Does Long Term Ketosis Cause Insulin Resistance?
“It’s a snake.” “It’s a wall.” “It’s a rope.” “It’s a fan.” “It’s a tree.” “It’s insulin resistance.” I’ve always been fascinated by those describing a “new finding” in medicine. I am reminded of the story of 5 men who, never having seen an elephant before, were blindfolded and asked to describe what he discovered. However, each man was introduced to a different part of the elephant. Each of them had a dramatically different description of the elephant and each made a conclusion that was very different from the others. What is fascinating, is that we usually make our “blindfolded comparisons” to those things we have seen or about which we have some descriptive understanding. Observing and describing human physiology is much like examining an elephant while blindfolded for the first time. This week’s “blind-folded finding” is what has been interpreted by some as “insulin resistance” made worse by a ketogenic diet. Really? This perked my curiosity, because I’ve personally been following a low-carbohydrate/ketogenic diet for 10 years and have thousands of patients doing the same. To this day, I’ve never seen insulin resistance “get worse.” In fact, it gets better. Clinically, it seems to take about 18-24 months to improve, but, it usually gets better. THE QUESTION – I’ve had three people from around the world contact me this week and ask why, after being on a ketogenic diet and “in ketosis,” they suddenly get a notably large blood glucose spike when they cheat. By notably large, I mean that their blood sugars rise to over 200 mg/dl within 2 hours of a carbohydrate containing meal. Now, they admit to rapid glucose recovery within an hour or two, and their hemoglobin A1c levels are subjectively normal (l Continue reading >>
Need Help With Insulin Resistance As A Result Of My Low Carb/vlc Diet. Anything Current?
I know there are other threads on this topic and I have read a lot of them. I just wonder if there is anything more current than this article from 2007 to help me understand this. Perhaps its still current and valid. Im unclear what to do exactly to reverse this, or do I even need to if its not "pathological". Summary: I am 5-8 pounds over-fat. 10-15 years of labs have all been good/very good for fasting Bg and insulin, until this recent one (the only one when I was low carb/vlc). My insulin was high at 9.00 on last fasting blood draw. Bg was 98 I have been eating high protein, high healthy fat, low carb or vlc. My current labs showed "pre-diabetes" 3 Foods to Remove from - The Fridge Forever Cut a bit of belly bloat each day, by avoiding these 3 foods nucific.com I got an at home glucometer. My Bg never goes too high but it doesn't recover either. Its stays around 100-111 after peaking at 123 or so. Oddly too is that every test is higher at 2 hours and even three than at one hour. Can somebody recommend one or two good resources for this issue. The frustration I'm having is that everything I read about insulin resistance says to "lower carb intake". That is what caused this issue it seems. Thank you. Edited to add: My A1C was not tested this time (arggg) although it was not optimal at all a year ago when it was tested and when my Fbg and insulin were way lower. A1C was 5.7 then. Thanks Continue reading >>
Physiological Insulin Resistance
I’ve been meaning to do a deep dive into physiological insulin resistance for quite a while now, but the universe keeps conspiring to take my time. Because I haven’t had time to read, learn more and write about it, I thought I’d share the links I have accumulated thus far. Mostly because I’ve now been asked a variant of the following multiple times, or have seen the following posted on various forums for discussing nutrition, health, and low carbohydrate diets: “Why has my blood glucose gone up on a low carb diet?” Typically this is accompanied by a good deal of anxiety and fretting over glucometers. I should know, I watched my blood glucose increase by a few points as I’ve sustained my low carb diet. My understanding is that this is a known adaptation completely unrelated to the insulin resistance concomitant with diabetes. While I’m not the person you should ask about anything health related, I’ve wanted an answer to this question myself. The explanation I’ve read is that after going low carb, your muscle tissue becomes insulin resistant in order to preserve serum glucose availability for the brain. If your muscle tissue did not do this, reduced availability of glucose in the serum could (theoretically) put you in dire straights if your brain can’t meet minimal demand for glucose. (Mind you, even on a zero carb diet you can meet all your glucose requirements via gluconeogenesis. The point is, your body needs a way to tell your muscle mass to stop taking all the glucose it makes. This is that way.) Because of this physiological insulin resistance (which I should mention is a benign state that is not making your diabetic insulin resistance worse) you wouldn’t want to take an oral glucose tolerance test while you are low carbing. If you took a glu Continue reading >>
