Scientists have found a new indicator of metabolic risk factors for diabetes, insulin resistance, high blood triglycerides and cardiovascular disease called Metabolic Syndrome X.

Metabolic Syndrome X is a cluster of inflammatory symptoms triggered by a metabolic dysfunction – which is fancy way to say your body is going through a massive communication breakdown.

It takes a while for 60,000,000,000 cells to stop communicating. It isn’t just something that suddenly happens.

All metabolic disorders start with a loss of cellular energy, which may end up becoming symptoms of an inflammatory or degenerative disorder, creating a state of imbalance.

What is Your Metabolism?

You have two basic metabolic processes, which a thousand other processes depend on.

One way to understand the metabolic process is to follow the nutritional pathway through the body.

  1. All nutrients begin as extremely large molecules (food). The process of breaking them into smaller molecules to provide energy is called catabolism.
  2. Then the “energy” from this process is used to build larger molecules for cell and tissue growth, which is called anabolism.

It may help to know “all food” is reduced to specific molecules small enough to feed your 60,000,000 cells. These molecules of food make up a “metabolic melting pot” or pool.

In this metabolic pool, you have:

  • Simple sugars from carbs
  • Glycerol and fatty acids from fat
  • Amino acids from protein

All of these are then used as building blocks for the anabolic process.

The Metabolic Breakthrough

Recently scientists found the health of your liver cells can tell you if you are at risk for a metabolic syndrome X, Y or Z, which can lead to diabetes.

According to researchers at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, when your “liver” begins to have trouble breaking down large molecules of fat (triglycerides), then more metabolic disorders and dysfunctions are soon to follow.

This nonalcoholic fatty liver condition can also lead to stroke or complete liver failure. The good news is the liver makes an “enzyme” to be used as a red flag to warn a person before anything gets too complicated.

Here are 3 other indicators of nonalcoholic fatty liver:

  1. Fatigue
  2. Pain in upper right abdomen
  3. Weight loss

Bottom line. There is plenty of evidence that point to the fact that over eating, especially over eating a Western patterned diet or Standard American Diet (SAD), is the main culprit to causing metabolic disorders and diabetes.

In 2008, Samuel Klein from the Center for Human Nutrition, Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO, pointed out that calorie restriction could reverse nonalcoholic fatty liver within days.

Perhaps calorie restriction combined with a healthier more plant-based diet, will turn out to be the solution for metabolic syndrome X, Y and Z.

P.S. Metabolic syndrome is an inflammatory syndrome also associated with a “magnesium deficiency.”  You can get plenty of anti-inflammatory magnesium from nuts and green leafy vegetables. So, eat your vegetables!

SOURCE:
Drs. Joel Ray, et el, outlined in a letter to the editor at the Journal Epidemiology, January 6, 2011.
Liver, Muscle and Adipose Tissue Insulin Action is Directly Related to Intrahepatic Triglyceride Content in Obese Subjects. Kevin M. Korenblat,1,2 Elisa Fabbrini,1,3 B. Selma Mohammed,1 and Samuel Klein1;

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