Remember the freedom we felt in our late teens and early 20s? One of my patients, in remembering these halcyon times, says, “Back then, it seemed like life was an endless summer, wide open with possibility.” As we age, however, we confront the unceasing demands of work, family and a relationship, and it can be difficult to find the freedom and the energy that once fueled our desire.

Most of the patients who come to me with libido issues — and in my more than 30 years as a practitioner, I’ve seen a steadily increasing number of them — are women who range in age from their 30s to their 60s. And, in general, they are simply too wiped out by life’s burdens to even think about, much less feel, their sexual and sensual desires.

The majority of my younger patients are there because they want to know how they can get their libidos back, but I am astonished by the number of 50-year-olds who walk into my office and say that they haven’t had any sexual activity for four years — and they’re OK with it! 

This is unfortunate, because revving up your libido isn’t just about sex. Yes, libido is about sexual desire, but it’s also about a vitality, life force and energy that are critical to your overall health and well-being — whether you are 35 or 55 or even 75.

A healthy libido has huge implications, both on a physical level (it helps decrease blood pressure, support a healthier immune system, increase dopamine levels, etc.) and on an emotional level (it instills a sense of empowered calm and a feeling of spark, and it promotes connection and intimacy in relationships, etc.).

Cultivating a healthy sex drive — just like following a nutritious diet or a strenuous workout — takes some focused effort. But the payoff extends far beyond the bedroom.

Although our popular culture seems sexually obsessed, when it comes to discussing the subject of sexual satisfaction in our own lives, we can turn surprisingly shy, or even puritanical. Most of us rarely talk about libido — at least, not in very authentic or respectful terms — but given its importance to our well-being, I think it’s high time we start.

No matter where you are in a relationship, giving yourself permission to be a vital, sensual, fully engaged person is a great way to feel in the prime of life at any time of life.

Sound good? Here are some tips to get you started:

Look Into Physical Issues

Many of the causes of impaired libido are physical. Hormonal imbalance, for example, is a major reason why our sexual desire flags. I write in detail about this in my book Are You Tired and Wired? (Hay House, 2011). At my clinic, I complete a full hormonal profile of all my patients, looking at their levels of sex hormones, such as testosterone, estrogen, progesterone and DHEA. I also screen them for adrenal fatigue, which can drain sexual desire.

Because so many of us these days are stressed out and exhausted, we produce a great deal of the stress hormone cortisol, enough that it can throw our sex hormones totally out of whack. (For more on adrenal fatigue, search for “Pick Yourself Up.”)

That’s why the more stressed out you are, the more important it becomes to support your body’s overall health with fulfilling activity, nutritious food and calming meditation. This will help you sustain the basic stamina necessary both to experience sexual desire and to be sexually active. I’ve had many patients report an amazing improvement in their flagging energy levels and libidos after simply starting a high-quality multivitamin-and-mineral complex, for example.

It’s important to remember, however, that it’s never just about the physical. Cultivating your libido is like conducting an orchestra — a whole array of interconnected parts have to be working together. And, although we’ve been trained to associate sex with purely physical concerns, the more intangible parts of the sexual equation — your psychological and emotional sexual states — also deserve your attention.

Make the Mind-Body Link

Learning to love yourself unconditionally is central to rekindling desire, and loving your body starts in your own head and heart. When it comes to sexual arousal and desire, the mind, and specifically the limbic system (which has been described as the emotional seat of the brain), is the single most influential organ, the one that can spark desire long before any of our body parts touch. In effect, desire begins with, and is kindled by, our state of mind.

How many times have you met someone who on the surface isn’t conventionally attractive, but whose personality makes him or her irresistible? This attractiveness is often rooted in a strong sense of self-confidence and self-respect. It may sound like a cliché — you have to love yourself before someone else can — but so many people, especially women, have trouble understanding this essential truth, and as a result, they have a great deal of difficulty connecting with themselves in a loving way.

