Most young people between the age group of 5 to 65 love eating pizza, burger and other foods that are high in saturated fat and trans fats.
Though this food is unhealthy, it gives pleasure to our tongue. The added sauces and other chemicals makes us addicted and love this kind of food.
Such kind of food is never healthy and eating it regularly, we are more vulnerable to insulin resistance.
Insulin resistance occur when the cells of our body do not respond well to insulin and are unable to absorb the glucose and use it for energy. The glucose or sugar as we know it, then remains in the blood stream. This is what leads to a lot of complications.
Insulin is secreted by the pancreas when we eat food. Glucose is absorbed from our intestine from the food we eat and enters the blood stream. Insulin facilitates the absorption of this glucose into our cells for energy.
Increased insulin resistance coexist with what we call metabolic syndrome which includes high blood pressure, high LDL cholesterol, triglycerides and obesity. This is mainly cause due to an unhealthy diet and having sedentary lifestyle.
Increased insulin resistance along with metabolic syndrome is very dangerous as it leads to a myriad of chronic diseases that are better known as lifestyle diseases. Genetics and advancement in age are also kind of main contributors to increased insulin resistance.
So, how to know if you are resistance to insulin?
Here are the 8 insulin resistance symptoms your body gives you.
1. Weight Gain
Weight gain is one of the prominent symptom that you will notice when you'll be prone to insulin resistance.
Insulin promotes the absorption of glucose by muscle, fat, and liver cells during digestion. Then this glucose is either used for energy or converted into fat for long-term storage by the cells.
The weight gain mostly occurs around the waist. And this is one of the commonly seen insulin resistance symptoms in females.
Body fat around the abdomen in most people is visceral fat. This is dense fat that accumulates around your organs and contributes greatly not only to increased insulin resistance but also high blood pressure.
2. Fatigue
Fatigue is not the same as tiredness. When a person is tired, resting usually makes them feel better. Rest would not be enough to alleviate feelings of exhaustion and lethargy in people who suffer from chronic fatigue.
People who has imbalance in their blood sugar level, face fatigue more. This is probably because the body cells are unable to absorb enough glucose to convert into energy, thereby making a person tired.
This is a sign that your body is asking you to slow down and rest due to the lack of available energy. Such insulin sensitivity symptoms are seen in the people who are above 35 years of age.
3. Increased Hunger and Thirst
Since body cells are unable to absorb enough of glucose that they can use as energy, they trigger brain resulting in feeling of being hungry. This leads a person to feel extremely hungry or thirsty. Thereby he or she tends to eat more.
This ends up in a vicious circle where you end up putting more body fat by overeating.
4. Increased Urination
You will notice that you visit the loo more often to pass the urine. You may even wake-up multiple times at night to visit the washroom. This is probably because you drink a lot of more water than usual.
Being too much thirsty is usually considered as an alarm for diabetes.
How it works?
When you're prone to insulin resistance, excessive sugar gets build up in the blood. This lead kidneys to overwork to absorb and filter the excessive sugar. In this, kidneys pulls out the fluid from body tissues. All this process makes body dehydrated and you get the feeling of being thirsty and as usual you drinking more water.
5. Skin Darkening
It is common to get dark velvety patches on the skin when you get insulin resistance.
Insulin is a hormone released by the pancreas that aids in the digestion of sugar. Type 2 diabetes is caused when an impact created by insulin resistance.
The skin often becomes thick. At most times at the base of the neck and is scientifically called as acanthosis nigricans. It can also occur in other areas like the groin and armpit.
Skin changes typically take time to manifest. There may be an odor or scratching on the infected skin.
Acanthosis nigricans does not have a clear medication.
It is always advisable to consult doctor if you find similar symptoms. Doctor's advice may help you in avoiding it and getting the condition more worse.
6. Tingling Sensation In Hands and Feets
This happens due to disturbance in the tiny blood vessels in your hands and feets. Increased blood sugar levels causes disruption in the microvascular of your extremities.
7. Hair Fall and Acne
1 out of 5 women's in today's world are facing the insulin resistance problem that leads to excessive hairfall and getting acne. Just like weight gain, hair fall and acne are prominently found as insulin resistance symptoms in females.
When blood sugar gets too high, it leads to poor blood flow to the hair follicles. This leads to damaging various tissues, organs and blood vessels around hair follicles. It also stops new hair from forming and restricts the growth of the hair.
Keeping the control on sugar intake, blood sugar levels is becoming too high. Persistently high blood sugar levels can lead to damage in various tissues, organs, and blood vessels within the body.
Controlling the sugar intake and checking the blood sugar regularly can help to keep a track on sugar level and thereby getting a right treatment if required.
8. Frequent Infection
Infections are a common occurrence especially of the urinary tract and slow healing wounds on the hand and feet.
The elevated sugar level in the blood stream is a great substrate for the bacteria and viruses. This is the cause of the frequent infection that do not go away easily.
What can be done?
Mostly, Insulin resistance develops slowly and it is difficult to notice in its initial stages. For that reason, geting your blood sugar checked on a regular basis is very important.
Along with blood sugar, doctors normally recommend to test glycosylated hemoglobin which is also known as the glucose memory test to the people who are above 35 years old.
Insulin resistance is difficult to cure and there is no medication for insulin resistance. But by adopting healthy and active lifestyle one can reduce the impact of insulin resistance.
As said earlier, with regular blood check, changing the eating habits and reducing calories intake can help to avoid getting it's effects on your body.
