January 30, 2024 • 30 mins
How much do you know about blood sugar balance? On this show, Karolyn interviews Lise about this important topic. Understanding blood sugar and blood sugar balance is key. Finding ways to balance blood sugar is absolutely critical when it comes to reducing risk of many illnesses including cancer. Lise will provide practical advice on how to help balance blood sugar levels to achieve optimal health.
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Five To Thrive Live is broadcast live Tuesdays at 7PM ET.
Five To Thrive Live Radio Show is broadcast on W4CS Radio – The Cancer Support Network (www.w4cs.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).
Five To Thrive Live Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.
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(00:00):
Any health related information on the followingshow provides general information only. Content presented
on any show by any host orguest should not be substituted for a doctor's
advice. Always consult your physician beforebeginning any new diet, exercise, or
treatment program. Hello everyone, andwelcome to five to Thrive Live. I'm
(00:43):
Carolyn Gazella and I'm joined by myawesome co host, doctor Lise Alschuler.
Hello, Lise, how are youdoing today? I'm doing well, so
good to be here with you,Carolyn, my awesome co host. I
know, I love the shows thatwe do together, and now we're being
more consistent where we're trying to dothem once a month and I love that.
M Yeah. So what's our topictoday? Oh, it's a good
(01:06):
one. Our topic is balancing bloodsugar, which is so important on so
many levels when it comes to ourhealth. So least before we dive into
this great topic, why don't youface our sponsors. I would love to.
So I'll begin with NFH, aninnovative dietary supplement manufacturer that uses an
evidence based approach to creating dietary supplementsfor integrative healthcare for tools. So if
(01:30):
you want high quality dietary supplements.Ask your integrative practitioner about NFH products and
you can also learn more at NFHdot ca. Next, we have Emuse,
a unique patented post biotic that givesyour immune system a key advantage.
Ammuse is found in many immune supportingdietary supplements. Look for Ammuse on the
label or go to immusehealth dot com. Also Cognizance to the choline which helps
(01:55):
the brain to fire on all cylinders. So if you'd like to enhance brain
function, your memory, focus andattention, look for Cognizant on the label
or go to Cognizant dot com.And in fact, pro Thriver's Brain,
which is a dietary supplement product forbrain health, contains cognizant and other brain
supporting nutrients and herbs, and youcan find that on Pure Formulas dot com.
(02:20):
And finally, doctor hire a probioticwhich is a best selling probiotic for
more than thirty years, has twelveprobiotic strains which are shelf stable so no
refrigeration is required due to their uniquethree year fermentation process, and you can
learn more at doctor Ohira Probiotics dotcom. Okay, Carolyn, Well,
(02:40):
this is a big topic. Wherewould you like to start when it comes
to blood sugar. You know,I'd like to do a little primer and
remind people about the mechanics of bloodsugar. So why don't you start by
explaining what happens to our blood sugarbefore and after we eat. Yeah,
so it's actually quite complicated. There'sa lot of hormones involved in this response,
(03:02):
and this is because we need adequateblood sugar in order to survive.
So we have a lot of mechanismsthat our bodies have developed to keep our
blood sugar ideally in good what wecall homeostatic balance, meaning its level fluctuates
according to when we've eaten, whenwe haven't eaten, our activity level,
(03:24):
when we're sleeping, et cetera.So, essentially, when we eat carbohydrates,
carbohydrates have glucose in them or sugarin them essentially, and we use
glucose for energy, which is whyit's so critical to our survival. So,
after we digest carbohydrates and we absorbthe nutrients from those carbohydrates, including
(03:45):
glucose through the small test, andglucose enters into our blood and the blood
the level of blood glucose will inturn stimulate the pancreas and specifically the pancreatic
beta cells to secrete insulin. Andinsulin acts like a chaperone, so it
essentially puts its arm around glucose andsays, come on, honey, let's
(04:09):
go. We're gonna find our wayinto cells where you're gonna help those cells
make energy. So the insulin literallyhelps to transport the glucose into cells,
and so insulin is a really criticalpart. So the insulin secretion happens in
the most after we eat a carbohydrateladen meal, and cells throughout the body
(04:33):
will take that insulin up. Asit turns out, the muscles we have
in our body, the skeleton muscleis the most sort of insulin receptor rich
tissue, so that's where most ofthat insulin and glucose is taken up.
So muscle that's important when we talklater because muscle mass is a really key
(04:54):
component in blood sugar homeostasis or bloodsugar control. So the insulin takes the
glucose into the cells where it's madeinto energy, and then our blood level
goes down and then we get otherhormones that get stimulated. We start to
get hungry. And we eat again, and the whole process repeats, and
(05:14):
if it repeats in a very healthykind of way, that is essentially what
happens. There's more to it,like insulin will has a lot of effects
in the liver and will stimulate sugarto be stored in the liver and in
fat cells so that we can golater if we don't have food coming in,
(05:36):
we can go in later. Wemeaning our bodies have mechanisms to go
to those molecules, break those moleculesdown to free up the sugar later.
So it insulin will help to createglucose storage. It also has impact on
our fatty acids or our fat metabolism. So there's a really tight connection actually
(05:58):
between sugar intake, insolence, secretion, and the balance of fats in our
body. So there's and we'll getto that, there's definitely a link between
you know, fat and adipose tissueand glucose control. So, without getting
too much further down into the weeds, that's kind of it in a nutshell.
(06:19):
I think that's great. I thinkyou did a great job, and
I think you bring up a verygood point that when we're talking about energy,
we're not talking about like, oh, I have enough energy to run
five miles. We're talking about cellularenergy, So this is this is how
the cells can't function with this formof energy, correct, right. Yeah.
In fact, our brain, whichis a very energy demanding part of
(06:45):
our body, cannot make glucose,so it needs glucose from the blood in
order to function. So you know, there's and our heart uses a tremendous
amount of glucose, so there's alot of our most sort of what we
call metabolically active organs are the onesthat have the highest demand for glucose.
