Where to look if your health is stuck

It’s not unusual for one’s perspective on their personal health to change at different points in his or her life. For some there is indifference, frustration, and reactivity. For others there is clarity, deep involvement, proactivity, and even identity.

Each person has their own “health documentary.” Typically it’s a blend of factors that include your health history, family’s eating habits, psychological health, environmental factors, financial pressures, value systems, and other lifestyle habits.

I want you to pause and think about how you engage with your own health and possibly your family’s health. Do you think about the future of your health? Is it your responsibility or is it a transaction to be had with a doctor at a perfunctory check up? Are you competent enough to embrace your own inner doctor barring some critical situations?

You may be familiar with the term functional medicine. Functional medicine was born out of necessity. It is a systems-based approach that looks to reverse disease by identifying the drivers and causes. This form of personalized medicine is practiced by M.D.’s, D.C’s, D.O’s, Naturopathic doctors and a host of adjunct practitioners. Allopathic or conventional healthcare accels in acute situations and provides disease management. Where it is lacking is disease prevention and health optimization. If you only treat symptoms, people want pills. Show people the root cause and they will demand a fix.

For the most part you do not catch disease. You build it through life exposure, sometimes referred to as the exposome. The exposome is a collection of environmental factors, such as stress and diet, to which an individual is exposed and which can have an effect on health.

Let’s get back to your health. Imagine that you just landed in your body. Time for an appraisal. Can you move well? How do you feel? What’s your emotional and mental state? Is it a fixer-upper or does it require just some basic maintenance?

Perhaps you want to take a closer look at your physiology and chemistry by running predictive lab work. But before you even seek out a doctor, what is in your immediate control? Your lifestyle choices! Let’s touch on a few.

I. Manage stress wisely

Stress is a ubiquitous part of life that affects us all. Stress can have a profound effect on your gut. There is ample evidence that many chronic metabolic diseases start in the gut. Exposure to prolonged stress alters brain-gut interactions, ultimately leading to the development of a broad array of psychological and GI disorders.

II. Focus on nutrition

Food is one of the most effective tools for bringing balance to your body. When we optimize our diets we see improvements in detoxification, energy and metabolic health. We are a society in a chronically fed state. Too much processed foods derail our metabolism. Eating low-carb and the occasional keto cycle can retrain your metabolism and provide a necessary reboot.

III. Intermittent fasting

Our high school biology teachers failed to mention that fasting is not only a evolutionary skill , but also the best way to activate your body’s own “house cleaning” systems. It’s referred to as autophagy and it promotes healthy cell cycles and deep cellular detoxification. When paired with a proper diet it can help balance blood sugar, prune the microbiome, and build metabolic flexibility. Metabolic flexibility means your body can use protein, fats and carbohydrates efficiently.

VI. Exercise

Physical activity has endless possibilities. Research shows that we get the best results when we mix up our routines and change how we stress our bodies.

Fasted- cardio in the morning can help support healthy blood sugar and utilize body fat for fuel. (2-3 times per week)

Post-meal activity can put circulating blood sugar to work. This is 20-40 minute walks a few times a week after lunch or dinner.

High intensity interval training (HIIT) is a great way to work your metabolic machinery and increase insulin sensitivity (2 hours per week total)

Strength training you can’t go wrong having a higher proportion of muscle to fat mass ratio. Free weights, body weight, resistance bands all work well. (3 X per week 20-30 mins)

This article does not provide medical advice. It is intended for informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.

Behavior Change - Rocket Powered Healing

We live in a fast-paced demanding world. It’s not unusual for us to create habits and even routines that help with the decision fatigue and a constant barrage of responsibilities. Some of these habits are by design and others just a default pattern. In some ways we are in “self preservation” mode.

Let me ask you – How many minutes per year do you spend on “habit change,” or “decision making.” It’s not really something we ponder, but maybe we should. Why? I’d argue that if we don’t we are more likely to go on cruise control and allow subconscious programming to guide our current behaviors. That inner pilot light that’s helping us close the gap on our goals, assess our progress, and change our behaviors grows silent.

