Metabolic CHAOS!

Sarah Hotchkiss
4 days ago
3 min read

How to measure and fix your metabolism

This is an ongoing issue I see that most people are very misinformed about! I’d like to clarify this with FIVE simple ways to measure your metabolic health, and FIVE things to do to combat metabolic chaos, which is what we call it when you have any or all metabolic factors.

So, what are the metabolic factors we look for in a healthy individual?

Blood pressure at or around 120/80 WITHOUT blood pressure meds of any kind. I say this because we want to know your health markers naturally, without meds like statins, blood pressure meds or acid blockers, for example.

HDL Cholesterol at least 50. Again, without the use of statins or any cholesterol medications. HDL numbers are very protective.

Triglycerides under 150. Triglycerides are the most important number in a lipid panel and over 150 shows inflammation. The number one reason for higher numbers here is processed foods and a high carb diet. I’m not concerned at all with higher total cholesterol (in fact I don’t love it under 150-cholesterol feeds sex hormones and many other processes in the body) I’m not even concerned with higher LDL in itself (You can run a CAC scan (coronary artery calcium) and NMR tests to test the QUALITY of LDLs, which is more important than then sheer number of them). We want your ratio of HDL to TRI to be ideally 1:1 up to 1:3 max. (Ex: 50:150).

Fasting insulin under 10. Single digits. I prefer this measure over an A1C (and over a fasting glucose which can vary a ton). If using A1c we want it 5.6 or less. Insulin is the driver of almost every disease. It has major ramifications for health, longevity and disease resistance. It’s associated with hyperglycemia, cancer and heart disease. When insulin doesn’t work well you need more of it (sugar) to get the same effect. Insulins ability to shuffle blood glucose out of the blood suffers and blood glucose goes up. Hyperglycemia inhibits nitric oxide. Nitric oxide is a vasodilator and helps blood vessels widen to accommodate increased blood flow and reduce stress. Without nitric oxide our blood vessels are susceptible to heart disease. Hyperinsulinemia is a risk factor in most if not all cancers.

Waist measurement under 35 inches for women, under 40 for men. This connects with weight and BMI but is a much better measure as WHERE you carry the weight matters much more than how much you weigh.

Well, how many of these do you have of the 5? Do you know your numbers? How can you mitigate these above factors? Here are the FIVE things I suggest to change these numbers over time…

Eat whole foods (mostly) and eat less calories than you burn a day. If 90% of your diet is meat, fish, seafood, poultry, eggs, all fruits and veggies (including potatoes and starchy ones) you are GOLDEN. Stop looking for sugar free fat free diet packaged products. JUST EAT REAL FOOD. You can measure calories if you like, but often most people who eat whole food primarily don’t need to. For women 5 ounces of protein with each meal, for mean closer to 6-8 ounces. One gram of protein per day per ideal body weight up to 160 for women is a good start. Don’t skimp on grass fed beef! I see women with low iron stores all the time! I’ll also add at least 64 ounces of water each day.

DON’T SMOKE. THAT’S IT.

Sleep well and long enough. Are you getting 8 hours of QUALITY SLEEP each night? If not it’s important to find out why with a functional health practitioner. Sleep regulates insulin, stress and cortisol and hormones.

MOVE YOUR DARN BODY. 30 min a day. Not vacuuming or gardening (those are great but don’t count. At minimum a 30 min brisk walk each day. But I’m a fan of walking, yoga, Pilates and resistance training.

STRESS. We all have it. So, I’m not going to say reduce it, but how do you mitigate it? Meditation, sleep, eating well, hydrating, mindfulness apps, purging things you don’t need…