DoctorsToTrust - Dr Ben Bikman: Causes of insulin resistance

Short Summary

Main recommendation: The video does not give a treatment plan. Instead, Dr. Ben Bikman identifies four causes of insulin resistance that he describes as the root of many chronic diseases: stress hormones, inflammation or autoimmune disease, excess insulin, and linoleic acid (omega-6) from industrial seed oils. The speaker frames insulin resistance as a process where one tissue, usually fat cells, falls first and then affects muscle, liver, and brain.

Key Points

• Stress hormones such as cortisol and epinephrine are directly antagonistic to insulin, and cortisol is especially implicated.
• Steroid medications that are cortisol-like, such as prednisone and dexamethasone, can cause insulin resistance very quickly, according to the speaker.
• Inflammation is an independent cause, illustrated by rheumatoid arthritis, where insulin resistance rises and falls with disease activity.
• Chronically elevated insulin is both a feature and a cause of insulin resistance, because cells turn down their sensitivity to a constant stimulus.
• Linoleic acid, found in soybean and canola oil, is described as a secondary cause that makes fat cells insulin resistant first.

Details Worth Noting

• Concrete instructions: No personal action steps, dosages, or preparation methods are given. The only actionable point is the speaker's implicit caution about limiting exposure to the named triggers (industrial seed oils such as soybean and canola oil, and steroid medications where relevant), but the video does not give specific amounts, timing, or substitutes.
• Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune disease with active and passive phases, and the speaker says it is likely triggered by an environmental exposure, such as something ingested.
• The speaker says a study in humans has measured insulin resistance rising and falling with rheumatoid arthritis activity.
• The speaker says that in the lab, including his own lab, cells exposed to too much stimulus lose sensitivity, and he compares this to tolerance to drugs or antibiotics.
• He says he cannot induce insulin resistance in cells by directly treating them with linoleic acid, so its effect is described as indirect, acting through fat cells.
• The speaker attributes the summary to a Michaela Peterson podcast, number 43, and cites Jason Fung as having explained steroid-related insulin resistance in the past.

Bottom Line

The four causes presented are stress hormones, inflammation, excess insulin, and linoleic acid, with fat cells described as the tissue that tends to become resistant first, so the video is best viewed as a causal framework rather than practical guidance.