Dr. J. Miller  - ROOT Cause Supplements, LLC

Research Lab & Production, Neptune Township, New Jersey

https://drjosephmillerobgyn.com

Metabolic Dysfunction and Inflammation, July 6^th, 2026

 

Dr. J. Miller

ROOT Cause Supplements, LLC

                Neptune Township, NJ

RootCauseSupplements.us

 

Over the past several years, many disorders and syndromes have been reevaluated, and have been confirmed to be related to Metabolic Dysfunction as the Root Cause. They have been renamed to reflect the ROOT Cause and the actual pathophysiology, by connecting the dots, and realizing these disorders and syndromes have a common physiologic cause and effect; related to an imbalance or dysregulation of our complex system of metabolic processes and biochemical reactions, occurring in our bodies on a cellular level.

Our Bodies perform millions of biochemical reactions daily for normal metabolic homeostasis and survival, and when these biochemical reactions are even slightly interrupted, we experience significant adverse effects. Interruption of these processes cause Metabolic Dysregulation and elevated levels of Inflammatory Mediators. These Inflammatory Mediators are what damage our Cells, Tissues, Organs, and Arteries.

Aberrancy of our Normal Metabolic Processes have been recognized as a common denominator, ROOT Cause, of many new and existing disease processes and disorders.

Fatty liver, previously called NAFLD, for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, has been renamed, and is now called: MASLD (Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease): This replaces the old term NAFLD (Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease)

PCOS ( Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) has been renamed, and is now called PMOS, which stands for Polyendocrine Metabolic Ovarian Syndrome.

Also, MOST RECENTLY, The medical community has officially unified the fields of heart disease, kidney disease, and metabolic health under one comprehensive new framework called CKM Syndrome, which stands for Cardiovascular-Kidney-Metabolic Syndrome.

Introduced by the American Heart Association (AHA), this new diagnosis recognizes that heart disease, chronic kidney disease (CKD), type 2 diabetes, and obesity are not isolated conditions. Instead, they are deeply interconnected, sharing the same underlying Metabolic Roots.

They have all been connected to Metabolic Dysfunction and Dysregulation, with damage originating from the cascade of Inflammatory Reactions and Byproducts from metabolic dysfunction, causing Chronic Inflammation (Oxidative Stress) and thus excess stress and trauma to our Cells, Tissues, Organs, Arteries.

HRT is now called MHT, The widely used medical acronym HRT (Hormone Replacement Therapy) has been updated to MHT, which stands for Menopausal Hormone Therapy. The replacement of Hormones with Menopausal, as the primary terminology, depicts that Menopause has a much broader impact on the metabolic processes, and is a systemic disorder, and not simply from the direct effect of the decreasing hormones themselves. Rather, it is a result of the Metabolic Dysfunction, and Inflammatory Cascade of pathways and factors, causing a large set of symptoms and long-term sequelae.

Why do both women and men experience a myriad of symptoms when their hormones decrease in mid-life?

The drop in hormones causes a much broader impact on our cellular physiology, and thus an imbalance in the metabolic processes in our bodies, and significant metabolic dysfunction, chronic inflammation, and therefore, a diffuse set of symptoms. It is not only about the drop in hormones, but rather the consequences of metabolic dysfunction that the drop in hormones causes, which equates to significant symptoms and long-term  effects.

Hormones Fluctuate throughout our lives, and yes, those fluctuations cause symptoms; however, it is not until the mid-life significant drop, and prolonged permanent drop, that we encounter significant symptoms and sequelae. Once again, it’s not solely the drop in hormones that cause the adverse effects, per se, rather the prolonged and persistent drop causes a significant Metabolic Imbalance, and thus significant Inflammatory Mediators and Chronic Inflammation, from a very inefficient set of metabolic biochemical reactions which were previously performing much more efficiently.

For the same reasons, Cardiovascular disease rises after mid-life disproportionately and exponentially, especially in women.

The term Metabolic Syndrome has been recognized for the past 20-30 years as a significant risk factor for cardiovascular disease, which remains the #1 cause of Morbidity and Mortality in the US, that being Cardiovascular Disease. Metabolic syndrome is not a single disease. Instead, it is a cluster of five risk factors that occur together, significantly increasing your risk for type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke.

If you have just one of these factors, it does not mean you have the syndrome—but it does mean you have a higher risk of serious health problems. To be diagnosed with metabolic syndrome, you must have at least three of the following:

The 5 Risk Factors

• A Large Waistline (Central Obesity): Having an "apple-shaped" body, or carrying too much weight around the waist.
• Typically defined as: A waist circumference of 40 inches or more for men, and 35 inches or more for women (though thresholds can be lower depending on ethnic background).
• High Triglycerides: A type of fat found in your blood.
• Threshold: 150 mg/dL or higher (or being on medication to treat it).
• Low HDL Cholesterol: HDL is the "good" cholesterol that helps clear "bad" cholesterol from your arteries.
• Threshold: Less than 40 mg/dL for men and less than 50 mg/dL for women (or being on medication to treat it).
• High Blood Pressure:
• Threshold: 130/85 mm Hg or higher (or being on blood pressure medication).
• High Fasting Blood Sugar: An early sign of insulin resistance or diabetes.
• Threshold: 100 mg/dL or higher (or being on medication to treat high blood glucose).

The Underlying Root Cause of Metabolic Syndrome: Insulin Resistance & Chronic Inflammation

The driving force behind metabolic syndrome is almost always insulin resistance, and thus, Hyperinsulinemia, with excessive levels of Insulin, which is a Pro-Inflammatory Peptide Molecule.

 

I pose the question: If We all have glucose in our bloodstream, as well as cholesterol and triglycerides floating around 24/7, and a steady state blood pressure, why do they not damage our cells when they are at normal levels?

