The Metabolic Syndrome
THE MEDICAL
RENAISSANCE GROUP
We all know that our patients here
in
Sincerely
Michael
Health Concepts
Newsletter---A Summary
September/December 2003
The Expanding of
Needless to say, we should
find these figures absolutely appalling. But I fear we show little concern
because few are aware of the extreme health dangers involved in this growing
epidemic. Not only has obesity increased more rapidly than at any other time in
history, the diseases associated with obesity such as: heart disease, cancer
stroke, and diabetes, are also at an all time high.
Being overweight is no
longer considered a social problem only; it has become a major health concern.
In the
Killer Fat
Over the past several years
a new concept has emerged: not all fat is the same. The most dangerous fat is
that which accumulates around the belly. Abdominal fat is indeed a major
concern when it comes to your health. This "killer fat" is referred
to in the medical literature as "Central Obesity". For ladies, a
waistline greater than 34.5 inches (76 cm) and for men, a waistline greater
than 40 inches (88cm) is an indication of serious health problems.
This abdominal or
"visceral fat" is metabolically more active than the fat in other
areas of the body and plays a large role in what is now referred to as the
Metabolic Syndrome. You may have also heard of this condition referred to as
Syndrome X or Insulin Resistance Syndrome. This syndrome is characterized by:
Even though central obesity
is only one aspect of this constellation of problems, it is the most visible
sign indicating insulin resistance and its corresponding inner health risks.
Why does this syndrome
exist? When a person consumes too much sugar and processed carbohydrates he
becomes less and less sensitive to his own insulin, and the body compensates by
producing more and more insulin. As the blood insulin levels rise, it creates a
serious chain of metabolic events, which leads to the Metabolic Syndrome.
Insulin Abuse
Without being aware, our
choices in food and drink have become so filled with sugars, this delicate
balancing hormone, insulin, is terribly abused. Consider soft drinks alone.
Statistics show that on average, every man, woman, and child consumes 500
12-ounce cans of soda pop each year. Not only is there over 10 teaspoons of
sugar in most sodas; many are loaded with caffeine, which also stimulates the
release of sugar from the glycogen stores of the liver.
We`ve not even counted other sugared
drinks, sport drinks, and alcohol. Now try to imagine the amount of sugar
Every time we consume one
of these items it introduces a major influx of glucose into our blood stream.
The blood sugar rises rapidly, which then causes an excessive stimulation of
insulin. Insulin is our "storage hormone" and its job is to take this
sugar from our blood stream and drive it into the cell to be utilized or in
many cases primarily stored as fat. Therefore, almost all of this sugar is
stored in the fat cells located primarily in our abdomen.
The blood sugar then
quickly falls (usually below the normal fasting blood sugar level), creating
another problem—levels of blood sugar are now too low or hypoglycemic.
In response, the body begins secreting hormones to drive the blood sugar back
up into the normal range. Even though blood sugars return to normal, we are
left with an "uncontrollable" hunger and the body will crave foods
that will again spike the blood sugar.
When we eat another high
carbohydrate meal or snack, the entire process starts over again. We’ve become
victims of our own poor eating habits and all the while increased insulin
secretion continues doing its job, which is to create more and more fat from
our excessive sugar and processed carbohydrate intake.
When you are in a state of
insulin resistance, your body holds on to the fat and will not let go. In fact,
one of the hallmark symptoms of having insulin resistance is not being able to
effectively lose weight. Have you ever wondered why diets don’t work? Before
fat can be released, the underlying problem must be corrected. You must become
more sensitive to your own insulin first.
Diets Don’t Work
Weight loss diets are
characterized as short-term solutions for a long-term problem. The very idea of
"going on" a new diet, means that sometime
in the near future we plan to "come off" that diet and return to our
normal eating habits. Medical research has shown that two thirds of the
fortunate individuals who can lose weight will gain it back within one year and
almost 100% gain their weight back within two years. Why? The reason is
simple—people come off their diet.
If diets worked, we would
all be thin. It is not as though we haven’t been trying. Over 30% of the
population is trying to lose weight and at any one time another third of the
population is trying to maintain their weight. Americans are spending over $30
billion every year trying to lose weight. But just the opposite is happening.
As a nation, we are all getting fatter and fatter in spite of this tremendous
amount of money spent.
Healthy Lifestyles that
have a Side Effect of Fat Loss
The only way to have
permanent weight loss is to develop healthy lifestyles. The solution to our
nation’s "expanding" crisis will only be found by developing
lifestyles that will reverse insulin resistance and allow people to release fat
effectively and permanently while decreasing the risk of heart disease, cancer,
stroke, and diabetes.
When you combine three main
approaches to healthy living: eating a healthy diet (not spiking your blood
sugar), modest exercise, and taking high quality nutritional supplements that
provide cellular nutrition, you can successfully reverse insulin resistance and
the results are phenomenal! Blood pressure goes down, cholesterol and
triglyceride levels drop, HDL cholesterol increases, blood sugars improve, and
you will begin releasing fat and losing weight like you’ve never been able to
before.
When choosing the right
foods: fresh fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean protein, and Omega 3 fats,
it isn’t necessary to restrict calories. Insulin levels begin to fall and
glucagon levels (the fat releasing hormone) begin to rise. Your body will then
be able to reverse this damaging process that has been going on for years and
at last your body will begin to release fat.
.
