Quote:
Originally Posted by slipperyelm  TRUE, FALSE, UNKNOWN, OR OTHER:
People with insulin resistance experience increased insulin resistance as a consequence of introducing more insulin, whether by taking an insulin stimulating med or by injecting insulin. |
I don't think there is a simple answer to that question. It depends what you mean by "insulin resistance". If you are talking specifically about the down-regulation of insulin receptors on cell surfaces to limit entry of glucose, then yes, introducing more insulin will stimulate this process. If blood glucose is high, the rate of entry of glucose into cells is directly proportional to the amount of circulating insulin. So introducing more of it increases insulin resistance. Organ and muscle cells shut down insulin receptors, and the excess glucose gets shunted off to fat cells.
Having said that, it seems there are other causes of elevated blood glucose. Causes that apparently have nothing to do with the glucose supply/demand regulation mechanism I described above. There are a lot of people who are thin and apparently insulin sensitive but have been diagnosed as Type 2 diabetics. Excess glucose/insulin does not appear to be the problem. Perhaps increasing their insulin supply would simply bring their blood glucose down, without aggravating their "insulin resistance".
It looks like what we know as type 2 diabetes is probably a cluster of disorders that share a common symptom - above normal blood glucose. Various things could be causing it, and we can't generalise about the treatment options.
