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If we look around and are aware that obesity is really taking over the nation and right now it’s the second leading preventable cause of death - second only to smoking and if the stats keep going the way they are going, it will become the first preventable cause of death in the US. Its factor for aging, cardiovascular disease, cholesterol, diabetes, cancer, hypertension can not be argued against and because of that, there is a big expense associated with it. Right now there is a 90 billion dollar expense and over half of that is related to medical expenses. The statistics are absolutely frightening. Over 2/3 of the population is overweight and 1/3 of those are obese. There are a couple criteria people use to call someone obese depending on who you speak to, but it’s basically a BMI of 30 and above and weight of 30 lb over or higher. Right now we have 4% of the population that’s morbidly obese which means they are 100 lb of higher. It’s a huge problem that is massively impacting society financially and that is why the IRS actually created a tax incentive where they give $2500 rebate for anyone that is obese and joins a weightless program.
The bigger problem is that the people that are doing the majority of weight loss programs are not actually healthcare practitioners and because many are unqualified, the failure rate with weight loss is this high. Many of those people don’t treat the condition and don’t get to the root of the problem. They look at obesity as merely a problem of over-consumption and under-exercising and they have people diet and exercise and sometimes they don’t even address both sides. But we now know that even if people diet and exercise, if you don’t address the underlying causes - the way they damaged their metabolism over time-and don’t address behaviors and mindset, the patient is being set up for failure. A successful program is one that will work for the patient for the rest of their lives otherwise they are just yo yo dieting, they will be losing fat free mass instead of fat mass. We know that if all you do is cut calories, you will actually raise stress hormones and slow the metabolism down even more which will increase the loss of fat free mass therefore increasing morbidity.
The new recommendation by the surgeon general is at least 60 minutes of cardiovascular exercise a day, and if you want to lose weight the recommendation goes up to 90 minutes per day. Many physicians and nutritionist including myself can not disagree more. 90 minutes is an absurdly high amount. As we age we break down more than we build up and if you really want to control your weight for life, you have to change the whole equation. You need to increase lean mass which is how you have glucose tolerance, increase basal metabolic rate etc.. Too much cardiovascular exercise breaks down the body, slowing down the metabolism further, increasing oxidative stress and putting strain on the immune system. So if you just address the problem with diet or exercise and even both, it still does not work long term.
All the new research coming out now is starting to identify areas or weight loss resistance, which are things that will happen to you if you go on diets repetitively, or happen to you by improper glucose production or because of bad genetics. These things need to be fixed in order to be able to burn fat and maintain or even increase lean mass which is the target in a real successful weight management program.
The number one area to deal with is stress, and the challenge we have with it is that people don’t take stress seriously. We know that if someone comes in the office and draws a particular blood cholesterol level and if they go out and get in a car accident their blood cholesterol will rise. Stress is devastating not only to the cardiovascular system but also in what it does to the stress system by raising stress hormones. It’s also devastating to our insulin receptors as it increases insulin resistance, so chronic stress can make you fat. Addressing stress is very personal and we have many ways of dealing with it because one person’s stress management is another’s anxiety.
One way I like to look at stress with my patients without expensive tests is through a zinc taste test. A lot of times, when a person is under stress, their zinc levels significantly decline and a taste test can tell zinc levels on the spot so patients can see first hand that what they are doing to themselves is really damaging and can really be convinced.
Sleep is the second thing to address. Latest study on sleep correlates sleep to weight. People can not be healthy long-term and achieve their ideal body composition without proper restful sleep. Many people may think they are getting quality sleep, but they are not aware about what exactly that means.
Quality sleep means falling asleep within 15 minutes of your head hitting the pillow, sleeping with in the normal circadian rhythms, staying asleep all night without getting up to go to the bathroom, waking up without an alarm, waking up feeling rested etc..
I have a good sleeping protocol, but lifestyle is also very important. If you are not sleeping well, you need to first address your activities such as doing stimulating activity at night or having caffeine after 3 o’clock. No amount of supplementation will fix a wrong lifestyle.
Another thing is nutrient deficiencies. Just because someone is bigger doesn’t mean they have everything they need and more. In fact, someone that is obese is actually malnourished. And if you are deficient in nutrients, you body just can not run right. Many different nutrients are needed for your body to take glucose and burn it into energy, which is what we want to get us through the day and our workouts rather than being dumped and stored in out fat cells. I use several cutting edge tests to determine these imbalances and deficiencies and supplement to correct them for each person.
Toxins are another major factor in weight loss. Our bodies are able to counteract, neutralize and remove a certain level of toxins, however when we ingest inhale or are exposed to more toxins than the body can handle, toxicity occurs. When these toxins accumulate, excessive oxidative stress occurs and this can threaten our health by damaging DNA. This relates to obesity because most toxins are held in the fat cells away from the other organs. If there are a lot of toxins in the fat, the body naturally holds on to that fat to prevent the toxins from getting out to the bloodstream if that fat was to be burned.
The body has many different systems that it utilizes every day to detoxify, including sweat glands, tears, lymph nodes, throat, nose lungs, kidneys, bladder, gallbladder, GI tract and the liver. Antioxidants such as vitamin C, E beta carotene, selenium and zinc neutralize free radicals caused by environmental toxins and protect our health.
The liver is the most important detoxification organ. In the detoxification process, the liver transforms toxins into harmless particles that can be eliminated. The liver sends bile into the GI tract where it binds toxins so they can be excreted in the feces. Toxins that are not rid by this process go to the liver to go through the washer and dryer known as phase I and II.
Phase I enzymes change toxins into intermediate compounds so that they will be more easily transported out. Because of this, these compounds are often more toxic than the original one as they are more mobile. At this point, Phase II enzymes convert the particles into harmless molecules so they are safe for excretion.
Serious health problems can occur when Phase I or II are sluggish and can results in a slow poisoning. If Phase I is not working properly, toxins will be stored in the fat cells and will not be excreted. If Phase II is sluggish, toxins will be converted to more soluble forms to leave the body, but will cause more damage while excreted because they are not able to be converted to harmless particles by Phase II. There are many nutrients required for phase I and II reactions to take place properly. Unfortunately, just by living in this world, our liver is being constantly bombarded with thousands of toxic chemicals and thus we need to be sure we have a good reserve of the nutrients needed to detoxify.
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