I didn't see this thread until now, so I'm responding late!
Hi Everybody! I'm Amiee or Double E for short. Two weeks ago I decided to get a dark mark on the back of my neck checked out. I had myself convinced that it was exzema. Wrong! My doc told me that my dark patch is a warning sign that I am producing too much insulin. Too much insulin ~ never heard of that! ... Have you heard of this insulin issue?? It will be very intriguing to hear.
The dark area is called "acanthosis nigricans". It is an overgrowth of certain parts of the skin, caused by an endocrine imbalance. It can be caused by a number of disorders, but the most common by far is insulin resistance and Type 2 Diabetes.
What happens is, your body isn't able to use insulin effectively (this is called insulin resistance) and therefore your blood sugar starts to rise. In order to bring your blood sugar level back down to normal, your body makes more insulin. Your body isn't making "too much" insulin in the sense of making more than you
need; rather, it's making more insulin than
a normal person would because your insulin isn't working well, and your body is trying to compensate.
Insulin promotes the growth of many types of tissues, including some types of skin tissue (it also promotes the growth of fat tissues, unfortunately.) So, when you have more insulin than other people have, these tissues grow more. The extra growth of skin tissue leads to the dark areas; it can also cause a velvety appearance in folds of the skin, and little growths called "skin tags." The dark areas usually show up first on the back of the neck, but any area with folds (under the arms, crook of elbow, back of knees, etc) can get darkened and velvety looking.
In most people, the the insulin resistance gets worse over time. Eventually, the body is unable to make enough extra insulin to keep up, and blood sugar becomes high. This is Type 2 Diabetes. After a person has had Type 2 Diabetes for a long time, the pancreas can "burn out" from the strain of trying to make all that insulin, and not be able to make much insulin at all. When this happens, blood sugar becomes extremely high, and the person becomes quite sick and requires insulin injections one or more times a day.
I've always had a problem with insulin resistance, and have had acanthosis nigricans since childhood. (I remember my dad giving me a hard time because my neck always looked "dirty", no matter how much I washed it.) When I was in my 30s, the insulin resistance got really bad and I developed full-blown Type 2 Diabetes. My insulin level got so high that the dark areas looked purple-black.
In the past few years (I'm 45 now), I've had tremendous success reducing the insulin resistance through a low-carb diet and tons of exercise. I also take a drug called Byetta that helps regulate my body's production of insulin, making sure that insulin is released when I eat instead of a couple of hours after I ate (which is when my body used to release insulin, and it didn't work well at all.)
There is one good thing about acanthosis nigricans, and that is I can tell how well I am doing at controlling my insulin resistance just by looking at the back of my neck! Right now, it's an almost normal color, which means my insulin resistance is well-controlled.
.....
I had to really get my insulin in order. My fasting levels were over 100! but now I have them down to a normal level.....
I am so fearful of having metabolic syndrome. They say that is one of the criteria for developing heart disease. My dad had by pass surgery, and now he has congestive heart failure although he is almost 81. He takes care of himself really well, but he got it from being on a Sulfonylurea, which is the worst drug you can be on for diabetes.....
Was your fasting
insulin level over 100, or your fasting
blood sugar level over 100? A fasting
blood sugar level of a bit over 100 would be pre-diabetes, which might be controllable by diet and exercise. (Normal fasting blood sugar is up to about 80, although they keep changing the level considered normal. Diabetes is diagnosed when the fasting blood sugar level is over 120.) A fasting
insulin level of over 100 would be really really bad; normal is below 15. But, I suspect you meant your blood sugar was over 100, not your insulin level. Blood sugar is the one you can test at home; insulin has to be tested in a lab.
Yes, insulin resistance is a big risk factor for heart disease. I believe that best thing you can do if you have insulin resistance is to eat a diet high in fiber and low in carbs and saturated fat, get
lots of exercise, and take drugs such as statins that reduce heart attack risk. (You can't take statins if you are trying to get pregnant, though.) And, I agree completely that sulfonylureas are horrible drugs; I believe that they can both cause heart disease, and can cause diabetes to "progress" (worsen over time) more quickly than it would have without the drug. I don't even know why sulfonylureas are still on the market when there are much better, newer diabetes drugs such as metformin (Glucophage) and Byetta available.
I hope what I wrote was understandable! Ask if if was unclear!
