Health Stages

Throughout your life, unseen forces are shaping your health. As most people age, they usually progress through three distinct phases of health. To succeed in weight loss programs and diets, you absolutely must understand the three levels of health. Dieting, weight control for weight gain or weight loss are usually part of most everyones life. Sometimes weight loss is an indication of problems, including diabetes, or even insulin resistant, resistance or rejection.

Health Stage One - Pre-Inflammation, Non-Insulin Resistant Stage

You start life in Health Stage One. This is a non-inflammation, non-insulin resistant state. Your body is able to maintain a state of balance within your cells, called homeostasis. Your metabolism adjusts itself to maintain a steady weight and to fight diseases automatically. You look and feel good.

As you encounter infections and eat the wrong foods, you lose your ability to maintain a healthy balance. Infections could be similar to today's Bird Flu (H5N1) Asian Influenza, measles, mumps, pneumonia, the common cold, gum or tooth infections or a sinus problem. Inflammation increases each time you suffer one of these infections or eat high levels of sugars or "bad fats".

Each time you become inflamed, you struggle to get back to normal. But sometimes, you don't quite go all the way back. Your body "remembers" your infection and increases its "ready reserve" of water soluable proteins called technically, inflammatory cytokines, keeping your system on a knife-sharp edge of readiness. Unfortunately, while being constantly ready for infection helps you survive the next infection, it exerts terrible wear-and-tear on your body's delicate tissues and interferes with the smooth functioning of many metabolic systems.

For most of us, as we mature from childhood into early adulthood, we maintain vigorous levels of health. We look good, we feel good, and we are generally free of major diseases. However as we age, sometimes very early in our life, scientists now know that we begin to suffer from a silent, hidden disease. It is a single condition. One solitary state. It is now easy and inexpensive to test for in your doctor's office, but most doctors still do not do this test. This secret health condition steadily worsens until it effects every single organ and system in your body - your heart, brain, nervous system, circulatory system, your muscles, liver, kidneys, pancreas, testes or ovary glands, thyroid, and other systems. All are injured by this silent, deadly condition. It is called IRS - Insulin Resistant Syndrome and is it occurs, gradually, you move into Health Stage Two.

Health Stage Two involves a powerful chain reaction of mutually reinforcing metabolic processes. Insulin resistance starves our muscles, which react by sending messages that lower our resting energy expenditure to conserve our reserves and then, the insulin resistance makes us hungry in an effort to feed our starving muscles. Under these conditions, weight loss is almost impossible. We look "fat" to others, but our muscles think we're starving... at least chemically. Due to this process, grossly fat people are in fact starving. As a result of this starvation, we eat more sugars, simple starches and fats to add to our disease, while preventing or slowing weight loss inspite of your dieting efforts.

In 1988, Stanford University Professor and researcher Gerald Reaven, MD, announced the results of 20 years of research. He wrote a best selling book called Syndrome X: Overcoming the Silent Killer That Can Give You a Heart Attack - by Gerald Reaven, MD. In it, he noted that many patients seemed to suffer from several different diseases, all at the same time: High blood pressure (hypertension), high cholesterol and high triglycerides (dyslipidemia), high blood sugar (hyperinsulinemia), and heart disease (cardiovascular disease). At that time it was thought that all of these were different diseases. However, because so many people seemed to suffer from all or most of them simultaneously, he began to suspect that they were in fact the same basic, fundamental disease, or at least were caused by a common underlying condition or set of conditions. Since this underlying condition was at the time unknown, he called it "Syndrome X". Some people later began to call it "Metabolic Syndrome" or "Metabolic Syndrome X". Gradually, scientists began to understand that resistance to insulin was actually the single cause that united all of the metabolic conditions that had been described as Syndrome X. Only a few months ago, on October 17 of 2005, the American College of Endocrinology (ACE) and American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) announced their decision to change the official name of this underlying disease to The Insulin Resistance Syndrome.

Today, the Insulin Resistance Syndrome is being researched by many thousands of scientists all over the world. As of August 2006, over 28,200 scientific studies involving "insulin resistance" are reported by the United States PubMed.org research web pages. See this for yourself by clicking to do a search for insulin resistance at PubMed.org, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Scientists are still researching the exact relationships between insulin resistance and very low levels of inflammation. They understand now that in many if not most individuals, inflammation throughout the body begins to increase in the months and years of developing insulin resistance. In others, constant low level inflammation may exist without developing insulin resistance.

The causes of chronic low level inflammation seem to be related to an interplay of three factors.

* Inherited or genetic factors

* Infection challenges from bacteria and viruses, and the body's response

* Dietary influences and their effect on degrading thebody's ability to maintain an equilibrium or homeostasis.

