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Interesting definition of insulin resistance

I hadn't come across the following reasoning before - it seems to make sense:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Malcolm Kendrick, Dec 11, 2019

(Defining insulin sensitivity is a) Major can of worms. I upset the likes of Jason Fung from time to time by informing him that I do not believe there is any such thing as insulin resistance. If there is such a thing, it only occurs in skeletal muscle and the liver. I sometimes think of the process as ‘trying to find somewhere to store glucose, when your glucose/glycogen stores are full.’ These stores only exist in skeletal muscle and the liver.

Anyway, imagine you have no fat cells. A rare condition that some people suffer from. You eat carbohydrates, which are converted to glucose/fructose and sent to the liver. The liver stores about 500Kcals, the the muscles store about 1,000Kcals – you are now full of ‘sugar’ and can store no more. If you eat more, the liver can only convert the sugars to fat (nowhere else for them to go), through a process known as de novo lipogenesis. Then, the fat is sent out from the liver in triglycerides (VLDL molecules). Then, it has nowhere to go, because there are no fat cells to store the fat. Then…. all hell breaks loose.

Every single person with the condition known as Generalised Congenital Lipodystrophy (no fat cells) has type II diabetes. Why, because their energy stores are full. Ergo, people who develop diabetes, do not develop it because they are fat. It is because they reach their limits of energy storage. This is not insulin resistance it is just being full.

"This is not insulin resistance it is just being full." - I see what you did there Dr. Malcolm Kendrick ;)

Ive heard this before. In this context, the fat celos are full and cannot accept more sugar for storage, aka insulin resistant.....cells have stopped responding to insulin.

Which ever....
Bottom line is change the diet to low carb to fix.

And what about people like me, whose fat cells have/had a seemingly infinite capacity to accumulate fat? By his definition, I was never insulin resistant because I was always fat but all other markers were either fine or close to fine.

I think I would differ from Dr Kendrick's view on this. Or maybe this is just a chicken/egg style argument. I agree with him that once your fat cells are full then hello, diabetes. But to me, the insulin resistance is what sets off that process of fat accumulation in the first place.

Tim Noakes has a new series of YouTube videos underway at the moment called It's the Insulin Resistance, Stupid, in which he goes into the details of the mechanism and the historical studies that explain it.

Im working my way thru Dr Noakes very through presentarion. Takes some patience, and breaks.

As for this tid bit .. .

Quote:

process of fat accumulation in the first place

One purpose of insulin is to store the extra glucose. After sending into muscles cells and other locations, the excess is removed from the blood and is stored in a safe place, adipose tissue. This is not a malfuntion, rather a normal process.

The malfunction is when the insulin blood levels goes up as its no longer as effective, and consequently the blood sugar climbs. THEN its so extreme that the body is forced to switch to fat for energy.

When this happened to my cat I got a ring side view of how full blown diabetes kills. Despite buying a very expensive vial of insulin, the instructions from the vet was rather poor, so The cat died within a couple days. Ive spent many hours of study to better understand the biochemistry of IR and diabetes.

More studies are needed.

Reducing insulin levels dramatically is the fix. Even Dr Atkins pointed out high levels of insulin is the cause of arthrochlerosis, in a dog study. Read that 20 yrs ago.....and haunts me. Its not really about glucose levels, its about the insulin levels.