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More and more doctors, every day, are beginning to realize that the science they’ve been taught is outdated.  Every day, more doctors are starting to uncover the truth behind the information they read and its sources.  It’s important to know, that your doctors are humans, too – and it’s okay to question their direction.  It’s paramount that you work with your doctor, ask the right questions and take responsibility for yourself.  It’s even more so critical that you take the time to find out on your own, what YOU can do for yourself.

The current medical model is setup to chase symptoms.  Doctors are trained to prescribe a remedy to pain and keep you comfortable.  They are enticed to keep your numbers in the green.  They are incentivized to treat as many patients, to perform as many procedures as they can, to make money.  Although that model is terrific at treating acute conditions (say, you were in a car accident), it fails miserably when confronted with a chronic condition (heart disease, diabetes, Alzheimer’s, et cetera).

The medical community is under a lot of pressure, too.  People just want an easy fix.  They want a magic pill that allows them to continue the indulgent lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to.  Blood pressure too high?  Take a pill.  Cholesterol out of wack?  Take a pill.  Have diabetes?  You’re in luck!  Here’s a needle.

Yet, Americans are getting fatter.  And worse yet…sicker.  Could it be, that the current guidance (provided by the unquestioned medical establishment) may actually be the problem?  Well, what if it was?  What would it look like?  If the current conventional wisdom says, “do X and you’ll be healthy,” and even when followed, more and more people (of epidemic proportions) are getting sicker – doesn’t it stand to reason that the conventional wisdom may be wrong?

Dr. Peter Attia, an ER surgeon, went through his own inner turmoil when he felt justified condemning an overweight patient who developed diabetes and needed her foot amputated.  Yet, he consoled and wept for a young [in-shape] newlywed who was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  As he humbly recounted his misplaced disdain at a talk at TEDMED, he argued it was his ignorant acceptance that “eat less, exercise more,” (in his words, “settled science”) that shaped his bully attitude – that it was the patient’s fault for not caring or trying hard enough.

Despite his own blind following of “conventional wisdom” (i.e. working out multiple hours per day and following the dietary guidelines to the letter), he too gained weight and developed insulin resistance.  Insulin resistance – the precursor to Type II Diabetes.  The “disease” he so quickly discounted as bad luck and poor effort in the ER.  His own beliefs were now in question.  Go figure.

Here’s the thing – your body is self-healing and self-regulating.  That means, that your body will adapt to its environment to save itself.  That means, that your body will mount an inflammatory response when you get sick or injured.  The sneezing, coughing, redness, itching, fever?  It’s not the cold.  It’s your body FIGHTING the cold.  Why would you want to then handicap your immune system even further by taking an anti-inflammatory?  Why would you want to take a steroid that inhibits the immune response?  Yes, I know – allergies suck and colds aren’t fun either.  And I’m not saying you never take medications, but know what’s going on deep inside before asking your doctor if the latest medication you saw during Wheel of Fortune is “right for you.”

Another example is blood pressure.  If your numbers aren’t within some arbitrary range, what happens?  You’re prescribed an anti-hypertensive.  Why?  To lower your blood pressure.  But remember, the body is intelligent.  Could it be, that the reason your blood pressure is up is because you’re stressed?  Maybe you just lost a loved one or can’t keep up with the bills.  Or maybe, just maybe, your body is responding to the past three decades of poor nutrition – your arteries are damaged from all the sugar in your diet so your body tries to repair them with cholesterol, calcium and collagen; which restricts the flow of blood throughout your body, so your body raises its blood pressure to get the required oxygen and nutrients to your cells.  Remember when you were a kid and you stuck your thumb over the end of a hose?  What happened?  The pressure built up and squeezed by your thumb, shooting out farther and harder than before.  It adapted to your input.  This is what your body does.  Now ask yourself another question…if your body raises blood pressure to cope with a chronic condition of stress (chemical, emotional or physical)…do you think it would be a good idea to take a chemical to artificially lower blood pressure?  If your body NEEDS that higher blood pressure to survive why would you challenge your own innate physiology?  What do you think happens when we cut off the supply of oxygen and nutrients to cells?  They die.  What do you think a heart attack and stroke are?  So, is it fair to assume that taking a pill might not be the best thing to do?  Instead, should we question why our blood pressure is high in the first place?

Dr. Peter Attia put it so eloquently,

“I dream of the day when our patients can shed their excess pounds and cure themselves of insulin resistance, because as medical professionals we’ve shed our excess mental baggage and cured ourselves of new idea resistance sufficiently to go back to our original ideals – open minds, the courage to throw out yesterday’s ideas that don’t appear to be working, and the understanding that scientific truth isn’t final but constantly evolving. Staying true to that path will be better for our patients and better for science.”

We must continue to search for the answers.  We must continue to ask, “why.”  We must be held accountable for our own actions.

Chris Kresser, in his latest book Unconventional Medicine, wrote to this very topic,

“When patients grow accustomed to being passive recipients of care, rather than being actively engaged in their own lifestyle changes, symptomatic problems will persist, and root cause healing will elude them” …that, “The willingness to challenge even our most deeply held assumptions, and the humility to admit when we’ve been wrong, are essential to good science.”

