How Sugar, Specifically High Blood Sugar, Affects Your Immune System.

We are talking about hyperglycaemia. It has a huge effect on suppressing your immune system.

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Hyperglycemia, an excess of glucose in the bloodstream, often associated with diabetes, is one of the big factors involved in the COVID situation, massively increasing your risk for mortality.

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How does high sugar affect your immune system?

Firstly, because high blood sugar inhibits chemotaxis, which is the movement of white blood cells through the body towards where they need to do their work like an infection or a part of the body that’s damaged.  It is the movement of white blood cells that is triggered by certain chemicals in the body.

Secondly, we have impaired phagocytosis. Phagocytosis is the mechanism where certain white blood cells will engulf and eat and kill pathogens: viruses, bacteria, fungus and mold. There are two main phagocytes. The neutrophils, which make up 90% of all the pus in your body after an infection. They’re very short-lived. With high sugar you have less neutrophils.

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The other phagocytes are the macrophages. They are the big phagocytes they are there to guard to protect you. They will engulf pathogens and eating them up and put them in these little vesicles and dumping acid in there hydrogen peroxide, the main ingredient in Bleach, and that’s how they kill these microbes.

You have less neutrophils, less macrophages and you have less of their weapons. You take down a big part of the body’s army when you have high blood sugar or when you consume a lot of sugar.

Third, you have inhibited complement cascade. Complement cascade is a series of events that occur that will cause the bacterial membrane to burst. Basically it’s a mechanism to help kill bacteria.

Fourth, when you have high levels of sugar in the blood, you develop acidosis. The body’s pH starts to go down making, it is more acidic and that by itself inhibits immunity.

Fifth, it slows the white blood cells moving through the tissues. These white blood cells have the ability to actually go right through your tissues, right through the lymphatic system, through organs, through blood vessels. All that movement is inhibited.  It is like having your own army and they had to walk through a huge muddy field and they were getting stuck and they couldn’t move that well.  That’s what happens to your immune system.

Sixth, One of the big effects of having high blood sugar is the destruction of the vascular system, especially to the nerves to other parts of the body. With high sugar you’re going to have less oxygen through the body and with that you’re going to have an increase microbes that can live in that environment. They’re called anaerobes. They are pathogens that live in areas that don’t require oxygen such as fungus and candida. This is going to increase the risk for infection, fungal infections, Candida infections, and many other types of pathogens.

Lastly, you’re going to have less of an innate immunity and that’s part of the immune system that is the wall – your the skin and the inner skin and hyperglycemia destroys those barriers so now we don’t have that protection like we did when we were healthy.

If you personally have hyperglycemia and you’re diabetic check out this video Dr. Berg’s Healthy Ketogenic Diet Basics https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMZfyEy_jpI

This post has been condensed from Dr. Berg’s video How sugar, specifically high blood sugar, affects your immune System. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqd-MdtES4s

For more information check out Drs. Stephen Phinney and Jeff Volek on the Basic Science of Ketosis and Keto-Adaptation  https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2019/03/15/drs-stephen-phinney-and-jeff-volek-on-the-basic-science-of-ketosis-and-keto-adaptation/

Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise. 

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available. 

Please let me know you are interested in the Post by clicking Like, Commenting or sending me a message or email about the Post.

If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.

May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/

The Key to Long Term Weight Loss

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Overweight people have insulin resistance. And they have higher insulin, which is 5 to 7 times normal. Did you know the people with the type-two diabetes have nine times as the amount of insulin as normal people?

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Insulin is the hormone that blocks fat burning but it keeps your appetite high.

If you’re not going to be burning fat you’re going to be burning glucose/ sugar. The problem is we only have about 1700 calories stored glycogen or sugar but you have 100,000 calories of a fat. That’s on a thin person so if you were overweight you will have more than 100,000 calories sitting on your body.

Many people never tap into the fat and are running on the glycogen because they have way too much insulin that keeps him hungry all the time.

So you’re hungry and you can’t lose weight. What are you going to do?

