#1 Step to Healing!
Along with sleep and pooping, blood sugar is third in the non-negotiable trifecta! In fact, if we really take an honest look at our daily rhythm, many of us can probably admit that we are accidentally starving ourselves?
After all, with all the talk about intermittent fasting, it’s become quite the norm to skip meals. Or maybe you binge at dinner or maybe you don’t really eat much at all? Perhaps you feel better when you don’t eat? I hear that a lot! Sluggish livers and toxic/sluggish bile can most certainly lead to a loss of appetite. Is this loss of appetite accompanied by blurry vision, perhaps a migraine, moodiness? Do you blame it on your cycle, either during ovulation or PMS? Please be thinking about your liver with ALL of these symptoms and then also be thinking about blood sugar!
That joint pain and brain fog that is worse in the afternoon, the insomnia at night, this is all related to blood sugar!
In fact, even slight up and down swings in blood sugar can lead to a ton of symptoms!
Blood sugar swings set into motion a cascade of events that wreak havoc on your hormones! Think about it, when your blood sugar drops, it tells your body that you are in danger! Triggering your sympathetic nervous system, cortisol is released and your body shuts off normal metabolism to your liver and gut as it expends all of its efforts to quickly raise your blood sugar - now your liver and gut are both offline- you are not digesting your food or clearing excess hormones (oops, now you are in estrogen dominance as your body will use your progesterone to make cortisol, aka “the progesterone steal”). YOU ARE NOT DETOXIFYING. This all triggers inflammation, increasing sympathetic tone and ultimately a chronic heightened state of alert (fight or flight) which can lead to leaky gut (high cortisol irritates and degrades the mucosal lining of your gut) and let’s not forget that when cortisol is high, your blood sugar is also high. This feeds microbes and the constant release of insulin leads to insulin resistance. High insulin also causes the excess sugar to get stored in the liver as fat, leading to fatty liver - and fatty livers do a terrible job at breaking down hormones and toxins!
Do you see how everything is connected and we can’t skip over this step when we are trying to balance hormones, support the liver or increase energy?
So many of us are chasing complex health challenges while ignoring these non-negotiables! If you are not feeling well, focus first on not skipping meals. Know your body! It is ok to do intermittent fasting but if you get to the point in the afternoon where you haven't eaten since 10 am and it’s now 3 pm and you’re dizzy and irritable and light headed and you are racing to pick up your kids from school only to scarf down the rest of their lunch the moment they get into the car, then you need to stop!
Other things that can spike your blood sugar:
Rushing around to get ready in the morning
Skipping meals
Staying up past your bedtime - aka catching that “second wind”.
A stressful event
A high carb meal
Excessive amount of protein, overeating.
Coffee
Losing sleep
Dehydration
Infections - this includes dental infections.
Ways to support blood sugar regulation:
Pay attention to your body! Are you having breakfast before you experience dizziness or nausea? Remember that intermittent fasting intervals should only be increased once you have addressed poor blood sugar regulation.
While you are healing, focus on smaller, more frequent meals composed of adequate fats, protein and carbs in the form of non-starchy vegetables and minimal fruits.
Stress management: pay attention to your mind-set and where you choose to expend your energy throughout the day. Choose sanity.
Sleep management. Your sleep is fundamentally the most important part of your healing, prioritize it at all costs!
Have fun, laugh!
Lab testing for blood sugar and what can it tell us?
Fasting glucose: is your blood sugar staying high! Remember glycemic issues have profound effects on the thyroid as well as weakening the immune system and impairing your ability to detoxify.
HbA1c: hint: when this is elevated but fasting glucose is normal, this means that blood sugar isn’t returning to fasting levels quickly enough and as a result, glycosylation (carbs attaching to a protein or fat) is happening. This triggers an immune response leading to oxidative stress. Remember, the liver plays a huge role in glucose metabolism.
Insulin: Insulin is obesogenic and inflammatory due to excess sugar running around. When we see excess insulin, we can suspect that there is some degree of insulin resistance. Insulin is also directly related to cholesterol levels!
LDH: When we see elevated Lactate Dehydrogenase, we are thinking about possibly liver/biliary dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, tissue inflammation or even viral infections. When we see this low, we might be thinking about reactive hypoglycemia, keto adaptation or insulin resistance.
To learn more about your own blood sugar markers and start connecting the dots to better health, schedule your free 20 minute consult.