Because desire is a function of how desirable you feel, you may need to redirect your mind each time the negativity script starts to play. It may not be easy to shift to a place where you can hear and accept compliments and affirmations from yourself and others. Any woman who has struggled with her self-esteem and appearance can tell you that. And you may need some professional guidance. Many of my patients have successfully revised their inner monologues with one-on-one counseling or other therapeutic tools. In order to rekindle your desire, you must claim it in your own mind. So grant yourself permission to be a creative, fully expressed sexual creature and recognize how truly unique and desirable you are.

De-Stress to Rekindle

We all know that women face a host of stressors as they age. Many are dealing with children, newly empty nests, divorce or other stressful relationships. Their parents, too, grow older and may require caretaking. At the same time, many women are working full-time in professional and volunteer capacities, and are often taking care of the home as well. Not only do these many demands divert your body’s resources into making stress hormones instead of sex hormones, they leave little room for mind and body to indulge in creative thoughts and activities that cultivate desire.

And that’s a problem, because creativity and sensuality go hand in hand. Remember as a teenager, lying around, listening to music or mooning over the local heartthrob and writing in your diary? What may in retrospect seem like a frivolous waste of time served a useful purpose. It gave you a chance to tune in to your fantasy world, to learn what you liked. It helped to prime your psyche to accept love and passion when they happened along.

One sure way to bring sexual excitement back into your life is to allow time for it. This is so much easier if you can reduce your stress levels. How many people find their sexual desire increases when they go away on vacation? It’s no mystery; it’s about giving your body, mind and spirit the room to relax and have fun.

You may need to establish better boundaries — to change your routine and include some uninterrupted downtime — to help rekindle your sexual nature. It may mean carving out time for creative pursuits that literally “turn you on.” I’ve had patients who, upon traveling or taking up some other passion they’ve sequestered for years, find themselves feeling young again, energetic and — yes — sexy!

No matter how old you are, your desire will always be connected to that teenager daydreaming on the bed. All you need to bloom is support, time and, of course, the right partner. Which brings me to communication and its long-term bedfellow: intimacy.

Talk With Your Partner About What Makes You Happy

I have seen a great many troubled relationships and marriages dramatically improve when couples spend time exploring what turns a woman on. You might wonder why we’ve been focusing more on cultivating libido in women so far. It’s really quite simple: I mean no offense, but, in my experience, many men are more easily aroused than most women, whose desire requires a bit more thoughtful nurturing.

It’s actually one of the biggest problems in relationships: Men will see a magazine centerfold, for example, and immediately get turned on. Most women don’t quite work that way.

For a woman, foreplay begins in the morning when her partner says, “Honey, I’m going to take out the garbage” or, “What can I get for dinner tonight?” Really communicating — and listening — is what turns women’s libidos on and breeds connection and intimacy.

Of course, a woman may notice a hot guy and become somewhat aroused, but in terms of long-term sexual sustainability, it’s about a partner doing things like putting the kids to bed, offering a neck rub or fixing a cup of tea. As men age and their testosterone levels fall, these gestures are more important to cultivating their libidos as well. (Men with reduced libidos may need their hormones tested, too, particularly since those hormones affect overall health as well as libido.)

So, go easy on yourself and your partner, and focus on connection and creating intimacy first, then desire. Both women and men need this in the relationship. After all, if you are having emotional difficulties in your relationship, it will influence your physical relations, and as a result, your desire will wane. Knowing what you each need and asking for it are key to an intimate relationship.

Make a date and spend time simply talking to each other. Just asking, “How was your day?” can spark a much-needed conversation. Try playing a sport together or, even better, learn a new skill together. Sometimes seeing a partner in a new setting can work wonders for your libido.

Embrace Sensuality —  Not Sexuality

Many years ago, an 80-year-old widow came into my office and whispered, “Is it OK to do it?” I asked her what she meant. She responded, “Is it OK to do it every day? I’m in a new relationship and if I knew then what I know now, I would have dumped my first husband on the floor. I never knew it could be so good!”

