A chronic disease is defined as a condition that lasts for more than one year, causes functional restrictions or requires ongoing monitoring or treatment. They include stroke, heart disease, cancer, respiratory disease, and Alzheimer’s.

Although it has been demonized by our medical community, the reality is that high LDL cholesterol is not the root cause of heart disease.

Many people that develop heart disease do not have high LDL cholesterol. In fact, high triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol are more powerful risk markers.

Damage to the heart’s blood vessels, through such things as smoking, high blood sugar, and inflammation, occurs before cholesterol accumulates in the arteries.

When somebody has poor metabolic health, LDL cholesterol may become oxidized and contribute to the process that leads to heart disease.

Markers of metabolic health include:  

• Waist size  
• Blood pressure  
• HDL cholesterol   
• Triglycerides  
• Fasting glucose

Many people already have these numbers from routine check-ups, but if not, a simple blood test will be all you need.

Tracking metabolic health is simple, so you can monitor the effects of your efforts easily and quickly:

• Your waist circumference and body fat percentage
• Blood work: insulin level, fasting glucose level, cholesterol panel (triglyceride:HDL ratio)   
• Blood pressure
• Wearing a continuous glucose monitor

The biggest improvements will come from the food that we eat.

Choose whole, real food, and eliminate processed items. This includes avoiding vegetable and seed oils, which are unfortunately found in the majority of packaged foods. An optimal diet will also have minimal processed carbohydrates and added sugars.

Adequate amounts of high-quality sleep will also improve your metabolic health. Ideally, stop using electronic devices an hour or two before you go to bed, to give your body the opportunity to unwind and prepare for a great night’s sleep.

Moving more is also an effective way to improve metabolic health.

Exercising is one of the best ways to improve your metabolic health, but it isn’t enough on its own. It isn’t possible to out-exercise a bad diet.

The food we eat affects our cells, our blood, and our entire body. Exercise can help us control our weight but it won’t make unhealthy foods less damaging. The primary goal of exercise should be to build and maintain muscle, because muscle is more metabolically active.

It’s also more effective to be active throughout the day instead of carving out a short amount of time for exercise and then being inactive for the rest of the day.