Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

Since I know that insulin is necessary to put on fat, I interpret this article as linking insulin to MS once again:

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/01/ ... 2Q20130131

Obesity in girls tied to higher MS risk: study
Wed Jan 30, 2013 8:54pm EST
(Reuters) - Obese children, adolescent girls in particular, are more likely to be diagnosed with multiple sclerosis (MS) than normal-weight youth - with extreme obesity tied to a three- to four-fold higher risk of MS.

The study didn't prove that carrying around some extra eight in childhood causes MS, a neurological disease in which the protective coating around nerve fibers breaks down, slowing signals traveling between the brain and the body, said researchers whose work appeared in the journal Neurology.

But it does suggest that rising levels of obesity in young people could mean more MS diagnoses than in the past, according to lead study author Annette Langer-Gould from Kaiser Permanente of Southern California and her colleagues.

For the study, Langer-Gould and her colleagues compared the heights and weights of 75 young people with pediatric MS and its possible precursor, a condition called clinically isolated syndrome (CIS), and more than 900,000 without the disease.
"Our findings suggest the childhood obesity epidemic is likely to lead to increased morbidity from MS/CIS, particularly in adolescent girls," Langer-Gould and her colleagues wrote.

Just over half of the children and teens with MS were overweight or obese, compared to 37 percent of other youth.
Being overweight or moderately obese was tied to a slightly higher chance of MS in adolescent girls, but the results were based on a small number of cases and could have been due to chance. Extreme obesity, on the other hand, was linked more clearly with a three- to four-fold higher risk of MS.

A 12-year-old girl who stands 1.52 meters (5 feet) tall and weighs 51 kilograms (112 pounds) is considered overweight and extremely obese at over 70 kg (155 pounds).

There was no clear pattern between boys' weights and how likely they were to be diagnosed with MS, Langer-Gould's team found.

"Obesity is increasing the risk of so many different kinds of diseases," said Kassandra Munger, who studies MS at the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston but was not involved in the new study.

"This current study now adds to the evidence that it's also dangerous and increases the risk of neurological diseases, such as multiple sclerosis."

Roughly 400,000 people in the United States have MS, usually diagnosed in adulthood. Just one or two out of every 100,000 children is diagnosed with pediatric MS, Langer-Gould said.

Based on limited evidence about any effects of weight, she said she was "actually surprised" her team found any link with MS risk.

"It's not something we think of as a risk factor for multiple sclerosis," she told Reuters Health.
According to Munger, there are a number of possible explanations for why heavy people could be at increased risk, including their vitamin levels and the greater amounts of chemicals - such as inflammation-inducing signaling molecules - secreted by their fat cells.

"It's not easy to tease those out," Munger told Reuters Health. "From a biological perspective, we don't know what the link is between obesity and MS."

Langer-Gould and her colleagues are continuing to track children in their study over time and are also working on another project to see if adults' weight affects their chance of developing MS. SOURCE: http://.bit.ly/IUcacJ

(Reporting from New York by Genevra Pittman at Reuters Health; editing by Elaine Lies)

Neurology, online January 30, 2013.
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"
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Leonard
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by Leonard »

Hi Lynda,

This video brings it all together http://www.kriskris.com/the-bitter-truth-about-sugar/
whow, it is really good, I looked at it twice and will look at it again..
Obesitas, vit D, diabetes2, insulin (resistance), inflammation, LDL cholesterol, triglycerin, ..

I think it is the broader metabolic balance that is lost in MS.
Insulin is one part of the picture..
Proper gut functioning is central to restore health...

Leo
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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

Hi Leo, I agree with you that the presentation by Dr. Robert Lustig, The Bitter Truth, is excellent.

I still think that excess insulin (whether called hyperinsulinemia, insulin resistance, or even type II diabetes) is the crucial component for MS. In addition, I think it causes obesity, heart disease, hypertension, high cholesterol, AND, possibly most importantly, inflammation, especially in the intestines. And now, I think this intestinal inflammation may interfere with nutrient absorption – I recently read that people with MS have low levels of vitamin D and vitamin B12 specifically.

