Step 1 ✅14 Natural Ways to Reverse Insulin Resistance & Improve Your Insulin Sensitivity
Insulin is a very important hormone that keeps your blood sugar levels in check.
It helps move sugar from your blood into your cells so that your body can store it. Cells that are insulin resistant can't use insulin well, which makes your blood sugar stay high.
When your pancreas feels that your blood sugar is too high, it makes more insulin to raise your blood sugar and lower the resistance.
Over time, this can cause the pancreas to lose cells that make insulin, which happens a lot in people with type 2 diabetes. Also, having high blood sugar for a long time can hurt organs and nerves.
Diabetes is more likely to happen to you if you are overweight or fat, have prediabetes, or have a family history of type 2 diabetes.
The level of insulin sensitivity tells you how your cells take insulin in. You can lower your chance of many diseases, including diabetes, and insulin resistance by making it better.
You can make your body more sensitive to insulin in 14 natural ways that have been backed by science.
1. Get More Sleep
It's good for you to get enough sleep.
On the other hand, not getting enough sleep can hurt you and make you more likely to get infections, heart disease, and type 2 diabetes.
A lack of sleep has also been linked to insulin resistance in several research.
One study with nine healthy adults found that getting only four hours of sleep one night made insulin less sensitive and made it harder to control blood sugar than getting eight and a half hours of sleep.
Luckily, getting more sleep can undo the damage that not getting enough sleep does to insulin resistance.
2. Exercise More
One great way to make insulin work better is to do a lot of exercise every day.
It helps move sugar into muscles so that it can be stored, and it makes insulin work better right away. This effect lasts for 2–48 hours, based on the type of exercise.
One study, for instance, found that healthy people who cycled on a machine for an hour at a moderate speed had better insulin sensitivity for 48 hours.
Also, resistance training makes the body more sensitive to insulin.
Many tests have shown that it made insulin work better in both men and women with and without diabetes.
For example, a study of overweight men with and without diabetes found that their insulin sensitivity went up when they did strength training for three months. This was true even if they lost weight.
Although both aerobic and strength training can make your body more sensitive to insulin, it seems that doing both together is best.
3. Reduce Stress
Stress makes it harder for your body to control your blood sugar.
The body is put into "fight-or-flight" mode, which makes stress hormones like cortisol and glucagon more productive.
When these hormones get into your body, they turn glycogen, which is stored sugar, into glucose. Your body can then use glucose as a quick source of energy.
Unfortunately, long-term worry raises your blood sugar and breaks down nutrients, keeping your stress hormone levels high.
Hormones that cause stress also make the body less sensitive to insulin. Because of this, nutrients aren't kept and can be used for energy more quickly in the bloodstream.
In fact, many studies have shown that insulin sensitivity goes down when stress factors are high.
Our ancestors may have found this process useful because they needed extra energy to do things that kept them alive. But for people today who are stressed all the time, insulin sensitivity that is lower can be bad.
Meditation, exercise, and getting enough sleep are all great ways to lower stress and make insulin work better.
4. Lose a Few Pounds
Being overweight, especially around the middle, makes insulin less effective and raises the chance of getting type 2 diabetes.
There are many ways that belly fat can do this, such as by making hormones that make muscles and liver less sensitive to insulin.
A lot of studies show that having more belly fat and being less sensitive to insulin are linked.
Luckily, losing weight is a good way to get rid of belly fat and make insulin work better. You may also be less likely to get type 2 diabetes if you already have prediabetes.
One study at Johns Hopkins University found that people with prediabetes who lost 5–7% of their body weight over six months had a 54% lower chance of getting type 2 diabetes over the next three years.
Diet, exercise, and changes to your daily life can all help you lose weight.
5. Eat More Soluble Fiber
Soluble fiber and insoluble fiber are the two main types of fiber.
Most of the time, insoluble fiber helps stools move through the intestines by adding bulk.
On the other hand, soluble fiber is what makes fiber work its magic, like lowering cholesterol, curbing hunger, and making insulin more sensitive.
One study of 264 women found that those who ate more soluble fiber had much lower amounts of insulin resistance.
Fiber that dissolves in water also feeds the good bacteria in your gut. These bacteria have been linked to better insulin sensitivity.
Some foods that are high in soluble fiber are beans, oatmeal, flaxseeds, fruits like oranges, veggies like Brussels sprouts, and nuts.
6. Add More Colorful Fruit and Vegetables to Your Diet
Fruits and vegetables are not only good for you, but they also have strong health-boosting effects.
In particular, brightly colored fruits and veggies are full of plant chemicals that are good for you and fight free radicals.
Free radicals are molecules that can damage cells and cause inflammation all over the body. Antioxidants bind to and get rid of these molecules.
A diet high in plant chemicals has been linked to better insulin sensitivity in many studies.
If you want to eat fruit, make sure you stick to normal serving sizes and don't eat more than two pieces at a time, or 2–5 meals per day.
7. Add Herbs and Spices to Your Cooking
Long before they were used in cooking, herbs and spices were used for their health benefits.
But it wasn't until the last few decades that scientists started to look into how they could help people's health.
Some herbs and spices, like fenugreek, turmeric, ginger, and garlic, have been shown to help the body respond better to insulin.
Seeds of fennel: They have a lot of soluble fiber, which helps insulin work better. They may help control blood sugar and make insulin work better if eaten whole, as an extract, or even baked into bread.
Turmeric has an active ingredient called curcumin that is very good at fighting inflammation and free radicals. By lowering sugar and free fatty acids in the blood, it seems to make insulin work better.
Ginger is a famous spice that has been linked to making insulin work better. Studies show that the main ingredient gingerol makes sugar receptors on muscle cells more accessible, which makes it easier for the cells to take in sugar.
