Caloric restriction is sometimes necessary for certain disordered eating conditions. These conditions do not allow for the body to gauge its own nutritional needs. Calorie restriction, in this context, is not detrimental, because it is not being used to sustain a deficit; it is being used to abstain from excess.
2. Is having no hunger, during extended fasts, a positive sign?
Extended fasting, on this blog, is defined as any fast that goes beyond three days (72 consecutive hours).
Having no hunger during these long fasts is absolutely not normal. In fact, this is the first symptom of the body acquiring a thrifty metabolism. Starvation studies have consistently shown that hunger subsides after a few days of being food deprived. Metabolism simply slows down enough to where hunger disappears. This is why many obese people claim to feel "normal" only during fasting. This is suggestive of active weight gain, weight stall and/or a slow thyroid.
This lack of hunger is not a good sign, as most people tend to believe. It provides absolutely no benefits, except the ability to fast longer, which is also not providing any benefits for long term weight management but deteriorating blood glucose further.
3. If I feel fine, then my very low blood glucose is a positive sign.
A blood glucose level that defines hypoglycemia is variable, but the consensus is around 50 mg/dL. Healthy blood glucose is around 85 mg/dL, so that should be your target.
One episode of hypoglycemia is sufficient to adapt a down regulation of the counter regulatory response to subsequent episodes. The body is developing a "resistance" to its response to low blood glucose, but not to the damage caused by it. This is the result of a reduced epinephrine response to falling blood glucose levels in the setting of an absent glucagon response. Glucagon plays a role in the stress response, but people with metabolic syndrome/diabetes, tend to have a near absent glucagon response to true hypoglycemia, even while maintaining hyperglucagonemia postprandially.
This condition has been termed - hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure. It manifests as asymptomatic hypoglycemia and the more it occurs, the lower and lower blood glucose can drop, without displaying any warning symptoms. As the body's threshold to hypoglycemia continues to lower, more and more, glucose dependent tissues begin to suffer, as they are being starved of energy with 0 intervention by the very mechanisms that should prevent this. This condition can cause irreversible neurological damage and death. It is believed that it is implicated in the slow dementia progression and "sudden death", which is often seen, in long time diabetics.
An asymptomatic drop in blood glucose is abnormal and dangerous. If this is happening to you, stop driving your blood glucose, to very low levels, by following extreme protocols you found online. If your blood glucose is dropping, without symptoms, and you aren't purposely causing it, you need to immediately discuss it with your doctor, so they can review your medications and/or order additional insulin testing to determine what can be occurring.
4. If my insulin is low, then I should not have any problems regulating my blood glucose.
Low basal insulin alongside blood glucose abnormalities can be indicative that the body is not adjusting to lower insulin levels and it continues to catabolize itself through an unhealthy response to cortisol. This is caused by poor insulin function and will continue occurring even when basal insulin levels are low and not interfering with fasting blood glucose.
This is precisely why the Type II diabetic cannot become complacent with lower insulin levels, as this does not mean they have restored insulin function or adequate insulin sensitivity. After decades of insulin's assault, on the body, things will not level themselves out the moment insulin levels lower. An unhealthy insulin/cortisol interaction puts you in a bad predicament, as cortisol destroys lean muscle mass, promoting more body fat and diabetes.
5. I only have high blood glucose in the mornings, so I am "cured" of diabetes, since my blood glucose is normal afterwards.
High blood glucose in the morning is known as "dawn phenomenon" (DP). DP is indicative of poor glucose regulation, because the body is still experiencing exaggerated catabolism from adrenal dysregulation. This effect usually occurs once prediabetes becomes diabetes, as the prediabetic can still retain control of their morning blood glucose and loses control of their postprandial blood glucose instead.
Insulin is an anabolic hormone, but can actually be best described as an anti-catabolic hormone. It prevents the body from breaking itself down, and everything you eat, into glucose and ketones. One of the main catabolic hormones is glucagon, which causes high postprandial blood glucose; a very common symptom in metabolic syndrome/diabetes. Glucagon is a counter regulatory hormone to insulin, but glucagon is not the only one and it doesn't work alone. The body has many catabolic hormones, which work together, to protect you from the glucose lowering effects of insulin.
Other catabolic hormones include epinephrine, norepinephrine, growth hormone and cortisol (stress hormones), which also counter regulate the effects of insulin and are known as glucocorticoids. Glucocorticoid hormones are produced by the adrenal cortex under control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. They function in targeted tissues by binding to specific receptors and activating different enzymes. Many of these glucocorticoid receptors are expressed in the insulin producing, pancreatic beta cells. The enzymes are expressed in the liver, kidneys and the adipose tissue (fat mass). All of these tissues are impaired in metabolic dysfunction. Incretin hormones also play a part in activating this counter regulatory effect and are also compromised in metabolic disease.
These "stress hormones" are the cause of high morning blood glucose. Basically, the body is averse to lowering of blood glucose during the night time fast so stress hormones begin dumping glucose into the body in order to rise this lowering blood glucose. That is in essence what DP is - an adverse reaction to fasting. Metabolic syndrome/diabetes are conditions where the body's glucose, insulin and body fat are set to high points. The body does not want lowering of glucose. It panics when that occurs because insulin abnormalities have been dropping fasting blood glucose too low, too often.
3. If I feel fine, then my very low blood glucose is a positive sign.
A blood glucose level that defines hypoglycemia is variable, but the consensus is around 50 mg/dL. Healthy blood glucose is around 85 mg/dL, so that should be your target.
