Insulin and Heart Disease
Posted on January 8, 2012
High levels of insulin in the blood may be a silent heart-disease risk factor for 25 percent of the trim and otherwise healthy people worldwide.
Studies indicate that the earliest marker of a higher risk of coronary heart disease mortality is an elevation of stimulated plasma insulin level.
Heart Disease
A long term excess of insulin silently damages the cardiovascular system, although how remains a mystery. Some speculate that a high level of insulin may directly damage the artery wall, leading to build up of fat that will narrow the blood vessel.
People who have too much insulin in their blood have a problem called insulin resistance. It occurs when the pancreas produces enough insulin, a hormone that directs cells to take up glucose or sugar from the blood. But the body does not respond well. Blood sugar level rise and the pancreas then churn out more insulin to meet the body’s demand.
Type-II diabetes, also called as non-insulin dependent diabetes, results from high blood sugar levels. It affects generally on overweight people over age 40. People with type-II diabetes are two to four times as likely as nondiabetics to develop heart disease.
Not all insulin resistant people are diabetic. The risk factors of getting such high level of sugar are the following:
1. High Blood Pressure
2. High triglycerides, this a form of fat in the bloodstream
3. Decreased high-density lipoprotein Cholesterol or HDL
4. High Cholesterol
People who had an average total cholesterol level of 185, considered to be normal. While a person with the highest blood insulin levels proved to be the most likely to have high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides and decreased HDL cholesterol values.
Insulin level increased as body mass increases, but there are studies that doesn’t offer any hints as to which came first, the increased body weight or higher insulin levels.
Other studies have identified insulin levels as a heart disease risk factor for men. Tests for an insulin resistance could be an even earlier indicator of coronary heart disease risk than cholesterol and other blood lipid evaluations.
Finding a simple test for insulin resistance might pave the way for mass screening of people for this red flag indicator of heart disease.
An oral glucose tolerance test, a test involved in taking the blood repeatedly over two hour period. This method is effective, but is not simple enough for mass screenings.
Hypertension is an independent risk factor for heart disease, but it presents a three-fold greater risk when it occurs in the presence of hyperinsulinemia.
Insulin and Heart Disease
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