How to QUICKLY Reverse Insulin Resistance | Dr. Benjamin Bikman

Benjamin Bikman earned his Ph.D. in bioenergetics and was a postdoctoral fellow with the Duke-National University of Singapore in metabolic disorders.

Currently, his professional focus as a scientist and professor is to better understand the role of elevated insulin and nutrient metabolism in regulating obesity, diabetes, and dementia.

AKA he’s an expert on the topic of insulin resistance and how it’s at the root of most chronic disease. On today’s show – he teaches us how to fight back.

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About the Podcast
Jesse Chappus has in-depth conversations with health and wellness leaders from around the world. Topics include lifestyle, nutrition, fitness, self-help, sleep, meditation, spirituality and so much more. Tune in weekly to take your health to the next level!

[Hippy]

I lived with prediabetes for over 20 years without knowing it. Got blood work every year but doctors did not mention anything about it. I found out last year when researching online and started to fast daily from 16 - 20 hours, gradually. Now am very okay with extended longer fasting with no issues. My blood glucose dropped from 118 stubborn and consistently the past decades to the lower 80. Fasting, exercise and low carb diet definitely bring excellent results, but need to do the right ways. Eating correctly is important. Eat the real Foods, cook your own meals, plenty of rest after exercise. After my 20 hours fast or any length of fasting from 16 hours, I start always will a ceremonial matcha latte with plain almond creamer, no sugar, a piece of dark 90% chocolate, plain yogurt, avocado.... overall soft foods, and best of all homemade bone broth. The solid foods follow one hour later. Do research, people, and do the right way and you will get results in no time.

[mercedezlucke-benedict]

I love Dr Fung!! Thank you for great information! I am on week 8 to remove a diagnosis that l got 10 weeks ago. Thank you for the great information

[raindrop]

This is the extracted gold from the interview! Thank you!!

[mertonhirsch]

I managed my son's type 1 diabetes for several years, and in the case of type 1 diabetes, you know that the insulin you use is what's required to manage the total daily effects of food. I started him on a very carb controlled diet at about 25% carbs (30 grams 3x per day) and about 60% fat. He had to use about 1 unit of insulin for every 6 grams of carbs he ate at a meal, or about 5 units per meal x 3, and also basal insulin about 8 units a day. On a suggestion of a high carb type 1 diabetic researcher, I tried a 75% carb diet for 10 days. Within 3 days I had to reduce his insulin to 1 unit per 15 grams of carbs. His basal insulin also dropped a little. This happened gradually over 3 days though. Note that his total daily insulin requirements were the same, even though the insulin for a given number of carb grams was greatly reduced. When he returned to the 25% carb diet it also took about 3 days to go back to his old carb ratios. Now, it does demonstrate that muscles will load up on fatty acids or on glycogen depending on what is present. The 25% carb diet produced less variability in blood sugar, and particularly less risk of low blood sugar and lower peak blood sugar that occurred later. This also shows that insulin resistance should be based on insulin required to manage total energy expenditure. Some high carb advocates point to the fewer carbs covered by a unit of insulin and refer to it as insulin resistance, but on a total food basis there was no change. However, also note that low carb diets don't require LESS daily insulin than high carb diets. The exception would be that if the high carb diet pushes blood sugar up faster, it might result in hypersecretion of insulin which may also result in lower lows, and an increase in counter-regulatory hormones like cortisol, adrenaline and glucagon, so high carb might require a little more insulin because people hyper secrete, but carbs don't tend to do this if they are consumed around activity. Also the lowest insulin requirements occurred when switching from high fat to high carbs, but the lowest occurred in the 3 days switching from high carb to high fat. Overall, low carb/high fat lowers peak spikes after meals, raises baseline blood sugar, raises fasting insulin slightly, and reduces the overall range on the high and low end, but has no effect on total daily insulin exposure unless enough fast carbs are consumed to cause high spikes which result in hypersecretions, hypoglycemic trending, and stress hormone counter regulation. Oh, and one more thing, "slow, low GI carbs" like al dente pasta and legumes required 1.5-2.0x as much insulin to manage relative to their carb content than other carb sources, and extended over 6-12 hours. They seem to stimulate the release of liver glycogen as they pass through the intestines, so low GI carbs are probably the worst for total insulin exposure. There are other experiments showing that the carb to fat ratio of a diet has no effect on daily insulin exposure at the same level of calories though it does profoundly affect blood sugar variability.

[RobertSurdoval-wsem]

My glucose 70-140 during my 20 hr fasting. I eat from 4pm to 7pm glucose during that time glucose 80-90 average. I have watched all your videos and are reading your bookWhy get sick. But I am confuse about IR it’s like it 180 out

[danjohnson]

Are sourdough breads (home made) better than yeasted breads?

[saaaaaamy]

what about the exercise portion of this? Should i exercise fasted? What type of workouts?

[musicforaarre]

Awesome. So gorgeously, and succinctly stated. I'm going to pin this to my computer screen, and watch it daily, until it sinks into my dense head ! I guess it just takes a bit of ethics and persistence with fighting the bs in the mind; one doesn't have to be a PhD in Biochemistry to accomplish this.
Aarre Peltomaa

[cates_keto]

Great interview!!! So true it’s fast the changeover!! 3 days I think but you gotta watch the sodium, potassium and electrolytes. 🎉❤

[zachary]

Sounds good. But if I focus on fruits and vegetables and fatty meat, I won't be in ketosis. What will happen to my blood sugar?

