Two Faces of Insulin

Insulin is quite important for our survival. It is a good hormone that helps cells make use of the food that you eat. If you didn't make any insulin, you would suffer a lot and eventually die. It is safe to say that insulin is a good thing.

But when insulin levels go out of control, your body starts to ignore the message that insulin is trying to send. This is called insulin resistance. This is often accompanied by high levels of insulin. Since your body is ignoring insulin's message, your pancreas (the organ that makes insulin), screams louder and louder... producing more and more insulin. This leads to the bad things associated with insulin. Insulin resistance is associated with:

• Elevated bad cholesterol and triglycerides
  
• Lowered good cholesterol
• Hypertension
• Systemic inflammation
• Vascular endothelial dysfunction
• Changes in sex hormone levels in both men and women
• Women's testosterone levels can increase.
  
• Men's estrogen levels can increase while testosterone levels go down.
• Both of these scenarios promotes even more insulin resistance which then sets up a vicious cycle of destruction
• Cortisol levels go up as your body perceives insulin resistance as a "stress response"

If all that sounds like just a bunch of scientific mumbo-jumbo, let's translate that into English:

1. You'll be tired all the time
2. Blood vessels will get clogged up leading to potential:

• blindness
• impotence
  
• kidney failure
• heart attack
• stroke

3. You're more likely to get Alzheimer Disease or other forms of dementia
4. You won't be able to lose weight
5. Your sex drive will plummet
6. You'll be crabby most of the time

... and this is the short list.

The food you eat sends signals to your body. If you eat right, you send the right signals. If your idea of a healthy meal is a big plate of pasta, garlic bread, a baked potato, apple juice and a cookie, then I guarantee you are sending the wrong kinds of signals.

The Root of Many Evils...

The single most important thing you can do for your health is to regulate blood sugar. Sleep is good, hydration is good, meditation is good, laughter is good, yoga is good, swimming is good, vitamin consumption is generally good.

All these things are wonderful and should be an integral part of your lifestyle. But the single most important thing you can do for your health; regulate your blood sugar.

It’s almost like asking what the most important thing is in a house. Is it the plumbing, electrical wiring, roof, furnace, doors? Of course they’re all incredibly important. If any of them goes awry, your home life will be very uncomfortable for a while. But none of those are any good unless your foundation is strong. Have you seen those million dollar homes slide off the hills when it rains in California? I think those homeowners would tell you that when the foundation failed, none of the other stuff mattered.

Your body’s foundation for everything is your blood sugar. It may be a stretch to say that all diseases have some foundation in blood sugar irregularities. But it’s not a stretch to say that many people with health issues do have problems that arise from blood sugar problems.

There are many things that factor into good health from a functional medicine perspective. The gastrointestinal system plays a huge role in overall health. The thyroid glands, adrenal glands, good nutrient status, oxidative stress, gut infections, systemic inflammation etc. There are many avenues to pursue when you just feel “off” and unhealthy. We’ll discuss many of those in this blog. But if blood sugar levels repeatedly spike and crash, then none of those other things matter.

Some people are quick to dismiss the blood sugar issue saying, “no one in my family is a diabetic. I’m fine.” Diabetes is one possible end result when blood sugar levels get completely out of control. But what about the approximately 280 million Americans who have not been diagnosed with diabetes? How do you know if you have problems with blood sugar?

If have sweet cravings, get irritated or light-headed when you eat lunch a little too late…

If you get easily fatigued in the afternoon or really sleepy after lunch…

If you really need coffee to get you going in the morning or depend on the afternoon latte…

… you probably have problems with blood sugar.

You see, blood sugar is the stimulus that tells your pancreas to release insulin. When blood sugar goes out of control, insulin goes out of control. It is released excessively and over time, your body stops paying attention to what insulin is trying to say. This is ‘insulin resistance.’ In the next blog, we’ll talk about the 2 faces of insulin. The good and the bad.

Welcome to the functional medicine & clinical nutrition blog

Hello everyone. Welcome to the blog! I hope it becomes a place where you can get up to date information that is useful and practical. The world of clinical nutrition is swimming with new information daily. Many people are left with the question, "So what? What am I supposed to do with that information? Does that influence my life in any way?"

Health care is changing rapidly. Most physicians admit that we've been sucked into a failing model of health care. There seems to be a drug for every symptom. Those of us that work with nutrition aren't removed from blame either. For years, we've followed the same model but instead of drugs, here's a vitamin or supplement for every symptom.

Got headaches? Take magnesium.
Sleepless nights? Take 5 HTP.
Got a cold? Take vitamin C.

The old model of health care and nutrition is being replaced by the functional medicine model. It's about understanding the web-like interactions of different systems of your body. Then identifying those areas that are involved and trying to make corrections.

We need to stop asking questions like, "What causes headaches?" And starting asking the right question, "What's causing your headache?"

We are all similar in a lot of ways. We've all got the same parts; a brain, liver, heart, lungs, intestines etc. But we are also very unique. More than ever, the concept of biochemical individuality is becoming relevant to health care. That is the essence of functional medicine. Your headache (or fatigue, chronic pain, poor digestion, insomnia, lousy memory, sexual dysfunction, gas etc.) is likely to have a different cause than your best friend's, sibling's, aunt's or uncle's. Functional medicine is about getting to the bottom of your problem.

In this blog, you'll get some answers in plain English. But more importantly, I hope you come away with the right questions to ask your doctor so you can work together as a team.

Happy reading.