More than two decades ago, a fascinating study was published that offers an invaluable lesson to anyone who wants to maintain or improve their health.
Health and Energy (Video)
Without energy you can’t run a body and stay alive. With energy, you can—as long all of the parts of your energy management system are in working order.
Read the video transcript
More than two decades ago, a fascinating study was published that offers an invaluable lesson to anyone who wants to maintain or improve their health.
The study focused on what happens to peoples’ health when their energy management systems aren’t working correctly. The specific problem that was studied was reduced sensitivity to insulin—also called insulin resistance.
The hormone insulin is a key regulator of energy in the body, and the researchers wanted to evaluate whether the degree of insulin resistance was related to various diseases. They divided a number of adults into three groups based on whether their energy regulation systems were normal, slightly abnormal, or significantly abnormal, which means high levels of insulin resistance. Then they tracked each adult for a number of years, counting the number of health issues like cancer, heart attacks, hypertension and diabetes.
The results were rather amazing: those with no insulin resistance had zero serious health issues, outcomes, and those with higher insulin resistance had the greatest number of adverse outcomes. In fact, age-related diseases developed in about one out of three individuals who had the highest levels of insulin resistance at the starting point.
These results might lead you to ask two questions: What is it about our energy-management system that can so strongly affect our health? And, What can we do about that to improve our health?
The answers to those questions exist, and we can help you find and understand them. We do this by explaining the fundamentals of how the body works rather than just telling you to follow this or that diet, because the basics are extremely important. And, as we say in the Blood Sugar Basics course, you can’t get more basic than how the body produces and uses energy.
The equation is simple, without energy you can’t run a body and stay alive. With energy, you can—as long all of the parts of your energy management system are in working order.
You may be thinking, In terms of health, aren’t there important factors other than energy? Certainly there are, but none are more basic, and everything that happens in your body is affected by how it manages its energy.
Fundamentals of Health Alliance
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Fundamentals of Health Alliance is a nonprofit public benefit corporation that provides reliable educational resources and programs to help individuals better understand matters related to human health.
References:
- Hallenbeck, J. M. (2012). Cellular energy metabolism and metabolic health. Physiological Reviews, 92(2), 701-728.
- DeFronzo, R. A. (2009). From the Triumvirate to the Ominous Octet: A New Paradigm for the Treatment of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus. Diabetes, 58(4), 773-795.
- Kelley, D. E., & Mandarino, L. J. (2000). Fuel selection in human skeletal muscle in insulin resistance. Diabetes, 49(5), 677-683.
- Petersen, M. C., & Shulman, G. I. (2018). Mechanisms of Insulin Action and Insulin Resistance. Physiological Reviews, 98(4), 2133-2223.
