Does the body’s insulin resistance improve with the passage of time?

[CaptTony]

I have been on a low carb diet for a year or more HbA1c readings are down nicely to 36 from 48. My question is whether with the passage of time a person’s body will become more able to deal with sugars given that the intake has significantly reduced and the body has had to handle less of it. Pre getting the 48 reading I was eating a fierce amount of carbs and sweet stuff, big eater, exercised heavily, etc. I think my body must have struggled to process so much. Now it has to process less, I wonder whether over time that will make the body much more able to deal with sugar. Does that make sense?

A second question, there was an article the other day that said 4 cups of green tea a day has shown that it reduces the chances of getting diabetes by a reasonable percentage, I think it said 17%. Anyone any thoughts on this?

 

[everydayupsanddowns]

There do seem to be some things that can improve insulin resistance, including losing weight, and increasing activity.

Research also suggests that people can have a ‘personal fat threshold’ and that losing weight (particularly if it reduces visceral fat around the organs in the abdomen) can improve the function of both the pancreas and liver in some people - even if they are not considered particularly overweight.

I think any extravagant claims about green tea (or any other ’miracle’ food) should be treated with extreme caution. If it were that simple, and if those results were repeatable at scale in proper clinical trials, surely the NHS would be prescribing the items in question, or a pharmaceutical company would have isolated the active compound and concentrated it into a medication?

 

[CaptTony]

There do seem to be some things that can improve insulin resistance, including losing weight, and increasing activity.

Research also suggests that people can have a ‘personal fat threshold’ and that losing weight (particularly if it reduces visceral fat around the organs in the abdomen) can improve the function of both the pancreas and liver in some people - even if they are not considered particularly overweight.

I think any extravagant claims about green tea (or any other ’miracle’ food) should be treated with extreme caution. If it were that simple, and if those results were repeatable at scale in proper clinical trials, surely the NHS would be prescribing the items in question, or a pharmaceutical company would have isolated the active compound and concentrated it into a medication?

Thank you. That is helpful. To clarify, I probably should have said - all other things being equal - my enquiry was whether nurturing the body by not overloading it with carbs over time would have, in itself, any positive biological effects. I understand that weight reduction, reduction in visceral fat, exercise might also help.

Re the green tea point, you make a very good point. The article was on the BBC news site - perhaps not what it was.