It’s a funny story, but it reveals a larger truth: Our culture is simply squeamish when it comes to talking about what goes on in the bedroom. Most everyone has sex at some point, but in this country, we are a bit repressed when it comes to talking about it. Because of that deep denial, our sexuality comes out in strange ways — via catcalls on the street or porn addiction or round-the-clock media coverage about who’s had an affair with whom.

Sex is simply a natural part of being alive, but Americans are less comfortable talking about it than, say, Europeans. My mother is Dutch and my father is Hungarian, so I grew up understanding the European mindset very well. The major difference? Europeans are focused on sensuality — being at home in your body and being comfortable with its physical needs. Here in the United States, it often seems we’re bluntly hyperfocused on sexuality, as in, “Come on, baby, let’s do it!”

Learning how to be in your body in a very sensual way leads to empowerment. It’s not about “I want to turn somebody on.” It’s about “I’m feeling tuned in to my body and I’m wanting to do and enjoy things that make me feel sexy just for me.” Those things might include wearing a certain lotion, scent or lingerie; lighting candles; bathing; listening to music; reading erotica; engaging in self-stimulation; literally, whatever turns you on. The point is, you decide — not someone else.

Also, on a physical level, keep in mind that, if you are involved in a long-term relationship, you may both be habituated to a kind of timing or foreplay — or lack thereof — that is no longer stimulating for one or both of you. So try to do some exploring together to find out what needs to change. (See “Recommended Reading,” below, to help you get started.) If this seems too daunting, it may help to consult with a certified sex therapist or another counselor.

Learning to want and love sex again is actually fairly straightforward — it’s about learning to take better care of your body by tuning in to its requests for support. It’s also about letting go of your perceived limitations and welcoming a whole new range of possibilities. So, go forward, be open, and embrace your new sexual self!

Recommended Reading

To get you in the mood, you may want to check out a few good books on the subject. Here are some of my favorites:

• For Yourself: The Fulfillment of Female Sexuality (Anchor, 1975), by Lonnie Garfield Barbach, PhD
• For Each Other: Sharing Sexual Intimacy (Signet, 2001), by Lonnie Garfield Barbach, PhD
• Secrets of the Sexually Satisfied Woman: Ten Keys to Unlocking Ultimate Pleasure (Hyperion, 2006), by Laura and Jennifer Berman

So some forward-thinking pool operators are augmenting their chlorine-based filtration systems with sphagnum moss, a plant rich in natural antibacterial compounds that penetrate biofilms, reducing the amount of bacteria and reducing the need for chlorine in the water.

The University of Maryland recently introduced a sphagnum moss filtration system in its competitive-swimming pools, and Omaha’s Olympic training pool will soon be similarly equipped. Life Time Fitness is adopting the system in all of its outdoor pools this summer, says Bryan Janowiec, vice president of facility operations. “Moss has improved the water quality in these pools, and we’re getting positive feedback from members,” Janowiec says. “Many have noticed a decrease in the chlorine smell, plus less eye irritation and improved water clarity.”

Don’t fret if you’re not awake and ready to head to the gym at the crack of dawn. Just try to exercise within an hour of waking, says Collier. “The longer an individual takes to exercise in the morning, the more the results will resemble our 1 p.m. time,” which showed little sleep improvement.

FACT: University of Michigan researchers have found that antibacterial (also referred to as antimicrobial) soaps are no better at germ removal or disease prevention than ordinary soap and water. Further research at Columbia University showed that people who use antibacterial soaps are no healthier than those who don’t.

But that’s not all. The active ingredient in antibacterial soaps (a synthetic chemical called triclosan) may actually be harmful to your health. Triclosan may disrupt normal endocrine (hormonal) function — “particularly thyroid and sex hormones,” says Rebecca Sutton, PhD, staff scientist at the Environmental Working Group, a Washington, D.C.–based organization that works to protect public health and the environment. Overuse of triclosan has also been implicated in the rise of “superbugs,” or antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Superbugs are uniquely dangerous, confirms Sutton, because “they don’t just resist triclosan, but a broad array of antibiotics.”

