#170: How Out of Control Blood Sugar Can Cause Belly Fat, Brain Fog, and Chronic Disease

Most of us hear the term “metabolic health” and think it only applies to our ability to burn food and manage our weight. And while those are certainly big pieces of metabolic health, it also impacts everything from our cardiovascular health to cognition, mood, infertility, and so much more. That’s because our metabolism is actually our body’s ability to create energy and this happens all over the body. If our energy production in the brain is hindered, we could have memory loss; if it’s not functioning properly in muscle cells, we may see chronic pain—and the list goes on. On today’s Broken Brain Podcast, Dr. Casey Means, sits down with Dhru to explain how we can use continuous blood glucose monitoring to dramatically improve our health in all of these ways and beyond. Dr. Casey Means is a Stanford-trained physician, Chief Medical Officer and Co-founder of metabolic health company Levels, and Associate Editor of the International Journal of Disease Reversal and Prevention. Her mission is to maximize human potential and reverse the epidemic of preventable chronic disease by empowering individuals with tech-enabled tools that can inform smart, personalized, and sustainable dietary and lifestyle choices.  Dr. Means has been featured in Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, The Hill, Metabolism, Endocrine Today, Endocrine Web, Well + Good, and Dr. Michael Greger’s (author of How to Not Die) video series. She is an award-winning biomedical researcher, with past research positions at the NIH, Stanford School of Medicine, and NYU. In this episode, Dhru and Dr. Means dive deep into the concept of continuous blood glucose monitoring, something Dr. Means is pioneering to make more accessible to the masses, and how we can use that data to truly personalize our diet and lifestyle for optimal health. They discuss how our diet and lifestyle have fundamentally changed in a way that greatly impacts how we regulate blood sugar, and how it’s wreaking havoc on our metabolic health. They also talk about how there is no perfect diet for everyone, and even healthy foods like sweet potatoes may cause a blood sugar spike in one person but be fine for someone else. Seeing this information in real-time lets us make better decisions with immediate pay off for how we feel, as well as long-term protection against chronic disease. In this episode, we dive into:-How metabolic health impacts overall health (3:08) -Healthy foods that could be throwing your blood sugar out of control (15:22) -How a continuous glucose monitor can help you personalize your diet and optimize your health (20:07)-Dhru’s experience using a continuous glucose monitor (24:18)-Why continuously spiking your glucose doesn’t allow you to burn fat (27:56) -How to personalize your diet with a continuous glucose monitor (35:58)-Why a high carbohydrate meal in the evening impacts your sleep (41:10) -The keto diet and metabolic flexibility (54:16)-COVID-19 and metabolic disorder (59:54)-How listeners can sign up for Levels (1:08:35)For more on Dr. Casey Means you can follow her on Instagram @drcaseyskitchen and @levels, on Twitter @levels, and through her website https://www.levelshealth.com/. Sign up for early access to Levels Metabolic Fitness Program here: levels.link/brokenbrain. The program includes a telehealth consultation with a physician in your state, two sensors shipped to your door, and Levels software. For more on Dhru Purohit, be sure to follow him on Instagram @dhrupurohit, on Facebook @dhruxpurohit, on Twitter @dhrupurohit, and on YouTube @dhrupurohit. You can also text Dhru at (302) 200-5643 or click here https://my.community.com/dhrupurohit.Interested in joining Dhru’s Broken Brain Podcast Facebook Community? Submit your request to join here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2819627591487473/.This episode of Broken Brain is brought to you by Thrive Market.Right now, Thrive is offering all my listeners an amazing deal - When you sign up for a new membership, you will receive a free gift. And, any time you spend more than $49, you’ll get free carbon-neutral shipping from one of their zero-waste warehouses.Thrive Market makes it so easy to stay stocked with healthy ingredients so you can make the best salads in your own kitchen. Just go to thrivemarket.com/brokenbrain, sign up, and start filling up your cart - you’ll see the credit automatically deducted at checkout. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.