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CHILDHOOD OBESITY – WHAT’S WRONG WITH BABY FAT?

2010/07/31
Published

Complacency, ignorance and busy lifestyles all contribute to the growing trend of overweight children in our society. This article is designed to enlighten and empower you as caretakers to begin to take steps to change the course of health and longevity for our future generations.

It was a bold statement when the American Medical Associated published papers nearly two years ago stating that our generation, this generation, would be the first generation to begin to experience parents outliving their children! The reason, childhood obesity creates medical conditions that previously only plagued adults in their middle years. Conditions such as hypertension, osteoarthritis, arthritis, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, diabetes, stroke, and heart attacks speak loudly of the dangers of childhood obesity.

On February 9, 2010 USA Today published an article about childhood obesity prevention. It stated that our First Lady, Michelle Obama has announced her quest to eliminate childhood obesity in one generation. Most of us parents can relate to her story. USA Today reports:

Her daughters were 6 and 9, and Michelle Obama was like any other working mom — struggling to juggle office hours, school pick-ups and mealtimes. By the end of the day, she was often too tired to make dinner, so she did what was easy: She ordered takeout or went to the drive-through. She thought the girls were eating reasonably well — until her pediatrician in Chicago told her he didn’t like the weight fluctuations he was seeing. “I was shocked because my kids looked perfectly fine to me,” Obama says. “But I had a wake-up call.” Like many parents, however, “I didn’t know what to do.” Today, the self-described “mom in chief” is launching Let’s Move, a campaign to help other parents deal with a national health crisis she describes in epic terms.

If our First Lady was moved into action by the health changes her pediatrician saw in her “apparently healthy looking” kids, then can you imagine the health changes going on in a child that actually looks obese!

It’s a fact that American is getting fatter, and is fatter than it was a generation ago. Fast food and sodas are hugely to blame as they were not a common feature in one’s lifestyle one generation ago. Television and computer games also did not exist a generation ago such that they now become a number one babysitting feature in our homes. Childhood abductions cause parents to keep children indoors. This is a sad commentary on our modern society as only a generation ago, children played freely outside and neighbors watched out for the neighborhood children.

With the increased mobility of society, families do not stay put as they use to and now neighbors hardly know each other, yet alone watch out for each other’s children. Therefore, in one generation, multiple economic, technological and cultural factors have converged to isolate and make our children more sedentary and choose “fast” “processed” food for convenience over long term health consequences. However, realizing these factors, we do not have to be victims of technology, or economics or our fast paced culture.

Where there is an obese child there is an obese parent and the parent may not even realize it. The first step is to wake up to your own reality and take stock as a parent on your own health and lifestyle habits as they teach and impact those of your family especially if you shop and cook for your children. Part one here will focus on you as a parent.

How Much Overweight Do I Need to Be to Affect My Child’s Health?

Overweight parents through their lifestyle can easily cause their children to become obese. First you must become knowledgeable about what lifestyle factors contribute to obesity in yourself before you can understand how it could affect a growing child.

An Index For Obesity:

The Body Mass Index gives a fairly accurate measurement of one’s weight relative to the ideal. Men, women and children all have different ranges of                                                      

BMI. The BMI is used to determine obesity ranges. Your BMI is calculated by taking your weight in pounds and dividing it by your height in inches.

The American Council on Exercise has determined a BMI index for men and women as follows:

Classification Women % fat Men % fat
Average 25-31 % 18-25%
Obese 32%+ 25%+
Fit 21-24% 14-17%
Athletic 14-20% 6-13%
BMI Height (in)
58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76
Wgt. (lbs) 4′10″ 4′11″ 5′0″ 5′1″ 5′2″ 5′3″ 5′4″ 5′5″ 5′6″ 5′7″ 5′8″ 5′9″ 5′10″ 5′11″ 6′0″ 6′1′ 6′2″ 6′3′ 6′4′
100 21 20 20 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 14 14 13 13 13 12
105 22 21 21 20 19 19 18 18 17 16 16 16 15 15 14 14 14 13 13
110 23 22 22 21 20 20 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 15 14 14 13
115 24 23 23 22 21 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 14 14
120 25 24 23 23 22 21 21 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16 15 15 15
125 26 25 24 24 23 22 22 21 20 20 19 18 18 17 17 17 16 16 15
130 27 26 25 25 24 23 22 22 21 20 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16 16
135 28 27 26 26 25 24 23 23 22 21 21 20 19 19 18 18 17 17 16
140 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 23 23 22 21 21 20 20 19 19 18 18 17
145 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 23 23 22 21 21 20 20 19 19 18 18
150 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24 23 22 22 21 20 20 19 19 18
155 32 31 30 29 28 28 27 26 25 24 24 23 22 22 21 20 20 19 19
160 34 32 31 30 29 28 28 27 26 25 24 24 23 22 22 21 21 20 20
165 35 33 32 31 30 29 28 28 27 26 25 24 24 23 22 22 21 21 20
170 36 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24 23 22 22 21 21
175 37 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24 23 23 22 21
180 38 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24 23 23 22
185 39 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24 23 23
190 40 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24 23
195 41 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 27 27 26 25 24 24
200 42 40 39 38 37 36 34 33 32 31 30 30 29 28 27 26 26 25 24
205 43 41 40 39 38 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 29 28 27 26 26 25
210 44 43 41 40 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 29 28 27 26 26
215 45 44 42 41 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 28 27 26
220 46 45 43 42 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 28 28 27
225 47 46 44 43 41 40 39 38 36 35 34 33 32 31 31 30 29 28 27
230 48 47 45 44 42 41 40 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 30 29 28
235 49 48 46 44 43 42 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29 29
240 50 49 47 45 44 43 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30 29
245 51 50 48 46 45 43 42 41 40 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 32 31 30
250 52 51 49 47 46 44 43 42 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31 30
255 53 52 50 48 47 45 44 43 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32 31
260 54 53 51 49 48 46 45 43 42 41 40 38 37 36 35 34 33 33 32
265 56 54 52 50 49 47 46 44 43 42 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33 32
270 57 55 53 51 49 48 46 45 44 42 41 40 39 38 37 36 35 34 33
275 58 56 54 52 50 49                          

