High Insulin Levels Cause CHRONIC INFLAMMATION!
There is a strong connection between insulin and chronic inflammation. Insulin is a hormone produced by your pancreas. And when insulin is out of the functional “sweet spot,” this causes chronic inflammation.
If you’re reading this, there is a high chance that you are experiencing some kind of chronic inflammation, and are looking for answers. This connection between insulin and inflammation may well be the missing link you are looking for. In this article, we will talk this.
The Importance of Labs, and How to Read Them
Below are examples from some labs. Examining lab work can be a great way to understand what is happening to you in relation to other people. When looking at labs, it is important to know what a functional range for a normal, healthy person is, and then compare it to your own labs, or those of someone who is sick or unhealthy.
When it comes to insulin, a hormone known to cause inflammation, we want the range for a healthy person to fall around 5 to 7 while fasting. This is important to understand: when you go to get your bloodwork done in a lab, especially if you’re looking for insulin levels, you need to make sure not to eat for 8 to 10 hours beforehand. Eating can cause spikes in insulin levels, which can take a while to return to normal levels.
Knowing that the normal, or “sweet spot,” for insulin is in the range of 5 to 7, let’s start out with one of my clients, who was experiencing a lot of problems. His insulin in the labs was 38, and nobody had checked it.
Why You Should Check Your Insulin Levels
Knowing his insulin was so high, we can immediately assume he is experiencing some sort of severe, chronic inflammation.
You may also notice that the range on this lab is 2.6 to 24.9. That is ridiculous, it is too broad. We want to narrow it down, and get it to a smaller, more normal range.
The conventional system overlooked this person’s blood work in this case. An insulin level of 38 is extremely high. There may be other markers you should consider, such as glucose level. Also examining other blood sugar markers in conjunction with insulin levels may point to sugar dysregulation.
Insulin is often not checked in the conventional system because fasting insulin levels are more expensive to test than fasting glucose levels. Because glucose levels are so much cheaper to examine, they are often given priority.
What Does the Research Say?
There is a lot of research and data that supports the correlation between inflammation. Below are some links to articles which detail this more clearly. One article in particular is a review of many different resources, including well over 100 different references.
That particular article, entitled “Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus and Alzheimer’s Disease: Role of Insulin Signaling and Therapeutic Implications,” was published in 2018. It also shows that type II diabetes — a resistance to insulin which causes chronic high levels of the hormone — has a correlation with the development of Alzheimer's disease.
In the conclusion of the article, the authors state that insulin can have an important effect on brain function, creating a higher risk of:
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Parkinson’s disease
- Neuroinflammation
This means that if you find yourself suffering from chronic problems, it is very important to check your insulin levels.
The article continues on to say that alterations in insulin metabolism, which is high insulin levels and signaling, can contribute to these disorders by influencing the regulation of neural pathological hallmarks.
Improvement is Possible
In other words, high insulin means a bad brain, a bad body, and chronic inflammation.
Here is another one of my patients’ insulin measures before and after we took them. As you can see, she started off here with an insulin level of 23. When we checked it after some time working an insulin-control protocol, their levels went down to 11, then even later down to 5. Other measurements continued to fall in the range of 3.7 to 5.6, showing stabilization in the “sweet spot” we want.
If you found this helpful, please share this information with those you know, or reach out to me and find help. Remember, that where there is help, there is hope.
[00:00:25] insulin is a hormone
[00:02:05] fasting insulin sweet spot 5 to 7 fasting
[00:03:10] super high 38
00:03:35] dysregulation insulin
[00:05:05] Type two diabetes and Alzheimer's