Natural Ways to Optimise Your Metabolic Health

You may have heard the term metabolic health and wondered what it means and why it’s important.

In this article, we’ll delve into this fascinating subject and explain how you can assess your metabolic health. Finally, we’ll provide you with actionable tips on optimising metabolic health.

What is Meant by Metabolic Health?

Metabolic health refers to your body’s ability to maintain balance among its functions and to manage energy effectively. The term covers how well your body processes food and turns it into energy. It also relates to your body’s ability to manage metabolic functions, including blood sugar control and levels of blood lipids like cholesterol and triglycerides.

It’s tempting to associate metabolic health solely with weight management. However, good metabolic health is important because it has a major impact on your overall health. Your body needs energy to function and to maintain life, with every single thing you do relying on energy.

What are the Effects of Poor Metabolic Health?

When metabolic health suffers, one indicator is insulin resistance. Insulin is the hormone needed to balance blood sugar. It instructs your body’s cells to allow sugar to enter, to provide energy. If your cells become resistant to insulin’s message, sugar will remain in your blood, and your cells will lack energy.

Poor metabolic health is also associated with imbalances in immune system function, along with uncontrolled inflammation. If poor metabolic health is allowed to continue, a collection of conditions can occur, including high blood pressure, elevated blood sugar, and disordered blood lipid levels. Together, these are known as metabolic syndrome.

It follows, then, that good metabolic health guards against the major chronic lifestyle diseases prevalent today. These include Type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke, poor liver health, Alzheimer’s disease and even obesity. In fact, poor metabolic health is at the heart of almost every modern chronic disease.

If you suspect you may have poor metabolic health, you’re not alone. A 2018 study found fewer than 18% of US adults had good metabolic health (1).

How to Improve Metabolic Health

Ensuring good metabolic health helps reduce the risk of chronic diseases and supports both energy levels and weight management.

Fortunately, because diet and lifestyle greatly influence metabolic health, you can improve your metabolic health by making simple lifestyle adjustments. In fact, the choices you make can profoundly influence your overall health.

Nutrition

Your body needs the correct nutrients to maintain balance. A diet high in processed foods and low in nutrients and fibre won’t provide your body with the tools it needs to operate efficiently. Aim to eat a rainbow of colourful plant foods each day.

Hydration

Sufficient hydration helps your body digest and absorb food, and it plays a role in temperature regulation and detoxification.

Stress

Chronic stress can lead to insulin resistance, in turn leading to disordered blood glucose levels and weight gain.

Sleep

Insufficient quality sleep can lead to imbalances in hormones like insulin and cortisol, impairing metabolic health. Setting a consistent bedtime is a great start.

Movement

Exercise is known to improve insulin sensitivity (2). Conversely, a sedentary lifestyle is linked with poor metabolic health. Try a short 15-minute walk after meals.

Gut Health

The bacteria resident in your gut are vital for digestion and nutrient absorption, as well as training your immune system and managing inflammation. They play a role in insulin sensitivity, too, with certain gut microbes linked to better blood glucose control. Fermented foods like kombucha and sauerkraut are gut-microbe friendly.

Intermittent Fasting

Leaving a gap between eating rather than constantly grazing allows your body’s repair processes to proceed, and has been shown to improve metabolic health and insulin sensitivity (3). The easiest way to give your body a break from food is to eat dinner a little earlier and breakfast later, restricting your eating window to between 8 and 10 hours per day.

How Do I Know if I Have Good Metabolic Health?

Poor metabolic health often gives subtle signs including fatigue, weight gain, brain fog, poor digestion, sugar cravings and cardiovascular issues. However, you might not suspect you have poor metabolic health, especially because it can affect people who are a healthy weight. It’s not always easy to see what is happening inside your body by looking at the outside.

Here at The Forbes Clinic, we believe in putting right the root causes of health issues, rather than simply putting a metaphorical sticking plaster over the symptoms.

Fortunately, our practitioners have a wide range of functional tests available which can reveal how efficiently your body’s cells and organs are functioning. One tool to help assess metabolic health is Metabolomix+. This test examines over eighty biomarkers, including organic acids, amino acids, and antioxidants. This information can detect nutritional deficiencies and underlying metabolic imbalances affecting your body’s ability to maintain a steady energy balance. Together, the results reveal a holistic picture of your nutritional and metabolic health along with your personal requirement for additional nutrients – think of it like a survey of your body’s metabolic health. It can also inform beneficial lifestyle adjustments to help you optimise metabolic health. All that’s needed is a small sample of your urine.

Integrated Medicine Support for Optimal Metabolic Health

We believe the best route for most clients is an initial Integrative Health Assessment. This starts you on your optimal health journey with an evaluation of your diet, lifestyle and baseline nutritional status. After this, you may benefit from further specialist therapies as appropriate, alongside expert-led tests, such as Metabolomix+, to understand the causes of your specific health concerns. However, we also offer this test without the need for a prior consultation if you prefer. You can learn more here.

It's never too late to support your metabolic health. Start your journey today.