                                                 

       

Take a few minutes to calculate your BMI:

Weight:______ Height in inches:______  My BMI:______

Circle one, I am: Average, Obese, Fit, Athletic

My BMI goal is: _________

Now that you know what your BMI is, you will know whether a doctor would consider you as falling into the obesity category. This is one index doctors use to evaluate patients for obesity. Now let’s look at the contributing factors as there is generally not one cause alone.

Complacency:

Complacency takes many forms and it’s based upon assumptions. How many of these assumptions apply to you?

a)     I’ve been overweight all my life

b)    I’ve tried to loose weight but can’t keep it off so I can’ expect my kids to either

c)     Everyone in my family is heavy set

d)    I don’t have time to exercise, that’s why I’ve gained weight

e)     I have too much stress

f)      My hormones are off

g)     I’ve never lost the pregnancy weight

h)     I can’t afford “wholesome” food

i)       I don’t have time to cook meals from scratch

j)       My kids are too picky about what they eat

k)     My kids seem healthy

l)       Kids will outgrow the fat

A lifetime of weight challenges, or coming from a family of obese individuals does not mean that you are victim of your genes or hormones. Medicine is learning more each year about our metabolic and hormonal differences and the ways to balance them beginning with ways to combat insulin resistance that cause Syndrome X, often a precursor to diabetes.

Inactivity alone will not lead to the degree of obesity that leads one’s children into obesity. Diet plays a huge part. Busy parents can make better grocery store decisions that allow for healthy meals and snacking for the whole family without having to give their children processed foods or slave in the kitchen for hours.

It is cheaper to eat junk food and fast food. However, this food is not only devoid of nutritional value but contains saturated fats, trans fats, pesticides, herbicides, food additives and other carcinogens that rob bodies of nutrition in an effort to combat and detoxify these substances and negatively impacts our immune and metabolic systems leading to early disease. You can be obese and malnourished; it’s very common!

The thought that kids outgrow the baby fat or fat in general is false. Infantile obesity causes the body to make more fat cells than normal weight babies and sets them up for metabolic disorders and childhood obesity. Furthermore, obesity research has found that when people do loose weight and loose fat mass, they don’t loose the number of fat cells. Those fat cells shrink in volume. Regaining fat mass is all to easy to do from retention of intracellular toxicity and fat storage.

Lifestyle habits that create fat storage in childhood are more difficult to overcome in adolescence and adulthood because they are so ingrained. Therefore, outgrowing one’s baby fat is impossible unless one makes a deliberate change in their lifestyle habits that cause obesity.

My kids are healthy so why should I worry? Obesity is a slow and chronic degenerative mechanism of disease. It takes time for obesity to do the following:

1)     cause our cells be become resistant to sugars (insulin resistance)

2)     cause our fat cells to begin to secrete hormones that increase food cravings and affect our blood sugar regulation

3)     cause increased cholesterol and plaque formation in our circulation

4)     cause fatigue

5)     cause increased toxic accumulation

6)     cause excessive estrogen storage, even in boys!

7)     cause Alzheimer’s at an early age

8)     cause developmental delay and brain processing disorders

9)     cause adult onset diabetes at an early age

10) cause emotional issues related to body image and self worth

11) cause sleep disorders including sleep apnea

12) cause fatty liver

13) cause fatty tumors, cancers

All of the above are occurring in the youth when they use to occur only in middle-aged adults!

Where does one begin to determine how and where to make the most effective changes for our children to steer them away from chronic childhood obesity. If you are like most busy parents the thought of it can be overwhelming. You don’t have time to read a lot of books and figure out by trial and error what you need to do help your child loose that fat, but you want to make changes that will effectively help your child redirect their path toward loosing the weight and living a longer healthier life.

Immune Matrix Institute, a non-profit educational organization has implemented a twelve-week online course called REVERSING CHILDHOOD OBESITY. This course was designed for the busy parent. It is administered in one lesson plan, home assessment test and project per week that can be done by the entire family, especially for those home schooling parents in a way that is fun and educational for the children involved. Unless we also teach our youth, they will not value the changes you make in your home. This course will allow you to pass on a living legacy of healthy habits that will benefit them for a lifetime. The cost is $25 a week and is tax-deductible through this non-profit, and includes personalized online coaching through the forum and is one of the most effective ways to implement gradual changes that educate and improve the health of your child and entire family. Don’t delay, get started today.

