Insulin Resistance & Lyme's Role In The Disease Process

Let’s start with a scenario:

Jane was an active person, even after contracting Lyme. She loved to exercise and take walks outside, but over the past few months she noticed how tired she was feeling even though she was getting a full night's sleep. Despite not changing her diet or activity level, Jane started gaining weight and even when she tried to diet, the weight wasn’t coming off as easily as it used to. Concerned, Jane went to her doctor and eventually, after being brushed off numerous times, was told that she had insulin resistance.

You might be familiar with the terms “insulin resistance” and “metabolic syndrome,” but understanding the core of these issues requires a deeper dive. These conditions affect millions worldwide, just like Jane, elevating the risk of type 2 diabetes and other health conditions. Research has brought to light the broader implications of elevated insulin levels, revealing connections that extend beyond diabetes and obesity alone. On the flip side, while there is evidence that high insulin levels can cause disease, health compromised from other diseases can cause high levels of insulin. Let’s dive into this a little more. Shall we?

Insulin & Insulin Resistance:

Insulin is a hormone synthesized by the pancreas' beta cells. Its concentration corresponds to blood sugar levels. It guides cells to absorb glucose from food for energy and signals the liver to store excess glucose as glycogen. This dual role led to insulin being dubbed the "fat storage" hormone.

Functionally, insulin acts as a mediator, facilitating the transport of sugar into cell receptors. This event triggers a series of reactions that result in energy production, particularly the synthesis of ATP. This collaboration between insulin and glucose maintains 3 crucial outcomes within our metabolic processes:

1. Immediate Energy Release: Cells quickly receive a surge of energy, much like if you had an energy drink.

2. Glycogen Reserve Formation: Insulin enables the storage of sugar in muscles and the liver as glycogen, which serves as an energy reservoir for when you run low.

3. Fat Storage Control: Insulin also regulates fat storage. When glycogen storage is full, excess glucose is diverted to fat storage, highlighting its dual role in energy balance and fat accumulation.

However, these processes take a turn when abundance transforms into adversity due to diminishing returns. Excessive insulin, often linked to high-carb diets and environmental toxins, triggers what is known as insulin resistance.

Analogy time:

Picture insulin resistance as a progressive process—similar to repeatedly raising one's voice to an initially attentive child. At first, the child responds, but continuous shouting diminishes their response. Similarly, cells exposed to excessive insulin gradually lose their responsiveness, leading to resistance development over time.

In response, the body amplifies insulin production—akin to speaking louder to overcome resistance. This escalating cycle forms the framework of insulin resistance, disrupting the delicate balance of our metabolic processes.

Zooming in to the true root cause, insulin resistance originates from cellular inflammation—an immune response that inadvertently opposes the hormone's intended function. Inflammation erects barriers that hinder essential nutrient and hormone influx while impeding toxin elimination.

Consider the consequences:

Glucose accumulates in the bloodstream. This uncontrolled buildup can contribute to obesity, hypertension, and elevated cholesterol, collectively known as "metabolic syndrome." If unaddressed, this metabolic disruption can pave the way for type 2 diabetes, triggering severe health issues like strokes, heart attacks, Alzheimer’s, and cancer. If that weren’t enough, insulin resistance's influence extends even to conditions like Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS).

Insulin resistance tends to not “stay in its lane” when driving down the road of dysfunction. It extends its imbalance to other hormones, particularly thyroid hormones, causing a similar resistance. The mismatch between seemingly normal hormone levels, per lab work, and persistent symptoms shows the interplay between hormone presence and cellular uptake. Anotherwards, lab work doesn’t show the full picture.

In the realm of cellular regeneration, mitigating inflammation is the cornerstone of cellular well-being. The blueprint for recovery involves addressing epigenetic factors, such as infection, lifestyle and diet, and making modifications. Reducing or even eliminating sugar and refined carbs is crucial, with an optimal daily carbohydrate intake of around 100 grams or less. Embracing a nutrient-dense, whole-food diet and avoiding processed foods can be transformative. Incorporating healthy fats, such as extra virgin olive oil, avocado oil, coconut or MCT oil, soaked and sprouted nuts, and cold-water fish, can facilitate a reduction in inflammation.

While you can’t change the genetics you were dealt, epigenetics lets you have a stake in the game—an opportunity to reshape the body's narrative and steer it away from disease. Just as epigenetics can modulate gene expression, it can also turn them off.

The Lyme Disease and Insulin Resistance Connection:

The interplay between Lyme disease and insulin resistance reveals a complex connection, where inflammation acts as the bridge. As Lyme disease provokes the body's immune defenses, it triggers a cascade of inflammatory responses. This inflammation impacts insulin signaling, fostering an environment conducive to insulin resistance.

In essence, Lyme disease's role in inflammation adds another layer that we must look at. Those who weren’t insulin resistant before contracting Lyme find themselves struggling with high fasting glucose numbers, those dangling on the brink of insulin resistance are pushed in, and those already insulin resistant are further compromised. This connection is seen not just with Lyme disease but with any illness or disease that modules inflammation.

So for Jane, the question becomes whether she had insulin resistance before Lyme or if Lyme’s inflammatory cascade encouraged it.

Good news, the answer does not alter the course of the treatment.

Reduction of Disease:

1. Address any active illness or immune modulating condition

2. Focus on epigenetics such as:

Sleep

Stress

Diet

Toxin exposure

3. Encourage detoxification and cell regeneration through intermittent and extended fasting

Insulin resistance, intertwined with a complex issue such as Lyme disease, serves as a reminder that our approach to healing must be multifactorial. While western medicine plays a role in healing, we must not ignore the intricate dance between our health and way of life that could be inhibiting our healing. Epigenetics can perpetuate the inflammatory response in the body, sabotaging even the best of treatment plans.

To learn how you can use dietary interventions and intermittent fasting to improve your insulin resistance or symptoms from disease, check out my program called Kleaner Keto. This program addresses the foundations found in The Wellness Model™, which supports the body through whole foods & supplementation, unlike the modern day illness model that was founded on quick fix pharmaceuticals.