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Transcript of “What if insulin resistance is a delivery problem, not a hearing problem”

If you’re struggling with weight issues, odds are….

YOU’RE INSULIN RESISTANT.

This bad body chemistry puts you at risk of a multitude of health problems,

• from minor irritations, like acne,
• to life changing conditions, such as type 2 diabetes,
• all the way through, to deadly heart attacks.

The fundamental problem in someone who is insulin resistant, is that key cells, don’t respond to insulin. Instead of swinging the glucose gates open, to allow sugar molecules to move inside, the glucose gate remains shut.

And…………..sugar levels rise.

Requiring the release of more insulin – to get the job done.

Eventually, the job get’s done.

Swimming in insulin

A person who is insulin resistant – is swimming in the stuff. But where is the insulin ?

It is assumed the truck loads of insulin being pumped out by the pancreas, are arriving at individual cell doors.   And these cells, are not listening.

Muscle cells, liver cells and fat cells are held responsible for RESISTING, the calls of insulin.

But, are they too blame ?

Where is the insulin ?

It’s not at the muscle cell’s door. It’s still on the road.

Yes, the pancreas works hard to pump insulin out, as soon as the liver cries out, that a whole lot of sugar has just been delivered. The insulin is packaged up and sent on it’s way……… individual packages of insulin, are dropped into the blood supply.

From here……………the insulin is circulated all round the body. Every cell in the body gets serviced by the pancreas.

But, the cells surrounding the blood vessels, have to serve up the insulin.

Serving up insulin

Insulin has to get out of the blood and into the spaces surrounding individual cells, the interstitial spaces. Despite insulin’s reputation as a bit of a bully, under normal physiological conditions, it cannot force itself between these cells.

It has to be carried across by the endothelial cells that line the blood vessels. This process is known as, transendothelial transport is what determines how quickly insulin works, or doesn’t.

And this process depends on nitric oxide.

This is what a group of researchers from the University of Virginia Health System, discovered.

NO way through

Using radio-labelled insulin, the team tracked the passage of insulin across bovine endothelial cells in a lab dish.

They found that this process only happened in the presence of nitric oxide.

So what ?

The endothelial cells lining blood vessels make nitric oxide for a living. They have to.   Nitric oxide is the chemical that regulates blood flow.

It controls just how wide or narrow a blood vessels is.

So, insulin should be able to move through….

NO problem

Unfortunately, when endothelial cells are under the weather, they struggle to produce nitric oxide.

So what makes these cells feel under the weather ?

Well they are particularly susceptible to

• High sugar levels
• Oxidative stress

Oh dear……….it’s a catch 22.

High sugar levels need more insulin to get through, but high sugar levels, allow less insulin through.

Eish !

But hang on a minute…..

The NO solution

Nitric oxide is one of the chemicals you have some control over….

There are two principle ways nitric oxide is produced.

• Method 1 – involves a special enzyme, called nitric oxide synthetase enzyme or NOS for short.
• Method 2 – it comes from your diet.

And, you can control what you eat.

So what should you eat ?

A NO-rich diet

Begins with vegetables, specifically green-leafy vegetables and beetroot, these are the veggies that are particularly high in nitrate.

It is this nitrate, which gets turned into nitric oxide.

It is quite a process……

Most of the nitrate you eat, ends up being excreted. But, some of it is shipped off to your mouth, where the bacteria in your mouth, convert it from nitrate to nitrite.

It is this nitrite that get’s turned into nitric oxide.

And………….. as long as your mouth bacteria are happy, this method of nitric oxide production is rather efficient.

Scientists believe one serving of greens, is enough to produce the same amount of nitric oxide as the enzyme system produces in 24 hours.

Wow.

Go green to beat insulin resistance

So, if you are insulin resistant, help get that insulin delivered. Ensure you include foods high in nitrate, in your diet on a regular basis.

NB. Exercising and sun exposure, will also boost your nitrogen oxide levels.

Further reading

 

Interested in learning more about the chemistry behind metabolic syndrome ?

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