I have been unsuccessful in lowering my insulin level with diet; I will now target inflammation, especially intestinal inflammation, once again with diet (this may actually be the target and route of the Wahls diet), and also look to detoxifying the liver. Insulin IS one part of the picture, as you say. I think the entire cycle is: Insulin causes increased Inflammation causes increased Visceral Fat (including fatty liver) causes increased Cytokines and hormones, which cause increased Insulin…. By decreasing inflammation, I hope ultimately to decrease insulin... So my new chapter begins.
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by ljelome »

Dear lyndacarol,

Pardon me, if my question sounds silly. I wonder about your theory about excess insulin. You know i like to eat sweet food, sugar, chocolate, cake, ice cream, etc. All the sugar contained food, i used to eat them, not too much though. Now, i reduce sugar consumption. And i'm not overweight, back then or now. Now my height is 156 cm and i weigh 50 kgs. And when i had a glucose blood level test in 2010 (when searching my disease), the result was normal then.

My question is : Is it possible that i have excess insulin though i have a normal glucose level in my blood?

Thank you.
Warm regards,
Linda

|For the joy of the Lord is your strength | A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones| God always leads us to where we need to be, not where we want to be|
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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

Yes, Linda, it is possible to have excess insulin and a normal glucose levels.

If a person's diet raises the blood sugar (glucose), the body produces insulin which is the key to the cell door – insulin allows the glucose to enter the cell, where it is burned for energy. If the diet frequently has glucose, then insulin is always in the bloodstream and the cells become resistant to insulin (not allowing the same amount to open the cell door).

In order to move the glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells (making a normal glucose level again), the body produces more (excess) insulin.

By the way, Linda, your question was not silly!

A glucose test alone tells us only the glucose level; it does not reveal an excess insulin level – the fasting blood insulin test is a completely different test. Doctors routinely test the glucose level; doctors do NOT routinely test for the insulin level – it is a specific request.
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by ljelome »

Dear lyndacarol,

Thank you for your explanation, maybe i might take the insulin level test if available here. But do you have any medical journal or any scientific material regarding excess insulin and normal blood glucose level.

And i wonder if i have excess insulin level though my blood glucose is normal, does it mean i have a diabetes?

One more things, (pardon me if u or someone else already explained my question in your posts earlier), i wonder how could this excess insulin end up to MS (lesions/scars/inflammation in your brain n spinal cord)? Please show me the link to the post or if you may you could explain it again to me in a simple way so i may understand. And if there is any med journal that support your theory, i would like to have one too.

Thank you very much.
Warm regards,
Linda

|For the joy of the Lord is your strength | A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones| God always leads us to where we need to be, not where we want to be|
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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

Here is some general information on the insulin test:

http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/index2.htm

Factor # 1 : Your Insulin Level
Insulin is absolutely essential to staying alive, but the sad fact is that most of you reading this have too much floating around, and it is pushing you towards chronic degenerative illness and increasing the rate at which you age.

Most adults have about one gallon of blood in their bodies and are quite surprised to learn that in that gallon, there is only one teaspoon of sugar! You only need one teaspoon of sugar at all times -- if that. If your blood sugar level were to rise to one tablespoon of sugar you would quickly go into a hyperglycemic coma and die.

You body works very hard to prevent this by producing insulin to keep your blood sugar at the appropriate level. Any meal or snack high in grain and sugar carbohydrates typically generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To compensate for this your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, which lowers your blood sugar to keep you from dying.

However, if you consume a diet consistently high in sugar and grains, over time your body becomes "sensitized" to insulin and requires more and more of it to get the job done. Eventually, you become insulin resistant, and then diabetic.

If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or are overweight, it is highly likely that you are eating too many grains -- yes, even unrefined whole grains -- as this is the most common culprit causing your insulin level to become abnormal.

Compounding the problem, when your insulin levels rise due to an excess of carbohydrates, they send your body a hormonal message telling it to store fat while holding on to the fat that is already there. So not only will excess carbohydrates make you overweight, they will effectively hamper your weight loss efforts too.

Your Fasting Blood Insulin Test
To find out your insulin levels, you need to get tested by your doctor. The test you need to ask for is a fasting blood insulin test, The test is done by just about every commercial laboratory and is relatively inexpensive.

