Fix Your Metabolism, Save Your Life: How becoming metabolically flexible supports your immune health
A well functioning immune system is key to survival 100% of the time. In 2020, the year of the coronavirus pandemic, this is finally coming to our collective consciousness. The current viral illness from SARS-CoV-2 is strongly affecting people who have underlying chronic illnesses and metabolic disorders such as high blood pressure and diabetes at a much higher rate than those without. True, there are healthly people falling gravely ill but this is far less common.
We know that age, diabetes, insulin resistance, cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, significantly increase risk of more severe illness/complications of this an all infections. These health issues point to the body’s inabilty to properly adapt to changes in energy (read food intake) supply. The proof is in the pudding (pun intended) that COVID19 largely affects those with metabolic inflexibility. Furthermore, it’s not just this virus, we are greater risk of illness from ALL infections as well as cancer when we are metabolically inflexible. There this study, this one, this one, this one from as recently as June 2020, and hundreds more proving that metabolic disorders inhibit the immune system from working optimally. This puts people at risk of serious illness and death.
What is metabolic flexibility anyway? It is the ability to efficiently adapt your metabolism depending on supply/demand of nutritional intake for appropriate energy use. This means your body will efficiently manage your metabolic needs based on the food available (and energy output). It’s your ability to respond and adapt to changes in energy demand. Among other things, having metabolic inflexibility depresses your immune function. Metabolic inflexibility includes health concerns such as metabolic syndrome, obesity, insulin resistance, PCOS, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver or kidney disease as well as age are significant risk factors that influence the progression and prognosis of this disease in a negative way.
The sciencey basics: If you have insulin resistance, PCOS, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, liver disease, kidney disease, etc you inherently have inflammation and usually excess fat cells called adipose tissue. I’m not going to get into how people get to this point but know that what you eat is responsible for at least 80% of it. Having increased adipose tissue creates even more inflammation. The excess adipocytes (fat cells) expand and are infiltrated by immune cells such as leukocytes. Once this happens the infiltrated adipose tissue will produce even more inflammatory compounds (yikes). These compounds increase insulin resistance and decrease glucose uptake in the muscle (not good) further driving you into a state of metabolic inflexibility (bummer). In addition, there will be fat released into the blood stream which will start to accumulate in the organs (organs don’t like this). Once this takes place that organ’s function becomes impaired (really not helpful). This is significant for the immune system because organs such as the spleen, thymus, and bone marrow which are key players in your immune cell production are affected by this fatty infiltration reducing the number and variety of T-cells. [Remember: T-cells are key players in providing a memory-mediated immune response to pathogens such as influenza (or presumably any fast replicating seasonal virus. And research is indicating this may be how we will make immunity to corona]. The worst part is that this is a cycle. You start with a little and it snow balls out of control.
So there it is. The reason why preventing or reversing metabolic syndrome is crucial to your survival. Fixing your metabolism could literally save your life.
So, how do you know if you are metabolically flexible? Your metabolism is functioning at it’s best if you have:
Blood pressure at or less than 120/80
Do not have pre-diabetes or diabetes
Waist circumference at or less than 88cm (women)/102cm (men)
Have triglycerides (a type of cholesterol) 150 or less
Have an HDL (the “good” cholesterol) greater than 50 (women)/40 (men)
If there are 3 or more of these that you do not have you have work to do. If there is even one of these that you do not have, you have work to do. Many people in the US do not meet these criteria for metabolic health, so you are not alone if you looked at that list and felt like you took a trip to bummer town.
The best news all day is that we can positively effect metabolic syndrome very quickly through dietary modifications. By changing how you eat you can reverse or remit metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and many other chronic diseases. Below are some tips for changing your diet to better support your metabolism and your immune system.
Cook from home. Here you have more control as to what goes intoyour food, you can avoid toxic ingredients like sugar that create insulin resistance.
Fill 1/2 of your plate with non-starchy veggies. Keep a variety here as variety feeds the microbiome (healthy bacteria in your gut) and provides a lot of micro/macro nutrients for your health. Here’s an easy to read list of common ones
Fill ¼ of your plate with starchy veggies such as sweet potato, potato, Jerusalem artichoke if you’re eating a normal carbohydrate intake.
The last ¼ of your plate is protein. Drizzle healthy fats through out such as olive oil.
Trade vegetable oil, canola oil, soybean oil and sunflower oil in cooking with avocado oil for high heat cooking. It won’t oxidize and cause deletirious effects on your cardiovascular system. Use olive oil, ghee, grass fed cow butter, coconut oil for low heat cooking and uncooked foods.
Eliminate sugar. This one is very had but also crucial for optimizing metabolism. Eliminating sugar prevent the spikes and dips in blood sugar that create diabetes and metabolic syndrome. Find out more about sugar in this post
Limit alcohol consumption
Drink water, herbal teas, bubbly water
Use supplements such as vitamin D, fish oil, multivitamins, etc as needed to provide adequate nutrients to your body. Talk with your doctor on what is best for you and your health goals.
Consider intermittent fasting. Work with a provider familiar with this practice to find the best method for you.
Move your body around daily and frequently throughout the day
It starts with food because what you eat is 80% of how you manage your metabolism. However, we cant forget exercise also plays a very important role in metabolic health because moving is the energy output portion of the equation. Specifically, strength training and interval training will help to shift your metabolism into a more balance state.
How does all this make you feel? Overwhelmed? That is ok. Start today to change your habits, commit each hour of each day to your health. Do it again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that and so on. Your metabolic flexibility will shift for the positive in just a few days. With the benefits compounding on each other. Soon you will feel more clear headed, be more focused, sleep better, have clearer skin, be stronger, and you’ll have more energy. To top it off you’ll be less susceptible to infection.
You can do this but if you need help, reach out or ask your favorite physician for assistance.
Be amazing!