Syndrome X

Great, did some pharmaceutical company just invent a new disease that we have to take a pill for?

Not really.

This is a disease of convenience.

Have you ever heard these statements:

“My cholesterol is above 200 and my doctor says I need statin drugs that I have to take for the rest of my life.”

“I don’t get it. I eat right, walk three times per week and don’t smoke. How come my cholesterol is so high, I’m still overweight and am tired all the time?”

Most people try to adhere to a diet too high in carbohydrates. We eat too much bread products, flour, sugar and hydrogenated fats. I know it seems unlikely, but read the labels of foods and you’ll see these things hidden in there.

Trans-fats, deep fried foods and most packaged foods will raise your LDL and lower your HDL. High glycemic index foods lower HDL. High insulin in your blood stimulates an enzyme in our body that produces cholesterol. So if your insulin is high your body will produce cholesterol.

Most of the drugs stop the production of the enzyme to produce cholesterol but they don’t lower the insulin. That’s hard to do because every time we eat, we have the opportunity to raise it or lower it within 30 minutes.

Our insulin levels rise even further when tissues, such as muscle, become resistant to insulin. Combine this with a diet of the wrong fats and lack of chromium, magnesium, and potassium and you’ve got a recipe for disaster. Then if the person doesn’t exercise, it further promotes insulin resistance. This is the disease named Syndrome X.

There is probably not going to be one drug or nutritional supplement that will correct all of this. That is the importance of a holistic approach to this problem. Attempting to alter your cholesterol in a short period of time for a problem that has developed over a long period of time is unlikely to work.

Here are some active steps that help with Syndrome X:

1. Never eat a food that is primarily carbohydrate, protein or fat. There should be a balance between the carbohydrate and protein with no trans-fats. The reason for this is to prevent a rapid increase in insulin.

2. If it’s been processed, eat less of it. Try for one day to eat only natural foods. Eat some nuts and tons of fruit for breakfast. Have cheese and grapes for snacks. Eat a big salad with raisins, spinach, lettuce, tomatoes, broccoli, and eggs. Use olive oil and vinegar for a dressing. Eat chicken and vegetables for dinner. Drink only water. Don’t buy anything that took a computer and a lot of work to formulate. See how you feel that day and start building from there. It takes planning at first but pick one day and try it.

3. Do some exercise every single day. Try some push ups against the kitchen counter, walk fast around the block. Spend your retirement money and refinance your house to buy a 15 pound bicycle. Build from there.

4. Take anti-inflammatory supplements as outlined in our book found in the waiting room.

Think of what would happen if there were no more conveniences anymore. Imagine if we had to go HUNT for our food. We’d probably end up eating lots of fruit that we find and vegetables that we could grow. We would have to kill wild animals to get meat. We would spend our entire day running around looking for stuff to eat and trying to out sprint another animal to kill it. Sounds like an awful existence but it would solve some of the problems we have with syndrome X.

The point is to become a little more like that to be healthy.