Metabolic Health and Inflammation: The Relation

Metabolic health is a term used to characterise your level of health based on particular metabolic indicators. Many individuals mistakenly believe that being healthy pertains to one’s weight, yet metabolic health encompasses much more than the figure displayed on a scale or BMI chart.

Your unique metabolic health is shaped by your diet, metabolism, microbiota, exercise, sleep, stress, and mental health, as well as by your age, sex, and genes. A healthy metabolism is essential for lowering diabetes, heart disease, and stroke risk.

Inflammation is a necessary component of the body’s defensive system and aids healing. Still, occasionally the body misinterprets its cells or tissues as dangerous, leading to chronic inflammation that impacts your metabolic health. A recent study says that inflammation could be the underlying factor that determines your metabolic health. 

The HealthifyPro 2.0 offers continuous blood glucose monitoring called BIOS, which is essential in decoding your metabolic health. In addition, the flagship fitness plan unlocks personalised nutrition and fitness strategies catered to an individual’s needs.

The idea is to get a daily ‘metabolism’ score using real-time glucose levels and measuring more than 80 parameters. HealthifyMe’s coaches will work with you to keep metabolic health in check and on track.

Metabolic Health: An Introduction

Metabolic health, the absence of metabolic illnesses, is of the utmost importance to enable you to live a sustainable life. It enhances your quality of life and protects you from the risk of metabolic illnesses like type 2 diabetes, obesity, heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease.

Metabolic health is more than just keeping a healthy weight. Numerous other elements also play a role, including glucose, insulin, cholesterol, fatty acids, and inflammation. Find the healthy range for each component so you can use it as a benchmark to track how your body is functioning. You can accomplish this with the use of HealthifyPro’s technology. It enables you to stay in touch with your health and fitness coach and keep track of your health indicators. The HealthifyPro Smart Scale, a linked scale, helps determine your body weight.

You become aware of your height, weight, muscle mass, the proportion of body fat, and other health indicators. The metabolic panel analyses variables to show what nutrients are missing from your diet. Additionally, you could use a little patch-like gadget to sleep while monitoring your blood pressure and glucose levels. Understanding all of your health factors is essential for maintaining metabolic health.

What Does Unhealthy Metabolic Health Lead to?

According to research, unhealthy body weight is the primary indicator of poor metabolic health. It demonstrates that the amount of food consumed exceeds what the body can burn. Therefore, it can suggest that the culprit is abnormal dietary and lifestyle choices. Consequently, it leads to poor metabolic health.

Each one has a unique response to the meals they consume. While some people’s bodies struggle to prevent blood sugar and insulin spikes after eating, others have high blood glucose levels for hours or days afterwards. In addition, some people struggle with the responses of both blood sugar and blood fat. After eating, there may be mild fluctuations in blood sugar, insulin, and fat levels. These changes are typical and reflect how your body processes and reacts to food.

The occasional blood sugar surge or temporarily elevated blood fat level won’t do much immediate harm. But with time, these occurrences combine and result in an unfavourable metabolic response. It is referred to as dietary inflammation. It can harm your body, inducing chronic inflammation, oxidative stress, and modifications to the particles that carry your blood fat.

When your metabolic health is compromised, you are more likely to suffer inflammation that causes significant changes in your cholesterol levels, blood sugar, and insulin levels after eating. Also, your risk of metabolic syndrome and disorders increases with unwanted inflammation. 

The HealthifyMe Note

Your whole health depends on maintaining your metabolic health. Your metabolic health significantly influences your risk of developing metabolic disorders like heart disease, type 2 diabetes, stroke, renal disease, and liver disease. Many variables affect your metabolic health. Working with a healthcare professional to determine what is best for you can improve your metabolic and general health.