Insulin Resistance
With the combination of our
All-American diet (made up of primarily all high-glycemic
and highly processed carbohydrates), and our daily inactivity, many of us are
not as sensitive to our own insulin as we need to be. The body must compensate
by producing increased amounts of insulin to hammer the sugar from our meals
into the cell. This rise of insulin levels in our blood stream leads to the
metabolic changes listed above. This is very dangerous due to the fact that
elevated blood insulin levels (hyperinsulinemia) are
not only an independent risk factor for heart disease but also the underlying
cause of the central obesity, high blood pressure, elevated lipids in our blood
stream, and eventually type 2 diabetes. Over 80
million Americans alone have already developed Metabolic Syndrome and an equal
number are well on their way of developing this invisible syndrome, which will
significantly decrease the quality and length of their lives
There is no approved
medical treatment for insulin resistance. Instead, Physicians wait until their
patients develop these health risks while basically ignoring the root cause. It
is my personal belief that physicians don’t try to recognize the early signs of
insulin resistance because they don’t have a drug to treat it. This may change
in the near future; the pharmaceutical industry would love nothing more than to
find a medication indicated for this! Currently, the only effective way to
treat or reverse insulin resistance is found through the triad of healthy
lifestyles.
Cellular Nutrition
Oxidative stress is an
underlying cause of over 70 chronic degenerative diseases like heart disease,
cancer, arthritis, Alzheimer’s disease, diabetes, macular degeneration, etc.
By providing all the needed
nutrients to the cell at optimal levels, the cell is able to determine what it
does and does not need on a daily basis. This allows the cell to replenish any
nutritional deficiency. The body is then able to optimize its natural
antioxidant defense system, immune system, and repair
system.
Another very important
benefit of cellular nutrition, is that: when you
provide all of these nutrients to the body at these optimal levels, you also
are providing nutrients to the body that have been shown to improve insulin
resistance.
Micronutrients Improve
Insulin Sensitivity
Vitamin C
Vitamin C is the best
antioxidant located within the plasma or blood. It also has the ability to
easily neutralize the superoxide free radical that is created by hyperglycemia and elevated triglycerides. When vitamin C is given in supplementation to diabetic patients who
already have significant endothelial dysfunction (definition), endothelial
function as well as nitric oxide function shows marked improvement.
Vitamin C also has the
ability to regenerate vitamin E. Antioxidants work synergistically together in
the body to provide the organism with a greater protection against radical
damage than any single antioxidant can provide by itself.
Vitamin E
Vitamin E is the most
potent antioxidant within the cell membrane. Dr. Paolisso,
et al., reports that optimal levels of vitamin E not only help reduce the
oxidative stress created by hyperglycemia and
elevated triglycerides in the blood stream; insulin function is also improved.
Vitamin E helps glucose transport and improves the pancreatic beta cell
response to glucose along with its subsequent production of insulin.
Chromium Supplementation
Chromium levels are not
only critical for the proper functioning of insulin but also for fat and
glucose metabolism in the body. Most all diabetic patients are very low in
chromium and several studies have considered the benefits of giving diabetic
patients chromium in supplementation. In fact, chromium is now routinely added
to intravenous nutrition solutions used for very ill diabetic patients.
Presently there are no
practical methods of determining chromium status in the body. Therefore, it
should be supplemented at optimal levels (at least 300 mcg daily) especially
for those with insulin resistance or diabetes mellitus. Dr. Richard Anderson,
et al. reported a rapid drop in hemoglobin A1C
levels, significant decrease in triglycerides (along with an increase in HDL
cholesterol), and blood sugar levels with the use of chromium supplementation.
Supplemental chromium leads
to an increased binding of insulin to the receptor sites of the cell. There is
also evidence that chromium allows insulin to be more active and effective in
doing its job. Dr. Anderson concludes that the overall effect of supplemental
chromium is to increase insulin sensitivity, which leads to helping reverse of
the Metabolic Syndrome.
Magnesium
Supplementation
Magnesium plays a very
important role in glucose metabolism within the body because like chromium it
affects both insulin secretion and action. It has been demonstrated in numerous
studies that as people age their magnesium levels decrease. This phenomenon is
seen in both non-diabetic and diabetic patients who also suffer from increasing
insulin resistance. Dr. Paolisso and his group also
studied how supplemental magnesium improved insulin secretion and enhanced
insulin action.
Other Micronutrients
Several other
micronutrients have been studied in patients with insulin resistance and
diabetes mellitus as well. Dr. Thompson and Dr. Godin
reviewed the medical literature and found strong evidence for supplementing
their patients’ diet with zinc, manganese, glutathione, selenium, and vanadium,
which improved insulin sensitivity. Studies involving vanadium have drawn
increasing interest over the past few years because of its ability to improve
insulin sensitivity when given at optimal levels. In addition, Dr. Marfella, et al. found that supplementation with
glutathione (a very potent intracellular antioxidant) actually reversed some of
the negative effects of high blood sugars on the arteries.
Conclusion
A triad of a healthy diet,
modest exercise, and cellular nutrition are all needed to reverse the difficult
problem and health consequences of insulin resistance. Patients who make one or
two of these lifestyle changes will show improvement; however, when they make
all three of these lifestyle changes the results are phenomenal. They begin to
release fat, blood pressures drop, lipids improve, heart disease is stabilized,
and if they are diabetic they show significant improvement.
The medical literature
strongly supports offering patients with high blood pressure, elevated
cholesterol, heart disease, and diabetes a trial of healthy lifestyle changes
before any drugs are started. Recognizing insulin resistance in its earliest
stages will allow our patients to reverse and further prevent it with relative
ease through lifestyle changes.
Summarised from articles by
Dr Ray Strand
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