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Syndrome X.

Problems: 

It's a threefold problem, and it's easily corrected with lifestyle changes.

Syndrome X is fairly straightforward: it's hyperinsulinemia, that is, too much insulin in your blood.

Paul Bergner has a nice class handout on Syndrome X. I found that paper with the full-text search of the website of his excellent journal "Medical Herbalism". (A sidenote about that journal: it's invaluable to the practitioner: the leading articles dive into things we see in clients every day, and explain why we see them. Subscribe, and get the full set of back issues as well, is what I'm saying.) (I thought Paul had done an article on Syndrome X, as well, but alas, I can't find it. I'm missing volume 11, #3 and 4, though, so it might be in that.)

So, on to my comments. I'm writing about syndrome x in my blog because there was a large article about it in our leading newspaper - and the writer was all excited because you can now take drugs for it.

Don't.

If you were to take drugs (or herbs, for that matter), for this very common problem, you'd get a plethora of side effects. Because those drugs (or herbs) won't address the cause, they address one or more symptom(s).

There is no magic pill.

If you have hyperinsulinemia, you need to do three things:

1) ditch the carbs.
2) exercise.
3) do magnesium, chromium, zinc, B6, C, E, and omega-3 oils, among others.

Too much simple carbs means you have too much sugar in your blood, which means that your blood insulin levels go up. If you want to really crash your body, sleep for too little (say, 4 hours a night) for too long (say, 4 days) on top of your carb habit. That'll leave you with 40 % more glucose in the blood ... that's as much as you get in gestational diabetes, the diabetes of pregnancy.

You can test for blood insulin levels by checking your blood levels of triglycerides (free fats) - insulin and triglycerides go hand in hand.

You can also check for blood insulin levels directly, but those tests are very difficult and therefore, very very expensive - and you'll be hard pressed to find anybody to do those tests.

Blood insulin levels do not go hand in hand with blood sugar levels.

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The Hyperinsulinemia series: Cravings - Craving magnesium - Craving carbs - Doing without carbs - Syndrome X - Cell responses to insulin - Syndrome X supplements
Related entries: Hyperinsulinemia.