Insulin Resistance and Diabetes

Is this just another weird side affect or could it be diabetes?

Last month I had heart surgery, and ever since I’ve noticed changes in my appetite and what I want to eat, and drink. I used to basically live on pop(Dr Pepper mostly) ate burgers & fries often. I was majorly lacking in fruits, vegetables, even water. The healthiest thing I would eat was the occasional salad. Since the surgery its been Salads, fruits, veggies, chicken, juice, tea, and water. I do sometime still have a pop and some candy here and there. Its not all extremely healthy but its what I am now craving. I have insulin resistance and have had for at least 10 years. I am on glucophage for treatment of it. The last week or so I have noticed that I’ll get up and eat if I stick to the healthy stuff and take my gluc as prescribed I’m fine. But as soon as I eat any candy or have a pop I get light headed, nausea, and eventually get a headache. Now I am drinking a lot more than I used to but that started right after the surgery and is not continuing to increase. Any ideas?
I agree the bad stuff makes you drag a bit…but I’m having a major affect like enough to make me go lay down because I’m sick from just 1 pop(which I can’t even get halfway thru a can of because I feel ill from) or about 10 M&M’s.

You’ve grown up. You have some very serious health problems, and you are finally living the way you need to live to get healthier and stay healthier.

Eating crap makes you feel like crap. Once you get off the junk food, you really notice how bad it makes you feel. With insulin resistence anything with sugar or a lot of white flour will make your blood sugar climb.

When you were eating it all the time you didn’t notice how sluggish, tired, and crappy it made you feel.

Now you do.

Stick with the healthy stuff, your body needs and craves it.

I suggest you get tested for diabetes, because of the problems you are having processing sugar. Ask your doctor to do an HbA1c test. It should be below 5.5%.

Good luck!

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Is "insulin resistance" the same as Diabetes?

I was recently diagnosed with "Insulin Resistance". I want to know if it is the same as being Diabetic??? if not, what is the difference?

Type 2 Diabetes is essentially extreme insulin resistance.

It is possible to have insulin resistance that fall short of diabetes.

Insulin resistance is when your cells respond less and less to insulin so you need more and more to do the same job. Your pancreas responds by making more insulin. When it reaches the point your pancreas can no longer make enough to keep up, that is type 2 diabetes.

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Can a person have BOTH untreated hypoglycemia and undiagnosed diabetes?

Doc is doing a fasting blood sugar Monday to test for diabetes–but I’ve been told before I may be hypoglycemic…

Aren’t they opposite? It seems as though hypoglycemia may occur if taking diabetes medication, but I am not.

How can the coexist untreated???
To The Orange Evil: Thanks for helping out with my Q’s.

Based on these, do you think I could be diabetic? Test on Monday…but worrying NOW.

Great question. When a person is an early staged diabetic or heading towards diabetes, the pancreas still retains quite a bit of function. What happens is that the person’s blood sugar shoots up very high after eating because they have a slightly impaired insulin response. (In true non-diabetics, there’s enough circulating insulin and phase 1 insulin to keep blood sugar from ever going too high.) In a full-blown diabetic, the pancreas wouldn’t be able to supply enough insulin to bring levels down quickly. In a person who still has a powerhouse of a pancreas, the pancreas senses the soaring blood glucose levels and pumps out a ton of insulin. That results in a severe and rapid drop – often into hypoglycemic range. This is called reactive hypoglycemia. The effect is even more pronounced when the individual consumes lots of simple sugars, like candy.

Hypoglycemia in new diabetics is surprisingly common. Eventually, though, the beta cells in the pancreas die or the insulin resistance gets so bad that the hypoglycemia side of hyperglycemia stops and there’s just hyperglycemia left.

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Type II Diabetes, PCOS & Insulin?

I have type 2 diabetes due to insulin resistance and PCOS. If the weight gain is due to my body making too much insulin and not using it – will me being prescribed insulin to lower my blood sugar make me gain weight?
Let me rephrase the question… if I have PCOS and type II diabetes – should I be prescribed insulin to lower blood sugar? If so will it make me gain weight?

Unfortunately, dear lady, there may be some evidence that insulin can cause weight gain.

I would refer you to the page that Kelle has, obviously, misinterpreted. Nowhere on that page does it state that insulin does NOT cause weight gain.

The second page listed below states:

"In many people taking insulin, a common side effect is weight gain. Insulin can cause people to gain weight for several reasons. For example, insulin reduces the removal of glucose (sugar) from the body, and this excess glucose is stored as fat. However, taking insulin does not automatically mean you will gain weight. If you are taking insulin and notice that you are gaining weight, you may be able to control your weight with proper diet and exercise."

You’ll need to read further to see why it is believed that this can be the case.

The third url below states:

"Weight gain is a common side effect of insulin therapy for several reasons. The most widely accepted reason is that insulin therapy improves your body’s ability to store sugar. When your blood glucose levels get too high (which is why you need insulin therapy), your kidneys try to pick up the slack by excreting more glucose through the urine, thus eliminating sugar and calories before they can be used by the body or stored as fat."

This is NOT, however, a medical site, so you’ll need to bear that in mind.

You don’t state what your current medication regime includes, but from my own knowledge, and discussions with medical professionals, one drug that is often used, both in terms of controlling type 2 diabetes and aiding with women that suffer PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) is Metformin (Glucophage). One of the side-effects of this particular medication is that it encourages weight loss, though medical literature don’t encourage it being prescribed for such reasons.

Have you spoken to your doctor about this, and expressed your concerns? S/he may consider other options.

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What is diabetes and why do you need to avoid so many things and food?

I have heard that people with diabetes should not take cold, flu or pain medications. Why is this? Also, I have heard that they should avoid exposure to high heat and humidity? Why is this? I also would love to know what it is exactly, and why you need to watch what you eat and use a meter?

Over the counter medicines can alter a diabetic’s blood sugar in negative ways, meaning that it can make their blood sugars higher.

Some OTC meds can actually interfere with insulin and other diabetic medications in a very bad way too.

Heat and humidity are good for diabetics, COLD is not! The cold slows down circulation in the extremities, which are already hampered by the damage caused by diabetes.

Heat & humidity increase circulation and combat dry skin (common in diabetics).

You watch what you eat because you are sensitive to carbohydrates, and especially all forms of sugar. Sugar raises the blood glucose levels very high and very quickly.

The higher the blood sugar, the more diabetic complications that a person can get (more damage to their bodies, cumulative damage).

The meter tells diabetics how they are reacting to the type and quantity of foods that they eat.
If they are on medication, insulin for example, the meter can tell if they need more insulin or need to eat to avoid death by hypoglycemia.

The goal is to keep blood sugars in the normal range as much as possible. Less risk of cardiovascular problems (AKA heart attack, stroke), and less damage to their eyes, kidneys, other organs, and extremities.

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