We talk about Insulin Resistance and Chronic Inflammation as if they are separate disease processes. They are not. They are very closely related. So close that they may be aspects of a larger over-arching disease. It doesn’t have an official name yet. Terms like Syndrome X, Metabolic Syndrome, and Pre-Diabetes are being used – but don’t tell the whole story. The Centers for Disease Control has agreed to call it Cardiometabolic Risk – which is more of a political statement about the various medical specialties arguing than any real help to you. We think ” The White Plague” works very well. Remember learning about the Black Plague from the Middle Ages? People then had no idea what was killing them – just like this plague of our times. Many of the foods that drive it are white – or very light in color.
We all know about inflammation. It is the swelling that we experience when we twist an ankle. It is the redness and ache that comes from a cut in our skin. It is the bump and itch of an insect bite. It is part of the healing process when we damage part of our body. What we don’t see is the chemical cascade that is happening invisibly. It is our immune system doing its job.
We become increasing insulin resistant due to lifelong diets that constantly spike our blood sugar, many times a day. This means that high levels of glucose (blood sugar) are freely circulating in our bodies all the time. Glucose is highly energetic- think of it like gasoline. Your car needs just enough at the right time. Too much, or too little – and your car will not run properly. The same is true for your body. Too much glucose and your body starts to break down.
Glucose reacts with every protein it can. This process is called “glycation”. Since your body is made of protein – it can damage everything it comes in contact with. The first cells it damages are those that line your arteries – where the glucose is flowing in amounts far greater than called for. These cells are called “epithelial cells”. Their job is to be very smooth and assist in the flow of blood.
When glucose damages them, they become rough. This impedes the blood flow and raises your blood pressure. You body makes a patch for these rough cells. Its called cholesterol! Now you know why high blood pressure and high cholesterol are usually found together. You may have seen drug company ads showing “cholesterol clogged-up arteries”. We now know it doesn’t work that way.
First, high levels of glucose damage the artery lining. Then your body produces cholesterol to try to patch the damage. High cholesterol is symptom of insulin resistance – not a separate problem. So is its twin – high blood pressure. You can remove the cholesterol using drugs. You are no longer able to patch the damage you are doing to your arteries by how you eat. The patches often fail. When they do, they throw a blood clot into your arteries. If the clot goes to your heart it causes a heart attack. If it goes to your brain it causes a stroke. This is the way most heart attacks and strokes happen.
The damage done by glycation is not limited to your arteries. Glucose attacks your eyes, your nervous system, your skin, hair, liver and other organs. The damaged proteins that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease look suspiciously like glycated cells.
What you have is ongoing damage by glucose to many, many body systems. Beginning in childhood, this damage accumulates and grows over time. Your immune system responds as it is designed to – with an inflammation response. Soon enough your immune system is running at full-tilt – causing what is now known as chronic inflammation. This is like a slow fire spreading throughout every cell in your body. Remember that chemical cascade caused by an injury? It back-fires when used endlessly like this. It is now widely recognized as the driving force behind a whole range of inflammatory illnesses.
The suffix ITIS means inflammation. So any disease that ends in ITIS means it has an inflammatory base. Arthritis is inflammation of the joints. Colitis is inflammation of the colon. Whatever your itis may be – it is provoked or made worse by the evil twins of insulin resistance and inflammation. There are many other illnesses that have an inflammatory component: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), migraine headache, premenstrual syndrome (PMS), and almost every allergy for example. Even some mysterious illnesses like autism are now recognized to have an inflammatory component.
The first line of attack to heal from an inflammatory (itis) illness is to combat the evil twins. You must switch – permanently – to a low glycemic diet. You must supplement your immune system in specific ways to help put out the fire of chronic inflammation. ActuWell Therapeutic Nutrition (ATN) is the most powerful food available to the public formulated to help you do exactly this.