in today's video we are going to be answering the question what causes insulin resistance and also
going over how it can lead to type 2 diabetes and pcos insulin resistance has become an epidemic it
is thought to affect over 80 percent of american adults although most cases go undiagnosed insulin
resistance is the main cause of poor metabolic health leading to excess abdominal fat high blood
pressure and difficulty losing weight all of these symptoms are extremely common which signifies
just how widespread insulin resistance is now the reason that insulin resistance goes so largely
undiagnosed is because doctors do not routinely test fasting insulin they focus on fasting glucose
but the reality is is that your glucose can be normal but your insulin can be elevated insulin
resistance starts up to 10 years before you're going to start to see your fasting blood sugar
increase and here is a fun or actually not so fun fact insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are
the exact same thing metabolic syndrome actually used to be called insulin resistance syndrome
so if you know that you have metabolic syndrome but you are unsure if you have insulin resistance
or not unfortunately you do and in case you're not familiar metabolic syndrome is characterized by
five main symptoms a large waist circumference high triglycerides low hdl cholesterol
high blood pressure and high fasting blood sugar to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome you have
to have at least three of these symptoms but even if you have two or even if you have one
that can signify some insulin resistance so in today's video we are going to be simplifying what
causes insulin resistance and talking about how it can lead to type 2 diabetes and pcos
hey guys and welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait and i am a certified
health and nutrition coach i post videos here on youtube twice a week talking about insulin
resistance blood sugar management weight loss sleep and more so if you want 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 what is insulin resistance
insulin is a hormone whose main role is to signal our cells to taking glucose aka blood sugar
when our blood sugar goes up after we eat for example the pancreas releases insulin which takes
the excess glucose from our bloodstream to our cells insulin resistance occurs when our cells
are no longer responding correctly to the signals from insulin they don't efficiently take in
the excess blood glucose from our cells this leads to insulin levels remaining high for long periods
of time for longer than it should and it is these high levels of insulin that lead to the symptoms
and side effects some of these include excess abdominal fat skin tags and dark patches of skin
but high insulin also causes your hdl cholesterol to decrease and your triglycerides to increase
but why do our cells start resisting insulin in the first place when we eat foods rich in
carbohydrates these carbohydrates are broken down by the body into glucose
and this glucose enters our bloodstream and when it enters our bloodstream our blood glucose will
rise insulin is then released by the pancreas to deal with the excess sugar in the blood taking
it out of the bloodstream and to our cells that need it and this is a normal function of the body
our bodies are equipped to deal with these fluctuations in blood sugar
however if we are constantly eating high carb foods throughout the day our blood sugar is
constantly rising and might not even have time to come back down to baseline before we eat again
so more insulin is pumped out to deal with the blood sugar which has remained high and our
cells become overwhelmed and start resisting the actions of insulin because they are already filled
with glucose and this turns into a vicious cycle where high insulin is causing insulin resistance
and then the insulin resistance is causing high insulin and the problem gets progressively worse
until it starts to manifest as other diseases having high glycemic variability which is when
your blood sugar levels fluctuate a lot throughout the day is associated with insulin resistance
because if your blood sugar is always spiking this means your body has to pump out a lot of insulin
to deal with it and if your insulin doesn't have a chance to come back down before you eat your
next meal then your insulin is going to remain high and this is where the problem starts having
high insulin is known as hyperinsulinemia and it's this hyperinsulinemia that actually leads
to the symptoms the side effects and eventually the other diseases now one thing i want to note
is the diet is not the only factor that impacts insulin sensitivity sleep or lack of sleep plays
a big role as well studies have shown that even just one night of poor sleep makes us temporarily
insulin resistant the entire next day so making sure you are getting good quality sleep is vital
i do have other videos on improving sleep which i will link above but my number one top tip which i
just want to tell you about quickly is to manage your light exposure light is a key indicator
for circadian rhythm getting natural light as much as possible during the day and especially
first thing in the morning helps to set our sleep-wake cycle this signals our bodies that
it's daytime and hormones are released to energize us and minimizing light exposure and blue light
specifically after sunset signals our bodies that it's night time and it's almost time to go to bed
and hormones are released such as melatonin to make us sleepy so get off your electronics in
