Hi all,
I am 17, currently in treatment for my moderate to severe acne. During my last dermatologist visit, I brought to her attention the hyperpigmentation on my neck. On both sides of my neck I have these areas, about 3 inches in diameter, that are a few shades darker than the rest of my skin. I've had them for years, since I was about 10 or 11. I am overweight, which led the doctor to think that it might be caused from insulin resistance. I mentioned to her that I'd had these spots long before I started gaining weight, but she is sending me for lab work anyway.

What do you think? I feel like losing weight might help the problem but I need some way to maintain my motivation to do so. It seems that every time I begin a new workout regimen it works for a week, tops.

If you have insulin resistance, you need to limit carb calories. work outs are good, but not a complete fix.

This might be Acanthosis nigricans:

http://www.webmd.com/skin-problems-a...kin-conditions

To me this serves as evidence that melatonin release lies in the diabetes pathway. Melatonin is released by the pineal gland, a gland in the low back center of the brain. Melatonin causes us to get sleepy. Melatonin also causes skin pigmentation by causing melanocytes to release melanin. Melatonin release is triggered by daylight cycles. We perceive daylight by receiving blue light on the retinas of our eyes. Too much blue light is harmful to our retinas. Our retinas employ carotenoids, like vitamin A, lutein, and zeaxanthin, to protect them from blue light. The carotenoids act as blue light filters.

We get vitamin A from beta carotene in foods like carrots. Beta carotene is relatively safe. We get lutein and zeaxanthin from green leafy vegetables. But lutein and zeaxanthin are concentrated in yellow corn and egg yolks. A body with out-of-control immune problems can start attacking lutein and zeaxanthin, and start attacking the tissues they concentrate in. The process causes a storm of inflammation, damages the retina, and harms the retina's ability to distinguish day from night. The pineal gland starts secreting melatonin erratically, in unpredictable concentrations.

A dollar to your dime says you have sleep problems too.

Stop eating yellow corn and egg yolks. Ensure a steady intake of carrots. Test your reaction to other orange and yellow colored foods, like yellow cheese and tomatoes.

For the diabetes, you should stop eating grassy grains (wheat, barley, rye and oats), and stop ingesting anything which tastes sweet including fruit. The sweets part seems daunting, because grassy grains addict you to sweets. Drop the grassy grains, and dropping sweets becomes easy. Your appetite will reduce tremendously.

I'm not diabetic, though. But I do have sleep problems, most of which are caused directly by stress and sensory overstimulation during the day rather than a chemical problem, I'm sure.

You're saying

1. You aren't diabetic
2. You do have sleep disturbances, but they aren't caused by diet and diabetes.

Then how was I able to predict your sleep disturbances?

The insulin resistance your doctor is talking about IS type 2 diabetes. Overweight has an extreme connection to type 2 diabetes. And about 90% of people with Acanthosis nigricans skin discolorations have type 2 diabetes. My opinion? ....The other 10% haven't been diagnosed yet with type 2 diabetes.

Insulin resistance is caused by food proteins which mimic insulin. Insulin's purpose is to transport blood glucose into cells. These insulin mimetic proteins plug into the insulin receptors on cell surfaces, and prevent insulin from plugging in. This causes cells to starve, and causes the blood to fill with glucose.

These food proteins are also powerfully addictive opiates when combined with sweets. Denial is integral to addiction. You can fix it or not. Your choice.

After asking about it though, you're refusing to even consider it.

Sure I considered it. I considered it all the way to the first resource I could think to look to - the WebMD page for Type ll diabetes, of which I have few symptoms. Everyone's got symptoms of some disease or illness. But does it mean they've got the full-blown condition? I hope not or I'm screwed.

I need to fast for this blood work or else I'd have gone for it by now. Too bad I didn't have the "unexplained weight loss" symptom. Wouldn't that be nice?

Unexplained weight loss? It's funny, the same set of carbohydrate proteins which cause insulin resistance and weight gain in some people can cause weight loss in other people.

How? As I said, these proteins are opioids. They mimic human endorphin. The pancreas monitors endorphin as a protection against muscle damage from the fight or flight response. When the pancreas senses too much endorphin it releases insulin. When we eat carb proteins like the gluten in wheat, the pancreas insulin receptors can mistake them for endorphin, and fill the blood with insulin. Insulin plugs into cells, and fills them with sugar .....unless the host is insulin resistant like you are. Then the sugar and insulin just languish in the blood.

Whether any given body gains weight or loses weight when confronted with harmful carb proteins depends on genetic makeup. Do the endorphin receptors in a person's pancreas mistake carb proteins for endorphin? Do the insulin receptors in a person's fat cells mistake carb proteins for insulin?

It depends on genetic makeup. Most people get insulin resistance and weight gain.

Be thankful you don't have unexplained weight loss. Thats a prime symptom of Type 1.

Has nothing to do with "carb addiction" its an autoimmune disease

Eh, excuse me, Sir, but I didn't quite catch the last part you wrote, "It depends on genetic makeup. Most people get insulin resistance and weight gain."

So what you're basically saying is that ALMOST EVERYONE who eats, in your words, "dangerous carbs" is gonna get insuline resistance? I think you're unnecessarily scaring people who don't know about these things. And according to you, then, almost the whole world is going to get insuline resistance then from eating carbs, isn't that what you're saying? Now, I may have gotten you all wrong, and for that I apologize on beforehand, in which case I would gladly have an explanation.

But you can't go around scaring people and say that almost everyone who eats your carbs proteins will get insuline resistance - that is JUST NOT TRUE. I f that were the case, then the whole world would be in danger, and we clearly see that that is NOT the case as far as insuline resistance goes.

again, I may have gotten it wrong, what you wrote - and if so, I apologize truly... You seem VERY knowledgeable, sir.