Sutton advises people to avoid triclosan whenever possible. “We can’t always control what soaps are provided in public places, so some exposure is inevitable,” she says. But always opt for plain soap and water at home: You’ll kill the germs without the unhealthy consequences.

The problem is, there’s no way I can choose just one. I love them all. And so that question keeps nagging at me — but in a nice way.

Recently, under the pressure of preparing a lecture, I did manage to narrow down a top-10 list, but I had to mix and match a bit to get there.

So here, in no particular order, are my top 10 acts of acts of healthy rebellion:

1. Don’t believe most of what you’ve been told about health — especially by large, conventionally-minded “authoritative” organizations.

2. Forget about quick fixes (fad diets, weight loss pills, miracle drinks and powders, etc.). They don’t work, and often make matters worse.

3. Eat whole foods, real actual foods (not products, not diet stuff) and learn how to prepare them in ways you enjoy. A few sub-points here:

• If you are eating mostly whole foods, don’t worry too much about calories and fats.
• Do be afraid of trans fats, rancid fats, crappy industrial vegetable oils, factory-farmed meats, and industrially processed meat products.
• Eat lots of plants, especially dark leafy greens and brightly colored veggies. They are packed with phytonutrients and fiber, and they also help you adjust to your taste preferences in healthier directions. (For more advice on that front, see “Paleo vs. Vegan.”)
• Minimize your intake of flours (even “whole grain” flours) and sugars. They set the stage for inflammation, high cholesterol, insulin imbalance, cravings, mood imbalances, weight gain and even certain cancers.
• Avoid preservatives, artificial sweeteners, added flavors and other non-food ingredients.

4. Aim for 85%. Dietarily and otherwise, you don’t have to be perfect. Trying will make you miserable and a loner in most circles. It will also cut down on your fun and pleasure — and pleasure (in moderation) is good for you.

5. Identify and respect any food intolerances you might have, even if it means you will be forever categorized as a “weird picky eater.” Gluten and dairy are in practically everything, so if you don’t eat them, you will be weird. But anything you are intolerant to inflames your body, and inflammation breeds disease. Better weird than sick.

6. Move your body however you like, but find a way to move regularly. Sitting kills. Moving regularly improves circulation and detoxification, helps balance blood sugar, maintains body composition, improves mood and enhances sleep.

7. Sleep! Sleep is when your body repairs itself, when your brain makes key connections. Sleep is also critical to healthy metabolism, immunity and resilience. And most people don’t get nearly enough.

8. Be in charge of your health. Learn about your body. It’s great to assemble a posse of wise counselors and helpers — but you still need to be in charge. Realize that most conventionally trained doctors are better trained in disease than in health. Beware relying on prescription drugs for chronic conditions. Many (like those for blood pressure, cholesterol and stomach acid) are overprescribed, and have serious side effects. Most chronic disease has chronic causes, and those chronic causes are largely within your control.

9. Do your personal work. Address the mental, emotional and social issues that are presenting barriers or setting up negative patterns in your life — from body image issues, addictions, job or relationship troubles, to just not being sure what you want to do with your life.  Keep in mind that stress is responsible for 85 percent of doctors visits, and is the trigger for all kinds of inflammatory conditions.

10. Connect with healthy community. Build an active, inspiring peer group. Learn from others. See getting healthy as an adventure and a challenge, and an opportunity for discovery. Greet the challenge with other brave people you enjoy.

I guess if I had to choose just one, overarching favorite from the “101 Ways” it would be No. 1: “Defy Convention!” But I reserve the right to pick a new favorite tomorrow.

Which reminds me: Our “101 Revolutionary Ways to Be Healthy” mobile app is now available not just for iPhone and iPad, but for Android, too. It’s a fun, powerful source for daily inspiration, education, motivation and more. Check it out, and then tell me: What’s your favorite?

According to a study of more than 13,000 people published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism in July 2011, those who had the greatest overall muscle mass, regardless of their weight, had a lower incidence of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. The results suggest that weight loss may not be the only way to prevent insulin resistance.

While the exact mechanism behind this link is still being investigated, lead author Preethi Srikanthan, MD, MS, a professor of medicine at UCLA, suggests one possibility for the connection. “Muscle is a sink for the disposal of glucose, and it doesn’t require insulin to do so — unlike most other cells,” she says. The more muscle people build, the more likely they will be able to rid their bodies of harmful excess glucose.

Those experiencing insulin resistance may still be counseled to lose weight, but they now have another tool to fight the problem, says Srikanthan.

For more advice on fighting type 2 diabetes, see “The United States of Diabesity.”

The series will consist of daily emails and videos offering actionable tips on how to optimize your diet, enhance your lifestyle, exercise more effectively, and much more. It’s based on the advice outlined in The Blood Sugar Solution, which explains how to rebalance blood sugar, lose weight and reverse diabesity — the term that Hyman has coined for the fast-growing epidemic of obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

Even if you are at risk for diabesity, the condition is both preventable and curable, and through this free series, Dr. Hyman will share the steps you can take to create a healthier and happier life. To find out more information or sign up for the program, visit Dr. Hyman’s site at www.bloodsugarsolution.com/dhsolutions/30daysultrawellness.

We hope you’ll join us!

It’s always a treat when healthy-living experts collaborate to share their knowledge with others. Even better is when they do it for FREE. That is exactly what is coming with the first-ever Purposeful Intention Empowerment Series.

Created by holistic nutrition coach Jill Grunewald (who’s also an Experience Life community ambassador), this free telesummit will feature nine recognized speakers — including writers, medical practitioners, coaches and our very own editor in chief, Pilar Gerasimo —  who will offer up their sound tools on how to live with purpose and intention.

Mark your calendar! Starting on April 11 and running Wednesdays through June 13 (with the exception of April 25), Grunewald will interview experts on a wide range of topics:

• April 11: “Defusing your Triggers: Evolving Beyond Emotional Reaction” with Cat Thompson of Emotional Technologies
• April 18: “Where Intention Goes, Energy Flows: Your Simple Path to Positive Change” with Ann Drew Yu of The Intention Box and The Intention Box for Girls
• May 2: “Make Your Money Count” with Rachel McDonough of Make Your Money Count LLC
• May 9: “Living Without Apology: How Self-Care Is the Key to Getting Everything You Want” with Julia Baumann Sarver of Glow Health Coaching
• May 16: “Revolutionary Ways to Upgrade Your Health and Happiness” with Pilar Gerasimo of Experience Life magazine
• May 23: “Finding Balance in Our Over-Worked, Over-Stressed Lives” with Michelle Pheninghaus of Find Your Balance
• May 30: “The Fear and Anxiety Solution” with Dr. Friedemann Schaub of Cellular Wisdom
• June 6: “Natural Remedies for Fighting Fatigue” with Jill Grunewald of Healthful Elements LLC
• June 13: “The Faces of Clutter” with Andrea Gerasimo of Third Mountain

In addition to valuable information and insights, you’ll also have access to complimentary or discounted gifts from each presenter. After Pilar’s interview, for instance, we will be offering a three-month trial subscription to Experience Life magazine. Not a bad deal!

Join Pilar and the other speakers for a series filled with savvy advice for living a healthier, happier, more satisfying life. For more information about the Purposeful Intention Empowerment Series or the featured experts, or to sign up for the telesummit, visit www.healthfulelements.com/telesummit/2012/.

Research indicates that negative emotions may disrupt endocrine function and elevate cortisol levels, says Carsten Wrosch, PhD, a Concordia University in Montreal psychology professor. “If such changes become chronic, they may suppress the immune system and increase a person’s vulnerability to disease.”

