if you are currently taking insulin medication you're going to want to watch this video
insulin could be making your insulin resistance and diabetes worse here's
everything you need to know and what you can do about it
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 both type 1 and type 2 diabetes are characterized by
the body not being able to manage blood sugar efficiently but the reason behind why this is
happening could not be more opposite let's start off by talking about the difference between type 1
and type 2 diabetes and then we will get into why insulin might actually be progressing the disease
or in some cases even contributing to double diabetes so we're going to start off with type 2
because that is the most common almost 90 percent of diabetes cases are type 2. as mentioned at the
start of this video type 2 diabetes means that your body is not managing blood glucose correctly
and this leads to higher than normal blood sugar levels now the thing about type 2 diabetes is that
it's a lifestyle disease and it develops after years of being insulin resistant insulin is the
hormone responsible for keeping our blood sugar in check when our blood sugar levels rise insulin
is released and it shuttles the excess sugar from our bloodstream to our cells however our cells can
sometimes start to resist the actions of insulin not taking in blood sugar as they should and this
is known as insulin resistance we end up getting into the cycle where blood sugar is always Rising
mainly as a result of diet and then insulin is constantly being pumped out to deal with it
but as the resistance progresses blood sugar remains high for longer than it should so the
body pumps out even more insulin to deal with it and for a while this excess insulin is enough to
keep blood sugar in check and within a healthy range when we measure it and this is why insulin
resistance goes undiagnosed for so long doctors are not routinely testing insulin but eventually
the excess insulin is not able to keep up and this is when you start to see your fasting blood sugar
rise at this point you're going to be diagnosed with pre-diabetes or if it's progressed even
further type 2 diabetes so in summary type 2 diabetes is a result of too much insulin
overwhelming ourselves and now let's get into type 1 diabetes remember how I said earlier that type 1
diabetes and type 2 diabetes couldn't be more opposite here's what I meant by that whereas
type 2 diabetes is caused by too much insulin type 1 diabetes is caused by not enough insulin
type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition where the body is not able to produce adequate insulin
and because it is only able to produce a very small amount of insulin if any at all there is
nothing to take the excess sugar from the bloodstream to your cells this results in
blood sugar rising and not being able to come back down so whereas type 2 diabetes can be
reversed with some diet and lifestyle changes type 1 diabetes unfortunately doesn't have a
cure it can really only be managed so now let's get into how type 1 diabetes and type 2 diabetes
are treated oftentimes they are treated the same way with the patient being prescribed insulin and
for type 1 diabetics this makes sense the body is not able to produce insulin a hormone which
all of us need so injecting it like I said makes sense without insulin blood sugar can
become dangerously High which can result in many irreversible side effects one of which being death
so insulin injections are absolutely necessary for someone who is type 1 diabetes but where
insulin injections don't make sense is with type 2 diabetes because remember this is a disease
that is actually caused by too much insulin so by adding more insulin yes this can temporarily bring
blood sugar down but in the long run it's only going to make the insulin resistance worse and
eventually the dose of insulin is going to have to be increased and this is why type 2 diabetes
is often referred to as a progressive disease because by injecting insulin the problem only
gets worse and worse but the truth is is that type 2 diabetes is not a progressive disease it
can be reversed and you do this by addressing the root cause insulin resistance now another common
treatment for type 2 diabetes is the prescription drug metformin metformin is really interesting
because it's a drug that improves insulin sensitivity a lot of type 2 diabetics do find
they have good results on this drug and an easier time managing their blood sugar however metformin
does come with a long list of side effects and these side effects are not often mentioned when
the drug is prescribed severe digestive distress hair loss severe fatigue for men it can lead to
low testosterone it depletes key nutrients in the body including vitamin B12 so it's not entirely a
miracle drug yes it's effective but the side effects sometimes are not pretty I do have a
full video talking about the side effects and how you can avoid some of them so I will link that up
above if you want to know more but the point that I'm trying to make here is that metformin
improves insulin sensitivity and that is why it is so effective for type 2 diabetes because it is
essentially helping to address the root cause now if there was a way to improve insulin sensitivity
without a drug wouldn't you want that to be your first option now before I go any further I
want to make one thing very clear do not by any means make any changes to your diet or to your
medication without consulting with your doctor first and the reason that this is so important
because the diet changes I am about to outline are so extremely effective that they reduce your need
for insulin rapidly if you change your diet and you don't adjust your dose no matter if you're
type 1 or type 2 diabetic this can result in you experiencing low blood sugar or hypoglyce isemia
which can be just as dangerous as high blood sugar but anyways what I'm getting at is that low carb
diets are an extremely effective strategy for improving insulin sensitivity reversing insulin
resistance for reversing type 2 diabetes and for managing type 1 diabetes let's talk about how it
helps type 1 first so as I mentioned before type 1 diabetes doesn't have a cure it's an autoimmune
condition the body is simply not making enough insulin which is something we need so it has to
be injected but what a type 1 diabetic can do is reduce how much insulin they need and you can do
this by reducing carbohydrates in the diet because when we eat foods that contain carbs these carbs
are broken down into glucose AKA sugar and they enter our bloodstream causing our blood sugar to
rise the same does not happen when we eat protein and fat so by eating fewer carbs less insulin
is needed and it can be easier to manage type 1 diabetes Now type 1 diabetics will know that diet
is not the only thing that impacts our blood sugar but it is one of the easiest to control and there
is a lot of evidence supporting them a 2019 study had type 1 diabetics eating less than 100 grams of
carbohydrates a day for 12 weeks after that they ate over 250 carbs a day for another 12 weeks
during the low carb phase they had more stable blood sugar levels and had fewer episodes of low
blood sugar versus the high carb phase not to mention that they lost an average of 5 pounds
and there is also a lot of evidence supporting the effectiveness of low carb diets for type 2
diabetes on one study done on 28 type 2 diabetics after 16 weeks seven were able to discontinue
their diabetes medication entirely and another 10 were able to reduce it the study concluded because
the low carb ketogenic diet can be very effective at lowering blood glucose patients on Diabetes
medication who use this diet should be under close medical supervision or capable of adjusting their
medication and this is what I mentioned before low carbohydrate ketogenic diets will reduce
your need for insulin rapidly they're going to help you to reverse insulin resistance and
reverse type 2 diabetes and as I mentioned earlier they can also help to manage type 1 diabetes Now
if you're not sure how to start making these diet and lifestyle changes I do have a coaching program
aimed at improving insulin resistance which I will link above this seven day Master Class gives you
everything you need to get started it has shopping lists it has a sample seven-day meal plan and you
get to work with me so I can provide you some more guidance and support and if you're a bit hesitant
I encourage you to at least give it a try it might seem overwhelming at first but I promise you low
carb diets are extremely sustainable they can be surprisingly enjoyable and easy to maintain and
once you start getting results you're going to be sold anyways guys that's all I have for you
today let me know in the comment section down below if you are currently prescribed insulin
and what your experience has been have you had to increase your dose as time goes on have you
made any diet or lifestyle changes and have these helped let me know down below I love chatting with
you guys in the comment section if you did enjoy this video you might also enjoy my video on how
to lower your hba1c you can check that 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 coaching programs including my seven
day insulin resistance masterclass you can find them here thanks guys I'll see you next time bye