How to Naturally Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity
Insulin is a vital hormone that assists in regulating and control the sugar levels in your blood. It ensures that the pancreas transports sugar to the cells for storage from your blood. Insulin resistance is a condition that makes the cell unable to use insulin effectively. Thus, shooting up your blood sugar to a dangerous level.
Normally, the moment the pancreas notices high amounts of sugar in the blood, it secretes more insulin to overpower the resistance and regulate or reduce your blood pressure in the process. When this process continues, the insulin-producing cells begin to decline and cause a condition known as type 2 diabetes. In addition, when your blood pressure rises beyond normal and stays high for a long time, it can cause damages to certain organs, cells, and nerves in the body.
In addition, people who have prediabetes and those who have a family history of type 2 diabetes are at the risk of developing insulin resistance. Also, people who are obese and overweight might experience insulin resistance as well.
What is Insulin Sensitivity?
Insulin sensitivity is the rate at which your cells are responsive to insulin. When you are insulin sensitive, you might have lower risks of suffering from insulin resistance, as well as other health conditions, including diabetes. In other words, just as “day” is the opposite of “night,” insulin resistance is the opposite of insulin sensitivity. The former is harmful to the body, while the latter helps the body perform its functions properly.
The following are the natural, scientifically-backed natural methods of improving and boosting your insulin resistance.
Enough Sleep
Getting enough sleep is important to live a healthy life. According to research, sleeping well can improve your life span by a reasonable percentage.
In contrast to this, lack of sleep or poor sleeping pattern can impact your health negatively by exposing you to certain illnesses and infections. Some of the health conditions you are at the risk of suffering from if you lack enough sleep include; type 2 diabetes and heart diseases. Some other studies have created a strong link between poor sleeping habits and insulin resistance.
A survey carried out on people who sleep for about 4 hours per day have experienced a reduced insulin sensitivity. Thus, it prevents the proper regulation of blood in their bodies, compared to those who got about 8 hours or 12 hours of sleep per day.
Fortunately, getting enough sleep can reverse the condition (insulin resistance.)
Exercise More
One of the most reliable means to reduce insulin resistance and improve insulin sensitivity is by engaging in regular exercise. Regular exercise helps move sugar for storage in the muscles and enhance insulin sensitivity, depending on the kind of exercise.
For example, experts claim that cycling at a moderate speed can increase insulin sensitivity and reduce the risks of insulin resistance. Recent research also found that regular exercise can enhance insulin sensitivity in both men and women with or without diabetes.
Resistance training or aerobics are effective in the improvement of insulin sensitivity. Nevertheless, when both of them are mixed, they appear to be more effective in carrying out the job.
Stress Reduction
Stress is a major condition that affects everybody. It affects the body’s ability to regulate or control blood sugar. It makes the body produce glucagon and cortisol, which are stress hormones. These stress hormones keep increasing with the rate at which you stress your body. Thereby increasing the amount of blood sugar in your body.
Stress and stress hormones have also been associated with insulin resistance. They can also prevent nutrients from being properly stored in the body, thereby reducing the rate at which nutrients get absorbed into the bloodstream.
In essence, stress and stress hormones have been associated with reduced insulin sensitivity, and this can be harmful to your health.
Some of the most dependable ways to reduce stress include; exercise, meditation, and sleep.
Lose Some Weight
One of the leading causes of insulin resistance is excess weight, especially in the abdomen area. Excess weight has also been closely linked with type 2 diabetes.
Belly fat can increase insulin resistance, especially in areas like the liver and the muscles. Many researchers have associated large belly fat with reduced insulin sensitivity.
Luckily, one of the safest ways to lose belly fat is by losing general body weight. By so doing, you are automatically reducing your risks of insulin resistance, improving your insulin sensitivity, prediabetes, and type 2 diabetes.
According to the survey, 12 people who lost 10% of their total body weight in 8 months experienced a lower risk of type 2 diabetes for up to a whopping 55%. This improvement lasted for up to 3 years. This is enough hope and assurance that lose general weight, as well as belly fat, can help you check certain illnesses and health conditions from occurring.
Some of the best ways to general body fat include; diet, lifestyle, and dietary changes.
Eat More Fiber
There are actually two varieties of fiber; soluble and insoluble. The latter is indigestible and just accumulates in the stomach and helps in the easing of the bowel. While the former is digestible and is associated with the prevention and reduction of certain conditions like high levels of bad cholesterol as well as conditions that cause poor appetite.
Many studies have linked the consumption of fiber with the reduction of insulin resistance and the improvement of insulin sensitivity.
Of the two types of fibers, experts recommend soluble fiber for the improvement of insulin sensitivity.
A survey among 200 women showed that women who ate foods containing soluble fiber had a reduced chance of developing insulin resistance.
In addition, soluble fiber feeds the bacteria, healthy bacteria in the gut, thereby increasing insulin sensitivity.
Foods sources that are rich in soluble fiber include;
Legumes, flaxseeds, oatmeal, vegetables such as brussels sprouts, and fruits such as oranges.
Reduce Your Carb Intake
Carbs are food components that cause the level of your blood insulin to rise. Normally, carbs are converted into sugar by the body, and then the sugar is released into the blood. On the other hand, the pancreas produces insulin that then carries the sugar to the cells from the blood.
Thus, reducing the amounts of carbs you take can help improve your insulin sensitivity. This is as a result of the tendency of carbs causing blood sugar spikes in the body that automatically exerts excess pressure on the pancreas to eliminate sugar from the blood.
One of the best ways to reduce your carb intake is to watch your diet and regulate your regular carbs intake.
Some food sources that have low carbs content include; quinoa, potatoes, brown rice, oatmeal.
Cook with Spices and Herbs
Long before spices and herbs were used for cooking, they were used for medicinal purposes. Herbs and spices like garlic and ginger, turmeric, and fenugreek have enormous health benefits which they supply to the body.
The research on how spices and herbs improve insulin sensitivity and reduce insulin resistance has shown promising results.
Drink Green Tea
Asides from water, one of the world’s best and healthiest beverages in the world is green tea. It is healthy for both people with and without diabetes or diabetes risks. Many studies have found that insulin resistance can be reduced with the daily consumption of green tea. Another health benefit of green tea to the body is the reduction of blood sugar.
The positive impacts of green tea on blood health, blood sugar levels, and insulin regulation are as a result of its powerful properties. Some of these properties include; antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate, a property that has been found to have enormously positive effects on your insulin sensitivity levels.
Avoid Trans Fat
Be it that you are trying to boost your insulin resistance or not, it is best to, as a human, completely stay away from artificial fats. They are unhealthy for both diabetic and non-diabetic people. Trans fats provide no single health benefits, unlike other healthy fats. In addition, trans fats keep you at the risk of developing numerous severe health conditions.
Some foods that contain trans-fat include; fried fast food, pies, doughnuts, and many more.
In conclusion, insulin sensitivity refers to the rate at which your body is responsive to insulin. When you have a healthy insulin sensitivity rate in your body, your body will be strong enough to fight off certain health conditions like prediabetes and diabetes, heart illnesses, and insulin resistance. The above methods are ways of improving insulin resistance naturally and at home.
