Health Hotline Magazine | September 2023

Have to Do with What Does Blood Sugar IMMUNITY? By Lindsay Wilson

This time of year is a marker of sorts: The cooler fall months usher in a holiday season full of sweet temptations and loads of comfort foods, coupled with the start of cold and flu season. But what does the season of sweets and treats have to do with the cold and flu season, or more specifically, how you weather cold and flu season? It all has to do with blood sugar. When most people think of blood sugar dysfunction, they think of type-2 diabetes, but that is just the end result of many years of chronically elevated blood sugar. There’s a spectrum of blood sugar dysfunction, and the damage to your body starts even when your blood sugar consistently stays at the high end of “normal.” Simply put, blood sugar levels even at the high end of normal are bad for your health. Good Health & Immunity Start with Balanced Blood Sugar Keeping blood sugar, or glucose, balanced is so important to health that our bodies have a tightly regulated system to ensure levels stay within a narrow range. When you eat sugary foods and simple carbohydrates (like bread, pasta, or french fries), they are rapidly digested and converted into glucose, leading to sharp spikes in blood sugar. The pancreas responds by releasing a surge of insulin, which directs the glucose into cells and lowers blood sugar levels back to a normal range. When sugar and/or refined carbs are occasionally consumed in small amounts, this is an effective system. But when these types of foods are regularly consumed, the body is constantly fighting to keep blood sugar levels in a normal range by continually pumping more insulin into the bloodstream. Overtime, the cells stop responding to insulin (i.e., insulin resistance), the first step toward developing type-2 diabetes. This leads to chronically elevated blood sugar and insulin levels, which damages proteins in the body and leads to major inflammation and oxidative damage, underlying factors in almost all chronic diseases. In fact, chronically elevated blood sugar increases the risk for type-2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s, depression, cardiovascular disease, and even some types of cancer. It also leads to a poorly functioning immune system.

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