The Insulin-Illness Connection
Most discussion of chronically-elevated insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) and insulin resistance revolves around their relationship to bodyweight . This is unsurprising. Bodyweight’s what “sells tickets.” It’s why most people get interested in diet, health, fitness, and nutrition—to lose weight or avoid gaining it. But improving insulin sensitivity and reducing fasting insulin levels have major ramifications for your health, longevity, and resistance to disease. And it’s not just because “ weight gain is unhealthy .” Insulin itself, in excess, exerts seriously damaging effects. Today, I want to impress upon you the importance of controlling your insulin response by laying out some of the health problems that stem from not controlling it. Hyperglycemia If you’re insulin resistant, insulin doesn’t work very well. You need more of it to get the same effect an insulin sensitive person would get. When insulin doesn’t work, its ability to shuttle glucose out of the blood suffers, and b