So what do we have to do to enhance that inner voice and position ourselves to choose better behaviors? Dan Ariely, is a psychologist that uses a rocket analogy. It’s simple yet profound. Dan’s point is that we must change our environment in a way that reduces friction to make a desired behavior more attainable. Just as a rocket is designed with aerodynamics in mind people can minimize different types of resistance. Once friction has been reduced the rocket needs as much fuel as possible. Fuel in behavioral change is the motivation/energy or incentivizing factors.

Discover & share this Toy Story 4 GIF with everyone you know. GIPHY is how you search, share, discover, and create GIFs.

How do we apply this analogy to actually making better choices. Providing information alone or education is not a good recipe to change a behavioral or a pattern. Changing a person’s mind with information is tough whereas changing someone’s behavior with information is a true test.

Instead we need to take it a step further and reduce friction by changing our internal environment and external environment. If that's true we already have a leg up on the rocket because we have more control over our external environment. Last I checked gravity does not fluctuate therefore it's a constant variable for the rocket scientists to overcome.

However, we have control over the people we choose to be with, the food that we eat, the relationships we foster, our attitudes, the dreams we pursue, and how we respond to our circumstances. And because our behaviors are often irrational it’s imperative we attempt to harness health related irrationality.

Similar to the mind our physical body responds to friction and fuel (here fuel is food, sleep, stress, social determinants, and mental attitudes).

Let’s look at 3 conditions people struggle with and then engineer ways to reduce the friction and fuel a sustained change.

LEAKY GUT

What creates friction?

• Processed foods

• Industrial seed oils

• Multiple courses of antibiotics

• Extended use of Antacids, histamine blockers and PPI’s

• Unknown food intolerances

• Bacterial overgrowth

• Overtraining

• Lack of sleep

How to reduce friction?

• Create weekly meal plans

• Allocate time to create a recipe list

• Limit eating out

• Test your gut

• Look to natural remedies

• Try an elimination diet

• Intermittent fasting

• Utilize a prebiotics and probiotic

Fatty Liver

What creates friction?

• Overeating Leaky gut

• Food intolerance

• Poor bile production

• Poor food choice

• Endotoxins from GI tract

• Alcohol in excess

• Nutrient deficiencies

• High blood sugar Medications

• Bad Oils (seeds oils)

How to reduce friction?

• Portion control

• Eat for gut health

• Liver support

• Eat protein fats and some carbs

• Liver blood work

• Use time-restricted eating Intermittent fasting

• Check thyroid health

Blood sugar and cholesterol problems

What creates friction?

• Processed food consumption

• Calorie surplus and high carb diet

• Excess body weight

• Insulin resistance

• Elevated inflammatory markers

• Genetic predisposition

• Lack of activity

• Emotional eating

• Nutrient deficiencies

How to reduce friction?

• Increase insulin sensitivity

• Liver support

• Eat protein fats and some carbs (Nutritional balance)

• Use time-restricted eating

• Check blood glucose with a glucometer after food (1hr & 2hr)

• Check thyroid health

• Get adequate sleep

What fuels these examples of friction?

• Eating out (especially fast food)

• Lack basic cooking skills

• Poor time management

• Not enough social connection

• Poor sleep hygiene

• Inability to cope with stress

• Inadequate amount of downtime

Fuel to minimize friction?

• An unhealthy gut creates problems elsewhere in the body

• Gut problems may weaken your immune tolerance (autoimmune)

• Gut problems may shift hormonal balance (i.e. PCOS, Cancer)

• A dysfunctional gut suppresses our detox pathways

• Leaky gut may interfere with your metabolism

What fuels these example of friction?

• Disconnection from food choice and disease

• Hyper-palatable foods (i.e. potato chips, pizza)

• Ignoring constipation

• Alcohol addiction

• Not enough social connection

• Lack of plants and animal products

• Pill for every ill mentality

• Oblivious to your lipid levels

Fuel to minimize friction?

