Peptides are building blocks. They are chains of amino acids. Ok! Great, what is an amino acid and why should I care? Hold that question, we’ll get there eventually, I hope.
Peptides are mainly amino acid chains of between two and fifty amino acids. If an amino acid chain has more than fifty, then we call it a protein. Amino acids are organic compounds composed mainly of nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen. It depends on the structure and shape of the compound as to what purpose it serves. These peptides are transcriptions from the genetic code. Yes, you are a computer program when you peel away the layers. Peptides mainly serve as hormones. And there are many.
But the big one to consider and be aware of is insulin. Insulin, as you know, governs the actions of glucose or sugar. All carbohydrates are converted to glucose after consuming. Insulin is the hormone which allows glucose to enter cells to be used for energy. When there is insufficient insulin, or when insulin is worn out from overwork, your body will turn glucose into glycogen and store it in the liver.
Once the liver becomes full of glycogen and can’t store any more, then it is shunted to adipose tissue which stores glycogen as fat. Along the way, eventually, you will develop non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Whoops! I’ve been there and done that. Thankfully, I was able to reverse course.
Your pancreas is responsible for the production of insulin. If you over consume carbs, you are demanding more from your body than it can handle. It’s kind of like insulin gets mad at your over consumption and insulin resistance begins. You’ve used up the storage in your liver and now you have belly fat, love handles and/or big hips. You’re teeming with stored energy. When are you going to stop relying on glucose and start using that stored energy?
In conjunction with this pattern, you are not exercising very much. You are not using up the energy you are taking in. Insulin becomes resistant to the idea that it has way too many sugary, high glycemic foods and says, “Forget it. I am not doing this any more until you stop with the donuts and sugary soft drinks.”
Downstream from insulin are the sex hormones. Progesterone, estrogen and testosterone. None of them will work very well under the influence of insulin resistance. Upstream from insulin are the mood hormones like oxytocin, dopamine and serotonin. So why should you care about peptides? Let’s look at it this way: Eat a good diet containing the necessary nutrients, amino acids and the like, exercise your body and use up the energy load, reduce stress, get enough sleep, then your peptides will take care of you.
How Do I Reverse Insulin Resistance?
How does insulin work. Insulin regulates the metabolism and is the key that unlocks the cell’s glucose channel
Now there is a question I like! Now we are delving below the surface of symptoms and getting to the core of the matter.
Here are the steps:
Eat within a time window like 8 hours a day
Walk in nature everyday (or find other fun activities)
Reduce high glycemic carbs, sugar, soda, processed foods
Eat less
If you follow these four steps you will find you are becoming more insulin sensitive. You’ll experience weight loss. You’ll rekindle your sex drive.
Eat within a time window like 8 hours a day: You probably caught on that eating within a time container might also be called “fasting.” It sounds weird, religious or somehow yucky, like you got to something really hard, like starving to death. No. Not true. You will not starve.
You already fast everyday. From the time your head hits the pillow until you wake up in the morning you are fasting or abstaining from eating. Unless you are getting up at 3 o’clock in the morning to raid the fridge, you should be sleeping, fasting and regenerating your body.
If you postpone breakfast until 11 or even 12 and then don’t bother to change your diet but mind the time and don’t eat after 7 or 8 pm then you can eat what you want and you will see changes. You are flipping the script, instead of eating 16 hours a day and fasting 8 hours, now you are committed to changing the ratio. Try 10 hours and 14 or another combination of a window for not eating vs. consumption. You’re looking for 16/8 eating with a 16 fast and an 8 hour window to feast. Repeat after me, “I am not fasting, I am getting ready to feast! “
Walk in nature everyday (or find other fun activities) The idea here is to move your body. I find it doubly beneficial to walk in nature. There is so much going on in nature if you take the time to observe her. Even if you start with 10 minutes of walking a day, you’ll get benefits.
I started with 10 minutes of walking a day as early as possible for the extra benefit of getting early morning sun on my face. This is a practice that encourages a healthy circadian rhythm, which in turn helps the sleep cycle. Now, most days I walk for one to two hours because I get so many benefits. Don’t say you don’t have time. I’m only asking for ten minutes (to start.)
Reduce high glycemic carbs, sugar, soda, processed foods: After a few weeks of steps one and two, I’d encourage you to start finding better, more wholesome foods to eat. If you have a soda addiction, then take the step to not keep it in the house. Keep drinking it with meals when out if you must, but step by step you’ll get the message subconsciously to make these important changes. If it’s in the house, it will get consumed by someone. Next week, we’ll let go of the ice cream.
The heavily refined sugars literally are poisonous to us normal human beings. Now it could be different for Class A athletes who have competitions ahead of them. They will fast, cut weight and train and train and train, but on the day of competition, they’ll load carbs like crazy. Stacks of pancakes dripping with syrup, I still see this image of Michael Phelps at the Japanese Olympics where he won 7 gold medals. Slowly, step by step you can morph your diet into healthy and wholesome if you have sufficient reasons why you should. Motivation is a whole other class we can talk about later.
Eat less: You’ll find after some time you want to eat less. Advance classes on ghrelin and leptin, two more hormones, can help you work with your satiety and hunger hormones. As a society, we generally are eating way too much and not exercising enough. One easy way to eat less is to give away your 12 inch plates and use 9 inch plates. Don’t take seconds except on Thanksgiving and Christmas! If you fill a 9 inch plate, eat slowly while enjoying good conversation with friends and family, then wait about 15 minutes after eating, you will figure out strangely, you are full! Neat trick, huh?
The end result is that your A1C levels will go down, your glucose will stabilize and you will be in control.
How Berberine Helps: Berberine is a plant extract or alkaloid with a long history of use in traditional Chinese medicine. Numerous studies have shown that berberine can help to lower blood sugar levels and improve insulin sensitivity, making it an effective natural treatment for diabetes type II. In one study, berberine was found to be as effective as the diabetes drug metformin in lowering blood sugar levels.
Berberine works by activating an enzyme called AMPK, which plays a key role in regulating metabolism. Activation of AMPK has been shown to help improve insulin sensitivity and lower blood sugar levels. In addition, berberine has also been shown to increase glucose uptake into cells and reduce the production of glucose by the liver.