Is Your Fasting Blood Glucose Higher On Low Carb Or Keto? Five Things To Know
This past spring, after 18 months of great success on the keto diet, I tested my fasting blood sugar on my home glucose monitor for the first time in many months. The result shocked me. I had purchased the device, which also tests ketones, when I was diagnosed with pre-diabetes in the fall of 2015. As I embarked on low-carb keto eating, I tested my blood regularly. Soon my fasting blood sugar was once again in the healthy range. I was in optimal ketosis day after day. Not only that, I lost 10 lbs (5 kg) and felt fantastic — full of energy with no hunger or cravings. Before long I could predict the meter’s results based on what I was eating or doing. I put the meter away and got on with my happy, healthy keto life. When my doctor ordered some lab tests this spring, I brought the meter out again. While I had no health complaints, excellent blood pressure and stable weight, she wanted to see how my cholesterol, lipids, HbA1c, and fasting glucose were doing on my keto diet — and I was curious, too. To check the accuracy of my meter against the lab results, on the morning of the test I sat in my car outside the clinic at 7:30 am, and pricked my finger. I was expecting to see a lovely fasting blood glucose (FBG) of 4.7 or 4.8 mmol/l (85 mg/dl). It was 5.8! (103 mg/dl). What? I bailed on the tests and drove home — I didn’t want my doctor warning me I was pre-diabetic again when I had no explanation for that higher result. The next morning I tested again: 5.9! (104). Huh??? For the next two weeks I tested every morning. No matter what I did, my FBG would be in 5.7 to 6.0 (102 to 106 mg/dl), the pre-diabetic range again. One morning after a restless sleep it was even 6.2 mmol/l (113 mg/dl). But my ketones were still reading an optimal 1.5-2.5 mmol/l. I was still burnin Continue reading >>
- Postprandial Blood Glucose Is a Stronger Predictor of Cardiovascular Events Than Fasting Blood Glucose in Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Particularly in Women: Lessons from the San Luigi Gonzaga Diabetes Study
- Got pre-diabetes? Here’s five things to eat or avoid to prevent type 2 diabetes
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The Ketogenic Diet And Insulin Resistance
We recently touched on how you can use the ketogenic diet to control symptoms of diabetes such as elevated glucose and triglycerides. In this article, we examine research showing the impact that the ketogenic diet has on levels of the hormone insulin, a key regulator of blood sugar in the body. What is Insulin’s Role in the Body? Before we look at the research, we need to know our main players. Insulin is a protein-based hormone produced by beta-cells located in the pancreas. The pancreas, which is located under the stomach, also produces enzymes that aid with digestion. Insulin’s primary purpose is to regulate the metabolism of fats and carbohydrates. The digestive system breaks down carbohydrates, such as sugars and starches, into a molecule called glucose. This compound can be used by cells to produce energy through a process called cellular respiration. Insulin allows cells in the body absorb glucose, ultimately lowering levels of glucose in the blood stream. After a meal is consumed, blood glucose levels increase and the pancreas responds by releasing insulin into the blood. Insulin assists fat, liver, and muscle cells absorb glucose from the blood, resulting in lower levels of blood glucose. Insulin stimulates liver and muscle tissues to store excess glucose as a molecule called glycogen and also reduces glucose production by the liver. When blood sugar is low, the hormone glucagon (produced by alpha-cells in the pancreas) stimulate cells to break down glycogen into glucose that is subsequently released into the blood stream. In healthy people who do not have type II diabetes, these functions allow levels of blood glucose and insulin to stay in a normal range. What Is Insulin Resistance and Why Is It a Problem? Unfortunately, for many Americans and other peopl Continue reading >>
Ketogenic Diet And Physiological Insulin Resistance | Low Carb Diet And Dawn Phenomenon
