THE CONSEQUENCES
CONSEQUENCES ARE DIRECT RESULTS OF IMBALANCES IN YOUR FOUNDATIONS
CONSEQUENCES IN THE ENDOCRINE SYSTEM
Think of the endocrine system as your body’s messengers, affecting everything from sleep and metabolism to heart rate and digestion. This system is made of several organs called glands. These glands, located all over your body, create and secrete hormones. These hormones are the body’s chemical messengers, carrying instructions and information from one group of cells to another. These signals tell your body what to do and when. It’s a delicately balanced system, and many things affect these hormone levels, such as stress, illness, and nutrient intake. Because many of the endocrine glands work in harmony to produce hormones endocrine disorders are extremely common and include diabetes, thyroid disease, PCOS, and a host of other hormone-related disorders.
“But while many endocrine disorders are inherited or arise for unknown reasons, some may be related to modifiable lifestyle factors. You may be able to lower your risk of certain endocrine disorders, such as hypothyroidism, by:
Eating a balanced, healthy diet.
Living a healthy lifestyle, including regular physical activity.”1
FOUNDATIONAL INFLUENCE:
DIET
It goes without saying (though I’m going to say it), you are what you eat. If you want to function well, on all levels, feed your body the right foods. A healthy diet helps to ensure proper, long-term function of all your systems. Let’s look at the Endocrine System specifically and a few examples of how diet can affect it:
The good: Proteins and fats are the building blocks for hormones. Eat fish, quality meats, eggs, quinoa, beans, lentils, etc. Leafy greens also make your endocrine system happy and humming along, so enjoy that broccoli, spinach, kale, asparagus. As with all systems, the endocrine requires the correct amount of vitamins and minerals to function properly, so make sure your diet is abundant in fruits and vegetables.
The not so good: Processed foods can contain chemicals that are very similar to the body’s hormones; so similar that they replace the real hormones and the body that the body uptakes the chemical instead. This replacing of the real hormones can lead to a resistance of the body in intaking the real hormones properly. Simple sugars interfere with the body’s insulin performance and can lead to damage in the pancreas. Healthy fats are the building blocks for many hormones, but unhealthy fats can increase your risk of heart disease and cause impaired endocrine function.
“Probably the most popularized connection between nutrition and the functions of the endocrine system is that unhealthy dietary patterns are linked to obesity and the development of Type 2 diabetes… What is the causal relationship between overnutrition and Type 2 diabetes? The prevailing theory is that the overconsumption of high-fat and high-sugar foods causes changes in muscle, fat, and liver cells that leads to a diminished response from the pancreatic hormone insulin. These cells are called ‘insulin-resistant.’”3
BLOOD SUGAR
Insulin is a hormone produced by the Endocrine System. It is part of your body’s balancing of your blood sugar levels. You eat some food, your body releases insulin to shuttle the glucose from the food where it needs to go. Let’s say too much sugar/food was taken in, then the endocrine system has to produce more insulin to get rid of the glucose in your blood. So now your insulin is out of balance and since hormones communicate with each other, an imbalance in insulin levels leads to a disruption of every other hormone system in your body. When your insulin levels are not balanced properly, you will get symptoms of weight gain, difficulty losing weight, brain fog, sleep issues, hot flashes, low energy levels, etc.
Let Jamie Forward from the Observer paint you a picture of this:
“Your alarm goes off at 7:00 am. You roll out of bed, rush out the door, and head to work. You grab a muffin (sugar) and a coffee with milk and sugar (sugar) for breakfast. You’re starving by 10:00 am, so you grab a leftover bagel (sugar) in the office kitchen. At noon, you have a sandwich on white bread (sugar) for lunch. You have a date that evening where you have a few glasses of wine (sugar), pasta (sugar), and you can’t help but want dessert (sugar).
