How Insulin Really Works: It Causes Fat Storage…but Doesn’t Make You Fat
Many people believe that insulin is to blame for the obesity epidemic. When you understand how it actually works, you’ll know why this is a lie. Insulin has been taking quite a beating these days. If we’re to listen to some “experts,” it’s an evil hormone whose sole goal is making us fat, type 2 diabetics. Furthermore, we’re told that carbohydrates also are in on the conspiracy. By eating carbs, we open the insulin floodgates and wreak havoc in our bodies. How true are these claims, though? Does it really make sense that our bodies would come with an insidious mechanism to punish carbohydrate intake? Let’s find out. What is Insulin, Anyway? Insulin is a hormone, which means it’s a substance the body produces to affect the functions of organs or tissues, and it’s made and released into the blood by the pancreas. Insulin’s job is a very important one: when you eat food, it’s broken down into basic nutrients (protein breaks down into amino acids; dietary fats into fatty acids; and carbohydrates into glucose), which make their way into the bloodstream. These nutrients must then be moved from the blood into muscle and fat cells for use or storage, and that’s where insulin comes into play: it helps shuttle the nutrients into cells by “telling” the cells to open up and absorb them. So, whenever you eat food, your pancreas releases insulin into the blood. As the nutrients are slowly absorbed into cells, insulin levels drop, until finally all the nutrients are absorbed, and insulin levels then remain steady at a low, “baseline” level. This cycle occurs every time you eat food: amino acids, fatty acids, and/or glucose find their way into your blood, and they’re joined by additional insulin, which ushers them into cells. Once the job is done, insu Continue reading >>
> Carbohydrates And Diabetes
Keeping your blood sugar levels on track means watching what you eat, plus taking medicines like insulin if you need to. Your doctor may also have mentioned that you should keep track of how many carbohydrates (carbs) you eat. But what exactly are carbohydrates and how do they affect your blood sugar? The foods we eat contain nutrients that provide energy and other things the body needs, and one of these is carbohydrates. The two main forms of carbohydrates are: sugars such as fructose, glucose, and lactose starches, which are found in foods such as starchy vegetables (like potatoes or corn), grains, rice, breads, and cereals The body breaks down or converts most carbohydrates into the sugar glucose. Glucose is absorbed into the bloodstream, and with the help of a hormone called insulin it travels into the cells of the body where it can be used for energy. People with diabetes have problems with insulin that can cause blood sugar levels to rise. For people with type 1 diabetes, the pancreas loses the ability to make insulin. For people with type 2 diabetes, the body can't respond normally to the insulin that is made. Because the body turns carbohydrates into glucose, eating carbohydrates makes blood sugar levels rise. But that doesn't mean you should avoid carbohydrates if you have diabetes. Carbohydrates are a healthy and important part of a nutritious diet. Some carbohydrates have more health benefits than others, though. For example, whole-grain foods and fruits are healthier choices than candy and soda because they provide fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients. Fiber is important because it helps you feel full and keeps your digestive system working properly. In fact, eating lots of fiber can even help to slow the body's absorption of sugar when eaten together with s Continue reading >>
Common Questions About Blood Sugar
How often should I test my blood sugar? This is a very common question, and the answer isn't the same for everyone. In general, you should test as often as you need to get helpful information. There's no point in testing if the information you get doesn't help you manage your diabetes. If you've been told to test at certain times, but you don't know why or what to do with the test results, then testing won't seem very meaningful. Here are some general guidelines for deciding how often to test: If you can only test once a day, then do it before breakfast. Keep a written record so that you can see the pattern of the numbers. If you control your blood sugar by diet and exercise only, this once-a-day test might be enough. If you take medicine (diabetes pills or insulin), you will probably want to know how well that medicine is working. The general rule is to test before meals and keep a record. If you want to know how your meals affect your blood sugar, testing about 2 hours after eating can be helpful. Test whenever you feel your blood sugar is either too high or too low. Testing will give you important information about what you need to do to raise or lower your blood sugar. If you take more than 2 insulin shots a day or use an insulin pump, you should test 4 to 6 times a day. You should test more often if you're having unusually high or low readings, if you're sick, under more stress than usual, or are pregnant. If you change your schedule or travel, you should also test your blood sugar more often than usual. Talk to a member of your health care team about how often to test based on your personal care plan. What should my test numbers be? There isn't one blood sugar target that's right for everyone with diabetes. It's important to work with your health care team to set Continue reading >>
How Soon After Ingestion Of Food Does Blood Sugar Rise?