The most important thing is lower the insulin and fix insulin resistance. But to do that we have to understand what insulin resistance is.

Blog -3 High blood sugar

One function of insulin is to unlock the door on the cell to allow glucose into feed the cells. It also allows amino acids to enter the cell. It also allows nutrients to go into the cell like potassium, magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin C, zinc, B1, chromium and a lot of other minerals and nutrients.

If you have insulin resistance you are not going allow the nutrition or the fuel to go into the cell. You’re not going to feel satisfied.

If you’re not familiar with the ketogenic diet please check out this blog https://www.drberg.com/blog/healthy-keto-plan-start-here

For more information check out https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2018/04/13/how-do-i-do-the-ketogenic-diet/

If your having a hard time all that means is you have insulin resistance and you have to fix it. When you drop your carbs, going keto and doing intermittent fasting your insulin is going to go down and your body is going to start to tap into your fat reserves. It can take up to 14 days to be 80% in ketosis. During this time you will be less and less hungry. This may take a lot longer depending on how much insulin resistance you have. This is especially true if you are a diabetic or if you were a diabetic.

Your main target should not be weight loss initially it should be to fix the insulin resistance.

The way that you know insulin resistance is being improved is because your appetite goes down.

There are a few things to do to speed up the progress. One thing is to start taking MCT oil. The advantage to that is if you’re not totally in ketosis you can go to 100% ketosis pretty fast.

You may not lose weight because your body is using the MCT oil as fuel and not your fat reserves. But initially that’s OK because our goal is not to weight loss, it is to fix insulin resistance in order to loose weight and maintain a healthy and slimmer body long-term.

We want to fix insulin resistance and then loose weight.

To feel satisfied consume MCT oil or fat and get your nutrients from eating enough vegetables with your meal.

These nutrients will satisfy you just as much as the fat will satisfy you.

In the beginning you may have to take supplements like electrolytes, B vitamins and other nutrients because you still have insulin resistance and these nutrients can’t get into the cell. As you correct insulin resistance you’ll be able to absorb more and more nutrients and the need for taking them will decrease.

If you’re not bringing your carbs down to 20 to 50 g, preferably 20 g or less, those carbs will definitely keep the insulin to high and stop the fat from being burned.

First fix the insulin resistance and you will loose weight naturally.

To fix the insulin resistance and then loose weight, reduce your carbs, and add in healthy fats until your appetite is reduced and then reduce the added fat and start to burn your own fat reserves.

This post has been condensed from Dr. Berg’s video, The Key to Long Term Weight Loss Is.   For the original post, please copy and paste this link to your address bar https://www.drberg.com/blog/the-key-to-long-term-weight-loss-is

Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.

 I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.

I thrive on feedback. Please let me know that you like the Post by clicking Like, or Commenting on the content.

If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.

May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com

How Can Ketogenesis And Ketones Treat Inflammation?

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Inflammation is a biological mechanism our bodies use to deal with internal and external events, such as combatting infections, repairing tissues or mitigating the immediate consequences of a fractured bone.

However, it often carries a negative connotation since many diseases provoke symptoms through the process of inflammation.

So although it is absolutely necessary for keeping the human body functioning properly, like so many things in biology, too much or too little is the problem. Inflammation can be managed with and without drugs. 

We will focus on ketogenesis and ketones with regards to treating inflammation.

What is ketogenesis?

Ketogenesis is a series of biochemical reactions that builds ketones from parts of other ones (like 2 acetyl-CoA molecules).

How ketone bodies are formed?

The liver is where fat is used as the raw material to produce the ketone D- β –hydroxybutyrate.

Once you’ve produced enough ketones by upregulating** ketogenesis, you eventually move into a metabolic state called ketosis. People are in ketosis when they are on a ketogenic diet or fasting.

** Upregulating: increasing responsiveness by increasing the number of receptors on the cells.

Ketogenesis

Consuming very few calories or carbohydrates releases the main metabolic break that was stopping your body from producing ketones unnecessarily. The decision to make ketones or not happens at the metabolic ‘roundabout’ in our body.