No wonder our society is addicted to sugar—it’s everywhere! It’s even in the seemingly less obvious places like yogurt, tomato sauce and “healthy” protein bars. To maintain healthiness, sustained energy, weight, cognitive health and hormone balance, blood sugar must be balanced throughout the day. But if you’re the example above, this is impossible to do. Your diet leaves you feeling frazzled, exhausted, and constantly hangry. Your hormones are in overdrive, and you are struggling to feel your best day in and day out.”2
CONSEQUENCES IN THE immune SYSTEM
The immune system has a vital role: it protects your body from harmful attacks, both external and internal, that can make you ill. If you’re immune system is happy, you won’t notice it running along in the background of your life. But if something causes it to stop functioning smoothly, for example, like feeding it too much sugar, the system breaks down and you cease being able to effectively fight the problem. If this continues to happen, you will start to notice, usually in small steps, perhaps building to a big attention getter like cancer. For example:
“If your sweet tooth has emerged with a vengeance during stay-at-home orders and quarantine, then listen up: according to nutrition studies and health experts, you might want to rethink your sugar habit. ‘Too much sugar in your system allows the bacteria or viruses to propagate much more because your initial innate system doesn't work as well. That's why diabetics, for example, have more infections,” Dr. Michael Roizen, MD and COO of the Cleveland Clinic told CNET.4
FOUNDATIONAL INFLUENCE:
DIGESTION
“Healthy digestion may be the most important Foundational factor in healthy immune function.”5
If your digestion is not working well, for example in low stomach acid (a common problem) and low pepsin production, many things go wrong, not the least of which is that you cannot break down nor disinfect the foods you are intaking. This will lead to your immune system working over-time to destroy the harmful microbes that can make it through and multiply. You may have heard of the recent buzzword “leaky gut”. That’s when these undigested food bits and microbes can inflame and thus damage the delicate mucosal layer of the intestines. This damage allows those food bits and microbes to “leak” into your bloodstream, where they do not belong, thereby prompting the immune system to begin an attack. How can you prevent this? One way it so keep your stomach acid at healthy levels. This can be facilitated many ways, starting with lowering stress before a meal, taking in B vitamins, water with electrolytes, chlorophyll, forms of licorice, and even digestive bitters.
This is just one example. Here’s another:
“Diets that are limited in variety and lower in nutrients, such as consisting primarily ofultra-processed foodsand lacking in minimally processed foods, can negatively affect a healthy immune system. It is also believed that a Western diet high in refined sugar and red meat and lowin fruits and vegetables can promote disturbances in healthy intestinal microorganisms, resulting in chronic inflammation of the gut, and associated suppressed immunity.”6
HYDRATION
As the ancient mariner cries, “water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink.” (Samuel Coleridge, 1797). A human can go without food for about three weeks, but, on average, can only last three to four days without water. What that doesn’t note is that in today’s time of pollution and chemicals being dumped into our water, of plastics in our bottles, the quality of our water matters almost as much. As a starting point, drink half your bodyweight (lbs) in ounces (ex: 140lbs = 70oz), and make it good quality filtered water.
Water is used by all systems. It keeps our blood flowing (blood is about 90% water), our mucous membranes moist, lubricates joints, gets rid of wastes and so much more. In this case, for the immune system:
“Hydration is a key element to maintaining a healthy immune system… Our immune system is highly dependent on the nutrients in our blood stream, and our blood stream is made mostly of water! If we don’t have enough water, we cannot properly transport nutrients to each organ system.”7
And:
“Dehydration weakens the body’s overall immune system and leads to chemical, nutritional, and pH imbalances, which can eventually cause sickness and premature aging. Dehydration can also affect your energy levels, as well as your ability to sleep, which can make you less likely to exercise, another trigger for a weakened immune system.”8
CONSEQUENCES IN THE cardiovascular SYSTEM
Think of the cardiovascular system as the blood highways and roads that do two very important things for you. One is to deliver nutrients and oxygen to all of the cells in your body. The other is to remove carbon dioxide and waste products from the cells, to then be eliminated from your body. Your heart is the pump that makes all this movement happen; and a healthy heart depends on a healthy body.