In a normal state of homeostasis, lacking any disease or disorder, why doesn’t the sugar (glucose) in our bloodstream cause problems. We know a level of glucose of 200 consistently is bad, but a level of 90 is good; if sugar is bad, why doesn’t it affect our arteries and tissues at 90, and it only affects them at 200? Why does Total Cholesterol only have adverse effects on our arteries at 300 and not 140? Why is it acceptable to have temporary spikes in our blood pressure when we play sports or exercise, however, if its consistently high, that creates a problem.

Actually, at NORMAL levels, they are ALL needed for survival. We need Glucose for proper body functions, as well as Cholesterol and Triglycerides, as well as a healthy blood pressure, and without them we would not survive. Therefore, what makes these factors a problem when elevated?

It’s not the actual compounds themselves, rather the complex set of dysfunctional metabolic biochemical reactions which occur when these compounds (glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides etc…) are elevated, and more so when significantly elevated, over prolonged periods of time, leading to a Pro-Inflammatory State, and thus damage to our Cells, Tissues, Organs & Arteries.

At consistently elevated levels, of all referenced above, Glucose, Cholesterol, Triglycerides, Blood Pressure Etc…, we experience significant metabolic dysregulation on the cellular level; Chronic Inflammation, and thus damage to our Cells, Tissues, Organs, and Arteries over time. It is not the actual elevated compounds that cause the damage, rather the dysfunctional metabolic processes which result in excess Inflammation that cause the damage.

Why is consistently elevated Glucose considered more dangerous than Cholesterol?

Because, as a normal response to elevated glucose, our body releases Insulin, and when glucose is persistently elevated, we develop Hyperinsulinemia, and thus insulin resistance and a vicious cycle. Excess Insulin in the Blood Stream significantly alters Metabolic Homeostasis, and thus accelerates  Cellular damage due to the highly Inflammatory cascade of reactions, due to  chronic Hyperinsulinemia, as Insulin is Pro-Inflammatory, and thus causing compounded chronic Inflammation. Therefore, Diabetes causes more severe damage when compared to Elevated Cholesterol due to the higher degree of excess Inflammation (Oxidative Stress).

The Metabolic Dysregulation and Dysfunction which occurs causes Chronic Excess Inflammatory Biochemical Reactions, thus releasing damaging Compounds, on the cellular level, known as Oxidative Stress. The ROOT Cause of the damage, from Aberrancy of our Metabolic Processes is thus Inflammation (Oxidative Stress).

Therefore, we know what we know, and we know that when we lower levels of Glucose, Cholesterol, Triglycerides and Blood Pressure, we lessen any future damage. This does not mean if you have normal levels, that you don’t have ANY Inflammation impacting your Cells, Tissues, Organs, and Arteries. Our normal Metabolic Biochemical Reactions do not run 100% efficiently, as no machine can run 100% efficient, and thus our normal biochemical reactions yield low levels of Inflammation (Oxidative Stress), which is a major factor of why we age.

However, by controlling the factors we know which accelerate the Metabolic Dysfunction and thus excess levels of Inflammation, we are making an impact on our long-term health and current symptoms.

We know what we don’t know, and we know there are many other factors and compounds besides Glucose, Cholesterol and Triglycerides which if either increased or decreased will negatively impact our Complex system of Metabolic Processes, and thus raise our levels of Chronic Inflammation and cause ensuing  damage to our Cells, Tissues, Organs and Arteries.

Medical Research is  constantly evolving, and recognizing new compounds in our bodies, which if either increased or decreased significantly, will cause Metabolic Dysfunction and Dysregulation, leading to chronic cellular Inflammation, which is the ROOT Cause of  cellular and tissue damage, thus subsequently disease and adverse symptoms .

Cardiovascular disease has been recognized as being driven by metabolic dysregulation and the resultant Inflammation. A Major ROOT Cause of Cardiovascular disease is Inflammation on the inner lining of the arteries, which is why Diabetics have accelerated rates of Cardiovascular disease, which not only presents with heart attacks, however, also eye disease, strokes, and peripheral vascular disease. Cardiovascular disease is much more complicated than simply elevated cholesterol.

Lowering Inflammation has been recognized as a crucial factor in all area of medical research, since metabolic dysfunction is intimately tied with many more disease processes than previously recognized.

At the end of the day, lowering your chronic Inflammation across the board is the number one thing you can do for your body, short and long term;  as metabolic dysfunction and dysregulation, is being increasingly recognized as connected to many diseases and disorders.

The sequelae of metabolic dysfunction and dysregulation is Inflammation, Chronic Inflammation (Oxidative Stress), which remains The ROOT Cause of the damage to the Cells, Tissues, Organs & Arteries.

Elevated Lipoprotein (a) and Homocysteine are other examples of risk factors for Cardiovascular disease by interrupting normal metabolic processes, and thus causing heightened levels of Inflammation and resultant damage to our Cell, Tissues, Organs and Arteries.

We may not yet know all the players that cause metabolic dysfunction and dysregulation, however, what we certainly do know is that metabolic dysfunction and dysregulation leads to chronic inflammation and thus stress and trauma upon our Cells, Tissues, Organs, and Arteries. Therefore, take every avenue available to lower your whole-body Inflammation on a daily basis, as it remains the Primary Mechanism by which our Bodies are affected from many disorders which are being increasingly tied to metabolic dysfunction.

Therefore, lowering your inflammation mitigates and lessens harmful effects to your body.

We don’t need to know every last compound detrimental to our health, however, we can start from the end and decrease our chronic inflammation, The ROOT Cause of the damage, preventing disease and lessening symptoms from the unending list of compounds, diseases, and syndromes that will cause metabolic dysfunction and dysregulation.