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

September 5th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: WEIGHT LOSS | Leave a comment

HOW HORMONES MAKE US FAT?

2010/08/11
Published

Obesity, weight gain and weight management is about more than calories taken in and energy expenditure out. The balance of our hormones forms the energetic template and structure around which our body rebuilds itself. The purpose of this article is to give you a beginning perspective on how our hormones form this template around which our body structures its metabolism and form.

The main hormonal players in the obesity game are:

1)     thyroid hormone: T3 aka triiodothyronine

2)     growth hormone

3)     sex hormones: estrogen/testosterone

4)     adrenal hormone: cortisol

5)     leptin

6)     gherlin

THYROID HORMONE:

The active hormone of the thyroid is T3 called triiodothyronine. The pituitary excretes thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) which stimulates the thyroid to make T3 from thyroxine (T4). Traditionally doctors would take a blood test for your TSH, T4 and T3 levels. If TSH was elevated, then it indicated the body’s attempt to stimulate the thyroid to make more T3.

It has only been in the last year that free T3 levels are now being tested routinely by astute doctors and heal care providers. What is free T3? It is T3 that is not bound by anti-bodies. It has been discovered that individuals with autoimmune inflammatory conditions such as chronic fatigue, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, allergies, arthritic conditions, environmental sensitivities, food sensitivities, irritable bowel, and other immune driven conditions will develop an immune sensitivity to their own thyroid hormone. Many times this is a temporary condition that resolves once the underlying immune sensitivities are brought under control and resolved. However, sometimes they become a full blown auto-immune attack against the thyroid gland itself and not just against the thyroid hormone. These individuals will go on to develop Hashimoto’s thyroiditis or Wilson’s syndrome.  Therefore, adding free T3 to one’s blood test helps the medical practitioner to determine how much T3 is available for you to use as you can only use T3 that is unbound (unattached to an antibody). With the addition of testing for free T3 one can now find effective low thyroid hormone levels when total T3 looks normal!

Why is thyroid hormone implicated in obesity and weight gain?  T3 controls your body’s energy metabolism called your basal metabolic rate. It controls your rate of protein synthesis which has a direct impact on your body’s ability to maintain your muscle mass. It also plays a crucial role in your sugar metabolism by controlling the rate in which glycogen is broken down into glucose and it boosts the effect of insulin. Without this useful hormone you are more likely to become insulin resistant and develop Syndrome X, from it. T3 also directly affects your heart, controlling its force and rate of contraction and your oxygenation as a result. It’s hard to feel like moving your body when you heart is feeling sluggish!

GROWTH HORMONE:

Human growth hormone (HGH) is considered a master hormone because it affects all areas of our body. When we are young, in our early 20’s we have the highest level of growth hormone and as a result we look pretty good! By the time we reach our 40’s our levels of HGH have declined significantly. Research has observed that along with the steady decline in growth hormone we see a steady loss of muscle mass, decreased in energy as a result and increase fat mass. Stimulating the pituitary gland in the brain to synthesize  HGH causes an increase in muscle mass back to one’s prime age and loss of fat mass. Studies are confirming that individuals suffering from obesity have lower than normal HGH levels.

The metabolic effects of HGH involve protein, fat and sugar metabolism. HGH increases the uptake of amino acids by the body helping it to build muscle. It also enhances the usage of fat, stimulating the breakdown of triglycerides. Therefore, it helps us have better cholesterol levels and fat metabolism. HGH is also crucial in sugar metabolism because it boosts the liver’s ability of the liver to make glucose. However, a side effect of injectable HGH is secretion of excessive insulin and the development of insulin resistance! There is a huge difference between taking supplements to stimulate the synthesis of HGH and taking HGH directly (which is known to cause side effects of hypertension, joint pains, insulin resistance and heart problems).

SEX HORMONES AND OBESITY:

For women the onset of menopause results in perplexing weight gain. Research has discovered that the loss of estrogen receptors (ER-alpha receptors) in the brain, in particular your hypothalamus caused a chain reaction of metabolic effects that result in increased appetite, increased insulin resistance and increase abdominal fat! These receptors control hunger, thirst and temperature! Loss of these receptors in rats resulted in increased insulin resistance and immediate weight gain, especially belly fat and increased appetite! (American Chemical Society 2007, August 20, Revealing Estrogen’s Secret Role in Obesity.)

Men approaching middle age can also become hormonally imbalanced and their testosterone synthesis can divert to a higher level of estrogen synthesis. Its effect is to increase fat retention especially in the breasts of men.

With increases in fat retention, fat cells store estrogen! This makes the problem worse because it isn’t the level of estrogen that keeps us slim but our usage of it. Too much stored estrogen in tissues makes our body resistant to using estrogen and we become “estrogen dominant”, and store estrogen. This increases fat storage and our risk for estrogen dominant cancers in both men and women. When estrogen is able to enter our cells (because the cells are not resistant to absorbing estrogen) it helps to control appetite. (Yale University, Jan. 4, 2007, Estrogen Curbs Appetite in Same Way as the Hormone Leptin.)