After eating, your blood sugar levels begin to rise within 15 to 30 minutes, but only if your meal or snack includes carbohydrates. The speed and level of the increase depend on the type of carbohydrates and other nutrients found in the foods you eat, as well as on your body's ability to manage your blood sugar levels. Carbohydrates are the main constituent of food that can raise your blood sugar levels. The amount and the type of carbohydrates you eat influence how quickly your blood sugar levels change after eating. Carbohydrates from liquids, such as juices and soft drinks, are usually digested more rapidly, while carbohydrates from solid foods, such as pasta and fruits, take a bit more time to break down. Foods that don't contain carbohydrates or only very little, such as non-starchy vegetables, butter, eggs, meat, poultry, fish, cheese and nuts, do not have the ability to significantly influence your blood sugar levels. Glycemic Index and Blood Sugar Only carbohydrate-containing foods have a glycemic index, which can be used to assess how quickly and how high your blood sugar levels will rise in response to different foods. Many high-glycemic foods can raise your blood sugar levels within as little as 15 minutes after eating, including white and whole-wheat bread, most breakfast cereals, rice, potatoes, french fries, scones and pretzels. Low-glycemic foods have a more modest effect on your blood sugar levels and it may take a bit longer to see a rise. The rise in your blood sugar levels is first seen in your venous blood, the blood drawn at the lab, and it takes a bit longer for the changes in your blood sugar levels to be measured in your capillary blood, the blood used when testing your blood sugars at home. Fat, Fiber and Mixed Meals Other foods you eat with car Continue reading >>
Blood Sugar Throughout The Day - For Normal People And Those With Diabetes
Most of us have heard the term blood sugar bandied around enough that we think we know what it means, but few of us really understand the complexity of the system that makes a steady supply of fuel available to our cells around the clock. The basic facts are these: All animals have a small amount of a simple sugar called glucose floating around in their bloodstream all the time. This simple sugar is one of two fuels that the cells of the body can burn for fuel. The other is fat. Though you may occasionally eat pure glucose--it's called "dextrose" when it is found in the list of ingredients on a U.S. food label--most of the glucose in your blood doesn't come from eating glucose. It is produced when your digestive system breaks down the larger molecules of complex sugars and starch. Sugars like those found in table sugar, corn syrup, milk and fruit and the starches found in flour, potatoes, rice, and beans all contain chains of glucose that are bonded together with other substances. During digestion, enzymes break these bonds and liberate the glucose molecules which are then absorbed into your bloodstream. How Blood Sugar is Measured Blood sugar concentrations are described using a number that describes the weight of glucose that is found in a specific volume of blood. In the U.S. that measurement is milligrams per deciliter, which is abbreviated as "mg/dl." Europeans and almost all researchers publishing in medical journals use a different measurement, micromoles per liter, abbreviated "mmol/L." You can convert any European measurements you encounter to the American standard by multiplying the mmol/L number by 18. There's a handy converter online that will do this for you automatically. You'll find it at If a blood test says that your blood sugar is 85 mg/dl this means t Continue reading >>
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Long-acting Insulin: How It Works
When you eat, your pancreas releases a hormone called insulin. Insulin moves sugar (glucose) from your blood to your cells for energy or storage. If you take insulin, you may need some at mealtime to help lower your blood sugar after you eat. But even between meals, you need insulin in small amounts to help keep blood sugar stable. This is where long-acting insulin comes in. If you have diabetes, either your pancreas can’t produce enough (or any) insulin, or your cells can’t use it efficiently. To control your blood sugar, you need to replace or supplement the normal function of your pancreas with regular insulin injections. Insulin comes in many types. Each type differs in three ways: onset: how quickly it starts working to lower your blood sugar peak: when its effects on your blood sugar are strongest duration: how long it lowers your blood sugar According to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the five types of insulin are: Rapid-acting insulin: This type starts to work just 15 minutes after you take it. It peaks within 30 to 90 minutes, and its effects last for three to five hours. Short-acting insulin: This type takes about 30 to 60 minutes to become active in your bloodstream. It peaks in two to four hours, and its effects can last for five to eight hours. It is sometimes called regular-acting insulin. Intermediate-acting insulin: The intermediate type takes one to three hours to start working. It peaks in eight hours and works for 12 to 16 hours. Long-acting insulin: This type takes the longest amount of time to start working. The insulin can take up to 4 hours to get into your bloodstream. Pre-mixed: This is a combination of two different types of insulin: one that controls blood sugar at meals and another that controls blood sugar between meals. Lo Continue reading >>
