Healthy vs. normal

The size of the body is related to how much insulin we need. Being leaner will definitely make your pancreatic insulin reserve to last longer, maybe even for a lifetime. However, it may be useful to know that there are ways to make sure this reserve will serve you at least that long. Most of us eat too much and move too little. Our cells are overloaded with nutrients and have to find ways how to pack more food into stores within cells that are already full. Since in the past, humans have been mostly exposed to lack of food, their bodies developed very efficient ways how to fill the cellular stores. And the key hormone helping here is again insulin. More insulin will move more food into cells and lock it there. After a meal, a normal person will have very high insulin levels in blood that will efficiently fill the cells with food. We can measure this in clinics in a diagnostic test to show that our pancreas insulin release works well. We interpret this information that our insulin release from pancreas is normal. A diabetic person cannot reach those high insulin levels after a meal, so among other nutrients, blood glucose levels will be high. Those two scenarios represent a normal and sick condition, respectively. What about healthy condition?

We know for decades that a similar meal as above in well trained athlete will not produce a normal level of insulin release. In fact, in such a person the insulin level shall be closer to that in a person with diabetes. So, what is the message here? Why are well trained athletes not normal? Can we call them healthy instead of normal? The main reason for lower insulin level after a meal in well trained people is that during training they burn a lot of food and that their cells, particularly muscle cells, are constantly hungry. As soon as some food arrives to the muscle it is consumed. There is no need for insulin to push the food into the cells. The whole body seems to be more sensitive to insulin. It is not difficult to calculate that if we use about 20 times less insulin per meal, we can use our pancreas for much longer. To be close to healthy it is fine to keep our bodies lean. It is even better if we are lean and well trained. And do not forget, being lean and well trained is also an example of good life practice for people with diabetes since less insulin shall be used for treatment. Less insulin equals less side effects.