Can You Reverse Insulin Resistance?


by Ann Stewart - Date: 2008-08-11 - Word Count: 508 Share This!

The food you eat is broken down in the digestive system and turned into glucose, which ultimately supplies energy to all the cells. However, glucose can only be absorbed in conjunction with insulin, a hormone produced by the pancreas.

In the case of type 1, or juvenile, diabetes the pancreas is not able to produce sufficient insulin with the result that extra insulin needs to be administered medically.
If your glucose level tends to be higher than normal, you are considered to be pre-diabetic or insulin resistant. The symptoms of insulin resistance are very subtle and not as obvious as the other types.The one thing most pre-diabetics have in common is excess weight.

This condition has in the past several years been showing up even in children and adolescents. This is not caused by the pancreas failing to produce enough insulin but, rather, by an overabundance of glucose in the bloodstream.

Excess fat tissue is laden with glucose and this eventually causes insulin resistance. The pancreas increases insulin production in order to offset the glut of glucose. On the other hand the muscle, fat and liver cells get overwhelmed with the overabundance of both glucose and insulin. This explains why these folk have high levels of both glucose and insulin in their bloodstream.

Insulin resistance, if left unchecked, will develop into type 2 diabetes and resulting complications. But, the good news is that this can be avoided by losing on average 5 to 7 percent of body weight, or 10 to 15 pounds simply by making changes in diet and physical exercise.

Some natural dietary sources that are said to be highly effective in blood sugar metabolism are magnesium and zinc. Magnesium is present in green leafy vegetables, whole grains, nuts and seeds and zinc in oysters, ginger root, pecans, egg yolk, beef liver, sardines, almonds, and chicken.

In August 2000, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced findings resulting from a number of studies that cinnamon increased glucose metabolism in people with type 2 diabetes 20-fold!
In Pakistan there was an independent study of 60 type 2 diabetics who had been treated for several years with anti-diabetic drugs, but not insulin. According to the journal Diabetes Care, the subjects received about two teaspoons of a day for 40 days.

The results greatly surprised the scientists. The cinnamon reduced the blood sugar levels, increased insulin production, and lowered the blood cholesterol in all the patients! These benefits lasted even 20 days after the end of the study. Furthermore, their LDL, or bad, blood cholesterol levels were lowered between 10 to 26 percent, but the HDL, or good cholesterol, levels were not reduced!
These great findings for type 2 diabetics give much hope for the many millions of both type 2 and insulin resistant sufferers in the world.

With the right nutrition, you can lower your blood sugar levels, improve your cholesterol ratios, reverse your insulin resistance (also referred to as Metabolic Syndrome), and prevent type 2 diabetes altogether. An added side benefit of cinnamon (as if the above isn't exciting enough) is that it will help you lose weight!

Related Tags: health, diabetes, insulin, type 2 diabetes, nutrition, natural, insulin resistance, reverse, heal

Ann Stewart is an inspirational writer with the emphasis on healing. Subscribe to her newsletter to get tips on how diet and nutrition can help make and keep you healthy: youthmakeover.comlifealteringwords.com/with-wings-as-eagles

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