Dr. Alex Jimenez, a chiropractor in El Paso, TX, and his staff, health coach Kenna Vaughn, and chief editor Astrid Ornelas, discuss the role of inflammation in metabolic syndrome. The following podcast offers a deeper look at understanding how inflammation can ultimately cause metabolic syndrome. Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risk factors that can increase the risk of developing a variety of health issues, including diabetes, stroke, and heart disease. The risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome can also include, waist fat, high blood pressure, high blood sugar or glucose, high triglycerides, and low HDL or good cholesterol levels. Inflammation is the immune system’s natural response against injury, infection, and environmental toxins. Although inflammation is necessary, too much of it can ultimately cause a variety of health issues, including metabolic syndrome. Dr. Alex Jimenez, Kenna Vaughn, and Astrid Ornelas discuss how nutrition, diet, and fitness, as well as getting good sleep, can help regulate inflammation to prevent further health issues. Smoothies are also a good way to add extra nutrients. Dr. Alex Jimenez, Kenna Vaughn, Astrid Ornelas, discuss what type of foods, nutraceuticals, and supplements, you can eat, drink, and take to regulate inflammation and promote overall health and wellness to prevent health issues like metabolic syndrome, among others. – Podcast Insight
[00:00:07] Welcome guys! Welcome to the podcast for Dr. Jimenez and crew, we’re discussing today metabolic syndrome. We’re going to be discussing it from a different point of view. We’re going to try to give you really good and useful tips that can make sense and easily doable at home. Metabolic syndrome is a very vast concept. It contains five major issues. It has high blood glucose. It has belly fat measurements. It has triglycerides. It has HDL issues. And it pretty much has a whole conglomeration of dynamics that have to be measured in. The whole reason we discuss metabolic syndrome is that it affects our community very much. So we’re gonna be discussing these particular issues and how we can fix and give viewers the ability to adapt your lifestyle so that you don’t end up having it. It’s one of the most important disorders that is affecting modern medicine today, let alone once we understand it. Everywhere you go, you’re gonna see a lot of people having metabolic syndrome and it’s part of a society, not something you see in Europe as much, but in America, because we do have a lot of foods and our plates are lucidly bigger. We have the ability to adapt our bodies in a different way by just what we eat. There is no disorder that will actually change so quickly and so fast as a good mechanism and a good protocol that will help you deal with metabolic disorders and metabolic syndrome. So having said that, today we have a group of individuals, we have Astrid Ornelas and we have Kenna Vaughn that are gonna be discussing and adding information to us that can help us through the process. Now, Kenna Vaughn is our health coach. She’s the one who works in our office that when I’m I’m a practicing physician on physical medicine and when I’m working with people one on one, we have other people working with dietary issues and dietary needs. And my team here is very, very good. We also have our top clinical researcher and the individual who actually curates much of our technology and really is at the cutting edge of what we do and our sciences. It’s Mrs. Ornelas. Astrid as we call her. She’s really ghetto with the knowledge. She gets really nasty with the science. Right. And it’s really, really where we are. Today we live in a world where research is coming and spitting out of the NCBI which is the repository or pub med which with people can see. We use this information and we use what works and what doesn’t. Not all information is accurate in PubMed because you have different points of view. But when we have our finger in our, it’s almost like a finger on a pulse, we can actually see the things that affect it. With certain keywords and certain alerts, we get notified of changes for, let’s say, dietary sugar issues or triglyceride issues with fat issues, anything pertaining to metabolic disorders. We are able to kind of come up with a treatment protocol that is live adapted from doctors and researchers and Ph.D.’s around the world almost instantaneously, literally, even before they’re published. For example, today happens to be February 1st, for example. It’s not, but we’ll be getting results and studies presented by the National Journal of Cardiology that are going to come out in March, if that makes sense. So that information is early hot off the press and Astrid helps us figure these things out and sees, hey, you know, we found something really hot and something to help our patients and bring the N equals 1 which is patient and doctor equals one. A patient and therapist equals one that we don’t do specific protocols for everyone in general. We do specific protocols for each individual person as we go through the process. So as we do this, the journey of understanding metabolic syndrome is very dynamic and very deep. And we can start from just looking at someone all the way to the bloodwork, all the way to dietary changes, all the way to metabolic changes, all the way down to the cellular activity that’s actively working. And we measure issues with BIAs, BMIs, which we have done with previous podcasts. But we can also get into the level of genomics and the changing of the chromosomes and the telomeres in the chromosomes which we can affect by our diet. Okay. All roads lead to diets and what I say in some weird way, all roads lead to smoothies. OK. Smoothies. Because when we look at smoothies, we look at the components of smoothies and come up with dynamics that are actually abilities to change. Now, what I look for and when I look for treatments, I look at things that make people’s lives better. And how can we do this? And for all those mothers, they understand that they may not realize that they do this. But a mom doesn’t wake up saying, I’m gonna give my kid food. No, she’s kind of doing a mental leverage of bringing in the whole kitchen because she wants to literally infuse the best nutrition for their child and offer their best options for their baby to go through the world or through daycare or through elementary school, through middle school, through high school. So that the child can actually develop well, nobody goes out thinking that I’m going to give my kid just junk. And if that’s the case, well, that’s not good parenting. But we won’t talk about that. We will talk about good nutrition and how we can adapt to those things. So I’d like to introduce Kenna right now. And she’s going to be discussing a little bit of what we do when we see someone with metabolic disorders and our approach to it. So as she goes through that, she’s going to be able to give an understanding as to how we evaluate and assess a patient and bring it in so that we can start getting a little bit of control for that individual. Kenna. It’s all yours.