Right, And the key here isbalanced, So how how do we develop
(07:08):
imbalanced blood sugar? What happens?What happens there? So there's many paths
to the mountaintop of imbalance of bloodsugar. But you know it's I would
say one way we can think aboutthis is let's say we have let's start
with our diet. So let's saywe have a diet that's excessively high in
carbohydrates, even more so simple processedcarbohydrates. So a lot of milled flowers,
(07:32):
white flour, white sugar, youknow, fast foods, and not
very much whole foods, whole grains, vegetables, whole fruits. Uh,
you know, maybe we're not eveneating enough protein. We don't have good
quality fats. We have this highcarb diet. When we have a very
high carb diet, now we needcarbs obviously, so I'm talking about an
(07:54):
imbalanced diet. Then we can getthere's just a lot of sugar that comes
in. So we will make alot of insulin to create to meet that
demand. And with that elevated insulin. I mentioned that insulin does other things,
and one of the things that insulindoes is it increases the process in
our body where we take fatty acidsand store them as fat. So when
(08:18):
we have a high carb diet,we will trigger more fat storage or we
will build fat, which is thelink between high carb diet and excess weight
for example. So that's one thingthat happens. But in the meantime,
this elevated insulin. If we keepon this high carb diet over time,
that elevated insulin. The cells arelike, whoa, you know, you're
(08:39):
bringing way too much glucose in here. I've got plenty and cells. The
receptors which are these like little basketlike molecules on the cell surface that insulin
binds to and that binding allows apathway of glucose transport into the cell.
Those baskets, those insulin recept willbecome resistant to the insulin and so the
(09:03):
insulin can't get in to the cells, and then we have in so that
state is called insulin resistance. Andwhen we have too much insulin circulating in
the blood and we start to notget enough glucose into the cells, then
we start to create or stimulate ishould say, other inflammatory pathways. So
(09:24):
now meanwhile, we've got remember theseextra trichlystrider, we're building fat, and
we've got this extra fat. Nowwe're adding some inflammatory molecules that are kind
of part and parcel with this insulinresistance. So now that fat can get
inflamed. And when fat gets inflamed, I kind of call it angry fat,
(09:46):
and angry fat will become literally thisfactory of inflammatory molecules. And when
we get a lot of these inflammatorymolecules, these inflammatory cytokines, we can
start to see chronic illness. Sothen we can start the path towards cardiovascular
disease, towards cancer, towards metabolicsyndrome, towards even things like dementia,
(10:11):
arthritises, autoimmunity, so it reallycan start to you know, snowball into
very poor health. And I justwant to say one other thing. With
insulin resistance, there's another hormone whichis affected in all this, and that's
leptin. And we can actually developleptin resistance. And when we get leptin
(10:33):
resistant, we get more hungry,and we actually get more tired. And
what do we do and we're hungryand tired, We eat? And what
do we tend to eat. Wetend to eat simple carbs. So then
we're in this vicious cycle of youknow, kind of feeding into this this
this inflammatory kind of imbalanced blood bloodsugar issue. And I forgot to mention,
(10:54):
of course, but one of thechronic illnesses that occurs also as diabetes,
Yes, yeah, of course.Yeah. I mean that's a big
list that you just mentioned, youknow, heart disease, cancer, dementia,
autoimmune arthritis, diabetes, you know. I mean I think we can
probably link increased inflammation to almost anychronic illness, so this could manifest in
a variety of ways. We're correct, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And
(11:18):
I want to just say this processthat we're talking about doesn't happen overnight.
This doesn't even happen in a week. This is a process that happens over
years. So this is something thatwill build in people over time. Unfortunately,
we're seeing more and more of thispatterning happening in young people. So
even kids now are starting to getinsulin resistant with their children, and that's
(11:43):
developing into type two diabetes as youngadults, so now they're kind of in
this inflammatory cycle at a very earlyage. So chronic illnesses that we used
to see in people who are mucholder and now are starting to see more
commonly in even younger people. Andof course as we get older, this
(12:05):
whole process is even worse because aswe age, so we're to do let's
say over the age of fifty sixty, we get more insulin resistant or more
likely to get insulin resistant, andwe're more sensitive to these dietary issues,
so these things become more likely aswe age. In addition, yeah,
(12:26):
and the other thing is, inaddition to inflammation being chronic inflammation being linked
to all of these chronic illnesses,obesity or weight gain is also connected to
all of these or most of theseconditions. And so I think when people
think of oh, you know they'recarrying excess fat. I don't know if
(12:48):
they realize it's that angry fat,it's that inflamed fat that's actually causing the
problem. Is that what's going onwith the obesity connection. Yes, because
I mentioned earlier that muscles are reallyimportant in taking up a lot of the
They're literally like insulin and glucose spongesin our body. They use a lot
(13:11):
of insulin and glucose. So itis possible for somebody to have extra fat.
But if their muscle tone and theyhave really good active muscles, they
may not be in a situation wherethey have angry fat. They may have
modified the inflammatory nature of their fat. So just because you have extra weight
doesn't mean that you have this kindof inflammatory situation. However, of course,
(13:37):
if there's any deconditioning in somebody,meaning their muscle mass is not as
solid as it should be, andor they have other factors which are contributing
or adding to the inflammatory milieu,like environmental toxin exposure, infectious toxin exposure,
(14:00):
microbiome disruptions, psychological chronic psychological stress, all of those things can contribute
to creating this kind of angry fatand insulin resistant picture. Okay, and
I have one more question about weightgain before we get into the practical advice.
(14:20):
If we find a way to balanceblood sugar, will we lose weight?
Isn't that simple? It's a factor, but unfortunately it's not quite that
simple. But it's really important,and I think it used to be that
the diet recommended for weight loss wasa low fat diet, but unfortunately what
ended up happening for a lot ofpeople is they didn't lose weight because they
(14:43):
were lowering their fat and increasing theircarbs. So they were actually, because
of the influence of high carbs increasinginsulin, they were storing more fat,
so they were not helping themselves inlosing fat. So I would say that
it's really important in a weight lossprogram to consider the influence of glucose and
(15:07):
carbohydrates, but it's also important tojust there's other issues, right, So
dietarily we have to think about,you know, how much calorie are we
consuming, because really, underlying everysingle successful weight loss program, no matter
what, there's going to be somedegree of chloric restriction. So over consumption
(15:28):
of food is really the most importantpart of weight loss. But then within
that, yes, it is importantto really look at glucose balancing and how
we are maintaining healthy glucose balance.Okay, so I want to talk about,
you know, diet because that obviouslybecomes critical and let's get practical.