Garlic: Studies on animals have shown that garlic seems to make insulin work better and has antioxidant qualities that make insulin more sensitive.
These results are good news for herbs and spices. But most of the study in this area is new and was done on animals. To find out if herbs and spices really do make insulin work better, tests with real people are needed.
Our #1 RECOMMENDATION For Turmeric :
8. Add a Pinch of Cinnamon
Peppermint is a tasty spice that is full of plant chemicals.
Additionally, it is known for its ability to lower blood sugar and make insulin work better.
One meta-analysis, for example, found that eating 1/2 to 3 teaspoons (1 to 6 grams) of cinnamon every day lowered both short- and long-term blood sugar levels by a lot.
Studies show that cinnamon makes insulin work better by making glucose receptors on muscle cells more accessible and better at moving sugar into the cells.
Some studies are interesting because they show that cinnamon has chemicals in it that can work like insulin and directly on cells.
9. Drink More Green Tea
Drinking green tea is very good for your health.
Also, people who have type 2 diabetes or are at risk for getting it should choose this. Several studies have shown that drinking green tea can lower blood sugar and make insulin work better.
For instance, 17 studies were looked at to see how green tea affected blood sugar and insulin sensitivity.
It was discovered that drinking green tea lowered basal blood sugar by a lot and made insulin work better.
Green tea may have these health benefits because it contains the powerful antioxidant epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), which has been shown in many studies to make insulin work better.
10. Try Apple Cider Vinegar
Vinegar can be used for many things. It can be used to clean or as an ingredient in food, among other things.
It's also an important part of apple cider vinegar, which is a very famous drink in the natural health community.
Vinegar might help make insulin work better by lowering blood sugar and making insulin work better.
It also seems to stop the stomach from releasing food into the bowels, which gives the body more time to take in sugar.
In one study, people who were insulin resistant and people with type 2 diabetes who ate apple cider vinegar had 34% more insulin sensitivity during a high-carb meal.
11. Cut Down on Carbs
Carbs are the main thing that raises insulin levels in the blood.
When carbs are broken down by the body, sugar is released into the blood. Insulin is then made by the pancreas to move the sugar from the blood into the cells.
Cutting back on carbs might help make your body more sensitive to insulin. That's because high-carb diets cause blood sugar levels to rise, which makes the pancreas work harder to remove sugar from the blood. Another way to make insulin more sensitive is to spread out your carb intake throughout the day.
When you eat smaller amounts of carbs more often throughout the day, your body gets less sugar at each meal, which makes insulin's job easier. This is also backed up by study that shows regular eating makes insulin work better.
It is also important what kind of carbs you eat.
Best are carbs with a low glycemic index (GI), which means they release sugar slowly into the blood. This gives insulin more time to work well.
Low-GI carbs come from foods like sweet potatoes, brown rice, quinoa, and some kinds of oatmeal.
12. Avoid Trans Fats
Artificial trans fats are something that you should really cut out of your diet.
They are not good for you like other fats are, and they raise the chance of many diseases.
It looks like there is mixed evidence about how eating a lot of trans fats affects insulin resistance. Some tests on humans have shown that it is harmful, while others have not.
However, tests on animals have shown that eating a lot of trans fats can make it hard to control blood sugar and cause insulin resistance.
Scientists can't say for sure that eating artificial trans fats makes insulin resistance worse because the results of tests on humans are mixed. But they raise the chance of many diseases, including diabetes, so you should stay away from them.
Pies, doughnuts, and fried fast food are all examples of foods that usually have fake trans fats. Artificial trans fats are usually found in foods that have been processed a lot.
The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) said in 2015 that trans fats are not safe to eat, which is good news. It gave food companies three years to either slowly take trans fats out of their goods or ask for special permission.
13. Try a Supplement
It's not very old to think that taking natural vitamins can make your body more sensitive to insulin.
Even though there are many supplements that may make insulin work better, the strongest proof supports chromium, berberine, magnesium, and resveratrol.
Chromium is a mineral that helps the body use both carbs and fats. Taking chromium picolinate tablets in amounts between 200 and 1,000 mcg has been shown to help insulin receptors lower blood sugar.
It is a chemical called magnesium that helps insulin work to store sugar in the blood. Studies have shown that insulin resistance is linked to not having enough magnesium in the blood. Taking magnesium may help make insulin work better.
Berberine is a plant molecule that can be taken from many flowers, including the Berberis plant. It's not clear what effects it has on insulin, but some tests have shown that it makes insulin work better and lowers blood sugar.
This is a pigment that can be found in red grape skin and other berry skins. It may make insulin work better, especially in people with type 2 diabetes, but no one really knows what it does.
There is a chance that these supplements will not work well with the medicine you are already taking. Before you start taking them, it's best to talk to your doctor if you're not sure.
14. Reduce Your Intake of Added Sugars
Pure sugars and extra sugars are not the same thing.
You can get natural sugars from foods like plants and veggies, which also have a lot of other health benefits.
Added sugars, on the other hand, are found in foods that have been treated more. To make it, two main types of sugar are added: high-fructose corn syrup and table sugar, which is also called sucrose.
Both have about 50% sugar in them.
A lot of research has shown that people with diabetes can become less sensitive to insulin when they eat more sugar.
An analysis of 29 studies with a total of 1,005 normal and overweight or obese subjects found that fructose seems to have effects on insulin resistance in people who don't have diabetes as well.
The results showed that eating a lot of sugar in less than 60 days raised insulin resistance in the liver, regardless of how many calories were eaten.
Foods with a lot of extra sugar also have a lot of fructose. This includes sweets like candy, drinks with added sugar, cakes, cookies, and pies.