I have been diagnosed with insulin resistance (fasting blood glucose and insulin levels in range but close to upper normal limit). Symptoms are difficulty losing weight (I'm overweight), cravings and increased appetite.
My doctor suggested Metformin, but I preferred to try a supplement instead and opted for Glucocare which has not only consistently good online reviews but has also been shown to be effective in lowering blood sugar and insulin levels in a study.
I've been on it for less than a week but my cravings are gone and I now eat three meals a day. The need for a snack between meals is completely gone, so in that way the supplement has proved really helpful.
I guess steroids (I've been on 4 mg of Medrol daily for years) also messes your blood sugar levels up, causes cravings and makes you gain weight easier, partly because it makes you retain fluid (even on a low dose, my face looks puffier).
Anyway, I have read two contradictory statements about T3 and insulin resistance.
First of all, the American ND Westin Childs claims people with insulin resistance need more T3, so he often recommends his patients with this diagnosis to lower their dose of NDT and instead add pure T3 (to reduce rt3 coming from T4).
But in another blog, Tired Thyroid, it is said that high T3 levels will cause insulin resistance. The blog owner has cut back on NDT and added T4.
I've never considered the role of thyroid hormones when it comes to insulin resistance, and would be interested in other members' experiences?
I have read two contradictory statements about T3 and insulin resistance.
First of all, the American ND Westin Childs claims people with insulin resistance need more T3, so he often recommends his patients with this diagnosis to lower their dose of NDT and instead add pure T3 (to reduce rt3 coming from T4).
There's something not quite right, there. Are you sure Westin Childs was talking about insulin resistance and not hormone resistance, or thyroid hormone resistance? There will always be rT3 coming from T4, but I'm not sure that's got anything to do with insulin resistance. It's high rT3 that is a sign something is wrong, and that can be caused by many things. But, unless the high rT3 is caused by excess T4 - and that is rare when taking NDT - reducing T4 is not going to solve the problem.
However, when you have thyroid hormone resistance, you do need high levels of T3 to saturate the receptors and make sure some T3 gets into the cells. So, sounds more like he was talking about that, rather than insulin resistance.
Be careful of Glucocare, it contains licorice root and Holy Basil, which could have undesired effects on your cortisol.
Thanks, Greygoose, I never realised that! A shame as Glucocare seems to work well for me, but there are many supplements out there so I just have to find one without holy basil. Surprisingly many contain both holy basil and licorice root, though...but I'm mainly interested in the bitter melon and other blood sugar lowering ingredients.
"Human and animal research demonstrates that 1500mg of berberine, taken in three doses of 500mg each, is equally effective as taking 1500mg of metformin or 4mg glibenclamide, two pharmaceuticals for treating type II diabetes. "
Thyroid hormone potentiates insulin signaling and attenuates hyperglycemia and insulin resistance in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes
"Daily treatments with T3 dose-dependently attenuated hyperglycemia and enhanced insulin sensitivity in db/db mice. Exogenous insulin fails to control hyperglycemia in db/db mice (Robertson and Sima, 1980), suggesting impaired insulin sensitivity. Notably, T3 at the dose of 28 ng·g−1·day−1 reversed the impaired insulin sensitivity in db/db mice."
I don't think so. I do not know what the notation of a raised -1 means in the equation. I do know that 1) animals are usually dosed based on their body weight, and that 2) human dosages of T3 are always in micrograms, and that 3) one nanogram equals 0.001 micrograms. So don't try this at home. It's not really possible to extrapolate a human dosage from dosages given to experimental animals. Anyone with a much better grounding in science than I is welcome to jump in here with necessary explanations. diogenes
Don't extrapolate from animals to humans. And pursue a simple formula; experiment however you can, slowly and carefully, to find out what is best for you as an individual. I abhor categorising and simple nostrums. They don't exist.
Hi i was diagnosed with insulin resistance a couple years ago from a 3 hour fasting insulin/ glucose test. (test conducted because no matter what i did I couldnt lose weight). A herbal supplement called Berberine helped me
I have taken 30 mcg T3 for sub clinical hypothyoidism since that time, but my problem with insulin sensitivity predated the medicine and was getting progressively worse over the years along with my Thyroid numbers. I think my dodgy thryoid somehow caused my insulin resistance as I don't have the more underlying conditions that it manifests as a symptom of (lifestyle/ PCOS)..
While my Hypo numbers have gotten worse over the past couple years I did manage to improve my insulin resistance - so Im not sure if the T3 has negatively effected insulin sensitivity, but i managed to get in under control while on T3.
The lifestyle recommendations were low carb / healthy whole foods diet and exercise / esp HIIT i think - but i was already on barely any carbs and a lot of exercise.
My doctor recommended a herbal supplement called Berberine. I took 2x Thorne Research berberine- 500 per day. If you look up Berberine there is a wealth of medical research inlcuding many scientifically published papers suggesing it has the benefits of metformin without the nasty side effects
here is the first couple entry from a google search (one doctor experience. other sci paper):
Interesting, thanks! From what I gather, berberine has proven to be as effective as Metformin in several studies and many health care practitioners recommend it.
Thorne is a very good brand so thanks for the tip!
Im in australia, i get everything from the iherb website based in the US. I have never had a problem ordering from iherb, but im not sure what the import fee situation in the UK is so you might want to check that out if you do use them
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