Obese men have lower testosterone levels and obese girls and women have higher testosterone levels. Testosterone is necessary to maintain muscle mass. It has not been conclusively determined to date whether this apparent imbalance of testosterone in obese individuals comes from the gradual onset of obesity or whether the imbalance of the hormone itself induces metabolic imbalances that fuels obesity. Like estrogen, both factors are probably true.

EXCESSIVE CORTISOL:

Cortisol is produced by our adrenal glands located above our kidneys. When we are under stress or while we are fighting off infection, our body increases our cortisol to stimulate the body to ramp up its sugar metabolism and immune action. The problem arises when stress or infection becomes chronic and the body becomes resistant to the stimulating effects of cortisol. Insulin resistance and immune fatigue will result, stimulating fat storage, especially belly fat.

LEPTIN:

Leptin is a relatively newly discovered hormone, in 1994. This hormone is found in direct proportion to the level of body fat we have. This mean the fatter we get the more leptin we make. It is made in white fat, brown fat, breast tissue, bone marrow, the pituitary, the liver, ovaries, muscles and the stomach.

So called ‘normal’ levels of leptin help our body to control our appetite by acting on our brain, in particular the hypothalamus to inhibit our appetite. Compounding the excessive production of leptin by the above tissues is the fact that the very act of eating food stimulates our body to make more leptin. Add this fact to the fact that as we gain more fat cells, the secretion of leptin increases and we develop resistance to any excessive hormone secretion, including leptin. Leptin resistance causes us to have increased appetite because the hormone becomes ineffective!

GHRELIN:

Ghrelin is a hormone secreted by the empty stomach. Its function is to stimulate hunger. If we skip a meal, especially breakfast we end up making more ghrelin overall. The result is that when we do eat the synthesis of ghrelin declines but our overall level of ghrelin is higher contributing to night time hunger!

Another function of ghrelin is to increase the volume of food we want to eat and to increase out fat mass! As you can see, if you wait too long to eat and get too hungry, you will make more ghrelin and then you will overeat. The food you do eat will then be stimulated to fat storage because of this hormone. Balance is everything, so don’t ignore hunger and don’t skip breakfast!

DOPAMINE:

Dopamine is a brain chemical, a neurotransmitter that is linked to our ability to maintain focus, and produce feelings of satisfaction and pleasure. It also plays a part in our body’s metabolism. Studies have found a link between low dopamine receptors in the brain and obesity. With increases in obesity (increases in BMI) they found fewer dopamine receptors! Fewer receptors mean that you are more likely to eat more to try to stimulate the dopamine “pleasure” circuits and can become addicted to food just like drugs and other compulsive behaviors. What has not been determined is whether the reduction in dopamine receptors is a cause or consequence of obesity.

Drugs that increase dopamine receptor sensitivity are highly addictive and become less effective over time. What has been shown to increase dopamine receptor sensitivity and release is exercise! (Brookhaven National Laboratory Feb.6, 2001, Scientist Find Link Between Dopamine and Obesity)

With all the above hormones, there are complex regulatory mechanisms that cause each hormone to interact not just with our brain but with other tissues in our body and other hormones. Correcting imbalances is a complex picture that involves balancing all one’s hormones with proper lifestyle, stress reduction, supplementation and diet.

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

August 11th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , | Category: HORMONES, WEIGHT LOSS | Leave a comment

DO EMOTIONS SABOTAGE WEIGHT LOSS? CHAPTER 1(PART 3 OF 3)

2010/04/17
Published

Emotions and Weight

In Part 1, we learned that emotions are chemistry and the unextinguished chemistry of negative emotions (aka NECs) can be stored within the body. In Part 2 we began to show key ways in which these negative unextinguished neuropeptides of emotion contribute to throwing off our health contributing to weight gain. Here we will discuss further examples of how these NECs drive our weight out of balance. 

Emotions Can Suppress our Immune System

Western medicine acknowledges the link between immune system strength and stress. What no one knows is the exact biochemical processes that allow the nervous system to communicate with our immune cells. Studies confirm the link of chronic stress on our nervous system with inhibiting immune function.

The nervous system and our emotions are intimately linked. The foundations of chiropractic and acupuncture theory study the body’s linked associations between the nervous system and our organs. As discussed in Part 1, all emotions exist because they are biochemicals in the body.

Anything created in the body has to be eliminated. When too many negative emotional biochemicals accumulate in the body, their effect can over stimulate the biochemistry of our nervous system. The result is depletion of core pathway nutrients, trace minerals, alkaline minerals such as magnesium, manganese, zinc, lithium, selenium, chromium, molybdenum, B6, B12, 5-tetra-hydroxy-folate to name a few. Besides depletion, imbalances in nutrients can also result, such as excess copper accumulating in our systems, pushing us towards anxiety and insomnia.

If these NECs are contributing to drive our biochemistry out of balance, our battle to digest and absorb the nutrients necessary to optimize our energy and metabolism will continually be off.

Emotions Can Drive us to Eat the Wrong Foods

When unextinguished negative emotions continue to bubble up within us, we seek solace sometimes in self-soothing behavior such as eating. The repetitive act of eating in and of itself is soothing to our bodies. Recall the baby that calms down to feed.

