Insulin Treatment May Cause High Blood Pressure and Heart Failure

Insulin treatment is of course required in a Type I diabetic but is often used as a method of attempting to lower blood sugar in Type 2 diabetics.  Type 2 diabetics frequently have high blood pressure as part of an overall metabolic dysfunction known as the metabolic syndrome.  Heart failure rates are skyrocketing in the United States.  Is there a connection?  A new animal study says yes¹.

Type 2 diabetics have insulin resistance, meaning that insulin is typically already high and not able to get its work done in terms of transporting sugar into the liver and muscles.  Doctors oftentimes give even more insulin in an attempt to force the sugar out of the blood.  The new animal study shows that this extra insulin is highly stimulative to the heart, driving up systolic blood pressure and causing a heart failure due to pressure overload.  While this is an animal finding, it is of potential immense importance to humans especially considering the “unexplained” dramatic increase in heart failure in the U.S.

If you have to take insulin then you must do everything to be a normal body weight or on a consistent path of losing weight while seeking, when possible, to find the lowest possible amount of insulin.  The results of this study apply to both Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics.

Since it will probably take the FDA several years to warn anyone, I thought I’d lend a hand.