Metabolic Medicine

Have you ever heard the phrase, “life is a balancing act?” It is the idea of achieving a healthy mental-physical state with a good blend of work, play and other activities. The health of your body at the biochemical level is also a balancing act involving many metabolic pathways communicating and interacting with each other within the cells of our organs and tissues – in other words, metabolic balance. Genetic predispositions combined with over-exposure to certain external factors, such as toxins, carcinogens (smoking, etc.) or even food, can cause you to have a metabolic imbalance. If not corrected, this metabolic disorder can lead you to having a disease. So, how can you tell if you have metabolic disorder?

Numerous seemingly unrelated symptoms may chronically plague you because of metabolic imbalance. A metabolic test or metabolic assessment performed by the renowned holistic medical doctors at Michael Rothman MD can help you get to the bottom of a variety of health problems caused by metabolic disorder.

The Top Metabolic Imbalances:

Electrolyte Stress

If your electrolytes (minerals that carry electrical charges) are imbalanced in your body fluids, all other systems will be compromised because your transport system will not work properly. An excess of certain minerals places stress on your kidneys and your heart. This mineral imbalance can cause your blood to “clump” resulting in poor circulation. This can contribute to elevated blood pressure, cardiovascular disease and problems with the transportation of nutrients and waste products throughout your circulation and tissues.

Electrolyte Insufficiency

With electrolyte insufficiency, your mineral intake is too low or your body cannot retain the minerals. This can cause you to have low blood pressure, fatigue, depression and other symptoms. The cause of an electrolyte insufficiency is either low intake of minerals, impaired adrenal function, which fails to make the necessary mineral corticoid hormones to keep the minerals in your circulation, or “weak kidneys,” which are unable to adequately control your mineral levels.

Anabolic Imbalance

With this, you have an inability to use adequate oxygen in producing energy. Instead of combining glucose with oxygen to produce energy, your cells ferment glucose and lactic acid is produced. This inefficiency may result in fatigue. In addition, there are too much of the sterol fats (like cholesterol) and not enough fatty acids in your cell membranes, causing cell walls to not be permeable enough. Your symptoms can include constipation, dizziness, depression, fatigue, low energy and high blood pressure.

Catabolic Imbalance

With this, you have a pathological usage of oxygen in producing energy. Instead of combining glucose with oxygen to produce energy, glucose “burns” excessively producing free radicals instead. This inefficiency may result in fatigue. In addition, there are not enough sterol fats (like cholesterol) and too many fatty acids in your cell membranes, causing your cell walls to be overly permeable and fragile. Your symptoms can include diarrhea, dizziness, migraine headaches, joint pains, insomnia and elevated cholesterol.

Glucogenic Imbalance

This has everything to do with the control of blood sugar. Here, you use up carbohydrates (starches and sugars) too quickly, and you end up with difficulty using fat for energy. Therefore, you are prone to low blood sugar with all of the ramifications of hypoglycemia including excessive hunger, weight gain, emotional problems, inability to concentrate, anxiety and fatigue. A byproduct of this metabolic imbalance is the profound effect it has on acid-base balance in your body, because your overdependence on carbohydrate metabolism results in the excessive production of carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide then becomes carbonic acid, which can make you overly acidic.

Ketogenic Imbalance

This imbalance also has everything to do with the control of blood sugar, but from the opposite side compared to the Glucogenic Imbalance. Here, you use up fat very well but are unable to metabolize carbohydrates (starches and sugars) efficiently. Therefore, the unmetabolized carbohydrates in your blood result in elevated blood sugars. These sugars need to be stored in your body and will be deposited as triglycerides (fat). An additional problem is that your lack of carbohydrate metabolism results in a deficiency of carbon dioxide, hence a dearth of carbonic acid and finally an overly alkaline condition. The Ketogenic Imbalance can therefore contribute to you having many metabolic disorder symptoms including weight gain, diabetes, heart disease, muscle spasms, fatigue, and emotional and psychiatric disturbances.

ANS Imbalance

Your ANS is composed of two parts, your sympathetic nervous system (SNS) and your parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). If you were to be frightened by a loud noise or a threatening situation, then your SNS would be activated. Your heart rate would increase, your blood pressure would rise, your pupils would enlarge, your airways would expand, the mucus production in your nose, throat, lungs and bowels would cease, your blood sugar would rise, your immune system would stop working. These effects all occur almost instantly when you are faced with a threatening situation. Your body has been programmed through evolution to survive these situations by activating this SNS.

Your SNS is like the “gas pedal” in your body. Where there is a gas pedal, there better be a brake, otherwise these functions would continue and your body would suffer harm. Your PNS is like the “brake” in your body. When your PNS is activated, your heart rate decreases, your blood pressure drops, your pupils constricts, your airways contracts, the mucus production in your nose, throat, lungs and bowels increases, your blood sugar drops, and your immune system activates.

Some people (you may be one of them) have very sensitive autonomic nervous systems and can overreact to external and internal stimuli. This situation is called Autonomic dysfunction. Autonomic dysfunction (an over or under active system) can therefore lead you to have many different symptoms of metabolic imbalance. For example, if you have an overactive SNS (or under active PNS) this can contribute to high blood pressure, palpitations, anxiety, constipation, ulcers, insomnia, high blood sugars, dry mouth, immune system problems and erectile dysfunction. If you have an overactive PNS, (or under active SNS) this can contribute to low blood pressure.

Immune System Imbalance

Many people are suffering from some form of “autoimmune disease”. These “autoimmune” patients often are genetically predisposed to biotoxin illness. If you are genetically susceptible to biotoxin illness like mold, then your adaptive immune system (antibody producing system) is unable to recognize these biotoxins. Consequently, your will not be able to produce antibodies to these biotoxins. How can you kill that which you cannot detect?

However, your innate immune system will respond to biotoxin exposure and unleash an attack on the biotoxins in your body. This primitive and imprecise part of your immune system will attempt to burn up the biotoxins by releasing inflammatory chemicals known as cytokines. Normally your innate and adaptive immune systems work together to eradicate biotoxins. However, if you are genetically susceptible than you have an immunological “blind spot” and never make the antibodies needed to completely destroy the biotoxins. Consequently, your innate (primitive) system keeps producing cytokines, wreaking havoc on your body. Over time, these cytokines produce a chronic inflammatory response syndrome (CIRS), which resembles flu-like symptoms.