The Mystery By Catherine Heilig, MSN, FNP, CDE Insulin resistance, or hyperinsulinemia, is a multisystem failure in which tissues such as adipose and skeletal muscle exhibit reduced sensitivity to insulin-mediated glucose uptake. If untreated, this impairment can evolve into overt type 2 diabetes. A normally functioning pancreas produces insulin 24 hours a day in response to food intake or hepatic glucose production. This increase in insulin resistance, coupled with the pancreas' attempts to compensate, results in hyperinsulinemia. The pancreas is placed under great amounts of stress to keep up with increased demands, and eventually tires.
Glucose levels rise.
The degree to which insulin resistance occurs is due to the amount of in vivo insulin action lost and the ability of the pancreas to respond to this defect. In other words, an increase in insulin is necessary to achieve the same glucose and fat storage found in someone who is not insulin-resistant. Contributors to Insulin Resistance Muscle and adipose tissue play a major role in how insulin resistance reveals itself. In skeletal muscle, insulin-stimulated blood flow decreases, interrupting insulin delivery to the target tissue. 3 Adipose tissue, on the other hand, becomes increasingly less receptive to insulin and releases free fatty acids, thus creating a second barrier to the delivery of insulin.