What Causes Metabolic Syndrome?

Metabolic Syndrome can be caused by many factors included diet, lifestyle, stress, and trauma. While fast food can be a contributing factor to metabolic syndrome it isn’t the only factor. Surprising to some, many vegetarians, vegans, and “healthy eaters" also tend to have metabolic syndrome.

In addition, while lack of exercise can be a contributing factor, it too isn’t the only factor. Many athletes that perform long distance sports such as triathlons, marathons, biking, hiking, etc.. are at risk due to the high intake of carbohydrates while training and during events. I recently heard a story of a long distance biker in his late 50’s or early 60’s that had a heart attack. It was discovered that the cause of his heart attack was more than likely due to metabolic syndrome. He has since recovered from his heart attack, has changed his diet and is now back on the training and competing circuit.


Up next... so you know or suspect you have Metabolic Syndrome. Find out how this condition is actually impacting your body. And, if not treated what risk factors are you up against.


Debi Farley is a Licensed Acupuncturist and leading authority on Metabolic Syndrome. Find out more at www.debifarley.com or call 804.288.3927.

How Do I Know if I Have Metabolic Syndrome?

In 2009 the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI, World Heart Federation, American Heart Association, and International Atherosclerosis Society agreed on the following criteria as a way to determine metabolic syndrome.

 

1. Elevated waist circumference in men greater than 40”, in women greater than 34”. Also, the ration of the waist and hip measurement is a consideration in men the waist should be equal to or greater than .9% of the waist and in women it should be .
2. Triglycerides that are greater than or equal to 150mg/dl
3. HDL Cholesterol that is less than 40 mg/dl for men and less than 50 mg/dl for women.
4. Blood pressure that is greater than or equal to 130 hg systolic and/or greater than or equal to 85mm hg diastolic.
5. Fasting glucose that is greater than or above 100 mg/dl

If you have at least 3 out of the 5 listed above then you're at high risk for having metabolic syndrome.

AIC is a measurement of how much sugar has been in the blood. A1C is also a factor that can be considered in determining your risk of developing or if you are on the road to either metabolic syndrome or diabetes. AIC at 5.2 or 5.3 can be an indication, you are definitely starting to develop metabolic syndrome, if you reach 5.6 or higher then you already have metabolic syndrome and may be headed for diabetes.

Find out about the causes and natural treatment options associated with Metabolic Syndrome in my next article in this series...

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Debi Farley is a licensed acupuncturists, Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and the owner of Acupuncture Clinic of Richmond, Virginia. Find out more about Debi Farley at www.debifarely.com.

Metabolic Syndrome: What's Happening in our Bodies?

I want to talk about a couple of the organs that are involved in metabolic syndrome and diabetes so that you can better understand treatment options and prevention.   I'll start with the liver...

The liver has a lot of functions in the body and is involved in nearly every process that is occurring.  The first thing that the liver does it that it filters the blood coming from the digestive tract before it gets passed through to the rest of the body.  This means that everything that you put into your mouth and everything that you breathe and absorb through your skin passes through the liver. 

The liver takes the nutrients from the food that we eat and turns it into nutrients the body can use.  Part of this process involves turning all the sugars into glycogen to be used when we need energy.  Other uses for our food is building the foundation for endocrine and hormone protection through the use of cholesterol, the liver is also responsible in the making and processing of this pre-cursor to hormones.  Cholesterol is also produced as protection in the body.  When triglycerides are increased and can not be used they get stored in the body as fat. The liver produces cholesterol to help contain the triglycerides in the blood stream this is the very low density (vldl) cholesterol. 

Filters out the Toxins

The liver is also filtering out any metabolic toxins as well as toxins in our body that our bodies either do not know how to process or have become so overburdened that they can not process it any more.  These other toxins can come from:

• soap
• shampoo
• preservatives
• chemicals in food
• outgases from new cars
• furniture
• cleaning products
• cosmetic products
• gas fumes....

And this is the short list!! A build up of these toxins can cause inflammation, obesity, and disease in the body.  Finally, the liver is involved in assisting our immune systems to handle the daily environmental assaults. 

Another critical organ involved in metabolic syndrome is the pancreas... 

The pancreas secretes insulin when ever our blood sugar levels get to high.  This secretion of insulin helps lower the blood sugar to levels that are not dangerous to the body.  When the pancreas can no longer efficiently secrete insulin to control blood sugar in the body then you have diabetes. 

