If you read my previous post on the top three ways to prevent diabetes then you know eating healthy, exercising more, and losing weight (especially belly fat) are keys to preventing diabetes. But there are actually lesser-known actions that can help you slash your diabetes risk because they help you stick to the “top three” more effectively. In this post, I’ll describe how sleep and stress management can help prevent and control diabetes.
Manage Stress
Is it me or are most people pre-wired for high anxiety and the go-go-go mentality? Work pressures. The economy. Life drama. No matter what day it is, you can bet there’s something going on that is making your blood boil. You don’t see it, but it’s killing you.
Chronic stress is linked to six of the leading causes of death. The link between stress and diabetes is hormonal. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a stress hormone that increases with severe or prolonged stress. The main effect of the hormone is increased food intake, increased proportion of energy stored as fat, and decreased physical activity. Uh oh. If you read the post on preventing diabetes, you know that excess fat, especially in the belly area, significantly increases your diabetes risk.
Who here hasn’t had suffered from a food coma a time or two? Well, some history is not worth repeating. Take it from me, you can have fun, enjoy all the Thanksgiving harvest, and still fit into your jeans the next day. But how do you avoid this whole “food coma” thing? It starts with understanding what makes you feel that way. There’s a couple things going on and it’s hormonal.
Tryptophan, Serotoninand Melatonin
Tryptophan is an essential amino acid (protein building block the body cannot make). It is high in many protein rich foods, like turkey. Tryptophan helps build muscle like other amino acids, but it is also a specific precursor of serotonin. Nearly all serotonin is in the gut where it regulates GI movement, but about 20% is actually dispersed in the central nervous system (CNS) where it regulates mood, appetite, sleep, muscle contraction, and some cognitive functions including memory and learning. Some serotonin can become melatonin, which regulates your sleep/wake cycles.
There is more than one way to skin a cat. And that strange and grotesque cliche happens to apply to your weight loss approach. There are many diets that will get you to your goal weight, but not all of them will also have the added benefit of improving your mood.
According to a new study, only low-fat diets will help with long-term mood improvement.
“This study looked at one factor, and prior studies haven’t focused on psychological factors,” says Dr. Ewald Horvath, interim chairman of psychiatry at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. “This is a great study focusing on something very important.”
You won’t see me promoting quick fixes or fad diets anytime soon. But every once in awhile something comes along that seems so dangerous I have to call it out. That’s why I’m going to help reveal the truth behind the HCG diet.
What it is: HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) is a hormone produced during pregnancy by the cells that form the placenta. This hormone is detected in the blood around 11 days after conception; it is detected in the urine around 12-14 days after conception. While it is most commonly associated with pregnancy, it is present in both genders.
What it does in the body: HCG signals the hypothalamus (area of the brain that affects metabolism) to mobilize fat stores. In pregnancy, this helps the body bring nutrients into the placenta, fueling the fetus with the energy to grow.
In the seven seasons that Biggest Loser has been on the air, we’ve watched Jillian Michaels transform people’s lives in and out of the gym. She helps her contestants understand the emotional side of their weight loss journey so that their weight loss will be manageable and long-term.
Today she told us that she even uses her own team of doctors for her contestants, not the Biggest Loser doctors who merely tell Bob and Jillian if they’re allowed to do something with a contestant. It was in using her own endocrinologist that she discovered an issue with season four’s Julie Haddon. Jillian recalls in Julie’s first weigh-in, usually one of the most substantial on the show, she had only lost two pounds. She didn’t understand it, but her endocrinologist did, and pointed out that Julie had PCOS and insulin resistance, two bio-chemical disorders affecting her metabolism.
If you read my previous post on the top three ways to prevent diabetes then you know eating healthy, exercising more, and losing weight (especially belly fat) are keys to preventing diabetes. But there are actually lesser-known actions that can help you slash your diabetes risk because they help you stick to the “top three” more effectively. In this post, I’ll describe how sleep and stress management can help prevent and control diabetes.
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