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Authors: Robert C. Atkins
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pressure, according to the National Heart, Blood and Lung Institute, say that slightly elevated blood pressure—between 120/80 mmHg and 139/89 mmHg—is now considered prehypertension. 39 It’s a warning sign that hypertension may be in your future unless you start taking better care of yourself. How? Blood pressure is generally very responsive to fat loss and increased exercise. Is this beginning to sound familiar?
Blood pressure is also responsive to the Atkins Blood Sugar Control Program. It does this by normalizing your high insulin levels, which decreases sodium retention, which in turn releases excess fluid. For many of you,this means your blood pressure will probably come down quickly.As more progress is made with fat loss and exercise,your blood pressure may well return to normal even without medication.
High Fasting Blood Sugar
High fasting blood sugar (100 mg/dL or higher) first thing in the morning after not eating for at least eight hours is a sign of the metabolic syndrome and an independent warning that diabetes could lie in your future. Of all the signs of the metabolic syndrome, it’s the one that’s most likely to alarm your doctor,especially now that prediabetes has been established as an official diagnosis. (See Chapter 5 on prediabetes for more on this.) If you are really paying attention,you will note that the criterion for the metabolic syndrome is a blood sugar of 110 mg/dL or higher; however,the more recent definition of prediabetes is actually lower at 100 mg/dL.
High fasting blood sugar (FBS), however, is usually a fairly late development among people who have the metabolic syndrome—most people develop all the other signs first. In those with the metabolic syndrome, only about 13 percent had either elevated fasting blood sugar or were being treated for diabetes. 40
Yet Dr. Atkins found that the vast majority of his patients had evidence of abnormal insulin/blood sugar metabolism when tested with his protocols (see Chapter 6, Diagnosis: Diabetes). The FBS alone doesn’t detect this problem in many patients until late in their disease, when the damage has already begun.
If the metabolic syndrome is so closely associated with diabetes, why is high blood sugar often the last sign to develop? Because the process of inflammation, insulin resistance, and the changes in your metabolic profile begin long before blood sugar abnormalities can be easily detected by the standard recommended blood test. That’s why you only need to have three of the five signs to be diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome—and that’s why high blood sugar doesn’t have to be one of them. Dr. Atkins spent decades measuring his patients’ blood sugar and insulin levels for five hours after a glucose load and observed firsthand how long you can have a potentially dangerous imbalance of blood sugar and insulin before your fasting blood sugar goes up.
OTHER SIGNALS OF THE METABOLIC SYNDROME
High levels of an important marker for inflammation called C-reactive protein (CRP) are nearly three times as common in people who show signs of the metabolic syndrome as in people without any such signs. 41 The more signs of metabolic syndrome you have, the higher your CRP level is likely to be. Because it’s now easy and inexpensive to test CRP levels in the blood, this important marker shouldn’t be overlooked, especially if you have other components of the metabolic syndrome. (We’ll discuss this marker more in Chapter 9, The Cardiac Connection.)
Another important risk factor associated with the metabolic syndrome is what doctors call the prothrombotic state. If you have this, your blood is more likely to form a clot inside a blood vessel. If this happens in an artery that nourishes your heart,it causes a heart attack. If it happens in an artery that nourishes your brain, you’ll have a stroke. If it happens in a leg vein, it’s called deep venous thrombosis, or DVT, and the clot can break off and go to your heart, lungs,
Blood pressure is also responsive to the Atkins Blood Sugar Control Program. It does this by normalizing your high insulin levels, which decreases sodium retention, which in turn releases excess fluid. For many of you,this means your blood pressure will probably come down quickly.As more progress is made with fat loss and exercise,your blood pressure may well return to normal even without medication.
High Fasting Blood Sugar
High fasting blood sugar (100 mg/dL or higher) first thing in the morning after not eating for at least eight hours is a sign of the metabolic syndrome and an independent warning that diabetes could lie in your future. Of all the signs of the metabolic syndrome, it’s the one that’s most likely to alarm your doctor,especially now that prediabetes has been established as an official diagnosis. (See Chapter 5 on prediabetes for more on this.) If you are really paying attention,you will note that the criterion for the metabolic syndrome is a blood sugar of 110 mg/dL or higher; however,the more recent definition of prediabetes is actually lower at 100 mg/dL.
High fasting blood sugar (FBS), however, is usually a fairly late development among people who have the metabolic syndrome—most people develop all the other signs first. In those with the metabolic syndrome, only about 13 percent had either elevated fasting blood sugar or were being treated for diabetes. 40
Yet Dr. Atkins found that the vast majority of his patients had evidence of abnormal insulin/blood sugar metabolism when tested with his protocols (see Chapter 6, Diagnosis: Diabetes). The FBS alone doesn’t detect this problem in many patients until late in their disease, when the damage has already begun.
If the metabolic syndrome is so closely associated with diabetes, why is high blood sugar often the last sign to develop? Because the process of inflammation, insulin resistance, and the changes in your metabolic profile begin long before blood sugar abnormalities can be easily detected by the standard recommended blood test. That’s why you only need to have three of the five signs to be diagnosed with the metabolic syndrome—and that’s why high blood sugar doesn’t have to be one of them. Dr. Atkins spent decades measuring his patients’ blood sugar and insulin levels for five hours after a glucose load and observed firsthand how long you can have a potentially dangerous imbalance of blood sugar and insulin before your fasting blood sugar goes up.
OTHER SIGNALS OF THE METABOLIC SYNDROME
High levels of an important marker for inflammation called C-reactive protein (CRP) are nearly three times as common in people who show signs of the metabolic syndrome as in people without any such signs. 41 The more signs of metabolic syndrome you have, the higher your CRP level is likely to be. Because it’s now easy and inexpensive to test CRP levels in the blood, this important marker shouldn’t be overlooked, especially if you have other components of the metabolic syndrome. (We’ll discuss this marker more in Chapter 9, The Cardiac Connection.)
Another important risk factor associated with the metabolic syndrome is what doctors call the prothrombotic state. If you have this, your blood is more likely to form a clot inside a blood vessel. If this happens in an artery that nourishes your heart,it causes a heart attack. If it happens in an artery that nourishes your brain, you’ll have a stroke. If it happens in a leg vein, it’s called deep venous thrombosis, or DVT, and the clot can break off and go to your heart, lungs,
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