Insulin
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Summary of Insulin
Insulin is a hormone in the body secreted from the Pancreas, and is known as the Master regulator of carbohydrate metabolism. It works in concert with its sister hormone, Glucagon, and a host of other hormones to regulate blood sugar levels in the body and protect from an excess of blood sugar (hyperglycemia) or too low a level of blood sugar (hypoglycemia).
It is mostly an anabolic hormone, meaning it acts to build molecules and tissues. It has some catabolic properties though (catabolis as in acting to destroy molecules and tissues to provide energy).
When active, insulin and the actions of the proteins under its control can be summed up with having two main actions:
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Causing a flux of nutrients into the liver, fat, and muscle; to get said nutrients out of the blood
Causing a metabolic shift towards carbohydrates, favoring them as fuel, and thus minimizing usage of both fats and proteins for energy
It is increased in response to the diet. Most notably carbohydrates and the a lesser extent proteins. In contrast to many hormones, Insulin is one that is highly responsive to diet and lifestyle; manipulating insulin levels through one's diet and lifestyle is common in diet strategies.
It is essential to survival, and those who do not produce any or insufficient levels of insulin must inject it otherwise (Type I Diabetics).
Insulin has a phenomena known as 'Insulin Sensitivity' which can be summed up as 'The amount of action a single molecule of insulin can exert inside a cell'. The more insulin sensitivity you have, the less overall insulin you need to exert the same effect. A large scale and prolonged state of insulin insensitivity is what is known as Type II diabetes (among other co-morbidities).
Insulin is neither bad nor good from a health and body composition perspective. It has certain roles in the body and activating it may or may not be beneficial for particular individuals, but may also be wondrous for others. Typically sedentary obese persons would be wise to limit insulin secretion while power athletes or relatively lean athletic individuals would be wise to use carbohydrate timing strategies to maximize the effects of insulin.
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Human Effect Matrix
The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect insulin.
| Grade | Level of Evidence [show legend] |
|---|---|
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Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials |
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Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled |
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Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies |
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Uncontrolled or observational studies only |
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Level of Evidence
?
The amount of high quality evidence. The more
evidence, the more we can trust the results.
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Supplement |
Magnitude of effect
?
The direction and size of the supplement's impact on
each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.
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Consistency of research results
?
Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or
VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.
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Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
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- | Moderate See all 19 studies |
Somewhat similar to the influence on insulin sensitivity, the reductions in fasting insulin concentrations in diabetics appear to exist in some studies but are highly unreliable.
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Notable
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High See all 21 studies |
While not necessarily more potent than all control diets, studies have generally found a notably larger reduction in fasting insulin, independently of weight loss. The average insulin levels throughout the day tend to be lower on a ketogenic diet as well.
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Notable
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Very High See all 3 studies |
A decrease in postprandial insulin has been noted with acute supplementation, which is thought to be secondary to the reduction in glucose absorption (as the two correlate highly). There are currently no studies assessing long term changes in fasting insulin
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NERD Articles
Frequently Asked Questions and Articles on Insulin
Click here to see all 106 references.
