Metabolic health and immunity the focus in Covid-era seminar

Fashion, Health and Beauty with Denise McNamara

This year’s fifth annual Functional Medicine Conference organised by Galway nutritionist Maev Creaven has not escaped the wrath of Covid. As well as being forced to go online, the 2020 theme is no doubt influenced by the global pandemic – ‘Immune and Metabolic Health: The Lifestyle and Functional Medicine Approach’.

More people than ever before are struggling with a form of metabolic health concern, remarks Maev.

“In fact, the prevalence of good metabolic health is alarmingly low, even among people who are normal weight.

“The primary drivers of poor metabolic health are the daily interactions among an individual’s genetics, environment, nutrition and lifestyle choices.”

Metabolic health is the state of balance the body maintains between storing fat and burning it for energy. It is measured using five markers: blood glucose levels; blood pressure; waist circumference; two cholesterol levels – so-called bad cholesterol (triglycerides) and good cholesterol (HDL-C).

Poor metabolic health is linked to type 2 diabetes, stroke, cancer and dementia and those with metabolic syndrome are particularly vulnerable to complications from infections, including Covid-19.

A recent study found that only 12 per cent of Americans are metabolically healthy which has disastrous effects for the public health system.

One of the keynote speakers at the virtual conference is cardiology consultant Dr Aseem Malhotra, a high-profile health campaigner in the UK. His pronouncements that UK Prime Minister’s battle with Covid was as a result of his obesity garnered him global headlines.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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