Please see the image of the traffic roundabout.

Blog - 2 Traffic circleThis roundabout is called the Krebs cycle, or the TCA cycle (tricarboxylic acid cycle). The TCA cycle acts more like a traffic circle on a busy highway in which the flow of cars into the circle must be balanced by the flow out.

Keeping with this analogy, ketogenesis results from changes in the balance of cars entering and exiting the roundabout. Specifically, when the ratio of Oxaloacetate to Acetyl-CoA drops below 1, more and more fats get turned into ketones.

How are ketones metabolized?

Your body builds ketones in the liver (ketogenesis), uses them up in other tissues (ketolysis). Ketolysis is the process where ketones are broken down into smaller molecular units that get consumed.

Ketones are fully metabolized by a series of enzymes that break them down into acetyl-CoA molecules, which produce the energy currency of your cells, ATP.

What does ketosis do to the body?

Ketosis is a metabolic state that helps to handle long fasts and carbohydrate restriction. Ketogenesis is an important adaptation our ancestors evolved to help them get through ice ages. Humans developed the ability to store lots of energy as body fat that turned into energy-efficient molecules [6,7].

Please see the image Table 23-5 Available Metabolic Fuels in a Normal-Weight 70 kg Man and in an Obese 140 kg Man at the Beginning of a Fast.

Please notice each of the men would survive without food in this table. [8]

Blog - 3 Table 23-5 Available Metabolic Fuels in a Normal-Weight 70 kg Man and in an Obese 140 kg Man at the Beginning of a Fast.

Ketones are also signaling molecules. They play a role in how the nervous system manages energy use during periods of fasting [9].

Ketones also affect inflammatory processes and structures. One structure is the NLRP3 inflammasome.

What’s the NLRP3 inflammasome?

It is part of theinnate immune system, the defence system we have to react quickly and non-specifically to biological threats, such as a sudden infection from a wound.

It mediates the release of cytokines by the NLRP3 inflammasome. It can also give the go-ahead for cells to activate caspase-1, a major switch used by the cell to decide whether or not to commit suicide.

The NLRP3 inflammasome senses threats, which may be toxins such as too much glucose. It may be mitigated somewhat by stimulating ketogenesis to help dampen the activity of this inflammasome. Ketogenesis can be engaged by eating a high-fat diet low in carbohydrates and by fasting (intermittently) or for longer periods of time.

How does ketogenesis or ketones modulate the NLRP3 inflammasome?

The ketone body β-hydroxybutyrate, (BhB) sticks to the NLRP3 inflammasome and stops it from firing the cytokines that are causing inflammation. It also stops the inflammasome from activating the caspase-1 switch [11].

What diseases or conditions could benefit from dampening NLRP3-mediated inflammation?

Obesity – The fat tissue of people with severe obesity is highly inflamed due mainly to the activity of the NLRP3 inflammasome [13].

The figure below depicts imbalances in the elements listed on the left-hand side leading to insulin resistance via NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and resulting in the diseases and symptoms listed on the right-hand side [15].

Please see the image of the Nlrp3 Inflammasome and Insulin Balance below.Blog - 4 InsulinRheumatoid arthritis – Rheumatoid arthritis is a condition where joints like the knees and wrists are swollen, stiff and painful. It has a major inflammatory component to it. The cytokine bullet fired by the NLRP3 inflammasome, destroys cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis.

Epilepsy (or other CNS disorders)– Epilepsy can present in many ways but generally it can be described as a strong sensory disturbance leading to convulsions and loss of consciousness. It is thought to be due to electrical disturbances in the brain since this feature very strongly correlates with seizure activity.

  • There is evidence suggesting that brain cells with dysregulated production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) or inappropriate K+ efflux activate the NLRP3 inflammasome and trigger epilepsy [17].
  • The human brain is particularly well suited to using ketone bodies as a major source of energy, which makes its therapeutic use for epilepsy all the more intriguing.
  • Fasting or a combination of these interventions could be useful to control NLRP3-mediated inflammation

What kind of ketone-based metabolic therapy should I use?

