Insulin is a hormone produced in the pancreas Insulin is necessary to allow for glucose ("sugar") to enter into the body's cells (particularly the muscle and fat cells) from the blood stream In Type 2 diabetes, insulin levels are often quite decent, but the insulin simply does not work well The body is resistant to the action of the insulin And if the sugar cannot get into the tissues then it hangs around the blood and hence, blood glucose levels are elevated Insulin resistance can be improved upon by a variety of measures, most important of which is following appropriate lifestyle measures More information Both of these links also discuss Syndrome X A PowerPoint presentation on insulin resistance I gave in June, 2002 was geared toward family doctors, but may be of interest to non-physicians (though at times will not make much sense without my voice-over to explain the slides)
reduced sensitivity to the actions of insulin in the whole body or individual tissues such as skeletal muscle, myocardium, fat and liver prevail in many individuals with or without diabetes mellitus
A defect present in the majority of individuals with impaired glucose tolerance and essentially in all patients with Type 2 diabetes and is an impairment of insulin action
the body's inability to respond to and use the insulin it produces Insulin resistance may be linked to obesity, hypertension, and high levels of fat in the blood
Many people with noninsulin-dependent diabetes produce enough insulin, but their bodies do not respond to the action of insulin This may happen because the person is overweight and has too many fat cells, which do not respond well to insulin Also, as people age, their body cells lose some of the ability to respond to insulin Insulin resistance is also linked to high blood pressure and high levels of fat in the blood Another kind of insulin resistance may happen in some people who take insulin injections They may have to take very high doses of insulin every day to bring their blood sugar down to the normal range
When the amount of insulin needed to maintain glucose (sugar) levels is greater than usual
When insulin is blocked from doing its job It can be caused by excess hormones made by the placenta It's also linked to being overweight
n State in which the body does not respond to the action of insulin hormone although enough insulin is produced This occurs often in people with type 2 diabetes It may happen because the person is overweight and has too many fat cells, which do not respond well to insulin Also, as people age, their body cells lose some of the ability to respond to the hormone Insulin resistance is also linked to high blood pressure and high levels of fat in the blood People with insulin resistance may have to take very high doses of insulin to bring their blood sugar down or take an insulin-sensitizing agent