The Heading Healthy movement is about finding answers.  It’s about leveraging the collective knowledge of scientists, doctors, and patients to find the “why.”  It’s all about empowering YOU with knowledge and suggestions that you can use to improve your life!

Recently, we’ve outsourced our critical thinking to electronics, the cloud and even authority figures.  Without questioning “Why” something is, or “How” something works, or “When” something is needed, how can we truly know that we are doing the right thing?  We, as humans, evolved by learning from others and our own mistakes and successes.  The current age of “group think,” however, is stunting our growth as a species.  We must continue to learn and grow.  We must continue to challenge opinions.  We must continue to seek the truth so as not to be led astray.

You “have” diabetes.

Okay, maybe you don’t (or maybe you just don’t know it yet), but I had a one-in- three chance of being spot on with that one.  In fact, if you don’t have diabetes, consider yourself REALLY lucky, or maybe you’re in the minority and just plain healthy.  Oh, and guess what!  Your chances of being diagnosed with diabetes goes up with every day you get older, so if you aren’t exhibiting symptoms of diabetes right now, chances are pretty good you will – just give it time.

This “cheery” prediction comes from a recent report out of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) [1] [2] which paints a pretty dire picture for the U.S..  More than 100 million Americans have either diabetes or pre-diabetes.  Of those 100 million, 4% were of age 18-44; 17% between 45-64 years old; and, 25% were above age 65.  The report also details trends based on the level of education one has.  Graduate high school?  You’re 3.1% less likely to have diabetes than someone who hasn’t.  Graduate college?  That put you in a 2.2% smaller pool.  But here’s the scary part…with every study, the overall rates continue to go UP, so it doesn’t really even matter the demographics or economics of your specific situation..

Why should you care?  Well, diabetes, over time, can lead to problems such as nerve damage, dental disease, kidney disease and eye issues. [3]  And, it was the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. in 2015 (the year this data was compiled).  Scarier yet, the longer you have diabetes, the higher your chances of developing heart disease. [4]  In fact, adults with diabetes are nearly twice as likely to die from heart disease or stroke as people without diabetes.  And guess where those two things rank on the worldwide deaths and mortality list – first and fifth, respectively. [5]  Now, I’m not a statistician, but I don’t think it takes one to see that having diabetes “ain’t good.”

So what is diabetes anyway?  Simply put, it’s your body’s adaptive response to being exposed to consistently high amounts of toxic foods.  See, you don’t “catch” diabetes.  You earn it.

Here’s what happens (at a very high level, admittedly).  When you eat or drink something, your body breaks down those ingredients into their most basic forms.  One of the most prominent building blocks of food is glucose (a carbohydrate).  Every cell in your body can utilize glucose as a fuel, but in order for the glucose to get into the cell, a “door” has to be opened, and only insulin knows the secret knock.  Insulin is the hormone, made by the pancreas, that regulates the amount of glucose in your blood by offering it up to the cells.  Once all the cells have their share, any extra glucose is shuttled into your fat stores for later, because your body can only handle so much glucose just floating in your blood stream.  Bad things happen when there’s too much sugar in your blood stream.  The system is quite brilliant, actually – and the majority of the time, it works pretty well.  But, abuse the system, and things start to go haywire.

After excessive and/or constant carbohydrate consumption (yes, protein has affects on insulin as well), the cells (already full of fuel) just start “ignoring” insulin’s knocking.  This would be the pre-diabetes stage (also referred to as “insulin resistance”).  It is the cells’ subtle hint, “Enough already!  Give me a break.”  Maybe a little heart broken at first, insulin isn’t completely discouraged from performing its primary mission.  It continues to keep blood glucose at a safe level by transporting all that sweet energy into fat.  But eventually, the cells constant apathetic attitude takes its toll.  The pancreas sees all its hard work of producing insulin as a complete waste of time and energy, so it simply makes less.  I mean, the cells aren’t going to use it.  They’ve got their own sugar stores packed to the brim, and you sure as heck aren’t going to listen to the lonely cries of rejected insulin and stop consuming SUGAR!

Well, less insulin means less control over rising blood sugars.  And too much sugar is toxic to the body.  Enter your doctor, who prescribes you Metformin (or some other obscure attempt at picking up the slack from your burnt out pancreas).  “Awesome!” says your pancreas, “Now I don’t have to work at all to make this silly insulin!”  Crap!  I guess we need to start manually injecting ourselves with synthetic insulin, now!  This would be Type II diabetes.  Since the environment hasn’t changed (i.e. the toxin not removed), you continue to get worse.  Just remember, your cells (at this point) need sugar like a competitive eater needs an all-you-can-eat buffet after a hot dog eating contest.  So, if the cells aren’t going to accept any sugar, where is that synthetic insulin going to put all that extra carbohydrate?  You guessed it!  FAT.

According to The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases Health Information Center (holy crap that’s a mouthful), there is no “cure” for diabetes – BUT!  It can be managed!  [6]  Well, they are kinda right.  There is no magic pill that you can take to “cure” this condition.  That much is true.  Your body has adapted to its environment.  If your environment doesn’t change, it will continue to deal with those stresses the way it’s evolved to over the past hundreds of thousands of years.  But what if you changed the environment?  What if…you removed the toxin?

