do you have dark patches of skin around your neck and in your armpits if so this
is a strong indicator of insulin resistance these dark dry patches of skin are known as
acrinthosis nigricans and they are caused by high insulin levels the good news is when you
start addressing insulin resistance and making the changes necessary to reverse it these dark
patches of skin can lighten and even go away entirely but this is not the only side effect
of insulin resistance that people don't realize is related so in today's video I'm going to
be telling you about four more unexpected side effects of insulin resistance to watch out for
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is Kait I'm a certified health and
nutrition coach I post videos twice a week here on YouTube talking all things insulin resistance
weight loss sleep and more so if you're ready to take control of your metabolic Health make
sure to click that subscribe button and you can also find me on Tick Tock and Instagram
where I share new posts every single day today's video is sponsored by Squarespace for everything
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today insulin resistance is extremely common but unfortunately it goes largely undiagnosed
it is estimated that at least 40 of American adults have insulin resistance and that number
could be as high as 88 and the numbers for other Western countries are similar a lot of the side
effects that we often write off as associated with aging are actually caused by insulin resistance
but as I said it goes largely undiagnosed because doctors are not routinely testing fasting insulin
the reason they don't test it is because they are taught that looking at fasting glucose or fasting
blood sugar is a strong enough biomarker but the reality is is that insulin levels start to rise up
to a decade before fasting glucose does the excess insulin is enough to keep our fasting blood sugar
in check so your Labs might look normal despite you having unexplained side effects such as the
dark patches of skin we mentioned at the start of this video now by the time where fasting blood
sugar does start to rise insulin resistant has already been running rampant for years and it's
at this point that you're going to be diagnosed as pre-diabetic or even type 2 diabetic but what did
you want to address the root cause years before if you could before it gets to the point where
you're pre-diabetic type 2 diabetic or worse in today's video I'm going to be giving you five
unexpected signs of insulin resistance so you can start making changes today if necessary number one
acanthosis Niger cans we've already talked about this one a little bit but I just wanted to expand
on it a bit more before moving on these dark dry patches of skin are long known to be associated
with type 2 diabetes and it is because the root cause of both of these things is high insulin
levels number two low or high testosterone if you're a man low testosterone can be caused
by insulin resistance and if you're a woman high testosterone can be caused by insulin resistance
and low testosterone for men comes with the side effects of a low sex drive and even erectile
dysfunction let me explain for men high levels of insulin inhibit the body from making testosterone
correctly so they lower the concentration of it for women High insulin has the opposite
effect it actually stops the body from converting testosterone to estrogen when it should so women
are left with high testosterone and low estrogen as a result for women this high testosterone can
cause side effects such as excess body hair irregular periods acne and even infertility
and it also causes PCOS so if you're experiencing any of the side effects of low testosterone for a
man or high testosterone for women this can be a sign of insulin resistance number three hard
belly fat now if you are someone who carries a lot of weight around their midsection and if some
of this fat is hard to the touch this is a really really strong indicator of insulin resistance and
even if you can't feel or see it from the outside there could be a build up of this type of fat on
the inside which you can see on dexa scan this type of fat is known as visceral fat and it is
directly related to insulin resistance I recently did a whole video on visceral fat and why it's so
difficult to lose which I will link above if you want to check that out afterwards but the reason
that it's so difficult to lose is because it is caused by insulin resistance simply eating less
isn't enough to Target it directly because you can gain or lose visceral fat without making any
changes to your calorie consumption without even adjusting your Macros what makes a difference is
if what you're eating and the actions you're doing are improving insulin sensitivity or worsening it
for example fructose which is a type of sugar is shown to be more likely stored as visceral fat
when we over consume it whereas glucose which is another type of sugar is more likely to be
stored as subcutaneous fat when we over consume it and subcutaneous fat is the squishy fat that
we store all over our bodies this type of fat is basically your body's stored energy and it's
relatively harmless visceral fat is the dangerous stuff now before we get into the final two
unexpected signs of insulin resistance I'm going to take a quick moment to tell you about today's
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Squarespace for sponsoring this video number four skin tags now I've done a few videos on skin tags
and how they are directly associated with insulin resistance over the last couple of months and
every time I talk about this relationship I get so many comments from people who didn't realize there
was a connection and not only that but that since they have started making changes to improve their
insulin sensitivity to reverse insulin resistance their skin tags have shrunk or gone away entirely
that's right just like the dark patches of skin when you address insulin resistance and start to
make improvements skin tags can go away a common myth is that skin tags are caused by friction
which they aren't and number five low HDL cholesterol HDL is often referred to as the
good type of cholesterol because it has protective benefits however when we have insulin resistance
our HDL decreases and our triglycerides increase so much so that our triglyceride to HDL ratio is
actually a really strong indicator for insulin resistance so if you have a recent cholesterol
test you can take a look for these markers independent of if LDL is high or low you want
your HDL to be high and your triglycerides to be low these are much stronger indicators of not only
insulin resistance but also overall health and your disease risk again independent of LDL and
those are the five unexpected signs of insulin resistance let me know in the comment section
down below if you have any of these signs and if you knew they were related and if you're wanting
to make a change and start reversing your insulin resistance I'm going to link a video up above on
how to get started if you're looking for a little bit more guidance and support you can work with
me through my insulin resistance master class this is a seven day program where I've condensed
all of the relevant info it also comes with a seven day sample meal plan and you get access
to a private Facebook group where we could work together and I can offer you support I'm gonna
link that up above as well and one more thing before you go remember to check out Squarespace
for all of your online business needs now if you did enjoy this video you might also enjoy my video
on foods that cause skin tags you can check that out here if you want to catch up on my most recent
upload you can find that here and if you want to check out my coaching programs including my seven
day insulin resistance Master Class you can find those here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye