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How to lower your insulin level if you’re suffering from hyperinsulinemia
Beta cells produce insulin and when beta cells FAIL, type 2 diabetes is diagnosed……….. Not so fast, fat cells also produce insulin, and this might be the actual problem.
When it comes to insulin production, the pancreas is the focus of EVERYONE’s attention.
Particularly when beta cells FAIL.
Now to be fair, the FAILURE is relative.
The little guys are still pumping out insulin, it’s just not enough to meet the extra-ordinary demand.
Insulin resistance
The “unrealistic” demand is sparked by widespread insulin resistance, which is a polite way of saying, the movers and shakers in the body, ignore insulin’s advances.
Undaunted, the pancreas keeps churning out more and more insulin………..
This strategy works for a while.
Until, the beta cells CAN’T take the pressure.
Churning out insulin 24/7 is exhausting.
Why do cells become insulin resistant ?
At this stage, no one knows for sure, why insulin becomes the pariah.
It might have something to do with insulin’s pushy personality. Oh dear ! Too much insulin is definitely rather off putting………………………… and results in INSULIN RESISTANCE.
But, excess insulin should only happen at dinner.
Hyperinsulinemia
The trigger for beta cells to pump out insulin is primarily glucose.
And as long as your beta cells are strong and healthy, glucose levels only rise when you eat something.
But, in anyone who is metabolically challenged, insulin levels are high
MORNING, NOON and NIGHT
Night ? Where does night time insulin come from ?
Insulin in the middle of the night
Most of us, don’t actually eat when we’re sleeping ! On paper at least, beta cells should get some relief from being the insulin pumping machine.
So why is it, that people with metabolic issues, wake up with insulin levels in the stratosphere ?
Could the insulin becoming from elsewhere ?
Only beta cells produce insulin
Any textbook will tell you, beta cells are the only cells that produce insulin. But they’re not.
Recently a group of researchers based in the Netherlands rewrote the text book. Beta cells are not the only source of insulin in the body.
They are by far and away the biggest source, but they’re not the only cells with this POWER.
The Dutch team found, fat cells are insulin producers.
Fat cells produce insulin
Using fancy molecular biology techniques, they screened several different kinds of fat cells, looking to see if the insulin gene was being expressed, and whether insulin was being produced.
It was……………
Confocal image of visceral adipoctyes, showing insulin production. Copyright Bahram Sanjabi
This is an immunofluorescent confocal laser scanning image of human visceral fat cell. The enormous green blobs are the lipid droplets, in which fat is stored. The red bits, peeking through, are where an antibody which recognizes insulin has bound. This image demonstrates that insulin is being produced, by fat cells.
All mature fat cells produce insulin
When the team probed exactly which fat cells, could and couldn’t produce insulin, they found both, insulin was produced by
- subcutaneous (fat cells located on the outer layers of your body) and
- visceral fat (fat cells located deep inside your body .
But, baby fat cells, otherwise known as preadipocytes, were not insulin producers, no matter where they were located.
Interestingly enough………….
Insulin levels in visceral adipocyte tissue, with and without glucose. Copyright Bahram Sanjabi et al
The fat cells made less insulin, not more, when they were exposed to glucose.
A little goes a long way
Now the actual amount of insulin being produced is tiny.
But, if you have a lot of fat cells, each producing a tiny amount of insulin, it adds up. Enough to count ?
Maybe.
Graph showing how plasma insulin concentration correlates with body mass index. Copyright Bahram Sanjabi et al
When the researchers plotted insulin levels against BMI in 41 human subjects, ranging in weight from skinny to morbidly obese, they found a straight line. Suggesting insulin production by fat cells impacts overall insulin levels.
Ouch !
Fat cells are bad
It’s probably not a big surprise – fat cells have a bad reputation, but up until now, the problem with fat cells has been more about insulin resistance, not insulin production.
It will take some time to figure out, just what fat cells are up to when they churn out insulin, but in the mean time…………..this research reiterates the importance of
Work on reducing your fat mass.
It will help rein in insulin, literally, since you’ll produce a little less.
NOTE : Fat cells are not the only cells outside of the pancreas with insulin production capabilities – tummy cells and cells lining the small intestine are also insulin producers.
Further reading
The diabetes timeline doesn’t start with TOO MUCH FAT
The story of diabetes is always written like this…. you put on weight, become insulin resistant, then eventually diabetic. But, this diabetes timeline is WRONG.
Clock watching uncovers one reason why beta cells fail in diabetes
Pancreatic clocks tick better when spend time in the dark. Unfortunately, being IN THE DARK, doesn’t always happen, light at night is commonplace.
Avoid gestational diabetes by throwing a roof raising party
To throw the roof raising party, you need lots of serotonin, inside the pancreas. To make serotonin, inside the pancreas, you need the raw ingredients ….