[00:05:37] All right. So first, I just want to talk about the smoothies a little bit more. I personally am a mom. So in the morning time, things get crazy. You never have as much time as you think you do, but you do need those nutrients and so do your kids. So I love smoothies. They’re super fast. You get everything you need. And most people think that when you’re eating, you’re eating to fill your stomach. You’re actually eating to fill your cells. Your cells are what need those nutrients. That’s what carries you on with the energy, the metabolism, all of that. So those smoothies are a super great option, which we definitely give our patients. We even have a book that has one hundred and fifty smoothie recipes that are great for anti-aging, helping diabetes, lowering that cholesterol, just controlling inflammation, things like that. So it’s definitely one resource we give to our patients, but we do have multiple other options that we have for the patients that come in with metabolic disease.
[00:06:36] Before you go in there. Kenna? Let me just kind of add that what I’ve learned is that we’ve got to make it simple. We got to take take homes or takeaways. And what we’re trying to do is we’re trying to give you the tools that can help you in that process. And we’re gonna take you to the kitchen. We’re gonna grab you by the ear, so to speak, and we’re going to show you the areas where we need to look at. So Kenna is about to give us the information in terms of smoothies that will assist us along with dietary changes that we can give our families and change this metabolic disaster that affects so many people called metabolic syndrome. Go ahead.
[00:07:10] Okay. So like he was saying, with those smoothies. One thing that you should add to your smoothie is I love to add in mine is spinach. Spinach is a great choice because it gives your body more nutrients, you’re getting an extra serving of vegetables, but you can’t really taste it, especially when it gets covered up by the natural sweetness that you find in fruits. So that’s definitely a great option when it comes to the smoothies. But another thing that Dr. Jimenez was mentioning is other things in the kitchen. So there are other substitutes that we’re kind of wanting our patients to use and implement them. You can start small and it’ll make a huge difference just by switching out your oils that you’re cooking with and you’ll start to see an improvement in your joints, your kids, everyone will just improve immensely. So one thing we want to get our patients into using is definitely going to be those oils, such as avocado oil, coconut oil, and olive oil. Olive oil. Yes. Thank you.
[00:08:09] That was olive oil. That was Astrid in the background. We getting our facts out good and continuous.
[00:08:15] So when you switch those out, your body actually breaks things down differently when you have those unsaturated fats. So that’s something, not just another option that you have in that kitchen. Besides making those smoothies. But like I said before, I’m all about quick, easy, simple. It’s way easier to change your lifestyle when you have a whole team around you. And when it’s easy, you don’t want to go out and make everything super difficult because the chances of you sticking to it aren’t very high. So one thing we want to do is make sure that everything that we’re giving our patients is easy to do and it’s attainable for everyday life.
[00:08:52] I’m very visual. So when I go to the kitchen, I like making my kitchen look like the cocina. Whatever they call it in Italy, the cocina. And I have three bottles here and I have avocado oil. I may have the coconut oil and I have the other. The olive oil right there, big bottles there. They make them really pretty and they look Tuscan. And, you know, I don’t care if it’s an egg. I don’t care. Sometimes even when I’m having my coffee. The coconut oil one and I pour that one in and I make myself a java with coconut oil in it. So. Yeah, so go ahead.
[00:09:24] Sorry. I was just going to say that’s a great option too. I drink green tea and I also add coconut oil in that green tea just to help kind of boost everything and give my body another dose of those fatty acids that we want.
[00:09:36] I had a question for you. When you have the coffee like that when you have the oil in it, does it kind of lubricate your lips?
[00:09:41] It does a little bit. It’s also added chapstick. Yeah, it does.
[00:09:49] I also have to stir it a little bit more just to make sure everything stays together. And then another thing, just talking about things our patients can do when it comes to at home, there are tons of different options also with eating fish, increasing your good fish intake throughout the week. That’s gonna help also. And just because fish provides so many great things like omegas and I know Astrid has also some more information on omegas.