Facts about Your Fasting Insulin Test:
• This test is profoundly useful. It's one of the least expensive tests in traditional medicine, yet it is one of the most powerful. A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally you'll want to be below 3.
• You can safely ignore the reference ranges from the lab as they are based on "normals" of a population that has highly-disturbed insulin levels.
• This is a great test to do BEFORE you start your program as you can use it to assess how well you are progressing in the program.
• If your level is above 5 you will want to consider significantly reducing most sugars and grains, even whole wheat grains, until you lower your level. Once you've normalized your insulin level you can reintroduce grains into your diet at a lower level to optimize your health.
• Exercise is of enormous benefit in improving the sensitivity of your insulin receptors, and help normalize your insulin level far more quickly.
Because insulin degrades quickly, the test must be done on the blood sample soon after the blood draw. If the test cannot be done soon after the blood is drawn, the sample must be frozen to preserve the insulin in it.

To your question, Linda, "if i have excess insulin level though my blood glucose is normal, does it mean i have a diabetes?"… Diabetes is diagnosed on the basis of your blood glucose level – below 100 = NO diabetes; 100 to 125 = pre-diabetes; over 125 = diabetes. The result of an insulin test has nothing to do with a diagnosis of diabetes. Your blood glucose test determines if you have diabetes.

Insulin is able to cross the blood-brain barrier; the brain, as well as the pancreas, produces insulin. It is a very strong, caustic substance; it can damage blood vessels (MS lesions in the brain are found around blood vessels.) I assume it damages nerves as well. I think it is insulin's affect on skeletal and smooth muscles (and not entirely on nerves) that causes most of the MS symptoms. Insulin resistance can occur in all cells, including skeletal and smooth muscles.

I do not know of any medical Journal that supports this insulin theory. I have suggested it to several researchers, but "intriguing" is the most positive response I have received.
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by HappyPoet »

Edit: Asked the question poorly but did find answers re effect of vinegar on insulin.
Last edited by HappyPoet on Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by ljelome »

Dear lyndacarol,

Thank you for your information. The med or scientific journal i ask u is to convince my neurologist so he would refer me to do the insulin test. If he doesn't want to refer me, then i will have to pay for the test myself.hahaha

Oh yeah, how about your story regarding this insulin theory? How is your condition now? Have u succeed in decreasing your insulin level and how is your MS symptomps now compare to the pre-insulin excess therapy?

Do you also take any kind of drugs or supplements? Do you do healthy diet too?

Thank you again for sharing n ur infos.
Warm regards,
Linda

|For the joy of the Lord is your strength | A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones| God always leads us to where we need to be, not where we want to be|
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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

Linda – I expect your neurologist will NOT order the insulin test for you – this kind of test is not in his area of expertise. I think your GP or an endocrinologist is more likely to order it. It is one of the least expensive blood tests.

I have not succeeded in decreasing my insulin level; there is no medication to lower the level; there is no "excess insulin therapy"; diet is the only recognized method for reducing the insulin level – nothing has worked for me. I take no MS drugs; I have used many supplements for many years with no change. I follow a very healthy diet – extremely low carb, no processed sugar, no caffeine, etc. I am now reading about anti-inflammatory diet and will try that next.
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by Anonymoose »

Lyndacarol,
Have you tried hibiscus tea for your insulin resistance?
http://naturalmedicinejournal.com/artic ... rticle=215
Hibiscus extract was also studied in 222 patients—some with and some without metabolic syndrome (MS).35 A total daily dose of 100 mg H. sabdariffa extract powder (HSEP) was given for 1 month to men and women, 150 without MS and 72 with MS. Participants were randomly assigned to a preventive diet, HSEP treatment or diet combined with HSEP treatment. The MS patients receiving HSEP had significantly reduced glucose, total cholesterol and LDLc and increased HDLc. A triglyceride lowering effect was seen in all groups but was only significant in the control group that was treated with diet. The triglyceride/HDL-c ratio was also significantly reduced with HSEP in the control and MS groups, indicating an improvement in insulin resistance. It has been hypothesized that the anthocyanins regulate adipocyte function, which has important implications for both preventing and treating metabolic syndrome.
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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

Thank you for this information, Anonymoose. I have not tried hibiscus tea, but it is on the grocery list now; I will be trying it soon. Thanks again.
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by ljelome »

Dear lyndacarol,
Fyi, i just got my fasting insulin level tested. It was 6.14 mikroU/mL and my fasting blood glucose was 95 mg/dL.
Would like to hear from you.
Thank u.

