Reversing Metabolic Syndrome

Because of all the media reports lately, it’s likely that you have heard of “Metabolic Syndrome”. Perhaps you even know someone who is diabetic, has high cholesterol, is overweight, or has high blood pressure. Maybe you or someone you know has all four conditions. Metabolic Syndrome is a clustering of these four conditions, and they are a prelude to much more serious life-threatening events such as strokes and heart attacks later on. Most physicians of course are convinced that hypertension and diabetes cannot be reversed. That’s true if you do nothing but take medications. But for 80-90% of Americans, their conditions are reversible if certain simple lifestyle changes are made. The changes that actually reverse Metabolic Syndrome are very simple, but profoundly important to health and longevity. Here are three simple steps that you can take to reverse hypertension Diabetes, high cholesterol and an overweight condition:

Step One: Start walking….briskly, for 30 minutes twice a day. Walking briskly twice a day for 30 minutes is the single most important thing that you can do to improve your health. Walking brings down blood pressure, reduces insulin resistance (and high blood sugar), increases HDL (“good”) cholesterol, and causes weight loss of about 1-2 pounds of fat weight per week. Do you know of any drug that can accomplish that? Yet something as simple as walking twice a day briskly for 30 minutes can go a long way toward reversing these dangerous conditions. Walking also increases your endurance, makes you less prone to heart disease and strokes, reduces tension, and helps you to handle stress better. Walking works as well as it does because it does one thing extremely well….it improves circulation all over the body. It serves as a tonic for every organ of the body, including the two most critical organs, the brain and heart. This improvement of circulation does two very important things: it increases the delivery of oxygen and the delivery of nutrients to every cell of the body. It’s the best way to stay young, and keep you’re your brain function as you age!

So why don’t more people walk regularly every day? In a word, television. Television has become the promoter of disease and disability. It encourages people to be inactive, and do nothing, except stare straight ahead, as if in a trance. This trance-like state does exactly the opposite of what exercise does: it causes a decrease in circulation, and poor circulation contributes to disease by reducing nutrient and oxygen delivery.

Step2-Eat a Plant-Based Diet: Most of us take in far too many animal products, and the results are clearly seen in the heart attacks, diabetes, cancer and strokes that kill 70-80% of Americans. A varied plant-based diet on the other hand provides the proper nutrients in the right proportions for optimal nutrition. Fresh fruit, vegetables nuts and grains provide everything we need for health and longevity. The Standard American Diet (SAD), with its emphasis on beef, chicken, fish and dairy products increase cholesterol levels, create insulin resistance (type II diabetes), and introduce into the human body the viruses that induce cancer. There are entire societies that use a plant based diet and live longer and healthier lives. We also need to remember that when we take in the body fluids of animals such as milk, we take on the liabilities and disease that are present in those body fluids. Insulin-Like Growth Factor (IGF-1) is a powerful stimulator of cancer cell growth. IGF-1 has 70 amino acids that have to line up in the same sequence every time to produce this incredibly powerful growth stimulator. In the August edition of SCIENCE (vol. 249), Juskevich and Guyer reported the following:

“Human Insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1) and bovine IGF-1 are identical. Both contain 70 amino acids in the identical sequence”

Consider this fact for a moment: A woman who drinks one glass of milk doubles the amount of free circulating IGF-1 hormone in her body. IGF-1 is literally “rocket fuel for cancer”. Eat one portion of ice cream and one consumes 12 times the amount of this powerful cancer accelerator as you would in plain milk. Notice what J.C. Chen, a scientist reporting in the Journal of Cell Physiology had to say about IGF-1:

“IGF-1 is a potent growth factor for cellular proliferation of cancer in the human breast carcinoma cell line” Jan 1994 158(1)

But for diabetics, the overweight, hypertensives and those with high cholesterol levels, much of the damage created by dairy products comes from the high-fat content of concentrated milk products like cheese and ice cream. Twelve pounds of milk are required to make only one pound of ice cream. But the real danger for the diabetic is the animal fat in ice cream and cheese, which literally knock out insulin receptors, and creates insulin resistance (type II diabetes). That fat also raises the cholesterol levels of the individual, and makes it much easier to gain weight. These animal products are potent stimulators of the condition we know as Metabolic Syndrome.

3. Drink Pure Water: Most Americans drink very little water. They drink almost everything else: juice, soda, coffee, alcohol and a host of soft drinks and coolers. But what the body needs most is pure water. Why? For one thing the body is almost 70% water by weight! Every cell has water on the inside to carry on the metabolic functions of the cell. And there is water on the outside to protect the cell and carry away waste products from the cell…interstitial fluid.

Water of course is the most basic element of blood, and blood is the medium of transportation for nutrients and oxygen, without which we would die very quickly. Thick blood is the enemy of us all, but is most dangerous to the person with arterial disease and hypertension. Thick blood tends to clot easily, and a dangerous blood clot can very quickly end the life of a person at risk for a coronary event or stroke. For people with unstable arterial plaque, blood clots are also particularly life-threatening. It turns out that the simplest way to thin out your blood without the use of drugs like Coumadin is to drink water! It expands the blood volume, reduces the thickness of the blood (hematocrit), and makes it less likely to clot. Most heart attacks happen in the morning. One of my NEWSTART physician friends is fond of telling his patients that one glass of water in the evening, and a glass or two before breakfast can literally stop a heart attack the next morning by thinning the blood! Many Americans have arteries that are partially blocked or occluded. Certain arterial plaques are unstable by nature, and are more subject to ruptures at the site of the blockage. By not drinking water, these individuals put themselves at risk for a fatal heart attack. With no natural way to thin the blood, the risk of a fatal heart attack is much higher. One blood clot can mean the difference between life and death for an individual with unstable arterial plaque. Water anyone?

But water also has other important functions such as cleansing the kidneys from the toxic wastes of protein metabolism. and protecting its health. How much water should you drink? Drink two glasses of water upon arising, two glasses before lunch, and two before supper. Such a level of water intake provides adequate hydration for brain and other metabolic functions.

Why not adopt the prevention strategy today? If you are hypertensive, overweight, have high cholesterol, or have diabetes, don’t wait a minute longer. Download the recipes from this website, and get started on your walking program right now. Consult with your doctor, so that when your blood pressure, blood sugar, weight or cholesterol begins to decline, he or she can reduce your medications commensurately. Happy walking! If you need help in getting on a walking program, lifestyle counseling is available at 360-835-8401. The DVD “40 Reasons to Exercise” can also be helpful to you. May God bless your efforts to cooperate with Him in reversing metabolic syndrome!