Understanding Inflammation

Everyone experiences inflammation, whether or not they are aware of it. Inflammation is a defence mechanism your immune system uses to free your body from infection, damage, or illness. It works to remove any toxic substances from your body, including metabolic or dietary toxins, bloodstream infections, surface skin injuries, and psychological stressors. The body always recovers with the aid of this natural mechanism. Without it, wounds and infections would probably injure you more because the body wouldn’t have its natural defence, and without inflammation, there are many things you wouldn’t be able to heal from. However, silent inflammation or chronic low-level inflammation results in years of inflammation. It leads to the onset of numerous diseases, including organ damage. 

Inflammation: The Impact

Inflammation comes in 2 kinds: acute and chronic.

Acute inflammation is localised and typically lasts just a short time. However, there is a dilation of blood vessels and an increase in blood flow when it occurs. As a result, white blood cells rush to the injured and subsequently inflamed area for healing.

On the other hand, chronic inflammation can have a longer-term negative impact on your entire body or more significant portions of it. As per a study, chronic inflammation can result from oxidative stress, which disrupts the equilibrium between the generation of reactive oxygen species (free radicals) and antioxidant defences. According to a study, oxidative stress-induced chronic inflammation can cause diabetes and cardiovascular disease, among other illnesses.

Inflammation and Metabolism: The Connection

Studies have shown that there are meaningful connections between metabolism and inflammation. For instance, the types of foods you eat, how much exercise you do, how much alcohol you drink, and whether or not you smoke are all lifestyle factors that affect how cells function. All these factors can contribute to chronic systemic inflammation. That could either contribute to inflammation’s persistence or affect how inflammation resolves itself. 

Metaflammation, also known as metabolic inflammation, is a condition in which your body has low-level, chronic inflammation. It is the molecular basis for the interplay between the metabolic and inflammatory systems. In most cases, your body uses inflammation as an essential part of the healing process. Your levels of inflammation drastically increase if you have an illness. However, these inflammatory levels decrease as the infection subsides. 

On the other hand, meta inflammation persists. It remains at a very low level in your body. This low-grade inflammation frequently results from some sort of metabolic disturbance. However, it still poses a danger of tissue damage even at low levels. Your body will age more quickly due to this chain of events, known as Inflammaging (Inflamm-ageing).

According to a study, uncontrolled inflammation is a significant factor in developing chronic illnesses like metabolic syndrome, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, diabetes, and heart disease.:

Metabolism refers to the 24/7 chemical reactions in your body that produce or consume energy to sustain life. It requires a careful balancing act between biochemicals that can react to a wide range of variables. Gut health, stress response, sleep quality, drug and medication history, and dietary choices are a few things you should consider. According to the study, a diet high in sweets and refined foods and a sedentary lifestyle causes meta inflammation. This kind of diet causes a blood sugar increase that could continue up to two hours after a meal.

It raises fasting blood sugar to the high range and might lead to further weight gain, particularly in the midsection. Since fat produces inflammatory molecules, this weight gain causes more meta inflammation. Therefore, if your body fat percentage rises, you subsequently experience inflammation brought on by fat that has accumulated in your midsection.

Discussing metabolic dysregulation and meta inflammation must take obesity into account. Along with inflammation, there is a severe danger of health issues developing in those who are obese. Obesity is almost like an epidemic in today’s culture, affecting all aspects of our society and resulting from chronic inflammation.

According to a study, inflammation from several sources can lead to insulin receptor resistance. Insulin resistance and further weight gain result from this. Meta Inflammation can also result from anything contributing to a disordered metabolism and weight gain. Similarly, meta inflammation impacts your entire body and lowers your metabolic rate. Again, being inactive causes weight gain, muscle loss, uneven insulin utilisation, and mood changes. In addition, some drugs disrupt the equilibrium of your gut flora and impair your ability to absorb nutrients. It can result in nutritional deficiencies that negatively affect your capacity to regulate your blood sugar levels, produce energy for your cells, and cope with stress.

