Understanding Metabolic Health: Key Factors and Risks

In the simplest terms, metabolic health is best understood as the state of balance the body maintains between storing fat and burning it for energy. Once this balance is disrupted, health is adversely affected.

It is measured using five markers: blood glucose levels; blood pressure; waist circumference; and cholesterol profile, which is determined by the body’s levels of triglycerides – a type of harmful fat found in the blood – and high-density lipoprotein (HDL-C), a beneficial cholesterol-carrying molecule.

Poor metabolic health is directly linked to the development of heart disease, type 2 diabetes and stroke, i.e., if the markers are at the wrong levels we are at greater risk of developing these diseases. Poor metabolic health is also linked to the development of cancer and dementia, and those with metabolic syndrome and its associated conditions are particularly vulnerable to complications from infections.

What has been responsible for the biggest impact on our increased lifespan over that past 150 years? The ones that top the list include the following:

Safer workplaces – severe injuries and death as a consequence of mining, construction, manufacturing and transportation have dramatically reduced, and due to safer workplace regulations since 1980 there’s been a 40 per cent decline in fatal occupational injuries.
Better sanitation and safe drinking water – this was responsible for the control of many infectious diseases that were the big killers in the first half of the twentieth century, such as cholera and typhoid.
Better food hygiene and food fortification – since 1900 this has resulted in a reduction in the spread of contaminated food as well as the identification of necessary trace elements and vitamins (micronutrients) that have been added to foods and have virtually eliminated diseases such rickets and pellagra.
Motor vehicle safety improvements – better motorways and the introduction of seat belts in cars have dramatically reduced death from car accidents.
Recognition of tobacco as a health hazard – in fact, 50 per cent of the decline in death rates from heart disease in the past four decades can be directly attributed to a reduction in the prevalence of smoking.

Type 2 diabetes itself is a disease that affects 400 million globally. South Asians are disproportionately affected, with India now having the highest prevalence of type 2 diabetes in the world. The disease occurs when blood glucose builds up in the blood stream, and usually develops over many years when the body’s cells are unable to respond to the hormone insulin. Its dramatic global increase in the past two decades has been directly attributed to the way we live, especially the amount and types of foods we are eating.

Glucose is necessary to provide energy for every cell in our body. It’s so vital that even if we’re not consuming it in the form of carbohydrate, the body is able to make enough of its own for survival by breaking down fat and protein, Insulin is a hormone produced by the pancreas whose main role is to maintain blood glucose levels within a tight range. When glucose is outside this range for prolonged periods, it starts to cause damage to virtually every organ system in our body. Insulin also plays a role in preventing the breakdown of stored fat to be used as energy; many therefore refer to it as the ‘fat-storing’ hormone.

Insulin resistance occurs when the cells of the body become resistant to the effects of insulin and thus the pancreas secretes more and more insulin to compensate. Eventually that compensation stops being effective at all and blood glucose rises above the normal range, which then becomes type 2 diabetes. But insulin resistance – or hyperinsulinaemia (chronically-raised insulin) – can be present for many years, even decades, before one is actually diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

Those with the condition are subject to years of suffering. A study at the University of California looking at those with type 2 diabetes aged between 30 and 75, revealed that almost half suffered from acute and chronic pain similar to patients living with cancer, and a quarter reported fatigue, depression, sleep disturbance and physical and emotional disability:

70 per cent of those with type 2 diabetes will also ultimately develop some form of dementia
80 per cent of those with type 2 diabetes will eventually die of a thrombotic complication, most commonly heart attack and stroke

In other words, average life expectancy for those with the condition is reduced by 5-15 years. In the UK, it is the single biggest contributor to NHS costs, making up 10% of the annual budget. In the US, its precursor, pre-diabetes, affects 1 in 3 Americans.

The damage from type 2 diabetes at a biological level is partly related to a patient’s blood glucose being out of the normal range – the higher the blood glucose the greater the risk of complications. But what is perhaps most concerning about the disease is that the very expensive drug treatment employed to manage it (specifically to keep blood glucose under control) has not only failed to reduce death rates but the side effects are responsible for almost 100,000 visits to US emergency rooms every year. Type 2 diabetes itself, especially if poorly controlled, has additionally proven to be associated with a significantly increased risk of death from COVID-19.

Clearly type 2 diabetes is a condition you want to try to avoid at all costs if you can but the good news is that it can also be sent into remission – or at the very least blood glucose can be significantly improved or even kept in the normal range purely from lifestyle changes and therefore without the need for drugs.

The twin evils: insulin resistance and chronic inflammation

The underlying process leading to the spectrum of diseases resulting from poor metabolic health, which include type 2 diabetes, is related to insulin resistance and its overlapping evil twin, chronic inflammation.

Chronic inflammation can occur either directly as a result of insulin resistance or through a separate mechanism.

Chronically raised insulin, or the body becoming resistant to its effects, are strongly linked to the development of cancer, heart, kidney and liver disease, obesity, Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia and osteoporosis.

Source : The 21-Day Immunity Plan by Aseem Malhotra

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/55107159-the-21-day-immunity-plan

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