Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

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My wife just was diagnosed with insulin resistance despite she does low carb paleo. We were shocked with the results... She is pretty lean and apparently healthy. Any other causes than bad eating habits??

flag	asked Apr 4 2012 at 16:08 jpbentin 43●4

Dave S. · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-04 16:18:22Z UTC

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A low carb diet will tend to put you into a state of physiological (or muscular) insulin resistance. This is not the same as true (diabetic) insulin resistance. It's caused by a higher level of free fatty acids in the blood. Three days of eating more carbs (say >100 grams) should allow a healthy (non-diabetic) person to reverse this state. You could have the doctor retest after that and see what's going on.

Peter has a great post on this:

http://high-fat-nutrition.blogspot.com/search/label/Physiological%20insulin%20resistance%20%281%29

answered Apr 4 2012 at 16:18

Dave S.
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Thank you! We will do the retest and update on the results. – jpbentin Apr 4 2012 at 16:30

The problem is that it is causing PCOS. Then we need to pickup the carbs and raise physical activity, right? – jpbentin Apr 4 2012 at 16:33

Was this an oral glucose tolerance test? (OGTT) – Dave S. Apr 4 2012 at 16:39

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Ugh, OGTT while LCing is a bad, bad idea. Many folks recommend eating at least 150g of carbs for the 3 days before an OGTT so that peripheral IR is not an issue. I don't know enough about PCOS; I'd ask another question .. I'm sure there are some LCers here with PCOS who could advise you! – Beth-WeightMaven Apr 4 2012 at 17:10

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I gotta go with Beth on this one. An OGTT for a low carber is a retarded test. Did the Doc know you were LC? Me - I would just ignore this - I don't see any point in trying to "pass" an OGTT test even if you're not low carb. And if the Dr. knew you were, either he is stupid or trying to trap you. Use the search function for PCOS or ask for more help if you don't find what you need. The idea of carbing up to pass an OGTT makes no sense to me. (I'm not a doctor, I'm not a doctor...) – Dave S. Apr 4 2012 at 17:23

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Patches · Answer 2 · 2012-12-02 10:46:53Z UTC

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Insulin resistance can be hereditary in a small number of cases and not caused by diet. She may have been IR all along and not had noticeable symptoms for whatever reason. I would seek out an endocronologist who specialises in PCOS.

answered Dec 2 at 10:46

Patches

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Atkins-witha-loincloth · Answer 3 · 2012-04-05 06:20:41Z UTC

PCOS can occur in both overweight and not-overweight women. The insulin resistance is part of the disorder. It is one of the prominent constellation of symptoms of PCOS. Low carb is the diet of choice for her treatment. Insulin resistance is not the cause of her PCOS.

Read and self educate about PCOS carefully and take in information given to you by others carefully.Always include in questions concerning your wife's health that she has PCOS. Upping carbs in the belief that low carb eating is causing your wife's PCOS will not be helpful.

I believe the following series will be helpful to you. The disease progresses and is serious. Weight gain which may not have originally been an issue can become an issue.

http://women.webmd.com/tc/polycystic-ovary-syndrome-pcos-symptoms

igel · Answer 4 · 2012-04-04 23:43:26Z UTC

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isn't it a common knowledge that you should carb-up for some days prior to such tests?

answered Apr 4 2012 at 23:43

igel
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Apparently not, right? – jpbentin Apr 4 2012 at 23:59

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igel, probably best to use the Comment option in future for comments & leave the Answer option for actual answers to the question....just saying – daz Apr 5 2012 at 0:29

Jazzbay · Answer 5 · 2012-04-04 19:37:23Z UTC

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You can go higher carb to re-do the test, but then go back on a low carb diet for PCOS. The higher carb is only temporary to make the docs happy. That test is based on the "average" diet of higher carb.

answered Apr 4 2012 at 19:37

Jazzbay
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Beth-WeightMaven · Answer 6 · 2012-04-04 16:15:39Z UTC

This is probably a feature, not a bug. Let Peter@HyperLipid explain:

Well, the first thing is that LC eating rapidly induces insulin resistance. This is a completely and utterly normal physiological response to carbohydrate restriction. Carbohydrate restriction drops insulin levels. Low insulin levels activate hormone sensitive lipase. Fatty tissue breaks down and releases non esterified fatty acids. These are mostly taken up by muscle cells as fuel and automatically induce insulin resistance in those muscles. ...

This is patently logical as muscle runs well on lipids and so glucose can be left for tissues such as brain, which really need it.

Whether or not your wife's IR is physiological or pathological is for you and your doctors to determine, but it's not necessarily a problem.

Insulin Resistance on low carb?

6 Answers