Health and Fitness

As a result, if one begins to get relevant information on Type 2 Diabetes you may often hear the words insulin resistance thrown about. What exactly does that term mean? It is a well known fact that this medical term refers to a reduced ability of some body cells to use insulin to convert blood sugar into a molecule of glycogen. In a normal person, a person’s body turns carbohydrates into glucose during digestion. You might know that sugar goes through the body until a cell takes it up. The cell needs to turn the glucose into a form of energy it can burn, namely glycogen. That is where insulin comes in. The cell grabs insulin out of the blood and uses it to turn glucose into a molecule of glycogen.

When insulin resistance develops, the cells seem not to recognise the insulin in the blood stream. They continue to send out the message that they require the insulin. In response, the islets of Langerhans in the pancreas start overproducing insulin. This will help lower levels of glucose for the short term. However, over a long time period, an over production of insulin can have dire results. One is that the islets of Langerhans cannot keep up the pace of overproduction. This is likely from damage due to the overproduction of insulin or from the overconcentration of

Who is likely to develop insulin resistance? Subsequently, excess body-weight and a sedentary lifestyle are big factors inthe start of this resistance. Genetics may also be a part of the picture as well. Be careful, don’t be comforted if no one in your family has Type 2 Diabetes. Anyone, despite a clean family history, can develop type 2 diabetes if they carry too much weight or do not exercise enough. Insulin resistance develops without looking into your genetic history or familial background. In years gone by, this type of resistance started to develop at an older age. In any case, more and more people get a diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes at much younger ages. The most alarming is indeed in children and teens.