Insulin Sensitivity

A relation of how well Insulin in the body is able to affect cells by inducing insulin-like effects. Insulin resistance is poor efficacy in affecting cells, and insulin sensitivity is good efficacy. Chronic Insulin resistance is one of the pathological signs of type II diabetes.

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Summary

All Essential Benefits/Effects/Facts & Information

Insulin Sensitivity is a function of how well your body can handle glucose (blood sugar) through insulin secretion. Insulin is secreted from an organ called the pancreas in response to elevating blood sugar, and the less insulin that is needed to get the job done is how sensitive you are to insulin.

For a somewhat full review of insulin sensitivity, please refer to our FAQ page on increasing insulin sensitivity.

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Editors' Thoughts on Insulin Sensitivity

In general, being more insulin sensitive is better. If you had to blindly choose between being insulin sensitive or resistant, sensitive is probably the way to go.

Keep in mind that there are times where insulin resistance is good. The third trimester of pregnancy is one where insulin resistance is good as by hindering the ability of the mother to get glucose the baby gets more (up until a point, gestational diabetes is not that good) and fat loss diets and supplements tend to induce transient states of insulin resistance; the latter is not wholly bad because you should be having less food anyways and thus there really isn't any drastic spike in blood glucose to be resistant to on a fat loss diet (if you are doing it right).


Kurtis Frank

Human Effect Matrix

The Human Effect Matrix looks at human studies (it excludes animal and in vitro studies) to tell you what supplements affect insulin sensitivity

Grade Level of Evidence
Robust research conducted with repeated double-blind clinical trials
Multiple studies where at least two are double-blind and placebo controlled
Single double-blind study or multiple cohort studies
Uncontrolled or observational studies only
Level of Evidence
? The amount of high quality evidence. The more evidence, the more we can trust the results.
Outcome Magnitude of effect
? The direction and size of the supplement's impact on each outcome. Some supplements can have an increasing effect, others have a decreasing effect, and others have no effect.
Consistency of research results
? Scientific research does not always agree. HIGH or VERY HIGH means that most of the scientific research agrees.
Notes
Chromium
All comparative evidence is now gathered in our ​Supplement Goals Reference.
The evidence for each separate supplement is still freely available ​here.
Conjugated Linoleic Acid  
Fish Oil  
Caffeine  
Cocoa Extract  
Green Tea Catechins  
Inositol  
L-Carnitine  
Magnesium  
Vitamin B3  
Nicotine  
Panax ginseng  
Gynostemma pentaphyllum  
Tauroursodeoxycholic Acid  
Arginine  
Berberine  
Bladderwrack  
Blueberry  
Curcumin  
Fenugreek  
Grapefruit  
Melatonin  
Olive leaf extract  
Red Clover Extract  
Resveratrol  
Sodium Bicarbonate  
Spirulina  
Vitamin D  
Vitamin K  
Whey Protein  
Yacon  
Zinc  
Alpha-Lipoic Acid  
Creatine  
Dehydroepiandrosterone  
Garlic  
Hesperidin  
Japanese Knotweed  
Licorice  
Nitrate  
Psyllium  
Punicic Acid  
Rose Hip  
Royal Jelly  
Stinging Nettle  
Vanadium  
Vitamin C  
Vitamin E  
Coconut Oil  
Coffee  
Mangifera indica  
Safflower Oil  
Tetradecyl Thioacetic Acid