mostly whole-foods plant based, though I do have a wholegrain wheat product about twice per week (usually: flatbread once, pasta once) which is… Well, we could argue it’s whole-food plant based, but let’s be honest, it’s a little processed), my blood sugars don’t really have spikes at all; the graph looks more like gently rolling low hills (which is good). However! Even so, by experimenting with it, I can see for myself what differences different foods/interventions make to my blood sugars, which is helpful, and it also improves my motivation for intermittent fasting. It also means that if I think “hmm, my energy levels are feeling low; I need a snack” I can touch my phone to my arm and find out if that is really the reason (so far, it hasn’t been). I expect that as I monitor my blood sugars continuously and look at the data frequently, I’ll start to get a much more intuitive feel for my own blood sugars, in much the same way I can generally intuit my hormone levels correctly after years of taking-and-testing.

So much for blood sugars. Now, what about insulin?

Step Zero

If taking care of blood sugars is step one, then taking care of insulin is step zero.

Often’s it’s viewed the other way around: we try to keep our blood sugars balanced, to reduce the need for our bodies to produce so much insulin that it gets worn out. And that’s good and fine, but…

To quote what we wrote when reviewing “Why We Get Sick” last month:

❝Dr. Bikman makes the case that while indeed hyper- or hypoglycemia bring their problems, mostly these are symptoms rather than causes, and the real culprit is insulin resistance, and this is important for two main reasons:

1. Insulin resistance occurs well before the other symptoms set in (which means: it is the thing that truly needs to be nipped in the bud; if your fasting blood sugars are rising, then you missed “nipping it in the bud” likely by a decade or more)
2. Insulin resistance causes more problems than “mere” hyperglycemia (the most commonly-known result of insulin resistance) does, so again, it really needs to be considered separately from blood sugar management.

This latter, Dr. Bikman goes into in great detail, linking insulin resistance (even if blood sugar levels are normal) to all manner of diseases (hence the title).

You may be wondering: how can blood sugar levels be normal, if we have insulin resistance?

And the answer is that for as long as it is still able, your pancreas will just faithfully crank out more and more insulin to deal with the blood sugar levels that would otherwise be steadily rising. Since people measure blood sugar levels much more regularly than anyone checks for actual insulin levels, this means that one can be insulin resistant for years without knowing it, until finally the pancreas is no longer able to keep up with the demand—then that’s when people finally notice.❞

You can read the full book review here:

Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease and How to Fight It – by Dr. Benjamin Bikman

Now, testing for insulin is not so quick, easy, or accessible as testing for glucose, but it can be worthwhile to order such a test—because, as discussed, your insulin levels could be high even while your blood sugars are still normal, and it won’t be until the pancreas finally reaches breaking point that your blood sugars show it.

So, knowing your insulin levels can help you intervene before your pancreas reaches that breaking point.

We can’t advise on local services available for ordering blood tests (because they will vary depending on location), but a simple Google search should suffice to show what’s available in your region.

Once you know your insulin levels (or even if you don’t, but simply take the principled position that improving insulin sensitivity will be good regardless), you can set about managing them.

Insulin sensitivity is important, because the better it is (higher insulin sensitivity), the less insulin the pancreas has to make to tidy up the same amount of glucose into places that are good for it to go—which is good. In contrast, the worse it is (higher insulin resistance), the more insulin the pancreas has to make to do the same blood sugar management. Which is bad.

What to do about it

We imagine you will already be eating in a way that is conducive to avoiding or reversing type 2 diabetes, but for anyone who wants a refresher,

See: How To Prevent And Reverse Type 2 Diabetes

…which yes, as well as meaning eating/avoiding certain foods, does recommend intermittent fasting. For anyone who wants a primer on that,

See: Intermittent Fasting: Methods & Benefits

There are also drugs you may want to consider:

Metformin Without Diabetes, For Weight-Loss & More

And “nutraceuticals” that sound like drugs, for example:

Glutathione’s Benefits: The Usual And The Unique ← the good news is, it’s found in several common foods

You may have heard the hype about “nature’s Ozempic”, and berberine isn’t exactly that (works in mostly different ways), but its benefits do include improving insulin sensitivity:

Berberine For Metabolic Health

Lastly, while eating for blood sugar management is all well and good, do be aware that some things affect insulin levels without increased blood sugar levels. So even if you’re using a CGM, you may go blissfully unaware of an insulin spike, because there was no glucose spike on the graph—and in contrast, there could even be a dip in blood sugar levels, if you consumed something that increased insulin levels without providing glucose at the same time, making you think “I should have some carbs”, which visually on the graph would even out your blood sugars, but invisibly, would worsen the already-extant insulin spike.

Read more about this: Strange Things Happening In The Islets Of Langerhans: When Carbs, Proteins, & Fats Switch Metabolic Roles

Now, since you probably can’t test your insulin at a moment’s notice, the way to watch out for this is “hmm, I ate some protein/fats (delete as applicable) without carbs and my blood sugars dipped; I know what’s going on here”.

Want to know more?

We heartily recommend the “Why We Get Sick” book we linked above, as this focuses on insulin resistance/sensitivity itself!

However, a very good general primer on blood sugar management (and thus, by extension, at least moderately good insulin management), is:

Glucose Revolution: The Life-Changing Power of Balancing Your Blood Sugar – by Jessie Inchauspé

Enjoy!