1. < Neuropathy

High insulin (not sugar) a cause of my neuropathy?

Posted by rickhood @rickhood, Nov 23 6:52am

I am starting to think high insulin (hyperinsulinemia) may be a cause of my neuropathy, not high sugar.

My A1C is below 5.8, my fasting glucose is between 100 and 110, which is a bit high. Most of my doctors say sugar is not the cause as it is not high enough. However, I just had a glucose tolerance test and an insulin level test at the same time. The GTT was fine but the insulin level was high (40 and high end of normal is 25).

Insulin can cause neuropathy, not just sugar.

"While diabetic neuropathy is most strongly associated with hyperglycemia, studies have shown that prediabetic individuals with high insulin levels (and often normal glucose) can develop symptoms of neuropathy. "

The fix is apparently the same as for sugar: lose weight, low carb diet, exercise, etc.

See this for more https://chatgpt.com/share/6741cb68-6d98-800d-aa7e-21dac038ec0c

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the Neuropathy Support Group.

Mentor
John, Volunteer Mentor | @johnbishop | Nov 23 8:53am

Hi @rickhood, I've always been in the pre-diabetic category and not wanting to make my neuropathy worse. I have idiopathic small fiber PN not related to diabetes but since learning about the metabolic syndrome a few years ago I started paying attention and focused on losing weight. There is another discussion on the "fix" that might be helpful:

-- Low-carb healthy fat living. Intermittent fasting. What’s your why?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/low-carb-healthy-fat-living-intermittent-fasting-whats-your-why/
Here are some references that I found informative and useful:
-- The Metabolic Syndrome and Neuropathy: Therapeutic Challenges and Opportunities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881591/
-- Metabolic syndrome as a risk factor for neurological disorders
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21997383/
-- Dr. Jay Wortman - 'Undoing Atkins: A Cautionary Tale': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIegMp5cWBY
-- Dr Jay Wortman Diabetes Remission is Surprisingly Simple!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx6xw3wOAMc

REPLY
2 replies
rickhood | @rickhood | Nov 23 9:26am
In reply to @johnbishop "Hi @rickhood, I've always been in the pre-diabetic category and not wanting to make my neuropathy..." + (show)
@johnbishop

Hi @rickhood, I've always been in the pre-diabetic category and not wanting to make my neuropathy worse. I have idiopathic small fiber PN not related to diabetes but since learning about the metabolic syndrome a few years ago I started paying attention and focused on losing weight. There is another discussion on the "fix" that might be helpful:

-- Low-carb healthy fat living. Intermittent fasting. What’s your why?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/low-carb-healthy-fat-living-intermittent-fasting-whats-your-why/
Here are some references that I found informative and useful:
-- The Metabolic Syndrome and Neuropathy: Therapeutic Challenges and Opportunities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881591/
-- Metabolic syndrome as a risk factor for neurological disorders
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21997383/
-- Dr. Jay Wortman - 'Undoing Atkins: A Cautionary Tale': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIegMp5cWBY
-- Dr Jay Wortman Diabetes Remission is Surprisingly Simple!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx6xw3wOAMc

Jump to this post

Thank you! That paper on Metabolic Syndrome was particularly interesting.

“Up until this last decade, it was generally believed that the underlying cause of neuropathy was hyperglycemia, irrespective of the type of diabetes (1 or 2). The more plausible and current hypothesis is that the MetS (metabolic syndrome) underlies the onset and progression of neuropathy and that obesity and its consequences are the driving factors leading to nerve injury.”

My BMI is 26.6 and need to get it down to 24-25. Fasting (no eating after 3-4pm) has worked great for me in the past, need to do that again.

Not clear if carb control helps or not, but that rather, weight loss, exercise, etc, is key. I should probably do both.

REPLY
1 reply
Mentor
John, Volunteer Mentor | @johnbishop | Nov 23 11:12am
In reply to @rickhood "Thank you! That paper on Metabolic Syndrome was particularly interesting. “Up until this last decade, it..." + (show)
@rickhood

Thank you! That paper on Metabolic Syndrome was particularly interesting.