Dawn Phenomenon Ketogenic Diet and Dawn Phenomenon ketogenic diet Physiological Insulin Resistance low carb diet Dawn Phenomenon Low Carb Diet Physiological Insulin Resistance Physiological Insulin Resistance Dawn Phenomenon and Physiological Insulin Resistance Have you been on a low-carb or ketogenic diet for some time no and perplexed why your morning blood glucose readings are on the high end? Did you know that it is quite common for long-term ketogenic dieters to have morning fasted blood glucose readings that average 100-125mg/dl? This is rather common, albeit normal and sometimes referred to as Dawn Phenomenon or Physiological Insulin Resistance. Dawn Phenomenon is a natural rise in blood sugar because o a surge of hormones secreted at night which trigger your liver to dump sugar into your blood to help prepare you for the day. Another term for this is Physiological Insulin Resistance. A good description of this phenomenon comes from Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac: Very low-carb diets will produce elevated fasting blood glucose levels. Why? Because low-carb diets induce insulin resistance. Restricting carbohydrates produces a natural drop in insulin levels, which in turn activates hormone sensitive lipase. Fat tissue is then broken down, and non-esterified fatty acids (a.k.a. free fatty acids or NEFA) are released into the bloodstream. These NEFA are taken up by the muscles, which use them as fuel. And since the muscles needs for fuel has been met, it decreases sensitivity to insulin. So, if you eat a low-carb diet and have borderline high Fasting Blood Glucose (i.e. 90-105), it may not be cause for concern. Your post-meal blood sugars and A1c levels are more important. One of the clearest explanations of physiological insulin resistance Ive seen comes fromPaul Jamine Continue reading >>
Physiological Insulin Resistance
Diabetes Forum The Global Diabetes Community Find support, ask questions and share your experiences. Join the community Hi, I have been doing a little reading on this subject but I`m still not sure if I have a handle on it or not and would like a little advice please. My understanding is as follows: A lot of t2`s have Pathological insulin resistance so that when we produce glucose our pancreas has to produce insulin but we don`t use it very well which means more insulin which causes weight gain and so on... A low carb diet produces less glucose which calls for less insulin which has to be a good thing presumably. However, carb restriction can also cause Physiological insulin resistance which, if I understand correctly, saves the smaller amount of glucose which is produced for the brain by making the muscles insulin resistant which leads to higher bg readings. Is my understanding anywhere close to correct and will these higher bg levels lead to a higher HBA1C ? Thank you for reading and please reply with your opinions. Chris. Hi, I have been doing a little reading on this subject but I`m still not sure if I have a handle on it or not and would like a little advice please. My understanding is as follows: A lot of t2`s have Pathological insulin resistance so that when we produce glucose our pancreas has to produce insulin but we don`t use it very well which means more insulin which causes weight gain and so on... A low carb diet produces less glucose which calls for less insulin which has to be a good thing presumably. However, carb restriction can also cause Physiological insulin resistance which, if I understand correctly, saves the smaller amount of glucose which is produced for the brain by making the muscles insulin resistant which leads to higher bg readings. Is my Continue reading >>
Keto Talk (episode 16): Physiologic Insulin Resistance, Grain-fed Vs. Grass-fed, & How To Deal With Keto Naysayers
LCC (Episode 181): Cassy Joy Garcia And Dr. Christa Whiteman On Nina Teicholz Panel Controversy The LLVLC Show (Episode 1092): Dr. Ron Rosedale Joint Talk With Jimmy Moore In Boulder, Colorado Keto Talk (Episode 16): Physiologic Insulin Resistance, Grain-Fed vs. Grass-Fed, & How To Deal With Keto Naysayers KETOGENIC GIRL MINUTE WITH VANESSA COLLETTE If you are interested in the low-carb, moderate protein, high-fat, ketogenic diet, then this is the podcast for you. We zero in exclusively on all the questions people have about how being in a state of nutritional ketosis and the effects it has on your health. There are a lot of myths about keto floating around out there and our two amazing cohosts are shooting them down one at a time. Keto Talk is cohosted by 10-year veteran health podcaster and international bestselling author Jimmy Moore from Livin La Vida Low-Carb and Arizona osteopath and certified bariatric physician Dr. Adam Nally from Doc Muscles who thoroughly share from their wealth of experience on the ketogenic lifestyle each and every Thursday. We love hearing from our fabulous Ketonian listeners with new questionssend an email to Jimmy at [email protected] And if youre not already subscribed to the podcast on iTunes and listened to the first 15 episodes, then you can do that and leave a review HERE. Listen in today as Jimmy and Adam answer more fabulous questions from you the listeners today in KEY QUOTE: I wouldnt call it physiologic insulin resistance, but rather glucose sparing. The body recognizes theres less glucose availableand the muscles preserve the glucose for the parts of the body that need it. Its a preservation technique for people in long-term ketosis. Dr. Adam Nally Heres what Jimmy and Adam talked about in Episode 16: How we have pu Continue reading >>