What Happens To Your Body When You Binge On Sugar
As mouth-watering as a sugar-laden sundae or icing-topped cupcake is, we should all know by now that sugar isn’t exactly healthy. In fact, it may be one of the worst things you can eat (that is, if you’re trying to live a long, healthy life). One study from UC San Francisco actually found that drinking sugary drinks like soda can age your body on a cellular level as quickly as cigarettes. The way the sweet stuff impacts your body is way more complex than just causing weight gain. In fact, when you eat a ton of sugar, almost every part of your body feels the strain—and that’s bad news for your health in both the short term and especially the long term. From an initial insulin spike to upping your chances of kidney failure down the road, this is what really happens in your body when you load up on sugar. Your brain responds to sugar the same way it would to cocaine. Eating sugar creates a surge of feel-good brain chemicals dopamine and serotonin. So does using certain drugs, like cocaine. And just like a drug, your body craves more after the initial high. “You then become addicted to that feeling, so every time you eat it you want to eat more,” explains Gina Sam, M.D., M.P.H., director of the Gastrointestinal Motility Center at The Mount Sinai Hospital. Your insulin spikes to regulate your blood sugar. “Once you eat glucose, your body releases insulin, a hormone from your pancreas,” Dr. Sam explains. The insulin’s job is to absorb the excess glucose in the blood and stabilize sugar levels. And a little while later you get that familiar sugar crash. Once the insulin does its job, your blood sugar drops again. Which means you’ve just experienced a sugar rush, and then a drastic drop, leaving you feeling drained. “That’s the feeling you get when you� Continue reading >>
Helpful Hints For Humalog:
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW by John Walsh, P.A., C.D.E., and Ruth Roberts, M.A. Copyright--1996 by Diabetes Services, Inc. The new, fast insulin Humalog, is finally here. Since the introduction of Lilly's new insulin, many people have been switching over. This is the first insulin produced since 1921 that can really cover most meals, and its speed of action offers users more flexibility and control. This article provides helpful hints for safety and success when starting this new product. Almost everyone who is switching to Humalog is doing so to replace their Regular insulin. Regular is often thought of as "meal" Regular or "high blood sugar" Regular, but its action time of five to eight hours more closely resembles a long-acting insulin. After switching from Regular to Humalog, many people have found that fewer units of Humalog are needed to cover the same food. Fewer units may also be needed to lower high blood sugars. Others have discovered that as meal doses are lowered, they need to raise their long-acting insulin to replace some of the lost meal dose. The Regular insulin most people take for breakfast has, in effect, been lowering their after-lunch blood sugars as well. This prolonged action is no longer seen with Humalog. Several of my (John's) patients and several diabetes colleagues have found they need extra long-acting insulin in the morning after switching in order to keep the afternoon and pre-dinner readings down. Another alternative is to use extra Humalog to cover lunch. When given before most meals, Humalog will cover these meals only during the time they are raising the blood sugar. Its action is gone before the next meal begins, and most importantly for many, before going to bed. This eliminates many nighttime lows. But with the loss of the longer action o Continue reading >>
What Is Levemir® (insulin Detemir [rdna Origin] Injection)?
Do not share your Levemir® FlexTouch® with other people, even if the needle has been changed. You may give other people a serious infection, or get a serious infection from them. Who should not take Levemir®? Do not take Levemir® if: you have an allergy to Levemir® or any of the ingredients in Levemir®. How should I take Levemir®? Read the Instructions for Use and take exactly as directed. Know the type and strength of your insulin. Do not change your insulin type unless your health care provider tells you to. Check your blood sugar levels. Ask your health care provider what your blood sugar levels should be and when you should check them. Do not reuse or share your needles with other people. You may give other people a serious infection, or get a serious infection from them. Never inject Levemir® into a vein or muscle. Do not share your Levemir FlexTouch with other people, even if the needle has been changed. You may give other people a serious infection, or get a serious infection from them. Who should not take Levemir®? Do not take Levemir® if: you have an allergy to Levemir® or any of the ingredients in Levemir®. Before taking Levemir®, tell your health care provider about all your medical conditions including, if you are: pregnant, plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding. taking new prescription or over-the-counter medicines, including supplements. Talk to your health care provider about how to manage low blood sugar. How should I take Levemir®? Read the Instructions for Use and take exactly as directed. Know the type and strength of your insulin. Do not change your insulin type unless your health care provider tells you to. Check your blood sugar levels. Ask your health care provider what your blood sugar levels should be and when you should ch Continue reading >>
