I just read a blog where this was mentioned. Are there signs to tell you if your insulin is right for you or even if it’s working to it’s best or the way it should? Even though I have been a D for 8 months now I still dont know a lot especially since I’ve only ever done what I was told w/o really knowing about this stuff.
Thanks,
Amy:)
How did you know though? The moodiness and being cranky?
amy:)
For me (a T1), it was a huge BG spike after meals. I had to take a huge amount of insulin to even be anywhere close to being in range. I would still be in the 250-300 range at 2hrs.
Weight gain is also a sign of insulin resistance, esp in T2s
read wikipedia, that’s what i was told to do by a type 2’er…
in all seriousness they say that insulin resistance is caused by fat deposits in the liver. they build up and destroy the receptors on your cells that “let in” insulin. it is proven that exercise is one of the best ways to cure insulin resistance because it reverses this action…obviously exercising reduces fat. insulin resistance is most often found in type 2 diabetics. as of yet, i don’t really know anyone who is type one that is “insulin resistant”. good luck!!
Hello Amy , I just read your profile and type of work you do : LETTER CARRIER good on you …you get to walk , walk and walk . This most likely will help you not becoming resistant to insulin
my boyfriend is a mail carrier too 
You can have antibodies to certain types of insulin that will cause resistance without any obvious weight problems. This happened to me after years of using Humalog. It was also causing more irritation at the pump infusion sites than Apidra does now.
Diabetes. . .one challenge after another.
Lots of confusion here!
Weight gain RESULTS from Insulin resistance because IR causes us to need a lot more insulin to cover the same amount of carbs as a normal person would. Insulin is a fat building hormone and when it isn’t pushing glucose into cells it is still building fat.
You can tell if you are IR by how much insulin it takes to lower a set amount of carbohydrate and how much basal you need…
A person who is insulin resistant may need as much as 30 units of insulin to cover a meal. They may use 100 units of lantus for basal.
A person who is insulin sensitive may need only 3 units to cover the same meal and 10 units of basal.
When blood sugar goes over 180 mg/dl, however, we start to become more insulin resistant. Lowering blood sugar to normal levels will reduce that kind of insulin resistance.
Also, using TOO MUCH insulin may cause IR too as our body fights hypos.
Increasing age makes people more IR too even without diabetes.
If you are diagnosed as Type 2 and metformin doesn’t make any difference in your blood sugar, you probably aren’t insulin resistant. Ditto Avandia or Actos (dangerous drugs you should avoid). Januvia, Byetta, gliclazide, amaryl, precose, prandin and starlix don’t affect insulin resistance.
i got this info at wikipedia…hope it helps, it’s pretty easy to understand:
"Symptoms of IR
- Fatigue.
- Brain fogginess and inability to focus. Sometimes the fatigue is physical, but often it is mental.
- High blood sugar.
- Intestinal bloating. Most intestinal gas is produced from carbohydrates in the diet. Insulin resistance sufferers who eat carbohydrates sometimes suffer from gas.
- Sleepiness. Many people with insulin resistance get sleepy immediately after eating a meal containing more than 20% or 30% carbohydrates.
- Weight gain, fat storage, difficulty losing weight. For most people, too much weight is too much fat. The fat in IR is generally stored in and around abdominal organs in both males and females. It is currently suspected that hormonal effects from such fat are a precipitating cause of insulin resistance.
- Increased blood triglyceride levels.
- Increased blood pressure. Many people with hypertension are either diabetic or pre-diabetic and have elevated insulin levels due to insulin resistance. One of insulin’s effects is on arterial walls throughout the body.
- Depression. Because of the deranged metabolism resulting from insulin resistance, psychological effects are not uncommon. Depression is said to be the prevalent psychological symptom."
also…
“In an insulin-resistant person, normal levels of insulin do not have the same effect on muscle and adipose cells, with the result that glucose levels stay higher than normal. To compensate for this, the pancreas in an insulin-resistant individual is stimulated to release more insulin. The elevated insulin levels have additional effects (see insulin) which cause further biological effects throughout the body.”
"Various disease states make the body tissues more resistant to the actions of insulin. Examples include infection (mediated by the cytokine TNFα) and acidosis. Recent research is investigating the roles of adipokines (the cytokines produced by adipose tissue) in insulin resistance. Certain drugs may also be associated with insulin resistance (e.g., glucocorticoids).
Insulin itself can lead to insulin resistance; every time a cell is exposed to insulin, the production of GLUT4 (type four glucose receptors) on the cell’s membrane is decreased.[2] This leads to a greater need for insulin, which again leads to fewer glucose receptors. Exercise reverses this process in muscle tissue,[3] but if left unchecked, it can spiral into insulin resistance."
“Insulin resistance is often found in people with visceral adiposity (i.e., a high degree of fatty tissue underneath the abdominal muscle wall - as distinct from subcutaneous adiposity or fat between the skin and the muscle wall, especially elsewhere on the body, such as hips or thighs).”
“First, unlike subcutaneous adipose tissue, visceral adipose cells produce significant amounts of proinflammatory cytokines such as tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-a), and Interleukins-1 and -6, etc. In numerous experimental models, these proinfammatory cytokines profoundly disrupt normal insulin action in fat and muscle cells, and may be a major factor in causing the whole-body insulin resistance observed in patients with visceral adiposity.” (a little confusing i know)
“Second, visceral adiposity is related to an accumulation of fat in the liver, a condition known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). The result of NAFLD is an excessive release of free fatty acids into the bloodstream (due to increased lipolysis), and an increase in hepatic glucose production, both of which have the effect of exacerbating peripheral insulin resistance and increasing the likelihood of type-2 diabetes.”
