Improving insulin sensitivity will be your priority if any of the following applies to you.
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The critical piece of the puzzle
In most tissues, adequate insulin secretion is necessary for proper cellular glucose uptake, disposal and management. When normal insulin action is impaired, the cell does not hear the message and it compensates for this impairment by secreting a larger amount of insulin (hyperinsulinemia) to maintain near-normal blood sugar levels. This reduced sensitivity of the cell to the action of insulin is referred to as insulin resistance or insensitivity.
Insulin resistance and the resultant hyperinsulinemia are surprisingly common and may be seen in as many as 25% of a normal non-diabetic population. Insulin resistance may be the single most important underlying metabolic dysfunction related to various chronic conditions, especially the infertility epidemic in developed societies. Achieving insulin balance is a critical piece of the puzzle.
Insulin, the master hormone
Insulin’s role is not really to manage blood sugar per se. Insulin’s function has been to preserve our bodies in the event of a famine. As a nutrient sensor in origin, its purpose is to monitor and detect certain excess nutrients in the bloodstream and put them into storage for later use. In the modern environment with pure calorific excess and abundant sugar and starch which offer exceedingly little structural value, strong insulin response is evoked constantly. A mechanism that graced us with survivability for millennia now threatens the functionality of every organ system in the body.
Insulin is the master hormone essential for life but, at the same time, it is the single most powerful driver of rapid ageing, fat storage and metabolic diseases.
How insulin is relevant to your fertility and pregnancy maintenance
Throughout evolution, mechanisms have been developed to integrate environmental, nutritional and hormonal cues in order to guarantee reproduction in favourable energetic conditions but inhibit it in the case of food scarcity. Insulin resistance with a high insulin level is the biggest contributor to hormonal imbalance and the biggest obstacle to pregnancy as the body cannot allocate the necessary energy and fuel for reproduction. Pro-inflammatory insulin resistance profoundly affects the intricate reproductive system wherever you are positioned on the fertility-infertility spectrum.
Insulin resistance contributes to infertility through a number of mechanisms
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