You mentioned some of the basics thatI think our listeners are pretty well versed
(15:50):
in, you know, not eatinga lot of simple processed carbs, and
cutting back on sugar and eating morewhole food and things like that. But
can you get a little bit deeperfrom a dietary standpoint, what should we
be focusing on if we want tohave balanced blood sugar. So, I
think there's a couple of things.One is that I would say, for
(16:15):
sure it's critical to not restrict fatintake too much. But having said that,
we don't want to over consume saturatedfats because those are inflammatory essentially,
So we want to make sure thatwe have a good amount of polyunsaturated fatty
acids that comes from nuts, fromseeds, from fish, and those are
(16:37):
the fatty acids that and olive oilis another fatty acid that's really important,
and these will help our help thesignaling between the pancreas and the intestines and
the liver and the adipose or thefat cells. So making sure we have
sufficient fat, actually healthy fat isa really important part of weight loss,
(16:59):
which sounds really are intuitive, butyou know, there's many studies that have
shown that people who eat a handfulof nuts, for example, will tend
to lose more weight on a weightloss program than people who don't, and
they also don't feel as full becauseof the fat tends to make us feel
more full, So good quality fatreally important. The other thing is good
quality protein and having sufficient protein,particularly spread out over the day, so
(17:25):
it's really important to eat. Youknow, on average, this is a
big generalization, but on average weneed at least a gram of protein for
every kilogram, which is equal totwo point two pounds of body weight.
So for most people, I meanit's a huge generalization, right, but
let's say for whatever the average orwhatever average weight is, I'm not sure,
(17:47):
but for most people that ends upsomewhere in the range of between about
fifty to seventy five grams of proteina day, which is a lot more
than a lot of people are eating, and or they're tending to eat all
their protein in one meal. Butfrom a metabolic or blood sugar balancing perspective,
we need to have protein with everymeal, So taking your total amount
of protein, dividing it up overyour say, three meals, is another
(18:10):
really important part of maintaining our energybalance and how our liver kind of works
to balance blood sugar and insulin.And then, of course, you know,
from a carbohydrate perspective, emphasizing wholefoods, where like, if you
eat a whole grain, then you'rehaving a lot of fiber, which slows
(18:32):
the absorption of the glucose, soyou don't get that spike which causes,
in turn a surge of insulin andcan overwhelm insulin receptors. Instead, you
get a nice, slow, steadyrelease, which is much easier metabolically for
the body. So making sure thatwe're eating whole carbohydrate foods, lots of
vegetables which are full of phytonutrients thatwill increase insulin sensitivity, will help to
(18:57):
lower elevated bloodshah Okay. So Idon't want to leave diet just yet.
I want to talk a little bitabout types of diet. You and I
talk about the Mediterranean diet a lotbecause the research is so significant. I
want you to say a couple ofwords about the Mediterranean diet, but then
also like what about types of dietslike, for example, I've talked on
(19:18):
the show about overnight fasting because that'ssomething that I really like. It fits
my lifestyle and I feel I feelbetter when I do a twelve to fourteen
hour fast from a blood sugar standpoint. Are there types of diets that seem
to work better than others? Likeis keto a good thing? Or I
(19:41):
don't know. Can you just speaka little bit to the type of diet
that might be out there, soyou know, I think a Mediterranean style
diet is you can't go wrong becausethere's so many studies that associate that style
and eating with less inflammation. Andand if you're eating a Mediterranean style diet,
(20:02):
which is essentially a plant strong,whole foods diet with adequate protein,
good quality fats, you're going tofeel fed, but it's hard to really
overeat if you're truly staying with aMediterranean diet. I think it's a good
fallback, and I think that ifyou combine that with some overnight fasting,
and the magic number seems to bethirteen hours up to sixteen hours of overnight
(20:26):
fasting, so in other words,your last meal you eat and then you
don't eat again the next day untilthirteen at least thirteen hours later. That
allows a lot of processes to resetin the body that decrease inflammation, that
improved glucose or insulin regulation. Soit's a really nice way to support healthy
(20:48):
blood sugar valocy. Plus it justshortens the eating window, so there's literally
less time to eat, so peopletend to eat fewer calories, which is
another important part of overnight facing.Yep, I agree. And you know,
the ketogenic diet, the paleotype ofdiet what they have, so they're
different. Those are two different stylesof diet. The ketogenic diet is a
(21:10):
high fat diet, so most ofthe calories are coming from fat, a
little bit of protein, and basicallyalmost no carbs. That will definitely cause
weight loss in most people. It'shard to sustain over time, and there's
some concerns that if the ketogenic dietis not calorically restricted, which is what
used to be called like the akinstype of diet, then over time that
(21:33):
can actually contribute some cardiovascular disease risk. There's certain nutrients that can become deficient
over time, and it has microchanges on the microbiome, which we're just
beginning to kind of understand that inturn can have implications on our health.
So I'm not really a big fanof ketogenic diet long term. Having said
that, I know many people whohave been eating ketogenic diet for years and
(21:59):
years and years and they seem tobe fine. So I think there is
a way to do it. Isuspect they have to supplement some nutrients and
you know, be very mindful,take fiber supplements, things like that.
Yeah, I haven't had good luckwhen I've tried it. It's very challenging
to sustain, and you know,it's it's hard to do it as a
vegetarian, so you end up eatinga lot of meat, which some people
(22:22):
don't like, and other people forethical reasons. Some people don't like it
for health reasons, so you know, there's some issues with that too.
