Vibing Well with Dr. Stacy (A Foundational Approach to Healing the LIFESTYLE)
Dr. Stacy, a traditional Naturopath who specializes in Functional (Foundational/Lifestlye) Medicine, is answering your questions in regards to health and healing. From hormones to gut healing and everything in between - listen in as she shares stories of her own healing journey, what she sees clinically, and what she has researched to give you the most up to date answers when it comes to healing holistically.
*This information is not meant to be taken as medical advice, or to replace the advice of your practitioner or primary care. It is also not meant to diagnose, treat, or cure diseases.
Vibing Well with Dr. Stacy (A Foundational Approach to Healing the LIFESTYLE)
#067 The Truth About Fat Storage (Rethinking Metabolic Health) and Top Causes of Frequent Urination
Fat distribution matters more than weight alone for metabolic health, with invisible fat deposits in the liver, visceral area, and muscles driving inflammation before subcutaneous fat accumulates. These hidden fat stores can cause metabolic dysfunction even in people who appear thin, with liver fat becoming problematic at just 0.5 pounds while subcutaneous fat allows up to 22 pounds before similar risks develop.
• Different fat storage locations have varying impacts on metabolic health
• Subcutaneous fat is the least inflammatory and serves as energy storage, insulation, and hormonal signaling
• Intramuscular fat directly impairs insulin sensitivity and muscle function
• Visceral/abdominal fat secretes inflammatory cytokines and correlates with stress hormones
• Liver fat most dramatically impairs metabolic function even in tiny amounts
• About 40% of people with metabolic dysfunction have no visible weight issues
• Diet composition, stress levels, movement patterns, and sleep all influence fat storage locations
• Testing options include DEXA scans, Hume Health Body Pod, liver enzymes, waist-to-hip ratio
• Building muscle, reducing refined carbs and alcohol, and managing stress reduce metabolically active fat
• Frequent urination often connects to blood sugar issues, mineral imbalances, and dehydration
Hydration reccomendations/Minerals/Electrolytes
For everything else, check out the links below:
HUME Health BODYpod code DRSTACY
Code: DRSTACY
More:
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Nutrisense CGM (my absolute go-to for all things metabolic health, now 33% off with my code DRSTACY)
Blood Sugar and Ketone Testing Masterclass Mentioned:
https://stacy-baker.mykajabi.com/offers/oFFzhFSz
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Mycircadian APP DOCTOR (code)
Ra Optics (Code DRSTACYND)
Bon Charge (Code DRSTACY) red light panel and circadian bulbs
Higher Dose (my FAV sauna blanket with low to no EMF) code DRSTACY
CGM (Code DRSTACY for 33% off!)
Analemma Water (struct
This information is just that; information only - not to be taken as medical advice. Please contact your primary care before changing anything to your routine. This information is not mean to diagnose, treat, or cure disease.
This is Vibing Well with Dr Stacey. I'm a traditional naturopath who loves to focus on the lifestyle, the things that we repeat every single day to help empower people regain their health, and today's episode is no different. We're going to be talking about how thinking about subcutaneous fat is not necessarily a marker for health, how we need to be thinking about fat distributions and other areas and what that means metabolically, what it means to our overall and systemic health, and how some places can actually be way more inflammatory than just having a little bit of subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that we see that we're always trying to shrink right. So let's talk about that. We'll also talk about things like frequent urination to round out the conversation, because it does go hand in hand in some aspects. Let's dive in, hang tight and I'll be right back.
Speaker 1:I really want to dive in on this topic because I find it to be very important, because I think we just kind of just like so many things. We just have these blanket statements. We blanket statement fat and just assume if we're not overweight, right, we just have these blanket statements. So we blanket statement fat and just assume, like, if we're not overweight, if we don't have abdominal fat. If we don't have a weight issue, then there could not be an inflammation issue. And it's not to scare anyone, but also to say, hey, some people store fat in other areas. That's actually way more metabolically active and we have to be always thinking about this in a population that is 93 plus percent metabolically inflexible and that most of our you know chronic diseases and everything else stem from metabolic dysfunction. We have to be thinking about these things right. So shrinking our body doesn't always mean that we are going to get the results that we desire, and when we understand what subcutaneous fat actually does for us, then you'll understand that from a little bit of a different perspective. It doesn't always equate to metabolic health, is what I'm getting at. So what different storage areas mean for our systemic health is what we're going to dive into today and, of course, how to support them, the top causes and fixes of these, as well as the issue of frequent urination that I was asked to touch on. So let's talk about all these things. So not all fat stores are created equally right. So we're going to talk about that and we're going to talk about how much fat we need until it becomes an issue, until it really becomes, affecting our metabolism, how we make and produce energy, our mitochondria, all of these things. Right, how much fat in each of these areas? Until it's an issue. But let's start going through the categories first.