Ketogenic Diet Improves Insulin Sensitivity And Numerous Aging Markers
A physician conducted a decade-long experiment on the health effects of a ketogenic diet, using himself as the laboratory rat; he experienced improvement in insulin sensitivity, body fat, lipids, blood sugar, and other markers A ketogenic diet requires carbohydrate and protein restriction, with 50 to 80 percent of calories coming from fats; this forces your body to shift toward using ketones as its primary fuel source, instead of glucose Although your brain is more dependent on glucose than your heart, your liver can produce a ketone-like compound that your brain can efficiently use for energy Scientists extended the lifespan of mice by 20 percent by suppressing the activity of just one gene that helps control metabolism and energy balance; this is further evidence that longevity is tied to insulin signaling The best way to jumpstart your fat-burning/ketone-producing engine is by drastically reducing your consumption of sugar and grains, fasting intermittently, and maintaining a consistent exercise routine By Dr. Mercola We are just beginning to understand the biological intricacies of aging. A growing body of research is challenging the belief that aging is beyond your control, prompting scientists to begin thinking about ways we can slow our aging clocks to a slow crawl. Although this is a relatively new branch of science, there are some factors that appear to be key in controlling how quickly you age. One major factor seems to be insulin signaling and the metabolic "engines" you have running day to day, which are largely controlled by the foods you eat. In the first featured video, Dr. Peter Attia discusses how a ketogenic diet can optimize your metabolism. But before I discuss the specifics of this, I want to tell you about a remarkable mouse study, presented in the Continue reading >>
Physiological Insulin Resistance
Back in mid summer 2007 there was this thread on the Bernstein forum. Mark, posting as iwilsmar, asked about his gradual yet progressively rising fasting blood glucose (FBG) level over a 10 year period of paleolithic LC eating. Always eating less than 30g carbohydrate per day. Initially on LC his blood glucose was 83mg/dl but it has crept up, year by year, until now his FBG is up to 115mg/dl. Post prandial values are normal. He wanted to know if he was developing diabetes. I've been thinking about this for some time as my own FBG is usually five point something mmol/l whole blood. Converting my whole blood values to Mark's USA plasma values, this works out at about 100-120mg/dl. Normal to prediabetic in modern parlance. However my HbA1c is only 4.4%, well toward the lower end of normality and healthy. That's always assuming that I don't have some horrible problem resulting in very rapid red blood cell turnover. I don't think so... I spend rather a lot of my life in mild ketosis, despite the 50g of carbs I eat per day. So I can run a moderate ketonuric urine sample with a random post-chocolate blood glucose value of 6.5mmol/l. What is happening? Well, the first thing is that LC eating rapidly induces insulin resistance. This is a completely and utterly normal physiological response to carbohydrate restriction. Carbohydrate restriction drops insulin levels. Low insulin levels activate hormone sensitive lipase. Fatty tissue breaks down and releases non esterified fatty acids. These are mostly taken up by muscle cells as fuel and automatically induce insulin resistance in those muscles. There are a couple of nice summaries by Brand Miller (from back in the days when she used her brain for thinking) here and here and Wolever has some grasp of the problem too. This is patentl Continue reading >>
Physiological Insulin Resistance = Low Carbohydrate Diet Induced Insulin Resistance
I’ll admit to breathing a sigh of relief back in October of 2007, when Peter at Hyperlipid posted about “Physiological insulin resistance.” Curiously, looking at the post again, I note that he didn’t capitalize the second two words—as though it’s not a proper name for a specific condition. Back in mid summer 2007 there was this thread on the Bernstein forum. Mark, posting as iwilsmar, asked about his gradual yet progressively rising fasting blood glucose (FBG) level over a 10 year period of paleolithic LC eating. Always eating less than 30g carbohydrate per day. Initially on LC his blood glucose was 83mg/dl but it has crept up, year by year, until now his FBG is up to 115mg/dl. Post prandial values are normal. He wanted to know if he was developing diabetes. […] What is happening? Well, the first thing is that LC eating rapidly induces insulin resistance. This is a completely and utterly normal physiological response to carbohydrate restriction. Carbohydrate restriction drops insulin levels. Low insulin