Sometimes we simply have bad habits, like coming home from work and going straight to the refrigerator to have a snack before dinner that begins to tip our weight out of balance. However, more often, if we dig deeper, and especially if we have an NET practitioner test us, we can find out that at the root of our need to soothe ourselves with comfort foods is a feeling of anxiety, boredom, loneliness, even anger and frustration! Removing the neuropeptides of emotion that trigger this ongoing need to soothe ourselves can help us to overcome the cycle of weight loss and gain! You don’t need to know what emotions are triggering your desire to eat, as the certified NET practitioner is trained to know how to test you.

Chronic Challenges in Weight Loss can Elicit Emotions that Block our Progress

Chronic states of illness or weight loss plateaus can have a payoff to no conscious fault of our own. As much as we hate being ill, stuck on a weight loss plateau or on a roller coaster of weight loss and gain, sometimes our subconscious (limbic system) can use our condition to our detriment. The result is that we find a practitioner to help us heal, loose weight, get some treatments, get better but eventually lapse back to our prior state. Repetitive relapses should be checked by a certified NET practitioner to determine if there are subconscious “laws” or “programming” that hinder our overcoming our plateaus.

Some key statements that are used to check our limbic system for congruency are “I’m ok being well”, I’m ok overcoming chronic fatigue”, “I’m ok having better health than anyone in my family”, “I’m ok loosing weight.”, “I’m ok with receiving attention from having a great physique!”, “I’m ok with failure”.

These statements may look obviously positive to the conscious mind as it doesn’t make sense to our conscious mind to not be ok being well. However, the limbic brain does not operate in a logical manner and unextinguished negative emotions in the form of fears, lack of self esteem etc. will use our chronic conditions to protect itself from breaking through to the conscious (cognitive) mind.

For example, if one has a subconscious fear of failure, they are less likely to want to overcome chronic fatigue or reach their weight loss goals because this now exposes the individual to the risk of failure, whose emotion can be overwhelming to the patient emotionally. The patient will either self-sabotage, stop taking their medications or supplement or become entangled with additional health issues that are also not efficiently dealt with for “emotional” reasons unknown to the patient.

In the case of weight loss, being ok with being attractive and the attention it attracts is a huge subconscious detriment for those who have suffered rape, or sexual abuse. Therefore, those patients suffering cycles of weight loss and gain, or relapses, stalled progress, should see a certified NET practitioner to check their congruency in overcoming their condition. The more layers one can peel off that contribute to imbalance the further and faster one will see progress.

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

Incoming search terms for the article:do emotions block progress

April 17th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: WEIGHT LOSS | 5 comments

DO EMOTIONS SABOTAGE WEIGHT LOSS? CHAPTER 1 (PART 2)

2010/04/15
Published

Emotions and Weight

In Part 1 we discussed that emotions are chemistry and the unextinguished chemistry of negative emotions (aka NECs) can be stored within the body. In Part 2 we discuss some ways in which these negative unextinguished neuropeptides of emotion contribute to throwing off our health, contributing to weight gain.  

Emotions can Cause Food Sensitivities

When dealing with emotions from the biochemical side, they can impact any aspect of one’s health in complicated ways. Here we address a few ways emotions impact our weight. Negative unextinguished neuropeptides of emotion do contribute to weight gain and form an emotional basis that drives our weight out of balance.

Sometimes a negative emotion can become associated with a food and cause symptoms. An example Immune Matrix describes is a child who had strife with his father on Sundays while his dad cooked eggs. He was seen as an adult at the clinic for food allergies and when all the allergies were cleared, his symptoms to eggs persisted despite no positive allergy or food sensitivity findings. An NET session revealed the original NEC of anger and frustration at this father while eating eggs on Sunday as a child. Once this NEC was cleared and the neuropeptides detoxified, he was able to begin to enjoy eggs symptom free!

One can form a linked association to food, substances, chemicals etc. which can easily be checked by a certified NET practitioner. It could be one piece of the puzzle missing in your continued progress.

Emotions Can Block Digestive Efficiency

The accumulation of negative neuropeptides, especially after an acute event such as a trauma, relationship stress, job layoff, can stimulate the body into being more sympathetic (the fight or flight response). If we are running from a train, this comes in handy and the body’s last concern is digestion, marshalling all its forces to help you get your nervous system in top gear to escape that train! However, if there is no train to run from and you need to digest your food, you cannot be in a sympathetic state. Digestive juices, enzymes etc. cannot function in such a state. Intestinal cramping, bloating, abdominal gas, acid reflux will result.

We are unaware consciously that our body is in a sympathetic state because the limbic system, that part of our brain that controls emotions and the processing of these neuropeptides is separate from our cognitive or conscious part of our brains. When issues press through our consciousness into our conscious awareness, the accumulation of negative neuropeptides is great. Certified NET practitioners are trained to know how to test the body for localized areas of accumulation and to find the root emotion to stop your body from running from the freight train long after it is gone.

Our bodies continue to react long after conscious stressors are gone. This is why it could be pivotal to check for negative stored emotions that underlie life stressors and have them extinguished. It will relieve the body of stress, improve your chemistry and make you much happier. 