Speaker 1:So I mentioned subcutaneous fat first, and this is what we associate with obesity. It is also associated, of course, with insulin resistant metabolic issues and it is essentially the fat we're always trying to lose, right and given. We don't want to be obese by any means and we don't want to normalize when the body is showing those signs of stress. But we have to understand that having the obesity, having excess subcutaneous fat, is sort of uh in effect, versus a cause. And when you learn that the body's going to store fat in other areas first, and how that contributes to metabolic dysfunction first and foremost, it's another reason why a lot of us have trouble losing weight and keeping it off because we haven't addressed the fat depot storage areas in all of these other places.
Speaker 1:So, essentially, subcutaneous fat is beneath our skin, right, this is the pinch test, right, when we visibly see we have more fat than we, um, otherwise feel comfortable with, that is our subcutaneous fat, right. So it is right, beneath the skin. Now, this is essentially a battery pack of energy. Now, some people cannot access that energy right, and that is a problem. Now, this is essentially a battery pack of energy. Now, some people cannot access that energy right, and that is a problem. And that is usually a leptin insulin issue, which I've talked about before.
Speaker 1:Um, but other things that the subcutaneous fat does it provides insulation to the body, right, to help us regulate our body temperature. There's a time and a place, right, we need to have that. Also helps with that leptin signal, right, that comes from our adipose tissue to talk to the hypothalamus, to give us that appropriate energy reading. Right, saying hey, this is how much energy we have on the body, let's burn this amount, let's ramp up the thyroid, let's increase or decrease the metabolism based on that energy reading. And that is a signal that is given from the adipose or the subcutaneous fat. We're going to store excess that the body can't clear, so it's very protective. Think about fat soluble toxins, excess hormones, things like that. So, overall, subcutaneous fat is the least metabolic, it is the least active fat, although we know there's some hormonal signaling happening with leptin things like that. In excess, yes, it will produce inflammatory cytokines. It's just not nearly as reactive as some of these other fats that we're going to be discussing.
Speaker 1:Another thing about subcutaneous fat is where it's distributed can tell us a little bit of some hormonal imbalances, right, so where we are carrying it. So, just for an example, cortisol we're going to have that puffiness in our face often and that mid section weight which we're going to talk about Estrogen is going to be more hips and thighs, androgen is going to be more back of arms. Just things like that can give us a little bit of indication on the hormone imbalances. But, either way, some of that is determined genetically, too is where we're going to store fat when we have some excess.
Speaker 1:This is usually our main focus when we are thinking of fat loss, and usually is what's associated with health, right, and so there's a lot of people that think, well, if I don't have a weight issue, then I'm not metabolically unsound, right, or have metabolic dysfunction or could ever have metabolic dysfunction. Now, the thing that I want you to remember, too, is this is what we're always focused on. We're talking about losing fat, but remember that if we aren't supporting drainage, if we aren't supporting the fat storage in these other areas we're going to be discussing, we are in essence increasing our toxic density, because the subcutaneous fat is very protective for us, right, it's storing things for us excess and so if we don't help the body drain and remove and, like I said, lose fat in these other areas, then that's when we get to that kind of yo-yo weight regain, weight loss pattern happening. So let's switch it up and talk about the muscle or the intramuscular fat. That happens too, and this is, once again, this is independent of obesity and dependent of even abdominal fat or that visceral fat which we're going to talk about. So what that means is we're not always going to see it visibly, like some of the people that see that stress, that inflammation, that do become obese when there's a problem. So when we have excess intramuscular fat, this is going to impair our muscular function, right, the quality of our muscle, the strength and our ability to even work out and recover from those workouts. It is very inflammatory, it's very metabolically active workouts. It is very inflammatory, it's very metabolically active. It's directly going to affect our insulin sensitivity because remember that most glucose uptake should be coming from our muscle, and so if our muscle is storing a lot of excess fat for us, that that's making that tissue insulin resistant before it becomes an insulin resistant situation systemically so definitely is going to directly affect our insulin sensitivity. It's a marker for metabolic dysfunction. It is also very much associated with increased risk of type two, metabolic inflexibility, cardiovascular risk, all of these things. And the thing is we have a lot of muscle tissue, right. We can have years that our muscle is acquiring this fat and storing this fat for us before insulin resistant can show up in the rest of the body. So remember, this is just independent of the obesity and the abdominal fat. So we can, and it can, take up to 10, 15 years of our muscles trying to store this, which is another reason why sedentary living is so anti-health, right, like it just cannot be associated with health being sedentary at all costs for so many reasons. But this is even more of the picture, right, because if we are not helping the muscle get rid of these fat stores, then we are are becoming insulin resistant. Um, just from what's happening on this muscular level. Okay, so there's lots of factors that are that are going through.
