Pre-diabetes, High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Heart Disease – Do You Really Want to Go There?

Do pre-diabetes, diabetes, high blood pressure, and subsequent cardiovascular disease just happen by chance? Because you are unlucky, or because it runs in your family?

Thankfully, we now know that you have a choice in the matter. Here is what you need to know.

First, even if you “have the genes” for these diseases, you still have the power to influence if they are turned on or not.

But remember, something “running in your family”, often reflects your family’s cultural choices of food and lifestyle more so than genetics.

The maladies listed above all start years before you see a rise in your blood sugar or HgbA1c, or elevated blood pressure. It is important to understand that these are actually LATE signs that trouble is brewing.

There are 4 stages of what is now called Metabolic Syndrome, encompassing the above maladies. 

In the beginning, there are root causes. This includes:

• High intake of simple carbs such as sweets, anything made with flour, soda, fruit juice, sweetened foods, and especially sweetened drinks such as coffee and tea drinks.

• Sedentary lifestyle – even in those who exercise w some regularity, just sitting a lot, and spending more than 10 hours in bed can contribute

• Alcohol intake – especially more than a few drinks/week

• Low nutrient diet – deficient in key nutrients such as magnesium, B vitamins, iron

Then STAGE 1 is characterized by:

• Insulin spikes – in response to sugar in the blood. Insulin ushers sugar into your cells and out of the bloodstream. All good, right. Well…

• Excess fuel in the body gets turned into fat. That fat has to be stored somewhere - your abdomen, in and around your organs, and in your muscles, called intramuscular fat, contributing to fatigue.

• Inflammation in your body, in blood vessels, and in cells due to so much sugar

At this point, you may not notice much, except you seem to be gaining weight around your middle, no matter what you do to try to “be good”. You may not have quite the stamina you used to, and don’t understand why. 

STAGE 2:

• Insulin now stays higher most of the time trying to keep sugar out of the blood

• When insulin is high fat can no longer be used as fuel so accumulates as adiposity

• Hypoglycemia or “hangry” spells– constant higher insulin means your blood sugar will actually drop too low on occasion when there is less blood sugar, like when you try to eat better. 

• Body fat and intramuscular fat increase

• More fatty liver and pancreas may begin to have trouble keeping up 

• Insulin Resistance begins – cells can’t take any more glucose, no matter how much insulin tries to force them to. The excess blood sugar has nowhere to go, so it ends up in the liver where it gets packaged up as triglycerides and sent out into the body to find a place to be stored as fat.

• Triglyceride levels go up.

STAGE 3:

• Increases in fasting blood sugar and HgbA1c levels - this is usually 5, 10, 15 years into the process. 

• Triglycerides go higher

• Fasting insulin comes down

• More body fat, especially visceral abdominal fat, in and around your middle

• More fat in the liver and muscles and ultimately also in the pancreas

• Damage from inflammation in the eyes, kidneys, and blood vessels

• Hypertension

This is the point many people first learn there is a problem. Most will be told to eat better and exercise. 

Not really knowing what to do, most will continue on the path.

STAGE 4:

• More body fat, fatty liver, intra-muscular fat

• The pancreas can’t keep up

• More damage from inflammation, especially in the eyes, kidneys, blood vessels, and nerves

• More likelihood of gut imbalance

• METABOLIC SYNDROME (see box below)

• Increased likelihood of cancer, kidney failure, cardiovascular events (heart attack, stroke), and Alzheimer’s

How is metabolic syndrome diagnosed?

You are diagnosed with metabolic syndrome if you have three or more of the following:

• A waistline of 35 inches or more for women
• A blood pressure of 130/85 or higher or are taking blood pressure medications
• A triglyceride level above 150 mg/dl
• A fasting blood glucose (sugar) level greater than 100 mg/dl or are taking glucose-lowering medications
• A high density lipoprotein level (HDL) under 50 mg/dl (women)

Conventional medicine still tends to wait until your fasting blood sugar hits 100, your HgbA1c is in the pre-diabetic range of > 5.7, or your blood pressure is high to say there is any problem at all. 

As you see, you are well into trouble, probably years before those benchmarks happen. 

What I want you to know is that EVEN THEN you can reverse this out-of-control locomotive. It usually takes 3-6 months of significant but very doable changes in diet and lifestyle to get things turned around, then continuing prudent diet and lifestyle habits that are well in place by then. 

What many don’t realize is the recommended dietary changes involve eating a lot of yummy meat, fish, eggs, veggies, nuts/seeds, some fruit and beans, and lots of delicious extra virgin olive oil, coconut oil, and ghee or butter all over everything. No counting calories and no strict limits on amounts of these delicious foods.

Even well-entrenched Metabolic Syndrome and Alzheimer’s can be significantly impacted and even reversed. Functional medicine encourages intervening as early as possible along this path. The earlier you intervene, the less striking the shifts needed to get you back on track.

I am happy to help you make this turnaround. I hope you get a sense that it is easier than you might think. 

But you do have to take that first step.

I plan to facilitate a group focusing on this by Fall. Let me know if you are interested in reserving a spot, or prefer to work individually.