• We tend underestimate our dietary calories

• Comprised liver leads to inflammation in the joints as well as the brain

• Inflammation is linked to poor liver function

• Liver health is directly connected to disease risk

• A dysfunctional liver impairs our detox pathways

• Liver can be compromised by 90% without a warning signs

What fuels these examples of friction?

• Hyper-palatable foods (i.e. potato chips, pizza)

• Giving in to cravings

• Disregarding weight gain

• Sugary drinks

• Excessive snacking

• Limited information from your doctor

• Relying on basic lipid panels and subpar labs from a annual physical
  
  Fuel to minimize friction?

• Diseases associated with insulin resistance includes obesity, cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, metabolic syndrome, and polycystic ovary syndrome(PCOS)

• Gradual increase of physical activity and energy expenditure

• Liver can be compromised by 90% without a warning signs

• A dysfunctional liver impairs our detox pathways.

• Sleep is necessary appropriate metabolic function

You may have noticed some of the overlap and redundancies, but that’s because there is an interplay going on in all these conditions. What’s going on in the gut directly affects the liver and both organs affect the cardiovascular system all the way down to each individual cell.

Leaky gut, fatty liver and blood sugar/cholesterol problems put a tremendous burden on the healthcare system and can subtract years of good health from just about anyone. Don’t fret because lifestyle modification should be the primary focus for treating any of these conditions.

The body is interconnected, complex, but also self healing. For example the The Diabetes Prevention Program and its Outcomes Study (DPP & DPPOS) demonstrated A 7% weight loss reduced the onset of type 2 diabetes (T2DM) by 58%. The best treatment for non-alcoholic fatty liver is weight reduction and correcting leaky gut and restoring immune tolerance can be done through shifts in diet, diagnostic testing, and targeted supplement protocols.

Given the importance of patient participation in healthcare decisions you deserve sufficient time and treatment solutions that require some self-management other than guzzling down a pill. It’s time to move away from the old “ diagnose and adiós” mentality. Never underestimate the changes you can make by learning about your health and assessing your habits. This exciting shift puts you in the driver’s seat of your life.

I’ll leave you with this, we don’t always do what’s in our own best long-term interest. With that in mind what will you do differently? Can you identify areas of friction and find your source of fuel?

Emptying the Dishwasher. Exposing a Lost Art.

When, how often and how we move has a profound impact on our health. The frequency and duration of movement affects our metabolism and how much fat we burn. It’s literally silencing hundreds of genes and activating others. Motion through the spine in tandem with a healthy cardiovascular system ensures that cerebral spinal fluid (CSF) moves through the ventricles in your brain and supplies the spinal cord with nutrients while removing waste.

Motion promotes joint and muscle health, which in return may keep pain at bay. Moving activates stabilizer muscles and helps balance overall muscle tone. Paying attention to our body mechanics promotes brain plasticity and strengthens new movement/motor circuits.

Movement can be used to help us regulate emotional states. It can help us regulate the autonomic nervous system (flight or flight vs rest and digest). The large majority of Americans are bombarded with stress and experience a hyperactive sympathetic response - exercise and motion is a great way to put the adrenaline and cortisol to good use.

So where does emptying the dishwasher come in? I have caught myself thinking about this a handful of times while emptying my own dishwasher. I’ve experienced that my own conditioned movements inadvertently put me in a less than ideal posture. We create “default neural networks” which means that the brain gets good at using certain pathways. This is especially true with our movement patterns.

A task as mundane as emptying the dishwasher seems like it would serve very little value. However, like most of our daily movements they have become automatic or predetermined if you will. Whenever we move we are either “ gaining ground or loosing it.” In other words, we are training healthy engaged movement patterns or causing harm.

I’ll be the first to admit that unloading the dishwasher is not Thai Chi or yoga for matter. These forms of exercise require precise “conscious movement.” However, I would encourage you to take a more mindful approach next time you fill or empty the dishwasher. Go through the whole process with awareness. This way you will witness how the whole body works together while gaining a better sense of structure and posture. From start to finish you will bend, flex, reach, push, pull, lift, rotate, look up, look down and hopefully get a few breaths in.