Speaker 1:Now let's talk about the abdominal fat. So, visceral fat, abdominal fat, whatever you want to call it. This is the fat that is associated with belly fat. Now sometimes we can see it, sometimes it's lining our organs and our tissues right the liver, the pancreas, things like that Um very highly metabolic, very highly inflammatory. It secretes inflammatory cytokines. It is definitely directly correlated with inflammation and insulin resistant Um.
Speaker 1:Also numerous health issues, like all the metabolic, you know, chronic illnesses, uh, cardiovascular disease, type two, insulin resistance, all the things. It is also directly associated with cortisol and stress and that was something I wanted to talk about a few podcast episodes ago was that when we store fat abdominally and it's really a sign of stress because that abdominal fat, that is a survival instinct, because it can be converted into free fatty acids very quickly if we were, let's just say, in a famine state, and so that's why we store there. We're protecting our organs, but we're also acquiring fat that could. That is very metabolically active, and so it's a protective mechanism and something that we have to be really thinking about. Cortisol when we're trying to bring down the visceral fat and we're going to talk about how to bring down all of these different types of fat as well. So, um, so yeah, it responds quickly to excess calories and can mobilize that quickly for energy. So that's why we store there, um, but within excess is going to definitely be associated with systemic inflammation, and so that's just one of these things I want. I want to make sure we're always talking on, because inflammation is just like. It's a complete blanket statement, like we were talking about stress, um, even just labeling fat, right, and there's clearly so many different factors, and my goal is always to identify the things that are going on internally that are creating that constant inflammatory cascade.
Speaker 1:Now, lastly, I want to talk about hepatic or liver fat, and this is going to impair our ability to regulate blood sugar and fats for energy. It's going to directly contribute once again to metabolic syndrome. It is going to increase the risk of metabolic diseases, like we just mentioned, and will directly lead to things like non-alcoholic fatty liver fibroids and excess cirrhosis in the liver, right. So there's lots of things that go directly to the liver, and I've talked about this too in the Added Sugar podcast episode, which I will link up for you guys, and we'll kind of bring this full circle in this episode as well. But alcohol directly gets converted into triglycerides in the liver, as does added sugar, specifically excess fructose, and so we, as this survival mechanism right, remember that the liver has to be insulin resistant first before the rest of the body follows, just like the muscle. That can also happen too. So it's a protective mechanism.
Speaker 1:So, just so you kind of get an analogy, a bear, when they are preparing for the winter, will eat a ton of fructose. I'm not anti-fruit, but I am anti-fructose excess fructose for lots of reasons, but a lot of it's because of what happens to the liver. So in the Bayer, uh, you know, uh explanation they're making their liver fat and insulin resistant. So everything they eat beyond that will contribute to more fat storage as a survival mechanism. And so we eating excess fructose, uh added, and even alcohol, are doing the same thing. Except we're not hibernating all winter, right, we're trying to live, and now our metabolic health is ruined because we are just drinking, you know, these straight fructose calories or we're, you know, whatever it may be. So it is a survival mechanism that a lot of animals do use as a form of survival, but we do not want our liver to be fat for so many reasons. Um, and we're not hibernating, like I said. So lots of things.
Speaker 1:So directly is going to affect the metabolism and that's out of a place of survival, um, it's going to directly impact our insulin sensitivity and cardiovascular disease risks, the diabetes, cancer, stroke, right? Everything beyond that's associated with metabolic dysfunction. Now, the thing that's really tricky about liver fat or hepatic fat is that we can't see it. Right, and I'm going to talk about some tests. We can run to look for signs of stress, but we cannot see this fat. And it is the most metabolically active, right? It is directly contributing to some of those things that we were talking about insulin resistant, inflammation, metabolic issues. It affects the whole body's insulin sensitivity and all associated metabolic diseases, right? So we don't have to be obese to have issues in this area, right? So the fat distribution does matter. It's not just the weight overall, right. It is how this fat is distributed that will impact our level of metabolic health or metabolic dysfunction, right? So let's talk about how much fat until it's a problem.
Speaker 1:So subcutaneously, we can actually have a lot more subcutaneous fat before it really poses as a health risk Because, remember, it's the least metabolic, the least metabolically active, the least inflammatory. Now, not to say we want to be overweight. We definitely do not. It's a lot of stress. Even just one pound of being overweight is nine pounds of pressure on your joints right. So we definitely want to make sure we are staying in an ideal body weight for us. But we can handle about 22 pounds of subcutaneous fat before it poses as a risk for some of these chronic metabolic diseases.
Speaker 1:Now, visceral fat, so the fat remember our abdominal fat usually because of cortisol. Um, it is also lining those organs and tissues. So we don't always see it, although a lot of people do. When they do gain weight, a lot of it is directly correlated with their midsection. We can really have about five pounds in that area before it poses as an issue. So a lot less right before, because it's more metabolically active, it's more inflammatory.