levels activate hormone sensitive lipase. Fatty tissue breaks down and releases non esterified fatty acids. These are mostly taken up by muscle cells as fuel and automatically induce insulin resistance in those muscles. Whew! Now I had something to tell my dad and others who’d been faithfully doing LC and became horrified, then scared, at fasting blood glucose measurements (which is primarily how the health community screens people for diabetes). I really didn’t concern myself with it again—for all these last almost 7 years. OK, so long as post-prandial is fine (caveat: AFTER AN LC MEAL!), nothing to worry about; and combined with good HbA1c, and the fact that so far as we know, this condition will reverse in normal people after a few days of carbage, Continue reading >>
- The effect of a low-carbohydrate, ketogenic diet versus a low-glycemic index diet on glycemic control in type 2 diabetes mellitus
- The interpretation and effect of a low-carbohydrate diet in the management of type 2 diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials
- Pre-diabetes goes into remission on higher protein, lower carbohydrate diet (Zone diet balance)
Ketoadaptation And Physiological Insulin Resistance
This is where the magic happens. Rat pups, fed a flaxseed oil-based ketogenic diet from weaning onward – note the drop-off in ketones after 2 weeks (Likhodii et al., 2002): Patient history: these rats have been “low carb” their whole lives. Side note: flaxseed oil is very ketogenic! (Likhodii et al., 2000): Flaxseed oil-based ketogenic diet produced higher ketones than 48h fasting; the same can’t be said for butter or lard. PUFAs in general are more ketogenic than saturated fats in humans, too (eg, Fuehrlein et al., 2004): Crisco keto (adult rats) (Rho et al., 1999): At this point, please just note the stunning consistency in the drop-off of ketones. Experiment 1 & 2 (above) are adult rats; they went through a period of high carb chow dieting, unlike experiment 3 and the rats in the first study, who were weaned onto ketogenic diets. Still same phenomenon: ~few weeks after initiation of ketogenic diet = breakpoint; ketones decline. Ketoadaptation: why do ketone levels decline? This happened in both rat studies above, Phinney 1983, and in many “n=1” practitioners. Possible explanation 1 (ketoadaptation): rat milk is kind of like a low carb diet; high in fat, but not low enough in other stuff to be ketogenic. -Hooded seal milk is practically heavy cream: imagine the amount of suction pups must need to apply. Poor mom, that’s gotta hurt; fortunately, lactation only lasts 4 days. -Rat milk is super-high protein. Therefore, weaning to the flaxseed oil-based keto diet is what really initiates ketoadaptation… which seems to take 2-3 weeks (judging by the decline in ketones [this is explained further below]). Possible explanation 2 (physiological insulin resistance): free fatty acids released faster then they’re burned, accumulate in skeletal muscle, induce mil Continue reading >>
Physiological Insulin Resistance
I have been trying to find an answer to why my FBG levels have been increasing over the last couple of weeks. It is very frustrating and as a diabetic trying to reverse the disease it is scary (will this WOE work? Are the consequences of out of control diabetes, I am trying to escape, going to happen anyways?). I ran across a blog post that seems to describe what may be happening in my case. It is a possible phenomenon called Physiological Insulin Resistance. The High Blood Glucose Dilemma on Low Carb (LC) Diets If you are on a ketogenic or very low carb (VLC) diet (e.g. with 50-100gr carb/day and/or eating ketone producing MCT oils such as coconut oil), you m Low insulin levels activate hormone sensitive lipase. Fatty tissue breaks down and releases non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA). These are mostly taken up by muscle cells as fuel and automatically induce insulin resistance in those muscles. Palmitic acid is the primary NEFA released from human adipose tissue during fasting. Think of palmitic as a signal molecule to tell the muscles that inhibition of glucose uptake is needed and to tell the liver that increased gluconeogenesis is required because there is no food coming in. This in turns increases the blood sugar. One of the supporting blog post to the one posted above spoke of person experience.The author, like me, gets a consistent mild ketosis readings. Using Ketostix I am getting a consistent 15 dl reading and at high BG. You need to get calories from somewhere, should it be from carbohydrate or fat? I am going to continue reading/researching down this path to determine the implications. The author of the blogs conclusion was as long as his HbA1c is 4.4% he does not care about the high blood sugar readings. This is one voice so I want to learn more. Has anyone Continue reading >>
Dear Mark: Does Eating A Low Carb Diet Cause Insulin Resistance?