“The cause of the vast majority of cases of insulin resistance remains unknown. There is clearly an inherited component, as sharply increased rates of insulin resistance and Type 2 diabetes are found in those with close relatives who have developed Type 2 diabetes.”
“The primary treatment for insulin resistance is exercise and weight loss.”
“Both metformin and the thiazolidinediones improve insulin resistance, but are only approved therapies for type 2 diabetes, not insulin resistance, per se. By contrast, growth hormone replacement therapy may be associated with increased insulin resistance.[13] Metformin has become one of the more commonly prescribed medications for insulin resistance, and currently a newer drug, exenatide (marketed as Byetta), is being used.”
there is a lot of other interesting info on that site if you get the chance to read it
Amanda -
I don’t want to fight with you - I’ve seen enough of your posts to know that you seem to like to create some controversy and hostility. But I just have to speak up and say that, frankly, I could give a crap what wikipedia says - it is NOT the end all, be all of facts. As their tag line says…Welcome to Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
Jenny has been researching these subjects for years and is well respected by most people familiar with her work. Maybe you should give her web site a try http://www.phlaunt.com/diabetes/ - and read her book. But it’s not just her research and her writing that are respected - it’s that those of us who have educated ourselves with the information she has gathered - including the additional resources she suggests - have seen dramatic improvements in our health AND have felt empowered to control our diabetic health.
Finally - nothing about diabetes is “easy to understand” - and - we are all so different that making blanket statements about “if we do this, then that will happen” is just naive and sounds unkindly judgmental. If what you are doing works for you, then great - but please refrain from giving people the impression that if they would just exercise and lose weight, all their problems would be solved.
Very well said, Cheri.
i’m sorry, it’s all sited. i don’t believe i use hostility either, i just tell my opinion. hostility to me is cursing and punching and such. i also didn’t say the condition was “easy to understand” but the way it is written is easy to understand compared to some things i have read. i still don’t understand insulin resistance even after researching a lot. in fact i was told by someone who was insulin resistant on this site to read wikipedia. i’m not telling anyone to do anything i’m just stating proven facts of science. i’ve been dealing with this disease for 17 years now and i know everyone is different. i have a best friend who has been diabetic for 19 years and what works for her doesn’t work for me and vice versa. i respect jenny, she seems to do a great job on researching and writing and i’m glad she has touched so many lives. it’s great that there are role models like her and people like her to draw inspiration from. also from the small amount of “contoversal” posts i’ve made…maybe 3 out of the 100 or so everyone seems to jump on my back before i jump on theirs. why can’t people just be nice and patient and explain things instead?? why don’t you tell me what you experience with insulin resistance, if you have the condition, so i can learn?? i’m sorry to offend you so much. i won’t offer my opinions here anymore.
hello Cheri ,
I have been living with type 1 diabetes for over 26 years …always was very aware about weight gain ( and possibly become insulin resistant …did not even have a computer to research, ha , ha ) and kept my body moving and still do at age 68 plus .What I think Amanda is getting at is the FACT , that North Americans are getting heavier , consequently become insulin resistant and may set them selves up to get type 2 diabetes. . The records show this…visit the WHO , IDF and other websites . NO SECRET …I am seeing it in my own family …so indeed as Jenny teaches us " the CURE " is watch your carb intake AND include exercise and start when you are young , not 75 years of age. , because you may have no eye sight , arthritis , just a sore body to move .Lets coach and empower our younger generation what NOT TO DO , rather than attacking one of our members …And by the way exercise takes commitment , so does eating low carb and choosing healthy food choices .
Hi Amanda -
No one wants you to go away. We all need to support each other and bend over backwards to do so.
I’m sorry if I came off scolding - it’s just that after several posts from you that seemed to want to argue or discount what Jenny had to say, I guess I felt the need to say something. I owe A LOT to Jenny. If I hadn’t discovered her information, I doubt I would still be here.
I’ll share my information below, in response to nel’s post.
Please stay with us.
Hi Nel -
I’m not a type 1 - I’m a type 2 and have been for over 15 years. I am and have been insulin resistant to different degrees at different times…and sometimes it’s not obvious why that is.
Absolutely T2 is on the rise - we are becoming an increasingly obese society, absolutely overloaded with unhealthy carbs. However, what gets frustrating is having all T2 diabetics being lumped into the same bucket. There are many different types of diabetes (even within the T2 category). I am near normal weight (still working to lose the pounds that RX caused before I found Jenny’s site) and I exercise regularly - and I am on an extremely low-carb diet. There’s no lack of commitment here.
The fact is, autoimmune disease is all through my family - diabetes (including gestational) and hypothyroidism (another autoimmune disease) exist on both sides of my family - and most are near normal weight. So, genetics played a huge role. Point being, it’s not all about - we got fat, so we got diabetes. I’m tired of hearing that.
I apologize for seeming to “attack” Amanda - as I stated above - I think I was responding cumulatively to some of her other posts.
Thanks much. I dont feel that I am, I was just curious. Seems I’m taking more insulin lately. Why, I have no idea? Thouhgt I might be getting used to the humalog or something?
Amy:)
So is there a test or something the doc can do?
I am T1. Basal is the insulin I take at night??? If so I take 16 units at night of Levenir. And who knows how much humalog all day long. Nothing like those high numbers you said. It just seems I need more humalog than before. Just wondering why.
maybe you are eating more or coming off a honeymoon period since you were just recently diagnosed. i remember months after i was diagnosed we had to keep raising my fast acting insulin to cover my food. it seemed like we kept going up and up but it finally leveled out.