Are you at risk for Diabetes?

Many people in the early stages of insulin resistance go undiagnosed. Insulin resistance syndrome starts when an individual chronically eats excess amounts of sugar and carbohydrates (high glycemic index foods) such as candy, cookies, bread, white rice and pasta. The blood sugar level ‘sky rockets’ and our pancreas organ responds by excreting an excess amounts of insulin to help deliver the high amounts of sugar into every cell in our body for energy storage and production. Chronic high levels of insulin will create a resistance in our tissues receptors that naturally binds to this hormone. In response to the receptor resistance, the pancreas excretes more insulin to maintain the delivery of glucose into our tissue cells for proper energy production.

The insulin receptor insensitivity or resistance is analogous to the changes in your hearing when you go to a rock concert. At first, your ears are very sensitive to the loud music but over time, your hearing ability and sensitivity changes during the concert and by the time it is over, you can barely hear your friend talking to you on your drive back home. During the short period of time the auditory receptor cells became insensitive to sound due to the loud music.

In the presence of high levels of insulin the liver receptor sites becomes resistant to it and it turns into a fat-producing organ. Increase in fat production and disturbance in lipid metabolism is devastating to blood sugar balance and weight management. Continual acceleration of this cycle of blood sugar imbalance, insulin insensitivity, and excess fat production will deplete and collapse the pancreatic insulin production and the end result will be diabetes, obesity and future heart disease.

There are five easily measured variables that indicate whether you are at risk for diabetes and heart disease: (developed by the US National Cholesterol Education Panel)

1. high fasting blood sugar (glucose) levels

2. elevated fasting triglyceride levels

3. abdominal obesity (‘apple’ body shape)

4. low levels of HDL (‘good’) cholesterol

5. high blood pressure

A person with any three of these conditions is classified as having insulin resistance syndrome and at risk for future diabetes and heart disease.In October 2003, the American Diabetes Association reduced the cut-off for impaired glucose tolerance from 109 to 100 mg/dL, meaning anyone with fasting glucose levels above 100 would be classified as pre-diabetic.

Please go to your health care practitioner and ask to get the appropriate lab tests to see if you may be at risk!