The paleodet is a little bit ofa variation on that in that it does
allow for some carbohydrates, not noprocessed carbs, no refined carbs, So
it's kind of a I would Ialmost think of the paleodet as like an
extreme Mediterranean diet. Except that it'sit's definitely divergent a little bit just because
(22:48):
of its emphasis on protein, sodifferent than the ketogenic diet. Paleodyet is
all about protein, and you knowthat too can be a weight loss type
of diet. I think mostly whatI see in people when they eat a
paleo diet is that they just gettingrid of simple carbs is what's working.
(23:10):
I mean, that's really what isthe main thing. And it's really important
in any of those diets to justmake sure that people are eating enough vegetables
and fruits to get good phyto nutrientsand fiber in there, right and all
that color. How about from alifestyle perspective, what's your advice there?
So you know, from a lifestyleperspective, there's two very very important things.
(23:33):
I mentioned the importance of muscle masksearlier, and I can't overstate that.
I think a key to weight lossand a key to having healthy fat
cells is adequate exercise because muscles areliterally, I mean, they're so critical
in glucose homeostasis and then reducing inflammationin the body. So and this is
(23:56):
it's not enough to just do abrisk walk for thirty minutes every day.
That's good, but that's not goingto really maintain good quality muscle tone throughout
the body for most people. Youknow, if you're elderly, that might
be enough, but for somebody who'snot quite old or old, then more
is required. And you know,as the research develops in the world of
(24:17):
exercise, we're beginning to see thatthere is a difference between moderate intensity and
more vigorous intensity, the more vigorousbeing better. So interjecting some interval training,
for example, if you're going todo a thirty minute walk every five
minutes, do an all out sprintwalk sprint or run sprint, whatever you're
physically capable of doing, to interjectthese high intensity moments. Also, doing
(24:42):
resistance exercise, whether it's with weights, with bands, with yoga, with
swimming, to literally build muscle strengthis a really critical component. And timing,
so we need to exercise at leastthirty minutes. Most people actually gain
more most health benefits when they extendthat to forty five minutes. So kind
(25:03):
of the new emerging prescription is likeforty five minutes of moderately intense, vigorous
level of exercise at least five daysa week, which is more than a
lot of people are doing. Butif you really want to use exercise to
help manage weight and help improve bloodsugar control, that's kind of where we
need to head. And again isassuming that people are physically capable. And
(25:27):
then the last little lifestyle factor throughoutthere, which is really important. And
we've talked a lot on the showabout stress and the importance of managing stress.
But when we're under chronic unmanaged stress, the stress hormones that are in
high levels in our blood, likecortosol, for example, actually increase blood
(25:48):
sugar. So stress is a perfectway to raise your blood sugar and that
will happen almost regardless of what dietyou're eating. So it's really important to
make sure that we have good mindfulnesspractice is we're sleeping sufficiently so we can
reset all of these systems, andthat's a key component of stress management.
So, I mean, these areall fundamental things I think people probably know,
(26:10):
but you know, it's weight lossis not just about food, it's
about exercise, it's about getting enoughsleep, it's about managing stress too.
I'm so glad that you mentioned sleepbecause the research on that is so clear,
and I don't know that people realizethat if in fact they're not getting
enough sleep, their body is putinto an insulin resistant state, they're more
(26:33):
likely to gain weight their immune systemis weakened. Sleep is so critical.
That's when you know, you thinkthat we're sleeping and nothing's going on.
The body is very, very active. The brain is active with that whole
sweeping mechanism that happens in the brainwhen we sleep. I forget what it's
called, but yeah, I'm reallyglad that you meant to sleep. I
(26:56):
think that's that's critical. Yeah,and then just know we're almost out of
time. But I just want tojust mention that, you know, there
are some sort of weight loss supplementsand those are a little bit if I
would say, because some companies weightloss supplements are typically not very effective for
(27:19):
long term weight loss, and that'swhat we really need is long term,
not these flash in the pan,you know, massive diets, but long
term sustainable strategies. That being said, there are some supplements which can improve
our ability for all these other lifestylethings to be effective, you know,
and those range from just good mineralslike magnesium helps to support insolent sensitivity,
(27:42):
cinnamon will lower elevated blood sugar.Extracts from green tea will lower elevated blood
sugar and reduce insolent sensitivity. There'sa probiotic called acromancia which has been shown
to lower elevated blood sugar. Sothere are supplemental strategies that can enhance weight
(28:02):
loss efforts. But they're really gentle, subtle. They're not like these dramatic
lose five pounds in a week kindof supports. Yeah, and I'm going
to add one because I've been doinga lot of research on burberine. I
don't think you mentioned burberine, andthe research is pretty strong in terms of
blood sugar control, specifically with burberine. Wouldn't you agree, Yes, burberin
(28:23):
absolutely. I mean there's really quitea few, so you know, this
would be a time, really,I think that it would behoove somebody to
find an integrative medicine practitioner to helpguide them to what would be appropriate and
most healthy for a long term supportin a lifestyle based weight loss strategy.
(28:44):
Yeah, great, great, whileyou've got like thirty seconds, anything more
to add before we wrap up?Well, I actually do want to add
something which is a little bit ofa side bar, but you know,
I want to just say we've beentalking about weight loss. There is a
lot of healthcare inequity and disparity withregards to weight and weight loss. Many
(29:07):
people, for example, who livein inner cities or disproportionately a number of
urban Black Americans who live in placesthat don't have access to good quality foods
necessarily, so they live in thesefood deserts, or they can't find safe
(29:27):
places to exercise. So I justwant to acknowledge that this is also an
issue weight loss, weight gain,supportive weight loss strategies. There's some disparity
issues which I think we need tojust I want to just state I don't
have solutions for it necessarily, butI think it's important to be sensitive to
that, to recognize that there areadded challenges for many people, you know,
(29:49):
not to mention the fact that,for example, a black person in
an inner city who doesn't have accessnecessarily to high quality fruits and vegetables,
plus is dealing with the stress ofsystemic racism, is going to have extra
stress hormones circulating. So I meanthere's some issues that we have to address
on a societal level too. Yeah. Absolutely, well, thank you for
(30:11):
that, and that wraps up thisepisode of five to Thrive Live once again.