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

April 15th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: WEIGHT LOSS | One comment

DO EMOTIONS SABOTAGE WEIGHT LOSS? CHAPTER 1 (PART 1 OF 3)

2010/04/13
Published

The Chemistry of Emotion

There are positive and negative emotions in life. Both course through our bodies as chemical peptides. Emotions can aggravate, sustain, and/or block the healing of any health condition. Conditions involving pain, such as fibromyalWgia, migraine, arthritis, trauma, digestive disorders, food allergies, environmental sensitivities, chronic nausea, chronic infections, especially fungal infections as seen with candidiasis, eczema,  chronic viral infections in chronic fatigue, lyme disease, and as well as autoimmune conditions all seem to be particularly impacted by the effect of un-extinguished negative emotions. Weight loss is one of the most sensitive to emotional processing.

Positive emotional neuropeptides stimulate endorphins, hormonal triggers for the body and brain that make us feel energetic, happy, content, peaceful and alert. Positive neuropeptides also positively influence the immune system and stimulate it into action. Negative emotional neuropeptides act like the cross walk guards at intersections, they block function. They suppress one’s immune system and inhibit the synthesis of positive neuropeptides.

All emotions, positive and negative have associated neuropeptides that are degraded and eliminated from the body. This is called the “extinction” of an emotion. If the body is unable to extinguish all the neuropeptides of that emotion, it is stored! Dr. Candice Pert, in her groundbreaking book the Molecules of Emotion, Why You Feel the Way You Feel,  was the first scientist to discover that our body can be interrupted in the processing of our emotions, especially the negative ones. As a result, we can store these neuropeptides of negative emotions such as anger, resentment, frustration, etc. in our body, not just our heads! The consequences of this discovery are profound.

Through the science and study of the chemistry of emotion, Neuro Emotional Technique (NET), the brainchild of Dr. Scott Walker, discovered that non-extinguished negative emotions would compel a person to re-experience a similar event that would create new yet similar negative emotions in the body’s faulty attempt to heal and extinguish these neuropeptides. He named the phenomenon NEC’s (neuroemotional charges).

In lay terms, an NEC acts as a button that is pushed in a person to create a negative emotional reaction. Have you ever reacted to a comment or attitude and found yourself asking “why does that bother me so much?”, when it may not seem to ruffle the feathers of others? This is a sign that it is an NEC, and behind it are the stored neuropeptides of negative emotion. Talking about why something bothers you does not necessary change how you feel. This is because the biochemistry of emotion has not been eliminated. Eliminating these negative neuropeptides eliminates the negative reaction and emotion! You can then change how you feel!

Dr. Walker’s NET technique is designed to eliminate the biochemistry of negative emotions. It tracks back to the original forming event and assists the body in discharging these negative emotional neuropeptides. This technique is being taught in medical schools and certified doctor referrals around the world are available at www.netmindbody.com. More will be written about NET in future articles.

Emotions and Weight

When dealing with emotions from the biochemical side, they can impact any aspect of one’s health in complicated ways. Negative unextinguished neuropeptides of emotion do contribute to weight gain and form an emotional basis that drives our weight out of balance. The following is a brief list of how emotions affect our weight:

1)      emotions can create food sensitivities

2)      emotions can block our digestive efficiency

3)      emotions can increase inflammation

4)      emotions can increase our cortisol levels

5)      emotions can stress and suppress our immune system

6)      emotions can drive us to eat the wrong foods

7)      emotional aspects of weight loss and gain or plateaus make it difficult for us to rise above our circumstances

Part 2 will discuss how.

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

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April 13th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: WEIGHT LOSS | 3 comments

IS STRESS MAKING YOU FAT? (PAR B)

2010/04/11
Published

In Part A we discussed what things your body perceives as stress and how your body responds to produce more cortisol and insulin. Prolonged stress or glandular mal-adaptation to stress result in prolonged elevation of cortisol and eventual exhaustion of the adrenal glands. Knowing the levels of cortisol throughout the day will help you make adjustments to help your body reset its hormonal balance.

Excessive Cortisol

We discussed in Part A the fact that elevated cortisol stimulates the excretion of insulin. If insulin levels stay elevated beyond levels your cells need, then you go into a fat storage mode. Prolonged elevations in insulin result in insulin resistance and impaired sugar metabolism and sugar absorption by cells. This causes episodes of low blood sugar crashes called hypoglycemia and reactive hypoglycemia, fatigue, exhaustion and sugar and carbohydrate cravings.

Anyone with elevated cortisol must pay attention to what time of day their cortisol values are elevated. You need to avoid taking stimulants during that time of day as they will push your cortisol values higher, such as coffee, sodas, alcohol. Your latte habit alone can make you fat because it could be driving your cortisol levels up! You also need to watch the amount of carbohydrates you eat during high cortisol times. Excess carbohydrates and sugars, such as sodas, chips, cookies, pastry, mocha’s and such load the body with too much sugar. Between the sugar and the insulin spike from elevated cortisol you are more likely to gain weight during times of high cortisol!