FOUNDATIONAL INFLUENCE:
BLOOD SUGAR
Together, the hormones insulin and glucagon work to balance your body’s blood sugar levels, thus keeping your energy level stable. Consider it like yin and yang: insulin tells your cells ‘hey, there’s sugar in the blood, time to take it in’, while 4-6 hours after insulin has done its work, glucagon tells your liver and muscles ‘hey, blood sugar levels are going low again’ time to release glucose (from stored glycogen) into the blood. Both of these require a properly functioning cardiovascular system. Without the blood moving around your body properly, your blood sugar cannot get regulated effectively. On the flip side, balanced blood sugar levels are critical to the functioning of the cardiovascular system. The level of sugar in your blood can affect the contraction of blood vessels, with potentially dangerous effects on the heart and blood pressure (University of Leicester, 2016)10. Balancing your blood sugar and maintaining a healthy cardiovascular system help each other out.
FATTY ACID
Did you know that fatty acids are your heart’s predominant source of energy? Around 50 years ago, scientists made the mistake of blaming fat as the root of our heart’s evils. People started cutting back and trading fats for more carbohydrates and other fake, trans fats. This has not proven to be the solution to our heart problems. Currently, science is coming around to show that in having replaced saturated fats with refined carbohydrates, we have actually raised the risk of heart disease.
“In fact, many foods that are low in fat and saturated fat, such as bagels, fat-free desserts, and low-fat processed turkey breast, are more harmful than foods that contain some saturated fat such as nuts and avocados” says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, dean of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University in Boston. "People are so fat-focused, they're missing the bigger picture. The toast is actually the worse part; it's high in sodium and usually made from highly processed, refined grains," says Dr. Mozaffarian. A better breakfast would be an egg cooked in extra-virgin olive oil with spinach and mushrooms, he says.9
Bottom line: eat a healthy, whole foods diet, with a variety of quality fats as found in nature.
CONSEQUENCES IN THE DETOXIFICATION SYSTEM
Detoxification is a trendy concept: master cleanse, juice cleanse, smoothie fast, etc. “To my knowledge, there aren’t any detox diets that are considered reputable by experts,” Jamie Baum, an associate professor of nutrition at the University of Arkansas tells Inverse. “Most people probably claim to feel better after detox diets because they’re actually just eating healthier and possibly exercising.”11
So what is detoxification, really? Detoxification, at base, is the way the body heals and repairs itself. It is an internal cleansing process that takes place continuously and naturally, all day, every day. Think of it like this:
“We may feel the need to detox our bodies to recover from all of the overindulgence. Fortunately for us, healthy bodies are incredibly efficient at detoxing on their own. Functions including sweating, urinating and moving the bowels, all rid the body of toxins. Toxins are by-products of food, air and water and we are exposed to them on a daily basis. Even when you are consuming a healthy diet, toxins are produced and must be eliminated from the body.”12
FOUNDATIONAL INFLUENCE:
DIGESTION
Like mom always said, it is important to digest your food. While that is true for many systems, it is especially true for detoxification. “If a person isn’t digesting, even the most perfect diet can clog the body’s detoxification pathways.” (J. Martin-Horst, detoxification lecture, April 2021). Think of the digestive system as one long tube that runs from mouth to anus, with a variety of processes performed en route. Each part of the tube has a role in consuming and eliminating everything you intake. The liver, one of the digestive organs in that tube, is vital in removing toxins. But if the liver does not receive the right nutrients it needs from what you ingest, its ability to detox will be impaired and toxins can start to build up. This takes us back to the importance of good nutrition and lifestyle choices.
