Weight Management and Diabetes – The Debate
-From the desk of Dr. Brkich
If you struggle with your weight, you are not alone. Weight gain also does not occur alone and is associated with other conditions such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, low HDL, high triglycerides, high blood glucose, and high hemoglobin A1c. These conditions are all highly interrelated and collectively form a cluster of risk factors called metabolic syndrome, which greatly raises the risk of developing diabetes, heart attack, stroke, and cancer.
Conventional medical establishments, such as the Mayo Clinic and Johns Hopkins University, acknowledge that they don’t fully understand what causes metabolic syndrome. There is general agreement that it is closely tied to insulin resistance. Johns Hopkins states on its website that “insulin resistance may be a cause of metabolic syndrome.”
Evidence is mounting that there is much more to maintaining healthy weight management and good metabolic regulation than just eating less and exercising more. Calorie restriction and exercise are always helpful, but they are not always enough for everyone. Regulating homeostatic mechanisms in the human body is multifactorial and complex. What works for one person may not work as well for another. We are all different. We have different genetics, different digestion, different microbiomes, different metabolisms, different dietary preferences, different cultural and social relationships to food, and different responses to stress, all of which can impact weight regulation and associated metabolic disorders.
What is Insulin Resistance?
