Low-Carbohydrate Diet & Recipe Books

The Smart Guide to the

Low-Carb Anti-Aging Diet

Slow Aging and Lose Weight With This Insulin-Smart Anti-Aging Lifestyle

By John Morgenthaler and Mia Simms
Copyright © 2000 Smart Publications - ISBN: 1-890572-00-4 -
$9.95 - 133 pages, softcover
[Buy this book]

Chapter 1

The Insulin-Aging Equation

One of the outstanding medical breakthroughs of the end of the last century is the discovery of insulin's role in health and disease. While many are familiar with the diabetic's relationship with insulin, few realize the critical role of this powerful hormone in their own body. It is true that insulin is essential to life; however, it tends to rise with age to levels that are too high, and, as we will see in this text, there are serious risk factors associated with elevated insulin which can hasten our demise.

The upside of this — and the topic of this book — is that insulin levels can be controlled through diet and lifestyle. It is now medically proven that optimally low levels of insulin are associated with good health and longevity. By learning how to control your insulin levels, you hold the keys to potentially slow or reverse the aging process, improve cardiovascular health, promote rapid fat loss, increase energy and mental clarity, and generate a feeling of euphoric wellness.

While the prospect of this extraordinary level of health is certainly intriguing, it is first necessary to review the role of insulin in the body.

The Role of Insulin in a Healthy Body

The amount of insulin released by the body is very simply determined by what you eat. For example, when a carbohydrate food is consumed, the process of digestion converts it into glucose, a simple sugar, which is absorbed into the blood stream. In response to the rise in blood sugar, insulin — sometimes referred to as the "sugar-processing hormone" — is produced by the islets of Langerhans within the pancreas. As insulin is released, it takes on several important functions, including the metabolism and storage of blood sugar.

Once released in response to glucose, insulin converts some of it into glycogen, a sugar-polymer that is stored in the liver and muscle tissues. Glycogen acts as storage fuel (like a spare gallon of gasoline for your car) and can be converted back into glucose quickly and easily on an as-needed basis. The remaining glucose circulates in the bloodstream to be used for energy. If excess glucose remains in circulation, high insulin levels will stimulate lipogenesis in adipose tissues (that means you're making more body fat.)

Insulin is also important for many other physiological processes. It controls appetite, acts as a growth hormone, regulates the liver's synthesis of cholesterol and signals the kidneys to retain fluid. This influential hormone also directs the flow of nutrients, such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids and fatty acids into the cells.

While these are all healthy, normal mechanisms that should occur, gerontologists are noticing an alarming increase in the breakdown of this metabolic process in our aging population.

Insulin and Major Diseases

Numerous studies, as well as historical and epidemiological evidence, show that consistently high levels of insulin are the primary cause of many of our nation's top killers, including several age-related disorders and diseases. For example, excess insulin is now considered a primary cause or risk factor of heart disease.1 It is also the culprit behind the other major risk factors of heart disease, including obesity, hypertension, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, diabetes and even certain types of cancer. 2, 3

Insulin Resistance — When Insulin Loses Its Potency

The last several decades of medical research have identified an age-related condition known as insulin resistance. It is marked by the gradual loss of sensitivity to insulin (the receptor sites for insulin, for whatever reason, become less responsive to insulin.) As the peripheral tissues (for example, the muscles) increasingly resist the effects of insulin, many important functions do not occur.4

With insulin resistance, this once powerful hormone is rendered impotent, and as a result, the entire body is negatively affected. The body responds by producing even more insulin, which results in unnaturally high levels of insulin, glucose and unabsorbed nutrients circulating in the blood stream. One of the first visible signs of the condition is weight gain, since high insulin levels hinder the conversion of glucose into energy and cause more of it to be stored as fat. Many refer to this as the "middle-age spread," not realizing that they are experiencing the early stages of insulin resistance.

Insulin Resistance and Syndrome X

As it turns out, insulin resistance is at the core of an entirely new medical disorder associated with both aging and poor lifestyle habits. Known as syndrome X (a term coined by a pioneer researcher, Dr. Gerald Reaven), it encompasses insulin resistance itself, along with the resulting imbalances, which often occur together in the same patient. A common but potentially deadly phenomenon, syndrome X is associated with a number of known risk factors for coronary heart disease: obesity, hypertension, elevated cholesterol and triglyceride levels, atherosclerosis, abnormal blood sugar and type II diabetes.5,6 In addition, it is also linked with depression and mental decline.7

You need not have all the symptoms described above to have high insulin levels. In fact, it is even possible to be thin and have high insulin. The best way to be certain is a blood test.

Some experts estimate that as many as 50 percent of Americans may unknowingly be suffering from syndrome X. It can remain effectively hidden for years, masquerading as symptoms of other conditions. These can include fatigue, poor mental concentration, abdominal (apple-shaped) obesity, edema (fluid retention), nerve damage and an intense craving for sweets.

