What is insulin resistance?

By definition, insulin resistance is a condition in which cells fail to respond appropriately to circulating insulin. The actions of insulin are wide ranging and play critical roles in our survival, thus, there are many reasons we want to avoid losing our response to this hormone.

In regulating blood glucose levels, insulin’s primary job is to shuttle glucose out of the blood and into our cells - its call to action so-to-speak. However, in the case of insulin resistance, our cells get so used to insulin, and insulin slowly has to yell louder and louder in order to be heard. What we mean by this is that gradually, more insulin is required to act on a given amount of circulating glucose. If this scenario is maintained over long periods of time (ie. chronically elevated blood glucose and therefore chronically elevated insulin levels), there is the risk of developing insulin resistance and eventually type-2 diabetes.

Based on insulin’s central role in metabolism, it is of utmost importance that we don’t take it for granted. The ketogenic diet, and low-carbohydrate diets in general, are one strategy to control unwanted surges in blood glucose and thereby may offer a level of protection against insulin resistance.