[EliShanti]

What if i might have insuline resistance but i fast a couple of times a month and do intermittent fasting for many days in the same month (im a woman) but i eat 2 slices of whole grain bread or 50 grams of whole grain pasta during the day? Whats your opinion on this? Thank you

[tevatev]

I love all your material Ben, but I’ve been on a carnivore diet, a strict, carnivore diet literally just meat eggs, eggs, water salt for almost 8 months. I have slowly tried to re-introduce some things like avocado, cabbage, strawberries, watermelon, blueberries, etc. little things like this And the second I put any type of carb or sugar back in my body I start having hypoglycemic episodes, my blood sugar drops. I’ve never been diabetic, but I’m having a lot of gut issues the past few years, which I did not know was actually my gut and until enough trial and error. I seem to have developed serious food, sensitivities and intolerances. My body literally cannot process or break down anything besides meat and eggs right now I can’t even do dairy butter or any type of oil.

I suspect that I have really bad leaky gut, potentially Cibo, and the G.I. doctors I’m working with just found a C.diff infection in my colon. I am going Monday morning to have an endoscopy and eventually a colonoscopy. I am having more testing done to see if I officially have SIBO and carbohydrate, intolerant test, and many other test to see what’s going on with me.

TMI. But I have had serious diarrhea for like a straight seven or eight months now. Going carnivore did help a laundry list of serious health concerns I had but it has not fixed everything. I constantly feel fatigued, I still get bloating and crazy, diarrhea, stomach cramps, abdominal pains And I have moments where I am just fine and all of a sudden it feels like the life is being sucked out of me.

I do believe there are a few things happening to me. I do believe because of the leaky gut. It is brought on some type of diabetic gut which has given me diabetic symptoms, but I have checked with multiple endocrinologist, and I am not diabetic, but I have every class symptom of diabetes right now. I have lost a lot of weight considering I’m already petite and tiny. Before my health got really bad I wait about 113 pounds and I got all the way down to 98 pounds. And my weight fluctuates between 90-97 pounds right now. I am a 32-year-old white, female and previous to this. I am blessed and thankful to say I have been in perfect health my entire life.

I I’m desperate, but hopeful that someone truly has the right information to get me the right help because I believe I have a bit of a web of issues going on but the way most of these careless western doctors tackle things are with antibiotics. And from my own obsessive research, I’ve had a basically become my own doctor, and if I am dealing with all these gut related issues, the last thing I need to mess up my gut Microbiome even further is to take more antibiotics. Which can actually for my research, make it much worse for me, but these doctors are not educating me that’s why I come watch and find men like you guys, I’m not even a doctor, but this makes more sense to me than these careless cookie cutter doctors who were trained by the system to throw antibiotics at you.

I don’t know where to start first do I heal the leaky gut or do I have to get rid of the bad bacteria La like SIBO and C.diff first in order to heal it?

[sandraredmond]

My A1c has stayed around 5.6 - 5.7 for the past few years. Despite me lowering my carbs considerably and doing intermittent fasting and lots of exercise I cant seem to lower it from that level. Any thoughts on this ? I am a 62 year old woman

[MrRRSODL]

That's true in my case, I reversed type 2 diabetes in 6 weeks, I stopped 6 tablets a day I was taking. 3 years down the road I think I'm still insulin resistant...I haven't done any insulin test but my A1c went up a few points after I relaxed my fasting. Carbs didn't not change, if anything I reduced carbs to about 5%. I also reversed fatty liver, I did a test and the doc was impressed, he did think it was possible to reverse it so much. My advise is to do anything in your power to become diabetic.... There's no going back from that.

[clairelaskey]

Fasting made my Hashimoto hypothyroidism worse, way way worse. Now do intuitive eating as I’ve done my whole life. No white carbs at all. Low carb, low glycemic index, 30 grams protein at each meal. Lots and lots of veggies

[Iggy]

Hi folks thanks for the info it very informative, I have recently been diagnosed type 2 diabetic and also have NAFLD because of this I have tried to change my life style and the types of food I eat, I have been intermittent fasting for about 5 weeks now I'm doing 6/18, on top of this I'm also doing a 40hr fast every week starting Thursday at 18:00hrs and finishing Saturday at 12:00hrs, combining a low very carb diet I am losing weight to be fair especially around my belly . my blood glucose ranges from 5.2 -6.8 mmol/L, after my 40 hr fast I check for ketones in my urine and there's nothing, I was wondering why that is if you guys know and could tell me that would be appreciated, thanks

[StarvingMyselfToLIFE]

What is a better indicator of insulin resistance. Triglycerides/HDL ratio, HOMA IR, or HBA1C?

[wanderingknight]

The mistake people make when fasting is they fast for 2 or 3 days then they don’t fast again until a year or 2 later. For every 1 day of eating fast for at least 2-3 days..and cycle. I am referring to water fasting NOT intermittent fasting..Do not worry about hunger because after you cycle this method after a month or so your hunger impulses will disappear forever.Your insulin will become hyper sensitive which will help you maintain weight and muscle mass..I am a practitioner not a theorist of this method. I personally cycle every 7-14 days meaning I water fast for 7-14 days then I eat for 2-3 days..repeating this process while simultaneously applying resistance training. My resting heart rate doesn’t exceed 70 and my blood pressure remains at a healthy low. I am over 40…I also suggest drinking daily shots of apple cider vinegar while fasting to help cleanse the colon coupled with lots of mineral water.

[jonmiller]

My fasting glucose goes up when I am fasting. I've done 36 hour, 48 hour and 60 hour, but my blood glucose is higher. Which is frustrating.

[gregnixon]

01:26 “You are cooking with gas.” Yeah, we want to do that while we still can. 😳