Still, insulin resistance and syndrome X can go undetected for up to 40 years, or until serious complications begin to surface and the pancreas just can't keep up with the demand for insulin. Some people produce two, three or four times the normal amount of insulin; yet because the cells have lost their sensitivity to the hormone, they require even more of it to maintain normal glucose levels. When the pancreas can no longer keep up, hyperglycemia (high blood sugar) occurs, and the diagnosis of noninsulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM or type II) diabetes often follows.

Aging and Insulin Resistance

Insulin resistance is first and foremost caused by aging. Numerous studies, including a major trial conducted by the European Group for the Study of Insulin Resistance, have determined that progressive insulin resistance is both a cause and an effect of aging.8,9 Vladimir M. Dilman, M.D., co-author of The Neuroendocrine Theory of Aging, refers to insulin resistance as an "age-related pathology."10 In other words, it is linked with the aging process of the human body.

Interestingly, the occurrences of insulin resistance and syndrome X are not exclusive to humans, and some have theorized it as a sort of "pre-programmed death." One researcher found that elevated insulin, along with increased glucose, cholesterol and triglyceride levels, obesity and heart disease are not only found in aging humans, but throughout a wide variety of animal species as well.11,12 (Table 1-1)

People are often said to have died of "old age." Upon closer examination, the cause is often found to be an insulin-related problem, usually a heart attack or stroke. These conditions are so common today that to many it seems normal to develop them. With age as the primary cause of insulin resistance, this may be so; however, our modern industrialized diet does much to elicit the early onset of syndrome X.13

Western Lifestyle Accelerates Syndrome X

While aging is the most common cause of syndrome X, our Western lifestyle does much to accelerate its progression. Insulin resistance is hastened by a high-carbohydrate diet, and many younger people are unknowingly speeding up their own aging process by consuming excessive amounts of carbohydrates. (This applies to sugar and refined, as well as complex, carbohydrates.)14 Diets based on carbohydrates can increase the risk of premature death, simply by increasing blood sugar levels and triggering the release of excess insulin.15

The human body may be designed to run on glucose as its principle fuel, but it was never meant to deal with a diet in which most of the calories are from carbohydrates as most people today consume. Other factors that contribute to syndrome X include overeating, mineral deficiencies, consumption of processed and refined foods, high alcohol intake, smoking and lack of physical exercise.16,17,18,19 (Table 1-2)

Obesity and Insulin — Why the Fat Grow Fatter

Despite the national obsession with weight control, as a nation we are fatter today than ever. More than a third of American adults is obese, yet the major cause of obesity, insulin resistance, remains largely overlooked by the medical community. Thus, it remains an unsolved mystery to those suffering from it. What is thought to be compulsivity or a behavioral problem is really an insulin predicament. That's because high insulin levels prevent fat loss.20

Lipogenesis and the Randle Effect — A Vicious Cycle

When high insulin levels prevail, lipogenesis (fat production and storage) is stimulated. To compound the problem, there is evidence that high insulin levels trigger the hypothalamus (the "master gland") to send out hunger signals. As a result, the insulin resistant person not only feels hungry more often, but produces and deposits fat far more readily than do healthy individuals.21

The dilemma can be exacerbated by what is known as the Randle effect: the competition between glucose and fatty acid utilization. Dilman describes it as follows: "While fats burn in the flame of carbohydrates, carbohydrates do not burn in the flame of fats."

According to Dilman, when fats and carbs are consumed together, the fats get burned as fuel, while the carbohydrates convert to glucose, and glucose converts to fat! Thus the obese, insulin-resistant person is often caught in an endless cycle of hunger, carbohydrate cravings, excessive food consumption, followed by the inevitable increase in blood sugar, insulin levels and body fat deposits. And the vicious cycle begins once again.22

All that increased insulin leads to increases in body fat, cholesterol, heart disease and other problems which we have described. It is a strange irony that dietary fat is usually blamed for all these things which are actually caused by the carbohydrate intake. A key point to remember, however, is that the carbohydrate intake is especially likely to cause these problems when it is consumed with dietary fat.