I'd like to thank our sponsors nF h iMUSE, post Biotic Cognizance,
Citacoline and Doctor o Heres Award winningProbiotic So may you experience joy,
laughter, in love. It's timeto thrive everyone, have a great night.
Good night,
Any health related information on the followingshow provides general information only. Content presented
on any show by any host orguest should not be substituted for a doctor's
advice. Always consult your physician beforebeginning any new diet, exercise, or
treatment program. Hello everyone, andwelcome to five to Thrive Live. I'm
(00:43):
Carolyn Gazella and I'm joined by myawesome co host, doctor Lise Alschuler.
Hello, Lise, how are youdoing today? I'm doing well, so
good to be here with you,Carolyn, my awesome co host. I
know, I love the shows thatwe do together, and now we're being
more consistent where we're trying to dothem once a month and I love that.
M Yeah. So what's our topictoday? Oh, it's a good
(01:06):
one. Our topic is balancing bloodsugar, which is so important on so
many levels when it comes to ourhealth. So least before we dive into
this great topic, why don't youface our sponsors. I would love to.
So I'll begin with NFH, aninnovative dietary supplement manufacturer that uses an
evidence based approach to creating dietary supplementsfor integrative healthcare for tools. So if
(01:30):
you want high quality dietary supplements.Ask your integrative practitioner about NFH products and
you can also learn more at NFHdot ca. Next, we have Emuse,
a unique patented post biotic that givesyour immune system a key advantage.
Ammuse is found in many immune supportingdietary supplements. Look for Ammuse on the
label or go to immusehealth dot com. Also Cognizance to the choline which helps
(01:55):
the brain to fire on all cylinders. So if you'd like to enhance brain
function, your memory, focus andattention, look for Cognizant on the label
or go to Cognizant dot com.And in fact, pro Thriver's Brain,
which is a dietary supplement product forbrain health, contains cognizant and other brain
supporting nutrients and herbs, and youcan find that on Pure Formulas dot com.
(02:20):
And finally, doctor hire a probioticwhich is a best selling probiotic for
more than thirty years, has twelveprobiotic strains which are shelf stable so no
refrigeration is required due to their uniquethree year fermentation process, and you can
learn more at doctor Ohira Probiotics dotcom. Okay, Carolyn, Well,
(02:40):
this is a big topic. Wherewould you like to start when it comes
to blood sugar. You know,I'd like to do a little primer and
remind people about the mechanics of bloodsugar. So why don't you start by
explaining what happens to our blood sugarbefore and after we eat. Yeah,
so it's actually quite complicated. There'sa lot of hormones involved in this response,
(03:02):
and this is because we need adequateblood sugar in order to survive.
So we have a lot of mechanismsthat our bodies have developed to keep our
blood sugar ideally in good what wecall homeostatic balance, meaning its level fluctuates
according to when we've eaten, whenwe haven't eaten, our activity level,
(03:24):
when we're sleeping, et cetera.So, essentially, when we eat carbohydrates,
carbohydrates have glucose in them or sugarin them essentially, and we use
glucose for energy, which is whyit's so critical to our survival. So,
after we digest carbohydrates and we absorbthe nutrients from those carbohydrates, including
(03:45):
glucose through the small test, andglucose enters into our blood and the blood
the level of blood glucose will inturn stimulate the pancreas and specifically the pancreatic
beta cells to secrete insulin. Andinsulin acts like a chaperone, so it
essentially puts its arm around glucose andsays, come on, honey, let's
(04:09):
go. We're gonna find our wayinto cells where you're gonna help those cells
make energy. So the insulin literallyhelps to transport the glucose into cells,
and so insulin is a really criticalpart. So the insulin secretion happens in
the most after we eat a carbohydrateladen meal, and cells throughout the body
(04:33):
will take that insulin up. Asit turns out, the muscles we have
in our body, the skeleton muscleis the most sort of insulin receptor rich
tissue, so that's where most ofthat insulin and glucose is taken up.
So muscle that's important when we talklater because muscle mass is a really key
(04:54):
component in blood sugar homeostasis or bloodsugar control. So the insulin takes the
glucose into the cells where it's madeinto energy, and then our blood level
goes down and then we get otherhormones that get stimulated. We start to
get hungry. And we eat again, and the whole process repeats, and
(05:14):
if it repeats in a very healthykind of way, that is essentially what
happens. There's more to it,like insulin will has a lot of effects
in the liver and will stimulate sugarto be stored in the liver and in
fat cells so that we can golater if we don't have food coming in,
(05:36):
we can go in later. Wemeaning our bodies have mechanisms to go
to those molecules, break those moleculesdown to free up the sugar later.
So it insulin will help to createglucose storage. It also has impact on
our fatty acids or our fat metabolism. So there's a really tight connection actually
(05:58):
between sugar intake, insolence, secretion, and the balance of fats in our
body. So there's and we'll getto that, there's definitely a link between
you know, fat and adipose tissueand glucose control. So, without getting
too much further down into the weeds, that's kind of it in a nutshell.
(06:19):
I think that's great. I thinkyou did a great job, and
I think you bring up a verygood point that when we're talking about energy,
we're not talking about like, oh, I have enough energy to run
five miles. We're talking about cellularenergy, So this is this is how
the cells can't function with this formof energy, correct, right. Yeah.
In fact, our brain, whichis a very energy demanding part of
(06:45):
our body, cannot make glucose,so it needs glucose from the blood in
order to function. So you know, there's and our heart uses a tremendous
amount of glucose, so there's alot of our most sort of what we
call metabolically active organs are the onesthat have the highest demand for glucose.
