Incidence of diabetes is increasing dramatically because of the increasing average weight in our culture. In the past 10 years, the average childhood weight has increased 12 pounds. Males with over 39 inch waist and female with over 35 inch waist are at great risk for insulin resistance. Good to get a sense of what each of these cutoff waist sizes look like as it is a good indicator of risk for diabetes. This takes up to 20 years to occur.
Atherosclerosis begins when insulin resistance begins.
Insulin resistance plus endothelial dysfunction leads to more risk for hypertension. These people can have left ventricular hypertrophy with seemingly normal blood pressures at rest. This is called white coat normotension. ACE inhibitors are vascular protective in diabetics. They have also been shown to reduce the development to diabetes in some with insulin resistance.