Your Healthy and Active Brain

When we think of metabolism, we do not often think of the brain as being a metabolic organ, but that is exactly what it is. It consumes more energy than any other organ in your body. In fact, it consumes up to twenty percent more. This is why when you begin to have problems with your metabolism, you also sometimes begin to feel foggy or memory problems.

Your Brain Uses a Lot of Glucose

A Neuron in the Brain

If your metabolic system is not producing glucose properly then you are definitely going to find yourself feeling unwell physically. This is because even though the brain comprises only two percent of the entire human body, it needs to use fifteen percent of the energy that your heart produces as it pounds each beat, twenty percent of your total oxygen intake and twenty-five percent of all of the glucose that your body can produce.  That is a whopping one-quarter of all of your metabolized energy for use in just one part of the body.

Insomnia, clumsiness, loss of balance, nervousness and mood swings are symptoms to watch for if you expect disruptions in the way your body metabolizes glucose.

Understanding Organ Dominance and Weakness

Even though the brain is the dominant consumer of metabolic energy in your body there are other organs that come into play and may need more support in the form of fuel just simply because genetically or physiologically they are weaker.

For instance, you might have heard the phrases “that person was born with weak kidneys” or “born with a strong heart.” These are references to what is we know to be a genetic truth about every human being. For instance, if you were born with a genetic predisposition towards diabetes, it means that you might have a pancreas that is weaker than most. This in turn would necessitate the prescription of a diet that was friendlier towards supporting the long-term health of the pancreas over a long period of time. This means that it uses more energy than other organs and the more energy the weak organ uses, the more it is deprived from other areas in your body, especially the brain.

This is where the beauty of the HAP analysis of your metabolic type and blood work really come into play as diet and lifestyle changes that support the individual health of each of the dominant organs such as the liver, kidneys, lungs, heart, pancreas and the brain. This integrated approach toward treating the patient works as a form of prevention for developing serious diseases as well as a way to optimize the entire health profile of the individual.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

Healthy & Active Program Help Balance Blood Sugar

One goal that you could accomplish by embarking on the the Healthy and Active Program is the balancing of your blood sugar.  Note that this has been accomplished by many with Type 2 diabetes as that is a condition that is reversible and the program can help prevent an eventual dependence on insulin. If you have Type 1 diabetes your constitution in general can be greatly improved.

Insulin is a hormone that plays a key role in the regulation of blood glucose levels, which is important because every cell in your body relies on insulin to transport glucose to them from the body.   If the body has sufficient energy, then insulin signals the liver to take up glucose and store it as glycogen. The liver can store up to about 5% of its mass as glycogen.

When there is a malfunction of insulin production, the person develops what is called a metabolic disorder.  Eventually this results in either Type 1 or Type 2 Diabetes.

How Insulin Resistance Works

Understanding Type 1 Diabetes

In Type 1 Diabetes the body does not produce enough insulin to regulate blood glucose and the body uses other sources of energy to keep running, including ketones that are produced by the liver to compensate for the absence of glucose.  Type 1 diabetics must inject insulin to keep skyrocketing glucose in the blood that cannot be utilized by the body, from damaging their body’s systems.

Understanding Type 2 Diabetes

In Type 2 diabetes the body is experiencing a condition called insulin resistance, meaning that it is less able to take up glucose from the blood.  In the earlier stage of this disease the body responds by producing more insulin than it would normally need to eventually putting such a strain on the pancreas that it is no longer able to reproduce any insulin at all.

How HAP Can Help These Conditions

These diabetic  conditions or a predisposition towards them also have a lot of impact on how your body will store and use fat.  When the liver has talent up its capacity of glycogen, insulin signals fat cells to store the sugars as fat (as triglycerides) instead.

This is also why it is very important for you to avoid eating foods that could wear out your pancreas by forcing it to react to high levels of sugar in the blood.  One of the miraculous things about the Healthy and Active Program is that it has been known to reverse high blood sugar in Type 2 diabetics.  You will be prescribed a diet and lifestyle plan that is devised specifically for your particular situation.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.

Healthy And Active Program Helps Correct Hormonal Imbalance

Hormones are chemicals that occur naturally within the body. They act as messengers that simultaneously carry information through the bloodstream to organs and cells to make sure that every aspect of physical functioning is integrated and working smoothly together.

Each hormone has a specific message, designed to affect only certain parts of the body. These messages carry important information about everything from growth and development to sexual function to mood.

The Heirachy of Hormonal Balance

When Hormonal Messages Become Scrambled

During different stages of human life, different hormones are active. Some enable functions during growing phases, others are important during puberty, and still others are responsible for reproduction. There are hundreds of hormones that facilitate the healthy operating of the human body.

Hormones are vitally important to our health. However, they are also very delicate. They require a specific balance to be present in the body before they are effective but they can be affected by the slightest change in toxicity to our body. When hormones are out of balance or being negatively affected by our lifestyle, we will immediately notice the effects through a diminishment of functioning or as a change of mood. Signals do not reach the right place at the right time resulting in the overstimulation of certain functions or the shutting down of certain functions completely.

A good example of how hormones become out of balance is demonstrated by the example of what happens during menopause.  During a woman’s life, the ovaries are stimulated by two hormones that are produced by the brain FSH called (follicle stimulating hormones) and LH (luteinizing hormone). These hormones coordinate a woman’s menstrual cycle during her reproductive years. During menopause these two hormones are no longer produced causing symptoms of imbalance that can include bloating, bone loss, loss of fertility, hot flashes, irregular periods, loss of muscle mass, loss of scalp hair, loss of memory, mood swings, anxiety, night sweats, urinary incontinence, vaginal dryness and weight gain.

Imbalanced Hormones and Weight Gain

Our lifestyle and diet can have a direct impact on how well – or not – hormones are able to do their job. Many hormones control the processing and burning of food.  If our hormones become out of balance then it can become a challenge for the body to metabolize carbohydrates.  This can cause our metabolism to turn potatoes, grains, and other carbohydrates into fat instead of energy.  The result is weight gain and feeling unwell.  One of the points of embarking on a Healthy and Active Lifestyle is to rebalance your hormones so that your body is in good working order once again.

For more information about the Healthy & Active Program please visit our website at www.healthy-active.com. You may also call us in Toronto at (41) 440-2217 and ask for Adrienne Wright Bulow or Dr. Michael Rahman or email us at adrienne@healthy-active.com.