Performance Quest Fitness & Athletics: Things You Should Know About Chuck Norris...And Type II Diabetes

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 11TH, 2011

Open Class 5:00pm

NOTE: Make sure to check back Monday to see which 2 hard-working members among our family of Performance Quest athletes recently signed their NCAA Division I national letters of intent this past Wednesday!

ENDOCRINOLOGY

You Are Your Hormones

TYPE II DIABETES

Picking up where we left off and referring back to the October 27th post, ENDOCRINOLOGY CONTINUED AND A QUICK START GUIDE FOR YOU, we are lead straight into Type II Diabetes (diabetes mellitus type II). Defined as hyperinsulinemia/insulin resistance Type II diabetics age 3 times faster than the average population!

If diagnosed with Type II Diabetes doctors give you one of two options:

Your first option is to be referred to a dietician whom prescribes you a 60% carbohydrate diet, laden with grains, cereals, wheat, pasta, etc.

Your second option is to take prescription sulfonylurea drugs. Sulfonylurea drugs RELEASE MORE INSULIN!

In fact, both options release more insulin. Both options are like prescribing a tanning bed to a sunburn victim! Think about it...

Sun = Sunburn = Skin Disease
Carbohydrates = Increased Insulin = Disease

So, if the majority of the medical community treating this disease have it so utterly wrong, what is the obvious solution?

Remember, glucagon is the counter hormone to insulin and is released in response to protein and hunger. Glucagon acts to normalize energy levels as its realease normalizes/improves insulin sensitivity and also releases fatty acids from storage and some glucose from the liver.

In other words glucagon buffers insulin. This is important because increased insulin turns off the ability to use fat for energy and will result in inefficient fat loss as well as decreased energy.

The intake of sources of foods that release glucagon are important in combating excessive insuline response. "3rd world proteins" such as rice, beans, corn, etc. that are the staples of vegetarian diets are EXTREMELY poor sources of protein for this as these sources contain incomplete proteins meaning their amino acid profile is deficient. The protein sources that you bite into need to spike the amino acid content of blood. This is done by consuming something that, at one point, contained both a Face and a Soul!

Huh? You say.

That means ANIMALS folks. I guess it would be more correct to say animal meat and eggs (and technically marrow and organ meats as well but I'll spare you on this since virtually no one eats these things anymore and they are not the easiest items to find in your local grocery store).

The insulin/glucagon axis is how we manage evergy both long-term and short-term. The interplay between the two will determine muscle mass, fat loss, fat gain, etc.

A visibly measurable application to the importance of this axis is that people who have a high carbohydrate, insulin-spiking meal are starving in 6 hours and can't make stress-based, pressured decisions. Inversely, people who eat a good protein, glucagon-promoting, dopamine-releasing meal might be hungry after 6 hours but can still function at a high quality and make those decisions. This is obviously going to directly effect your life but think about the indirect implications of what this means. This could be what determines a life and death performance by a public service official. Ask yourself...knowing what you know now, would you rather the firefighter, paramedic, or police officer on call to your emergency eat a bowl of oatmeal and bread hours before dispatch or a chicken breast, vegetables and almonds?