157 Comments Despite all the success you might have had with the Primal way of life, doubts can still nag at you. Maybe it’s something you read, or something someone said to you, or a disapproving glance or offhand comment from a person you otherwise respect, but it’s pretty common when you’re doing something, like giving up grains, avoiding processed food, or eating animal fat, that challenges deeply-and-widely held beliefs about health and wellness. It doesn’t really even matter that you’re losing weight or seem to be thriving; you may still have questions. That’s healthy and smart, and it’s totally natural. A question I’ve been getting of late is the effect of reducing carb intake on insulin sensitivity. It’s often bandied about that going low carb is good for folks with insulin resistance, but it’s also said that low carb can worsen insulin resistance. Are both true and, if so, how do they all jibe together? That’s what the reader was wondering with this week’s question: Hi Mark, I’ve been Primal for a few months now and love it. Lowering my carbs and upping my animal fat helped me lose weight and gain tons of energy (not too shabby for a middle-aged guy!). However, I’m a little worried. I’ve heard that low carb diets can increase insulin resistance. Even though I’ve done well and feel great, should I be worried about insulin resistance? Do I need to increase my carb intake? I always thought low carb Primal was supposed to improve insulin function. Vince Going Primal usually does improve insulin sensitivity, both directly and in a roundabout way. It improves directly because you lose weight, you reduce your intake of inflammatory foods, you lower systemic inflammation (by getting some sun, smart exercise, omega-3s, and reducing or dea Continue reading >>
Low Carbing And Physiological Insulin Resistance
Diabetes Forum The Global Diabetes Community Find support, ask questions and share your experiences. Join the community Low Carbing and Physiological Insulin Resistance On a T1 thread ( ), @azure , in past #35, you post: "I agree @Garr Eating a moderate level of carbs can give you a great HbA1C as long as you apply yourself. That way you also avoid the physiological insulin resistance that so,often comes with cutting out carbs and ketosis. You also usually don't need to bolus for protein when you have carbs with it. It's a total fallacy to say that LCHF is the only way to get good results. Controlling carbs, yes, but that doesn't mean you have to cut them out completely." I would be interested to learn what percentage of low carbers you believe develop physiological insulin resistance (PIR), as a result of the LC approach, and at what point they develop it? I started a new thread to prevent derailing the source thread, and think others could be interested too. For those reading who are T2 (or other non-insulin dependant members) who have not fully read the source thread, please note it is a T1 thread, so please do not post on there, unless you have something both relevant and on-topic. I would hate to be stimulating content at risk of editing or deletion. Edited to add that I have deliberately posted in this section for those of us who consider food to be our medicine' How do you know you have no physiological insulin resistance, unless you stuff your face full of carbs? Then, assuming you do go on the odd bender, and so prove you don't have physiological insulin resistance, you are an addict, and then it's a play on alcoholics anonymous. Well, my diet and blood numbers have pretty consistent, and (albeit badly) illustrated by my HbA1c. I have also used several Libre s Continue reading >>
