14 Ways To Lower Your Insulin Levels

14 Ways to Lower Your Insulin Levels

Tips and tricks for keeping your insulin level down.
By Franziska Spritzler, RD, CDE
Insulin is an extremely important hormone that’s produced by your pancreas. It has many functions, such as allowing your cells to take in sugar from your blood for energy. However, too much insulin can lead to serious health problems.
Having high levels, also known as hyperinsulinemia, has been linked to obesity, heart disease and cancer. High blood insulin levels also cause your cells to become resistant to the hormone’s effects. When you become insulin resistant, your pancreas produces even more insulin, creating a vicious cycle.
Here are 14 things you can do to lower your insulin levels.
1. Follow a Low-Carb Diet
Of the three macronutrients — carbs, protein and fat — carbs raise blood sugar and insulin levels the most.For this and other reasons, low-carb diets can be very effective for losing weight and controlling diabetes. Many studies have confirmed their ability to lower insulin levels and increase insulin sensitivity, compared to other diets. People with health conditions characterized by insulin resistance, such as metabolic syndrome and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), may experience a dramatic lowering of insulin with carb restriction.
In one study, individuals with metabolic syndrome were randomized to receive either a low-fat or low-carb diet containing 1,500 calories.Insulin levels dropped by an average of 50% in the low-carb group, compared to 19% in the low-fat group.In another study, when women with PCOS ate a lower-carb diet containing enough calories to maintain Continue reading

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Diabetes & Constipation: Can Diabetes Cause Constipation?

It is a known fact that diabetes is caused either due to the lack of proper production or due to the improper use of insulin in the human body. This, in turn, causes the blood sugar level or the glucose level in the body to rise which is harmful to the overall body. Thus, diabetes is known to give rise to a host of other complications.
Constipation is one such harmful effect of diabetes. Irregular bowel movements are known to be a common problem amongst diabetes patients. The following article explains how. However, the good news is, with a proper understanding of the problem and by following a few easy methods, the problem can be solved.
In the following article, we discuss ‘Diabetes and Constipation and does diabetes cause constipation?’
What is Constipation?
Let us first start by understanding the very meaning of constipation.
Constipation is nothing but a disorder of the digestive system in which it is difficult for the individual to empty the bowels. More specifically, if the movement of the bowel is less than even three times a week, the person is said to be suffering from constipation.
Various studies conducted by experts have always suggested that diabetes and constipation are interlinked and those who suffer from diabetes are the ones who often experience constipation problems.
In the following paragraphs, we try to understand why does that happen and how can it be prevented.
What causes Constipation in a person suffering from Diabetes?
As mentioned above, people suffering from diabetes have a higher risk of suffering from constipation. Let us deep dive and see Continue reading

Seven herbs and supplements for type 2 diabetes

Diabetes is a widespread disorder affecting the blood sugar and insulin levels in the body. Managing the long-term consequences and complications of diabetes are as much of a challenge as the disease itself.
There are two main types of diabetes. Type 1 diabetes is where the pancreas produces no insulin. Type 2 diabetes is more common. With type 2, the body either does not produce enough insulin or produces insulin that the body does not use properly.
There are many treatment options for people with type 2 diabetes. Growing research suggests that some herbs and supplements may help with the condition.
Useful herbs may be great to combine with more traditional methods to find relief from many type 2 diabetes symptoms.
Seven herbs and supplements
Here are seven herbs and supplements that may be of benefit to people with type 2 diabetes.
Aloe vera
Aloe vera is a common plant with many different uses. Most people are aware of the plant being used to coat the skin and protect it from damage caused by too much sun exposure.
However, the plant has many lesser-known benefits as well. These range from helping digestive issues to possibly even relieving type 2 diabetes symptoms.
One review analyzed many studies using aloe vera to treat symptoms of diabetes. Their results strongly suggested an antidiabetic potential for aloe. Subjects given aloe showed lower blood sugar levels and higher insulin levels.
Further tests showed that aloe helps to increase how much insulin is produced by the pancreas. This could mean that aloe helps to restore bodies with type 2 diabetes or protect them fro Continue reading

World Diabetes Day: Google celebrates man who discovered insulin could TREAT diabetes

The search engine’s latest doodle features a picture of Sir Frederick Banting, who, with the help of Charles Best, found hormone could treat diabetes.
The second ‘O’ of the word Google is replaced by a bottle of insulin, and the doodle also features a drawing of Sir Banting.
The doodle also features the pancreas, the organ which makes insulin, a hormone which helps the body store and use glucose.
Banting's interest in diabetes first developed when he read an article about the pancreas.
He then drew upon research which found diabetes resulted from a lack of a hormone secreted by the organ.
Banting also sought advice from Professor Macleod, at the University of Toronto, who provided facilities for the scientist, and assistance of Dr Charles Best and biochemist James Collip.
Banting and Macleod were jointly awarded the 1923 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their discovery insulin could treat diabetes.
Diabetes occurs where there is too much glucose in the blood because the body cannot use it properly.
There are two forms of the condition - Type 1 diabetes occurs when the body cannot produce insulin.
Fri, August 19, 2016
Diabetes is a common life-long health condition. There are 3.5 million people diagnosed with diabetes in the UK and an estimated 500,000 who are living undiagnosed with the condition.
Around one in 10 people with diabetes have Type 1 and it usually affects children or young adults.
Type 1 diabetes means the body’s immune system attacks and destroys the cells that produce insulin.
When insulin is not produced a person’s glucose levels increase Continue reading

Drug to Reverse Type 2 Diabetes Passes Critical Test in Mice

In a groundbreaking study, researchers found that they were able to effectively reverse type 2 diabetes symptoms in mice by administering a daily oral drug with no adverse side effects.
Millions of people worldwide suffer from diabetes, particularly type 2 diabetes—which accounts for nearly 90% of all documented cases. If the medication is successful in humans, it would revolutionize how diabetes is treated.
Type 2 diabetes is common in older individuals whose bodies’ do not respond as they should to insulin, the key hormone that regulates blood sugar. Most diabetics opt for insulin injections to control their blood sugar levels, while others rely on restrictive diets to avoid sugar altogether. Though both of these techniques help manage the disease, they cannot cure it. They come with a number of potential of side effects including weight gain and diarrhea.
What’s more, dependence on insulin injections may lead to insulin resistance. And if untreated, type 2 diabetes can lead to health problems like kidney disease, nerve damage, and vision problems.
The proposed daily pill would restore the body’s sensitivity to insulin and increase the activity of the insulin receptor in the liver. Researchers believe this could introduce a new therapeutic strategy to treating type 2 diabetes and hopefully result in a lessened reliance on insulin injections by people with adult-onset diabetes.
Here’s Andy Coghlan, reporting for New Scientist:
The drug works by inhibiting an enzyme called low molecular weight protein tyrosine phosphatase (LMPTP), which seems to contribute to cell Continue reading