Some Basic Terminology

Blood Sugar: the amount of sugar in your blood

Insulin response: tells you how responsive your pancreas is to releasing insulin. In theory when you eat, your pancreas will release insulin, in proportion to how much sugar is in the blood

Insulin Sensitivity: refers to how sensitive your body’s cells are to insulin. High insulin sensitivity means your cells are able to use blood sugar effectively, which is a good thing.

Insulin Resistance: refers to when the cells are not reacting appropriately to the insulin. In other words the cells resist the insulin signal. Blood sugar tends to raise when your cells are insulin resistant. This is a bad thing.

Simple Sugars: simple sugars are simply carbs which break down quickly and have a quick impact on blood sugar. There are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ simple sugars, it depends on context.

Complex Carbs: these are foods that break down slowly and have a slower, more delayed response on blood sugar. Complex carbs can also be good or bad, depending on context.

Diabetes: diabetes describes a couple of conditions. Type 1 diabetes is an autoimmune disease whereby there is insufficient insulin and therefor blood sugar is adversely impacted. Type 2 diabetes arises when the cells lose insulin sensitivity (ie they become insulin resistant); this too impacts blood sugar in a negative way.

Where Things Can Go Wrong

Things can go wrong in a few places such that a person can have faulty blood sugar metabolism.

1. Poor diet: if someone eats too much of the wrong carbs
2. Insulin/pancreatic issues: if insulin doesn’t work, or the pancreas is damaged in such as way that insulin cannot do it’s job, problems will arise
3. Cell Response Issues: if the insulin doesn’t signal to the cell properly, blood sugar will rise.

Keep reading about the Diabetes here. If you need more support in dealing with blood sugar management or diabetes, please consider booking with our naturopath, or one close to you.