[00:10:18] I got a question for you first before Astrid gets in there, you know. Look, when we talk about carbohydrates, people…What’s a carbohydrate? People say apple, banana, candy bars, and all that kind of stuff. People can rattle off carbohydrates per day, proteins, chicken, beef, whatever. They can rattle it up. But one of the things I found that people have a difficult time is what are good fats? I want five. Give me 10 good fats for a million dollars. Give me 10 good fats. Like lard, like meat. No, this is why we’re talking about it. Because the simple fats that we use and we’re gonna add more to it, right off the bat, is gonna be avocado oil, olive oil.
[00:10:52] It’s coconut oil. We can use things like butter, oils, different types of margarine. Not margarine.
[00:10:59] But butter that is from, you know, grass-fed cows. We basically can, we run out of creamers, you know, non-nondairy creamers, very specific creamers. Those we run out of it. Right. Real fast. So it’s like what else is fat? Right. And then we search for it. So one of the best ways to do it, we’re not gonna always put creamer on top of or butter on top, which, by the way, some coffees they have, they put butter in it and they blend it and they make a really cool little Java hit and every one comes with their little ginger and oils and their coffee and makes espresso from heaven.
[00:11:31] Right. So what else can we do?
[00:11:33] We can, like I said, add those fish in which is gonna help to give our bodies more of those omegas and then we can also do more purple vegetables. Those are going to provide your body with more antioxidants. So that’s definitely a good option, too. When it comes to the grocery store, a rule of thumb that I love and I heard a long time ago is to don’t shop in the aisles, is to try to shop on the edges because the edges are where you’re going to find all that fresh produce. And all those lean meats. It’s when you start to get into those aisles, that’s where you’re going to start finding, you know, the cereal, those bad carbohydrates, those simple carbohydrates that the American diet has come to love, but does not necessarily need. The Oreos.
[00:12:17] Yes. Candy. That isle that every kid knows.
[00:12:21] Yes. Mm-hmm. So that’s just another great pointer. So when you come into our office, if you’re suffering from metabolic syndrome or just anything in general, we really make your plans super personalized and we give you so many tips and we listen to your lifestyle because what works for one person might not work for another. So we really make sure that we give you tips that we know you’ll be successful with and provide education because that’s another huge part of it.
[00:12:50] All roads lead to the kitchen, huh? Right. Yeah, they do. OK. So specifically for the fats and the nutraceuticals. I want to also give you an idea as to what type of nutraceuticals are appropriate for us because we want to be able to bust down these five issues affecting metabolic syndrome that we discussed. What are the five guys? Let’s go ahead and start them up. It’s high blood sugar, right?
[00:13:13] High blood glucose. Low HDL which is going to be that good cholesterol everyone needs. Yes. And it’s going to be the high blood pressure which is it’s actually not considered high from a doctor’s standard, but it is considered elevated. So that’s another thing we want to make sure that this is metabolic syndrome, not metabolic disease. So if you go to the doctor and your blood pressure is 130 over 85, then that’s an indicator. But yet your provider might not necessarily say your blood pressure is super high. Mm-hmm.
[00:13:48] None of these disorders here by themselves are clinical states. As a matter of fact, individually, they’re pretty much just things. But if you have a combination of all these five together, you have metabolic syndrome and you feel like not too good.
[00:14:01] Right. Yeah. Yeah. Another one is going to be the excess weight around the belly and the higher triglycerides.
[00:14:10] Easy to see. You can see when someone has a belly that’s hanging over like a fountain. Right. So we can see that. You can go sometimes to Italian restaurants and you see the great cook. And sometimes I gotta tell you, sometimes it’s just you know, we’re taught Chef Boyardee he wasn’t a thin guy. I think that Chef Boyardee. You know what? And the Pillsbury guy, right. He wasn’t very healthy. Right. Both of them suffered from metabolic syndrome just from the outset. So that’s an easy one to see. So these are the things we’re going to be reflecting on. Astrid is going to go over some nutraceuticals, some vitamins, some food, things that we can do to make things better.
[00:14:45] So here’s Astrid and here’s our head science curator? Here’s Astrid.
[00:14:51] Yeah. I guess before we get into the nutraceuticals, I actually want to make something clear. Like we were talking about metabolic syndrome.
[00:15:00] Metabolic syndrome is not, I guess per se, a disease or a health issue itself. Metabolic syndrome is actually a cluster of conditions that can pretty much increase the risk of developing other health issues like diabetes, like stroke, like heart disease and pretty much because metabolic syndrome is not, you know, an actual. Like, it’s not a health issue itself. It’s more so this group, this collection of other conditions, of other problems that can develop into much worse health issues. And just because of that fact, metabolic syndrome has no obvious symptoms itself. But of course, like we were talking about, there are five risk factors which are pretty much the ones we discussed, the excess waist fat, the high blood pressure, high blood sugar, the high triglycerides, the low HDL. And according to health care professionals, you know, doctors and researchers, if you have three out of these five risk factors, you have metabolic syndrome.