The HealthifyMe Note

The immunological response of your body includes normal, natural inflammation. However, persistent or chronic inflammation might have negative consequences. It appears to be a sign of poor metabolic health. Acute inflammation can be a normal part of healing when you have a sore throat or even a little skin cut. Acute inflammation should go away in a few days. Make an appointment with your health coach if you notice any signs of chronic inflammation.

Dietary Approach to Inflammatory Metabolism 

According to a study, dietary modifications can control metabolic inflammation. Anti-inflammatory foods are a crucial preventative measure against metabolic dysfunction. In addition, natural antioxidants and polyphenols are abundant in fruits and vegetables, including blueberries, apples, and leafy greens. Nuts may improve cardiovascular health and lower the risk of diabetes and inflammation. Coffee can also provide anti-inflammatory benefits.

Additionally, studies have linked nuts to lowered inflammatory markers and a lower risk of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Coffee may also prevent inflammation because it contains polyphenols and other anti-inflammatory substances.

According to a study, eating a diet rich in fruits, vegetables, nuts, whole grains, seafood, and healthy oils like the Mediterranean diet can help reduce inflammation. In addition, reducing your intake of pro-inflammatory foods like red meat and trans-fat-rich foods like margarine, maize oil, deep-fried foods, and most processed foods can help reduce inflammation.

Methods For Controlling Metabolic Inflammation

Fatigue may be the first sign of chronic inflammation, and it may damage your arteries and internal organs as it worsens. It could eventually cause additional illnesses like Alzheimer’s and metabolic syndrome as it progresses. In addition to food, lifestyle modifications to maintain metabolic health are another strategy to manage inflammation.

Exercise

Twenty minutes of exercise is all it takes to start reducing inflammation. According to a study, a 20-minute exercise can promote Sympatho Adrenergic activation, suppressing monocytic cytokines. Regular exercise exerts anti-inflammatory effects while improving your metabolic health.

Sleep

Inflammation levels are associated with poor sleep quality, defined as not getting a decent night’s sleep or not receiving enough sleep. One study thoroughly analyses the global relationships between sleep disruption, extremes in sleep length, and inflammation. It shows that sleep disruption increases the chance of developing inflammatory diseases and all-cause mortality, presumably due to the disruption of metabolic health. Therefore, maintaining good sleeping habits can help you control inflammation.

Glucose Control

There are a variety of strategies to maintain blood glucose levels within a healthy range. The first step is becoming aware of your blood glucose levels. With glucose monitoring, you can gain valuable knowledge about your body’s oxidative stress and metabolism. It is no secret that eating meals with a low glycemic index lowers or maintains blood sugar levels. The Glycemic Index (GI) measures how quickly blood sugar levels rise in response to meal absorption or digestion by the body.

Stress

Stress causes the fight-or-flight response, which activates the sympathetic nervous system and releases cortisol. In addition, the immune system releases a swarm of chemicals known as pro-inflammatory cytokines during inflammation to fight off invaders. These cytokines get systemically elevated during times of stress. Therefore, controlling stress is crucial for reducing inflammation. Breathing exercises, practising mindfulness, eating right, and talking yourself through it can help manage stress.

Conclusion

When your body detects something foreign, such as an invasive microorganism, plant pollen, toxins, or psychological stressors, your immune system becomes inflammatory. Low-grade inflammation, also known as Metaflammation, is one of the factors contributing to insulin resistance. Metabolic inflammation, which primarily results from obesity, can be controlled. One can improve poor metabolism and inflammation with a healthy diet that contains good cholesterol, less sugar, and a mix of protein and anti-inflammatory foods. In turn, this lessens insulin resistance, enhancing several processes, including the effectiveness of the liver, blood sugar levels, and the efficiency with which cells use glucose or energy.

The dietary and lifestyle choices you make have an impact on your metabolism. For example, the food you eat, stress levels, and sleep quality all regulate inflammation and metabolic health. By controlling inflammatory parameters, you are actively improving your metabolic health.