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The 8% Newsletter

Ever wonder what insulin actually is and what it does? How about why problems in your pancreas arise? Or what magnesium has to do with any of it? Well 8%er, you’re in for a ride for this week’s edition on insulin. So, like Yusuf Dikec in this year's Olympics, let’s nail what this insulin thing is and how to face conditions that mess with this hormone with ease, hand in pocket and all.

Insulin who?

Insulin is an essential hormone that is made in the pancreas. Picture it as the overworked, underappreciated middle manager in the corporate office that is your body. Its thankless job? Keeping the chaos of your blood sugar levels in check. 

You, me, and even those brave souls who’ve sworn off carbs (yes, you, keto cultists) have sugar rolling around in your bloodstream. This is due to the very simple fact that without it, you die, it doesn't get more essential than that! 

You’d think that our cells would just grab whatever sugar they need from your bloodstream, no more no less. But no no, they can’t just take what they need, that would be way too easy and efficient. Instead, your cells need a key to the sugar vault, which just so happens to be insulin. Remember now, it’s the human body, everything has to be insanely complex. That’s why the key (insulin) must fit perfectly into the vault’s lock (insulin receptor) to grant access to the goodies inside.

Now that we’re up to speed, let’s get to the sweet stuff (pun absolutely intended). To keep things working well you need enough insulin, insulin receptors and obviously enough blood sugar. Easy enough to keep track of right? Well… wrong again. There are two main reasons for this: 


Problem 1: Conditions That Directly Affect the Pancreas

Sometimes, life throws a wrench in the works. The pancreas produces insulin, which regulates blood sugar levels by allowing glucose to enter cells and be used for energy. However, certain conditions can impair the pancreas's ability to produce insulin. These conditions include Type 1 diabetes, pancreatic cancer, and pancreatitis. When the pancreas cannot produce sufficient insulin, glucose remains in the bloodstream, leading to elevated blood sugar levels and subsequent complications. In essence, these conditions take the pancreas from a hardworking factory to a ramshackle warehouse. 

 

Problem 2: Insulin Resistance

Imagine having a bunch of keys but only a few keyholes. What a shame. So now you are stuck with all of this insulin and sugar with no place to go. As a result, both sugar and insulin accumulate in the bloodstream. This condition is commonly associated with Type 2 diabetes and especially obesity. 

Due to the enormous prevalence of insulin resistance in the United states, which is closely correlated to a very high rate of obesity, we want to dedicate the rest of the newsletter to discussing the very important role that diet and exercise has on preventing insulin resistance and other such conditions. Better the prevention than the cure they say.

Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes:

Type 2 diabetes can take on 2 forms, both of which generally follow a chronological order. First your cells will not respond properly to insulin because of elevated insulin resistance. This means that although there is plenty to go around your cells are still tired and telling your pancreas to get cranking because they are hungry. This leads to a chronic overproduction of insulin that over an extended period of time, if left untreated, causes your insulin making cells called beta cells to get tired.

It is generally understood that type 2 diabetes can be reversed through a change in lifestyle if it is done before your pancreas loses its ability of producing enough insulin on its own. This is very important and further emphasizes how it is much easier to prevent a problem than to fix it.

Insulin Resistance Causes:

Insulin Resistance has been closely tied to inflammation, for reasons that are still relatively unclear to scientists. What is clear though, is that the higher the body's inflammation, the lower the cellular sensitivity and higher insulin resistance. That begs the question, what makes us inflamed? Let's explain the main contributors.

 

Excess Calories

You mean excess weight right? Nope. The root cause is not the weight itself, rather a habit of overeating that causes your body to accumulate fat cells (adipocytes). This is not great because these cells release molecules called cytokines that directly increase inflammation. In fact, their effect is so profound that obesity is considered a low grade inflammatory disease. Therein lies a cycle no one wants to get pulled into. Here’s the cycle: The more excess calories the more excess weight, which means more inflammation which leads to more sugar being deposited as fat, which increases the cytokine production and on and on and on… until we decide to change things up.


Inflammatory Nutrients

Before we explain what nutrients these are, it is important that we all understand that we should still include them in our diet. Just be wary of how much you are ingesting and try to cut down on them if you catch yourself eating too much, as most of us are. Let’s take a look at what these nutrients are: 

  • Saturated Fats: Sorry we are the ones that have to tell you, but the bacon and butter have to go. Does this mean you are banished from the aisles with these in the supermarket? No! Matter of fact we recommend it (occasionally) to nourish the soul, if that’s your cup of tea. But you must keep in mind that an excess of these fats will most definitely contribute to inflammation.

  • Omega 6: Foods that include Omega 6 would be sunflower oil, peanut oils, butters, avocado oils, and more. Again, relish these in moderation; that is the key.

Let’s Talk Prevention

Now that we know that inflammation is the main cause of insulin resistance, let’s talk prevention.

If there is something that we want you to remember from this newsletter, it’s the word moderation. Again, moderation is key, eat just enough, not too much, not too little. We know, easier said than done, but it’s what your body requires to function properly. Eating sufficiently will help lower cytokine levels, this being a fundamental step towards reducing inflammation and insulin resistance in turn.

You were probably wondering, and yes, exercise comes into play yet again. When we exercise, our muscles and organs need more glucose to perform, which is usually stored in glycogen (a long chain of glucose). But right about 1 hour into your workout this glucose chain runs out, and your cells scream for more. So they optimize the insulin receptors helping deliver sugar to our cells faster than before, while also helping us get rid of inflammatory cytokines that are linked to excess fat.

Omega 3: Specifically EPA’s and DHA’s. These two are the most deficient fatty acids in our diets. We typically meet and exceed omega 6s and saturated fats, however these fats are found in fatty fish like salmon, certain nuts and grains which apparently don’t make it to our plates. These are anti-inflammatory making them a key ally in the battle towards overall health.

We’ll let you guess the wonder mineral that seems to be implicated in everything. Yep, it’s magnesium! Magnesium is involved in 300 enzymatic reactions in the body, and is specialized in energy production, aka glucose utilization.

Magnesium acts like an antioxidant helping to reduce oxidative stress in the body. This in turn means that all of our cells are more relaxed and consequently less inflamed helping to reduce the primary cause of insulin resistance. 

Magnesium is a key mineral in the “maintenance” of the insulin receptors. This means that since most of us are deficient in this mineral it is directly affecting how our cells respond to insulin. As we mentioned above, magnesium is a key cofactor for many of the reactions in the Krebs Cycle, which is the central hub where we get energy from fats, lipids and proteins. So yeah, good old Mg has our back once again.

Regarding insulin resistance, OmniBlue provides a unique solution. Let's give our bodies all the minerals that it needs for optimal functioning. It is of no use to include only magnesium if you are also deficient in 3 other minerals (which is more common than you would think). Being deficient in so many micronutrients calls for a special approach, which is only provided by OmniBlue’s minerals. We need all minerals in the right amounts to truly be nourished, any less and we begin to see cracks in our bodies optimal functioning.

 

Final thoughts

We hope you enjoyed this week’s edition and are glad to see with your awesome feedback that it is serving you in your day to day. As we wrap up this week’s deep dive into insulin, remember: knowledge is your best ally, so remember to check in on us every Monday!

Also remember to keep essential nutrients like magnesium in your routine to stay on top of your game. And don’t forget, you still have time to claim your free hydration powder sachet with every order. Because, as always, staying hydrated is just as important as staying informed.

Have a wonderful week 8%er, and until next time!