Think about a few things:

1. Are you bending your knees and hinging at the hips or straining your low back?

2. Is your weight evenly distributed or do you dump weight into one leg and or even a specific spot on the sole of your foot?

3. Are your upper trap muscles and neck tight with your head jutting out over your chest?

4. Is your upper body squared off or are you cockeyed?

5. When you reach to put away dishes is your core limp or activated. Does your arm elevate or does your whole shoulder move with it?

6. Are you tuned in to what muscles are activated? Do you know what your posture looks like as you transition between sorting the cutlery and sliding the racks back into place?

7. Are you moving in a conscious matter or allowing for poor body mechanics due to muscle imbalances, prolonged static postural stress, lack of movement variety and overall sedentary lifestyle.

Are you familiar with the statement “where the mind goes the body follows?” This simple concept of body awareness and our power to create and change is an active process. Today it’s not part of our normal routine to set aside some energy to restore healthy movement patterns. At any moment we are presented with an opportunity to cultivate more engagement and check-in with how we move.

A little bit of extra effort and examination on how we move may be the very thing that negates the need to pop some ibuprofen, saves you a trip to your ortho, keeps you in the gym, or even allows you to hold your grandchild without aches and pains. I’d gently implore you to pay a little more attention.

“Broken & Unaccountable:” American Healthcare – What to do instead?

Many health professionals, especially early in their careers, would tell you healthcare is a calling. I’m not sure that there is a better job in the world than taking care of a patient. There are many doctors that are trying to fix the problems, but are facing some very strong headwinds. We’ve inherited a system that makes it difficult to prioritize the patient without neglecting the business’s bottom line.

As a chiropractor using functional medicine I have seen first hand that appropriate care is not being delivered to treat the root cause of illness. Drugs and surgeries are prescribed in way that forestalls the resolution of underlying pathology. If you have high blood pressure does it make sense to artificially lower it, or treat the cause of elevated blood pressure.

We all deserve healthcare that is patient-endorsed and that gets results.

What is driving healthcare problems?

1. Consumers have waited for politicians to ride to the rescue

2. There is a cost crisis and total lack of price transparency

3. Preventative care is rarely covered

4. Delivery of care is not designed to treat the root cause

5. Medicine is overprescribed (in 1997 2.4 billion prescriptions were written. By 2016 that number doubled to 4.5 billion)

We’ve all been taught that if you are going to criticize something that you should supply an alternate solution. Numbers 1 and 2 open up Pandora’s box. Therefore I’ll share a few observations and opinions, but spend the majority of this article on numbers 3,4, and 5. I’ll provide a case study that should help the reader relate to how this applies to you.

The media and politicians have polarized public opinions on healthcare and will continue to perpetuate this two-sided affair. You’re either pro affordable care act (ACA) or anti-ACA. You support a one-payer system or you believe in free market and competition. In reality it’s much more involved and we have yet to establish a meritocratic approach that reins in the cost, optimizes the delivery of valuable care, and ensures all Americans access to care.

This is especially important when speaking broadly about chronic disease (diabetes, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, fatty liver disease, etc) because it’s responsible for approximately 80 % of healthcare expenditures in the US ($3.5 trillion in 2017)

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Did the affordable care act accomplish some things? Not denying people insurance with pre-existing conditions and keeping kids on their parent’s plans until 26 is embraced by the large majority. Did the ACA lower the price of health insurance in the United States by $2,500 per year? No! Will getting rid of it fix healthcare? I would argue that it would not, because in order for healthcare to be fixed we need a total re-haul. Does conventional medicine excel at preventing or reversing chronic disease?

via GIPHY

The US healthcare system runs on a fee-for-service model where doctors get paid for the pills and surgeries they prescribe. This rewards quantity over quality. Doctors don’t get reimbursed for spending time with patients counseling them on the benefits of healthy eating and other lifestyle modifications. Until that reimbursement model changes medical care and education will continue on unchanged.

We need to be aware of what’s happening in the medical system.

