Two Faces of Insulin

Insulin is quite important for our survival. It is a good hormone that helps cells make use of the food that you eat. If you didn't make any insulin, you would suffer a lot and eventually die. It is safe to say that insulin is a good thing.

But when insulin levels go out of control, your body starts to ignore the message that insulin is trying to send. This is called insulin resistance. This is often accompanied by high levels of insulin. Since your body is ignoring insulin's message, your pancreas (the organ that makes insulin), screams louder and louder... producing more and more insulin. This leads to the bad things associated with insulin. Insulin resistance is associated with:

• Elevated bad cholesterol and triglycerides
  
• Lowered good cholesterol
• Hypertension
• Systemic inflammation
• Vascular endothelial dysfunction
• Changes in sex hormone levels in both men and women
• Women's testosterone levels can increase.
  
• Men's estrogen levels can increase while testosterone levels go down.
• Both of these scenarios promotes even more insulin resistance which then sets up a vicious cycle of destruction
• Cortisol levels go up as your body perceives insulin resistance as a "stress response"

If all that sounds like just a bunch of scientific mumbo-jumbo, let's translate that into English:

1. You'll be tired all the time
2. Blood vessels will get clogged up leading to potential:

• blindness
• impotence
  
• kidney failure
• heart attack
• stroke

3. You're more likely to get Alzheimer Disease or other forms of dementia
4. You won't be able to lose weight
5. Your sex drive will plummet
6. You'll be crabby most of the time

... and this is the short list.

The food you eat sends signals to your body. If you eat right, you send the right signals. If your idea of a healthy meal is a big plate of pasta, garlic bread, a baked potato, apple juice and a cookie, then I guarantee you are sending the wrong kinds of signals.