I'm a little late in writing this blog - but better late than never! In order to provide the best health education at county chiropractic we are on a constant learning drive to improve the service we give to our practice mambers. Two weekends ago 3 of us chiropractors and Maddy, who is a chiropractic assistant, spent the weekend learning with James Chestnut, wellness expert. Please visit www.exeter.countychiropractic.co.uk for a link to our health talks

I wanted to share one of the things I took away from the weekend and that is the physiological significance of Insulin.

Lowering blood sugar is only one of the critical roles of insulin in human metabolism, one of the other important purposes is to store excess nutrients. Insulin levels in the body will be raised in response to any increase in energy substrate. When your blood sugar is elevated it is a sign to your innate intelligence that you've got more energy substrate than you need right at that moment.

When blood sugar (or fructose, galactose) rises insulin is realeased to take the sugar and store it for future use. This mechanism is vital for a species that cannot always guarantee steady food supply, however, to have this genetic make up in a species that eats excessive calories and is does not exercise, is literally deadly.

It is commonly believed that excess blood sugar is stored as glycogen in the muscles and liver, but actually all the glycogen stored this way is not enough to last you for even one day. The excess is stored as saturated fats (98% palmitic acid which is a main culprit in heart disease).

So a high complex carbohydrate diet (wholegrain cereals, rice, breads etc) is just a high sugar diet and your body will store the excess sugar as fat. (how do they make farm animals fat? feed them carbohydrates - grains!).

Insulin is being seen as an indicator for lifespan in humans. In studies of centenarians insulin sensitivity is being seen as significant in determining life span.

SIMILARLY, INSULIN RESISTANCE IS CONSIDERED A MAJOR FACTOR IN ALL OF THE CHRONIC LIFESTYLE DISEASES THAT REPRESENT THE LEADING CAUSES OF DEATH IN WESTERN SOCIETY.

Cell receptors become insulin resistant when they are trying to protect themselves from toxic amounts of insulin in the blood that result from eating high sugar (carbohydrate) foods. The more 'deaf' the cells become to insulin the louder the pancreas has to shout by producing more insulin until eventually the pancreas becomes fatigued.

Our innate genetic intelligence is not equipped to deal with foods that have this effect on blood sugar and therefore blood insulin levels. Eating this type of diet leads to chronic illness.

Insulin is also involved in storing fats and protiens. Insulin levels also dictate which fuel is used at any given time.

High insulin levels stimulate the sympathetic nerve system which releases stress hormones that inhibit immnuity.

When cells become insulin resistant both blood sugar and blood insulin levels remain high.

Vitamin C and glucose are almost identical and therefore compete for entry into the cell. High blood sugar levels means glucose takes up most of the receptor sites on the cell and with insulin resistance the cell becomes resistant to both glucose and vitamin C. The immune system requires vitamin C to function.

Eating a diet high in sugar (carbohydrate) and low in vitamin C is lethal for your immune system. Just one saltine cracker could push your blood glucaose to levels that reduce your immune function by 75% - imagine what a can of coke could do!

Insulin is invloved in the storage of many nutrients including magnesium. If your cells are insulin resistant you can't store magnesium. As magnesium relaxes muscles, if you are deficient in it because your cells weren't able to store it, the smooth muscles of your blood vessels constrict leading to increase in blood pressure.

Magnesium is also needed for energy production so decreased magnesium means decreased energy and decreased relaxation!

Magnesium is necessary for the action and production of insulin. If you have raised insulin, you lose magnesium and your cells become even more insulin resistant. Blood vessels constrict, glucose and insulin can't get to the tissues and you become even more insulin resistant - insulin levels go up and you lose more magnesium etc etc

Long term high insulin causes the retention of sodium which causes fluid retention which causes high blood pressure. Fluid retention and high blood pressure lead to cardiovascular disease.

On top of this high insulin levels stimulate the sympathetic nerve system which increases heart rate, increases blood pressure, increases blood glucose fats and cholesterol.

I could go on and on ( and maybe I will another day) as I haven't really touched on how insulin resistance effects blood cholesterol, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, thyroid hormone regulation, sex hormones, aging...

I do just want to mention that movement and exercise are a requirement for normal insulin metabolism so sedentary living and lack of proper joint movement (subluxation) will cause even more insulin resistance.

This can even begin before you are born if your mother is a sedentary carbohydrate junkie!

Please, please attend Neil Cox's series of free health talks to learn how you can improve your lifestyle to gain maximum health for you and your family again the link is on our homepage at www.exeter.countychiropractic.co.uk

Phew! so glad to have got that of my chest
Rachael