Sugar & Lifespan

Mark Testa, DC, MHA

Healthy longevity is easier than many think.

Removing sugar from the diet is the first step.

Its known that sugar, refined carbohydrates, and high fructose corn syrup can wreak havoc on the body.

Elevated blood sugar from foods containing too much sugar and refined carbohydrates, can result in diabetes, weight gain, fatty liver, dementia, inflammation and a shortened life span.

More studies are showing a correlation to a shortened life span, and these health conditions will certainly cause a life of suffering and premature death1.

When blood sugar (glucose) gets spiked from eating sugar and refined carbohydrates insulin gets released from the pancreas. Insulin is the storage hormone and when elevated from the high glucose in the blood it will try to push that glucose into the cell for fuel. When the cell is over loaded with the excess sugar, the insulin will push it is into the muscles and liver where it gets stored as glycogen. Once the liver is over loaded, insulin will store more of the excess glucose in the liver and belly as fat.

Over time, insulin becomes resistant to all the glucose. The body releases more and more insulin to handle the excess glucose. The excess insulin continues to store the excess glucose and the cycle gets worse.

Excess sugar gets stored as fat.

This process of excess glucose in the blood for long periods and insulin resistance eventually leads to type 2 diabetes. Diabetes is a leading cause of cardiovascular disease, blindness, kidney disease and amputation. Serious and bad stuff that happens to a lot of people.

This is a growing problem and we now have about 90 million American who are pre-diabetic. Many don’t even know.

Here are a few things to look for to see if you could be pre diabetic:

·       Being overweight or obese. Belly fat is a good sign of this.

·       Not exercising regularly

·       Having gestational diabetes during pregnancy

·       Being over age 45

·       Family history of diabetes

Belly fat increases inflammation, damaging circulation and blood vessels. Inflammation is involved in all diseases of aging.

Excess fat can increase estrogen by converting testosterone to estrogen from a chemical released from fat called aromatase. In men this can lead to erectile dysfunction. Yikes!

Obesity is associated with 12 different cancers. Cancer cells love to fuel themselves off sugar and that is their primary fuel source.

Many Americas consume 2.5 lbs of sugar per week and as we age, we see increases in blood glucose. Maybe as a result of years of over use, misuse, and over eating.

Sugar also can lower HDL (the good) cholesterol and increase the risk for developing cardiovascular disease.

Alzheimer’s disease is now commonly referred to as type 3 diabetes and excess sugar is implicated in the process.

Sugar rarely fills you up so overeating is often a problem and consuming more calories than needed will cause obesity. Fueling the viscous cycle.

Excess sugar stored in the liver can cause fatty liver. Think faux gras. Fatty liver is rapidly becoming the leading cause of cirrhosis and cause for liver transplant. Even behind alcohol consumption.

We’re beginning to see fatty liver in children at an alarming rate. High fructose corn syrup is a leading cause of fatty liver.

So now that we know how damaging sugar is, what can be done about it?

First off, do what you can to get sugar out of your house. This is the first step. Control the environment because willpower doesn’t work. At least not at first.

Stop ingesting high fructose corn syrup commonly found in sodas but also many other processed foods. “Healthy foods” are also loaded with sugar; granola, yogurt, instant oatmeal, juices, and even bread have this hidden in them.

Refined carbohydrates like white flour foods, sweets, candy and the like are also a source that should be removed from the diet.

Fasting and intermittent fasting is a good tool to help reduce glucose and insulin levels in the blood. This works well and quickly.

Done regularly studies show improvement in diabetes, inflammation, belly fat loss, cholesterol, and may improve healthy longevity.

Herbs like berberine, supplements like alpha lipoic acid and minerals like chromium can help blood sugar handling.

Another great tool is exercise. You don’t need to do a marathon or be a triathlete to get the benefits. Daily 20-30 minutes can also make a big difference is blood glucose.

Good sleep is also part of the process to improve health and longevity. Poor sleep will raise morning glucose levels.

Don’t bother with the supplements though unless you stop putting this stuff into your body, start exercising and sleeping better.  This is the fastest and most effective way of making an improvement with your health.

The bottom line is -sugar and simple refined carbohydrates will wreak havoc on your health causing poor health, suffering, and a shortened life.

Simple dietary and lifestyle changes can be the most effective tool to help you to have healthy longevity.