During periods of elevated cortisol, eat more protein and do not let yourself go without eating three meals a day and two protein snacks in the day. Eating enough protein is essential to keeping your blood sugar from dropping and feeling exhausted after a cortisol surge. Eating enough protein will also prevent the insatiable hunger some people feel when their cortisol levels are high. This results from elevated levels of insulin. Therefore, knowing your cortisol values is essential to help you modify your lifestyle and diet.

During times of cortisol peaks in the day you should avoid taking B vitamins, and herbs such as ginseng. The stimulating effects of supplements and some herbs will elevate cortisol and can be the cause for excessive cortisol peaks.

Avoid strenuous exercise during cortisol peaks as this will exhaust the adrenals over time and also be the cause of elevated cortisol levels. Avoid stressful situations during cortisol peaks if possible. Just knowing that at certain times of the day you are more prone to have elevated cortisol will allow you to look at your lifestyle and determine what stressors are pushing your body into that stress mode. With some it’s a stressful work situation; with others it’s a stressful home environment and how it is structured. Plan and make adjustments to defer some of what your body perceives as stressful to other times of the days and you will be more productive and energetic.

Lecithin granules are a good food to be taken at the time of cortisol peaks. The phosphotidylserine is essential for the body to detoxify cortisol. One tablespoon taken during peak cortisol times will help the body detoxify the excessive cortisol.

Deficiency in Cortisol

If at some point in the day your saliva cortisol values are below normal, then it’s highly likely that your adrenals have entered a phase of mal-adaptation, fatigue or exhaustion. A person can have high cortisol values when they wake up and then by noon they can crash below normal and stay that way until bedtime. Low cortisol values mean that you will have problems with your sugar metabolism. You will feel tired, dragging, where rest never gives you the energy recharge you so crave. Eating sugary snacks for quick energy makes you feel tired in about an hour, and you seek stimulants like soda and coffee for the pick up.

Sugars and caffeine deplete weak adrenal glands and you need to take in protein snacks in the form of a piece of chicken, turkey, skim cheese, egg, cottage cheese, or protein smoothie that you make so that you can limit the sugars in the smoothie. Take the protein snack about an hour before your lowest cortisol level. It will help prevent hypoglycemia, and help to strengthen your adrenal glands. The most sugar you should consume during low cortisol values would be an apple and in many cases that can be too much carbohydrate at that time to safely digest.

Low cortisol values need the added assistance of a trained medical professional who will do more than put you on cortisol. If you take cortisol, it hinders your body from making it. You will feel better in the short term but you will not have strengthened your adrenals to normalize cortisol levels on their own. Some herbal formulas are extremely effective in helping the adrenals normalize cortisol function but they need to be prescribed and dosed by a trained medical professional.

There is an added problem with those suffering from chronic inflammation. The immune system can become sensitized to cortisol or its metabolites. This is similar to having an autoimmune reaction to one’s cortisol. It makes taking cortisol ineffective or symptomatic and it prevents your body from using the cortisol that it makes effectively. Immune Matrix tests and de-sensitizes those patients having immune sensitivities to cortisol metabolites or cortisol so that they can optimize the benefit from taking herbs that boost adrenal function without added inflammation or side effects.

If you have a chronic inflammatory condition such as allergies, irritable bowel, rashes, eczema, psoriasis, chronic fatigue or fibromyalgia, asthma, persistent headaches, migraine, arthritis, Hashimotos’s disease, lyme disease, chronic viral infections such as Epstein Bar, cytomeg, coxsackie, HHV, RMSF, MS, recurring colds or strep infections, then other factors that fuel your condition can elevate cortisol in addition to lifestyle. You will need to work with an experienced medical practitioner. There is much that you can do however with these lifestyle suggestions to prevent your lifestyle and diet from pushing your cortisol over the edge and creating a hormonal rhythm that promotes fat storage!

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

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April 11th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , | Category: WEIGHT LOSS | 12 comments

ARE TOXINS MAKING YOU FAT? CHAPTER 1(PART A)

2010/04/09
Published

Fat cells and fat storage are not simply about calories burned and excess calories stored as fat. The fat cell is not simply a garbage can for fat storage. The fat cell is a dynamic cell that interacts with our hormonal glands with the sensitivity of a symphony conductor. Imagine each gland, the adrenals, the pituitary in the brain, the thyroid, the thymus as sections of instruments in the orchestra with the fat cells as the percussion section. If one section of the orchestra dominates or is too weak, the sound of the orchestra is off.

Our body works the same way to constantly restore balance. The purpose of this and subsequent articles is to help you understand the amazing dynamics of the fat cell, as it goes way beyond diet and exercise alone! We will look at how the balance of your body’s hormones, digestion of protein, sugar, fat, vitamin, minerals, and challenges in eliminating toxins, and how our level of inflammation directly affects our fat storage!

WHAT’S WRONG WITH FAT?

Fat is essential for our body. It protects our organs from each other and from the impact of daily living. It stores caloric reserves for times of perceived starvation and stress. This evolutionary protective mechanism is why our ancient ancestors were able to survive. However, in this modern age where non-nutritious high glycemic foods are readily available, and stress and toxins play havoc with our hormones, our fat cells lead us into trouble not just for aesthetics but for hormonal and metabolic reasons.