Right, And the key here isbalanced, So how how do we develop
(07:08):
imbalanced blood sugar? What happens?What happens there? So there's many paths
to the mountaintop of imbalance of bloodsugar. But you know it's I would
say one way we can think aboutthis is let's say we have let's start
with our diet. So let's saywe have a diet that's excessively high in
carbohydrates, even more so simple processedcarbohydrates. So a lot of milled flowers,
(07:32):
white flour, white sugar, youknow, fast foods, and not
very much whole foods, whole grains, vegetables, whole fruits. Uh,
you know, maybe we're not eveneating enough protein. We don't have good
quality fats. We have this highcarb diet. When we have a very
high carb diet, now we needcarbs obviously, so I'm talking about an
(07:54):
imbalanced diet. Then we can getthere's just a lot of sugar that comes
in. So we will make alot of insulin to create to meet that
demand. And with that elevated insulin. I mentioned that insulin does other things,
and one of the things that insulindoes is it increases the process in
our body where we take fatty acidsand store them as fat. So when
(08:18):
we have a high carb diet,we will trigger more fat storage or we
will build fat, which is thelink between high carb diet and excess weight
for example. So that's one thingthat happens. But in the meantime,
this elevated insulin. If we keepon this high carb diet over time,
that elevated insulin. The cells arelike, whoa, you know, you're
(08:39):
bringing way too much glucose in here. I've got plenty and cells. The
receptors which are these like little basketlike molecules on the cell surface that insulin
binds to and that binding allows apathway of glucose transport into the cell.
Those baskets, those insulin recept willbecome resistant to the insulin and so the
(09:03):
insulin can't get in to the cells, and then we have in so that
state is called insulin resistance. Andwhen we have too much insulin circulating in
the blood and we start to notget enough glucose into the cells, then
we start to create or stimulate ishould say, other inflammatory pathways. So
(09:24):
now meanwhile, we've got remember theseextra trichlystrider, we're building fat, and
we've got this extra fat. Nowwe're adding some inflammatory molecules that are kind
of part and parcel with this insulinresistance. So now that fat can get
inflamed. And when fat gets inflamed, I kind of call it angry fat,
(09:46):
and angry fat will become literally thisfactory of inflammatory molecules. And when
we get a lot of these inflammatorymolecules, these inflammatory cytokines, we can
start to see chronic illness. Sothen we can start the path towards cardiovascular
disease, towards cancer, towards metabolicsyndrome, towards even things like dementia,
(10:11):
arthritises, autoimmunity, so it reallycan start to you know, snowball into
very poor health. And I justwant to say one other thing. With
insulin resistance, there's another hormone whichis affected in all this, and that's
leptin. And we can actually developleptin resistance. And when we get leptin
(10:33):
resistant, we get more hungry,and we actually get more tired. And
what do we do and we're hungryand tired, We eat? And what
do we tend to eat. Wetend to eat simple carbs. So then
we're in this vicious cycle of youknow, kind of feeding into this this
this inflammatory kind of imbalanced blood bloodsugar issue. And I forgot to mention,
(10:54):
of course, but one of thechronic illnesses that occurs also as diabetes,
Yes, yeah, of course.Yeah. I mean that's a big
list that you just mentioned, youknow, heart disease, cancer, dementia,
autoimmune arthritis, diabetes, you know. I mean I think we can
probably link increased inflammation to almost anychronic illness, so this could manifest in
a variety of ways. We're correct, Yeah, yeah, absolutely, And
(11:18):
I want to just say this processthat we're talking about doesn't happen overnight.
This doesn't even happen in a week. This is a process that happens over
years. So this is something thatwill build in people over time. Unfortunately,
we're seeing more and more of thispatterning happening in young people. So
even kids now are starting to getinsulin resistant with their children, and that's
(11:43):
developing into type two diabetes as youngadults, so now they're kind of in
this inflammatory cycle at a very earlyage. So chronic illnesses that we used
to see in people who are mucholder and now are starting to see more
commonly in even younger people. Andof course as we get older, this
(12:05):
whole process is even worse because aswe age, so we're to do let's
say over the age of fifty sixty, we get more insulin resistant or more
likely to get insulin resistant, andwe're more sensitive to these dietary issues,
so these things become more likely aswe age. In addition, yeah,
(12:26):
and the other thing is, inaddition to inflammation being chronic inflammation being linked
to all of these chronic illnesses,obesity or weight gain is also connected to
all of these or most of theseconditions. And so I think when people
think of oh, you know they'recarrying excess fat. I don't know if
(12:48):
they realize it's that angry fat,it's that inflamed fat that's actually causing the
problem. Is that what's going onwith the obesity connection. Yes, because
I mentioned earlier that muscles are reallyimportant in taking up a lot of the
They're literally like insulin and glucose spongesin our body. They use a lot
(13:11):
of insulin and glucose. So itis possible for somebody to have extra fat.
But if their muscle tone and theyhave really good active muscles, they
may not be in a situation wherethey have angry fat. They may have
modified the inflammatory nature of their fat. So just because you have extra weight
doesn't mean that you have this kindof inflammatory situation. However, of course,
(13:37):
if there's any deconditioning in somebody,meaning their muscle mass is not as
solid as it should be, andor they have other factors which are contributing
or adding to the inflammatory milieu,like environmental toxin exposure, infectious toxin exposure,
(14:00):
microbiome disruptions, psychological chronic psychological stress, all of those things can contribute
to creating this kind of angry fatand insulin resistant picture. Okay, and
I have one more question about weightgain before we get into the practical advice.
(14:20):
If we find a way to balanceblood sugar, will we lose weight?
Isn't that simple? It's a factor, but unfortunately it's not quite that
simple. But it's really important,and I think it used to be that
the diet recommended for weight loss wasa low fat diet, but unfortunately what
ended up happening for a lot ofpeople is they didn't lose weight because they
(14:43):
were lowering their fat and increasing theircarbs. So they were actually, because
of the influence of high carbs increasinginsulin, they were storing more fat,
so they were not helping themselves inlosing fat. So I would say that
it's really important in a weight lossprogram to consider the influence of glucose and
(15:07):
carbohydrates, but it's also important tojust there's other issues, right, So
dietarily we have to think about,you know, how much calorie are we
consuming, because really, underlying everysingle successful weight loss program, no matter
what, there's going to be somedegree of chloric restriction. So over consumption
(15:28):
of food is really the most importantpart of weight loss. But then within
that, yes, it is importantto really look at glucose balancing and how
we are maintaining healthy glucose balance.Okay, so I want to talk about,
you know, diet because that obviouslybecomes critical and let's get practical.
