Ways to turn down blood sugar & insulin resistance….

Today's Post:  Tuesday, 12-2-2014

High blood sugar and the insulin resistance that tends to keep it high are quite damaging as are the lifestyle practices that lead to them.

High blood sugar levels cause direct damage to nerves and to the capillaries that serve them which can cause neuropathy which shows up as numbness or mild pain AND they cause vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  This process also attacks the optic nerve and retina which can cause blindness.

The blood vessel damage can also cause heart attacks and strokes and kidney damage and even foot amputation.

Worse, the lifestyle practices that cause high blood sugar and the insulin resistance also tend to cause obesity, heart disease and strokes in other ways, and liver damage.

We review those briefly and then cover some ways to boost their effects and to remove the problem in part while those lifestyle upgrades are being made. 

Two of the other three methods we cover are new or based on new research. One of them even may help reverse type 1 diabetes to some degree.

The main two ways to lower high blood sugar and insulin resistance are to

1.  Eliminate both regular and diet soft drinks, all refined grain wheat, whole wheat, and cut back sharply or eliminate other grains; eliminate high fructose corn syrup and artificial sweeteners, and cut sugar intake from 10 % or more of calories to 5% or less. 

Excess insulin and wearing out the body’s ability to make it and respond to it are caused by these foods and drinks.  So eliminating them or eliminating all of them but some whole grains other than wheat, corn, or soy and sugar only cutting back four to one or more turns off one of the main causes of insulin resistance.  

And, the organic vegetables, organic fruit, and health OK fats and oils and proteins you eat instead all have massive health benefits instead of harms.

2.  Do vigorous but brief sets of strength training and faster cardio, one or the other, on most days of every week.

These two things together:

Removing the high glycemic foods and nonfoods that cause blood sugar spikes that are the cause of most of the problem ---

And, that kind of exercise each day causes your body to pull blood sugar out of the blood to fuel your muscles and for their repair and recovery after exercise.

Here are the other 3:

a)  Medical News Today reported

....researchers - led by Professor Tore Bengtsson of Stockholm University's Department of Molecular Biosciences - discovered a new signal pathway that differs from the one triggered by insulin.

"This….signal pathway in brown fat can most likely be activated even in patients with type 2 diabetes, where the insulin signaling is impaired," says Prof. Bengtsson.

For people with enough brown fat they explained “….that brown fat is active in adults, acting …. to take up large amounts of glucose from the bloodstream to use as a fuel source to create body heat.”

Such….” increasing the uptake of glucose in brown fat can quickly decrease blood sugar levels, they say.”

….” Prof. Bengtsson says:

"Our study shows that the body's own stress hormones, epinephrine and norepinephrine, increase the uptake of glucose in brown fat. Epinephrine and norepinephrine can affect almost all our bodily organs by binding to receptors on the surface of a cell." “

Here’s the link to that story:

Type 2 diabetes: brown fat signaling pathway could yield new treatment

http://mnt.to/l/4rP4

The discovery of a new mechanism that encourages glucose uptake in brown fat is

being described as a 'major breakthrough' that could result in a potential cure

for type 2 diabetes.

[Vigorous exercise causes the body to deliver sugar to fuel the muscles.  And, it causes some increase, if intense or vigorous, in the levels of epinephrine and norepinephrine.

So the exercised muscle gets the blood sugar they need by doing this.

Such exercise also was found by a separate study to turn some white fat partly into brown fat.

In addition,

there is also evidence that such exercise may also separately improve insulin resistance.

Also, the store of brown fat is in the neck and upper back.  So, besides exercise, it is likely possible to add mild cold packs to a collar around the neck and in the back of a jacket like wrap to both increase brown fat and cause it to burn sugars.