1.       https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170111130800.htm

By Mark Testa, DC, MHA

Mark is a chiropractor and acupuncturist trained in function medicine and fasting. He reins from Ravenna, OH and lives in Denver, CO with his wife and family.

He can be found at https://www.facebook.com/drmarktesta

*This information is not a substitute for medical advice.

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Weight is a Hormonal Issue not a Calorie Issue

Our understanding of calories in, calories out has been way over simplified over the years. Weigh is much more than the number of calories we ingest in a day and how much we burn.

The recommendation of eat less and move more has been fraught with disappointment and failure. If you ask many who tried to simply reduce calories to lose weight, they will tell you it didn’t work, was difficult or worse, backfired and they actually gained more weight.

A rarely discussed hormonal system is involved in human weight beyond the calorie. There are four hormones involved -one set is involved in storing and burning fat the other set make us hungry or full.  

Insulin is the storage hormone.

Insulin is a hormone released from the pancreas that moves glucose into the cell for energy. When there is excess glucose, from eating too much and too often, the body will continue to raise insulin to help manage the excess glucose. 

This excess glucose comes from carbohydrate, sugar, and to a lesser extent protein in our diet.

The problem with too much insulin and glucose is that the body can only handle so much of each and insulin stops responding to the glucose.

The insulin story of weight gain. Once the cells become filled with glucose, the body will look elsewhere to store the extra calories. The next place is in the liver.

Stored glucose in the liver becomes glycogen. If excess glucose continues to be pushed into the liver, a condition called fatty liver occurs. This will increase triglycerides and liver enzymes, and cause disturbance of cholesterol. Fatty liver leads to cirrhosis and is a leading cause for liver transplant.

Once the liver is full of glucose, the next place insulin will look to store the excess calorie is the belly. All the belly fat is calories stored as fat. Belly fat is particularly dangerous as a risk factor for heart disease, diabetes, and 12 different cancers caused by obesity.

As the belly is filling with excess calories, the pancreas is next. Causing it to release more insulin, to store more calories and eventually burning out the pancreas from creating insulin all together. Creating a condition called diabetes. Diabetes leads to heart disease, blindness and amputation.  

The scenario above is the making of type 2 diabetes. Too much insulin is caused by too much glucose. What we eat and how much we eat affect this hormone and the higher it goes the more weight we store.  

Glucagon has the opposite function of insulin.

It, too, is produced in the pancreas. Glucagon liberates fat from storage and burns it as fuel. Glucagon only works when insulin is low. Insulin is low when glucose is low. This happens when we are not eating and snacking.

If our body senses constant nutrients in the blood, glucagon never sees the light of day. Fat is not burned. Instead insulin continues to store calories as fat. We have to go without food to have glucagon turn on and start to burn fat. That usually takes about 12 hours.

Ghrelin is another hormone, produced in the intestinal tract. It tells us when we are hungry. It is something that we can consciously push past. Unintuitively, studies show that different forms of fasting can lower ghrelin and reduce hunger.

If hunger forces us to eat more and the food that we choose is refined carbs and sugar then the insulin hormone system gets revved up and fat storage ensues.

The balancing hormone to ghrelin is another hormone called leptin, released by fat cells signal to the brain that we are satisfied and lower our hunger levels. This helps us stop eating.

Like other hormones in the body, these can and often go off track fueling the weight gain, weight loss roller coaster for many until it finally breaks down in middle age and we have a harder and harder time losing weight.

Some solutions include reducing sugar and simple carbohydrates like bread, pasta, potatoes, and sweets. Low carb, high fat diets are showing promise at putting diabetes into complete remission and leading to weight loss. 

Other strategies like intermittent fasting can help bring these hormones into balance, lowering both insulin and glucose.

Contrary to popular belief, different forms of fasting have been shown in pre-clinical and clinical trials, to reduce glucose, insulin, inflammation, and help with weight loss.

Diet and lifestyle can cause hormones to malfunction causing weight to increase beyond calories in calories out. Simple and effective diet and lifestyle modifications can make a big impact on health.

Mark Testa, DC, CAC, MHA. 

Mark Testa is an experienced holistic healthcare provider trained in chiropractic, acupuncture, nutrition, and fasting. He uses his experience to help people regain, maintain, and accelerate their health in weeks, not months. His focus is simple, sustainable change for lasting results.  Reversing middle age is possible with just a few small changes.

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