INSULIN RESISTANCE – PART 4 GASTROINTESTINAL DISEASE

Our digestive tract is one long tube starting where food enters the body and ending where it exits. However, there are several organs along its path that work in coordination to aid in digestion and the absorption of nutrients. All these systems work in conjunction with one another, and insulin resistance can create a lot of problems all along the way.

One of those systems that is probably the most prevalent is acid reflux. In fact, about 40% of adults in the United States experience frequent heartburn. We have a muscle at the lower end of the esophagus that closes off the stomach acid, but sometimes acid can still splash up into the esophagus and we get something known as reflux.

Metabolic syndrome (a cluster of conditions, including high blood pressure, high blood sugar, increased weight around the middle and abnormal triglycerides, LDLs and HDLs) is connected to insulin resistance and is highly-related to esophageal reflux and esophagitis reflux, (inflammation) – both of which damage the esophagus.

If you go further down the G.I. tract, food leaves the stomach and empties into the intestines to be eliminated. In order for that to happen, the gut contracts and relaxes (something known as peristalsis), which moves the contents forward. When peristalsis is compromised, the contents can condense into a hard mass that can block the intestines or create a slow and painful passage of our waste known as gastroparesis.

Diabetic neuropathies are not uncommon. You just don’t think of them in terms of internal nerves, but rather peripheral nerves in your feet and hands. And while excess blood sugar is a likely cause, insulin alone is also a culprit. Testing done using excess insulin has been shown to reduce peristalsis or gut motility by almost 40%.

Bikman states we are unlikely to develop insulin resistance throughout our body without the liver being insulin resistant first. In fact, Bikman feels the liver is one of the first organs to become insulin resistant.

When healthy liver cells sense insulin in the blood, they take up glucose to store for energy later on and to help reduce the glucose in the blood stream, which ultimately helps lower insulin.

Once we are insulin resistant from persistent or chronic high levels of insulin, the liver function is compromised and it starts increasing blood glucose and fat, and also alters our LDL cholesterol size to the smaller, dense particles that can lead to blood vessel hardening and narrowing.

It is estimated that one in three people in the United States have nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and it is increasing every year. More people have this issue than they realize, because it doesn’t manifest clinically in the early stages. To give you an idea of how quickly this disease state has grown, fatty liver was unheard of 30 years ago and is now the most common liver disorder, mostly due to insulin resistance.

One of the greatest contributors to fatty liver is fructose. Studies have shown that after just one week of eating high fructose foods, the liver is noticeably fatter. One week!

This is so important to understand, because fatty liver is a gateway to more serious liver diseases. Fatty liver can inflame your liver and lead to scarring, which will happen to about half of those who have it. One fifth of those people will develop cirrhosis and potential liver failure or liver cancer.

Your gallbladder sits right beneath your liver and works in conjunction with it. Its main job is to store bile created by the liver. The bile emulsifies fat in the intestine so it can be absorbed by the body. When this bile becomes too thick, it can form gallstones. Gallstones happen either because the liver is producing too much cholesterol or the gallbladder is not contracting enough to push bile into the intestines. Insulin resistance is a major culprit that affects both of these issues.

Multiple studies have shown that insulin resistance is a top risk factor for developing gallstones. Insulin actually slows gallbladder motility, so the more insulin resistant you are, the less your gallbladder will contract.

It’s easy to get lost in all the scientific and medical details, but what we really want you to come away with is that how you eat for a lifestyle matters greatly.