What is ‘metabolic syndrome’?
Metabolic syndrome is described as a cluster of conditions that occur together – usually linked to insulin resistance and obesity. It is when your hormones are haywire and don’t know better because every time you eat the SAD (Standard American Diet), you are triggering your body in more ways than one.
Let’s think back to a time when having diabetes was a big deal and it just isn’t anymore. Why is that? Because doctors label things that are happening to a lot of people as “common” and “nothing to worry about”.
See, this mindset works when you’re in a therapy session room and you want to feel supported and not alone in your struggle, not when you have incredibly high insulin resistance, struggle with chronic inflammation, and are being told to take insulin injections.
What this does is instead makes it from “common” to “normal”.
Now, my mum was diagnosed with pre-diabetes last year 2021 December and my dad with Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease, and me with PCOS just as recent as a month ago. This had me spiraling.
Metabolic Syndrome and PCOS, Fatty Liver and Diabetes
All of these and many other hormonal issues can be related to insulin.
I know, I know. Insulin… gluten…Area 51. All things that everyone seems to say but nobody knows what it means and their effects on us. So let me break it down for you.
Let’s give a prisoner and a prison cell analogy:
Insulin’s (“guard”) function is to unlock the cell door so that glucose (“prisoner”) can be let in. This is so the prison is not crowded with prisoners outside of their cells causing problems, and wreaking havoc, as prisoners do. So insulin is released when we eat food so that our cells can absorb it, if our cells do not absorb insulin, we will remain hungry and frustrated as if we didn’t eat in the first place – this leads to fat storage.
If the glucose is not absorbed, it can lead to ‘sweet-smelling’ urine which is often what diabetics report before they receive a diagnosis of diabetes. (why is it sweet?) Because glucose is sweet and leaves the body instead of being used up by the body’s cells.
Insulin Resistance and Metabolic Syndrome
Insulin resistance is when the guards are sleeping, and the prisoners are let loose to do whatever they want. This means that the food does not get absorbed and the nutrients are instead stored as fat – leading to obesity and every symptom of hangry. This can be attributed both to either: 1) poor insulin production or 2) poor glucose uptake by the cells
If it is 1) it is most likely diabetes and if it is 2) it is mostly related to every metabolic syndrome and leads to your pancreas releasing more and more insulin. This leads to the pancreas over-working, which is why metabolic syndrome comes first and diabetes after.
What about NAFLD?
The scientific literature doesn’t seem to understand that obesity is not the ‘before’, it is the ‘after’.
Every reading that I have done thus far, has acknowledged that all three PCOS, NAFLD, and diabetes are related to metabolic syndrome, but that individuals who have this, are obese first. Which doesn’t make sense.
Inflammation, which is the belly or midsection in this case, should be the first sign that something is going on. Not the last sign.
Anywho, doctors easily suggest ‘losing’ weight’ but how do you do that when your hormones are talking against each other?
NAFLD is becoming very common (not “normal”) and affects 20% of the US, it is characterized by fat accumulation in the liver. About 75% of obese people have NAFLD – which is telling.
Unfortunately, there is not a lot of research out there for ‘remedies’ for NAFLD except for the age-old advice of cutting out refined carbs. Wheat and sugar, because both spike insulin levels.
If your body is consistently pushing out insulin, your body adapts and increases the amount of insulin needed before it is to uptake the glucose.
With all the journal articles I have read so far, diabetes, NAFLD, and insulin resistance are highly correlated with each other – and so is choline.
My conclusion is that my parents and I share the same DNA, so our insulin resistance is likely genetic and the problems that we have are characterized differently: NAFLD, diabetes, and PCOS are all metabolism issues, with some other spice to change up the diagnosis a little bit.
But apart from that, I find that possibly ingesting choline supplements will help my parents reverse their conditions.
Who is to blame for ‘metabolic syndrome’?
I got diagnosed with PCOS a couple of weeks ago, and for someone who gets their bloodwork regularly and is told by the GP that ‘everything is normal (ie. common), this came as a shock. What was more shocking was the lack of support and insistence to “come to their office” because they wanted to charge me $300 (again) for a consultation (tell me why we trust these people with our lives again?).
Anyways, I started to research and found a lot of blog posts, herbal supplements, and naturopath remedies that I trusted way more than my gyno.
PCOS stands for polycystic ovary syndrome and affects 1 in 10 women; it is a hormonal issue where women have high estrogen (which is they hold onto weight in their midsection), high testosterone (can have growth like a man’s – beard hair and losing hair on the top of the head) and low progesterone, which, just until a few days ago, I didn’t know was the actual female hormone.
Now, for somebody who has been working out pretty consistently for the past 4-5 years, eating what is called the “standard healthy diet” – meat, fruit, veggies, grains, nuts, legumes, etc, …finding out that you have PCOS hits like a truck.
Where do ‘health guidelines’ even come from?
When you are doing everything right, following the ‘government’ guidelines – which you later find only exist because of how much stock there is of everything (ie. grains) – it can lead to taking the red pill and figuring out that, everything has money behind it.
Why do doctors prescribe medicine instead of teaching and propagating that food – something all of us do every day, usually 3 times a day – is healing and can solve the problems that it has caused?
Because they get paid for the prescription.
They don’t get paid to tell you to fix your lifestyle, or not to take medications that have a thousand side effects.
I had one GP though, who told me the harsh truth, which was that 80% of health is eating the 20% is exercise – and I didn’t like her until I realized she was right. And now I understand that the patients are also at fault, for simply wanting the symptoms to go away, not looking at the core issue.
I’m here to fix that, I want this page to empower everybody to take charge of their lifestyles and not be confused by all the data out there – because there is a lot to be confused by.
I’ve also asked my chiropractor what she thought about food causing cancer – and she said “There’s not enough research”.
And this is the thing that gets me: being fat and unhealthy is not part of the human experience – but somehow body pos activists and surely, capitalism has made it so.
Research vs anecdotal evidence
Not only was what she said false, but it was ignorant. Yes, I know she is a chiropractor – but since when did ‘research’ become more important than personal experience?
Since when did people start forgetting that even research is inspired by ‘personal experience’ or ‘anecdotes’?
Does anyone know how long lung cancer research took so that finally, the scientific community could utter ‘Smoking causes lung cancer? Well, it took more than half of our lives of 88-90 years.
You’re telling me you’re gonna wait until you are on your deathbed to be told exactly what I’m telling you now (for free) but with funded research (from places that want the scientists to see something or not see something)?
Now, you may be thinking “PCOS is not that bad and neither is diabetes or NAFLD” and I’m here to tell you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. Our bodies are always communicating with us if we would just listen. My aunty has ovarian cancer now, and she has had breast cancer before. My grandfather died from prostate cancer, and both my maternal grandparents from diabetes – maybe they had the same mindset of things not being that bad.
I don’t believe in my organs failing and my bloodwork being atrocious as long as I look ‘aesthetic’.
Are Symptoms the Fire Alarm or the Fire Itself?
The way I and many naturopaths see it (and medical doctors just don’t), is the symptoms are just the warning signs, they are just the ‘fire alarm’, they are not the fire themselves.
If we had a fire in our house, and the fire alarm went off – does turning the fire alarm off stop the fire?
But imagine you spraying the fire hydrant on the fire alarm instead of the fire? Does the fire stop?
Still no.
This is what medical doctors do to us, but how can I blame them without blaming the people who are the ones who are proactively shutting the fire alarm off with their painkillers, high blood pressure medication, and the lot – while their house burns down?
Your body is your temple, so guard it with the same respect.
