Blood Sugar and the Metabolic Syndrome

When we talk about high blood sugar, most people think of diabetes. This makes sense as diabetes is a disease characterized by elevated blood sugar. But it oversimplifies things to say your blood sugar is either normal or high: blood sugar levels can fall anywhere within a wide range of levels. And, for most of us, it’s important to keep our blood sugar as low as possible.

Normally, as blood sugar levels rise in response to consuming food (or from the body releasing stored sugars) the pancreas releases the hormone insulin. Insulin signals the cells to retrieve the sugars from the blood. This feeds the cells and reduces the amount of blood sugar left in the blood. Blood sugar levels rise when the cells do not retrieve the sugars from the blood. This occurs when there is not enough insulin, the cells do not properly respond to the insulin, or both.

Around 90% of the people who get diabetes get the condition slowly over time. At least initially, the problem does not start with a lack of insulin. Indeed, most of these people produce far more insulin than what is normal. The problem starts with a condition where the cells do not properly respond to the insulin. This condition is called insulin resistance and is associated with a group of symptoms often seen together and collectively referred to as the metabolic syndrome.

The group of symptoms associated with the metabolic syndrome includes dyslipidemia (bad amounts of cholesterol, triglycerides, etc.), obesity, high blood pressure, insulin resistance, generalized inflammation and other problems. People with the metabolic syndrome may test negative for diabetes but they are on the fast track for health problems.

While some elements of the metabolic syndrome are not fully understood, some think that insulin resistance is the root of the condition. People who are insulin resistant generally have high levels of insulin as extra insulin is produced to compensate for its reduced effectiveness. These elevated insulin levels may be enough to keep blood sugar levels in check so that your doctor doesn’t detect the problem. But we now know that there are a host of problems and risks associated with elevated insulin levels.

High insulin levels negatively impacts the body in a number of ways. And, sometimes called the "fat hormone," insulin forces blood sugars into the cells, often to be stored as fat and promoting obesity. And when there’s not enough sugar getting into lean-tissue cells, we are left feeling without energy and craving sweets!

If left untreated, the pancreas will eventually not be able to keep up with demand. As a result of being overworked and possibly even being damaged from toxic levels of triglycerides or other conditions, the levels of insulin fall and full-blown diabetes results. If not controlled, diabetes can be a devastating disease. While people almost never die directly from diabetes, the damage caused by elevated blood sugars accelerates aging and wrecks the body.

Due to poor diet and lack of exercise, diabetes is reaching epidemic proportions in the US and other industrialized countries. But the vast majority of cases are preventable and many cases are even reversible. It is not enough for your blood results to show negative for diabetes. You need to avoid the metabolic syndrome by eating healthy and exercising. Some reading this may think they simply cannot lose weight because they feel so terrible when they eat less. This condition is a sure sign that something needs to change.

The good news is that you can feel better by eating less if you change the way your body works. It is possible—I know. I was a very severe diabetic and my blood sugars are now at the bottom of the normal range. I’ve blogged about the changes I’ve made at optimum health blog and invite you to learn more.

If this article applies to you, please don’t wait to make changes. Life is too short and you don’t want to spend the second half of your life in poor health. Whatever you do, it is important that you do something. And I’m here to tell you that it is possible.