the evening because these emit so much blue light they mess with their sleep so so much
or another option is to get a pair of blue light blocking glasses put these on two to three hours
before you're gonna go to sleep they block 100 of blue light melatonin will be released
when it should and you're gonna get a good night's sleep i will link to the glasses i wear and that i
recommend they're from a brand called blue blocks in the description box down below type 2 diabetes
type 2 diabetes is defined by having high fasting blood sugar or hyperglycemia and the way that it
relates to insulin resistance is that insulin resistance actually causes type 2 diabetes
because in the early stages of insulin resistance we touched on this a little bit earlier the excess
insulin that's being pumped out is enough to deal with the excess glucose so your blood
sugar will remain normal even though your insulin is high and this is why again insulin resistance
often gets missed doctors aren't testing fasting insulin they're only looking at glucose but
insulin resistance can start 10 years before your fasting glucose increases we could catch insulin
resistance years earlier if testing fasting insulin was routine and prevent type 2 diabetes in
a lot of cases because as time goes on your body isn't able to produce enough insulin to keep up
with all the excess glucose and that's when you're going to start to see your fasting blood sugar
creep up eventually it's going to increase enough that you'll be diagnosed with pre-diabetes
and then type 2 diabetes pcos pcos which stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome is the number
one cause of female infertility worldwide in western countries one of 10 women child bearing
age have it symptoms of pcos include missed periods weight gain excess hair growth and acne
women with pcos often have a hard time getting pregnant and they seek out infertility treatments
and a lot of women are surprised to hear the connection between pcos and insulin resistance
because like type 2 diabetes the vast majority of pcos cases are actually caused by insulin
resistance so to be diagnosed with pcos you have to have two out of the three main symptoms
you have to have an irregular period ovarian cysts and or high testosterone and i know that
there's a lot of confusion surrounding pcos a lot of women who are diagnosed with it are told
that all they can do is manage symptoms that it can't be reversed actually that's the same for
type 2 diabetes a lot of people don't know that there's anything they can really do to reverse it
but in both cases it is possible for both pcos and type 2 diabetes metformin is a commonly prescribed
drug and what's interesting about metformin is the way it works is it improves insulin sensitivity
which goes to show that insulin resistance is at the root of both of these diseases
for women with pcos especially metformin does an amazing job
at improving symptoms 90 of women with pcos that are prescribed metformin see improvements
however metformin isn't a cure-all yes it does have benefits but it also comes with
a lot of side effects some of which can be pretty serious i'm going to link a video
about metformin for pcos the pros and the cons up above if you want to learn more about that
but i think it's important to note that there are other ways to improve insulin sensitivity
and reverse pcos and reverse insulin resistance and these can be done naturally but anyways i'm
getting a little bit ahead of myself let's talk about how insulin resistance causes pcos so it is
actually hyperinsulinemia which will remember means high insulin that causes the three main
symptoms of pcos and the other symptoms as well every month just before ovulation there should be
a big spike in the hormone estrogen all estrogen is made from testosterone but high insulin levels
hyperinsulinemia block the ovaries from converting it and the spike in estrogen doesn't
happen because enough isn't being converted so you don't ovulate the eggs remain in the
ovaries and become cysts you don't have a period because you didn't ovulate and because not enough
testosterone was converted to estrogen you were left with high testosterone levels as a result
and those are the three main symptoms that we spoke about earlier now before we wrap up i know
this video was just supposed to be about the cause of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes and pcos
but and i talked about this a little bit i just want to say that it can be reversed
it is not something you have to live with it is not something that can only be managed with a few
small diet and lifestyle tweaks you can improve your insulin sensitivity reduce your symptoms
and become metabolically healthy once again and i'm going to link a video that i did up above
that has 10 simple steps you can take to reverse insulin resistance anyways guys that's all i have
for you today thank you for watching let me know in the comment section down below if you have
been diagnosed with insulin resistance or if you haven't been diagnosed but you suspect you have it
let me know down below and if you haven't already make sure to click that subscribe button so you
don't miss an upload click that like button if you enjoyed this video and feel free to share
it with a friend if you did enjoy this video you might enjoy my video on other diseases that
are caused by insulin resistance you can check it out here if you want to catch up on my most
recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet and carnivore
night coaching programs you can find them here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye