• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Dr. Rob D'Aquila

NYC Chiropractor & Applied Kinesiologist

Header Right

  • Email
  • Phone
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Start Here
  • About Me
  • Professional Applied Kinesiology
  • Health Articles
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • search
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy
  • Start Here
  • About Me
  • Professional Applied Kinesiology
  • Health Articles
  • Testimonials
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • search
nutrition

Blood sugar regulation

You are here: Home / Common Conditions / Blood sugar regulation
FacebookTweet

I talk about blood sugar metabolism being so important to health and wellness that I figured I should start writing articles about it. It’s such an enormous topic and impacts health in so many ways…. Because of this, I thought we should start with the basic physiological mechanisms of blood sugar metabolism. Really basic, it’s not rocket science.

The body has built-in mechanisms designed to keep blood sugar levels in a normal range. And I’m not speaking of the ranges reported on your blood test. They are way too wide. I’m speaking generally, and that’s all that it’s important for now. Again, blood sugar needs to be in a certain stable range because it can be quite damaging otherwise, for a number of reasons.

Let’s now assume that your blood sugar level is normal (in the moment). BUT, you have an underlying problem with regulating sugar. Then you decide to eat sugars (pies, cakes, cookies, candies, ice cream, soda, doughnuts, brownies, etc.) and starches (bread, pasta, rice, and potatoes). Here is what happens. Your blood sugar “spikes” to a level deemed too high for what the body considers safe. Then, insulin, a hormone from the pancreas, gets released in order to pull the excess sugar out of the blood and into the cells. The problem is that your blood sugar was so high (from eating those foods), that your pancreas releases an excess amount of insulin. This results in the blood sugar going too low.

Next, as the body senses low blood sugar levels, it decides it needs to raise them. This is done through the release of stress hormones; namely cortisol and adrenaline. Now the blood sugar usually spikes again because the sugar levels went so low – and the body produced too many stress hormones to raise the blood sugar.

Do you see the peaks and valleys here? Blood sugar goes too high by eating sugars and starches. Next, insulin gets released in large amounts (because of the very high sugar levels), resulting in an excessive drop of blood sugar, and ultimately resulting in sugar levels being lower than normal. Then, the stress hormones “save the day” by surging, in order to raise the blood sugar levels. Then the blood sugar is too high (because of the unnatural surge) and excessive insulin release then comes along again and the sugar levels go too low; then excessive stress hormones get released; and sugar goes back up and too high; and so on with this vicious cycle of highs and lows in blood sugar.

At some point these mechanisms get “burned out” and result in insulin resistance. This means the cells don’t respond well to insulin’s message to take the sugar out of the blood. If this condition does not get under control, the result may eventually be type 2 diabetes.

The other main result is adrenal stress syndrome. When the stress glands that produce cortisol and adrenaline to raise the blood sugar, become “burned out”.

Signs and symptoms will certainly vary between individuals. Here are the most common I see: weight gain, insomnia (trouble falling and/or staying asleep), anxiety and panic attacks, irritability, yeast infections, frequent infections (bacterial, viral, etc.), fatigue (esp. late-afternoon), mood swings, depression, headaches, inability to heal from injuries, inflammation, high cholesterol and/or triglycerides, high or low blood pressure, etc., etc., etc….

So now you realize that eating sugars and starches can cause blood sugar instability. These foods can certainly be eaten IN MODERATION if you don’t have a blood sugar metabolism disorder. But please note that you do not need to be labeled “diabetic”, “hypoglycemic”, or “hyperglycemic” in order to actually have problems with blood sugar metabolism. The reason being – blood tests will show normal blood sugar levels until you are you are “far gone”. If a problem shows up on a blood test, there is a serious problem. However, many of your symptoms may be caused by faulty sugar metabolism and go unnoticed, because the tests look normal.

Remember that the body goes to great extents to keep blood sugar in normal range. So measuring blood sugar alone often misses the problem. A better way to check would be measuring fasting insulin levels as well. Usually, they’ll be high working to keep the sugar normal (or low). The problem is doctors don’t typically order fasting insulin tests. In my experience, patients need to have obvious, debilitating, blood sugar symptoms before this is ordered by their doctors.

Why isn’t this done? I truly don’t know. One thought is that some doctors look at the body as if: insomnia is a sleeping pill deficiency; anxiety is an anti-anxiety drug deficiency; yeast infections are an anti-fungal drug deficiency; high cholesterol and blood pressure is a deficiency in drugs to lower those; etc., etc., etc….

Shoot for a (12-hour) fasting blood sugar level of 80-90. The closer to 80 the better. And put the sugars and starches aside; except when celebrating birthdays, holidays, etc..

I’ll discuss the complications mentioned in detail, in other articles.

Dr. Robert D’Aquila – NYC Chiropractor – Applied Kinesiology

Category: Common Conditions, FoodTag: blood tests, chronic fatigue syndrome, sugar, symptoms

Email Subscription

Subscribe to receive email notifications of new posts and updates

Previous Post: « Applied kinesiology, chiropractic, and “flat feet”
Next Post: Insulin Resistance »

Reader Interactions

Trackbacks

  1. Insulin Resistance « Dr. Rob D'Aquila says:
    September 24, 2009 at 11:41 pm

    […] 24, 2009 by Dr. Rob D'Aquila Now that the basics of blood sugar regulation are out of the way, I want to speak of one common physiological result of it. Now I want to get […]

    Reply
  2. Natural ways to help with insomnia « Dr. Rob D'Aquila says:
    October 15, 2009 at 12:43 am

    […] and epinephrine (or adrenaline). The question is “Why”? If you recall my article on blood sugar regulation, you may remember that these stress hormones rise when blood sugar falls. The reason for this is […]

    Reply
  3. What should I eat for breakfast? « Dr. Rob D'Aquila says:
    November 16, 2009 at 12:06 am

    […] Before I discuss healthy breakfast choices, let’s first take a look at what’s NOT healthy. Typical breakfast foods that are not healthy include: toast, cereals, bagels, pancakes, muffins, croissants, waffles, french toast, scones, etc.. Obviously these are all starchy, processed grain-based foods. These will undoubtedly cause your blood sugar to become imbalanced, especially if not combined with protein. Starches and proteins do not combine well for digestive purposes; however added protein would at least help to mitigate the effects these foods have on blood sugar. If you are not familiar with how these foods impact sugar and their ultimate effects on your health (or disease), please refer to my article titled “Blood sugar regulation“. […]

    Reply
  4. Juice cleanses « Dr. Rob D'Aquila says:
    November 13, 2010 at 5:29 pm

    […] and resultant spikes in insulin and stress hormones. See my articles on insulin resistance and blood sugar regulation to get more specific information on this. Additionally, without eating protein, your body will […]

    Reply
  5. What’s the deal with grains? | Dr. Rob D'Aquila says:
    September 3, 2014 at 10:16 am

    […] main concern with grains is that they are primarily made up of carbohydrates and can cause blood sugar and insulin spikes which are known to be detrimental to everyone’s health (the “spikes” that is). These blood […]

    Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Primary Sidebar

Email Subscription

Subscribe to receive email notifications of new posts and updates

Office Information

Dr. Rob D’Aquila 3

Dr. Rob D’Aquila
850 7th Ave. Suite 406
NY, NY 10019
212-247-4707

Mon – 9am-7pm
Tue – 9am-7pm
Wed – 8am-7pm
Thur – 9am-7pm
Fri – 9am-5pm
Sat – closed
Sun – closed

Contact Dr. Rob

  • Email
  • Phone
  • RSS
  • Twitter

Recent Posts

  • Read this to find out if your protein shakes are healthy!
  • You can have your (gluten) cake and eat it too!
  • Be Careful With This Vegetable!
  • The 2 Best Gifts for Your Health-Conscious Loved Ones

Categories

  • Chiropractic
  • Common Conditions
  • Food
  • More
  • Professional Applied Kinesiology
  • Remedies

Footer

Dr. Rob D’Aquila
Email Dr. Rob for a consultation
850 7th Ave., Suite 406, between 54th and 55th
New York, New York 10019

  • Email
  • Phone
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Disclaimer
  • Terms & Conditions
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2023 Dr. Rob D'Aquila · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc.