Focus on Everyday Life to Optimize Metabolism

“Visit MRC The Villages to Set the Groundwork for Metabolic Efficiency”

Although healthy macronutrients, such as lean sources of protein, pasture-raised eggs, fatty fish, Greek yogurt, and low-carb high-fiber whole foods, can help to balance your immune system, it is important to understand the misnomer pictured above. Your immune system is a complex network that requires balance for optimal function. But a boosted immune system could easily trigger severe inflammation that might lead to autoimmune diseases.

A healthy metabolism is fundamentally in metabolic homeostasis and efficiently balances energy intake, energy expenditure, and fat storage as needed. The steady state supports proper cell function for providing the fuel your body needs based on a set point for stability. So, your metabolism matches the calories consumed to the calories burned to prevent unhealthy weight changes via negative feedback loops that sense shifts like rising glucose and reverses them.

Optimizing your metabolism provides fuel flexibility, which is the ability for your body to switch between burning carbohydrates and fats based on availability. This allows cells to be fully functional for absorbing nutrients needed for proper repair. However, if this delicate balance is disrupted or broken by consistently consuming more energy than what is spent, it can lead to obesity, diabetes, or other weight-related metabolic disorders. Fact is, you cannot have a healthy metabolism without homeostasis, which requires a functional metabolism.

Key connections between immunity and metabolic health...

Your immune system and metabolic health are profoundly connected through a bidirectional relationship known as immunometabolism. This is where immune cell function is dictated by chemical signaling in key metabolic pathways that include the role of adipose tissue as an immune hub, the metabolic demands of immune cell activation, and presence of low-grade inflammation. In fact, excess fat acts as an active immune organ that releases pro-inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, in obese individuals, shift to pro-inflammatory macrophage increase insulin resistance. Metabolic reprogramming in immune cells change metabolism based on their activation state to rapidly generate energy and building blocks for long-term survival. But, obesity is known to cause exhaustion of immune cells that reduces their ability to fight viruses or respond to vaccines. High blood sugar levels, on the other hand, promotes autoimmunity when proteins are misidentified as foreign intruders.

PROTEINS TO BALANCE NOT BOOST YOUR IMMUNE SYSTEM

Protein may be your body’s hardest working macronutrient as it plays a key role in so many bodily processes. But surprisingly, in the United States, many older adults may not be including enough high-quality sources of protein in their diets. Nonetheless, maintaining a healthy protein intake each day is very important as you age because it is key in maintaining one’s lean muscle mass. Muscles are a major regulator of glucose, especially during physical activities when reduced insulin sensitivity helps ensure cells do not utilize glucose for energy.

Insulin-resistant cells lose the natural ability to efficiently switch between burning carbohydrates and fats (metabolic inflexibility). When glucose cannot enter cells, it can lead to the accumulation of fat in places where it doesn’t belong like attached to your liver or muscles. So, insulin resistance must be viewed as an adaptive mechanism that preserves glucose for your brain during periods of starvation by restricting  its use by other tissues. This dysfunctional nutritional state then impairs energy utilization and can cause metabolic disorders.

To balance your immune system, start early in the day by consuming adequate proteins like eggs, which are a highly bioavailable source of both protein and essential nutrients. Plus, your personalized protein forward menu plan should include a variety of high-quality food sources to ensure your body has the full spectrum of amino acids and nutrients needed. Healthy preparation methods like steam or poached can prevent disruptions to your immune function. However, your goal is sufficient intake, not overloading of protein at a given meal.

________________________

Supporting a healthy immune system is linked to improving your overall metabolic health and wellbeing, but saying you need to boost your immune system is an overused misnomer. That’s because an overactive immune system causes chronic inflammation and can actually increase insulin resistance and disrupt metabolic efficiency. So, the goal at MRC The Villages is to achieve balance that ensures immunity, as chronic inflammation is the cause of disorders like type 2 diabetes and obesity. If you’ve been trying to decide whether a prescription-based weight loss plan or a more holistic metabolic weight loss program is right for you, contact MRC The Villages today. One of our weight loss coaches will be in touch to discuss how hormone imbalances, genetic factors and key lifestyle habits may have slowed your metabolism and led to unintended weight gain. After all, hormonal balance can be restored and disrupted metabolic rates can be reset with a personalized approach.