[00:16:18] Yes, three. Now, that doesn’t mean that if you have symptoms as Astrid was very clear on. But I’ve got to tell you, in my experience, when someone has more than three or three, they’re starting to feel crummy. They don’t feel right. They just feel like, you know, life’s not good. They have just an overall, they don’t look good. Right. So and I don’t know them maybe, but their family knows that they don’t look good. My mom doesn’t look good. Dad doesn’t look good.
[00:16:44] Yeah. Yeah. And metabolic syndrome, as I said, it has no obvious symptoms.
[00:16:48] But, you know, as kind of going with one of the risk factors with waist fat.
[00:16:56] This is where you will see. You will see people with what you call the apple or pear-shaped bodies. They have excess fat around their abdomen. And although that’s not technically considered a symptom, it is a factor that can, I guess, it can give an idea to doctors or to other healthcare professionals that this person who is, you know, they have pre-diabetes or they have diabetes. And, you know, they have excess weight and obesity. They could have an increased risk of metabolic syndrome and therefore developing, you know, if it’s left untreated, developing other health issues like heart disease and stroke.
[00:17:45] And.
[00:17:47] I guess with that being said, then we’ll get into the nutraceuticals.
[00:17:50] I love this. I love this. We’re getting some good stuff. Again, some information.
[00:17:54] And I guess with that being said, we’ll get into the nutraceuticals kind of like how Kenna was talking about.
[00:18:00] What’s the takeaway? You know, we’re here talking about these health issues. We’re here talking about metabolic syndrome today. But what’s the takeaway? What can we tell people like what can they take home about our talk? What can they do at home? So here we have several nutraceuticals which I’ve written several articles in our blog. And I’ve looked and I’ve read…
[00:18:25] You think Astrid. I think that if you look at the one hundred articles that are written in El Paso, at least in our area, they’re all curated by somebody, right? Yes. All right.
[00:18:36] So we have several nutraceuticals here that have been researched and all of these research studies have found that they can help in some way and in some form improve, you know, metabolic syndrome and these associated diseases.
[00:19:00] So the first one I want to discuss is B vitamins. So what are the B vitamins? These are the ones that you can usually find them together. You can find them in the store. You’ll see them as B complex vitamins. You’ll see them in a little jar. And then it basically comes with several of the B vitamins. Now, why do I bring up B vitamins for metabolic syndrome? So one of the reasons, like researchers have found, I guess one of the causes of metabolic syndrome could be stress.
[00:19:37] So with that being said, it’s important for us to have B vitamins, because when we get stressed when we have a hard day at work when we have a lot of stressful things at home or with family. Our nervous system will use these B vitamins to support our nerve function. So when we have a lot of stress, we will use up these B vitamins in this stress. This increased stress, you know, our body will produce more cortisol, you know, which it serves a function, but we all know that too much cortisol, too much stress can actually be bad for us. It can increase our risk of heart disease.
[00:20:28] You know, as I remember when we did this, all roads lead to the kitchen in terms of getting the food back in your body. All roads lead to the mitochondria. When it comes to the area of breakdown, the world of ATP production, energy production is surrounded and it’s wrapped around with things like nicotinamide, NDH, HDP, ATP, ADP. All these things have a connection with vitamin Bs, of all sorts. So the vitamin Bs are at the engine in the turbine of the things that actually help us. So it makes sense that this was the top of the vitamin and the one that is the most important. And then she’s got some other points here on niacin. What have you noticed with niacin?
[00:21:09] Well, niacin is another…It’s a B vitamin. You know, there are several B vitamins. That’s why I have it there as plural and niacin or vitamin B3 as it’s more well known. A lot of…
[00:21:28] Research studies have found that taking vitamin B3 can actually help lower LDL or bad cholesterol and it can help lower triglycerides and it could increase HDL. And several research studies have actually found that niacin, specifically vitamin B3, can help increase HDL by 30 percent.
[00:21:50] Incredible. Niacin. When you look at NADP, NADH. The N is the niacin, nicotinamide. So in the biochemical compound. So niacin is the one that people have known that when you take it the good one or the one the supposed be, you get this flushing feeling and it makes you scratch all your part of your body then…
[00:22:13] It feels good when you scratch because it makes you feel that way. All right. So niacin is huge.
[00:22:18] Yes. Yes. And also, I just want to highlight a point about B vitamins. B vitamins themselves are important because they can actually help support our metabolism. When we eat, you know, carbohydrates and fats, good fats, of course, and proteins.
[00:22:39] When the body goes through the process of metabolism, it converts the carbohydrates, the fats, and the proteins into energy. And B vitamins are actually one of the main components that are in charge of doing that.
