There’s a common scenario that winds up on my operating table:
- Patient in their 60s. Diabetic. Taking statins for over 10 years.
- Their LDL looks fine, and even falls in the ‘normal’ range for their age.
- Although they’re insulin resistant, their doctor was never too worried — until it grew into prediabetes, then type 2 diabetes, then finally, a bypass surgery.
It’s clear the system failed this patient, and many others like them.
But it doesn’t have to fail you. Because you’re about to know the dangers of insulin resistance and how to stop it from progressing into a more serious scenario.
A very brief breakdown of how insulin resistance works
Insulin resistance (IR) is what happens when cells in your muscle, fat, and liver don’t respond correctly to your insulin hormone.
Under normal circumstances, your pancreas releases insulin whenever you eat food, which moves the sugar in your blood into cells. But when you’re insulin resistant, your cells don’t ‘open up’ to sugar. The result is large amounts of sugar circulating in your bloodstream, which can ultimately damage your vessels, liver, and heart.
I cover this in more detail in my article on what it means to be insulin resistant.
Now, you should know that insulin resistance has very few physical symptoms. There are some (which we’ll cover), but the vast majority only exist within lab work.
This also drives home the point that anyone and everyone is at risk for insulin resistance. Whether you’re young, old, lean, or obese, it’s very possible to suffer from insulin resistance.
How insulin resistance impacts your heart
Insulin resistance can have an enormous impact on your heart health. For one thing, it’s a much bigger risk factor for heart disease than LDL cholesterol. Your LDL-C doesn’t have nearly the same predictive power.
There’s also quite a lot of evidence pointing to long-term health effects. There are many studies covering IR’s effects on heart attacks and other cardiac events, for example. There’s also a very strong link between cardiac amyloidosis and insulin resistance, which is extremely difficult to diagnose without proper scans.
Thankfully, addressing insulin resistance early can go a long way toward prevention, and even adjust the prognosis of existing health concerns. I’ve seen patients experience remarkable changes in diabetes, thyroid issues, and autoimmune conditions.
With this in mind, here’s how to spot insulin resistance in its earliest stages, as well as how to reverse it with lifestyle changes.
How to diagnose early insulin resistance
If you’re concerned you may be in the early stages of IR, keep an eye out for the following symptoms:
- Regularly feeling tired after eating in the afternoon (think 2 or 3 PM)
- A waistline greater than 35 inches for women and 40 inches for men
- Skin tags around your face and neck
- Feeling like you’re always thirsty, even if you think you’ve already had enough
- Unexplained brain fog and lightheadedness
- Unexplained acne, especially around the back or arms
Keep in mind there are also significant IR differences between men and women. This is particularly complicated, and we don’t have time for a more in-depth discussion here. But you can learn more about the impact of female hormones on insulin resistance here.
Now, please understand these are just a few early symptoms of insulin resistance, and not necessarily an exhaustive list. The only way to know for sure is to order an insulin, A1c, and/or fasting glucose test. You can typically order these online, then have the results sent to you in the mail.
Learn more about how to read your lab work.
Reversing early insulin resistance without medication
Your insulin resistance didn’t develop overnight, nor will it disappear overnight.
But because you’ve caught it early, you have a much stronger fighting chance.
Here’s everything you can do right now to start making a difference.
Adopting a low-carb diet
Low-carb diets help to reset your insulin sensitivity, which over time can help reverse early-stage IR. Many low-carb dieters also report benefits like weight loss.
You get to decide what low-carb means to you, although as a rule of thumb, anything under 100 grams of carbs per day will likely yield best results.
If you’d prefer a specific dietary pattern, you might explore keto or carnivore as options. Or, you can simply refer to the new US food pyramid.
Intermittent fasting
You’ve probably heard a lot about fasting before, likely in regard to its weight loss benefits. But fasting also plays a strong role in reversing early-stage insulin resistance. Remember: the less often you eat, the less insulin you produce, and the more sensitive your cells can become.
I should mention that intermittent fasting doesn’t require avoiding food for multiple days. Often, there’s a feeding window ranging from one to eight hours, depending on how aggressive you want to be with your routine. Studies show that early-time restricted feeding can measurably address insulin resistance relatively quickly.
Learn more about building your own fasting routine here.
Cutting sugar and processed foods
Whether or not you choose to adopt a low-carb diet, cutting both sugar and processed foods can make a huge difference in your insulin levels.
Processed carbohydrates (including sugar) have a high glycemic load, so consuming too many can have negative effects on your insulin levels. And if you’re already in an early stage of insulin resistance, continuing to eat these will only cause more problems.
The amount of sugar you cut is largely up to you. But if you’re adhering to the new dietary guidelines, no amount of added sugar is recommended for adult diets.
Processed foods should be largely avoided as well. And no, I’m not necessarily telling you to stop eating plain Greek yogurt for breakfast. But foods with more than five items in the ingredients label — or packaged goods that contain seed oils, fake sugars, or refined flour — may not deserve a place in your pantry.
Taking control of your insulin resistance
As you’ve seen, it’s possible to reverse both insulin resistance and chronic disease simply by making changes to your lifestyle. You don’t need medications to get better, and you don’t need to wait around for some inevitable fate.
You have the power to reclaim your metabolic health.
You can start today in 15 minutes by taking my free metabolic health quiz.