Remember those stuck up cells that were too good for insulin?  What if you played a little “hard to get?”  What if you cut out the reason for them becoming tone deaf to the knocking?  Like a date that suddenly becomes interesting when they stop smothering you and start dating someone else, insulin may still have a shot!  Since excessive carbohydrate intake led to this problem, you’re probably wondering, “Maybe reducing the amount of sugar I consume on a daily basis would be a good start?”  Yes.  I think you’re on to something!  And I know what you’re thinking…”If I stop poisoning my body and give it good, healthy foods – it will heal.”  Now you’ve got it!

Later on, I’ll go into more detail about how insulin works in the body and how YOU can become the puppet master; how this hormone may not be the daemon everyone is making it out to be; how this all ties in to gaining weight and stimulating other physiological imbalances; and, the easy and effective lifestyle changes you can make (starting today) that will completely turn this thing around.  Just think, in a few short weeks, you could be off that medication.  In a handful of days, you could drop the mic on your doctor and strut out of that exam room beaming from the self-confidence you rightfully deserve for beating this.  Don’t succumb to the outdated and hopeless disease management model and become another statistic that trends our impending doom.  Be a part of this optimistic movement and start Heading Healthy, instead!

[1] https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2017/p0718-diabetes-report.html

[2] https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/pdfs/data/statistics/national-diabetes-statistics-report.pdf

[3] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview

[4] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/preventing-problems/heart-disease-stroke

[5] https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

[6] https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/managing-diabetes

In an earlier post, I demonized insulin as the “fat storage hormone.”  If you haven’t already, you can read it here.  Anyway, in that article I explained how insulin makes fat – so, if that’s the business you’re in, you now know just what to do.  But, what if you’re ready to lose fat?

So, now that we know we won’t be able to lose weight while insulin is around (because insulin is the ___ _______ _______), what do we do about it?  And what triggers the release of insulin in the first place?  Well, I hit on sugar pretty hard in the previous post.  Glucose, a sugar, also a carbohydrate, is one of the most well known factor that increases insulin secretion, but in reality proteins and fats do the same – just to a lesser extent.  That means, whenever you eat or drink something, your body releases insulin.  Check out the graphic below.

By now, the wheels should be turning…  “So, Mr. Blogger-man,” you ponder, “all I have to do to burn fat, is to keep insulin low?”  YES!  Well, let’s put it this way…you are ONLY going to be able to burn fat when insulin is low.  Remember that Red Light – Green Light game we used to play as kids?  Think about that tomorrow when you wake up and fantasize about stuffing your face with a bagel or eggs and sausage, knowing that as soon as you do, you are flipping that switch out of fat burning mode.  This is why intermittent fasting can be an incredibly valuable tool for losing weight.  The longer you’re in the green, the longer you’re burning fat.  The longer you’re burning fat, the MORE fat you burn, baby!  Instead of eating right away, ask yourself if you’re really hungry and consider waiting for a bit longer.  You’re not going to starve, and for goodness sake you don’t have to eat breakfast.  Just give it a go and see how you feel.  You’ll be amazed at how easy it is.  Anyway, we can go into more detail about intermittent fasting later.  Let’s get back to insulin, because there are two more points you need to understand.

Again, take notice to the green periods between meals.  The above chart assumes you eat “meals.”  This does not mean eat breakfast when you wake up, then have a coffee with cream and sugar on the commute in, then tackle those donuts someone brought in for the office, then eat a banana, and THEN eat lunch.  Between lunch and dinner: you get a little groggy after lunch so you head to the vending machine and crack open a Red Bull, maybe munch on some pretzels as an afternoon snack along with a few innocent dippings into the candy bowl next to the sweet receptionist, and maybe one last coffee before you depart for the day (you know, so you can stay awake through the exceedingly boring commute home).  Look.  If you don’t give insulin a break, you’ll never get out of Fat Storing Mode!

Finally, understand that different foods give rise to varying levels of insulin response.  We can chat about the Glycemic Index and Glycemic Load another time, but know that carbohydrates (breads, pastas, sweets, et cetera) spike insulin higher and faster than proteins (chicken, fish, eggs, et cetera), which have a more moderate response.  Fats (oils, nuts, butter, et cetera) barely trigger insulin at all, not to mention they satiate you longer so you can stretch that fat burning window and optimize progress.

The above information is really the cornerstone to fat burning and serves as a strong, healthy foundation on which to build from.  Understanding the principles behind insulin is crucial in managing a healthy weight and especially important when recovering from metabolic diseases, such as diabetes.  Mastering your insulin levels takes practice, and may take a few lifestyle changes from what you may be accustom to – but that’s not to say it’s hard or painful.  A few mindful tweaks and you’ll be a fat burning machine!

By the way, all of our recipes and principles have the above in mind – keep insulin levels low and optimize the fat burning time throughout the day.  When you DO eat – eat good, nutrient rich, whole, real food.  Don’t worry.  We’ll keep you Heading Healthy!