Syndrome
Of Insulin Resistance (Metabolic Syndrome) It is of significance to note
that a large percentage of Americans and other people in countries of the Western
civilization eat too much starch, sugar and fat. This causes people to gain weight
and the end result according to Sears (Ref. 1) and other authors is that there
is a significant change of metabolism. This may not be immediately apparent and
often takes several decades to manifest itself. One of the earliest signs
are hypoglycemia symptoms about 1 1/2 to 2 hours following a high glycemic
meal. What is such a meal? The "normal" North American diet with bread,
pasta, rice or potatoes and donuts, candy and chocolates as a dessert. Such foods
contain highly refined carbohydrates and sugar devoid of fiber, minerals and vitamins,
which causes low blood sugar in the affected person after a meal. With these hypoglycemic
episodes you feel weakness, confusion, lack of concentration, heart palpitations,
cold hands and feet and a hunger for starchy foods and sugar. Many overweight
and obese people suffer from these episodes, but may not even be aware that this
is what gets the vicious cycle going. After several years of having elevated insulin
levels, which produce the hypoglycemic erpisodes, the following are the consequences
of this syndrome. Diabetes and high blood pressure develop, infertility occurs
in women (from the polycystic ovary syndrome) and impotence in men. With hardening
of the arteries due to high LDL cholesterol and high blood lipids eventually heart
attacks and strokes result after about 10 to 20 years. Many physicians think now
that prolonged exposure to high glycemic meals will be a likely cause of cancer,
can be the cause of autoimmune diseases and also the cause of arthritis. The
common denominator of this condition is the "syndrome of insulin
resistance", also called "the metabolic syndrome".
Type 2 diabetes often develops in a person who eats too much sugar and fat and
this is often coupled with not exercising enough. The extra calories are stored
as fat in the abdomen and as glycogen in the liver. This requires insulin as
this hormone is regulating both the sugar and fat metabolism. In the early stages
of the syndrome of insulin resistance the pancreas produces more than the average
amount of insulin (called "hyperinsulinism") and this is what causes
the hypoglycemic attacks (from low blood sugar) described above. But there is
a limit of how much the body can compensate for. Eventually insulin function intracellularly
is impaired and glucose is not cleared from the blood as effectively by converting
it into glycogen (the storage form). Instead the excessive calories are stored
as abdominal fat and fat throughout the system including the arterial walls (lipid
disorder and "atherosclerosis"). When this occurs in the coronary arteries,
called coronary atherosclerosis, a heart attack could develop from this. At
a later stage this can cause type 2 diabetes when the patient's pancreas runs
out of insulin supply and overt diabetes is evident by high blood sugars.
It is important to recognize that the blood vessels are already being damaged
for several years during the time of insulin resistance when excessive insulin
is produced by the pancreas, but the blood sugars are still normal. Another condition,
polycystic ovary syndrome (cysts of ovaries with missing periods) is also part
of insulin resistance and these women are often infertile. Here is a visual
summary of the syndrome of insulin resistance and its possible components:
| Syndrome
of insulin resistance (=metabolic syndrome) | type
2 diabetes | Obesity | Hypertension
| | lipid
disorder | atherosclerosis | Polycystic
ovary syndrome | Treatment:
It has been proven by authors such as Sears (Ref. 1, chapter 7, page 62-87) that
a zone type fruit and vegetable diet containing lean protein will turn around
many of these pathological states within 2 to 3 months and lead to a normalization
of the metabolism. Such a weight loss diet plan will influence the metabolism
in a way that the insulin receptors that were sluggish before become normally
responsive the way they were in the past when the person was healthy. Miraculously
women get pregnant again, diabetics normalize their blood sugars, impotence gets
cured, aches and pains of arthritis can improve or disappear. This proves that
excessive food intake and calorie restriction have a powerful influence on our
metabolism by normalizing the insulin levels. Proper nutrition and calorie restriction
are powerful, yet simple tools that can be used to stabilize our metabolism. This
needs to be combined with a sensible regular exercise program and most major diseases
can be prevented or significantly postponed this way as I explained in many other
chapters regarding various disease states. Contrary to many authors who
want you to believe that a calory restricted weight loss program would be a difficult
thing to do, it is actually easy for about 80 to 90 % of overweight and obese
people with no major hunger pangs. You loose about 2.5 pounds per week
on average (in the first few weeks you may even loose 4 pounds per week due to
additional fluid loss). A person who is 50 pounds overweight would therefore take
about 20 weeks to achieve this weight loss (that is about 5 months). However,
this can only be achieved, if you cut out sugar, starchy foods and excessive fat
intake to achieve calorie restriction. The more you learn about food and what
low glycemic foods are, the easier it will be for you to do this on your own.
However, I encourage you to discuss this with your doctor, as long as the doctor
is knowledgeable. A dietition will be useful as long as he/she is knowledgeable
about the latest on low glycemic diets for calorie restriction and does not (as
many unfortunately do) push refined flour as an "essential" ingredient
of any diet. The key to success with a weight loss program is to eliminate refined
flour and sugar and to stick to a calorie restricted diet with regular meals that
will avoid hypoglycemic attacks. It is the hypoglycemic arttack 1 1/2 to 2 hours
following a high glycemic meal that undermines the success of the person on a
diet. For more info on weight loss follow the "weight loss" link below.
If you have a problem with sugar addiction (a "sweet tooth")
a simple solution would be the use of SP6
patches from Lifewave, which has been developed to combat craving for
food. This will help you in shedding pounds. This is mentioned in the book "Breakthrough"
by Suzanne Somers (Ref. 16) where newer insights of antiaging medicine are also
reviewed.This is an FDA approved non-drug method and is called "SP6"
because of the name of an acupuncture point. There are no needles involved. Nanotechnology,
a newer technology, is involved in the manufacturing of these patches and infrared
(heat) waves from body heat are utilized to energize an acupuncture point, which
in turn normalizes the appetite centre through nerve pathways. For more info follow
the SP6 patch from Lifewave link above (click "products"). It should
be noted that this patch works best when the system has been cleaned with Y-Age
patches for 30 days first prior to using the SP6 patches. Use the same above link
for finding more information about that. |