Human Growth Hormone And Insulin Are Friends
Hormone balance, and the cycle by which our hormones are regulated, is very complicated. That’s why we have doctors who specialize in endocrinology. This article is intended as a basic explanation of the function of a few hormones and their interactions within the human body, as well as how nutrition/exercise affect their production and utilization. That said, hormone manipulation through diet and exercise does NOT account for a great deal of your results – you should focus on getting better at exercise, eating enough, and recovering properly before you lose sleep over whether or not you have optimal HGH or insulin levels. Insulin vs. HGH I’ll get down to brass tacks and make myself clear: insulin and growth hormone play antagonist roles against one another. When one is elevated, the other will be low. That does not, however, mean that their functions are all that dissimilar; they’re both responsible for growth in different ways and looking at them as synergists is much more productive. We want to find a way to make the best of insulin’s ability to pull nutrients into cells, but we also want to elicit the muscular, skeletal and neurological growth that (as the name implies) growth hormone is responsible for. Intraday nutrient cycling is the best way to do this. Understanding why is complicated as all heck, but we’ve tried to make it easy to digest (Get it? Digest? Haha?) Before we continue, I am going to ask that you take a look at our articles on insulin and leptin, as well as the sleep tutorial. They’ll help you understand some of the terms in this section and get a better idea of what’s really going on behind the scenes. Growth Hormone and IGF-1 Growth Hormone (GH) is a hormone responsible for cellular growth in the human body. Throughout the day, GH Continue reading >>
What Is Insulin?
Insulin is a hormone made by the pancreas that allows your body to use sugar (glucose) from carbohydrates in the food that you eat for energy or to store glucose for future use. Insulin helps keeps your blood sugar level from getting too high (hyperglycemia) or too low (hypoglycemia). The cells in your body need sugar for energy. However, sugar cannot go into most of your cells directly. After you eat food and your blood sugar level rises, cells in your pancreas (known as beta cells) are signaled to release insulin into your bloodstream. Insulin then attaches to and signals cells to absorb sugar from the bloodstream. Insulin is often described as a “key,” which unlocks the cell to allow sugar to enter the cell and be used for energy. If you have more sugar in your body than it needs, insulin helps store the sugar in your liver and releases it when your blood sugar level is low or if you need more sugar, such as in between meals or during physical activity. Therefore, insulin helps balance out blood sugar levels and keeps them in a normal range. As blood sugar levels rise, the pancreas secretes more insulin. If your body does not produce enough insulin or your cells are resistant to the effects of insulin, you may develop hyperglycemia (high blood sugar), which can cause long-term complications if the blood sugar levels stay elevated for long periods of time. Insulin Treatment for Diabetes People with type 1 diabetes cannot make insulin because the beta cells in their pancreas are damaged or destroyed. Therefore, these people will need insulin injections to allow their body to process glucose and avoid complications from hyperglycemia. People with type 2 diabetes do not respond well or are resistant to insulin. They may need insulin shots to help them better process Continue reading >>
Insulin Actions And Durations
Tweet The action of insulin measures how soon after injecting insulin will start to work. The duration of insulin is how long after injecting the dose of insulin will remain working for. Insulin actions are quite an important concept, particularly for insulin dependent diabetics. In an ideal treatment, the speed at which your insulin starts to work would perfectly match the rate at which your blood sugar raises after each different meal. In general, the rapidity of the insulin you take should roughly match the speed at which your blood sugar raises after eating. However, even with advances in insulin production, you may find that the speed in which your insulin acts is no match for the raise in blood sugar. This can often be the case, particularly if you eat foods with a relatively high glycemic index. Table of insulin actions The table gives a guide as to quickly the insulins start to act, between which times they peak and how long their activity lasts for. The speed at which insulin acts may vary in different people and where you inject can have a significant effect too, so the table should only be used as a rough guide to understand how insulin action times can vary. Insulin actions, onset, peak activity and durations Insulin Onset begins Peak activity occurs Duration after injecting Analogue rapid Within 15 mins 15 mins to 1 hour 3 to 4 hours Human short Within 30 mins 1 to 3 hours 6 to 8 hours Animal short Within 1 hour 2 to 5 hours 6 to 8 hours Human intermediate Within 2 hours 2 to 12 hours 18 to 24 hours Animal intermediate Within 2 hours 6 to 12 hours 18 to 24 hours Analogue long Within 1 hour No peak as such 18 to 24 hours Analogue ultra-long Within 1 hour No peak as such More than 42 hours Animal long* 4 to 6 hours 10 to 20 hours 28 to 36 hours * Refers to Hy Continue reading >>
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How Long After Eating Does Blood Sugar Peak?