[00:23:00] Latinos in our general population.
[00:23:02] We know that we have always heard of the nurse or the person who gives vitamin B injections. Have you heard of those things? Right? Right. Because if you’re depressed, you’re sad. What they would do? Well, you know what? Inject them with B12. Right. What are the B vitamins? Right. And the person would come all. Yeah. And they’d be excited. Right. So we’ve known this. This is the elixir of the past.
[00:23:23] Those traveling salesmen. The people that had the potions and lotions. They made a living off of giving B vitamin complex. As a matter of fact, the first energy drinks were first designed with a B complex, you know, packing of them.
[00:23:38] Now, here’s the deal. Now that we’ve learned that energy drinks cause so many issues, we’re headed back to the B complex to help people feel better. So the next vitamin we have there is, which is that one? We have the D, we have the D.
[00:23:51] Yeah. The next one I wanted to talk about is vitamin D. So there are several research studies on vitamin D and the benefits of vitamin D for metabolic syndrome. And just how I discussed before how B vitamins are beneficial for our metabolism, vitamin D is also helpful for our metabolism as well. And it can help regulate our blood sugar, essentially our glucose. And that in itself is very important because like one of the predisposing factors of metabolic syndrome is high blood sugar. And you know, if you have uncontrolled high blood sugar, it can lead to, you know, it can lead to pre-diabetes. And if that is left untreated, it can lead to diabetes. So research studies have also found that vitamin D itself can also improve insulin resistance. Which is pretty much one of the things that can lead to diabetes.
[00:24:52] You know, I just wanted to pull out the vitamin D is not even a vitamin, guys. It’s a hormone. It was discovered after C by Linus Pauling when they discovered it. They just kept on naming them in the next letter. OK, so since it is a hormone, you got to just practically look at it.
[00:25:08] This particular vitamin D or this hormone basically can change so many metabolism issues in your body. I’m talking about literally four to five hundred different processes that we’re finding. Last year was 400. We’re now at almost 500 different biochemical processes that are actually affected directly. Well, that makes kind of sense? Look, our biggest organ in the body is our skin and most of the time we run around in kind of skimpy clothes and we are in the sun a lot. Well, it wouldn’t stand to reason that that particular organ can produce the greatest amount of healing energies. And Vitamin D does get produced by the sunlight and activated. But in today’s world, whether we’re Armenian, Iranian, different cultures in the north, like Chicago, people don’t get as much light. So depending on cultural changes, depending on clothes, people live and work in these fluorescent lights, we lose the essence of vitamin D. And we get very sick. The person who takes vitamin D is a much healthier person. And our goal is to raise the vitamin D. It’s a fat-soluble vitamin and one that embeds itself by and saved in the liver along with the fat in the body. So you can raise it slowly as you take it. And it’s really very difficult to get toxic levels, but those are at about 125 nanograms per deciliter that are too high. But most of us run around with 10 to 20, which is really low. So in essence, by raising that, you’re going to see that the blood sugar changes are going to happen that Astrid is speaking about. What other things have you noticed about particularly vitamin D? Anything.
[00:26:40] No, I mean.
[00:26:43] I’ll get back to vitamin D in a bit. I actually want to discuss some of the other nutraceuticals first, but pretty much vitamin D.
[00:26:50] It’s beneficial because it helps improve your metabolism and it helps improve your insulin resistance at least towards metabolic syndrome. How about calcium. Calcium. So calcium goes hand-in-hand with vitamin D. And the thing that I wanted to talk about with vitamin D and calcium together, actually, is that we often think about like these five factors that we mentioned before that could cause metabolic syndrome. But there is actually, you know, if you really want to think about it, like what are the underlying causes for a lot of these risk factors? And like, you know, obesity, a sedentary lifestyle, people who don’t engage in exercise or physical activity. One of the things that can predispose a person or pretty much like increase the risk of metabolic syndrome is, let me put this scenario. What if a person has a chronic pain disease? What if they have something like fibromyalgia? They’re constantly in pain. They don’t want to move. So they don’t want to exercise. They don’t want to aggravate these symptoms. So sometimes these people have chronic pain and they have things like fibromyalgia or even, let’s go a little bit more basic. Some people just have chronic back pain and you don’t want to work out. So some of these people aren’t choosing to be inactive because they want to, some of these people are legitimately in pain. And there are several research studies, this is what I was going to tie in vitamin D and calcium with, vitamin D and calcium, you can take them together, they can actually help improve chronic pain in some people.
[00:28:56] Incredible. And we all know that calcium is one of the used causes for muscle spasms and relaxers. Tons of reasons. We’re gonna go into each one of these. We’re gonna have a podcast on just vitamin D and the issues in calcium because we can really, really go deep. We’re gonna go deep. We’re gonna go all the way to the genome, the genome, which is basically the genomics which is the science of understanding how nutrition and the genes dance together. So we’re gonna go there, but we’re kind of like penetrating slowly in this process because we have to take the story slowly. What’s up next?