You mentioned some of the basics thatI think our listeners are pretty well versed
(15:50):
in, you know, not eatinga lot of simple processed carbs, and
cutting back on sugar and eating morewhole food and things like that. But
can you get a little bit deeperfrom a dietary standpoint, what should we
be focusing on if we want tohave balanced blood sugar. So, I
think there's a couple of things.One is that I would say, for
(16:15):
sure it's critical to not restrict fatintake too much. But having said that,
we don't want to over consume saturatedfats because those are inflammatory essentially,
So we want to make sure thatwe have a good amount of polyunsaturated fatty
acids that comes from nuts, fromseeds, from fish, and those are
(16:37):
the fatty acids that and olive oilis another fatty acid that's really important,
and these will help our help thesignaling between the pancreas and the intestines and
the liver and the adipose or thefat cells. So making sure we have
sufficient fat, actually healthy fat isa really important part of weight loss,
(16:59):
which sounds really are intuitive, butyou know, there's many studies that have
shown that people who eat a handfulof nuts, for example, will tend
to lose more weight on a weightloss program than people who don't, and
they also don't feel as full becauseof the fat tends to make us feel
more full, So good quality fatreally important. The other thing is good
quality protein and having sufficient protein,particularly spread out over the day, so
(17:25):
it's really important to eat. Youknow, on average, this is a
big generalization, but on average weneed at least a gram of protein for
every kilogram, which is equal totwo point two pounds of body weight.
So for most people, I meanit's a huge generalization, right, but
let's say for whatever the average orwhatever average weight is, I'm not sure,
(17:47):
but for most people that ends upsomewhere in the range of between about
fifty to seventy five grams of proteina day, which is a lot more
than a lot of people are eating, and or they're tending to eat all
their protein in one meal. Butfrom a metabolic or blood sugar balancing perspective,
we need to have protein with everymeal, So taking your total amount
of protein, dividing it up overyour say, three meals, is another
(18:10):
really important part of maintaining our energybalance and how our liver kind of works
to balance blood sugar and insulin.And then, of course, you know,
from a carbohydrate perspective, emphasizing wholefoods, where like, if you
eat a whole grain, then you'rehaving a lot of fiber, which slows
(18:32):
the absorption of the glucose, soyou don't get that spike which causes,
in turn a surge of insulin andcan overwhelm insulin receptors. Instead, you
get a nice, slow, steadyrelease, which is much easier metabolically for
the body. So making sure thatwe're eating whole carbohydrate foods, lots of
vegetables which are full of phytonutrients thatwill increase insulin sensitivity, will help to
(18:57):
lower elevated bloodshah Okay. So Idon't want to leave diet just yet.
I want to talk a little bitabout types of diet. You and I
talk about the Mediterranean diet a lotbecause the research is so significant. I
want you to say a couple ofwords about the Mediterranean diet, but then
also like what about types of dietslike, for example, I've talked on
(19:18):
the show about overnight fasting because that'ssomething that I really like. It fits
my lifestyle and I feel I feelbetter when I do a twelve to fourteen
hour fast from a blood sugar standpoint. Are there types of diets that seem
to work better than others? Likeis keto a good thing? Or I
(19:41):
don't know. Can you just speaka little bit to the type of diet
that might be out there, soyou know, I think a Mediterranean style
diet is you can't go wrong becausethere's so many studies that associate that style
and eating with less inflammation. Andand if you're eating a Mediterranean style diet,
(20:02):
which is essentially a plant strong,whole foods diet with adequate protein,
good quality fats, you're going tofeel fed, but it's hard to really
overeat if you're truly staying with aMediterranean diet. I think it's a good
fallback, and I think that ifyou combine that with some overnight fasting,
and the magic number seems to bethirteen hours up to sixteen hours of overnight
(20:26):
fasting, so in other words,your last meal you eat and then you
don't eat again the next day untilthirteen at least thirteen hours later. That
allows a lot of processes to resetin the body that decrease inflammation, that
improved glucose or insulin regulation. Soit's a really nice way to support healthy
(20:48):
blood sugar valocy. Plus it justshortens the eating window, so there's literally
less time to eat, so peopletend to eat fewer calories, which is
another important part of overnight facing.Yep, I agree. And you know,
the ketogenic diet, the paleotype ofdiet what they have, so they're
different. Those are two different stylesof diet. The ketogenic diet is a
(21:10):
high fat diet, so most ofthe calories are coming from fat, a
little bit of protein, and basicallyalmost no carbs. That will definitely cause
weight loss in most people. It'shard to sustain over time, and there's
some concerns that if the ketogenic dietis not calorically restricted, which is what
used to be called like the akinstype of diet, then over time that
(21:33):
can actually contribute some cardiovascular disease risk. There's certain nutrients that can become deficient
over time, and it has microchanges on the microbiome, which we're just
beginning to kind of understand that inturn can have implications on our health.
So I'm not really a big fanof ketogenic diet long term. Having said
that, I know many people whohave been eating ketogenic diet for years and
(21:59):
years and years and they seem tobe fine. So I think there is
a way to do it. Isuspect they have to supplement some nutrients and
you know, be very mindful,take fiber supplements, things like that.
Yeah, I haven't had good luckwhen I've tried it. It's very challenging
to sustain, and you know,it's it's hard to do it as a
vegetarian, so you end up eatinga lot of meat, which some people
(22:22):
don't like, and other people forethical reasons. Some people don't like it
for health reasons, so you know, there's some issues with that too.
The paleodet is a little bit ofa variation on that in that it does
allow for some carbohydrates, not noprocessed carbs, no refined carbs, So
it's kind of a I would Ialmost think of the paleodet as like an
extreme Mediterranean diet. Except that it'sit's definitely divergent a little bit just because
(22:48):
of its emphasis on protein, sodifferent than the ketogenic diet. Paleodyet is
all about protein, and you knowthat too can be a weight loss type
of diet. I think mostly whatI see in people when they eat a
paleo diet is that they just gettingrid of simple carbs is what's working.