• A national study found that 21% of medical care was deemed unnecessary by physicians

• A new study out of John Hopkins details how 48% of all Federal spending goes to healthcare

• 1 in 5 Americans have medical debt in collections

There is zero transparency when it comes to healthcare costs. Predatory billing and price gouging are hard to detect, but are commonplace.

via GIPHY

The current system plays a game of inflating prices for insurance companies and making exorbitant amounts of money on the backs of patients. The days of plans with great benefits are gone.

Outside of your monthly premium it’s nearly impossible to know how much you will pay out of pocket, what the hospital or doctor will bill the insurance, and the degree to which what you paid for was medically appropriate.

People are getting crushed by their premiums and our health continues to deteriorate. If you’re interested in learning more about cost crisis and how to navigate within conventional medicine see the link Dr. Marty Makary new book, The Price We Pay.

Most doctors want to provide meaningful care to their patients.

What this means to me is keeping patients out of disease and empowering them to take health into their own hands.

If we look at the statistics around chronic disease it demonstrates that the current approach to healthcare is failing. Until patients have the right platform we will continue to go in the wrong direction.

Why don’t expensive insurance plans pay for the tests and therapy we need to prevent and fix disease at its core?

In the 1960’s the AMA [American Medical Association] agreed to drop its opposition to Medicare and Medicaid. They demanded that the new laws would back usual, customary and reasonable fees.

This was the beginning of ‘corporatized” care that lead to disproportionate fees for hospital visits, surgery, and technologic procedures for treating acute illness. Where reimbursement waned -- office visits for maintenance, treatment of chronic illnesses and/or for prevention. It’s important to note that during the time these fee structures were developed much of what we know about preventative evidence-based care has changed dramatically.

When creating a treatment plan or in doctor speak an “interventional therapy”, you should aim for a plan with a “curative effect.” Sounds simple but conventional medicine is not designed to provide us a cure. It’s meant as a way to manage disease.

Here is a very simple example. Patient goes to primary care doctor. Blood tests are run and results show high LDL cholesterol and triglycerides. Doctor then prescribes a statin drug to decrease cholesterol production and runs a basic lipid panel every year for 20-30 years while re-filling the prescription.

You should know that statins have not been shown to extend the lifespan in men under the age of 80 without heart disease, in women of any age, and in men over the age of 80 with heart disease. Moreover, statin side effects are often underreported!

If you have read any of my articles on heart disease you know that what’s important are the LDL particle numbers (lipoproteins) as well as markers for diabetes and inflammation.

How should you approach medical care?

Start with P4 medicine.

• Personalized

• Predictive

• Preventative

• Participatory

Healthcare practitioners want to spend our time on things that matter. So what matters to the patient?

• Getting answers

• Piece of mind

• Understanding the treatment

• The total perceived value of the care

• Personalized care

• Getting them back to what’s important in their life

• Being included in the decision making process

• Integrated care based on patient priorities

At this point in time if you are looking to stay healthy, reverse chronic disease, or even obtain a diagnosis you will have to do some work. This might mean working with an integrated team. For example I assist patients that are working with an endocrinologist, an obstetrician, personal trainer, and a psychiatrist. It’s key to find providers that can spend enough time with you. You will have to pay more up-front, but you will save beyond your wildest imagination long term.

Case Study: Functional medicine approach

Let’s talk about Karen. She is a 41-year-old, 5’4” woman who weighs 165 pounds and is premenopausal. Her goal weight is 135 lbs which was her weight before becoming pregnant with her second child.

She goes to the gym 3 times per week and performs some type of cardio i.e. elliptical or gentle yoga. She drinks red wine a few nights a week and has a self-confessed sweet tooth. She was recently diagnosed as pre-diabetic. Five years ago she was diagnosed with thyroiditis, but was told last year that her thyroid is “okay.”

She doesn’t sleep well and stays up late watching tv sometimes. She suffers from bloating and stomach upset. Conventional doctors have been unable to diagnose her with any gastrointestinal issues. She has tried Weight Watchers and paleo, but regains whatever weight she loses. Based on her 24-hour food diary her total calorie intake is about 2,400.

What are some of the things we did?

