Insulin is an essential hormone in the body for a multitude of
reasons and it has essential functions. However, it also has
some significant downsides if there is too much of it. In order
to understand why this is the case, lets delve deeper into how
it works. Glucose is an essential nutrient for cellular
metabolism. It is the primary source of energy for short,
explosive movements and is required in smaller amounts for
longer, sustained exercise. The brain uses glucose almost
exclusively. However, very little glucose can get into the cells
of your muscles without insulin. There are glucose transporters
(called GLUT-4 in muscle) that require insulin in order for them
to show up on the cell surface. In the absence of insulin, these
transporters are absorbed back into the cell. Thus, there is
very little uptake of glucose without insulin. So the good thing
about insulin is that it drastically increases glucose uptake
into the cell. But it has many other functions as well. Insulin
can be considered the hormone o