Over the years we are continuously being told different things about how to stay healthy. In the 80’s it was all about carbo loading. In the 90’s it was all about low fat. And now we are hearing about low carb diets as the best way to live. How do you make any sense of this? Do you just listen to your doctor? Do you read everything under the sun and come up with your own conclusions? Or better yet, do you go to school and study nutritional biochemistry for eight years? What ever you decide to do I would hope that you would take a long hard look at how blood sugar plays such an important role in your overall health. In fact, if I were to narrow it down to one major thing to consider about your health it would hands down be blood sugar!
So let’s talk about exactly why that is… If we just look at heart disease which is the number one killer and how it is impacted by high blood sugar you will see that consistently high blood sugar and insulin levels will lead directly to high blood pressure, decreased HDL (“good cholesterol”), increased risk for clotting, and elevated total cholesterol. So is it really the heart disease that is killing us or the blood sugar? Hmmm….
High blood sugar in women leads to the production of Testosterone which then leads to infertility and an obesity viscous cycle. That’s when you try as hard as you can but you still can’t loose the weight! Sound familiar? In men the opposite thing happens. Men with high blood sugar create more Estrogen, grow boobs, have prostate problems, and have trouble with getting erections. None of which is a picnic, wouldn’t you say?
Not only that, but people with high insulin/blood sugars can’t detoxify their livers well and can’t create the proper amounts of anti-inflammatory chemicals in their bodies. Both of which will lead in the long run to pain and illness. There is even evidence that colorectal and breast cancer can be linked to blood sugar imbalance. And all cancers love sugar. So once you do have cancer the more sugar in your system the more the cancer will grow.
If let to continue high blood sugar and high insulin levels will eventually turn into Type II Diabetes. This takes all of the things mentioned above and amplifies them! You DO NOT want diabetes! You may be doomed to a lifetime of hormone injections, vision loss, sores that won’t heal and possible loss of limbs!
Have I scared you enough yet? Well I hope so. Our current American lifestyle is doing wonders to drive us towards these problems. And the politicians sit and debate about how to save money in health care! Perhaps they aren’t thinking about the right concepts? Could it be that our current lifestyle is driving the country towards financial ruin? Do you think that it might be time that the government consider problems like this to be a problem of National Security and not just another way to fund the drug companies? I know what I think. You can make up your own decision.
So if you have an obese patient with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, hormone problems, neuropathy in the feet, etc., would you be best to prescribe blood pressure lowering medication, cholesterol medication, hormone replacement, etc., or would you start by managing the blood sugar? I know what I would recommend. One school of thought covers up the effects of the problem and the other actually cures the problem! Once the blood sugar is under control the other problems go away. Fancy that! Unfortunately though people are being given drug regimens like that every day, and the problem is left to persist. The money just isn’t in the cure.
So in closing I want to leave you with a quick checklist of symptoms that you can check in with to see if you might be affected by a blood sugar imbalance. If you do then please call my clinic and lets get you going down the right path and not the wrong one! I don’t care if you live in Maine. Don’t let that stop you. We can do it all long distance.
Do any of these hold true for you?
Fatigue
Cravings for sugar (especially after meals)
Inability to loose weight
Fatigue after meals
Migrating aches and pains
Cranky or irritable between meals
Trouble waking up in the morning without that Vente Mocha Latte
If any of these fit your current situation then let’s get them corrected. There is no time like the present when it comes to saving a life! We could go chat over a yummy apple fritter! ;)
Well written article.
ReplyDelete