Hormonal
Chronically elevated insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) directly cause obesity, cardiovascular disease, and reduced lifespan through selective signaling pathways that remain active despite insulin resistance.
To protect your long-term health, aim to keep your insulin levels low, not just your blood sugar. This means prioritizing a lifestyle that minimizes insulin spikes: limit refined carbohydrates and sugars, engage in regular physical activity to improve insulin sensitivity, and consider time-restricted eating to lower baseline insulin. If you have type 2 diabetes, discuss with your doctor whether treatments that lower insulin levels (like metformin or GLP-1 agonists) are preferable to those that simply lower glucose by increasing insulin secretion.
Because of the largely unrestricted insulin signaling, hyperinsulinemia increases the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease and decreases health span and life expectancy.
Why this rating
Strong mechanistic evidence from cell/mouse studies and Mendelian randomization; observational human data is confounded but consistent.
Source
Insulin: too much of a good thing is bad
Hubert Kolb et al. · BMC Medicine · 2020
DOI 10.1186/s12916-020-01688-6
More from this paper
- Hyperinsulinemia promotes obesity by inhibiting lipolysis and promoting lipogenesis at insulin concentrations lower than those required to inhibit gluconeogenesis.Good
- Chronic hyperinsulinemia reduces lifespan and healthspan by suppressing autophagy and antioxidant defenses (Nrf2) while promoting cellular senescence and cardiovascular damage.Moderate
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