Speaker 1:Liver fat now what do you think? How much fat do you think that we can really store in the liver before it starts making a systemic issue? So we know the liver is way less, it takes up way less space right Than all of the other places in the body. So we can really store about 0.5 pounds of fat in the liver before it poses as a systemic issue. So we really need to be rethinking fat loss, especially thinking about just visible subcutaneous fat, because remembering that when we gain weight in these other areas, then the obesity, the subcutaneous fat overload is really the effect, right, it's not the cause. And so we have to become insulin resistant first in those other areas before the body becomes overwhelmed and then increases that subcutaneous fat storage, which is another reason. If we are not addressing these other areas of fat storage, then we are going to continue to be on that weight gain and regain roller coaster.
Speaker 1:So, yeah, it's a very superficial, very conditional marker for overall systemic health and metabolic dysfunction. We are only looking at the total weight. We have to be thinking about how that weight is distributed and we'll talk about that. Um, like I said, we'll talk about some ways to support all of these areas and also things you can test for to look for signs of stress, right? Especially if you are not someone who has visible uh, inflammation, visible storage, and you are still showing signs and symptoms that something metabolically is off, and it usually is right. We, 93 of us this has to be one of the things we are working on first and foremost. Okay, this is why I always talk about this in some proximity, because I've seen it be life-changing for so many people.
Speaker 1:So what dictates how we store and where we store this fat? Right? So there is a genetic predisposition. For some of them, and even if you think about just Eastern and Indian cultures, they don't really become obese overall, right? They don't really have much subcutaneous fat. They usually are storing most of the fat in their liver and their visceral areas first, which makes them even more prone to type 2 diabetes and other metabolic dysfunction, because they don't have that protective cushioning like some of us in Northern America and that sort of thing do. The other thing is the type of food we consume is going to dictate where we are promoting more storage. So I've talked about excess added sugar in the diet, refined carbohydrates, fructose in excess fructose not just fruit, but there are a lot of sugary fruits that people who are insulin resistant should not be consuming regularly until they really fix their their response right and increase their insulin sensitivity. And then maybe a little bit more strategic about the types of fruit they're consuming and when in the day, but also thinking about drinking um fruit juice, drinking all um, you know, obviously soft drinks and things like that Alcohol. Those are all promoting those same liver storage pathways. So we really need to make sure that we're honing in on those things so that we can alleviate some of that stress off the liver. Also, a lack of fiber, right, that's another direct correlation and contribution to having more liver or hepatic fat.
Speaker 1:Alcohol, like I mentioned, sedentary living so we talked about how that's so associated with having that muscular insulin resistant and just know that we can compensate for a really long time with that before it's going to show these. You know, kind of scream in those symptoms of inflammation and other systemic issues when it's going to show these. You know kind of scream in those symptoms of inflammation and other systemic issues when it's all directly correlated to what's happening on that muscular level. So what I usually say for this is if we are, you know we already know we're very sedentary, we know we're not lifting weights, we know we're not moving our bodies, those sort of things, and we start to have things like chronic pain and stiffness and things like that, it's very much a sign we need to start working on this component of things. Um, poor sleep really is is going to kind of predispose you to store in any of these areas, right, because the poor sleep in and of itself is going to affect your metabolism, it's going to affect your blood sugar and insulin, all of those things.
Speaker 1:So that is something that we really have to optimize Cortisol directly correlated with visceral fat, because, remember, it's a survival mechanism. If we are sensing a stressor, if we're sensing a famine, something like that, we want to store fat in our abdomen because it's going to be easier to release fatty acids if food was unavailable to us. So that is something that nature just wants us to survive, right, and that, and unfortunately we all run on high cortisol more you know, and we don't. We just normalize it and then we start to stress out that we can't lose weight. We can't, you know, we're gaining in our midsection, things like that. So we really have to identify the things in our day to day that the body is tagging as a threat, that is tagging as a stressor and that could keep cortisol high.
Speaker 1:And I talk about this all the time and I'm sure at the end of this I'll round everything out to to kind of think about what keeps cortisol high in our modern environment. So all of these things, um. And then we even talked about hormones, right, the regulation of fat distribution. So if we are, um, let's just say, estrogen dominant, or if we um, when we become peri and postmenopausal and our estrogen levels decline, that will affect our fat distribution will make us way more predisposition for more of that visceral fat. All the more reason that we need to be making sure we are supporting our lean muscle tissue and working on our insulin sensitivity no matter what, because we just are more predisposed to have that which I see when women are making that transition that's one of the first complaints I see is the midsection weight gain. So all the more reason to support what your body's tagging as a threat and keeping cortisol high, right. So these all are setting the scene for metabolic dysfunction, right. And so when that happens just like I was saying, the bear right With the fat liver for survival, when the liver is insulin resistant, you're going to react so much more aggressively to the food, the lifestyle, right, all of these other things that in that cycle will perpetuate itself.
Speaker 1:So you will become more insulin resistant, you will. You know your blood sugar will spike more for certain things. You might even I even see people see their blood sugar spike when they're in a stressful situation, right, or even fasting too much, or being too low carb, or getting into an argument, or having um travel stress or whatever it may be. We're going to be way more reactive to those things when we have an excess of fat storage. That's very metabolically active, right, very inflammatory. So that is a survival mechanism.
Speaker 1:And so and that's when one thing I kind of want to rein everything in is that if we want to get the body out of survival, we have to know that can only happen in a place of homeostasis, imbalance. So we have to find the things that our body is tagging as a threat, and that could be anything from caffeine to a fasted workout, it could be erratic meal timing, it could be our lighting environment, it could be so many things. And the things that are going to have the most impact on our overall stress hormones are the things that we repeat every single day. So bringing everything in, you know, kind of full circle here, remembering that obesity is the effect, not the cause, and I think I just wanted to shed light on that because I think that's that's where our efforts are always focused and also why we always are at the point of regain.
Speaker 1:We have really we have trouble stabilizing our weight, even if we've lost weight, because we never really entrained the body into metabolic flexibility, we never taught the body how to be fat adapted, we never created an environment where the body could burn through these liver stores, work on the muscle, insulin resistance that's happening. The visceral fat, right, all of those things. If those have not been addressed, then the subcutaneous fat will never stay off, right. And so it's just kind of thinking about this, everything as a system you guys know that I talk about this all the time with hormones, thinking about our drainage pathways, right, like we always have to be thinking about everything as a system and we're always just isolating the subcutaneous fat. That's why it's a very, um, superficial sort of, you know, state of health really overall. So, and remember too that the fat deposits start in the other areas first. We just don't see them and we don't catch them, right.
Speaker 1:And I also want to kind of reel this in that about 40% of people with metabolic dysfunction are do not have abdominal fat, they do not have a weight issue, right, but they have those signs of stress and metabolic dysfunction, right. They have the hormone imbalances, they have the sleep issues, they have the fatigue, the brain fog, the inflammation, right. Some people have weight loss resistance or even an inability to gain weight. Digestive issues, right. The chronic gut issues, right, um, the uh, chronic gut issues, the skin issues that won't heal really, the chronic infection overall, the suppressed immunity all of those things are telltale signs of metabolic dysfunction.
Speaker 1:So the health crisis isn't always just the cardiovascular risk. You know, uh, diagnosis, the heart attack, the stroke, these things are all being set for a really long time before that. Right, our body's compensating, it's trying to frantically store, it's becoming dysfunctional in the process. But we really have to catch these things while the warning lights are going off, while we show those signs and symptoms which, although are normalized, are anything but normal, right, our bodies are designed to run optimally, and so the more we realize that and we stop kind of just waving everything off as age or aging or whatever it may be. Yes, we lose muscle mass as we age, but all the more reason to make that our priority and nip these things in the bud so we aren't caught off guard with all of these other. We lose muscle mass as we age, but all the more reason to make that our priority and nip these things in the bud so we aren't caught off guard with all of these other labels and diagnoses and disease leader, right? So how are we going to support these? Right? That's the biggest thing. What can we change? Right, and then we're going to talk about what we can test, which is another thing that will give us a little bit more power on this journey.
Speaker 1:So, yes, weight loss can be definitely part of it. Right, it's not everything. So, if you are significantly overweight, that is fine, but are you just losing the subcutaneous fat and hoping that you're going to become metabolic? That's really not the key, right? Because I've seen people just shrink their bodies, not gain muscle. Not Because I've seen people just shrink their bodies, not gain muscle, not address the visceral fat, never become fat adapted, never create an environment where blood sugar and insulin and cortisol are low at night that their bodies can really heal and reset and repair, and then they just end up gaining the weight right back, right, and so we need to think about supporting fat gain in all of these areas, especially if we're trying to lower inflammation, because, remember, the subcutaneous fat is the least inflammatory. The other fat is the ones that are producing the cytokines and keeping inflammation really high in the body. So we can't work out our liver right, and so how do we lose weight in the liver? So we can't work out our liver right, and so how do we lose weight in the liver? Well, we have to stop the foods that we are consuming that are directly contributing to that liver fat right, the refined and processed carbohydrates, the sugars, the fructose consumption and excess, the alcohol right.
Speaker 1:Another thing we can do is increase dietary fiber. This is so important. Evolutionarily, our ancestors ate at least a hundred grams of fiber a day. We're lucky if we get like 10 or 15, we really need to be hanging out bare minimum at 25 to 30 and beyond grams of fiber a day and most people are not getting that. And we need that for diversity in the microbiome, we need it for liver health, we need it for hormonal balance, blood sugar and insulin so many things right, even producing healthy levels of our beneficial bacteria and things like butyrate as a postbiotic all these other things.