Obesity Begins in Childhood

Until recently, insulin resistance was thought to cause obesity only in adults, since it is considered an age-related condition. A 1998 evaluation of over 2,000 Finnish men led to the finding that insulin resistance can lead to obesity beginning in early childhood and middle age. The researchers also noted that each 5 percent weight increase, at age 20, over the average for that age, was associated with a nearly 200 percent greater risk of full-blown syndrome X by middle age.23

The Obesity-Osteoarthritis-Insulin Link

Obesity is often associated with osteoarthritis, a painful and often debilitating condition of the joints and underlying bone. Apparently, high insulin levels may contribute to both conditions. A recent Italian study of 48 overweight patients revealed that insulin levels were significantly higher in the obese patients who suffered osteoarthritis. Based on this and other studies, insulin resistance is now suspected as a main factor in the development of osteoarthritis in the obese.24,25

Insulin as Predictor of Heart Disease

Coronary heart disease is the major American epidemic of the past century, and remains the leading killer of adults in the United States. The American Heart Association estimates that one American suffers a heart attack about every 20 seconds, and every minute one dies as a result. This adds up to a 1.5 million heart attacks and nearly half a million deaths every year.26 Over the past decade, several important studies have confirmed insulin resistance as a powerful predictor of this major killer.27

The Finnish Helsinki Policeman study was among the first epidemiological studies demonstrating an association between high insulin levels and the risk of coronary heart disease (CHD). The trial followed 970 men between the ages of 34 to 64 years who were initially free of CHD, other cardiovascular disease or diabetes. During the 22-year follow-up, 164 men experienced a major cardiovascular event (fatal or nonfatal heart attack), which corresponded directly with the highest insulin levels.28

The Paris Prospective Study, which followed 7,152 men for an average of 63 months, also found a direct correlation between elevated insulin and coronary heart disease. The relationship was even more pronounced in those who were obese.29 Another study, in The New England Journal of Medicine, showed that people with normal glucose tolerance but higher insulin levels were at a greater risk for coronary artery disease when compared with a group of healthy people.30 Many, many more trials continue to demonstrate this link between insulin resistance and cardiovascular risk factors, including atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, elevated cholesterol and triglycerides, and hypertension.31,32,33

Breaking News

Breathing difficulty, a common yet mysterious complication of cardiovascular disease, had researchers mystified for years. The 1998 Normative Aging Study seems to have unraveled the cause: the effects of insulin resistance on lung tissues.34

End Stage Syndrome X — Diabetes

Non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM or type II diabetes) afflicts over 135 million people worldwide. It is the seventh leading cause of death in the United States — about every three minutes an American dies of the disease. The number of Americans with type II diabetes has tripled in the last 15 years, and it accounts for over 90 percent of all diabetic cases.35

Reactive hypoglycemia, hyperglycemia (pre-diabetes), and type II diabetes may all be different stages of the same condition: insulin resistance. Largely the result of diet and lifestyle, NIDDM has also been called advanced, extreme or end stage insulin resistance, and scientists are increasingly classifying the condition as early-onset or premature aging. Ward Dean, M.D., co-author of the Neuroendocrine Theory of Aging, states that "glucose tolerance gradually declines with age and by age 70 almost everyone develops some level of diabetes."

The pre-type II diabetic often produces too much insulin, which is still not enough to allow glucose into the peripheral cells. The resulting elevated glucose acts like a poison that penetrates non-insulin-dependent tissues (the lenses of the eye, nerves and arteries), causing a damaging trail of biological breakdowns. Eventually this leads to blindness, nerve damage, poor circulation, arterial damage, kidney failure, gangrene, limb amputations and ultimately a premature death.36

Insulin Compromises Immunity and Increases Cancer Risk

As a growth hormone, insulin is known to cause cellular division and growth. Recent studies and epidemiological evidence suggest a correlation between high insulin levels, compromised immune function and the incidence of cancer. One Danish study showed that high insulin levels were strongly linked with a notable decrease in the numbers of natural killer (NK) cells, lymphocytes, and monocytes, in young men.37

Professor Vladimir Dilman, M.D., coined the term cancerophilia to describe the increased risk of cancer associated with insulin resistance (pre-diabetes), hypothalamic insensitivity and aging. Now, medical researchers are attributing long periods of elevated insulin levels to the development of certain types of cancer, including cancers of the colon, liver, pancreas, breast and endometrium. One recent trial, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, involved 5,849 participants, 102 of whom were diagnosed with colorectal cancer. The researchers linked the incidence of this type of cancer with high insulin and glucose levels. In addition, abdominal obesity, a visible sign of insulin resistance, was also established as a risk factor of colorectal cancer. Another study showed that high insulin levels play a potential role in the growth and development of endometrial cancer.38,39

Aging Cannot Be Helped, but Diet Can

Insulin resistance increases with age.40 Although our chronological clock cannot be turned back, our biological clock can be, at least to some degree, and is strongly influenced by what we eat. In other words, food can work for us or against us. This is actually very good news: It means that, for the most part, our life is in our hands and we can choose health and longevity. Sadly, however, most Westerners continue eating foods that do just the opposite.

Research has shown that one of the most powerful anti-aging approaches is one that controls elevated insulin levels with lifestyle modifications including the low-carb diet, regular exercise and a nutritional supplement programl.41 Before we reveal the total solution to controlling insulin and aging, it is helpful to take a closer look at the most important controllable factor leading to insulin resistance: our Western diet.

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