Prevention:
So what should you do if you want to prevent insulin resistance, diabetes or you have one of these conditions and want to minimize the damage to your body that can happen as a result? First you need to pay attention to your diet. Cut out things like soft drinks that have high amounts of fructose corn syrup in them. Start reading the labels on the foods you buy to see their carbohydrate levels. The carbohydrates you consume should be complex carbohydrates like fruits and vegetables. Complex carbohydrates have their sugars attached to fiber which only allows a certain amount of glucose to enter you blood stream a little at a time while the more starchy and simple carbohydrates flood your system with sugar that creates the damage to the insulin receptors on the cells of your body and makes you have a sugar crash around 11am and 3pm every day. The sugar crash or spike occurs when the insulin has entered your bloodstream and removed all the glucose in your bloodstream. The body uses glucose first before protein and fat are metabolized for energy and when it is all used up, it takes the body about 25 minutes to start utilizing protein and fat, so your body shuts down for 25 minutes unless you give it more sugar to keep going from sugar spike to sugar spike. This is what the morning and afternoon coffee breaks are for at work. It’s no surprise that there are always carbohydrates available during these breaks. Cut down on starchy carbohydrates like potatoes, processed grains like white rice, breads, crackers, pizza, pasta and cookies. Whole grains are fine if they are not ground up but actually eaten whole. This means that whole grain bread will spike your blood sugar levels! The whole grain has fiber attached to the carbohydrates in it that again slow down the rate of glucose entering your bloodstream from your digestive system. There are grains like quinoa and millet or even wheat available at health food stores that are easy to prepare and are quite tasty. For more information on whole grains consult your health food store. Learn recipes to make vegetable dishes more fun by taking cooking classes in your local community. Eat protein in moderate amounts trying to avoid having dinner be your biggest meal of the day. Make dinner a more modest meal and avoid traditional desserts.
Exercise daily, whether it be a walk or an exercise routine. Bicycle riding is very good to maintain lower body circulation and home exercise routines using a ball and an instructive DVD are good suggestions as well. Exercise uses glucose and keeps the cellular glucose transport system that uses glucose operating maximally.
Make sure you eat or take a supplement high in antioxidants. The traditional antioxidants such as Vitamin C, Vitamin E and Vitamin A can be found in supplement form and in your diet. The more specialized antioxidants like proanthocyanidins and bioflavonoids are present in the pigments found in the skins of fruits and vegetables. These specialized antioxidants have an affinity for the nerves and eyes. I prefer that my patients get these from their diet versus a supplement. As previously mentioned, there is one antioxidant supplement that is worth taking by itself and that is R-lipoic acid. It is found in such small amounts in the diet and the more you have present in your body the better the effect. Therefore the supplement form is better in this case. R-lipoic acid is very beneficial for people with insulin resistance or type 2 diabetes. It improves insulin’s functional ability in the body and enables glucose to enter into the body’s cells by additional methods other than insulin transport. So bottom line is it helps glucose enter the cells of the body by a variety of methods. R-lipoic acid also is crucial for making energy in the body and in the process it uses up glucose or sugar in the body. It also acts as a potent antioxidant in the body quelling free radical damage. Free radical damage is responsible for most symptoms of diabetes and of the aging process in general. So R-lipoic acid could also be considered a very good anti-aging supplement as well. A special feature of R-lipoic acid is that it regenerates Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Glutathione and Coenzyme Q10 in the body. These potent antioxidants are rendered useless once they contribute their electrons to stop free radical damage but the R-lipoic acid regenerates them so they can be useful once again. This is very important because higher levels of these antioxidants mean less damage which means quicker healing. R-lipoic acid is also very useful for sufferers of peripheral neuropathy which manifests mainly as pain, numbness and tingling in the feet and lower extremities. R-lipoic acid was shown in a study to actually facilitate the growth of nerve dendrites.
Here is one very important thing you should know as a consumer of r-lipoic acid; some companies have studied the r-alpha lipoic acid research thoroughly and are offering it in the correct form for diabetics and for those with insulin resistance. Most are professional-only companies that distribute through licensed medical professionals, but the brand I recommend is Designs for Health Stabilized R-lipoic Acid. Their product contains a form of the r-alpha lipoic molecule that has an optical purity of 120 degrees which is necessary for optimal benefit. Many other retail forms of r-alpha lipoic acid do not even have this information available. This is available at Physician’s Nutrition in Jupiter 561-743-5320.
Eye problems are also a big problem with diabetics and supplementation with R-lipoic acid can help cataracts, glaucoma and other degenerative eye disorders. There has also been some promising research that shows R-lipoic acid can halt or improve symptoms of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s disease or an age-related loss of cognitive ability.
So the bottom line for preventing insulin, resistance or treating type 2 diabetes is to get regular exercise, clean up your diet, get tested regularly, take your meds as prescribe and add R-lipoic acid to your daily routine. By doing this you will stay healthier and age slower. Not a bad payoff for a little extra effort.
