5 Supplements to Help Reduce Insulin Resistance and Improve Health

I am prediabetic. I notice that my blood sugar on a CGM spikes more on foods that it used to not spike on since I removed all the fruit and other carbs that normally it spikes on. Can anyone direct me to information that might help me understand this and what to do about it? Another weird thing is if I exercise between meals when my blood glucose is good, the exercise makes it go up. Info on why and what to do to keep it on a nice even run? Seems the more I try to focus and do everything right a new leak springs! Which supplement would help with the seemingly extra sensitivity. I can have a good blood sugar reading 30-40 minutes after eating and yet if it has gone up more than 18 pts from my pre-meal level I get overwhelmingly sleepy. Is there something I can do to not experience this sleepy feeling. Would one of the supplements help with this?

Deb,

GSE and GSPE are the same thing. I mainly use GSPE so that there is no confusion between it and Grapefruit Seed Extract which is referred to as GSE.

Art

Hi Art,

Is GSPE the same thing as GSE (grape seed extract)? I want to make sure I get the correct thing. TIA

Insulin resistance is a canary in a coal mine.

The concept of insulin resistance is relatively easy to understand, but determining precisely who is insulin resistant is more complicated. The relationship between glucose and insulin is quite complex and involves the interaction of many metabolic and regulatory factors. The hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp technique is the most scientifically sound technique for measuring insulin sensitivity, and it's against this standard that all other tests are usually compared.

Looms,

Regarding me saying that people should gorge on flesh, well, I simply never said that in what I wrote and I don't know where you got that from. I mentioned that eating a healthy diet is helpful as is exercise for reducing insulin resistance.

The article was about the prevalence of Insulin Resistance (IR) in people in general and how to potentially treat that condition, not just for diabetics and it was not really focused on treating diabetes. There are diabetics who are not insulin resistant and there are many more non diabetics who are insulin resistant and that is where I was directing this.

Yes, a vegan diet can reduce IR and diabetes, but clearly, many people are not going to give up meat products. So these 5 supplements offer other practical options for most people who are insulin resistant. Up to 46.5% of adult people in the world are thought to be insulin resistant which shows how big of a problem IR is worldwide. Compared to diabetics in the world at just 9.3% it becomes much clearer how serious a problem insulin resistance is. Add to this the fact that doctors don't regularly test for IR and it emphasizes the importance of being proactive if you have one or more of these symptoms that I listed in the original post :

• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Being overweight or obese
• Skin tags, especially around the neck or groin
• High cholesterol levels
• High triglyceride levels
• Fatty liver
• Prediabetes or diabetes
• Enlarged prostate
• Heart disease
• Polycystic ovarian syndrome (abnormal periods)

Clearly insulin resistance goes well beyond just diabetes and being aware of the signs and symptoms as well as being aware of steps you can take to ameliorate IR is of significant importance for our health and that is part of the reason why I regularly take 4 of the 5 supplements listed and why I wrote about it, to share this information with the EC community, visitors and readers.

Art

I found the diet part quite silly, to suggest to gorge on flesh. Everyone knows that one can drop our rates of diabetes by over 50% by avoiding animal foods. That's been shown over and over in so many studies and is mainstream knowledge now.

Hi Donna, This is exactly what I believe. I also had significant changes in the numbers by intermittent fasting. I've had tremendous success with low carb lifestyle (basically keto) not only affecting my weight but consequently all my numbers into a healthy range. However, I've since remarried a foodie and now 15 years later I've regained the weight but fighting it with weight bearing exercise and next will be good bye bread, pasta, rice, potatoes and sweets. Good luck to you!

I've tried all the supplements, i.e. berberine, gymnema, chromium, vanadium, magnesium, Vit D, but none have kept my BS down. The only answer is the keto diet and exercise, especially exercise (not heavy exercise), as muscle creates metabolites, and as you lose muscle, you develop metabolic syndrome, which drives up BS, triglycerides and BP. It's not an easy problem to fix.

Debbie,

Your daughter has quite a few health issues going on. The berberine will also be very helpful for her diabetes to lower her blood sugar, HbA1c, oxidative stress levels and act as a heart, liver and kidney protectant among other things. Berberine has also shown synergy with some prescription medications used for diabetes. I previously wrote about the value of berberine in diabetes here :

https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/berberine-for-diabetes.html

The magnesium, aside from its many uses by the body, will also be good for her diabetes which I previously wrote about here :

https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/magnesium-for-diabetes-art-solbrig.html

Since she has had a heart attack, melatonin would be very useful and I previously wrote about the protective effects of melatonin in cardiovascular disease here :

https://www.earthclinic.com/cures/melatonin-for-cardiovascular-disease.html

Obviously vitamin D is going to be important for all of us as most people are insufficient or deficient and supplementing to bring her 25 OH d level into the optimal range will be important to improve her insulin sensitivity. You said your daughter is obese and this will likely require higher dosing of vitamin D which her doctor can monitor to get her 25 OH d level into the upper half of the reference range of 30~100 ng/ml.

The Grape Seed Proanthocyanidin Extract (GSPE) will help with insulin resistance and offer protective effects for her heart.

Most importantly, because of your daughter's current medical conditions, it is imperative that she have her doctor approve her use of each of these supplements and to make sure that they will not conflict with any of the medications she is taking.

Art

I'm interested if anyone knows of a combo of these supplements? My 38 year old daughter is diabetic with high blood pressure, obesity and several other symptoms listed in the article. She recently had a heart attack!!!! She's in the process of figuring how to have a healthier lifestyle. I want to send her these supplements and I know the fewer pills she has to swallow the more likely she'll stick with it.