Enhance Your Insulin Action with Physical Activity

Insulin is a hormone that is released from your pancreas that assists your muscles and fat cells in taking up blood sugar (glucose). Insulin resistance results when what is released fails to have the same glucose-lowering effect, often leading to the development of type 2 diabetes and other metabolic disorders. Being insulin resistant due to PCOS, metabolic syndrome or excess body weight resulting from a sedentary lifestyle also puts you at risk for diabetes and its related health problems. Thus, it is vital that you learn to improve your insulin action and lower your body's levels of inflammation (which is directly linked to lower insulin action) to prevent or lower the risk of these and other health problems.

If your body's cells are sensitive to insulin, you will need only relatively small amounts of it to keep your blood sugar in a normal range (70-99 mg/dl), but when you're insulin resistant, you will need substantially more insulin to accomplish this. Having high levels of insulin, though, may contribute to heart disease via systemic inflammation caused by the release of cytokines, which are additionally associated with high blood pressure, obesity (particularly abdominal), thinning bones and common cancers like colon, breast, and prostate. Having a low fasting insulin level (assuming it is not the result of a deficiency) is associated with greater longevity and most 100-year-olds without diabetes exhibit this trait.

Luckily, you can improve the action of your insulin by being more regularly active. In fact, physical activity likely has the greatest ability to improve your insulin action and lower your circulating levels of insulin. All types of physical activity have this potential. The benefit from aerobic workouts like walking, cycling and swimming comes primarily from using muscle glycogen (stored glucose in your muscles) during the activity. In general, exercising longer and/or harder uses more. While your body works to restore the glycogen afterwards (which can take up to 48 hours), your insulin action is generally heightened.

Both aerobic and resistance training improve insulin action, but the benefits of resistance work are more related to increases in your overall muscle mass. Muscles have a limit to how much glucose they can store, and having more muscle enhances your storage capacity. For either type of exercise, regular workouts are critical for sustaining insulin action and lowering your body's levels of systemic inflammation, even without weight loss. For best results, try a combination of aerobic and resistance training.

In addition to exercising regularly, choose foods that are high in nutrients - including fiber, vitamins, minerals, natural antioxidants and phytonutrients - and possibly supplement with selected vitamins, minerals, and/or other nutraceuticals that can enhance how well your insulin works. In addition, eat foods that are lower in calories, refined sugars and flour to get the most benefit.

Your insulin action is also improved by getting enough sleep, controlling your emotional stress levels (which exercise also lowers) and reducing your body's level of low-grade, systemic inflammation through regular physical activity and better food choices (i.e., more natural, less refined products) as well.

Remember that the enhancement of your insulin action can be largely accomplished through regular physical activity, and most metabolic health problems are preventable and treatable with lifestyle improvements with exercise, along with improvements in diet and nutrition, effective stress management and use of selected nutraceuticals and prescribed medications. Get started with your healthier lifestyle today, and remember to add in extra steps and movement throughout your day for even better results.

– Sheri R. Colberg, PhD, FACSM