Metabolism
Metabolism is not a calorie-burning furnace that sits somewhere near your belly button, deciding whether you can fit into last year's jeans. Metabolism is the set of chemical processes taking place inside your body every second of every day, keeping you alive.
Your metabolism influences how you produce energy, regulate blood sugar, build and repair tissues, detoxify, make hormones, fight infections, think, move, sleep, and even how warm or cold you feel. It is influenced by many factors, including nutrition, muscle mass, thyroid function, sleep, stress, inflammation, light exposure, the microbiome (these critters always get in everywhere) and the health of your mitochondria, often referred to as the body’s tiny energy-producing powerhouses, but they are way more than powerhouses (more another time on this).
At the New School of Nutritional Medicine, we view metabolism as a reflection of how safe, nourished, and supported the body feels. It is not simply a game of calories in versus calories out. A stressed, sleep-deprived, and inflamed body will often behave very differently from a well-rested and resilient one. Understanding metabolism helps us move beyond quick fixes and appreciate the remarkable complexity of the human body and the many factors that influence its function.
