Good (Or Bad) Health Starts With Your Blood

Blood Should Be Only Slightly Thicker Than Water

This is Dr. Casey Means, a physician, lecturer (mostly at Stanford), and CMO of a metabolic health company, Levels, as well as being Associate Editor of the International Journal of Diabetes Reversal and Prevention, where she serves alongside such names as Dr. Colin Campbell, Dr. Joel Fuhrman, Dr. Michael Greger, Dr. William Li, Dr. Dean Ornish, and you get the idea: it’s a star-studded cast.

What does she want us to know?

The big blood problem:

❝We’re spending 3.8 trillion dollars a year on healthcare costs in the U.S., and the reality is that people are getting sicker, fatter, and more depressed.

Over 50% of Americans have pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes; it’s insane, that number should be close to zero.❞

~ Dr. Casey Means

Indeed, pre-diabetes and especially type 2 diabetes should be very avoidable in any wealthy nation.

Unfortunately, the kind of diet that avoids it tends to rely on having at least 2/3 of the following:

• Money
• Time
• Knowledge

For example:

• if you have money and time, you can buy lots of fresh ingredients without undue worry, and take the time to carefully prep and cook them
• if you have money and knowledge you can have someone else shop and cook for you, or at least get meal kits delivered
• if you have time and knowledge, you can actually eat very healthily on a shoestring budget

If you have all three, then the world’s your oyster mushroom steak sautéed in extra virgin olive oil with garlic and cracked black pepper served on a bed of Swiss chard and lashed with Balsamic vinegar.

However, many Americans aren’t in the happy position of having at least 2/3, and a not-insignificant portion of the population don’t even have 1/3.

As an aside: there is a food scientist and chef who’s made it her mission to educate people about food that’s cheap, easy, and healthy:

Where Nutrition Meets Habits…

…but today is about Dr. Means, so, what does she suggest?

Know thyself thy blood sugars

Dr. Means argues (reasonably; this is well-backed up by general scientific consensus) that much of human disease stems from the diabetes and pre-diabetes that she mentioned above, and so we should focus on that most of all.

Our blood sugar levels being unhealthy will swiftly lead to other metabolic disorders:

Heart disease and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease are perhaps first in line, but waiting in the wings are inflammation-mediated autoimmune disorders, and even dementia, because neuroinflammation is at least as bad as inflammation anywhere else, arguably worse, and our brain can only be as healthy as the blood that feeds it and takes things that shouldn’t be there away.

Indeed,

❝Alzheimer’s dementia is now being called type 3 diabetes because it’s so related to blood sugar❞

~ Dr. Casey Means

…which sounds like a bold claim, but it’s true, even if the name is not “official” yet, it’s well-established in professional circulation:

❝We conclude that the term “type 3 diabetes” accurately reflects the fact that AD represents a form of diabetes that selectively involves the brain and has molecular and biochemical features that overlap with both T1DM and T2DM❞

~ Dr. Suzanne M. de la Monte & Dr. Jack Wands

Read in full: Alzheimer’s Disease Is Type 3 Diabetes–Evidence Reviewed ← this is from the very respectable Journal of Diabetes Science and Technology.

What to do about it

Dr. Means suggests we avoid the “glucose roller-coaster” that most Americans are on, meaning dramatic sugar spikes, or to put it in sciencese: high glycemic variability.

This leads to inflammation, oxidative stress, glycation (where sugar sticks to proteins and DNA), and metabolic dysfunction. Then there’s the flipside: reactive hypoglycemia, a result of a rapid drop in blood sugar after a spike, can cause anxiety, fatigue, weakness/trembling, brain fog, and of course cravings. And so the cycle repeats.

But it doesn’t have to!

By taking it upon ourselves to learn about what causes our blood sugars to rise suddenly or gently, we can manage our diet and other lifestyle factors accordingly.

And yes, it’s not just about diet, Dr. Means tells us. While added sugar and refined carbohydrates or indeed the main drivers of glycemic variability, our sleep, movement, stress management, and even toxin exposure play important parts too.

One way to do this, that Dr. Means recommends, is with a continuous glucose monitor:

Track Your Blood Sugars For Better Personalized Health

Another way is to just apply principles that work for almost everyone:

10 Ways To Balance Blood Sugars

Want to know more from Dr. Means?

You might like her book:

Good Energy – by Dr. Casey Means

…which goes into this in far more detail than we have room to today.

Enjoy!