As a frontline worker, you are a prime candidate for insulin resistance. High stress, poor quality sleep/disrupted sleep, being awake during the night, lack of physical activity and muscle mass, excessive carbohydrate diets, poor nutrition/lack of nutrients, and abnormal eating times are all factors in your lifestyle as a frontline worker that contribute to you becoming insulin resistant and ultimately unhealthy.

THE BASICS:

Insulin and glucose are necessary for your body to function and survive.

To better your health and longevity, it is imperative to understand the importance of insulin and glucose management for everyone; not just diabetics.

Every cell in the body from your muscles, to your skin, your heart and every other organ in your body requires glucose (aka blood sugar) for energy. Glucose (for the most part) comes from ingesting carbohydrates, which then get converted into glucose and enter the blood stream. 

Your pancreas will then release a hormone called insulin, which is required in order for the glucose in the blood stream to be absorbed by cells of the body. Without insulin, blood sugar would elevate (think diabetes; which simply put is a malfunction of insulin) and not get absorbed by our cells, and starve our body of energy.

With reference to scientist Dr. Ben Bikman's analogy, picture any cell of the body having a door. Glucose needs this door to be opened in order for it to go into the cell to be used as fuel. Insulin can be viewed as the "doorman" or "bouncer" that opens the door to the cell to allow glucose in. 

In a healthy functioning body, a "normal" amount of insulin will do the job and allow for glucose to be absorbed by the cell. For simplicity sake, we can say "1 unit" of insulin would efficiently allow for "1 unit" of glucose to be absorbed- so a 1:1 ratio.

THE PROBLEM:

Our cells can become resistant to insulin and when this happens we require more insulin to do the job of metabolizing or absorbing glucose. Referring to our ratio of 1:1, when we become insulin resistant, we can imagine this has now become a 2:1, 3:1 , 4:1 etc. insulin to glucose ratio. This results in elevated insulin levels in the bloodstream, also known as hyperinsulinemia.

Unless specifically tested for via bloodwork, elevated insulin often goes unnoticed. Hence it becomes your "silent killer."

Elevated insulin causes a wide range of health issues. High blood pressure, increase in body fat/difficulty losing body fat, brain fog, Alzheimer's, lethargy and post meal lethargy, PCOS in females, erectile dysfunction and blood flow issues, inflammation, increased risk of cardiovascular disease, digestive issues, and the list goes on.

So what exactly causes elevated insulin or insulin resistance? High stress, poor quality/lack of sleep, poor nutrition, lack of physical activity, lack of muscle mass, and too many carbohydrates are just a few main causes- but there are more.

THE SOLUTION

The best ways to manage your insulin levels is through nutrition, exercise and supplementation. More specifically, manipulating your carbohydrate intake such as low carb/high carb days, carbohydrate ingestion timing etc.

Exercise should be more focused on muscle building - yes cardio is important but as a whole, frontline workers have gone too far down the cardio road and need to be brought back to muscle focused workouts and routine.

The most overlooked and underemphasized piece to the health and longevity puzzle for frontline workers is supplementation. Utilizing supplements that help your body metabolize glucose and use insulin more efficiently is on of the best ways to maintain insulin sensitivity (the opposite of insulin resistance) and optimize your health.