This study shows that boosting brown fat in this way and using it to warm the body both pull excess blood sugar from the blood without using or relying on insulin.  So this is a kind of work around; but one that is VERY effective.

b) & c) People from South Asia who have far less brown fat &/or damage from arsenic in their water and people with type 1 diabetes or who are just beginning to use the information here, each need something else.

b)  Taking 600 mg of alpha lipoic acid once or more a day has many other effects lowering blood sugar when it’s high; turning down insulin resistance; and using its very high antioxidant effects on top of that to help prevent or even reverse neuropathy.  Alpha lipoic acid is soluble in both water and fat and apparently also boosts the antioxidant effects of vitamin C and natural vitamin E.  This may be new to you.  But it has been known for some time and Alpha Lipoic acid is currently available in health food stores.

c)  A couple of weeks ago I found this:

“Researchers from the University of Auckland have discovered that olive leaf extract has the ability to decrease insulin resistance and increase the production of insulin by the pancreas.”

“To test olive leaf extract’s effects on diabetes, the researchers conducted a randomized, double-blinded and placebo-controlled clinical study dividing 46 overweight men into two groups. One of the groups received olive leaf extract, while the other did group was given a placebo. The olive leaf extract was standardized to contain its active ingredients oleuropein and hydroxytyrosol. 

After six weeks to allow the men’s bodies to return to their ‘normal levels,’ the groups were switched. The original placebo group then received the olive leaf extract, and vice versa.  None of the men knew which group they were in at which time.

The researchers found that the olive leaf extract

 lowered insulin resistance by an average of 15%

and increased the productivity of the pancreas’ beta cells – which produce insulin – by 28%.

Glucose tolerance tests that look at both glucose and insulin levels every 30 minutes were used to measure glucose sensitivity. Pancreatic beta cell function was measured using the Matsuda method of glucose/insulin curve measurements.

The researchers concluded:

“Supplementation with olive leaf polyphenols for 12 weeks significantly improved insulin sensitivity and pancreatic ß-cell secretory capacity in overweight middle-aged men….”

Researchers also found that olive leaf extract may be just as effective as conventional drugs.

“Hence, compared to these drugs that only improve insulin secretion, olive leaf extract improves both insulin sensitivity and pancreatic ß-cell secretory capacity.”

After doing some extra online research it seems that part of this effect may be by boosting the thyroid and metabolism in part by the olive leaf extract. 

So taking it may also be helpful for fat loss and in fact one study found it helped cut belly fat a bit.

Life Extension Magazine also had that olive leaf extract reduced high blood pressure and lowered HBA1C significantly.

They pointed out that olive leaf extract is also one of the main ingredients that give extra virgin olive oil many of its documented health benefits.

In fact, by both lowering high insulin and blood sugar AND high blood pressure olive leaf extract is an excellent heart protective supplement.

http://www.lef.org/magazine/2013/6/Unexpected-Benefits-of-Olive-Leaf-Extract/

Blood Pressure

Animal studies demonstrate that olive leaf extracts lead to significant drops in elevated blood pressure.6,7 Remarkably, these effects are evident when supplementation occurs either before or after the animals develop hypertension. This means that the extracts have the ability to both prevent and treat high blood pressure.8

The drop in blood pressure is accompanied by reduced pressure in the heart’s left ventricle. This results in improved blood flow to the heart’s own coronary blood vessels. Additional human studies demonstrate the ability of olive leaf extracts to significantly reduce blood pressure measurements.9

One particularly fascinating study was conducted among identical twins with borderline hypertension (blood pressure in the range of 120-139 mm Hg over 80-89 mm Hg).10 Studies of identical twins virtually eliminate genetic variations which may impact study results.

After 8 weeks, placebo recipients showed no change in blood pressure from baseline, but patients supplemented with 1,000 mg/day of olive leaf extract dropped their pressures by a mean of 11 mm Hg systolic and 4 mm Hg diastolic.10 The supplemented patients experienced significant reductions in LDL cholesterol.

In conclusion, it looks as if taking 600 mg of alpha lipoic acid and 500 mg or 1,000 mg a day of olive leaf extract in addition to the lifestyle upgrades that turn type 2 diabetes down or off can do quite a bit to lower high blood sugar and insulin resistance and the damage from them. 

And, for some people, adding a mildly old jacket for the back and a neck collar will use enough calories for warmth and increase the amount of brown fat enough to also help.