(23:10):
I mean, that's really what isthe main thing. And it's really important
in any of those diets to justmake sure that people are eating enough vegetables
and fruits to get good phyto nutrientsand fiber in there, right and all
that color. How about from alifestyle perspective, what's your advice there?
So you know, from a lifestyleperspective, there's two very very important things.
(23:33):
I mentioned the importance of muscle masksearlier, and I can't overstate that.
I think a key to weight lossand a key to having healthy fat
cells is adequate exercise because muscles areliterally, I mean, they're so critical
in glucose homeostasis and then reducing inflammationin the body. So and this is
(23:56):
it's not enough to just do abrisk walk for thirty minutes every day.
That's good, but that's not goingto really maintain good quality muscle tone throughout
the body for most people. Youknow, if you're elderly, that might
be enough, but for somebody who'snot quite old or old, then more
is required. And you know,as the research develops in the world of
(24:17):
exercise, we're beginning to see thatthere is a difference between moderate intensity and
more vigorous intensity, the more vigorousbeing better. So interjecting some interval training,
for example, if you're going todo a thirty minute walk every five
minutes, do an all out sprintwalk sprint or run sprint, whatever you're
physically capable of doing, to interjectthese high intensity moments. Also, doing
(24:42):
resistance exercise, whether it's with weights, with bands, with yoga, with
swimming, to literally build muscle strengthis a really critical component. And timing,
so we need to exercise at leastthirty minutes. Most people actually gain
more most health benefits when they extendthat to forty five minutes. So kind
(25:03):
of the new emerging prescription is likeforty five minutes of moderately intense, vigorous
level of exercise at least five daysa week, which is more than a
lot of people are doing. Butif you really want to use exercise to
help manage weight and help improve bloodsugar control, that's kind of where we
need to head. And again isassuming that people are physically capable. And
(25:27):
then the last little lifestyle factor throughoutthere, which is really important. And
we've talked a lot on the showabout stress and the importance of managing stress.
But when we're under chronic unmanaged stress, the stress hormones that are in
high levels in our blood, likecortosol, for example, actually increase blood
(25:48):
sugar. So stress is a perfectway to raise your blood sugar and that
will happen almost regardless of what dietyou're eating. So it's really important to
make sure that we have good mindfulnesspractice is we're sleeping sufficiently so we can
reset all of these systems, andthat's a key component of stress management.
So, I mean, these areall fundamental things I think people probably know,
(26:10):
but you know, it's weight lossis not just about food, it's
about exercise, it's about getting enoughsleep, it's about managing stress too.
I'm so glad that you mentioned sleepbecause the research on that is so clear,
and I don't know that people realizethat if in fact they're not getting
enough sleep, their body is putinto an insulin resistant state, they're more
(26:33):
likely to gain weight their immune systemis weakened. Sleep is so critical.
That's when you know, you thinkthat we're sleeping and nothing's going on.
The body is very, very active. The brain is active with that whole
sweeping mechanism that happens in the brainwhen we sleep. I forget what it's
called, but yeah, I'm reallyglad that you meant to sleep. I
(26:56):
think that's that's critical. Yeah,and then just know we're almost out of
time. But I just want tojust mention that, you know, there
are some sort of weight loss supplementsand those are a little bit if I
would say, because some companies weightloss supplements are typically not very effective for
(27:19):
long term weight loss, and that'swhat we really need is long term,
not these flash in the pan,you know, massive diets, but long
term sustainable strategies. That being said, there are some supplements which can improve
our ability for all these other lifestylethings to be effective, you know,
and those range from just good mineralslike magnesium helps to support insolent sensitivity,
(27:42):
cinnamon will lower elevated blood sugar.Extracts from green tea will lower elevated blood
sugar and reduce insolent sensitivity. There'sa probiotic called acromancia which has been shown
to lower elevated blood sugar. Sothere are supplemental strategies that can enhance weight
(28:02):
loss efforts. But they're really gentle, subtle. They're not like these dramatic
lose five pounds in a week kindof supports. Yeah, and I'm going
to add one because I've been doinga lot of research on burberine. I
don't think you mentioned burberine, andthe research is pretty strong in terms of
blood sugar control, specifically with burberine. Wouldn't you agree, Yes, burberin
(28:23):
absolutely. I mean there's really quitea few, so you know, this
would be a time, really,I think that it would behoove somebody to
find an integrative medicine practitioner to helpguide them to what would be appropriate and
most healthy for a long term supportin a lifestyle based weight loss strategy.
(28:44):
Yeah, great, great, whileyou've got like thirty seconds, anything more
to add before we wrap up?Well, I actually do want to add
something which is a little bit ofa side bar, but you know,
I want to just say we've beentalking about weight loss. There is a
lot of healthcare inequity and disparity withregards to weight and weight loss. Many
(29:07):
people, for example, who livein inner cities or disproportionately a number of
urban Black Americans who live in placesthat don't have access to good quality foods
necessarily, so they live in thesefood deserts, or they can't find safe
(29:27):
places to exercise. So I justwant to acknowledge that this is also an
issue weight loss, weight gain,supportive weight loss strategies. There's some disparity
issues which I think we need tojust I want to just state I don't
have solutions for it necessarily, butI think it's important to be sensitive to
that, to recognize that there areadded challenges for many people, you know,
(29:49):
not to mention the fact that,for example, a black person in
an inner city who doesn't have accessnecessarily to high quality fruits and vegetables,
plus is dealing with the stress ofsystemic racism, is going to have extra
stress hormones circulating. So I meanthere's some issues that we have to address
on a societal level too. Yeah. Absolutely, well, thank you for
(30:11):
that, and that wraps up thisepisode of five to Thrive Live once again.
I'd like to thank our sponsors nF h iMUSE, post Biotic Cognizance,
Citacoline and Doctor o Heres Award winningProbiotic So may you experience joy,
laughter, in love. It's timeto thrive everyone, have a great night.
Good night,
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