To avoid these poisonous effects, you basically have two options, says Wrosch. The first is to pursue failed goals more vigorously until reaching a successful outcome: Success will banish those feelings of bitterness, and you will also reap the positive psychological benefit of devoting focused attention to a meaningful goal. Increased effort and attention on meaningful goals have an energizing effect on mood — and an overall positive impact on quality of life.

For failed goals that are no longer attainable, Wrosch says the best path is to disengage from the situation, chalk it up to experience, and move on to new goals. A spouse who blames his or her partner for the dissolution of a marriage may not be able to rebuild the relationship, for example, but it doesn’t mean he or she must hold on to bitterness, says Wrosch. “If it’s not possible to undo the problem, it’s important for people to let go and find something else in their lives that can make them feel purposeful and provide meaning for them,” he says.

What I’ve discovered in my more than 20 years of seeing patients is that whether you are suffering from a little extra weight around the middle or you have been diagnosed with insulin resistance, pre-diabetes, metabolic syndrome, Syndrome X or even type 2 diabetes, all of these conditions are basically the same thing — just with varying degrees of severity.

A new word, “diabesity,” describes this continuum of metabolic imbalance and disease that ranges all the way from mild blood-sugar imbalance to insulin resistance to full-blown diabetes. So, yes, if you have diabetes, you have diabesity. But you don’t have to be a diabetic — or even have symptoms — to be suffering from diabesity.

Nearly all people who are overweight (almost 70 percent of Americans) already have “pre-diabetes,” which, in short, is an earlier stage of diabesity that carries with it significant risks of disease and death. And, although the word diabesity is made up of the concepts of obesity and diabetes, even those who aren’t overweight can have this problem. These are the “skinny fat” people. They are “under lean” (not enough muscle) instead of “overweight” and often carry a little extra weight around the middle.

Diabesity is a leading cause of most chronic disease in the 21st century. Specifically, those with diabesity are at an increased risk of heart disease, stroke, dementia, cancer, high blood pressure, blindness and kidney failure.

Unfortunately, most people who are suffering from diabesity have no idea that they are suffering from a deadly condition — or that this condition is 100 percent reversible. That’s because, currently, there are no national screening recommendations, no treatment guidelines, no approved medications, and no reimbursement to healthcare providers for diagnosing and treating anything other than full-blown diabetes.

Think about that: Doctors are not expected, trained or paid to diagnose and treat the single biggest chronic disease in America — a disease that, along with smoking, causes nearly all the major healthcare burdens of the 21st century.

So this is a very real and very serious problem — not just for those who suffer from diabesity, but for our communities, our economy, our entire society.

Given all of this, one would think the burning questions on everyone’s mind would be: Why is this happening? What has caused this diabesity epidemic? Why are our current approaches to treating the problem failing so miserably? And what new approaches could we take that would more effectively treat the problem?

In fact, not nearly enough people are asking those questions. But if you’re interested, keep reading: I’ll answer them here.

Insulin Resistance: The Real Cause of Diabesity

While there are some predisposing genes, type 2 diabetes is almost entirely induced by environmental and lifestyle factors. Therefore, a search for the diabetes gene and the magic-bullet drug or gene therapy to treat it will lead us nowhere. While understanding our genes can help us personalize our approach to metabolism and weight loss, it can also shift our focus away from the most important target: the modifiable lifestyle and environmental factors that are driving this epidemic.

Take one of the most important lifestyle factors: nutrition and how you eat. When your diet is full of empty calories and an abundance of quickly absorbed sugars, liquid calories (sodas, juices, sports drinks or vitamin waters), and refined or starchy carbohydrates (bread, pasta, rice and potatoes), your cells slowly become numb to the effects of insulin, and need more and more of it to balance your blood-sugar levels. This problem is known as insulin resistance.

A high insulin level is the first sign of trouble. The higher your insulin levels are, the worse your insulin resistance.

