Fix This to Skyrocket Your Health

I would argue that blood sugar dysregulation is a driver for more health problems than any other condition. It can lead to a wide variety of issues that are all detrimental to health and quality of life. Blood sugar dysregulation, or dysglycemia, is a phrase used to describe the peaks and valleys of the rhythmic nature of insulin and cortisol when they become dysfunctional. Most people know what insulin does because it is commonly used to manage diabetes, but what is cortisol? In this article, we will discuss blood sugar, the hormones that regulate it, and how it can lead to many health problems if it becomes dysfunctional. If you want to become healthier, fix this to skyrocket your health.

Blood Sugar Basics

Blood sugar is regulated by a few different hormones. These include insulin, glucagon, and cortisol. Insulin is the famous hormone used to manage diabetes that brings blood sugar down by making cells uptake sugar from the blood. Glucagon is a hormone that breaks down stored sugars to raise blood sugar levels. Cortisol accomplishes the same thing as glucagon, only when things start to become dysfunctional. Blood sugar should rise and fall gradually like rolling hills with no cliffs or steep slopes. Dysfunction arises when blood sugar starts to spike rapidly and then crash just as fast. This is when we start to use the term dysglycemia.

Triggers for Dysfunction

What triggers dysglycemia you ask? The answer is simple: processed sugars and snacking. Processed sugars are the worst thing to ever happen to modern society when it comes to living a healthy life. When we eat processed sugars, they are broken down and absorbed into the blood very quickly. This causes the pancreas to secrete a lot of insulin a lot faster than it would with good quality, healthy foods. Insulin surges into the bloodstream and causes cells to absorb sugar.

Because of the large amount of insulin secreted after the large blood sugar spike, there is often a reactive dip in blood sugar below normal levels. We call this reactive hypoglycemia. When this happens, the body must fight to secrete glucagon (and eventually cortisol) to bring blood sugar back up. Normally, foods shouldn’t cause a blood sugar dip like that. Over time, more cortisol will be necessary to combat the significant dips in blood sugar, leading to stress hormone dominance. This can lead you to have trouble sleeping, anxiety, and fatigue.

Eating Too Often

As much as people enjoy “grazing”, we are not designed to be eating all day every day. The physiology of blood sugar regulation functions best when we eat 3 meals per day without snacking between them. Blood sugar rises naturally to a gentle peak and then gradually falls over the 5 or so hours that should be between each meal. When we eat too frequently, blood sugar must rise and fall quickly as there is a constant demand for the hormones that regulate it. When these hormones are secreted 4, 5, or many times 6 times per day, blood sugar can reach very high and very low levels, leading to poor regulation. Meals should ideally be eaten 5 hours apart from each other and contain lots of protein and fat with some complex carbohydrates.

Or Not Often Enough

With blood sugar regulation, we have to strive for the middle ground. Eating too often can cause issues, but so can not eating often enough. Eating too little forces the body to utilize cortisol to mobilize blood sugar during long periods of fasting. When the body becomes used to very little sustenance, it starts to go into conservation mode. The thyroid down-regulates metabolism to conserve resources, leading to difficulty losing weight, fatigue, and tiredness after meals. Some people utilize fasting to help boost their metabolism, but it works best for those who aren’t already dysglycemic. If you’re already fueling your body with stress hormones, longer periods without eating only makes things worse.

Long-Term Negative Effects

Most people are familiar with something called your hemoglobin A1C, or just A1C. This lab value is used to determine how well your body has been regulating sugar over the last 3 months. Once this number hits 5.7 on labs, it is considered pre-diabetes. Not good. Dysglycemia will cause this number to go up over time. As blood sugar dysregulation becomes more chronic, your cells will start to become resistant to insulin, which can lead to type 2 diabetes. Insulin resistance also goes hand-in hand with obesity, heart disease, and metabolic syndrome. All of which, are serious health issues.

These issues that I just listed aren’t specific to men or women. Both can have these health conditions. There is a condition that many women have that is driven by dysglycemia. Polycystic ovarian syndrome, or PCOS, is a condition where cysts form on the ovaries that lead to hormonal imbalances, pain, and infertility in extreme cases. This condition is commonly thought to be driven by insulin resistance, but the high amounts of insulin in fluctuation during dysglycemia that can also lead to this condition.

How Can We Fix It?

Fortunately, dysglycemia doesn’t tend to be difficult to fix. Of all the conditions that I see in my office, blood sugar dysregulation is the only thing that can be improved only by the patient. If patients follow dietary recommendations, dysglycemia goes away 99% of the time. My advice always consists of telling patients to avoid processed sugar, eat 3 meals a day, avoid caffeine, and avoid snacking. Every patient is different, so caloric needs vary greatly. Each meal should contain plenty of protein and fat with some complex carbs just like I mentioned before. If you know your eating habits are poor and you have some symptoms that I’ve listed, try fixing your blood sugar. It might just skyrocket your health.

If you enjoyed this article and would like to read more articles about hormones, click here, and if you’d like to discuss your health or symptoms, book a free consult with me here.