Ok I’m amazed again. I know it’s abit geeky but I’m just fascinated about the human body. I’ve just been genning up on insulin and boy has it taught me few things. For reference I have been reading a couple of articles on Wikipedia. One about insulin itself and one about insulin resistance. The article on insulin resistance linked to the one on insulin and so far I’m part way through both. I just felt that right now I had to log my thoughts.

Feel free to comment if you don’t like that I take this from Wikipedia or something but I like to read around and the info given sounds well researched.

What amazed me most was the the statement that insulin and therefore insulin resistance has an effect on 2/3 (66%) of the cells of the human body. This is because 2/3 of the human body are muscle (myo) or fat (adipose) cells. These cells are both largely responsible for the take up of carbohydrate and in humans this is primarily glucose. Reading through the list of effects of insulin all I see are issues that are related to heart disease prevention. It’s well established that those who are diabetic are at greater risk from heart disease. However I hadn’t quite realised that lack of insulin or possibly resistance to it was linked so strongly to effects that would promote heart disease.

I have to wonder why, in all my training and learning no one has made this so clear. Why did I have to research it myself? Strange. Any-way, moving on, this is a really positive thing to find out. Now I’ll do what I normally do which is look around me and see if that holds up. The next few months are going to be interesting. I’ve been feeling that insulin resistance can explain a lot. Now I have connected this physically I want to see if it plays out practically.

Particularly useful is the concept that if insulin resistance is central to a ‘metabolic syndrome’ as some people call it, then does the concept of using exercise to trigger glucose transporters such as GLUT4 to become less insulin resistant work as a treatment? I like the concept because it doesn’t cost any money to put into practise. You don’t need any pills and it is a completely natural process. It also addresses the major difference across the developed world to reduce their activity levels across the board.

I don’t think it’s a magic bullet, but I do think it’s a simple answer to a difficult problem and I believe strongly it will prove true.

Insulin resistance affects two thirds of the human body. Is there a simple effective treatment? first appeared on my original blog.