today we are going to be answering a question that i am frequently asked can you be insulin resistant
if you have normal blood sugar insulin resistance is when the cells in your muscles fat and liver
no longer respond to insulin correctly and cannot easily take in the excess glucose from your blood
this causes side effects such as excess abdominal fat skin tags and dark patches of skin and can
also lead to type 2 diabetes heart disease pcos and more but it can sometimes be difficult to
know if you are insulin resistant or not doctors do not often test fasting insulin but rather
they only look at fasting glucose instead on my video 11 signs and symptoms of insulin resistance
i have had so many people comment saying that they have multiple or even all of the symptoms and yet
their blood sugar is normal so does this mean they are not insulin resistant so in today's video we
are going to answer that question and talk about how to know if you are insulin resistant or not
hey guys welcome back to my channel if you're new here my name is kait i'm a health coach and i post
videos on a high fat nutrient dense way of eating if you like this video please give it a thumbs up
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facebook where i show new posts every single day today's video is sponsored by self-decode
a genetics testing and analysis company that gives you personalized health recommendations
based on your genes to check them out head to healthcoachkait.com forward slash self decode
we're going to start off today answering the question can you be insulin resistant if your
blood sugar is normal and talk about why this is and then we will get into how to know for sure
if you are insulin resistant or not so this is a question that i am asked a lot and i'm not gonna
build up the suspense too much before giving you the answer the answer is yes you absolutely can be
and here's why insulin resistance isn't just something that you either have or don't have
it occurs on a spectrum at the lower end of the spectrum you will have someone who is just
starting to experience symptoms maybe they are having difficulty losing weight and they've just
started to get some skin tags but even so their fasting blood sugar is within the range that is
considered normal and at the opposite end of the spectrum you have someone with type 2 diabetes
whose fasting blood sugar is through the roof and who requires insulin or other
medication in order to keep it stable people on both ends of the spectrum are experiencing
the same issue their cells are not responding to insulin correctly however the person with
type 2 diabetes is far more insulin resistant in the early stages of insulin resistance your
cells are resisting the insulin and not taking in blood glucose immediately but then your body
is producing more insulin and this excess insulin is enough to keep your blood sugar normal but as
your cells start to resist insulin more and more over time more and more insulin is being released
and eventually there becomes a point where it is no longer able to keep your blood sugar in check
and at this stage your blood sugar is going to be within the range that is considered pre-diabetes
and as more and more time goes on eventually it will be in the type 2 diabetes range so
for someone in the early stages of the spectrum their blood sugar is going to be normal but their
insulin is going to be elevated of course this makes it pretty obvious how you can determine
if you are insulin resistant or not simply get a fasting insulin test from your doctor
however this is easier said than done most doctors do not understand that insulin resistance precedes
type 2 diabetes and so they routinely only check fasting blood sugar and if your doctor is not
willing to test your fasting insulin one option if you're in the united states is you can head to
selfdecode.com they actually have a lab shop and one of the tests they offer is fasting insulin
i will put the link that goes directly to that test in the description box down below now if
you are outside of the us there is another really strong indicator that you can get from a lab test
that you most likely already have and i'm going to let you know what that is in just one moment but
first i'm going to take a quick second to tell you about today's sponsor self-decode self-decode is a
genetics testing and analysis company that gives you personalized health recommendations based on
your genes we all have a different set of genes and understanding our genetic predispositions
can help you to understand whether your diet and lifestyle choices are working for or against you
self-decodes wellness reports provide you easy to understand risk assessments and health suggestions
based on your genetics each report features a comprehensive list of genes related to each health
condition their blood sugar wellness report can show you if your genes put you at an elevated risk
for higher blood sugar levels if you already have a dna test you've done through another company you
can upload your file directly to self-decode and if not you can always order a dna kit from them
and self-decode has just released a new update where all of their wellness reports now look
at even more genetic variants and if you want to check out self-decode and find
out what your genes can tell you about your health you can head to healthcoachkate.com
forward slash self-decode and i will put the link in the description box down below
thank you again to self-decode for sponsoring this video so now let's get back into the other way you
can tell if you are insulin resistant and that is by looking at your triglyceride to hdl ratio
so you want to get your triglyceride number and divide it by your hdl number this is a really
strong indicator of insulin resistance as having high triglycerides and low hdl are both highly
associated with it a ratio under 1.9 is considered optimal with good insulin sensitivity a ratio
between 2 and 3 indicates some insulin resistance and a ratio over 3 means you are very insulin
resistant now it is really important that you do this calculation in milligrams per deciliter and
not millimolars per liter and i will put a link in the description box down below where you can
do this conversion and the calculation and yeah this website just makes it really easy now before
i wrap up i just want to say that it is more than likely that you are insulin resistant and how can
i say that how can i possibly know that i can say that because metabolic syndrome is the same thing
as insulin resistance metabolic syndrome actually used to be called insulin resistance syndrome
and in the western world the rates of metabolic syndrome are extremely high over 80 percent of
american adults have it meaning that over 80 percent of american adults are insulin resistant
but now for some good news insulin resistance is reversible and if you want to know some
steps you can start taking to reverse your insulin resistance i have a whole bunch of other videos on
my channel that i will link to above anyways guys that's all i have for you today let me know in the
comment section down below if you are insulin resistant and remember to like this video and
subscribe to my channel if you're not already and one final thing remember to check out self-decode
if you're interested in knowing the role that your genes play in your health the link will
be in the description box down below if you did like this video you can also check out my video
that i just mentioned on how to reverse insulin resistance it will be right here if you want to
check out my most recent upload you can find it here and if you want to check out my keto diet
and carnivore diet coaching programs you can find them here thanks guys i'll see you next time bye