After consuming carbs, your blood sugar levels temporarily go up until insulin steps in to remove the extra sugar. This type of peak is a normal part of digestion. A bigger concern is how high your blood sugar goes after eating. Frequent spikes in blood sugar can lead to long-term medical problems, but you can protect your health through dietary choices. Video of the Day Two types of carbs -- sugars and starches -- are responsible for increasing your blood sugar. After you eat these carbs, digestive enzymes break them down into simple sugars, which are absorbed into your bloodstream. The pancreas responds to the influx of sugar by releasing insulin, which returns sugar levels back to normal. Blood sugar begins to rise about 20 minutes after you eat. It can peak at that time if you consumed quickly digested carbs, such as hard candy or juice. After a balanced meal containing protein, fat and fiber, blood sugar peaks about one to two hours after eating. Your blood sugar should drop back down to its lowest level two to four hours after a meal. Blood Sugar Spikes Portion sizes, the type of foods in your meal and when you eat can all influence how high and how quickly your blood sugar peaks. Carbohydrates that do not contain fiber, such as products made from processed white flour and white rice, cause high blood sugar. High-carb beverages, such as sugar-sweetened drinks, have a significant effect. Bigger portions of carbs also cause a larger spike of sugar. Starches in whole grains and beans are digested slowly, so they have a small impact. You can also keep blood sugar better balanced by eating meals at regular intervals. Glycemic Index Guidelines The glycemic index is a rating system used to show the impact of carb-containing foods on blood sugar. Carbs are assigned a scor Continue reading >>
What Happens To Food In Your Body?
Just thinking about eating causes your body to start secreting insulin, a hormone that helps keep blood sugar (glucose) under control. Insulin is made by the pancreas. As you eat, more insulin is released, in response to the carbohydrates in the meal. Insulin is released when you eat protein-rich foods, but at a slower rate. If your pancreas is functioning properly, the amount of carbohydrates in what you’re eating usually determines how much insulin is released. As you digest carbohydrates, they go into the blood stream as glucose. To keep blood sugar levels under control, insulin signals the cells in your body to take in glucose from the blood stream. The cells use some of glucose for energy and store some for later use. The way glucose is stored depends on the type of cell doing the storing. Muscle cells store glucose as glycogen. Liver cells store some glucose as glycogen and convert some to fat. Fat cells store glucose as fat. As glucose is removed from the blood stream, insulin levels go down and your cells start using fat for fuel instead of glucose. This is why you can go for long stretches – overnight, for example, when you’re sleeping, without eating. Your cells rely on fat for fuel. There are two types of body fat: fatty acids and triglycerides. Fatty acids are small enough to move in and out of cells and be used as fuel for cells. Fat is stored inside fat cells as triglycerides, three fatty acids bound together. Triglycerides are too big to flow through cell membranes and so are stored for future use. Insulin also plays a major role in telling your body when to store and use fat and protein. It does this by affecting the actions of two enzymes, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL). LPL sits on the surface of cells and pulls fat o Continue reading >>
What Happens To Your Body An Hour After Eating Sugar?
INDYEATS What happens to your body an hour after eating sugar? Sugar is an important – and popular – part of our daily diet. Along with starch, it falls within the carbohydrate group as it consists of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen atoms and acts as fuel for the body. In fact, carbohydrates are our main source of energy, converted by the body to power our cells and keep us alive and growing. However, many of us are overindulging in the white stuff, with the average adult consuming approximately 63 grams (2.2 ounces), nearly 16 teaspoons, of sugar each day. That’s over twice the recommended daily intake. The main attraction to sugar, for both humans and animals, is its sweet taste. In nature, this is a useful indication of which foods are safe to eat, as poisonous fruits and plants tend to be sour or bitter, but in the modern world of processed foods and fizzy drinks, sweetness is mainly associated with pleasure. As a result, sugar is added to many of the foods we consume each day to artificially boost the flavour or texture, or act as a preservative by hindering the growth of bacteria. This may be good news for our taste buds, but it’s not so good for our health. By eating more sugar than our bodies actually need, we are storing the excess as fat, leading to an increase in obesity and many other health problems throughout the world. Keeping track of how much sugar we eat can be difficult, though, as it goes by many different names and is hidden in some unlikely foods. Plus, not all sugars are bad, but working out which ones are good can be a challenge. Find out below exactly what sugar does to your body. Sugar in the body When we digest sugar, enzymes in the small intestine break it down into glucose. This glucose is then released into the bloodstream, where it is Continue reading >>
