Jaiwant Rangi, MD, FACEEndocrinologist | Founder, Lower The Dose® | Speaker

Unbraking the Body: Understanding Insulin Resistance versus Deficiency

10 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:35

In this brief educational segment, Dr. Jaiwant Rangi explains the fundamental difference between insulin resistance and insulin deficiency using a car‑brake analogy. He defines insulin resistance as a state where the pancreas produces ample insulin but peripheral cells fail to respond—likened to a car whose foot is jammed on the brake, preventing movement despite a functional engine. Insulin deficiency, by contrast, is described as insufficient insulin production, comparable to an engine that cannot generate power. The speaker emphasizes that therapeutic strategies for resistance focus on “taking the foot off the brake,” i.e., using medications or lifestyle plans to improve cellular responsiveness, while the insulin‑producing capacity (the engine) remains intact. The overall purpose is to clarify these concepts for patients and guide appropriate treatment approaches.

Chapters

Resistance is when your body makes plenty of insulin and then the cells, they stop listening, they're not responding. And deficiency is simply we cannot make enough insulin. So that is very clear, right? So the picture, just think about a car that will not move. One reason is your foot is jammed on the brake, right? That is resistance. The moment you take the foot off, you can make it run. So what we do is we have to use any medications or any therapies or any kind of plan for that person to get the foot off the brake, decrease the resistance. The engine is fine, but something is holding it back.