“Signs such as bloating, flatulence, indigestion, heartburn, constipation and diarrhea can all indicate sub-optimal GITfunctioning and potential increased toxicity in the body. Fogginess of thinking, slight tremors, skin pallor and low energy, for example, are signs of toxicity that can often be resolved with good gut detoxification processes.”14
HYDRATION
Most Americans do not drink enough water throughout the day. Staying well hydrated is very important for detoxification, for many reasons. Being well-hydrated allows your kidneys and GI tract to properly get rid of toxins. In order to sweat out toxins, you need to be hydrated. To release toxins through our breath, the tissues in our lungs need to be moist to enable easy breathing. The lymph system, one of our main detoxification pathways, also requires adequate hydration to drain properly. The lymph fluid helps clear out any pathogens and waste materials. “Toxins accumulate in fatty tissues, especially the liver and kidneys. Plenty of water is needed to flood and flush these tissues. Once toxins are emulsified, water then helps transport the toxins through the body AND if properly hydrated they should flush right out of the body versus being taken back up by fatty tissues.”13
THE TAKE-AWAY
The above was a brief look into how everything in your body is inter-connected - each component influences a number of others. A balance in one, helps balance another. An imbalance in one, leads to an imbalance in another. One main key to a long healthy life is homeostasis – balance - your body wants to attain this, and stay in this. Without balance, you will start noticing the increasing effects of well, basically, falling apart.
CITATIONS
1. Healthgrades. (2020). Endocrine Disorder. Retrieved from https://www.healthgrades.com/right-care/endocrinology-and-metabolism/endocrine-disorders
2. Forward, Jamie. (2018). Sugar is Wreaking Havoc on Your Hormonal Health. Retrieved from https://observer.com/2018/02/sugar-is-wreaking-havoc-on-your-hormonal-health/
3. University of Hawai’I at Manoa Food Science and Human Nutrition Program. Human Nutrition [OER Textbook]. Retrieved from: http://pressbooks-dev.oer.hawaii.edu/humannutrition/chapter/the-endocrine-system/
4. Livingston, Mercey. (2020). Doctors Warn That Sugar Can Temporarily Weaken Your Immune System. Retrieved from: https://www.cnet.com/health/nutrition/sugar-can-lower-your-immune-system/
5. Nutritional Therapy Association (2020). Immune System Student Guide [PDF Document].
6. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Nutrition and Immunity. Retrieved from https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/nutritionsource/nutrition-and-immunity/
7. University of California, Irvine Integrative Health Institute. (2020). Hydration for Immune System. Retrieved from https://ssihi.uci.edu/tip/hydration-for-immune-system/
8. Shomon, Mary. (2020). Ways You’re Compromising Your Immune System. Retrieved from: https://www.cnet.com/health/nutrition/sugar-can-lower-your-immune-system/
9. Harvard Health Publishing. Harvard Medical School. For a Heart Healthy Diet, Don’t Fixate on Fat. Retrieved from: https://www.health.harvard.edu/heart-health/for-a-heart-healthy-diet-dont-fixate-on-fat
10. University of Leicester. “High Blood Sugar Levels Could Lead to Heart Attack Complications.” ScienceDaily, 5 January 2-16. Retrieved from: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/01/160105101902.htm
11. Sloat, Sarah. Inverse. (2020). “Detox Science: How to Boost the Body’s Natural Detoxification System.” Retrieved from: https://www.inverse.com/article/62083-how-to-detox-naturally
12. Thompson, Andrea. PennState Health. (2021). “The Body: A Detox Machine.” ScienceDaily, 5 January 2-16. Retrieved from: https://www.pennstatehealthpassion.org/the-body-a-detox-machine
13. Chiron Chiropractic (2021). “Hydration and Detoxification.” Retrieved from: https://chironchiropractic.org/blog-post/hydration-and-detoxification/
14. Mathrick, Sally (2019). WellBreing. “7 Unique Ways to Detox Your Digestive System.” Retrieved from: https://www.wellbeing.com.au/body/health/digestive-system-detox.html