Some symptoms that you may be having blood sugar problems are cravings for sugar and carbohydrates such as bread, pasta, and cereal; fatigue, especially if it is relieved by eating; poor concentration, poor memory, trouble losing weight, gas and bloating, tired in the afternoon, blurred vision, sleepy after meals, waking up at night, and if you get shaky or irritable without food. 

For more information on the relationship between carbohydrates, blood sugar, insulin and the impacts on the body, check out www.youtube/merrittwellness. 

Tune in to my next article to find out more about symptoms and the criteria to determine if you or a loved one has Metabolic Syndrome. 

Debi Farley is a licensed acupuncturists, Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and the owner of Acupuncture Clinic of Richmond, Virginia. Find out more about Debi Farley at www.debifarely.com.

Do You Have Metabolic Syndrome?

Research shows that 1 out of 3 Americans are living with Metabolic Syndrome today.  And if you're like most people with the condition, you had the condition between 3 – 5 years when you were diagnosed.  If you're age 65, it's estimated that 77% of your age group is either diabetic or pre-diabetic.  And 35% of adults aged 20 or older have metabolic syndrome.  

Now, after reading these statistics you may be wondering how our society is collectively caring for its health - including our prevailing food choices and lifestyle habits. 

For those of you not familiar with the term, Metabolic Syndrome is also known as Insulin Resistance, Pre-Diabetes, or Syndrome X. It's basically a group of inter-related symptoms and disorders that can lead to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and hormonal imbalances such as polycystic ovary disease.  When you have insulin resistance, normal amounts of insulin are not able to produce a normal insulin response from fat, muscles, and the liver cells. And if it occurs for an extended period of time it leads to diabetes.

So what's happening in your body?

When you don't have a normal insulin response in your body, your entire metabolic system goes into a fasting- state.  What this means is that the body doesn’t think it's getting and/or utilizing the nutrients that it needs in order to function properly - so it goes into fasting mode.  When it's in fasting mode, your body actually reserves energy output by LOWERING some of your metabolic functions.  This mechanism was set into our bodies as far back as pre-historic times when we were hunters and gatherers and didn’t know where our next meal was coming from.  So what you now have is a body that's in an over-fed state and can not function the way it should be.  The body can’t recognize that it's being over-fed because it's simply not able to recognize and process the nutrients.

To better give you a clear picture of what's happening to your body, I want to talk about a couple of the organs that are involved.  I'm going to continue this new series on Metabolic Syndrome over the next month and my next post will cover the liver, its function, and how it is involved in metabolic syndrome.   I hope you'll stay tuned.

Now, before I sign off today, let me share with you a video on Youtube by an endocrinologist named Dr. Robert Lustig. It’s received over two million hits.  You might be surprised so many people would be interested, but he explains very well why the overload of fructose is so damaging to our bodies.  Consider this video some background information for you as we continue this series... 

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Debi Farley is a licensed acupuncturists, Certified Holistic Health Practitioner and the owner of Acupuncture Clinic of Richmond, Virginia.  Find out more about Debi Farley at www.debifarely.com. 

Maintaining the Lifestyle After Your Detox

If you've recently completed a detox, you're probably aware of your nice shiny new body and want to make sure you keep it that way.  How can you do that - especially with the holidays upon us?

While you were detoxing you were probably bombarded with all sorts of “temptations” and saying to yourself “I can’t wait until I can have….” Now that you’ve done all this work do you still want to have whatever it was you thought you were missing?  I always recommend you ask yourself these questions before you “indulge”.  Do I really want this or am I just eating it because I can?  What will this do in my body once I eat it?  Why do I want this?  Will eating this help me to reach my goal? 

Maintaining a lifestyle that you just created can be very difficult in a society in which all social activity revolves around food.  We use food to celebrate, meet people, and to socialize.  The most common thing to do over the holidays is to visit with friends and family over a meal or appetizers.  A lot of business activities involve lunches, breakfast, dinners, and cocktail receptions.  Not to mention the lunches, potlucks, etc… because of  marriages, births, divorces, retirements, and promotions.  I haven’t even gotten into the church socials, the school functions, and girls or boys night out. 

So how do you walk through this maze and stay on track with what you want for yourself? 

Well there are always choices to be made and you always have free will, unless of course you are at a plated function.  Hopefully, while you were detoxing you were able to develop tools to help you through this period.  If not, this is something that I go really into with my individualized nutritional coaching program.  For now, let me give you some examples of how you can handle certain situations.

If you are the hostess or if you are going to a potluck then make at least one healthy dish that you will enjoy.  You may find that often people will gravitate towards your dish before they will try something else.  Many people want to eat healthy they just often don’t know where to start.

