What do pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, fatty liver disease, and obesity have in common?
These are all chronic diseases that start years before the diagnosis is made on a lab test, an imaging test, or by physical exam. They even begin years before symptoms are even felt by the person. And they all involve faulty metabolic processes, which is known as metabolic dysfunction. To try to explain this complicated process in more straight-forward terms, the hormone signals coming from one organ that usually assist other organs in performing some of their duties have broken down at some point in the usual stream of communication. And when there is a disruption in the communication, cells and tissues start to send out signals of distress in the form of inflammatory chemicals or other molecules. If this chronic inflammation is not addressed, it can lead to multiple health conditions, one being insulin resistance, which is at the root of pre-diabetes, type 2 diabetes, and fatty liver disease. All of these metabolic conditions, including obesity, require important attention and focus to nutrition, exercise, stress management, sleep, and yes, even medications, when necessary.
But here is the good news. Realizing that waiting for an abnormal lab value means that we then have given disease a head start, we can be proactive in our lifestyle choices to prevent the above scenario from becoming a reality. Flexing the lifestyle medicine approach to health as much as possible can help keep the number of medical conditions, medicines, and doses of medicines to a minimum.
The key is to intervene as soon as possible - which even means BEFORE the diagnosis is made. HOW?!
By doing something NOW to make sure you are making meaningful, effective, and safe changes in nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management.
With nutrition - make sure you are eating a variety of real foods (meaning avoiding ultra-processed foods) that are high in fiber and from lean protein sources. Listen to hunger cues and give your stomach time to communicate with your mind to let it know when it is full. Really ramp down consuming foods that are notorious for having added sugars ( juices! sodas!), added fats (chips! fried foods!), and added salts (dressings and certain canned foods).
With exercise - every little bit matters - like 2 minutes of mountain climbers, or 30 jumping jacks throughout the day, or holding a plank for 30 seconds, doing calf raises while waiting in a line, or even lunging down the hallway at work - they all matter and have tremendous positive health impacts! And by taking these opportunities throughout the day to move your body, this will help condition you to seek out longer stretches of time and challenging exercises, to really promote cardiorespiratory fitness and skeletal muscle strength, both really important for cardiometabolic health.
Sleep - shut off screens that emit blue light at least an hour before sleep to get that melatonin secretion going! Melatonin is the important hormone secreted by the pineal gland. Blue light from various technologies is a potent suppressor of melatonin. This means that falling asleep is more difficult as well as staying asleep. Other bedtime habits that help promote sleep onset include getting exposure to natural light outdoors in the early afternoon, having some warm non-caffeinated tea in the evening, and avoiding large meals two hours prior to bedtime.
Stress management - recognize behaviors that may actually be counterproductive for health, such as stress eating or even self-medicating with alcohol. Instead, try closing your eyes and trying progressive muscle relaxation or deep breathing exercises. Finding a meditation practice that you can work into your daily routine is a very effective and healthy way to help manage stress as well.
You have way more control over your health than is often discussed at the time of medical visits. Therefore, let the decisions you make in each of the domains above be intentional to adopt healthy habits. This makes a big impact on preventing disease and what better way to feel empowered than to know that you have the ability to really steer the course of your health. So why not bet on yourself and intervene now!
