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Updated on February 22, 2024
Long before you develop type 2 diabetes, your body starts to change in ways that you can’t even see.
These invisible transformations are like alarm bells, setting off the alert that dangerous changes to your health are right around the corner—except you can’t hear them.
One of the most important silent alarm bells is insulin resistance. It’s a common precursor to type 2 diabetes, but if you catch it in time, you just might be able to stop it in its tracks.
Insulin is a powerful hormone that helps regulate blood sugar (also called glucose) in your body (1). Insulin’s role is complex—here are the basics for a healthy individual:
If you develop insulin resistance, the process no longer works properly. Here’s what happens instead:
Most of this goes unnoticed, as that silent alarm continues to blare unheard.
Doctors can conduct several tests to find out whether you have insulin resistance. They can test your fasting insulin level, or they can conduct a test called HOMA-IR, which gauges your blood sugar and insulin levels to estimate whether you’re resistant (8).
One longer way to find out is through an oral glucose tolerance test, which takes a few hours, but will deliver a more direct result. Checking your cholesterol and triglycerides are good ways to determine whether you’re insulin resistant as well (9).
If you’re concerned about whether you have insulin resistance, you should be on the lookout for symptoms of diabetes. These include:
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While there can be many potential causes of insulin resistance, the most common two are excess eating (beyond when you are hungry or what you need for fuel) and an increase in body fat (11, 12). Not everyone with insulin resistance is overweight, though it is most common among people who are (13).
Eating excessive calories or gaining too much body fat can lead to increased fatty acids in the blood, which sometimes causes the body to become insulin-resistant (14). Fatty acids are most likely to be released from belly fat, which can accumulate around your essential organs (15, 16).
Other potential causes of insulin resistance include chronic inflammation, consuming excessive fructose (the kind from added sugars, not fruit), lack of physical exercise, and gut health issues (17, 18, 19, 20, 21).
Potential risk factors of insulin resistance include:
Insulin resistance can lead to prediabetes, and ultimately type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance has also been heavily linked to heart disease (23, 24). It is additionally suspected of being linked to several other serious health conditions (25, 26, 27, 28). However, it doesn’t need to get to this point—there are steps you can take to treat and stop insulin resistance before it leads to potential health issues…
Insulin resistance can often be reversed through a series of lifestyle changes. One of the most common solutions is a low-carb diet (29, 30).
Since your body gets blood sugar from carbs, reducing the number of carbs you eat reduces the amount of blood sugar you’re taking in. In fact, if you’re really into this idea, you can take your low-carb diet to the next level and try the keto diet.
On the keto diet, you reduce your carb intake to the extent that your body must switch over from using blood sugar as energy to using fat as energy (31). When this happens, it means your body is in ketosis. Studies have found that ketosis can fully reverse insulin resistance (32, 33, 34). It can also help you lose weight and feel more full (35)!
Other ways to reduce or reverse insulin resistance include getting regular exercise, reducing how much sugar you eat, quitting smoking, eating whole foods, taking omega-3s, getting better sleep, and managing your stress (36, 37, 38, 39, 40). Along with reducing insulin resistance, habits like these can lead to an overall happier, healthier, and calmer lifestyle.
Native Berberine has 900 milligrams of Barberry Root, plus Goldenseal & Oregon Grape Extract for blood sugar management and metabolic support.
Insulin resistance can be reversed fairly quickly. Some research on reversing insulin resistance follows participants for a year or more, but many are able to kickstart the process within days, and can see some results within a few weeks (41).
Claire Hannum is a New York City-based writer, editor, wellness seeker, and reiki practitioner. Her writing has appeared in Self, Health, Prevention, and over a dozen other publications.
NativePath has strict sourcing guidelines and relies on peer-reviewed studies, academic research institutions, and medical associations. We avoid using tertiary references.
This content is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to provide medical advice or to take the place of such advice or treatment from a personal physician. All readers/viewers of this content are advised to consult their doctors or qualified health professionals regarding specific health questions. Neither Dr. Chad Walding nor the publisher of this content takes responsibility for possible health consequences of any person or persons reading or following the information in this educational content. All viewers of this content, especially those taking prescription or over-the-counter medications, should consult their physicians before beginning any nutrition, supplement, or lifestyle program.