Speaker 1:We've got to have dietary fiber, and I'm not talking about a supplement, I'm talking about insoluble and soluble fiber from real food sources. And if you eat a diversity of fruits and vegetables heavy on the vegetables, light on the fruit, especially the high sugar fruit then we will get that 25, 30 grams pretty easily. And remember that fiber doesn't always have to just come from those fruits and veggies. Remember that flax, chia, things like that are really great sources of fiber. That will also help us support normal bowel movements, drainage, detoxification and all those other things we were talking about too.
Speaker 1:We also need a healthy level of fat, and so fat has been demonized since the eighties and we've seen it come and go. But we need fat, not just for hormone production all of our hormones but also bioflow, right. So we need that. We need some bitter foods, things like that, that will help promote healthy levels of bioflow, because when our bile gets sluggish and toxic, then we start to get stagnant in other areas and we can't really bind all of the toxins that need to be removed. We can't break them down, we have trouble with B vitamins and fat soluble vitamins and things like that. So we really got to be thinking about how to always improve the bioflow before it becomes an issue, and then supporting drainage as a system right as a whole.
Speaker 1:So the colon, the lymph, the skin, the liver, the kidneys, all of those things. We have to be thinking about how they're all in conjunction with each other, and the thing is as if we aren't supporting all of them. We don't really know. We can see signs and issues that you know, if we have a direct skin eruption or something like that, but that could be directly tied to what's happening in the colon pathway, if we aren't having normal bowel movements, or maybe even in the liver, and so if we support drainage as a whole, we can support any bottlenecking that's happening in that whole system Right, and that's why I like drainage supports that target.
Speaker 1:Basically everything which things like actual, you know, full spectrum of sun, infrared um, sauna, infrared sauna, things like that, even just movement in general, moving your body, all of those things will help with all of the systemic drainage and then taking some time and intention to work in the lymphatic, things like that. So moving right is another way that we are going to help with that muscle, uh, intramuscular fat, right. So as we increase muscle, we're lessening the impact of the pancreas and insulin, right, we're increasing insulin sensitivity and we're making new mitochondria right. That's really important because, remember, metabolic dysfunction and mitochondrial dysfunction fall hand in hand, so we need to be thinking about those synergistically. Always when our mitochondria doesn't work properly and we're not distributing and making energy properly, then we have systemic issues. So if we can support those through one simple thing like movement, we can promote health throughout our whole body. We're also helping with our immune system signaling, because we are helping with our immune system modulation by promoting myokines which are sending really protective signals throughout the body. And we're also you know, I want you to think about that chronic disease starts when fat is depositing itself in these other areas, so in the muscle, in the liver, in the visceral fat, right.
Speaker 1:That's where it starts, and so if we're always attacking the subcutaneous or the visible fat, we're not getting to the root of why it was there in the first place. Okay, before I go off to our second topic, I want to talk about what you guys can measure, so the best thing we can do when we're trying to locate where about a storing fat? Obviously, a DEXA can be really really great for that, if you have access to it. A lot of gyms will do that for you at least when you start, you know and they might do one once a year, every six months or something like that. That can give you a good idea. It's not going to show liver fat, but it will show visceral and it will show you, um, muscle mass and skeletal mass and things like that, which is really great If you really want to target the liver fat, you know you can look for signs of stress on blood work with your liver enzymes like the ALT and ASG, but even better than that is, you could do a liver ultrasound.
Speaker 1:Now, second best to a DEXA, in my opinion, is the Hume Health Body Pod, and I will link that up in the show notes. It's something I've been using and I'm really really pleased with it. It really shows accurate fat distributions, your skeletal mass, something very similar to a home DEXA, but I think the accuracy was within 3% of an actual DEXA scan, which is actually really impressive and it doesn't really have any negative effects from doing that. It uses bioelectrical impedance and so that can be really helpful in a great way to assess overall, not just fat overall, but where that fat is distributed. And also, if you are trying to synergistically work up lean mass lean mass right and skeletal mass then you can really see, as you are. You know, instead of just stepping on the scale and getting all fat distributed in one number, all of those things. Right, it's not just fat, it's fat, it's muscle, it's water, all those things bone. But if you see the breakdown of how they're distributed and you can kind of better track your goals.
Speaker 1:If you're losing subcutaneous fat and gaining lean mass, perfect, right, you're on track, you're supporting the things that need to be supported, so I'll link that up in the show notes. Also, you can do look at your insulin, your A1Cs, your triglycerides. For abdominal or visceral fat, you can do a simple waist to hip ratio, which can be you know, sounds too simple to be true, but definitely can be something that you can start with right, definitely can be something that you can start with right. And then, if you're working to, you want to have some real-time data of where your body needs support. Like I talked about, having an environment where you can even burn through that liver fat that requires insulin and cortisol to be low and the biggest fasting window we can give our body, so that's overnight. And so if our blood sugar is swinging overnight, that makes that environment impossible.
