How would you know if your insulin level is too high?

There is a blood test that can measure your fasting insulin, but it isn’t always reliable and many doctors are not willing to order this test. This is a shame because elevated insulin is bad for your health and shortens your lifespan.

Insulin has many important roles in your body. People with too much insulin in their bloodstream are said to have insulin resistance, syndrome X, metabolic syndrome or pre-diabetes. They are all interchangeable terms.

Due to modern diets and lifestyles, nearly everybody produces more insulin in their pancreas than they should. This is a problem because if blood insulin levels have been high for years, the cells of your body start to ignore it. The insulin becomes less and less effective at its important job in your body (getting glucose inside your cells so you can burn it for energy).

Knowing whether or not you have too high insulin is important because it can allow you to make some changes and avoid some serious health problems in the future. Luckily there are several tell tale signs or clues that your body gives you, alerting you to this problem.

The role of insulin in your body

Insulin is a hormone that your pancreas secretes into your bloodstream after you have eaten. It enables the glucose from your food to enter your cells, where it is burned for energy. If insulin is not doing its job properly, less glucose will be burnt for energy and more of it will be converted into fat.

Some of the fat is stored around your body, just under your skin, and some of it accumulates in your liver. Having too much fat in your liver is a classic sign of elevated insulin. There are plenty of other signs and symptoms.

Signs and symptoms of chronically elevated insulin

• Fatty liver
• Abdominal obesity. As the waist grows larger, insulin becomes increasingly ineffective in your body, therefore levels of this hormone rise.
• Hunger and cravings for sugar or carbohydrate rich foods. People with high blood insulin are hungry and nothing will satisfy their appetite like carbs!
• Elevated blood sugar. A fasting blood sugar level greater than 97mg/dL (5.4mmol/L) indicates insulin resistance, also known as syndrome X.
• Acne and large pores on the face. Insulin and its cousin insulin-like growth factor 1 promote higher levels of the male hormone testosterone and increase the sensitivity of your face to testosterone. That means you’re more likely to experience acne and greasy skin.
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome
• Scalp hair loss in women in the male pattern (front and sides).
• Skin tags.
• Acanthosis nigricans – look at this picture of what this skin condition looks like
• High blood pressure
• Fluid retention. Insulin tells your kidneys to hang on to sodium and water, therefore you will look more puffy.

Three point plan for lowering insulin

Clearly having too much insulin in your bloodstream is not a good thing. Luckily there is a great deal you can do to reverse this scenario. Here is my three point plan:

1 – Help insulin to work better

There are certain herbs and nutrients that help to make insulin more effective in your body. This is a good thing because if it’s more effective, you won’t need to secrete as much of it into your bloodstream.

The most important nutrients for insulin action are chromium and magnesium. You have probably heard that chromium helps to reduce sugar cravings and it’s true. It does this by helping to keep your blood sugar stable throughout the day. Chromium deficiency is incredibly common because not many foods are a good source of this mineral. Also when you eat sugar or high carb foods, it flushes chromium out of your body through your urine.

Magnesium is also necessary for healthy insulin action. People who take blood pressure medication or diuretics (fluid tablets) are typically low in magnesium. Magnesium helps to relax your nervous system and makes you feel less stressed. Thus it is fantastic for people who eat when they feel stressed.

Gymnema sylvestre is an herb that helps to keep your blood sugar stable and it helps to reduce sugar cravings. It is also very good for diabetics. Bitter melon is a vegetable that is commonly used in Asian cuisine. True to its name, it is an extremely bitter vegetable and many people are not able to handle the intense flavour at all. You can find all of these nutrients and herbs combined together in Glicemic Balance capsules. When taken with meals they help to reduce hunger and cravings and help to lower your blood insulin level.

2 – Improve the health of your liver

A healthy liver is very important for blood sugar control. This is because the liver can store glucose and fat, and also produce glucose and fat. You want your liver to be good at fat burning. People with a healthy liver have a fast metabolism and don’t gain weight as easily. Unfortunately a lot of people have a fatty liver and their liver is doing the opposite of what it should be doing – it is very busy making fat.

A healthy liver also helps to control your blood sugar level. If you have not eaten for several hours, your liver is supposed to release some stored glucose into your bloodstream to give you energy and keep hunger at bay. People with a sluggish liver struggle with this and they often feel excessively hungry, weak or irritable if they have gone several hours without food. It makes sticking to a diet extremely difficult! To help improve your liver health I recommend you follow the diet in my book Fatty Liver You Can Reverse It. It is not a difficult eating plan to stick to and you should not feel hungry.

Taking a good quality liver tonic like Livatone Plus will provide the nutrients your liver requires in order to burn fat and detoxify your bloodstream more effectively.

3 – Exercise

Exercising regularly helps to make your muscle cells more sensitive to insulin, therefore helping to lower blood insulin levels. When you exercise, your muscles burn the sugar in your bloodstream and use it for energy. Therefore doing some exercise each day is a great way to keep your blood sugar healthy. It is especially important for diabetics.

Try to do some exercise that makes you huff and puff and sweat, such as fast walking, as well as exercise that strengthens your muscles, such as lifting weights.

Elevated blood insulin (syndrome X) is an incredibly common condition and is responsible for some of the most common health problems today. Fortunately there are many ways to remedy it.

The above statements have not been evaluated by the FDA and are not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any disease.