If you have abdominal obesity, if you always feel hungry, if you feel tired all the time, if you have dark circles in the back of your neck, armpits and groin area, you probably have insulin resistance. In the following, we will introduce you to insulin resistance syndrome and tell you how you can find out if you have insulin resistance or not.
It is best to briefly describe the function of insulin.
what you will read next :
What is Insulin?
Insulin is an important hormone in regulating our body’s metabolism that is secreted by the pancreas and enters the bloodstream. Insulin causes the sugar in our blood to enter the cells of the body. In other words, insulin is necessary for sugar to enter the cells.
If the cells of our body do not recognize insulin, in other words, they are resistant to insulin, blood sugar cannot enter the cell, so the cells will not have fuel and energy. Because of this, the patient with insulin resistance feels tired, weak and hungry, and on the other hand, the sugar that cannot enter the cells rises very high in the blood.
Complications of insulin resistance
High blood sugar levels caused by insulin resistance can cause side effects such as:
Inflammation occurs in the walls of small and medium-sized arteries in our body, and as a result of these inflammations, complications such as ocular bleeding and failure to heal wounds occur.
Inflammation of medium and small arteries in the cardiovascular system can lead to dangerous heart attacks and even death.
Insulin is also effective in the metabolism of adipose tissue in the body, and the resistance of cells to insulin leads to an increase in the level of certain types of blood lipids, which we will discuss below.
High blood sugar causes damage to the kidneys, and the appearance of sugar in the urine will only be for people with diabetes mellitus.
High blood sugar is associated with excessive thirst and the person drinks water regularly
What is hyperinsulinemia?
In people with insulin resistance, the pancreas will produce more insulin in response to the cells ‘resistance to insulin to overcome the cells’ resistance, so in the blood of a person with insulin resistance, both blood sugar and blood insulin are high. Blood insulin is called hyperinsulinemia
Who is at risk for insulin resistance?
The incidence and prevalence of insulin resistance is higher in the following cases:
- Genetics and family history
- Age over forty-five years
- lack of movement
The following factors also play a lesser role than the three mentioned above:
- Obesity
- Stressful life
- Unhealthy eating habits (consumption of carbohydrates and sugar)
How do I know if I have insulin resistance?
Cell resistance to insulin causes a number of clinical manifestations. If you also have any of the following symptoms, be sure to see your doctor for a checkup:
- Weight gain, especially abdominal obesity
- Frequent urination and frequent thirst
- Blurring of the armpits, groin, and back of the neck (called acanthosis nigricans).
- High blood pressure
- Heart problems
In women:
- Irregular menstruation
- Acne
- Polycystic ovary syndrome
- Infertility
- Acanthosis nigricans (darkness in the folds of the body and back of the neck)
- Gestational diabetes
It can indicate that you have insulin resistance. In addition, insulin resistance is associated with an increase in blood triglycerides and a decrease in good blood cholesterol.
Insulin resistance and abdominal obesity
We said that abdominal obesity is one of the warning signs and manifestations. Abdominal obesity is more than forty inches in men and more than thirty-five inches in women. Despite being obese, these people are constantly hungry and feel weak and tired.
If you also have these symptoms, be sure to see your doctor for a more detailed examination and diagnosis of insulin resistance and prevention of complications, including fatal heart attacks.
How is insulin resistance diagnosed?
Usually the doctor will request a series of tests for the person who has referred with high clinical manifestations and will make an accurate diagnosis based on the results obtained.
- Fasting blood sugar or FBS
Eight hours of fasting is enough for this test. In people with insulin resistance, fasting blood sugar will be more than 100 mg / dL.
If fasting blood sugar is more than one hundred and less than one hundred and twenty-six milligrams per deciliter, we say that the person has insulin resistance in the pre-diabetic phase.
If the fasting blood sugar is one hundred and twenty-six or higher, the person with insulin resistance has overt diabetes.
- Oral glucose tolerance test:
First, the person fasts for twelve hours. Then the person’s blood sugar is measured and the number is written down. Then the person drinks a sugary liquid and after three hours his blood sugar is measured again. If this number is more than one hundred and forty milligrams per deciliter, the person has insulin resistance.
- Hemoglobin A1C:
The result of this measurement will be a number that indicates the average blood sugar in the last three months.
The normal number of these germs is between four to five and six tenths of a percent, but in a person with insulin resistance this number will be between 4.6-7.5 percent and in a person with diabetes it will obviously be higher than 4.6 percent. This method is mostly used to follow the patient and assess the success of treatment in controlling blood sugar
Treatment of insulin resistance
If you are in the pre-diabetic or insulin resistance phase, you can prevent and delay diabetes and other complications of insulin resistance by following these tips:
- Lose weight
- Exercise: Muscle activity reduces insulin resistance.
- Have a healthy diet
- Use medications prescribed by your doctor to control high blood pressure and improve your blood fat and cholesterol.