How To Increase Insulin Sensitivity

To be healthy, keep body fat down and to avoid being diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes or even Type 3 Diabetes (aka Alzheimer’s) and to avoid obesity and inflammation (which underlies every chronic disease), we need to be insulin sensitive. We also need to be insulin sensitive to maintain high levels of testosterone so we can build muscle and burn fat and be manly. Insulin is your fat storing hormone and is released whenever you ingest sugar or carbohydrates. Your pancreas secretes insulin to extract the excess blood sugar (glucose) from your blood otherwise it becomes toxic. It then converts it and deposits it into your muscle cells, liver cells or your fat cells. More often than not, the muscle and liver cells are full, and the excess blood sugar is deposited into your fat cells. This is exactly what you don’t want! Fat is not only unsightly but it’s dangerous. Here’s why:

“Abdominal fat is thought to break down easily into fatty acids, which flow directly into the liver and into muscle,” says Lewis Kuller, MD, DPH, professor and past chair of epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health.

When these excess fatty acids drain into the liver, they trigger a chain reaction of changes — increasing the production of LDL ‘bad’ cholesterol and triglycerides. During this time insulin can also become less effective in controlling blood sugar, so insulin resistance sets in, he explains.

Blood sugars start to get out of balance. Fats and clots get into the bloodstream, and that sets the stage for diabetes, heart disease, and more.

And research shows that abdominal fat triggers a change in angiotensin, a hormone that controls blood vessel constriction — increasing the risk of high blood pressure,stroke, and heart attack, Kuller explains.

Indeed, belly fat is a key indicator of “metabolic syndrome,” a cluster of abnormalities that include high levels of blood sugar, blood pressure, and triglycerides, as well as low levels of “good” HDL cholesterol. This combination of risks has an impact on mortality from heart disease.

Read more on WebMD on why Belly Fat is dangerous

Unfortunately, the Standard American Diet (SAD) and typical Western diet, media and giant food corporations put us all on the road to become insulin resistant. With diets high in refined high GI carbohydrates and an insane amount of sugar intake, this is pretty much a death trap. It’s time to take control of your health and to stop listening to the media! You may have guessed if you’re a regular on this site, I’m a massive advocate of the paleo lifestyle (not completely religiously, but mostly) and it is great at naturally being insulin sensitive. This isn’t a fad diet – it’s going back to basics and eating as our ancestors used to live before the introduction of poisons and toxins into our staple foods and daily diet routines in the forms of added hormones, GMOs, deadly hydrogenated oils, grains, trans fats, sugar, exposure to pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, preservatives in most packaged goods, refined carbohydrates etc. This list is far from exhaustive.  The great thing about paleo is you can eat deliciously tasting food, become a natural fat burner, be in great physical shape and have more energy than you’ve ever experienced before – once you get past a few days of withdrawal! Back to Insulin Sensitivity. Here are 25 ways to improve insulin sensitivity from Mark’s Daily Apple:

1. Lift weights.

Lifting heavy things, particularly with great intensity, improves insulin sensitivity by an interesting mechanism: non-insulin dependent glucose uptake happens immediately after the workout, which allows your muscles to replenish glycogen without insulin. According to some researchers, “the effect of exercise is similar to the action of insulin on glucose uptake.” I’d say not having to secrete any insulin makes you effectively insulin-sensitive.

2. Run (or bike/swim/row) sprint intervals.

An overloaded, energy-replete cell is an insulin resistant cell. An empty, “starving” cell is an insulin sensitive cell. Any exercise that burns glycogen and leaves your muscles empty and gaping for more will necessarily increase insulin sensitivity. I can’t think of a faster way to burn through your glycogen than with a high intensity interval training session. Hill sprints or rower sprints are sufficiently intense and comprehensive.

3. Do CrossFit or similar full body high-volume, high-intensity training.

Glycogen depletion occurs locally: high rep leg presses will deplete leg muscle glycogen, but they won’t touch glycogen in your arms, chest, and back. To fully deplete all the glycogen, you need to do full-body movements. CrossFit WODs and other similar metcon workouts that have you doing pullups, squats, sprints, pushups, box jumps, and other compound movements — at high volume, in the same workout, and with minimal rest—will drain your glycogen stores and reduce the amount of insulin you need to replenish them.

4. Train at altitude.

A recent study found that altitude hiking at 4500 meters improved glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity. This isn’t feasible for everyone (4500 meters is really quite high, and not everyone lives near a suitable mountain), and some people just aren’t ready to climb a mountain and hike around (in the study, some participants with low DHEA-S levels didn’t get the benefits), but it’s one way to improve it. Just google around to see if any local hikes reach those heights.

5. Train fasted.

While training of any kind promotes better insulin sensitivity, training in the fasted state enhances this effect. One study found that relatively high-intensity “cardio” performed while fasted increased subjects’ insulin sensitivity beyond the group who did the same training after a carb meal, even in the context of a normally obesogenic high-fat, high-carb diet.

6. Go for a walk.

As you know from reading this blog, a simple walk can be quite powerful, particularly if you string them together to form a daily walking habit. A walk is good for glucose control after meals, but regular walking can have impressive effects on insulin sensitivity. Whether it’s obese Japanese men or obese women, making walking a regular occurrence will help.

7. Never stop exercising.

I don’t mean “take no breaks.” I mean “stay active for life.” In a recent paper, both sprinters (aged 20-90 years) and endurance athletes (20-80 years) had far better insulin sensitivity than sedentary controls. And get this: insulin sensitivity didn’t decrease with age in the two active groups. Even the 90 year-old sprinter retained good insulin sensitivity. The sedentary controls? Not so much.

8. Eat cinnamon.

Although cinnamon isn’t always effective against insulin resistance, it can reliably attenuate the insulin resistance resulting from sleep loss. Plus, cinnamon is delicious, so there’s that.

9. Sprinkle some vinegar on your food.

Next time you plan on eating a high-carb meal, have a salad with a vinegar-based dressing beforehand. Vinegar has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity in response to a carb-rich meal in type 2 diabetics.

10. Get more magnesium.

Magnesium figures into hundreds of physiological processes, many of which concern glucose disposal and insulin sensitivity. My favorite sources are leafy greens like spinach, nuts, seeds, dark chocolate, and halibut. If you hate spinach, nuts, fish, chocolate (what’s wrong with you?), and other magnesium-rich foods, oral supplementation of magnesium also works pretty well.

Read the remaining 15 items on Mark’s Daily Apple