Hypoglycemia, or low blood sugar, is often an early symptom of insulin resistance. If you skip meals or eat too much sugar or too many refined carbs, you will experience swings in blood sugar that make you feel anxious, irritable and tired, and that can even cause palpitations and panic attacks. Stuffing down a big cinnamon bun or swigging a 20-ounce soda will cause big spikes in sugar and insulin and a quick surge in energy, followed by the inevitable crash as your blood sugar plummets.

Eventually your cells become so resistant to insulin that your blood sugar stays up and your pancreas can’t produce enough insulin to fight against the high blood sugar and get a message through your numb cells. That’s when you cross the line to diabetes.

The problem? Most doctors don’t catch diabetes in the early stages because they never test insulin levels. Instead, doctors typically measure a person’s fasting blood sugar — the level of glucose present in a blood sample drawn a minimum of eight hours after the last meal.

A recent study showed that anyone with a fasting blood sugar of over 87 mg/dl was at increased risk of diabetes. Yet most doctors are not concerned until the blood sugar is over 110 mg/dl or, worse, 126 mg/dl, the level that technically signals diabetes.

Unfortunately, diagnosing problems with insulin resistance and blood-sugar control at this point occurs too late in the game. In fact, your blood sugar is the last thing to go up. Your insulin spikes first, and despite being the simplest way to detect problems early, doctors rarely order the two-hour glucose tolerance test, which measures not only glucose but also insulin levels at fasting, and one and two hours after a sugar drink — a much more effective way to catch problems before the onset of disease.

Insulin resistance is the single most important phenomenon that leads to rapid and premature aging and all its resultant diseases. High levels of insulin, the fat-storage hormone, tell your body to lose muscle and gain weight around the belly, and you become more apple-shaped over time. High insulin levels also drive inflammation and oxidative stress, and myriad downstream effects including high blood pressure; high cholesterol; poor sex drive, infertility; and increased risk of cancer, Alzheimer’s and depression.

I recommend early testing for anyone who has a family history of type 2 diabetes, belly fat or increased waist size, or abnormal cholesterol. Don’t wait until your sugar is high. By then, too much damage has been done. Even if you have perfectly normal blood sugar, you may still be sitting on this time-bomb disease called diabesity, which prevents you from losing weight and living a long, healthy life.

Keep in mind: Insulin resistance is the major cause of aging and death in the developed (and most of the developing) world.

Lifestyle Measures (Not Drugs) Are the Cure

Most of us are taught that diabetes is not reversible and that we are destined to suffer progressive decline. We also believe that it is nearly impossible to treat obesity or to be able to maintain long-term weight loss. We think that the only treatment options are to limit the consequences and reduce the complications. But my clinical experience tells me none of this is true.

Although the statistics are grave, diabesity can be prevented, treated and reversed. New and better drugs or procedures are not the solution, though. Blockbuster drugs like Avandia fail in their promise and often cause harm. Gastric bypass surgery has increased from 10,000 to 200,000 per year in the last decade. But how many of the 1.7 billion overweight citizens of the world can undergo gastric bypass? And how many of those will gain back most of the weight they lost?

Our current problem-solving tools, methods of diagnosis and ways of treating patients are still based on 19th- and 20th-century ideas about the origins of disease. They overlook the complex web of biology, as well as the social, political and economic conditions at the root of our current chronic-disease epidemic.

Chronic disease results from imbalances in our biology that occur as a result of the interactions between our genes and our environment. To reverse it, we first must focus on the causes (poor diet, stress, toxins, microbes, infections) that disturb our whole system. We must work with the network of our biological systems that become imbalanced because of the effects of the environment in which we live. We must use a new map to navigate chronic disease, one that is based on a new model of treating chronic illness.

This map is called “functional medicine.” It is a way of treating the causes, not just the risk factors; of treating the whole system, not just the symptoms; of creating health, not just treating disease.

In fact, if you focus on creating health rather than just treating disease, many diseases — even complex ones like diabesity — often take care of themselves. Simply put, disease goes away as a side effect of getting healthy.