insulin resistance-please explain this to me

[A.J.PT]

could someone explain what insulin resistance is? is it caused by eating large carb meals?

[gfundaro]

Insulin resistance occurs when your blood sugar is consistently elevated and your muscles don't respond to it anymore:

Insulin carries glucose (blood sugar) from your blood stream into your muscles. When you have too much blood sugar, insulin is released. Normally, it can carry the sugar into your muscles and other tissues. However, when you have too much blood sugar and too much insulin all the time, your muscles become less sensitive to it, so they don't 'let it in'. When that happens, the sugar is stuck in your blood stream, and that is really bad for you.

It isn't caused just by large carb meals, but by chronically high blood sugar due to a diet frequently high in simple carbs.

[Greater Deity]

Insulin resistance occurs when your blood sugar is consistently elevated and your muscles don't respond to it anymore:

Insulin carries glucose (blood sugar) from your blood stream into your muscles. When you have too much blood sugar, insulin is released. Normally, it can carry the sugar into your muscles and other tissues. However, when you have too much blood sugar and too much insulin all the time, your muscles become less sensitive to it, so they don't 'let it in'. When that happens, the sugar is stuck in your blood stream, and that is really bad for you.

It isn't caused just by large carb meals, but by chronically high blood sugar due to a diet frequently high in simple carbs.

Well... she beat me to it!
Not all carbohydrates cause a "spike" or rapid rise in blood sugar. Only carbs with a high glycemic value do this. Some diet "experts" imply that all carbs are bad for our blood-sugar levels. This is not true. Indeed, even the effect of higher glycemic index carbs can be mitigated by combining them with lower glycemic value foods.

And oh boy! Take a look at this!
http://www.lowcarb.ca/articles/article001.html

I vouch it's experimental?
- Deity

[gfundaro]

Well... she beat me to it!
Not all carbohydrates cause a "spike" or rapid rise in blood sugar. Only carbs with a high glycemic value do this. Some diet "experts" imply that all carbs are bad for our blood-sugar levels. This is not true. Indeed, even the effect of higher glycemic index carbs can be mitigated by combining them with lower glycemic value foods.

And oh boy! Take a look at this!
http://www.lowcarb.ca/articles/article001.html

I vouch it's experimental?
- Deity

Free radicals....those are caused by exercise too LOL. Lucky us! It doesn't matter what we do, we're getting cancer!

[Greater Deity]

Heh... I laughed at first, and suddenly got really sad. I'll just eat something really healthy and make myself feel better! Like a ORANGE! Maahahahah!

[gfundaro]

Heh... I laughed at first, and suddenly got really sad. I'll just eat something really healthy and make myself feel better! Like a ORANGE! Maahahahah!

LOL yea something with antioxidants to undo all this 'damage' from lifting hehe

[A.J.PT]

LOL yea something with antioxidants to undo all this 'damage' from lifting hehe

wow...your one heck of a gal....you know your stuff- i would rep you if i could. thanks for your help.

[Wowzer]

Insulin resistance occurs when your blood sugar is consistently elevated and your muscles don't respond to it anymore:

Insulin carries glucose (blood sugar) from your blood stream into your muscles. When you have too much blood sugar, insulin is released. Normally, it can carry the sugar into your muscles and other tissues. However, when you have too much blood sugar and too much insulin all the time, your muscles become less sensitive to it, so they don't 'let it in'. When that happens, the sugar is stuck in your blood stream, and that is really bad for you.

It isn't caused just by large carb meals, but by chronically high blood sugar due to a diet frequently high in simple carbs.

I posted this a few weeks back. High blood sugar and high blood insulin are not the causes of insulin resistance. They are the result of insulin resistance.

My previous post:

The mechanisms researchers are finding that cause insulin receptors to be insulin resistant have little to do with insulin itself and more to do with hormones produced by fat cells. Fat cells produce inflammatory mediators, in particular TNF-alpha, IL-6 and C-reactive protein that affect the insulin receptors, making them non-responsive to insulin.

2 other hormones produced by fat cells are directly related to insulin sensitivity. One is adiponectin, the other (aptly named) is resistin. Adiponectin increases insulin sensitivity directly. It is produced in large quantities by small fat cells, but decreases as the fats cells increase in size. Resistin directly affects insulin receptors, making them resistant to insulin and is produced by large fat cells (in humans it is produced by the macro****es that reside in large fat pads instead of the fat cells themselves).

Another mechanism is to do with fat accumulating on internal organs, particularly the pancreas, which affects insulin production, and affects ithe pancreas's response to blood glucose levels. Something to note is that the pancreas in type 2 diabetics has problems with both alpha and beta cells. Alpha cells are the calls which produce glucagon. It would be strange for cells totally unrelated to insulin to be affected if diabetes was caused by too much sugar. Further is the accumulation of fat in the muscles, which again affect insulin receptor sensitivity in the muscles.

Being overweight and/or obese, particularly in the abdominal region, is considered the primary cause of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. Because of the large range of factors that cause insulin resistance, sugar intake and high insulin cannot account for them, whereas systemic inflammation and hormones from fat cells can explain it a lot better.

So in answer to the OP:
Insulin resistance is the inability of the body to respond correctly to circulating insulin. Insulin resistance generally only affects the parts of the system that relate to macro-nutrients use by cells. So the absorption of glucose, fat and protein into cells is adversely affected by insulin resistance. Why it doesnt affect other insulin processes (like cell division, differentiation and growth) is still being studied.

High carb meals, or a high carb diet will not give you insulin resistance. That train of thought is old (1980's) and has since been discredited. As i said above Being overweight and/or obese, particularly in the abdominal region, is considered the primary cause of pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes.