To understand insulin resistance, it helps to understand a little about how insulin works and its role in the body. Insulin is an essential hormone created in the pancreas, which is involved in the metabolism of sugars in the body. Without it, we can not turn the food we eat into usable energy.
When we eat something, a lot of digested food is converted into glucose, the main energy source of the body. The pancreas then responds to blood sugar levels by secreting insulin in increasing the flow of blood. Most cells in your body contain insulin receptors that help insulin bind to the cell. Once insulin binds to the cell, activate other receptor sites, allowing glucose to enter the cell and provide energy for life.
Insulin also plays other vital roles in the body such as storage of excess food and magnesium, sodium retention and management of other hormones in the body including growth hormones, testosterone, and progesterone. Insulin is also responsible for stopping the liver to release fat, a potential metabolic fuel in the blood after a meal.
Insulin resistance occurs when even though the body produces insufficient amounts of insulin in the body cells become resistant to its effects. When this happens, the body requires more than the normal amount of insulin to take effect, and consequently, the pancreas produces more insulin.
While the pancreas can continue with the high demands of insulin, blood sugar levels remain normal, however, rising levels of insulin may have other negative health effects such as weight gain, high blood pressure, osteoporosis, fatty liver disease and hormone-related conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). If the pancreas can no longer continue with the demands of insulin, Type II diabetes can ocurrit.
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Tags: blood glucose, blood sugar, diabetes, Diabetes Therapy, diabetes treatment, diabetics, insulin, insulin therapy, therapy, treatment