Syndrome X

An Excerpt from the Energetic Life Workshop ‘Syndrome X – An Holistic Approach to Weight Loss’ ~ By Cesca Anderson

There is no doubt in my mind that any person who is overweight in this day and age got that way, or stays that way because of something called Insulin resistance or Metabolic Syndrome X.

I will believe it until I die, no doctor, and no dietician will ever convince me otherwise. I think my biggest problem with most dieticians (and now I use the word most, so not all, but most), is that they have never been overweight, so how would they know what it actually feels like? And my biggest problem with so many doctors, is that they are overweight and they aren’t doing anything about it, so they probably don’t know as much about nutrition as they should. That’s my opinion anyway, and that’s also why I’m a lot thinner for not having listened to doctors and dieticians.

My mother once asked me after I told her my MSX / Diabetes theory; don’t I think that maybe some people are overweight because they just eat too much? No, I replied, a hundred years ago, maybe they just ate too much, but now, anyone who eats too much, eats too much of the foods that cause these conditions, so everyone overweight, eats too much or can’t loose weight, because they have the condition. Maybe my theory is unfounded, but it makes sense to me.

I did a lot of research on why people don’t lose weight. I read up extensively on what insulin resistance is and why it comes about, and I discovered the two biggest lies in the history of nutrition:

I discovered that the general population is lied to about what is, and what isn’t good for them. The things we don’t know and aren’t told like:

Basically 95% of everything ever said about why people are over weight is a lie. And it will continue to be a lie because the ‘powers that be’ across the globe are either too embarrassed to admit that they’ve probably killed more people with their guidelines than anything else, or because their guidelines make money for everyone from governments, to the food industry, to the medical industry. Diabetes beats smoking as a global killer now. Diabetes is a global epidemic because bad food makes money, and healthy food doesn’t. Sugar is highly addictive, and it’s killing a lot of people. What better way for food companies to make a lot of money than to sell food that is addictive? How are they any different to drug dealers? Why is what they do legal when cocaine isn’t?

That most overweight people have insulin resistance and don’t know it.
That ALL processed carbohydrates are bad for the human body, and are in fact “dead foods”.
That any food with ‘added nutrients’ should be avoided because it means they processed every ounce of real wholesome nutrition out of it; and then pumped synthetic ‘nutrients’ that do absolutely no good back in.
That insulin resistance is caused by bad oils and bad carbs and the western lifestyle of eating.
That if a product says “health” anywhere on it; chances are it probably isn’t really healthy.

If 60% of Americans are said to be obese, to morbidly obese, how many of those people have MSX or Diabetes and don’t know it? If MSX is left unchecked, it will become diabetes eventually, some times sooner rather than later. If you carry weight around your waist, you are susceptible to developing insulin resistance, sooner, or later, if you don’t already have it. Because it’s hard to find food that doesn’t cause it if you aren’t trying.

Insulin Resistance is your body's overproduction of insulin in response to glucose. Glucose (in the form of the carbohydrates that you eat) causes your pancreas to produce increasing amounts of insulin. Your body is not able to properly absorb or use the glucose for energy. The result is excess insulin and unused glucose, which turns into fat and makes you tired and hungry all the time.

In a person with normal metabolism, insulin is released from the beta cells of the Islets of Langerhans located in the pancreas after eating ("postprandial"), and it signals insulin-sensitive tissues in the body (e.g., muscle, adipose tissue) to absorb glucose to lower blood glucose to a normal level. In an insulin-resistant person, normal levels of insulin do not trigger the signal for glucose absorption by muscle and adipose cells, to compensate for this; the pancreas in an insulin-resistant individual releases much more insulin, such that the cells are adequately triggered to absorb glucose.

On occasion, this can lead to a steep drop in blood sugar and a hypoglycaemic reaction several hours after the meal. The most common type of insulin resistance is associated with a disease state known as Metabolic Syndrome X.

Insulin resistance can progress to full type II diabetes and is most often found in people with a high degree of fatty tissue underneath the abdominal muscle. Central obesity is fast becoming one of the biggest red flags in the suspicion that a person suffers with insulin resistance. That is to say that in a case where the BMI is over 25, waist circumference exceeds 102cm in men, and 88cm in women.

Here is a list of some of the most common symptoms of people with Insulin Resistance. Many symptoms manifest themselves immediately following a meal of carbohydrates, and others are more or less always present.

Fatigue. The most common feature of Insulin Resistance is that it wears people out. Some are tired just in the morning or afternoon, others are exhausted all day.
Brain fogginess. Sometimes the fatigue of Insulin Resistance is physical, but often it's mental. The inability to focus is the most evident symptom. Poor memory, loss of creativity, poor grades in school often accompany Insulin Resistance, as do various forms of "learning disabilities."
Low blood sugar. Mild, brief periods of low blood sugar are normal during the day, especially if meals are not eaten on a regular schedule. But prolonged periods of this "hypoglycaemia," accompanied by many of the symptoms listed here, especially physical and mental fatigue, are not normal.
Feeling agitated, jittery and moody is common in Insulin Resistance, with almost immediate relief once food is eaten.
Intestinal bloating. Most intestinal gas is produced from carbohydrates in the diet. Insulin Resistance sufferers who eat carbohydrates suffer from gas, lots of it.
Sleepiness. Many people with Insulin Resistance get sleepy immediately after eating a meal containing more than 20% or 30% carbohydrates. This means typically a pasta meal, or even a meat meal which includes potatoes, bread or a sweet dessert.
Increased weight and fat storage. For most people, too much weight is too much fat. Central obesity is the most commonly associated with IR.
Increased triglycerides. High triglycerides in the blood are often found in overweight persons. But even those who are not overweight may have stores of fat in their arteries as a result of Insulin Resistance. These triglycerides are the direct result of carbohydrates in the diet being converted by insulin.
Increased blood pressure. It is a fact that most people with hypertension have too much insulin and are Insulin Resistant. It is often possible to show a direct relationship between the level of insulin and blood pressure: as insulin levels elevate, so does blood pressure.
Depression. Because carbohydrates are a natural "downer," depressing the brain, it is not uncommon to see many depressed persons who also have Insulin Resistance.

Click here for more informaiton on the Earthmajik workshop Syndrome X.