Speaker 1:So that's why a lot of us start to see issues with cholesterol, issues with excess hormones, um, some of the metabolic issues that are directly related with that liver fat. First, um, but this will give you kind of the why, right, and then give you the data you need to create that window. How long do you need, as in between meals, what kind of dinner composition you can do. That will help you create that environment where you can burn through those liver stores, which is so, so, very important. So it's a combination of avoiding the foods that are contributing to that liver fat, but then also setting the scene for your liver to burn through.
Speaker 1:And then, of course, a dutch test, because what that's going to do is it's going to look at the hormones. It's also going to look at the cortisol, your cortisol or diurnal rhythm, so it's going to show you how your body's responding, especially if you do have that excess abdominal fat. It can really help shed light on what, even what point in the day, because it's a four point cortisol test. What point in the day are you having these cortisol issues right and where can you provide the most support? So those are the best tests that you can run to empower yourself on this journey, especially if you have those nudges of metabolic dysfunction are nowhere near full-blown diagnoses. Trust me, you don't want to wait for that. It takes about 15 years for your body to compensate before you're going to see that right. And that's our generation. Now, the younger generation. They're seeing it younger and younger, because our kids are told to drink juice before they're you know drinking water, and so this is where we're at, you know, and these, this generation, is being born into a way more toxic environment than we were. Um, not that it was great, but it's gotten worse, and so lots of things are working against them. So for us, for our generation, it's going to take about 15 years before it's diagnosable. We don't want to wait for that. We want to catch these things when the warning lights are going off. Okay, all right.
Speaker 1:So I got asked to talk about frequent urination and some root causes of this, and there is a huge component in connection with what's happening with insulin and glucose. So I thought this could kind of come full circle for everybody. But I want to talk about the biggest causes I see of this issue. Right, and so sometimes it will have a label, sometimes it will be called cystitis, sometimes we will just wake up at night to pee, often things like that, and then we start thinking the males are blaming prostate and things like that. But there's a lot more behind the scenes I see going on that I would try to support first and foremost.
Speaker 1:So one of the most obvious things to me, and it seems obvious, but it's not so obvious because not everybody is adding minerals to their water. And so if we are not adding minerals, if you understand the nature of water, water will attract minerals to it, and so if the water we drink is plain and not mineralized at all, it will steal our minerals and flush us and it will, you know, take them with them on the way out. So it's like this flushing, dehydrating effect if we are only drinking plain water. So I'm going to link up my favorite trace minerals. You can, you know, just put a few drops in your water to make sure you aren't flushing your body. I see so many people drinking their gallon of water a day, but it's just plain water and has no minerals to it, and they're dehydrating their body more, even though they're drinking water all day. So that can definitely be a thing.
Speaker 1:Now, do we all need the same set of water intake, based on body weight and things like that? No, we don't. Sometimes I've seen the frequent urination be an issue because we're drinking water too late. Like I said, our water doesn't have minerals to it or we're drinking too much for our needs, and that can be a thing too. Are our needs going to be the same every single day? No, they're obviously going to be more on a higher carb day, a higher workout day. We're sweating, we're in the sun, we're doing sauna right Like we're going to have way more of a need for hydration on those days, versus if we're doing keto or low carb or having a lower you know, we're fasting or having a lower active lifestyle on certain days. It shouldn't be the same amount, right Like? We do have to be a little bit more intuitive with that. And so if we are trying to drink a gallon across the board every single day, could that lead to more urination? Could it wake us up at night, especially if we're trying to get to that goal and we're drinking later in the evening? Absolutely, so that's one thing. So the other thing is that kidneys are working really, really hard to maintain our acid or alkaline balance, right, and so this can be an indicator that something's off.
Speaker 1:Now, when I talk about um acidity in the body, to me that is um, when we are losing our charge in ourselves and I've talked about this before. Our lifestyle is very dehydrating. If we don't have minerals in our body or proper mineralization, there's lots of things that are dehydrating, not just to us physically but to our cells, right. And so when our cells don't have a proper charge, that's when they start to be dysfunctional, right, maybe they'll clump together, maybe they'll divide uncontrollably, they're losing their energy, they're losing their conductivity, those sorts of things. So that's an acidic environment. Now, this makes us more predisposition for more infection, right, because an acidic environment is this welcoming host for things like yeast and fungus and, you know, bacterial overgrowth and mycotoxins and things like that. So then they produce more acidic byproducts, and so we have this a lot of acidity that we can't control, um, or at least we don't know that that's something we need to control.