It’s not always clear which aspect of a ketogenic diet used to reverse obesity is actually doing the work. Is it the appetite suppressing effects? Is the lowered inflammation in fat tissue normalizing local insulin signaling? Or is it a combination of both and more? And in epilepsy, is a ketone-based metabolism improving seizure control through normalized ROS signaling? Or is it due to dampened inflammation deriving from NLRP3 inflammasome activity? Whatever the case may be, there are different ketone-based approaches that are available and worth considering.

For a drug-centric approach, exogenous ketones are available, such as ketone esters and ketone salts. One advantage with exogenous ketones is it is easier and quicker to get a desired level of ketones circulating in the bloodstream than it is through dietary manipulation.

Please see my blog, Ketone Supplements: The Pros and Cons https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2019/06/07/ketone-supplements-the-pros-and-cons/

For drug-free approaches, ketogenic diets or some form of fasting can generate levels of ketones that have therapeutic effects on inflammation. Fasting or intermittent-fasting is a time-tested intervention in obesity as well as epilepsy.

It is free and human physiology is well adapted to it. But it cannot be bottled and sold for profit so, it is discouraged by the food industry and medical establishment.

Ketogenic diets are cheaper than medications for epilepsy or immune therapies for rheumatoid arthritis. It is recommended that you consult dietitians or doctors that can help you implement a well-formulated ketogenic diets.

Conclusion

  • Inflammation is a life-maintaining biological process. However, it needs to be kept in check and not activated chronically above a certain level or it can lead to symptoms or disease.
  • It can be controlled with exogenous ketones or by being in ketosis. Their use should preferably be discussed with medical professionals beforehand, especially when suffering from a medical condition and taking medications.

This Post has been condensed from https://breaknutrition.com/how-ketogenesis-and-ketones-treat-inflammation/

Please see the original for the Footnotes and Citations for the scientific studies.

Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise. 

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.

I thrive on feedback. Please let me know that you like the Post by clicking Like, or Commenting on the content.

If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.

May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com

How Body Fat Weakens Your Immune System

How Fat Weakens Your Immune System

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Obesity weakens the immune system but why and how?

These are the highlights from Dr. Berg’s video How Fat Weakens Your Immune System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-bgyDgWOHM

There are two main types of fat:

  1. You have the superficial fat around your body which is the stuff right beneath your skin and then
  2. You have visceral fat in your midsection. It is spilling off from your liver because there’s no place to go. The fat goes around the organs and sometimes inside the organs.

Please see the image of the two types of fat.

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With superficial fat you have more accumulation of B cells, which make antibodies and T cells. These are two different immune cells.

But with the visceral fat you have more natural killer cells and killer T cells. That means you’re going to have a lot of cytokines, which cause a lot of inflammation. People that have visceral fat have more inflammation because they have an overly active immune system.

The buffer for this over-reactive immune system is called T regulatory cells. Those are going to be deficient when you have too much visceral fat.  What’s making the inflammation is your actual immune system. 

Also when you have too much visceral fat the antibodies that you create against viruses and even bacteria tend to lose their memory a lot quicker and they don’t remember the infection so you have less fighting force when you have more visceral fat.

This really applies to the COVID-19 situation, as one of the big predisposing factors is being overweight. 

The conditions that go with being overweight are:

Metabolic syndrome, which is a clustering of at least three of the five following – abdominal obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high serum triglycerides, and low serum high-density lipoprotein (HDL).

Other conditions are hypertension, cancer, PCOS, heart disease, dementia, fatty liver, insulin resistance, lipid problems, and type-2 diabetes, etc.

As a result, we have very specific types of immune cells that are being generated by having visceral fat around your midsection. We have deficiency of the cells that are supposed to suppress the inflammation so thereby increasing inflammation. Inflammation itself weakens the immune system.

Being overweight weakens the immune system and also the cascade of inflammation that’s generated from these cytokines immune cells can create insulin resistance. Also, consuming sugar and refined carbs increase insulin resistance, and consuming frequent meals increase insulin resistance.