Regards,
Linda
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by jimmylegs »

hi lj, sorry to jump in on you LC but I happened to be on..

refer to http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-d ... c1878.html and you can find LC's posted optimal range for fasting insulin: (4-7)

elevated glucose could be another indicator of insufficient zinc.

posting this study b/c it ties in poor zinc status and elevated glucose:

Maternal myo-inositol, glucose, and zinc status is associated with the risk of offspring with spina bifida
http://www.researchgate.net/publication ... 053d3c.pdf

(note that elevated RBC (erythrocyte) zinc is an indicator of overall zinc deficiency).
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lyndacarol
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Re: Insulin--Could This Be the Key?

Post by lyndacarol »

ljelome wrote:Fyi, i just got my fasting insulin level tested. It was 6.14 mikroU/mL and my fasting blood glucose was 95 mg/dL.
Would like to hear from you.
Thank u.

Regards,
Linda
http://www.mercola.com/nutritionplan/index2.html

Factor #1: Your Insulin Level
Insulin and leptin are absolutely essential to staying alive, but the sad fact is that most of you reading this have too much, and it is pushing you towards chronic degenerative illness and increasing the rate at which you age.

Most adults have about one gallon of blood in their bodies and are quite surprised to learn that in that gallon, there is only one teaspoon of sugar! You only need one teaspoon of sugar at all times -- if that. If your blood sugar level were to rise to one tablespoon of sugar you would quickly go into a hyperglycemic coma and die.

Your body works very hard to prevent this by producing insulin to keep your blood sugar at the appropriate level. Any meal or snack high in grain and sugar carbohydrates typically generates a rapid rise in blood glucose. To compensate for this your pancreas secretes insulin into your bloodstream, which lowers your blood sugar to keep you from dying.

However, if you consume a diet consistently high in sugar and grains, over time your body becomes "sensitized" to insulin and requires more and more of it to get the job done. Eventually, you become insulin and leptin resistant, and then diabetic.

If you have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, or are overweight, it is highly likely that you are eating too many grains -- yes, even unrefined whole grains -- as this is the most common culprit causing your insulin level to become abnormal.

Compounding the problem, when your insulin and leptin levels rise due to an excess of carbohydrates, they send your body a hormonal message telling it to store fat while holding on to the fat that is already there. So not only will excess carbohydrates make you overweight, they will effectively hamper your weight loss efforts too.

Your Fasting Blood Insulin Test
To find out your insulin and leptin levels, you need to get tested by your doctor. The test you need to ask for is a fasting blood insulin and leptin test, The tests are done by just about every commercial laboratory and the insulin test is relatively inexpensive.

Facts about Your Fasting Insulin Test:
o This test is profoundly useful. It's one of the least expensive tests in traditional medicine, yet it is one of the most powerful. A normal fasting blood insulin level is below 5, but ideally you'll want to be below 3.
o You can safely ignore the reference ranges from the lab as they are based on "normals" of a population that has highly-disturbed insulin levels.
o This is a great test to do BEFORE you start your program as you can use it to assess how well you are progressing in the program.
o If your level is above 5 you will want to consider significantly reducing most sugars and grains, even whole wheat grains, until you lower your level. Once you've normalized your insulin level you can reintroduce grains into your diet at a lower level to optimize your health.
o Exercise is of enormous benefit in improving the sensitivity of your insulin and leptin receptors, and to help normalize your insulin level far more quickly.
My hypothesis: excess insulin (hyperinsulinemia) plays a major role in MS, as developed in my initial post: http://www.thisisms.com/forum/general-discussion-f1/topic1878.html "Insulin – Could This Be the Key?"
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