Recommend a “simple” Paleo diet template that provides around 1,900 calories per day, 25 percent protein (about 110 g), 25 percent carbs (about 110 g), and 50 percent fat (100 g). What the heck does that look like?

• 10 to 12 ounces of meat/chicken/fish/eggs

• 1.5 to two cups of starchy plants

• one serving fruit

• six tablespoons of added fats

We gave the patient the option of intermittent fasting with an eight-to-10-hour feeding window and suggested that she consume the recommended amount of food within that window.

We recommended that the patient get the following testing: SIBO breath test, Cyrex testing (as finances allow), and stool testing if needed. In her case we performed the stool test as her TSH levels were elevated as were her Anti-TPOs and it’s important to see if microbial imbalances may be promoting autoimmunity.

We ran a cardiometabolic panel and a full thyroid panel.

After 3 months of treatment (targeted supplementation, dietary and lifestyle modifications) Karen was able to loose 20 lbs. Her SIBO retest came back negative, and her blood sugar improved (HgA1C, fasting blood glucose and insulin). She has had 1 or 2 episodes of bloating, but her stomach pain has resolved.

What these results mean

• Karen feels like she has control over her diet and weight

• She won’t need to be on insulin or metformin in the future

• She’s decreased her cardiovascular risk profile

• She won’t need to take thyroid medication (at least not in the near future)

• She has improved energy and anxiety has decreased since her stomach pain resolved.

This was a bit longer than I intended so I’ll wrap it up.

The best part about taking a comprehensive approach is the opportunity to “upgrade” a patient’s overall paradigm of health to one of prevention and empowerment as opposed to passive and reactive therapies.

Keep advocating for your health. Map ouT your health risk(s) sooner than later .Try to find resolution to health concerns now so that you can avoid the future pills, surgeries, and medical bills.

Spanx and dad bods - what do they have in common?

The picture above is the Spanx warehouse circa 2019 (popped up on linkedIn and if I’m being honest served as the muse for this post)

If these terms are foreign to you. Spanx is a huge company that manufactures shapewear to help men and women appear thinner. The term “Dad bod” (as defined by the Urban dictionary) is a male body type that is best described as "softly round."  It's built upon the theory that once a man has found a mate and fathered a child, he doesn't need to worry about maintaining a sculpted physique.

These products and this language are symptoms of large health issues.

If you are wondering, here are three common threads: a damaged liver, metabolism dysfunction and weight loss resistance.

If you have read some of my other posts then the term fatty liver syndrome is not all that new. When the liver is overburdened by excess sugar it will store fat, become insulin resistant and spark an inflammatory response.

Think about the combination of overly stressful lives and modern diets high in refined carbohydrates and excess calories. This is no walk in the park for the body. On the contrary, it's extremely taxing. If we are carrying excess weight over extended periods, the pancreas and the liver are taking a hit. Depending on how well your metabolism works people’s bodies respond across a broad spectrum.

Have you heard of the TCA cycle, also known as the Krebb’s or citric acid cycle? This cycle allows the body to burn food for energy by converting glucose into ATP. The more glucose burned, the less glucose in the bloodstream. Too much glucose in the bloodstream can have a damaging effect. It’s one reason why we check the biomarker hemoglobin A1C. It’s measuring the approximate damage to the red blood cells over the course of 90 days. Out of control glucose levels damage body proteins in the bloodstream, which in turn has damaging effects on the eyes, brain, kidney, etc. If high fructose is repeatedly making its way into your diet excessive fructose consumption can lead to excessive glycation of proteins (up to 16 times faster) than glucose.

Every day is a chance to right the ship a little bit at a time. The body is very dynamic and desperately prefers to be in an energy balanced state. Your DNA holds the blue print to a well functioning metabolism, but it needs a diet with the right type and amount of fuel.

If we can construct a daily routine that normalizes glucose, leptin, and insulin metabolism the benefits are Vast (with a capital V):

• reduced risk of diabetes-related complications

  • (neuropathy, kidney or vision damage),

• lower cardiovascular risk (lower blood pressure, triglycerides, increased HDL, better

endothelial function)

• reduced cell proliferation (tumors), less water retention, less fat storage and easier fat release from the adipose cells.