Effect of Three Factors

We now know that when an individual suffers from a serious infection, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, measles, etc., they become inflamed. Increasing levels of inflammatory cytokines lead to increased levels of insulin resistance, and interrupt the normal digestive processes that utilize or burn glucose. When glucose metabolism is slowed, and as insulin levels remain high in the presence of high glucose levels, glucose is converted into fat storage. The person becomes overweight. In turn, the increased fat adipose tissue is highly active hormonally. It generates more of the TNF=alpha and other cytokines that increase systemic inflammation levels. This chain reaction continues to build - increasing inflammation leads to increased insulin resistance, which leads to increases in fat tissue, called adipose tissue. These cells generate high levels of inflammatory hormones. These hormones work to interrupt glucose metabolism, especially in the liver and muscles. That leads to increasing the number and size of fat cells, which increases the amount of inflammation even more, and on and on it goes... This is the reason many people have so much trouble losing weight and changing the course of life long degenerative health. (It is this chain reaction - infection-caused inflammation leading to insulin resistance, leading to weight gain, leading to inflammation and more weight gain, and more inflammation without end - that we need to focus on to reverse our disease progression. An understanding of the process is the first step, but only a first step.)The Insulin Resistance Syndrome continues to worsen as people get older, until they begin to show obvious signs of well known and deadly diseases. They develop obesity, cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, strokes, cancer, type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer's Disease, muscular sclerosis, and many more overt conditions. Their hidden, silent creeping disease has finally revealed itself. They are now in HealthStage Three.

Stage Three. Health Stage Three - Cardiovascular Disease, Diabetes, Hypertension, . . .

Health Stage Three is when our bodies start to be negatively affected by some bad medical conditions. Health Stage Three is full, frank, overt and usually resulting in the onset of deadly disease. It often reveals or presents itself to doctors as a heart attack, a stroke, diabetic coma, cancerous tumor, or other extremely dangerous event, sometimes a fatal event. Most people will be suffering from several of these conditions at the same time. Among these common diseases are:

• Acanthosis Nigricans
• Acne Vulgaris
• Allergies
• Asthma Alzheimer's Disease
• Atherosclerosis
• Bipolar Disorder

• Breast Cancer

• Cardiovascular Disease

• Cataracts

• Cervical Cancer

• Childhood Type-2 Diabetes

• Chronic Fatigue

• Colon & Rectal Cancer

• Cushing's Syndrome

• Dandruff

• Depression

• Diabetes Mellitus

• Dyslipidemia

• Fatty Liver Disease

• Graves Disease

• Heart Disease

• High LDL Cholesterol

• High Triglycerides

• Hirsutism

• Hypoglycemia

• Hypothyroidism

• Inflammation

• Kidney Disease

• Low HDL Cholesterol

• Lupus

• Neuropathy

• Neuritis

• Osteoporosis

• Pancreatic Cancer
• Parkinson Disease

• Polycystic Ovary Syndrome

• Prostate Cancer

• Rheumatoid Arthritis

• Scleroderma

• Seborrhea

• Strokes

• Varicose Veins

Proper Diet - Return to Health Stage One

The goal of any proper diet - weight loss program is to return your body gradually to Health Stage One.

One of our published hubs defines a weight loss program that is, in fact,a developing weight loss program. As we receive new information based on scientific research into IRS the diet rules, as simple as they are , will be revised. The current principles are simple, easy to understand rules for active, healthy living that you will use for the rest of your life. They will help you maintain an energetic, attractive, and disease free way of living that will add years to your life, reduce needless pain and suffering from dozens of modern degenerative diseases. It will add many years of joy filled work and play to your life and save most people a fortune in medical expenses they would otherwise spend to treat the symptoms of advancing diseases.

Our weight reduction and control program fights heart disease, diabetes, athsma, acne, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, skin cancer, multiple sclerosis, Altsheimer's disease, kidney disease, bowel diseases, polycistic ovary disease, breast and prostate cancers, fatty liver disease, depression and bipolar disorders, and many other age related diseases of modern civilization.

For most people this simple programcan help them avoid or improve their health and prevent disease without patented drugs and medicines. For some people who suffer from advanced states of these diseases, this program will work with the medical drugs and therapies they are already taking to improve their condition. In some cases, their doctors may find that drugs previously prescribed to treat symptoms of cancer, diabetes and hearth diseases may be no longer needed. In other cases, the doctor may reduce or change therapies to milder, more acceptable drugs regimes.

Due to the simple nature of the program you will lose weight if like about two thirds of us you are obese. If you are thin and frail, it will add muscle tone and mass to your arms and legs. It stops the cravings for sweets and fatty foods you have suffered from for years. You will rarely be hungry, and you won't have those urges for midnight snacks, or late afternoon candy bars. Your skin will glow with health. You will notice the lessening of blemishes, acne, dermatitis, seborrhea, dandruff and itching skin. The aches and pains of your joints will lessen and you'll walk with a bounce in your step like you did when you were young. You will think clearly, and you will have a bright, cheerful attitude - free of nervousness, worry and fretful, sleepless nights.

You will see that following the programs principles acts fast. In only 3 days you will notice the changes happening in your body. You will begin to lose fat and gain muscle mass. You will sleep better. You will think clearly and your mood will improve. Then as the days and weeks roll by, you will begin to see the symptoms of high blood pressure, high cholesterol, high insulin steadily disappear. You will become healthier and healthier. For many if not most people, you and your doctor will agree that you are becoming younger, rolling back the clock and improving any existing degenerative diseases.