3 Mind-blowing Questions To Ask When You Have Pre-diabetes
Take the confusion out of understanding elevated blood sugars by asking these three questions: no weight loss required.
Don’t assume that what makes your blood sugar go up is ONLY your diet. This article answers three of the most common questions I am asked about pre-diabetes.
Q. Is it correct that when you have pre-diabetes, you make too much insulin?
Yes. Think of insulin as a tool, like a knife. When you have insulin resistance, it's like your knife is dull. In response to this, your body makes more insulin.
To understand if insulin resistance is causing elevated blood sugars, ask, “How sharp is my knife?”
Look for factors that can dull your insulin knife. These include stress, infection, illness, pain, inactivity, a diet high in saturated fats, hormonal changes, and certain medications.
It doesn’t have to be a ‘big’ thing either to dull your knife. Let’s imagine that you recently hurt your toenail, and it got infected, which was painful. In this example, there are four factors that could dull your insulin knife.
Infection.
Pain from the injured toe
Decrease Activity (because it hurts to walk).
If you were recently diagnosed with pre-diabetes, get curious if there have been any changes outside of age that might be making your insulin knife dull.
Q. What causes blood sugar to go up outside of the diet?
A. Decreased Insulin. Over time, your body loses the ability to make insulin. When someone is diagnosed with diabetes, it is estimated that the body has lost 50-80% of its ability to make insulin. People are screened for pre-diabetes to help preserve their ability to make insulin.
This is because the overproduction of insulin is thought to cause the beta cells (the place in the pancreas where insulin is made) to get “tired” and stop producing insulin altogether. Asking, “How big is my insulin knife?” is helping you imagine your body’s ability to make insulin.
Q. What can I do to help my smaller, duller insulin knife process carbohydrates?
A. That is a great, nonjudgmental question! You are looking for ways to adjust the workload of your smaller, duller insulin knife. Beautiful! Here are three articles that can help you. If this article was helpful, please subscribe!
Blood Sugar Rocket: How different foods impact your blood glucose
Understanding how different foods affect your blood sugar can be challenging, especially if you are stuck in thinking that there are 'good and bad' foods. In this article, discover how your diet impacts your blood sugars by comparing it to a rocket.
Here are some other ideas that can help you improve your blood sugars.
Five Conditions Needed for More Stable Blood Sugars
Bob wanted to know what to eat. He explained, "If I changed my diet, my blood sugar would improve." Zadia thought it was adding exercise. Rae heard that protein helps. If you are like any of my clients, there are a lot of ideas about what can improve your blood glucose levels. This article reviews five conditions that help stabilize blood glucose; no we…
Understanding Insulin Resistance
We're diving into the fascinating world of insulin resistance. Before I begin, it is helpful to understand a bit about insulin. Insulin is the hormone that moves glucose (Sugar in the bloodstream) into your cells. When you have prediabetes or Type 2 Diabetes, your body can’t do this effectively. There are lots of reasons why, but one is that the insulin your body produces doesn’t work as well as it used to. If you think of insulin like a knife, imagine that your knife is dull.
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When shifting my mindset, I like to consider what my "But..." is. Getting curious about why I might not ask questions during a medical visit is helpful. What is preventing my curiosity about this topic? Is it fear, shame, ignorance, or something else? What is your "But.." when talking at a medical appointment?