Recent research from The University of Alabama at Birmingham revealed that 40% of young adults in America have insulin resistance. Insulin is a hormone in the body that helps maintain healthy blood sugar levels. People who experience insulin resistance can't respond properly to insulin, making it difficult to use sugar (glucose) in the blood for energy.
Here, we'll dig into everything you need to know about insulin sensitivity, including signs and symptoms of the condition, lifestyle and dietary changes you can make to help improve insulin sensitivity, and more.
What is insulin sensitivity?
Insulin sensitivity refers to how well your cells respond to insulin, the pancreas-produced hormone that helps to transport glucose from your blood to your cells, where it can be used for energy. If you're highly sensitive to insulin, it means that your body needs less of the hormone to lower your blood sugar levels. High insulin sensitivity can help to maintain stable blood sugar and support a healthy metabolism.
Low insulin sensitivity—also known as insulin resistance—means your body needs more insulin to remove sugar from the blood and deliver it to the cells. Symptoms of insulin resistance can vary from person to person and may include fatigue, unexplained weight loss, increased thirst, frequent urination, blurred vision, and increased hunger. Over time, insulin resistance can lead to elevated insulin and blood sugar levels, which can increase your risk of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic conditions.
Risk factors for insulin resistance
Insulin resistance develops over time due to a combination of genetic and lifestyle factors. Being obese, overweight, or sedentary, eating a diet high in sugar and/or processed carbohydrates, and chronic stress can all increase the likelihood of developing insulin resistance. Taking certain medications, like steroids, HIV treatments, and blood pressure medication can also affect your body's insulin sensitivity.
Lifestyle changes to improve insulin sensitivity
Thankfully, there are lifestyle changes that can help to improve insulin sensitivity levels.
Regular exercise
Both aerobic exercise and strength training can help to improve insulin sensitivity. Cardio exercises like cycling, swimming, brisk walking, and jogging can all help to increase the amount of glucose used by the muscles. Strength training (like lifting weights or doing body weight strength-building exercises) can build muscle mass, which can improve the way your body reacts to insulin.
You don't need to spend hours in the gym to experience the positive effects of exercise on insulin sensitivity. Simply going for a short walk after meals can help you improve your body's ability to utilize insulin.
Weight loss
Achieving and maintaining a healthy weight can dramatically improve your body's insulin sensitivity. Even a small change—like losing 5% of your body weight—can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Eating at a slight caloric deficit and losing weight slowly and sustainably—at a rate of about half a pound to two pounds per week—can help you create habits that will stick long after you've achieved a healthy weight.
Stress management
Finding healthy ways to manage stress can be an important part of improving insulin sensitivity. When the body experiences stress, the hormone cortisol is released. This hormone helps the body defend itself against danger by supporting a "fight or flight" response by triggering the pancreas to reduce insulin production, thereby increasing blood sugar levels. While this is helpful when there’s an immediate threat of danger, excessive production of cortisol can lead to many health issues, including digestive problems, anxiety, heart disease, and weight gain.
Quality sleep
People who don't get enough sleep are more likely to develop insulin resistance, according to a 2022 literature review. While research is ongoing, it's thought that adults need to sleep at least seven hours per night.
Try these tips to naturally improve sleep quality:
- Establish a consistent sleep schedule. Try to go to bed and wake up at similar times on both weekdays and weekends.
- Optimize your sleep environment. Keep your room cool, play a white noise machine if it's helpful for you, and keep electronic devices away from your bedside, if possible.
- Use mindfulness to manage stress. Practicing a short meditation before you go to bed can make it easier to fall and stay asleep.
Diets that improve insulin sensitivity
Food can be a powerful tool in helping your body become more sensitive to insulin. Your doctor may ask that you follow a specific dietary approach that makes sense for your needs (for example, if you're prediabetic or have type 2 diabetes, they may recommend diabetes-friendly diets).
Some of the diets that can help improve insulin sensitivity include:
- Mediterranean diet: Focusing on healthy fats, fish, nuts, vegetables, fruits, extra-virgin olive oil, and legumes, a Mediterranean diet is rich in fiber and antioxidants. Research shows that enjoying a Mediterranean eating style can help to increase insulin sensitivity.
- Low-carbohydrate diet: By reducing your carbohydrate intake (specifically carbohydrates that come from refined carbs and sugars), you may be able to improve your body's sensitivity to insulin.
- Plant-based, high-fiber diets: Enjoying foods rich in fiber, such as vegetables, fruits, legumes, and whole grains, can support blood sugar control.
Supplements and medications
Your doctor might recommend adding supplements or medications if you find that you aren't able to improve your insulin sensitivity through diet and lifestyle changes alone.
Some supplements that may work to improve insulin sensitivity include:
- Berberine
- Alpha-lipoic acid
- Vitamin C
- Cinnamon extract
Medications your doctor may prescribe to combat insulin resistance include:
- Metformin: This medication is often the first line of defense for people who have developed type 2 diabetes. It reduces glucose production in the body and improves insulin sensitivity.
- GLP-1 receptor agonists: Medications like semaglutide (sold under brand names like Ozempic and Wegovy) work to reduce glucose production, improve insulin sensitivity, and slow down digestion. These medications work by mimicking a naturally occurring hormone called GLP-1, which causes the pancreas to make more insulin.
Is it possible to reverse diabetes?
Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune condition that cannot be reversed. Remission from type 2 diabetes is possible, however. Typically, diet changes and weight loss go hand in hand when it comes to reversing type 2 diabetes. It's important for people who achieve remission from diabetes to continue with the habits that helped them reverse the condition, as it's always possible for insulin sensitivity to dip again, potentially causing the return of type 2 diabetes symptoms.
When it comes to making healthy lifestyle changes, we're in your corner
If you've recently been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, it's normal to feel overwhelmed at the health and lifestyle changes you need to make to feel your best. At Evidation, our team is here to help. When you download our free app, you'll be asked if you'd like to share any of the health data you're already tracking, such as information from nutrition tracking apps, data from wearable fitness trackers, etc. We analyze multi-source data to find patterns and trends. Then, we use this information to provide you with personalized, content-based insights that can help you make health-related choices that are the right fit for your needs.
No matter where you're at in your health journey, our team is excited to support you. Click here to learn more about how Evidation works and get started with our app today.