One episode of hypoglycemia is sufficient to adapt a down regulation of the counter regulatory response to subsequent episodes. The body is developing a "resistance" to its response to low blood glucose, but not to the damage caused by it. This is the result of a reduced epinephrine response to falling blood glucose levels in the setting of an absent glucagon response. Glucagon plays a role in the stress response, but people with metabolic syndrome/diabetes, tend to have a near absent glucagon response to true hypoglycemia, even while maintaining hyperglucagonemia postprandially.
This condition has been termed - hypoglycemia-associated autonomic failure. It manifests as asymptomatic hypoglycemia and the more it occurs, the lower and lower blood glucose can drop, without displaying any warning symptoms. As the body's threshold to hypoglycemia continues to lower, more and more, glucose dependent tissues begin to suffer, as they are being starved of energy with 0 intervention by the very mechanisms that should prevent this. This condition can cause irreversible neurological damage and death. It is believed that it is implicated in the slow dementia progression and "sudden death", which is often seen, in long time diabetics.
An asymptomatic drop in blood glucose is abnormal and dangerous. If this is happening to you, stop driving your blood glucose, to very low levels, by following extreme protocols you found online. If your blood glucose is dropping, without symptoms, and you aren't purposely causing it, you need to immediately discuss it with your doctor, so they can review your medications and/or order additional insulin testing to determine what can be occurring.
4. If my insulin is low, then I should not have any problems regulating my blood glucose.
Low basal insulin alongside blood glucose abnormalities can be indicative that the body is not adjusting to lower insulin levels and it continues to catabolize itself through an unhealthy response to cortisol. This is caused by poor insulin function and will continue occurring even when basal insulin levels are low and not interfering with fasting blood glucose.
This is precisely why the Type II diabetic cannot become complacent with lower insulin levels, as this does not mean they have restored insulin function or adequate insulin sensitivity. After decades of insulin's assault, on the body, things will not level themselves out the moment insulin levels lower. An unhealthy insulin/cortisol interaction puts you in a bad predicament, as cortisol destroys lean muscle mass, promoting more body fat and diabetes.
5. I only have high blood glucose in the mornings, so I am "cured" of diabetes, since my blood glucose is normal afterwards.
High blood glucose in the morning is known as "dawn phenomenon" (DP). DP is indicative of poor glucose regulation, because the body is still experiencing exaggerated catabolism from adrenal dysregulation. This effect usually occurs once prediabetes becomes diabetes, as the prediabetic can still retain control of their morning blood glucose and loses control of their postprandial blood glucose instead.
Insulin is an anabolic hormone, but can actually be best described as an anti-catabolic hormone. It prevents the body from breaking itself down, and everything you eat, into glucose and ketones. One of the main catabolic hormones is glucagon, which causes high postprandial blood glucose; a very common symptom in metabolic syndrome/diabetes. Glucagon is a counter regulatory hormone to insulin, but glucagon is not the only one and it doesn't work alone. The body has many catabolic hormones, which work together, to protect you from the glucose lowering effects of insulin.
Other catabolic hormones include epinephrine, norepinephrine, growth hormone and cortisol (stress hormones), which also counter regulate the effects of insulin and are known as glucocorticoids. Glucocorticoid hormones are produced by the adrenal cortex under control of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. They function in targeted tissues by binding to specific receptors and activating different enzymes. Many of these glucocorticoid receptors are expressed in the insulin producing, pancreatic beta cells. The enzymes are expressed in the liver, kidneys and the adipose tissue (fat mass). All of these tissues are impaired in metabolic dysfunction. Incretin hormones also play a part in activating this counter regulatory effect and are also compromised in metabolic disease.
These "stress hormones" are the cause of high morning blood glucose. Basically, the body is averse to lowering of blood glucose during the night time fast so stress hormones begin dumping glucose into the body in order to rise this lowering blood glucose. That is in essence what DP is - an adverse reaction to fasting. Metabolic syndrome/diabetes are conditions where the body's glucose, insulin and body fat are set to high points. The body does not want lowering of glucose. It panics when that occurs because insulin abnormalities have been dropping fasting blood glucose too low, too often.
If you are still experiencing this, in the mornings, your protocol is not addressing your blood glucose regulation properly.
6. Dawn phenomenon (DP) is a normal event for people with metabolic syndrome.
Just because exaggerated DP is common in people with insulin resistance, does not mean it's normal and has to be accepted. DP can adversely affect your blood glucose homeostasis, as hyperglycemia is never a good thing.
Aside from that, DP causes many other health issues, which will only worsen your insulin resistance, including unmitigated inflammation, compromising pancreatic beta cell function and loss of lean muscle mass. Loss of muscle mass, only spares fat mass, so anything that contributes to this loss, will only worsen your metabolic function.
6. Dawn phenomenon (DP) is a normal event for people with metabolic syndrome.
Just because exaggerated DP is common in people with insulin resistance, does not mean it's normal and has to be accepted. DP can adversely affect your blood glucose homeostasis, as hyperglycemia is never a good thing.
Aside from that, DP causes many other health issues, which will only worsen your insulin resistance, including unmitigated inflammation, compromising pancreatic beta cell function and loss of lean muscle mass. Loss of muscle mass, only spares fat mass, so anything that contributes to this loss, will only worsen your metabolic function.
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