Diet Tips To Improve Insulin Resistance

Diet tips to improve insulin resistance

Insulin is a hormone that helps the body absorb glucose, keeping blood sugar levels in balance. Insulin resistance makes it harder for glucose to be absorbed.
This causes problems for muscles, fat, and the liver, as they need glucose (sugar). Over time, insulin resistance can cause high blood sugar levels and damage cells.
Insulin resistance can lead to type 2 diabetes. People with insulin resistance are often diagnosed with prediabetes. They may need extra checks to make sure they don't develop diabetes.
Diet and other lifestyle choices can increase the risks related to insulin resistance. Making diet changes can reduce insulin insensitivity. This reduces the risk of type 2 diabetes and the health problems that go with it.
Contents of this article:
Understanding insulin resistance
Glucose is a vital source of energy for the body. However, many of the body's cells can't absorb glucose on their own.
The pancreas secretes insulin into the bloodstream. It joins up with glucose, and travels to the body's cells, where it attaches to insulin receptors. Insulin allows the cells to absorb glucose, making sure that:
blood sugar levels remain at a safe level
muscle, fat, liver, and other cells are able to get energy
Insulin resistance makes cells less sensitive to insulin. This means the body has to produce more insulin to keep blood sugar levels healthy.
If the pancreas is unable to keep up with the increased demand for insulin, blood sugar levels go up. When this happens, cells can't use all of the excess glucose in the blood. This leads to type 2 diabetes.
Diet tips
Following a he Continue reading

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The Effects of Green Tea on Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes

Obesity and type 2 diabetes are major public health issues worldwide, contributing to increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The proportions of people with obesity and/or type 2 diabetes have increased and recently reaching epidemic levels in Asia [1]. Although pharmacologic modality is the mainstay treatment of diabetes, remedies using plants (e.g., garlic, psyllium, and green tea) have stimulated a new interest in research [2]. Green tea (Camellia sinensis) is one of the world's most popular beverages, especially in Asian countries including Korea, China, and Japan. Because of the high rate of green tea consumption in these populations, even small effects on an individual basis could have a large public health impact [3]. A population-based, prospective cohort study has shown that green tea consumption is associated with reduced mortality due to all causes and cardiovascular disease as well [4], and randomized controlled trials have indicated that green tea is effective in decreasing blood pressure, low density lipoprotein cholesterol, oxidative stress, and a marker of chronic inflammation [5].
Various studies have shown the beneficial effects of green tea, not only on cardiovascular diseases but also on obesity and type 2 diabetes itself [6,7]. In a retrospective cohort study performed in Japan, a 33% risk reduction of developing type 2 diabetes was found in subjects consuming six or more cups of green tea daily compared to those consuming less than 1 cup per week [6]. Wu et al. [7] reported that Taiwanese subjects who had habitually consumed tea for more than Continue reading

New study questions Type 2 diabetes treatment

Kelly Crowe is a medical sciences correspondent for CBC News, specializing in health and biomedical research. She joined CBC in 1991, and has spent 25 years reporting on a wide range of national news and current affairs, with a particular interest in science and medicine.
It's a curious case of missing evidence. When a diabetes specialist searched the medical literature looking for proof to support the use of glucose-lowering drugs for Type 2 diabetes, he couldn't find it.
That absence of evidence raises questions about one of the most firmly entrenched beliefs in modern medicine — that tightly controlling elevated blood sugar will reduce the risk of death, stroke, kidney failure, blindness and other dire outcomes associated with Type 2 diabetes.
"Does controlling your sugars reduce the risk of complications?" Dr. Victor Montori, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., asked in a paper released this month in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. "Most experts say yes. The evidence appears to say 'not so fast.'"
Conventional wisdom challenged
Right now, millions of people are taking glucose-lowering drugs, routinely pricking their finger to check their blood sugar level, and fretting over test results that aren't as low as their doctor wants them to be in hopes of avoiding the dire outcomes associated with the disease.
But with the drugs comes the risk of side-effects including weight gain and, if blood sugar falls too low, dizziness, coma or even death.
Add to that the distress of being branded with a "disease" based on a routine blood test, even t Continue reading

WHO and ADA promote 5 cups of coffee to prevent type 2 diabetes???

5 Cups of Coffee a Day for Type 2 Diabetes?
By Steve McDermott on January 10th, 2017
(Steve McDermott is a person with type 2 diabetes who wrote this article for Diabetes Daily).
“Coffee is one thing that we all love but can’t really decide if it’s good for us or not. Research in the past has shown that coffee and diabetes don’t go well together.
5 cups is good? If WHO says so, there might be something to it. Right?
However, new research, funded by American Diabetes Association (ADA), indicates that coffee is good for:
• Cardiovascular diseases(myocardial infarction, high cholesterol…)
• Cancer (prostate, breast…)
• Parkinsons disease
• …And type 2 diabetes!
According to the research conducted by Marilyn Cornelis, PhD, from NFU School of Medicine:
(Of all the foods we consume) coffee has the most potential to prevent type 2 diabetes. (Source: Diabetes Forecast)
What is more, WHO has released guidelines for dietary recommendation for Americans for 2015-2020, in which they state that 3-5 cups of coffee is associated with health benefits (including for type 2 diabetes).
Seems like both the latest research and even WHO is pro-coffee. I know I’m pro-coffee myself, being an avid coffee drinker and I think it’s great I’m doing something good for myself by having a cup of coffee a day! Let alone 5 cups!
You can download the WHO statement here, I’ve copied the section about coffee for you here (be aware what is says about how much sugar and milk you should add to coffee):
Coffee and Diabetes – An Age Old Question
When talking about coffee and diabetes Continue reading

New study claims statin drugs raise the risk of type-2 diabetes by almost 30%

(Natural News) Diabetes is one of the most common types of non-communicable diseases that kills millions of people yearly. Recent studies show that taking statins, or drugs that lower blood cholesterol, have a 30 percent chance in increasing the risk of developing type-2 diabetes.
Medical personnel have always known of the side effects of these drugs, but stress that the advantages significantly outweigh their disadvantages. Nevertheless, researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York have stated that these drugs impair insulin production. Insulin is a peptide hormone that regulates blood sugar level. When inadequate or absent, causes diabetes mellitus.
The decade-long study of more than 3,200 patients who took statins to treat and minimize the effects of cardiovascular diseases showed that statin-users had a 30 percent higher risk of developing type-2 diabetes. Despite the negative effects of statins, around six million Britons continue to take it, because it has been proven to lessen the chance of experiencing a repeat attack.
Dr. Tim Chico, a consultant cardiologist at Sheffield University, says that even if the study confirms the small risk of diabetes with statin treatment, the other main causes of diabetes, which are being overweight and obese, should be given more attention.
The effect of poor lifestyle choices
Diabetes is the result of an unbalanced and unhealthy lifestyle. Diabetes is also indicative of an intolerance for carbohydrates. The condition can be avoided by practicing proper nutrition habits and by engaging in a more active lifestyle. Continue reading