The Tree

The best way I can find to explain the progression from root causes to declining metabolic health, to disease is by using a tree as a metaphor.

The roots of the tree represent ten categories of root causes, across food and lifestyle.

The trunk represents metabolic decline, a spiral of increasing inflammation and insulin.

The leaves represent disease. All of the leading causes of death - heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and dementia.

Public health systems focus on diagnosing and managing disease, so their scope is the leaves of the tree. They diagnose and medicate branches as separate conditions. High blood pressure, high cholesterol, weight gain, and rising blood glucose. Although public health systems recognise these conditions as a cluster, they generally don’t fund the diagnosis of the metabolic decline that precedes them. They don't even see the trunk of the tree. So although blood tests to measure the decline in our metabolic health have been widely available for many years, they are generally not funded by public health systems until we actually get the disease itself.

Over the last 30 to 40 years, scientists have been building a clearer picture of the progression between root causes and the manifestation of disease. They now have a good understanding of the common pathway of metabolic decline. However, the knowledge of each scientist is a deep, but narrow perspective of this very broad subject. Imagine each of them studying this tree from a different angle, only seeing part of it.

This is why advice from various different specialists and scientists can sometimes conflict with others.

Take breakfast, for example.

An exercise physiologist might recommend eating carbohydrates for breakfast if you want to build muscle.

However, if you want to manage insulin and blood sugar, you might instead choose to reduce carbohydrates, shorten your eating window and perhaps fast through breakfast time.

Each of us has our own unique state of health, resulting from our own unique combination of drivers, requiring our own unique solution, our own pathway to better health.

It is necessary for each of us to start from the bottom up to identify our drivers - the root causes of our declining health because this is a tree: if we cut it down without addressing the roots, it will sprout and regrow.

Dieting, by cutting calories or by using a weight loss drug, can be seen as cutting down the tree without dealing with the roots.

For long-term success in regaining health, it is necessary to start at the bottom of the tree by addressing root causes. This is what "pathways to better health", is all about. Keep following and I will help you discover your own root causes and explain what your options are.