In recent years, we’ve been hearing more and more about metabolic health.

Metabolism: the chemical processes that occur within a living organism in order to maintain life

From the Greek word “metaballein” meaning to change

In the interview below, Dr. Casey Means shares truths about metabolic health, chronic illness, and the powerful impact of lifestyle changes.

Jay Shetty with Dr. Casey Means

Some of the highlights that struck me:

Our bodies contain over 40 trillion cells. There are more than 200 types of cells in the body – all performing different functions.

When our cells are functioning properly, we are able to convert food energy into cellular energy. When our cells are not functioning properly, we get symptoms of all kinds.

ALL SYMPTOMS are a result of cellular dysfunction.

We are conditioned to think that if something is wrong, we need to take a pill. Get a headache, take Tylenol. Get inflammation, take advil.

But what if instead of taking a pill, we listened to the cues our bodies are giving us and adjusted our lives so our bodies (our cells) could have the right tools to heal?

The next time you have a health issue, start asking the right questions:

• What (and how) have I eaten? (Research strongly shows that people who eat the slowest have 4x less likelihood of developing metabolic syndrome than people who eat fastest.)
• How has my sleep been (quality, quantity & consistency)? Social jet lag happens when the midpoint of your sleep shifts more than 2 hours for example: weekdays you sleep from 10pm to 6pm (midpoint is 2pm) and on the weekends you sleep from 1am to noon (midpoint 6:30am).
• Have I been moving my body enough? (In order for our bodies to take blood sugar out of the blood stream and use it for energy, our body has to move glucose channels from outside the cell to inside. To do that, we need insulin AND movement (muscle contractions).
• How is my stress? (Have I been expressing good boundaries? Have I allowed in too much toxic social media?)
• Have I taken in toxins? (80,000+ chemicals enter our bodies through our food, water, air and personal care products)

When we have symptoms, doctors run blood tests and prescribe medications to bring out of range issues back into range – but they never ask if the cells of the patient functioning better.

There are 5 essential metabolic bio markers that can give strong clues as to our metabolic health. 93.2% of American adults fall outside at least one of these ranges.

1. Fasting glucose (less than 100 mg) – rising glucose is a symbol that mitochondria are overwhelmed, they cannot process anymore of the incoming glucose so they are blocking it from coming into the cells causing it to rise in the bloodstream.

2. Triglyceride (less than 100 mg) – when glucose is high and has nowhere to go, it converts to fat to be stored.

3. HDL cholesterol (above 40 men, above 50 women) – carries cholesterol from arteries back to the liver to be processed and excreted – when liver is dysfunctional, hdl goes down so we can’t pull damaging cholesterol from the arteries.

4. Waist circumference (less than 35 women, 40 men) – how much fat is around internal organs (3 types of fat: subcutaneous which you can see in the body, visceral is around the organs causing organ dysfunction, intracellular fat built up inside the cell which causes cell dysfunction – visceral and intracellular fat are driven by insulin resistance).

5. Blood pressure (less than 130/85) – insulin is the hormone that is secreted to help glucose get into the cell. If there is an insulin block, insulin cannot do that job and glucose rises in the bloodstream. When that happens, the body produces more insulin trying to drive glucose into the cell, adding more burden on the mitochondria. When insulin levels rise, the body compensates by blocking nitric oxide production (the chemical that dialates blood vessels keeping our bp under control).

All 5 of these issues link back to metabolic dysfunction.

As you fix the metabolic dysfunction, all of these will come back into normal range.

Circadian rhythm is critical to metabolic health. You can help balance your circadian rhythm through:

1. Sleep consistency – go to bed and get up at same time every day

2. Meal time – eat at the same times every day (and before dark)

3. Expose eyes to sunlight (outdoors without window or sunglasses) and avoid artificial blue light after sun goes down