Excess fat does more than simply look bad like cellulite or burden the heart from the excess weight. It becomes a hormonal trigger leading to more fat deposition and inflammation. The fat cell becomes the conductor taking over the symphony! Fat increases our death rate not just from heart attack but from increased risk of cancers and other inflammatory disorders such as chronic fatigue, diabetes, arthritis, irritable bowel, acid reflux, allergies, eczema, arteriosclerosis, and psoriasis to name a few. Excessive fat creates a metabolic downward spiral in our health leading to degenerative diseases and pre-mature death. It also robs us of the quality and vitality in our life.

WHAT’S IN FAT BESIDES FAT?

Fat cells store toxins! If we try to shrink our fat cells by restricting our caloric intake and increase our energy consumption, we may not loose much in the way of percentage fat because we have not eliminated the intra and extra-cellular toxins. Fat cells use fat and intracellular fluid to dilute toxins in the fat cell. The body will only allow the excretion of fat and fluid to the extent that it does not concentrate toxins in the cell. This is why many people reach plateaus and cannot shrink fat deposits on their body.

Toxins come from what we eat in the form of preservatives, artificial flavorings, pesticides, herbicides, heavy metal and environmental chemicals. They come from chemical preservatives in our toothpaste and mouthwash too. But what we eat, if it is not metabolized and broken down well by our digestive tract, becomes a toxin. When we eat protein, carbohydrates, and oil, our digestive tract through digestive enzymes and hydrochloric acid in our stomach, breaks protein down into simple amino acids, carbohydrates into simple sugars such as glucose, lactose, and oils into simple fatty acids. If we are low in hydrochloric acid and are deficient in digestive enzymes (and most of us are, especially as we age), we are unable to break down our food into these simple amino acids, sugars and fatty acids. These larger unbroken molecules are unable to enter our cell membranes and have to be eliminated by the body.

Toxins also come from what we put on our skin, the chemical byproducts of petrochemicals in cosmetics, hair care products, soaps, deodorants, colognes and perfumes. We breathe in toxins like lead daily from car exhaust and industrial pollution. If we smoke we take in approximately 3500 chemicals per cigarette! Drugs (over the counter, prescription and recreational) and alcohol add to our liver’s toxic burden.

Normal biochemical processes of living create toxins that come from digestion, hormone synthesis and recycling, vitamin synthesis and degradation, and mineral metabolism. However, many of us are challenged in our digestive and detoxification metabolism. If we have allergies, infections, inflammatory disorders such as asthma, eczema, ulcerative colitis, arthritis, atherosclerosis or arteriosclerosis, high blood pressure, acid reflux, chronic fatigue, lyme disease, MS, autoimmune disorders such as lupus,  Hashimoto’s, or symptoms of chronic inflammation such as irritable bowel, constipation, seasonal allergies, itchy skin, rashes, yeast infections, bloating, hypoglycemia, fatigue, brain fog, irritability, PMS, then we definitely have challenges in some aspect of our digestive and/or detoxification metabolism. This is a main reason why we develop many of these disorders!

Normal daily living also involves killing invading pathogens in the body such as bacteria that latch onto our food, grow on our toothbrushes, or yeast and mold or virus we come into contact through body secretions and surface contact. When we cannot eliminate these dead pathogens, called microbial metabolites, they act as toxins and accumulate in the body, in our liver, organs, connective tissue and fat cells! We don’t have to be sick to have a back log of pathogens in our system needing to be eliminated.

Our cumulative exposure and cumulative metabolic back up has a direct impact on what we store in our fat cells!

WHY DO WE STORE TOXINS IN FAT?

Think of our metabolic processes like a conveyor belt. Our liver is the main organ that processes toxins for elimination by the colon and kidneys through our stool and urine. We also eliminate toxins through sweat. If this conveyor belt is piled high with toxins from a recent “backlog” then the liver will become challenged to eliminate these toxins.

If this conveyor belt cannot move at a smooth rate, because the liver needs to “burn” certain ingredients to break down and process toxins, then we become challenged to store toxins. Unfortunately our soil is depleted of core nutrients essential for proper detoxification. Therefore, our diet is mostly deficient in these core nutrients: magnesium, selenium, chromium, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, B6, B12, and 5-tetrahydroxy-folate. Deficiencies in these core nutrients directly hinder our ability to bind and excrete toxins. The body goes into storage mode to protect our vital organs from the damaging effects of these toxins.

Genetic defects in our liver detoxification pathway also react with our toxic load and immune system to accelerate genetic impairments that cause key nutritional deficiencies leading to our liver’s inefficiency in detoxification. Add this factor to the fact that our immune system can cause inefficient metabolism of proteins, vitamins and minerals essential for the detoxification process, you begin to see what looks like a Pandora box of complex interrelated factors impairing our ability to detoxify.

In future chapters we will discuss factors to consider in any weight loss or maintenance program that includes your liver and how you detoxify, your brain, your hormones, stress, insomnia, digestive metabolism, blood sugar regulation,  silent infections and inflammation, emotions, and your genotype!

Please note:
Information on this site is provided for informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for the advice provided by your physician or other healthcare professional. You should not use the information on this site for diagnosing or treating a health problem or disease, or prescribing any medication or other treatment.

           
 
April 9th, 2010 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: WEIGHT LOSS | 2 comments