In my experience when patients regain their metabolic flexibility they will see their blood pressure and high cholesterol normalize. And in the case of autoimmunity these markers improve as well. When I use the term metabolic flexibility I’m referring to humans ability to use, properly store, and breakdown different food sources.

Sayonara Spanx expenditures and dad stereotypes

When you are trying to repair your metabolism you need to layer in 4, possibly 5 things.

1. Better Sleep

2. Mitigate stress

3. Activity level

4. Food

5. Supplements in therapeutic doses.

Research shows that sleep deprivation can have profound metabolic and cardiovascular implications. Sleep deprivation, sleep disordered breathing, and circadian misalignment are believed to cause metabolic dysregulation through myriad pathways involving sympathetic overstimulation, hormonal imbalance, and subclinical inflammation (1). Some studies have shown that recurrent partial sleep restriction can create dysfunction of both glucose and lipid metabolism. Lastly, epidemiological data is suggestive of weight gain with sleep deprivation, although a few studies have also noted weight gain with prolonged sleep.

We know that perceived stress can have a similar impact as physical stress. Stress can be a thought or even the perception of a threat. If we loop back to stress and metabolism what we find is a cluster of disorders: Obesity, lipid disorders, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and coronary heart disease. When you are stressed your nervous system, specifically the sympathetic nervous system, activates a stress response. It does this through epinephrine and cortisol release. Over the long term these hormones decrease your body’s sensitivity to insulin.  It hypothesized that cortisol may favor the development of central obesity. Hello flat tire and muffin tops.

Today we are faced with repeated professional or social stress and a small portion turn to exercise to help curb the stress and maintain weight. If your metabolism is broken it probably makes more sense to fix your nutrition, sleep and stress before you overhaul your workout routine. I’m not saying don’t exercise but it’s better to incrementally build up to more challenging training. As someone who works out 5-6 times per week, it's very important. If you are someone with the signs and symptoms of metabolic syndrome walking, occasional stretching (yoga) and micro workouts might be the better way to start.

For example check out this quick circuit that Dr. Mark Hyman shared on social media.

This 7 minute workout has been shown to: decrease body fat, lower insulin resistance, and  improve VO2 max and muscular fitness.

When you are struggling with weight loss resistance, diabetes, heart disease, or fatty liver, food can seem like an enigma. Let me be clear - sifting through all the information can be overwhelming and in some ways feel defeating. How you plan, package and execute will determine the degree of transformation. I’m going to avoid the gritty details and share a few patterns. If what to eat is the bane of your existence I would suggest two options. Start reading some of the new books on nutrition or work with a functional nutritionist until you feel you are ready for some autonomy. It’s never a bad idea to have functional medicine practitioner run a comprehensive blood panel to understand your baseline markers.

Let me preface these statements with:

Eat the standard American diet, get the standard American diseases.

No 1. When it comes to food “focus on taking the role of an impartial observer”. The food we eat is tied to our emotions and woven into our habits.

No. 2 Make sure you are eating to meet your energy needs.

No. 3 Say goodbye to bagels, cereal and flour (at least during the dietary intervention). Chances are you will be able to reincorporate down the line.

No. 4 Do not fall prey to overly restrictive fad “all or nothing” diets (there are exceptions). Give your body the vitamins nutrients and minerals by eating some meat and plants. Avoid foods with labels and if they have them read them!

The last I read the dietary supplements industry was at 122 billion a few years ago.  It’s expected to grow another 100 billion. What can I say? We’re getting sicker and are open to magic pills. The reality is that some supplements have a place in nutritional care plans and therapeutic protocols. Once you find the right supplements they can be beneficial.  For non-practitioners I’m not sure if it’s really possible to stay up to date on the best products. Moreover, understanding when and how to incorporate and test a supplements efficacy take some education. Along with diet and lifestyle changes supplements can be extremely powerful tools for treating and in many cases overcoming symptoms that present with metabolic disorders.

As always please email your health questions to nick@spineandjointoc.com