Are you at risk: Insulin Resistance

It sounds like a riddle, but determining when a symptom is a symptom of CFS or Fibromyalgia and when it is a symptom of complications stemming from these two illnesses is no joke.

Up until recently, the most common approach was to see if you have diseases or conditions that ruled out CFS or Fibromyalgia. Now, however, more and more research is showing that many conditions co-exist with CFS/FMS or are actually the result of imbalances caused by these two illnesses.

Insulin resistance (IR) is one of those conditions. Insulin is the hormone that regulates blood sugar levels and IR refers to the state where an unusually high level of insulin is required to keep blood sugar levels under control. In other words, IR is an impaired metabolic response to our body’s insulin.

Insulin is also key to transporting the glucose manufactured by the body after eating to the mitochondria to be turned into energy. With IR, the mitochondria are denied the glucose necessary to manufacture energy. IR also causes excess glucose to deposit as belly fat. In short, you become a fat slug.

This metabolic cascade can further lead to type II Diabetes and greatly increases your risk of a heart attack.

My first clue was my weight gain. I knew I was steadily gaining weight, but chalked it up to my inability to be as active as I once was, not to mention all those cute little pills that have weight gain listed as a side effect.

A random glance in the mirror one morning followed by the thought, "Good grief, I look five months pregnant", set off an alarm in my head. People’s body types are often compared to fruit and I had always been a classic "pear", putting my weight on my hips. I’d never been an "apple", where all the weight goes to the belly. Suddenly I realized I had morphed into an "apple". It didn’t make sense genetically, so I started researching medical reasons.

Verifying my apple figure was a matter of measuring my waist an inch above my navel and then measuring my hips at the widest point. I then divided my waist measurement by my hip measurement. A ratio over 0.8 for women and over 1.0 for men is considered unhealthy. (I also have a body mass index over 27.)

I don’t have all the symptoms of course. My tilt table results had proven that hypertension (high blood pressure) is not one of my problems! I have no family history of diabetes either. What I do have is high cholesterol as well as a low HDL level and elevated triglycerides.

If you have any one of these risk factors, you need to discuss the situation with your doctor. There are a number of blood tests that can be done and medications such as Glucophage, which prevents blood sugar levels from rising so high.

In the mean time, try a low calorie, low glycemic diet. This means avoiding foods that cause your blood sugar to rise quickly. Foods such as flour products, refined corn products, and sugar added products should be eliminated from your diet. You can, however, increase foods such as vegetables, beans, nuts and seeds. You can also eat fruits and root vegetables such as potatoes and carrots as long as you eat them with other foods. Yes it is hard, but life is actually worth living even without bagels.

CFS and Fibromyalgia are not life threatening by themselves, but the medical complications are very real and can be life threatening. Don’t take chances, talk to your doctor.

Devin Starlyn has a wonderful fibromyalgia site and I gathered quite a bit of my information from her website.                                                                         

Originally posted on RemedyFind.com June 2004
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