What is Insulin Resistance? | Explained in 3 Minutes
< 1 min read | Jan 29, 2025
In an adult body, there’s typically around 5 liters of blood, containing no more than 1 teaspoon of blood sugar at any given time. The body tightly regulates blood glucose levels through a process known as glucose homeostasis.
During periods of fasting or sleep, if blood glucose levels drop below 4 grams (equivalent to 1 teaspoon), the pancreas releases the hormone glucagon from its alpha cells to raise glucose levels.
Conversely, when blood glucose levels rise above 1 teaspoon, typically after eating, the pancreas releases insulin from its beta cells to lower blood sugar and maintain it within the normal range.
How Does Insulin Work
Think of insulin as a key that unlocks the door for glucose to enter cells from the bloodstream. I will say this again as it’s important:
‘Insulin is a key that unlocks the door for glucose or blood sugar to enter cells from the bloodstream’
This process is disturbed when the cells of that person become insulin resistant.
Which means the cells has developed a hatred towards insulin and stop accepting it which now means that the door of the cells cannot be unlocked for the blood sugar to enter.
As a results, the blood sugar starts to increase.
This is a long process that can often take years and even decades.
What Is Insulin Resistant
When you eat refined carbohydrates and simple sugars, which cause sudden sugar spikes, your pancreas need to release a lot of insulin to take care of this excessive blood sugar levels.
The fundamental principle that our body operates on is this: ‘When you provide more of something, the body begins to resist it.’
So with time, your cells stop responding to all that insulin, which means they have become insulin-resistant.
So yes, too much insulin causes insulin resistance. Thats how the body works.
Just like a caffeine addict will need more caffeine over time to induce the same effect, just like bacteria become resistant to antibiotics, your cells start to resist insulin.
In fact, research indicates that for every 1-microunit increase in fasting blood insulin, a person can experience ~20% increase insulin resistance.
Insulin Resistance Symptoms
Insulin resistance often develops gradually over the period of years and even decades and may not cause noticeable symptoms in its early stages.
However, as the condition progresses, some people may experience common symptoms like
*Increased thirst
*Frequent urination
*Blurry vision
*Dark patches of skin
*Random hair growth
*Fatigue
*Unwanted weight gain
Being Insulin Resistant means you have more insulin floating around in your blood.
High Insulin levels when left untreated largely increases the risk of having chronic diseases.
So get your fasting insulin test done and tally it with this range as you can see on here.
Thank you for your time.
Stay healthy, stay fabulous!.
-
Share
Skill-Based Education.
Global Recognition.
Powerful Community Building
Secure a certificate of completion in as little as a day by graduating from one of our free courses.
Get Access to Our Free Courses. No Credit Card Required.
Fabulous Body Membership
Your All-Access Pass to A Fabulous Body & A Rewarding Career
25+ Certificate Courses & Programs, All Included
15 Day Free Trial, 100% Money-Back Guarantee
About Akash Sehrawat
Akash is a creator of 25+ programs and certificate courses in which more than 200,000 students have enrolled both on Udemy and Fabulous Body's native platform. Akash is also an author of three books that can be found on Amazon. His answers on Quora have gathered more than 12 million views in less than a year.
Comments
Related Articles...