[00:29:28] So next we have omega 3s. And I want to specifically highlight that we’re talking about omega 3s with EPA, not DHA.
[00:29:39] So these are EPA which is the one that’s listed up there and DHA. They are two important types of omega 3s. Essentially, they’re both very important.
[00:29:55] But several research studies and I’ve done articles on this as well have found that…
[00:30:04] I guess taking omega 3s specifically with EPA, it’s just more superior in its benefits than DHA.
[00:30:13] And when we talk about the omega 3s. These can be found in fish just as a lot of the time if you want to take omega 3s, you see them in the form of fish oils. And this is going back to what Kenna discussed before, like following a Mediterranean diet which mainly focuses on eating a lot of fish.
[00:30:35] This is where you get your intake of omega 3s. And research studies have found that omega 3s themselves can help promote heart health and can help lower bad cholesterol. Your LDLs. And these can also improve metabolism just like vitamin D.
[00:30:54] I want to go ahead and blanket all these things under the fact that we’re also looking and when we’re dealing with metabolic syndrome, we’re dealing with inflammation, inflammation and omegas have been known. So what we need to do is we need to bring out the fact that omegas have been in the American diet. Even in grandma’s diet. And then like again, we hear back in the day when grandma, great-grandma would give you cod liver oil. Well, the highest omega carrying fish is herring, which is at about eight-hundred milligrams per serving. The cod is actually next when they start at 600. But because of the availability, the cod is much more available in certain cultures. So everybody would have cod liver oil and they’d make you close your nose and drink it. And they knew that it had a correlation. They would think it’s a good lubricant, but actually it was an anti-inflammatory specifically with people. And usually grandmas who knew about this, right? It helps with the intestines, it helps with the inflammation, it helps with the joints. And they knew the whole story behind that. So we’ll go deep into the omegas in our later podcast. We have another one that’s here. It’s called berberine. Right. What’s the story on berberine?
[00:32:02] Well, pretty much the next set of nutraceuticals that are listed here. Berberine, glucosamine, chondroitin…
[00:32:14] Acetyl-L-Carnitine, Alpha-lipoic acid. ALA. Ashwagandha. Pretty much all of these have been tied into what I talked about before about chronic pain and all of these health issues. I listed them up here because I’ve done several articles and I’ve read a variety of research studies that have covered these in different trials and in different research studies with different participants. And these have pretty much found that this group of nutraceuticals here that are listed also has been tied to help reduce chronic pain, you know, and since, as I discussed before, chronic pain, you know, people that have fibromyalgia or even like, you know, let’s go a little bit simpler, people who have back pain. You know these people who are inactive, who have sedentary lifestyles or simply because of their pain and they can be at risk of metabolic syndrome. You know, a lot of these research studies have found that these nutraceuticals themselves can also help reduce chronic pain.
[00:33:30] You know, the new one, I think, is called alpha-lipoic acid. ALA. Acetyl-L-Carnitine. Well, we’re gonna have our resident biochemist on the following podcast. Go deep into these. Ashwagandha is a really interesting name. Ashwagandha. Ashwagandha. Say it again.
[00:33:49] Kenna, can you tell me a little bit about Ashwagandha and what we’ve been able to discover about Ashwagandha? Because it really is a unique name and a component that we do look at and we’re going to talk about more. We’re gonna get back to Astrid in a second, but I want to give her a little break and kind of like let Kenna tell me a little bit about Ashwagandha.
[00:34:07] I was actually going to add something about that. Berberine.
[00:34:10] Oh, let’s go back to Berberine, Berberine. Berberine and Ashwagandha. Okay.
[00:34:14] So at that berberine has also been shown to help decrease the HB-A1C in patients who have blood sugar dysregulation which is going to come back to the whole prediabetes and type 2 diabetes situations that can occur in the body. So that one is also has been shown to decrease that number, to stabilize the blood sugars.
[00:34:37] So. Yeah, so. Yeah. No, no, berberine, there’s a whole thing we’re going to have on berberine. But one of the things that we did in terms of metabolic syndrome was one to definitely make the top list here for the process. So there is ashwagandha and berberine.
[00:34:51] So tell us a little bit about ashwagandha.
[00:34:54] Also, the ashwagandha is the one, that’s OK. So in terms of the blood sugar, the A1C is the blood sugar calculation that tells you exactly what the blood sugar does.
