Ignorance really is bliss...but also probably insulin resistance and cardiovascular disease :')

Wow didn't mean to be all morbid there right from the start! I've just been thinking about my gut a lot recently. Which may sound weird to some people but also totally normal to a lot of others haha! It all depends on how much you know/think about your gut health on a regular basis, which for me has become more frequent over the past few years as I have become increasingly aware of the gut-brain connection/axis. The gut brain connection is the connection and interaction between our nervous system and digestion via the tiny microbiota that live in our guts. Here is an article that talks about the relation of this to migraine/headache.

Having chronic migraine, what I eat---when I eat---how much I eat--etc. has a huge effect on whether or not I have a migraine attack. However it is incredibly hard to figure out exactly which foods can be a trigger and elimination diets to discover this have personally been too difficult for me (ie only eat one food and slowly introduce one more at a time). This is why I was super excited when I reached out to Signos Health, a company that offers personalized health insights via an app that can access/partner with a Dexcom continuous glucose monitor (CGM). This means that you can wear a CGM and receive those real time insights into how your blood sugar is being affected by your foods, exercise, and fasting!

I have been wearing my Signos for about 18 days now and I have already been amazed and so grateful to have these insights into my own body! However, it is also kind of shocking at how often my glucose is out of optimal range---meaning that my body is constantly working over drive, going into shock, or storing excess glucose as fat in my body. The food that we are typically eating in the US is packed full of simple and synthetic sugars such as high fructose corn syrup and this provides quick energy that shows up as a huge spike in blood glucose, but this was soon followed by huge crashes in my blood sugar, sometimes even then falling out of optimal glucose range into the low end---hypoglycemia!

I am so grateful for new innovations in health technology such as this so that people like myself who live with chronic health conditions can have insights into health data that may have otherwise have restricted to certain populations. However, this data is important for everyone! I love how the Signos app can help with weight loss, weight control, and motivation to exercise after eating simply just doing 5-10 minutes of jumping jacks or a 15 minute walk around the block after eating a meal was enough of a difference for me to reduce a glucose spike after eating a meal!

I enjoy being able to physically see the insights into my body so that I can be motivated to keep my blood sugar steady, because I can also FEEL the correlation! When I go too long between eating my fasting glucose dips very low, leading me to feel shaky and nauseous--symptoms I previously always associated with migraine prodrome. Now I am able to better manage my symptoms and know that sometimes I just need to remember eat a snack!

Overall, I have absolutely loved my experience with Signos Health so far. They also gave me a code for my followers for 15%, so use JULIANNA15 for 15% off any of their plans if you want to try out for yourself!

P.S. If you made it this far, thank you! Also re-title, this is the podcast episode that sparked my interest in insulin resistance, and what is making me really think about it's possible connection to my chronic migraine! It is really crazy to me that as the general public gets sicker and sicker, rather than addressing preventative care it seems that the "standardization" just keeps getting changed....weird??