Today I want to talk about metabolism. And I think it’s everyone’s goal to optimize their metabolism. And I hope it is because it’s critical. An optimal metabolism will decrease your chances of ever developing any type of disease process. It’s a complex process that involves us utilizing energy from our food and our environment. But an optimal metabolism doesn’t just relate to weight and fat burning. It relates to stabilized energy, mental clarity, awesome skin, decreased wrinkles, and optimal immune system.

Laying down the foundations

So when a patient comes into Root Cause Medical Clinic and has a goal for weight loss or improving their metabolism, I help them understand that yes, it is really important for us to lay the foundations of the right nutrition plan and the right exercise regimen, but it’s not just “calorie in, calorie out” and more movement.

It’s helping someone understand that there’s multiple why’s behind a dysfunction metabolism.

We help them understand that a body that is overstressed, whatever this may be from, but a body that thinks it’s chronically running from a bear is not going to be able to have optimal metabolism. It’s not going to be able to lose weight. A body that’s running from a bear actually thinks “famine”, and so we’re not going to be able to have a good metabolism in that state.

Hormones & Metabolism

And then coming with stress, we think of that HPA hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal access. We think about hormones. And so we need to look at is there a beautiful balance going on with hormones? Because this obviously plays into metabolism and with hormones, often we just think of maybe thyroid or sex adrenals in there, but also these other hormones like hunger hormones.

And particularly I want to talk about glucose insulin being a hormone unbalanced if glucose is our main form of energy, and many things can bring disruption to this. And being on a glucose rollercoaster is one of the worst things that we can do for our metabolic health. And so we help you understand all of those things that play into glucose that can affect your glucose stability and use.

Infections & gut health

And then talking about infections, whether it be systemic infections or whether it be infections in someone’s gut, any functional medicine practitioner that you see is going to focus on gut health. It’s really important to have optimal gut health to have an optimal microbiome. And so there’s a lot of research on if there’s dysbiosis imbalance in that microbiome, in those microbes, we know that specific imbalances can actually lead our body to extract more calories from our food.

So we got to look at that and we have to understand: is there optimal microbiome imbalance and gut health going on? Of course, if you’re not digesting your foods well, if there’s mal-digestion or absorption issues, that’s going to lead towards you not being able to utilize the nutrients you’re taking in. That leads towards cellular dysfunction. It leads towards energy usage. So that’s obviously important.

Toxins & Metabolism

The last thing I want to talk about, that could be a potential why — and all of these can be in tandem to one another and or it could be one or the other that’s really placing burden on the body — but it is toxins. We’re submitted to toxins every day of our life, whether it’s in our air or whether it is in the food we’re eating with the pesticides and herbicides or heavy metals or mold. There’s so many toxins this day and age, and a body that’s overburdened with toxins and maybe has some issues with detoxifying, that’s going to lead towards a compromised metabolic health.

So, we at Root Cause Medical Clinic, know where to look. We can help you find your whys and the things beyond just nutrition and exercise that impact your metabolism. And so that is why I love working with individuals to optimize their metabolism because it leads to optimal health. And it’s really exciting for people to start understanding that you can optimize yourself, but we have to figure out the whys, and that’s what we do.

Additional resources

Research paper on sleep, hormones and metabolism
Research paper on hypothalamus, hormones, and hunger