[00:35:05] Over a period of about three months, the glycosylation of the hemoglobin can be measured by the molecular changes that actually happen within the hemoglobin. That’s why the hemoglobin A1C is our market to determine. So when ashwagandha and berberine come together and we use those things, we can actually alter the A1C, which is a three month kind of like a historical background of what is actually going on. We’ve seen changes in that. And that’s one of the things that we do now in terms of the dosages and what we do. We’re gonna go over that, but not today because it’s a little bit more complex. Soluble fibers have been also a component of things. Now, when we deal with soluble fibers. Why are we talking about soluble fibers? First of all, it is food for our bugs. So we got to remember that the probiotic world is something we cannot forget. People need to understand that, though, that probiotics, whether it’s the Lactobacillus or Bifidobacterium strains whether it’s small intestine, large intestine. Early on the small intestine, there are different bacteria all the way to the very end. To the C come to the back end. So let’s call that the place that things come out. There’s bacteria everywhere at different levels and each one has a purpose. So we can discover that there is vitamin E in green tea. So tell me a little about Astrid about this, these dynamics in terms of green tea. What do we notice as it pertains to metabolic syndrome?
[00:36:31] OK, so green tea has a lot of benefits. But, there’s a lot of people that don’t like teas. Some people are more into coffee. But if you do want to get into drinking tea, you know, because of its health benefits, definitely green tea is a good place to start. And in terms of metabolic syndrome, green tea has been demonstrated to help improve heart health. You know, it can help, I guess, lower these risk factors that pertain to metabolic syndrome. You know, it can help. You know, several research studies that have found that green tea can help lower cholesterol, bad cholesterol, LDLs.
[00:37:21] Does the green tea help us with our belly fat?
[00:37:26] Yeah. Yeah. One of the benefits of green tea that I’ve read about. Pretty much one of the ones that it’s most well-known for is that green tea can help with weight loss.
[00:37:36] Oh, my gosh. So basically, they should not be. I mean, water and green tea. That’s it, guys. That’s all. That’s it.
[00:37:41] We limit our lives to that. Also, I mean, we forgot even the most powerful thing it takes care of those reactive oxygen species which are our oxidants in our blood. So it just basically squelches them and takes them out and cools their cool and actually prevents a normal deterioration that happens or the excessive deterioration that happens in the breakdown of normal metabolism which is a byproduct which are reactive oxygen species or wild crazy oxidants which we have a neat name for the things that squashes them and calms them and puts them in the order, they’re called antioxidants. And so the vitamins that are antioxidants. A, C, and E are antioxidants, too. So those are very powerful tools that we deal with as we lower body weight, we free up a lot of toxins. And as the green tea goes into, squelches and cools them and gets them out of, guess where the other organ that basically helps with the whole insulin production, which is the kidneys, the kidneys are flushed out with green tea. And that also helps. I notice that one thing that you’ve really haven’t done, are articles on turmeric. Right.
[00:38:48] Oh, I’ve actually done a lot of articles on turmeric. I know.
[00:38:54] You know, from the list or the list that’s up there, turmeric or curcumin is probably like one of my most favorite nutraceuticals to talk about.
[00:39:01] Yeah. She’s like, we catch you out there gnawing on some. Yeah, I have some on my fridge right now. You touch that turmeric, you’re gonna lose a finger. What happened to my finger? You got near my turmeric. Right.
[00:39:15] So tell us a bit about the properties of turmeric and curcumin, in terms of metabolic syndrome.
[00:39:21] Okay.
[00:39:23] I’ve done several, you know, a lot of articles on turmeric and curcumin and we’ve also discussed it before.
[00:39:31] In several of our past podcasts and turmeric is that yellow, yellow-ish, it could look orange to some people, but it’s usually referred to as a yellow root and it’s very popular in Indian cuisine. It’s one of the main ingredients that you’ll find in curry. Pretty sure some of you people have heard curcumin or turmeric. Oh, what’s the difference? Well, turmeric is the flowering plant. It’s the root. You know, we eat the root of turmeric. And curcumin is just the active ingredient in turmeric that gives it the yellow color. Guys.
