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Insulin Resistance:
The Hidden Disease You May Already Have
You may already be suffering from one of the most common - and often overlooked - diseases to strike Americans.
It's not a deadly new virus. Not cancer. Nor heart disease.
It's a disease, surprisingly enough, caused by your body's inability to make the most of the food you eat. And as many as one in three people suffer from it.
Doctors call this peculiar condition insulin resistance or, with a bit more mystique, Syndrome X.
If the name doesn't ring a bell, the symptoms might: Feeling tired after you eat, and at other times when you shouldn't. Gaining a pound here and a pound there - and having difficulty losing them. Seeing your blood pressure creep up year and after year. And finding that your cholesterol does the same.
Insulin resistance is the chief characteristic of adult-onset diabetes, which affects an estimated 15 million Americans. It also sets the stage for obesity and coronary heart disease - even if you're not diabetic.
What can you do about it? The simple prescription is to eat right, take your vitamins and minerals, and exercise, because each reduces insulin resistance.
But as you might imagine, there's more to the story.
Sugar and Insulin: A Double Whammy
Doctors have known about insulin resistance for decades, but only in the 10 years have they gained a clearer idea of exactly how it derails your health.
Insulin resistance is caused in large part by the over-consumption of refined carbohydrates, such as
breads, pastas, and sugary foods. Eating too much saturated fat (found in beef) and omega-6 fatty acids (found in vegetable oils) also seems to increase the risk of insulin resistance.
Normally, after you eat a meal, your body breaks down carbohydrates into glucose, or blood sugar. The presence of glucose prompts the release of insulin, a hormone produced in your pancreas. Insulin helps transport glucose from the blood to cells, where's it's burned for energy or stored.
When a person eats a lot of refined carbohydrates year after year, a dangerous cascade occurs. Insulin levels remain chronically high, and cells become less responsive - and resistant - to insulin. As a consequence, relatively little glucose gets burned and levels remain high. With chronically elevated glucose levels, insulin resistance evolves into diabetes.