This episode of Bulletproof Radio runs over 90 minutes and definitely will be worth the time you’ll spend listening.
We’re talking about insulin resistance, something that affects half of all adults in the U.S., a lot of our children, and is the leading cause of many common health disorders. Insulin resistance makes you less powerful every day until you get diabetes.
Insulin resistance has been a focus for me for more than 10 years. It's part of the Bulletproof Diet and it's part of my book “Fast This Way.” In fact, fasting is very impactful for this. And I've asked Ben Bikman, Ph.D., a biomedical scientist and pathophysiology professor at Brigham Young University, on the show to talk about why insulin resistance is happening.
Ben’s research focuses on the role of elevated insulin in regulating obesity and diabetes, including the relevance of ketones in mitochondrial function. “Insulin resistance itself will start to affect the degree to which the mitochondria work,” he says.
However, when in balance, insulin is really important to our bodies. “We [speak] about insulin and its role as being a villain, but it's also very much a hero,” Ben says. “It is absolutely essential to survival.”
Why is insulin important?
- It controls blood glucose
- Every cell has insulin receptors, and insulin tells the cell what to do with energy: when to grow, shrink, build or break.
Ben brings new insights into what’s going on with insulin resistance and why we must pay attention to it. He synthesizes the latest research and information in his book, “Why We Get Sick: The Hidden Epidemic at the Root of Most Chronic Disease―and How to Fight It.”
Due to elevated insulin, elevated stress hormones (cortisol and epinephrine) and inflammation, our bodies can become insulin resistant. Most of the population is insulin resistant and are hyper-insulinemic. This means they have metabolic inflexibility and get stuck in sugar-burning mode and never shift to burning fat, making it nearly impossible to burn or lose weight.
“If you are among the majority of people whose brain is yoked to glucose, because your insulin is always high, your glucose is always high, your brain is adapted to only using glucose, and you feel that drop in glucose,” Ben explains. “You will feel the symptoms of hypoglycemia, that carb crash, you will get jittery, you'll get shaky, you'll get anxious, you'll get hungry again even though you just ate 90 minutes ago.”
“It's because your brain is so addicted to glucose,” he continues, “that when it starts to drop and in the absence of ketones, which aren't there in that situation, you have no alternative.”
Listen on to find out how continuous glucose monitoring can allow you to get a better of sense of your body and what you need to be eating. Ben also gives tips on the best things to eat, how to cook (or what to cook with), fasting (of course) and other ways to protect your body from disease and sickness.
This episode will absolutely change your understanding of insulin resistance.
Enjoy! And get more resources at Dave.Asprey/podcasts.
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