When dining out you can always find something on the menu that can work for you. Also never be embarrassed or feel like you are creating a problem by asking the server to either leave an item off and provide you with more of another item and to ask if it can be prepared differently. For example you see a fish you would like to try that is in a batter, fried and it comes with French fries and cole slaw.  You might ask if you can have the fish grilled or broiled with out the batter and instead of French fries you would like to have some steamed broccoli or another vegetable on the menu and a side salad instead of cole slaw.  You just saved yourself around 300 calories and it’s a lot healthier for you.  Also chefs love to be creative and they are more than willing to accommodate people when it comes to dining preferences. 

If you absolutely have to have something that is fast food then go for the salad that is being served.  Anything else is just not a healthy option, it is going to provide you a lot of calories with no real nutritional value.  Again this is something that I go into great detail in my nutritional program. 

One final tip is if you are unsure of a situation that you may be going into - then you might want to eat something before you go.  By going ahead and having something that you know is healthy for you accomplishes a couple of things.  First of all you will not be hungry and therefore will not be tempted to eat anything.  Secondly, because you won’t be focusing on trying to eat something then you can spend more time developing more personal connections with the people that you are interacting with.

For those of you have completed a detoxification or cleanse program during this period I offer you much congratulations on your accomplishments.  Keep up the great work and if you want to stay connected and on track please know that I am here to support you!

I hope that you have enjoyed this series on detoxification and cleansing.  Stay tuned for my next series that will be on Fitness.

Coming Off Your Detox

You’ve finished your detox, now what?  The type and length of program you completed will determine the best way to come off a detox without any major upsets to your system.   

Basically if you have been doing a detox or cleanse that involves all liquids you want to slowly introduce solid food back into the body. You want to start out with your softer and juicier foods such as watermelon, cantaloupe, tomatoes without seeds, smoothies, or something similar for a couple of days, then move into foods that are little more bulkier like cucumber, sprouts, baby lettuces, for a couple days and then adding in other foods slowly.

If you’ve not been doing liquids but have eliminated food groups slowly add in a food group every couple of days.  Look for any signs of discomfort such as headache, upset stomach, dizziness, swelling, muscle soreness, and fatigue that might occur.  This could be an indication of sensitivity to a certain food.  If this occurs, go back to eating more simply and then try again. 

If you want to maintain the great work that you’ve done you want to try to not go back to the way you had been eating before and begin to make some lifestyle changes.  This is something that we work with and discuss in my SAD2FAB program.  It can be hard to do this but I will give you some basic tips. 

Enhancing your Detox

You might be wondering how to get the best out of your detoxification program.  There are many different ways to do this that involve supporting the three biggest organs in the body that are associated with detoxification.  These three organs are the skin, intestines, and kidneys. 

Our skin is the biggest system in the body.  When the intestines and the kidneys can’t handle how quickly the body is detoxing then you may see toxins coming out through the skin. This may manifest in something like more sweating, foul sweating or with outbreaks such as acne.  Two of the best ways to support the skin is through dry brushing and by doing a sauna.  Dry brushing involves using a natural bristle stiff brush to gently brush the skin in a circular motion always towards the heart.  Dry brushing not only helps to remove any dead skin cells but it also moves toxins into the lymphatic system to be eliminated.  A sauna can of course induce sweating which also helps to remove toxins from the body. 

The intestines are also one of the largest organs used to detoxify and eliminate toxins.  Everything gets dumped in to the intestines to be eliminated.  When the intestines can not eliminate the toxins fast, they maybe re-absorbed back into the body.  You want to make sure before you embark on any detoxification program that your intestines are working fully.  Many people don’t realize that it is normal to have three bowel movements per day, usually one after each meal. 

If you find that you are constipated there are many teas such as Senna tea, Smooth Move tea and others that can help to move the colon.  You can also do a colonic (also called colon hydrotherapy) or an enema.  Both of these are excellent ways to ensure that you are clearing the intestines and any built up mucoid plaque that has accumulated on the walls of the intestine. 

Other things that you can do to enhance your detox are; light gentle exercise such as walking, yoga, bicycle riding, or swimming.  You might also consider massage.  All of these activities help to move toxins into the lymphatic system and out of the body.  In addition, acupuncture is a great modality to support the body physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Finally there are several detox teas that contain herbs such as dandelion that can help to detoxify the liver and enhance the cleansing process.  Other herbal teas such as peppermint, chamomile, or ginger are nice to enjoy if you are having any tummy discomfort.