Can anyone explain to me why stimulants cause reduced insulin sensitivity as so many people claim. I understand why they raise blood glucose temporarily, why the liver and adipose cells would not be sensitive to glucose uptake but wouldn’t insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle be increased and thus causing an ideal environment for gaining on high carb/insulin diets where glucose was going to muscle and not being stored as fat?
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
Check out this article for more info:
Caffeine ingestion increases the insulin response to an oral-glucose-tolerance test in obese men before and after weight loss
You can get the full article free BTW.[/quote]
No link, Bushy.
[quote]bushidobadboy wrote:
But wouldn’t chronic use of stims lead to chronically high blood glucose levels, and therefore chronic hyperinsulinemia, with its associated insulin resistance?
Bushy[/quote]
Thats a very good thought. Anyway, I don’t know if it matters. Looking at that study and some others it looks like stimulants do cause insulin resistance short term ,not sure in what tissue or if in all tissues, but the body seems to adjust to this effect fairly quickly in chronic use and insulin sensitivity returns and insulin levels drop. So I guess it doesn’t have much effect either way if you use it regularly.
Check out this article:
Diabetes May Be Disorder Of Upper Intestine: Surgery May Correct It
Towards the middle the articles goes into differences of regulation of macronutrient metabolism based on various portions of the intestines. While not directly related to stims, at minimum it leads to a completely different way of how the body regulates blood sugar. It is certainly a very complex system, more so than just carbs = blood sugar.
That’s one reason I have been trying to quit coffee… I am a type 1 diabetic and I can tell a difference when I drink coffee. Before this study was even out. 
[quote]aculpep wrote:
That’s one reason I have been trying to quit coffee… I am a type 1 diabetic and I can tell a difference when I drink coffee. Before this study was even out. :)[/quote]
What kind of effect does it have on you? Coffee seems to elevate my blood sugar, not by much, but enough to leave me hypoglycemic if I’m not careful.
It’s hard to explain or quantify but I can just tell my body is less sensitive to the insulin I take as opposed to when I haven’t had coffee in awhile. To bad I love coffee!
Now if I pop three frozen fish oil caps and my 1600 vit E then that greatly increases my sensitivity and my blood sugar will actually go low without taking any insulin.
[quote]Humbug wrote:
aculpep wrote:
That’s one reason I have been trying to quit coffee… I am a type 1 diabetic and I can tell a difference when I drink coffee. Before this study was even out.
What kind of effect does it have on you? Coffee seems to elevate my blood sugar, not by much, but enough to leave me hypoglycemic if I’m not careful.
[/quote]
[quote]aculpep wrote:
It’s hard to explain or quantify but I can just tell my body is less sensitive to the insulin I take as opposed to when I haven’t had coffee in awhile. To bad I love coffee!
[/quote]
I love a good cup myself… Having it with cream seems to help a bit, but I still have to be really careful.
That’s really interesting… Just adding the fish oil and vit E to your regular (I assume moderate/high carb) diet lowers your blood glucose?
[quote]aculpep wrote:
It’s hard to explain or quantify but I can just tell my body is less sensitive to the insulin I take as opposed to when I haven’t had coffee in awhile. To bad I love coffee!
Now if I pop three frozen fish oil caps and my 1600 vit E then that greatly increases my sensitivity and my blood sugar will actually go low without taking any insulin.
Humbug wrote:
aculpep wrote:
That’s one reason I have been trying to quit coffee… I am a type 1 diabetic and I can tell a difference when I drink coffee. Before this study was even out.
What kind of effect does it have on you? Coffee seems to elevate my blood sugar, not by much, but enough to leave me hypoglycemic if I’m not careful.
[/quote]
So you never get used to the caffeine. You always have trouble with it and insulin sensitivity. I figured the body would normalize, then again like Bushy said, people are different and the study I saw was with ephedrine and insulin sensitivity. Also, do you think the vitamin e helps your sensitivity or is it the fish oil. I know fish oil helps, I didn’t know vit e did.
[quote]Schwarzenegger wrote:
Check out this article:
Diabetes May Be Disorder Of Upper Intestine: Surgery May Correct It
Towards the middle the articles goes into differences of regulation of macronutrient metabolism based on various portions of the intestines. While not directly related to stims, at minimum it leads to a completely different way of how the body regulates blood sugar. It is certainly a very complex system, more so than just carbs = blood sugar.[/quote]
Very intersting read. Those ideas open up a lot of possibilites. I wonder how this all ties into injecting insulin for physique enhancement.
Interesting article, so it is not America’s highly processed carbohydrate diets (no fiber) that are causing diabetes, it is a problem caused by our small intestines to be cured by surgery. Goodbye broccoli, hello cookies and animal crackers + surgery.
So if I’m understanding the study correctly, caffeine may negatively affect insulin sensitivity (i.e. more likely to gain fat).
This would go against what we’ve usually heard about stimulants being good for fat loss…
[quote]GetSwole wrote:
So if I’m understanding the study correctly, caffeine may negatively affect insulin sensitivity (i.e. more likely to gain fat).
This would go against what we’ve usually heard about stimulants being good for fat loss…[/quote]
It doesn’t mean the net effect of stimulants on fat loss is not highly positive. It just means there may be some drawbacks too.
Yeah I use full cream myself when I drink coffee. Ofcourse I’m sitting at starbucks now enjoying the sunny day here in dallas so so much for the quitting coffee thing, ha. I NEED it though!
As far as which helps with insulin sensitivity, it’s the fish oil (nordic naturals is my favorite) and vitamin E. I’ve tried both seperate and both have a really good effect. Vitamin E makes a huge difference on sensitivity for me, being a diabetic.
[quote]Humbug wrote:
aculpep wrote:
It’s hard to explain or quantify but I can just tell my body is less sensitive to the insulin I take as opposed to when I haven’t had coffee in awhile. To bad I love coffee!
I love a good cup myself… Having it with cream seems to help a bit, but I still have to be really careful.
Now if I pop three frozen fish oil caps and my 1600 vit E then that greatly increases my sensitivity and my blood sugar will actually go low without taking any insulin.
That’s really interesting… Just adding the fish oil and vit E to your regular (I assume moderate/high carb) diet lowers your blood glucose?
[/quote]
Well there’s a big difference between taking stims before a workout where you are doing something to burn the fat that gets released into the bloodstream and taking them and not doing anything. I didn’t read the study though, I’m lazy.
[quote]GetSwole wrote:
So if I’m understanding the study correctly, caffeine may negatively affect insulin sensitivity (i.e. more likely to gain fat).
This would go against what we’ve usually heard about stimulants being good for fat loss…[/quote]
Well there’s a big difference between taking stims before a workout where you are doing something to burn the fat that gets released into the bloodstream and taking them and not doing anything. I didn’t read the study though, I’m lazy.
[quote]GetSwole wrote:
So if I’m understanding the study correctly, caffeine may negatively affect insulin sensitivity (i.e. more likely to gain fat).
This would go against what we’ve usually heard about stimulants being good for fat loss…[/quote]