“Up until this last decade, it was generally believed that the underlying cause of neuropathy was hyperglycemia, irrespective of the type of diabetes (1 or 2). The more plausible and current hypothesis is that the MetS (metabolic syndrome) underlies the onset and progression of neuropathy and that obesity and its consequences are the driving factors leading to nerve injury.”

My BMI is 26.6 and need to get it down to 24-25. Fasting (no eating after 3-4pm) has worked great for me in the past, need to do that again.

Not clear if carb control helps or not, but that rather, weight loss, exercise, etc, is key. I should probably do both.

Jump to this post

I was wondering why none of my primary care doctors had even mentioned metabolic syndrome all the years they kept bugging me about lowering my A1C and telling me I was prediabetic. I was introduced to the low carb and intermittent fasting after reading a health blog by Lee Aase and learning about Dr. Jason Fung's work - https://www.social-media-university-global.org/2020/02/an-unfortunately-named-book/. Lowering my carbs plus the intermittent fasting helped me lose weight and maintain the weight loss which I had struggled with most of my adult life.

REPLY
pah17 | @pah17 | Nov 26 8:32pm
In reply to @johnbishop "Hi @rickhood, I've always been in the pre-diabetic category and not wanting to make my neuropathy..." + (show)
@johnbishop

Hi @rickhood, I've always been in the pre-diabetic category and not wanting to make my neuropathy worse. I have idiopathic small fiber PN not related to diabetes but since learning about the metabolic syndrome a few years ago I started paying attention and focused on losing weight. There is another discussion on the "fix" that might be helpful:

-- Low-carb healthy fat living. Intermittent fasting. What’s your why?
https://connect.mayoclinic.org/discussion/low-carb-healthy-fat-living-intermittent-fasting-whats-your-why/
Here are some references that I found informative and useful:
-- The Metabolic Syndrome and Neuropathy: Therapeutic Challenges and Opportunities: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3881591/
-- Metabolic syndrome as a risk factor for neurological disorders
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21997383/
-- Dr. Jay Wortman - 'Undoing Atkins: A Cautionary Tale': https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIegMp5cWBY
-- Dr Jay Wortman Diabetes Remission is Surprisingly Simple!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cx6xw3wOAMc

Jump to this post

Once again, John may I say that you are a wealth of information. I have a lot of reading to do here. Thank you so much for your contributions. I hope it gives you comfort in knowing that you are helping and maybe the increased endorphins somehow give you a measure of relief.

REPLY
1 reply
Mentor
John, Volunteer Mentor | @johnbishop | Nov 27 6:36am
In reply to @pah17 "Once again, John may I say that you are a wealth of information. I have a..." + (show)
@pah17

Once again, John may I say that you are a wealth of information. I have a lot of reading to do here. Thank you so much for your contributions. I hope it gives you comfort in knowing that you are helping and maybe the increased endorphins somehow give you a measure of relief.

Jump to this post

Thank you for the kind words @pah17. I do get a lot positive energy which helps me get through the day. Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there just trying to keep going. Hoping for a better year for all of us.

REPLY
rickhood | @rickhood | Nov 27 6:51am

UPDATE:

Both fasting glucose (89) and insulin level (12.9) from yesterday morning was fine. Now I don’t know what to think. Not sure if I have hyperinsulinemia or not.

The other weird thing is my fasting glucose has never been this good before, it is always above 100. There is no good reason for this and I would expect the opposite since I have not been exercising past 3 weeks while I have been sick with this virus (fever, cough, congestion, basically over now, not covid, flu, RSV, just some virus going around).

Losing weight is still the thing to do, to get rid of visceral fat, but I keep wondering if there is some other thing going on that is causing the neuropathy.

Also, for some unknown reason my neuropathy has gotten a lot worse (more numbness) during this 3 week virus and no idea why. Is the virus causing inflammation that is doing that?

So confusing....

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