Do you ever feel like after a meal, the couch wants to “eat you” and take you into dream land? Maybe you are also struggling with weight loss or reducing belly weight whereas it used to be easy? These symptoms might be because of something called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is an unhealthy state in the body before prediabetes. Prediabetes is the step before the disease “Type 2 Diabetes”.
This is the order in which type two diabetes progresses:
Insulin resistance—> Pre-Diabetes—>Type 2 Diabetes
How do you catch type two diabetes early?
You screen for insulin resistance. Read on to find out how.
If you prefer to learn more by listening, check out our recent podcast HERE.
First, what is Insulin resistance?
In the early stages of Insulin resistance your blood sugars are maintained healthy, but your insulin runs high to compensate. Eventually the insulin can’t keep up and the blood sugars also start to climb right after a meal, but you might not catch this unless you are doing the right testing. High blood sugar levels make you feel sleepy and unfocused because sugar knocks out oxygen and binds to the hemoglobin in the centre of the red blood cell.
Two hours after a meal you may feel okay because your blood sugars have come down with the help of your hard-working pancreas. The pancreas is what makes and releases insulin. When your pancreas blasts out too much insulin it creates a poor communication between your insulin hormone and insulin receptors. The receptors are like “locks” and they become damaged with the high insulin. That is why they call it “Insulin resistance”. If the lock-key (receptor-hormone) mechanism is damaged it is called “resistance” and the body keeps trying harder to fixit. Eventually when the insulin hormone (aka the key) is too high for too long, the insulin resistance gets worse, and the sugars stay high. It is at this point of poor communication between the lock and key that your doctor may catch it when they test your blood sugars and call it “pre-diabetes” or “two diabetes” because now they are high enough to diagnose.
Why aren’t we catching pre-diabetes early enough?
One in three adult Canadians have pre-diabetes. So why aren’t we catching it early enough? A VERY common story I hear from patients is; “I went to the doctor, and I was told I was healthy based on my physical exam and blood work. I just don’t feel good, and it doesn’t make sense! How am I healthy when I am tired, unfocused, have brain fog, sleep disturbances and feeling unwell all the time?” I look at their blood work, and according to the standard OHIP tests they ARE healthy. That’s because the human body is amazing, and it tries hard to compensate for months to years to keep you healthy before it officially crashes, and disease settles in. It’s also because of the assessments being run by your family doctor.
When you go to your family doctor, they recommend what OHIP and the CPSO says is standard of care. They check your fasting glucose and HbA1C levels. These are tests often run every 3 years. First, every three years maybe too late. Secondly, it may take many years to be in the state of Insulin resistance before pre-diabetes shows up on your blood work. This is one example of many, where the standard of care is sub-par in the public OHIP system causing a delay in diagnosis. Name it, blame it and tame it EARLY would be the ideal philosophy and “test don’t guess”. It is easier to start a treatment plan and get motivated to get better when you know what is going on. It would also reduce health care costs in the long run.
Naturopathic doctors DO NOT WAIT for disease to settle in before we assess and make lifestyle changes and treat you. Our goal is to help you feel well NOW and prevent disease.
How do you assess for insulin resistance?
Run a Fasting Insulin Glucose Challenge Test or next best assessment is using the Homa IR calculator after a fasting insulin and fasting glucose blood test.
Check out our recent episode of MYFERTOLOGY where we go into details on these assessments and to learn our top three treatment tips to address insulin resistance.
November is diabetes awareness month which is why we are breaking it down and trying to help you catch it earlier!
Let’s get proactive together. I think everyone by the age of 40 should have this screening done; and even earlier if you have the risk factors for pre-diabetes such as a family history, history of gestational diabetes, PCOS or have a high BMI (ie. you are considered overweight for your height).
Book in a visit with me if you are a patient of mine and/or you wish to have this screening done to get healthier as you move into the second half of your life.