[00:40:12] I will not let anything but the top type of curcumin and turmeric products be available to our patients because there’s a difference. There are certain ones that are actually produced with literally I mean, we got solvents and with the way, we get things out. And of curcumin and turmeric or even things like cocaine is you have to use a distillate. And whether it’s water, acetone, benzene, OK, or some sort of a byproduct, we know today that benzene is used to process many types of supplements and certain companies use benzene to hit the best out of turmeric. The problem is, benzene is cancer-producing? So we got to be very careful which companies we use. Acetone. Imagine that. So there are processes that are in place to extract the turmeric properly and that are beneficial. So finding the right turmeric. All turmerics are not the same. And that’s one of the things that we have to assess since it has so many products. The world is running real crazy to try to process turmeric. And specifically, even if it’s the last thing that we’re discussing today on our subject matter, but it’s one of the most important things today. We don’t even understand aspirin. We know it works, but the total magnitude of it is yet to be told. However, turmeric is in the same boat. We’re learning so much about it that every day, every month, studies are being produced on the value of turmeric into the natural diet. Astrid. She’s in tune in on the target on that. So I’m sure she’s gonna bring more of that to us, right? Yes, of course. So I think what we can do today is when we look at this, I’d like to ask Kenna, in terms of when we look at the metabolic syndrome from the presentations of symptoms or even from laboratory studies, the confidence of knowing that n equals one is one of the most important components that we have now in functional medicine and functional wellness practices that a lot of physical medicine doctors are doing in their scope of practice. Because in metabolic issues, you can’t take metabolic away from the body. Does metabolism happen in a back problem? We notice that there’s a correlation with back injuries. Back pain, back issues. Chronic knee disorders. Chronic joint musculoskeletal disorders and metabolic syndrome. So we can’t untease it. So tell us a little bit about Kenna as we close out today, a little bit about what the patient can expect when they come to our office and they get kind of put in the oops. You got metabolic syndrome. So boom, how do we handle it?
[00:42:48] We want to know their background because like you said, everything is connected, everything is in-depth. There’s detail. We want to get to know it all so we can really make that personalized plan. So one of the first things we do is a very lengthy questionnaire by Living Matrix, and it’s a great tool. It does take a little while, but it gives us so much insight on the patient, which is great because it allows us to really, like I said, dig deep and figure out, you know, traumas that might have happened that are leading to inflammation which how Astrid was saying then leads to that sedentary lifestyle, which then leads to this metabolic syndrome or just kind of down that road. So one of the first things we do is we do that long questionnaire and then we sit down and we talk to you one on one. We build a team. We make you part of our family because this stuff isn’t easy to go through alone. And so the most success is when you have that close-knit family and you have that support. And we really try to be that for you.
[00:43:52] We have taken this information and realized it was very complex prior to about five years ago. It was a very difficult 300 questionnaire. Today we have software that can figure out. It is backed by the IFM, the Institute of Functional Medicine. It had its origin over the last decade and become very popular, understanding the whole person as an individual. You can’t separate an eyeball from kind of the body as you can’t separate a metabolism from all effects that it has from ones that the body and the food, the nutraceutical, the nutrient that enters our body. On the other side of our mouth are these little waiting things called chromosomes. They’re spinning and they’re churning and they’re creating enzymes and proteins based on what we feed them. In order to find out what’s going on, we have to do an elaborate questionnaire that brings in mental body spiritual. It brings in the mechanics of normal digestion, the way that the entanglement works, the way that the overall living experience happens in the individual. So when we take consideration, Astrid and Kenna, together, we kind of figure out the best approach and we really have a tailor-made process for each individual person. We call it the IFM one, two and three, which are a complex series of questions that allow us to give you a detailed assessment and a true breakdown of where the cause can be. And along with the nutraceuticals and the nutrients that we focus on, we push you right directly to the place where it matters, into the kitchen and we end up teaching you and your family members how to feed so that you can basically be good to those genetic genomes, which you’re as I always say, ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny.
[00:45:35] We are who we are from the past to the people. And those people have a thread between us and my past as well as everyone here’s past. And that is our genetics and our genetics respond to the environment. So whether it goes south really fast or expose or predispose, we’re gonna discuss those and we’re going to enter the world of genomics soon in this process as we go deeper in the metabolic syndrome process. So I thank you all for listening in on us. Know that we can be contacted here and they’re going to leave you the number. But we have Astrid here that’s doing the research. We have a team that is established. Well, a lot of individuals that can look out and give you the best information that applies to you and equals one. We have Kenna here that is always available.
[00:46:19] And we’re here taking care of people in our little beautiful town of El Paso. So thank you again and look forward to the next podcast, which will be probably in a couple of hours. Just kidding. All right. Bye, guys.
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Metabolic syndrome is a collection of risk factors that can ultimately increase the risk of developing a variety of health issues, including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes, among other problems. Central obesity, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low HDL are the 5 risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome. Having at least three of the five risk factors may suggest the presence of metabolic syndrome. Dr. Alex Jimenez and Dr. Mario Ruja explain the 5 risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome, in further detail, as they recommend diet and lifestyle modification advice and guidelines to help people with metabolic syndrome improve their overall health and wellness. From eating fiber and staying hydrated to exercise and better sleep, Dr. Alex Jimenez and Dr. Mario Ruja discuss how diet and lifestyle modifications can help improve the 5 risk factors associated with metabolic syndrome to ultimately prevent the risk of developing a variety of other health issues, including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. – Podcast Insight
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Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN*, CCST, IFMCP*, CIFM*, ATN*
email: coach@elpasofunctionalmedicine.com
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Dr. Alex Jimenez DC, MSACP, RN* CIFM*, IFMCP*, ATN*, CCST
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