What is Insulin Resistance? 


Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas, which helps cells take in glucose from the bloodstream. However, sometimes cells stop responding to insulin, leading to insulin resistance. To compensate for this, the body produces more insulin, but over time, this can lead to pre-diabetes and eventually diabetes.


Why Should We Care? 


Dealing with insulin resistance is important because it’s often the first step towards preventing health issues like diabetes, heart disease, and weight gain. Diagnosing and implementing the right protocol for each individual is critical to help you to implement the critical lifestyle changes that are required to reverse this lifestyle disease


How can you treat insulin resistance?


Move Your Body: Regular exercise helps our cells respond better to insulin. Any activity helps – dancing, walking the dog, playing soccer – find something you love!


Eat Smart: A balanced diet with lots of fiber, good protein, and healthy fats is key. Think whole foods like fruits, veggies, lean meats, and nuts!


Stay on Top of Your Weight: If you are overweight, losing a bit of weight, especially around the abdomen, can make a huge difference in beating insulin resistance. Men should aim for a waist circumference under 40 inches and women should aim for under 35 inches.


Get Good Sleep: We all love a good snooze, right? Aim for 7-9 hours of solid sleep – it can really help in keeping our insulin in check. Prioritize your sleep and make it a critical part of your health.


Keep calm and carry on: Stress is a sneaky culprit behind insulin resistance. Find your zen with hobbies, meditation, breathing exercises, yoga, mindfulness and exercise.


Regular checkups and blood tests can help catch any issues early on. I recommend annual testing for the following tests:

  • HbA1C (I want my patients to aim for numbers between 5.0-5.5)
  • Fasting Blood glucose (I want my patients to aim for numbers between 5.0-5.5)
  • Cholesterol panel (Triglycerides, LDL, HDL)
  • Liver function tests (AST, ALT, GGT)
  • TG/HDL ratio (calculated using TG and HDL)
  • And sometimes when indicated I also recommend fasting insulin and OGTT
  • HOMA-IR (calculated using fasting glucose and fasting insulin)


If you're interested in speaking with me, I offer free 10 min discovery calls. I'd love to speak to you if you are a resident in Ontario, Canada.


To your health,


Dr. Amy Tung, ND