Speaker 1:And then we add in process and we find a sugary diet, right, um, things like that. So an imbalance in the diet will add to that acidic load. And then we have a lack of connection to nature, a lack of charge. Remember that our charge really comes from our connection with nature, from the sun, the ground, all of those things. And so if we are disconnected from natural light, signals, earthing, grounding, things like that, we're promoting even more and more dehydration and more acidity.
Speaker 1:And so the kidneys are really trying to help us maintain that sense of balance. And so, um, it's, it's going to um, be an indicator that something's off. If we see an overactivation in the kidney area, okay, and that's associated with that loss charge. So the other thing is that the kidneys are also frantically trying to dump excess glucose. So if you are someone who has higher levels of blood sugar, you're going to notice that frequent urination and it's going to be like cystitis, like you're going to feel like you have to pee every hour, maybe every 30 minutes. Right, it's going to feel very emergent, um, with that. And that's usually related to high blood sugar and even high cortisol, remember, because cortisol raises blood sugar in the end times of stress. So, yes, I talked about timing of water intake. Also, um, that high cortisol environment, remember, is going to interfere with our fluid regulation.
Speaker 1:So, once again, relying on the kidneys to find that balance. And then also, kidneys are a detoxification organ, right, like we always have to be thinking about supporting drainage as a whole, but remembering that the kidneys are part of that whole system, right, they're filtering the blood, they're maintaining fluid balance, they're helping with toxin load, excess glucose, balance of hydration and minerals. It's overall, it's systemic, what the role that the kidneys play for us. We have to be thinking about kidneys as a detoxification organ and part of that intrinsic drainage system. So we need to be thinking about supporting drainage as a whole when we are having these more acute kidney sort of issues.
Speaker 1:Gut health can lead to things like chronic UTIs and, once again, that acidic environment, more pathogens, more acid, more welcoming hosts for more of those things right. So we want to make sure that we're always addressing gut health too, because our gut microbiome will affect everything downstream as well. And then dehydration from things like caffeine and alcohol and remembering that both caffeine and alcohol are very acidic as well and very dehydrated and drying to our skin, to our tissue, to our cells, and they throw our hydration, they throw our mineral status and balance. So anything acidic does anything that is, keeping blood sugar and glucose and insulin high. Those are throwing our mineral balance. So that really has to be key.
Speaker 1:I'm going to make sure I link up my not just my favorite trace minerals but also my favorite quinton minerals, which are just such a really great tool to help build up, from a gentle perspective, build up that conductivity right, so we can get the body more alkaline and maintain that proper charge that we need to maintain, um, okay, so I want you to think about if this is an issue for you. I want you to think about the time of day, the intensity of these urges when it comes to urination. Um, are they directly tied to your fluid intake as far as times of the day? Are you waking up at night, which is generally related to cortisol and blood sugar? So that is kind of a telltale sign of that.
Speaker 1:So, thinking about the timing, the blood sugar, the cortisol issue, but I will tell you anyone who's come to me with quote unquote, cystitis, the minute we get their metabolic health in check, their blood sugar stable, we really work to control their blood sugar swings. We help remineralize their water and their body. Those things go away really quickly. So if you guys just look at this kind of list of common causes of frequent urination, I think that you will find your sticking point. So whether it's a mineral balance issue or an acid alkaline balance issue, or that you need to put a little bit of love in the cortisol insulin piece of things, or just think about detox and drainage as a whole, I think you're going to find your answer with that.
Speaker 1:Um, so these are just the things clinically and also things I've experienced as well. If I, if I do feel my blood sugar go high, that's one of the first things that happens. I have an intense thirst and also I can tell that the frequency of in like just an intensity of that urination definitely will increase, and so that can be a telltale sign of high blood sugar. For sure, and all those things are correctable. So you know, sometimes there's a gut issue component to it. So I never, never, you know, I always encourage a gut test If that's something that you haven't run or just have no idea about. That can be really helpful to kind of make sure that everything's uh, good and in balance there as much as possible. So other than that, I hope this shed light on lots of things for you.
Speaker 1:I just want to come full circle and just kind of remember that overall health and weight are not necessarily synergistic. We need to think about not just how much weight we have, but where that weight is distributed, first and foremost, especially if we do want to establish a really good, good, sustainable weight loss effort and just overall metabolic health in general, because you don't have to have a weight issue to have a metabolism issue, and I think that's the biggest sticking point I wanted to impress today. So I thank you guys so much for tuning in. Uh, we will build on some of these things.
Speaker 1:Next time I'm going to talk about how losing weight and keeping weight off are two totally different things, so I think we've kind of paved a little bit of way for that now, and then we'll have a couple other topics we're going to go over too. I know you guys want me to talk about heavy metals. I'm going to talk about that soon, but that's definitely in the forefront for next time. Otherwise, please follow me on Instagram at drstaceynd, and I will link everything up in the show notes for you. Thank you so much for tuning in and I will talk to you all soon.