What is Your Metabolic Health?

After years in private practice and taking care of thousands of patients, I came to the same conclusion as tens of thousands (if not more) of other healthcare providers in our country have before me: what we are doing in the fight against chronic disease isn’t working. Frustrated with seeing more and more of my patients getting diagnosed with type 2 diabetes or hypertension or heart disease, I came to the realization that I cared more about working towards preventing and/or fixing the problem than continuing on in the same revolving door of maintenance that has become the lifeblood of chronic disease. In fact, I believe that as a healthcare provider, when you really start to dig into some of the newer research that is emerging around diet and lifestyle changes as they pertain to our health, (research that largely gets shoved into the background because it doesn’t benefit the food or pharmaceutical industry), you can’t look away any longer.

To quote Robert Lustig, M.D., a pediatric endocrinologist and Professor emeritus of Pediatrics, Division of Endocrinology at the UCF who specializes in neuroendocrinology and is known for promoting and contributing to the global discussion of metabolic health and nutrition, “every country that has adopted the western diet is now sick.”

You’ve hopefully read some of my articles and if so, you have seen me talk about the problems of the standard American diet and you have also probably seen me mention that research shows that only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy. So, what does that mean exactly? Is metabolic syndrome the same as insulin resistance? The short answer is no. But they are similar. Metabolic health is based on 5 criteria: abdominal obesity; elevated blood pressure; elevated fasting blood sugar; high triglycerides and low High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol.  

So, how does this affect you? Odds are you or someone you love are in that 88% of metabolically unhealthy individuals and hear me on this – EVEN if you are NOT obese! Obesity is certainly not good; however, it is more of a symptom of the problem than the problem itself and some people don’t get this “symptom”. Many people are under the disillusioned thinking that if they are not fat, there is not a problem and that is not necessarily true.

So, what can you do to determine your current metabolic health?

First, measure your waistline (around your body at the level of your belly button). If you are a female, you want this number to be less than 35 inches and less than 40 inches if you are a male.

Second, measure your blood pressure a few times per week over the course of a couple weeks. If you have multiple readings of 130/80 or higher, you will want to follow up with your primary care provider but this is also a possible criteria of poor metabolic health.

Next, have your primary healthcare provider (PCP) measure your fasting insulin. I say fasting insulin and not your fasting blood sugar because research has shown that an elevated fasting blood sugar and hemoglobin A1C can take months to years to catch up to an elevated fasting insulin level. Ideally you want this to be under 5 microunits per mililiter. “Normal” ranges will range anywhere from 2-36 uU/mL but most experts would agree that if you are 15 uU/mL or higher you are already dealing with some level of insulin resistance, and you really want this number under 10 and ideally under 5 uU/mL.

Lastly, have your PCP measure your Triglycerides and your High-Density Lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. Both are risk factors and criteria for poor metabolic health. Triglycerides should be under 150 and HDL should be over 50 for women and over 40 for men.

Although it takes 3 of these criteria to be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, if you fail to meet ANY of these criteria, you should massively reduce sugar and starch in your diet and increase exercise. Through simple lifestyle changes you can dramatically change these measurements for the better and improve your health!

For more information on achieving good metabolic health and upgrading your health in general, follow me on Instagram or subscribe to my e-mail list on my website (www.thehealthandwellnessnp.com) for the twice weekly blog to be sent directly to you along with any other important updates and announcements.