It's been a while since Part I of this series ... too many irons in too many fires and all that jazz. But one research track I went down recently reminded me of this lingering series and I thought I'd finish up this second installment. We hear all the time truisms such as that the acute effects of a hormone differ from the chronic effects, and whenever a hormone is present in excess of normal levels, the term "fill in hormone here resistance" is sure to be close behind. Now there is no doubt that hormone resistance is a very real phenomenon, but what does it mean, specifically?
The concept of insulin resistance, IR, is highly complicated by the fact that insulin has varying actions in various tissues and organs. I do intend to discuss tissue-specific IR in more depth as this series unfolds. But for today, I am going to limit the discussion to insulin and the muscle cell. After all, when general IR is discussed, it is usually systemic or skeletal muscle insulin resistance.
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