Please see the image of insulin resistance cycle.

Blog - 3 Insulin resistance

Inflammation causes insulin resistance. If someone’s a pre-diabetic, this inflammation could be enough to push them over the edge into diabetes because the difference between a pre-diabetic situation and diabetes is that insulin resistance suddenly fails to compensate for insulin and then the shift takes place.

The pancreas sends the insulin hormone to the cell but the insulin receptor won’t allow the connection and let it into the cell. Because we don’t get a connection we don’t get the feedback loop to turn off this insulin so it pumps more and more and moreto the point where you have five to seven times the amount of insulin then you should.  All that excess insulin is camouflaging the problem because it’s pushing the blood sugars down because usually the person is consuming a lot of carbs. 

Inflammation can almost act like a carbohydrate and push us to the extent where your cells and the pancreas gets so exhausted that they can’t pump out any more insulin.  So the insulin starts going down, down, down.  Now you have a situation the pancreas cells are burnt out plus you have cell receptor blocking the insulin at the same time.  There’s nothing there to push the blood sugars down. So then we go from pre-diabetes to diabetes.

So what do you have to do? 

Get on the Ketogenic diet, do intermittent fasting and as this visceral fat goes away the inflammation is going to go away, insulin resistance is going to improve over time to reverse insulin resistance.

It’s not just the carbs and the frequency of eating, it’s the fat and the inflammation that can cause the immune deficiency as well.  Inflammation could also come from other sources as well as injuries, and infections like virus chronic infections.

If you have a weakened immune system, what happens when you are infected by COVID-19? Dr. Berg explains what happens in the video

It’s Not The Virus that Kills You, It’s Your Immune System https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NooTKyjlo6s

The virus is not even alive, how can something not alive actually kill you?

Please see the image of a virus.

Blog - 5 virus

The virus is an inactive shell with some DNA material in there with very specific instructions to replicate.  COVID-19 connects to the ACE 2 receptor of your cells to get into the cell.  Their goal is to get into the cell and hijack your metabolism to replicate. But that is not what kills you.

What kills you is your immune system. There two parts of your immune system. The innate which is the system that doesn’t need to be trained it’s the first line of defence and then we have the adapted part of the immune system.  In the worst-case scenario you’re in intensive care, inflammation in your lungs is creating massive destruction where you eventually just stop breathing.

You may think this as an overreacting immune system but it’s not because innate part of the immune system is only overreacting because part of the adaptive system is not working. In the adaptive immune system there are T suppressor cells regulate the over reaction, they prevent too much inflammation.

What is killing us is the severe imbalance where we lose the adaptive immune system and then we have too much of the innate immune system.

The virus is a trigger but it only kills people with a weak immune system. There is usually a  metabolic conditions that are causing a weakness.

Not having enough vitamin D can create a weak adaptive immune system.

If your immune system is strong this virus does not play a big threat especially if you understand how to strengthen it.  In this post Dr. Berg told us how to strengthen your immune system.

How To Bulletproof Your Immune System?https://2healthyhabits.wordpress.com/2020/04/17/how-to-bulletproof-your-immune-system/

 Disclaimer: The content of this email or Post is not intended for the treatment or prevention of disease, nor as a substitute for medical treatment, nor as an alternative to medical advice. Use of recommendations is at the choice and risk of the reader.

I invite you to Follow my Blog, Facebook or be added to my email distribution list. My focus is to maximize my physical performance and mental clarity, body composition, and most importantly overall health with a wholesome diet and exercise.

I will bring you compelling articles on Ketogenic and GAPS diets, the Super Slow High-Intensity Exercise Program and supplements.

To follow my Blog, please click the Follow button to receive an email when the next posting is available. Hint: You may have to click the Accept and Close button before follow is available.

I thrive on feedback. Please let me know that you like the Post by clicking Like, or Commenting on the content.

If you wish to contact me by Email, please email lpolstra@bell.net using this form.

May you Live Long Healthy.

Yours truly,

Lydia Polstra

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