After a month in stay at home in California I find one huge take-away from the Covid-19 shutdown: Metabolic Health must be a priority for everyone. Just today Dr. Aseem Maholtra, a well-respected cardiologist from the UK writes in the European Scientist about: “Covid 19 and the elephant in the room.”
A few gems from his article are below but I encourage you to read the whole article.
But the elephant in the room is that the baseline general health in many western populations were already in a horrendous state to begin with. In the UK and USA more than 60% of adults are overweight or obese. How is this relevant to COVID-19?
It is well known in the medical literature that excess body fat induces immune dysregulation and chronic inflammation which is directly linked to the cytokine storm that is responsible for Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome seen in influenza and other respiratory viruses.
Only 12.2 % of American adults are considered metabolically healthy, with less than a third of normal weight people also in this category. It’s likely the statistics are not dissimilar in the UK. In addition, normal weight metabolically unhealthy have a more than three-fold risk of all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events than those who are normal weight and metabolically healthy.
There’s no such thing as a healthy weight, only a healthy person. (Bold and underline my own addition!)
What does metabolic health mean?
It constitutes having ideal levels of blood sugar, triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol, blood pressure, and waist circumference, without using medications. These factors directly relate to a person’s risk for heart disease, diabetes, and stroke.
Or you can look at it from the negative side. If you have metabolic syndrome, meaning “unhealthy” metabolically you have a minimum of 3 of the conditions below, as taken from the American Heart Association.
- Abdominal obesity (Waist circumference of greater than 40 inches in men, and greater than 35 inches in women)
- Triglyceride level of 150 milligrams per deciliter of blood (mg/dL) or greater
- HDL cholesterol of less than 40 mg/dL in men or less than 50 mg/dL in women
- Systolic blood pressure (top number) of 130 millimeters of mercury (mm Hg) or greater, or diastolic blood pressure (bottom number) of 85 mm Hg or greater
- Fasting glucose of 100 mg/dL or greater
Again, if you have 3 of the above conditions you are at greater risk for heart diseases, diabetes and stroke. As mentioned above only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy, 88% are not.
OK, so that’s a lot of bad news. BUT there is SO much YOU can DO!
- Exercise is known to assist in stabilizing blood sugar, some forms of high intensity exercise may raise it. But in general, moderate exercise promotes more efficient use of glucose in the body thus giving your muscles and cells more energy efficiency.
- Eating foods that do not raise your blood sugar keeps your body away from the extreme peaks and valleys of potential blood sugar spikes. Read ditch heavy processed junk.
- Industrial seed oils have potentially harmful effects on your health. For more details see Chris Kesser’s post on how these oils are making us sick.
- Getting adequate sunshine to help boost your Vitamin D levels and immune system.
- Rest and recovery have to be built in your daily/weekly/monthly/yearly routine.
None of this is new. There is no magic pill. Whether a vaccine is developed quickly for the virus no one knows. Will our stay at home practices have slowed the spread or will it pop up again? Many unknowns.
What we do know is you can take certain efforts to try to make your body stronger, metabolically. This has the highest return on any investment right now.
Be safe and stay strong!
