What Are The Effects Of A Raised Insulin Level?

And other obesity related questions for Dr schoonbee.

- Dr Schoonbee

I ’ve been thinking back to my days as a young GP in the early Eighties. I remember consultations about morbid obesity in, perhaps, a child.Often, the parents’ explanation was that the child’s condition was due to a ‘gland’ problem and a ‘hormonal imbalance’.

In the back of my mind I would wonder: what is the name of this ‘hormone’ or ‘gland’? I believed the child was probably eating too much and exercising too little: the calories-in and calories-out theory.

I know now that the parents were right. Obesity, in most cases, is caused by a hormone and a gland: insulin, secreted by the pancreas. Understanding the role of insulin in the development of obesity and metabolic syndrome makes it so much easier to follow a lifestyle in which the main aim is to keep the insulin level in your blood as low as possible. The key factors are:

DIET: A diet high in refined carbohydrates and sugars (especially fructose) over a long period causes blood-sugar spikes, which the body tries to counteract with extra insulin.

INSULIN RESISTANCE: This condition causes the body’s cells to become resistant to the effect of insulin. The cells do not get enough glucose to meet their energy needs so the pancreas produces more insulin to try to overcome this.

MEDICATION: Certain diabetes medications stimulate the pancreas to release more insulin. When oral medications are not able to normalise blood sugar in patients with type 2 diabetes insulin injections are prescribed. Other medications that increase blood sugar and thereby insulin include cortisol (prednisone/steroids) and anti-psychotic medication.