Insulin Resistance

The plague in our society is undiagnosed, even unsuspected insulin resistance. You can't get fat, or get type two diabetes without it. There is a simple test anyone can do, you only need a tape measure. Measure your height, and waist. (cm or inches) Divide your waist by your height, and the result should be a number less than 0.50. This measure is quite sensitive, at 0.53, you are already overweight. At 5.55 you need to seriously consider corrective action. At 5.60 your doctor has been telling you for a long time that you are too heavy. There is serious risk for future CVD, stroke and diabetes. Even at 0.51, probably when you were 30, insulin resistance is already developing, and it builds and builds over the years. If weight is an issue for you, insulin resistance is the topic you need to discuss with your doctor.

Measuring your weight or calculating your BMI, are less reliable measures of your health.

70% of all deaths today, are from chronic diseases, many of which were virtually unknown 100 years ago. These are modern lifestyle diseases all caused in the first instance by our poor nutrition, and secondly by our failure to exercise. It's easy to do something about that. Some of us will. Target insulin resistance, not blood sugar. Refer to Dr Jason Fung for that detail.

(Note 2022:) The people who suffer most from Covid 19 are those with pre-existing health problems, most notably the diseases related to metabolic syndrome. Too often those problems like obesity and type II diabetes, have existed for many years. We now KNOW, that with lifestyle changes, people can lose weight and reverse their type II diabetes.

Mitochondria for Fat Oxidation

People don't understand where the energy of the body comes from. All of your cells have mitochondria that are continually converting glucose, fatty acids or ketones into ATP, the energy your cells use. (Krebs Cycle) You have less than 6 seconds supply of ATP in your body at any time, so this production process is continuous and under strict control.

Mitochondria are energy conversion units. They are inside every cell in your body.

If you exercise your cells produce more mitochondria to help with the process. The most effective exercise for that is easy to do and it's very quick. Exercise the muscle to failure with a suitable weight and a very slow continuous movement. It should take between 60 seconds and 90 seconds to reach failure (inability to continue) if the weight is right. Then don't do that again for 7 days, allow the muscle to recover fully. (See "Body by Science" by Dr Doug McGuff.)

There are five exercises to do. You don't need to change your clothes or even break a sweat. You don't need any equipment except a bar to hang from or pull-up on.

The five exercises: Horizontal push (moving the door frame, or the car), and horizontal pull (rowing).
Vertical pull (pull-up on a bar) and vertical push (push-ups).
Finally a squat either a stationary squat with your hands pressing up against a table, or a moving squat with your hands holding weights.

John Stephen Veitch