Stop Smoking Gains….Blunted by Obesity
Here’s a link to an article about the benefits from quitting cigarettes being decreased if the person is also obese. Decrease in smoking extends life span, but obesity may curb gains
In my Portland, Oregon chiropractic, nutrition and hypnosis clinic, Optimum Function, I often see patients who come to me to stop smoking through hypnosis. Many of them also need help losing weight and becoming healthier and more active; these patients often see the best and most long-lasting affects. Often, it is these patients who are the ones to permanently stop smoking bcause they change their entire lifestyle with regards to exercise, food and habits.
If you have comments or questions, leave them here or contact me through my website.
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum Health
Gut Bacteria Unbalanced by Diet Can Lead to Obesity
Switching to a low-fat, predominantly plant-based diet from one high in fat, processed foods and sugar is a process that I whole-heartedly support in my Portland chiropractic, nutrition and functional medicine clinic, Optimum Function. In addition, I really look towards the gut as my main avenue of treatment. Very often, I treat patients functionally by healing any gut inflammation, replacing enzymes and acids that may be depleted, naturally removing any unwanted bugs (or sending them to a medical doctor if the “bugs” are a bit too hardy for natural interventions), and replacing and nurturing the beneficial bacteria that lives in everyone’s gut or gastrointestinal tract.
Well, a few studies have come out suggesting that a high fat and sugar diet alters the population of microbes (bacteria etc.) living in the gut in less than a day. Even more astounding is that the microbes that tend to thrive on this diet are linked to obesity, according to new School of Medicine research. The study was based on transplants of human intestinal microbes into germ-free mice.
Over time, mice that received the transplants, (who were also on a junk-food diet) became obese. Using the latest DNA sequencing technology, the researchers found that mice on the high-fat, high-sugar diet had more microbes and microbial genes devoted to extracting calories from their standard American diet (S.A.D.). These microbial genes were switched-on when the mice switched to the diet high in fat and sugar.
The study, published in Science Translational Medicine, documents the intimate relationship between diet and the dynamic variations in the community of intestinal microbes that can influence metabolism and weight.
The research also paves the way for using humanized mouse models to tease apart the contributions of human intestinal microbes and human diets to obesity and its converse, malnutrition.
The mice ate low-fat, plant-rich diets in the weeks leading up to the transplants. The mice continued to eat a low-fat, plant-based diet for one month, and their stool samples were analyzed one day, one week and one month after the microbe transplants. Using DNA sequencing tools that allowed the researchers to take a census of the gut bacteria, the researchers found that the microbe transplants were remarkably successful: The mice carried a collection of bacteria that mimicked the human donor’s.
After one month on the low-fat, plant-based diet, half the mice were switched to a high-fat, high-sugar “Western” diet. Stool samples from all the mice were analyzed 24 hours after the diet change and then again weekly for two months.
“We were surprised to see the rapid shift in the microbial communities of mice on the high-fat, high-sugar diets,” Turnbaugh said. “Assuming it takes four to six hours for microbes to move through the intestine, this means that the initial shift in the microbial community occurred 18-20 hours after exposure to a Western diet.”
Interestingly, when the researchers transplanted the gut microbes from humanized obese mice into germ-free mice, the recipients gained more fat even when fed low-fat diets, compared with mice that got human microbes from mice fed low-fat diets. The researchers also showed that gut microbes and their genes can be passed down from generation to generation, suggesting that it is possible for mothers to pass their microbial communities to their children.
Well, this information helps to explain why my “4R” treatment protocol works so well:
Removing any offending substances; like those found in a high fat, highly processed and high sugar diet
Repair any gut inflammation
Replace nutrients lost from a non-functional gut in addition to replacing enzymes and HCL until the healed gut can do so on its own
Reinoculate the gut with a good balance of bacteria and other microbes. Now, there’s been some research showing that we really don’t reinoculate the gut when we take pro-biotics. What taking pro-biotics and prebiotics does is it allows the “scales to be tipped” a bit in favor of the beneficial microbial environment.
Well, that’s it, there are many things that can be caused in whole, or in part by an imbalance of the microbial terrain of your gut. Obesity is one of them……. imbalanced gut microbes can actually pull more calories from the food you eat.
Resources:
- http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=120318757&sc=17&f=1001
- http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/health/article6913376.ece
- http://www.itwire.com/content/view/29364/1066/
Eating Too Fast May Lead to Overeating
For those of you who have read my article “Strategies For Eating in 2009 and Beyond” (Click to download) you probably noticed strategies like:
- Chew your food well
- Eat slowly
Here are a couple more strategies that can help you slow down
- Put your utensils down in between bites
- Don’t put more food on you utensils until the food you just put in your mouth is chewed well and swallowed.
Here’s an article about how eating too fast may be linked to overeating and obesity.
Eating Quickly Is Associated With Overeating, Study Indicates
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum HealthEven Obesity Benefits from “Social Networking”
In an article entitled, The Social Side of Obesity: You Are Who You Eat With, children who eat with and hang out with overweight children will likely follow in their peers’ foot-steps. Click on the link to read this article
It’s been a well-known fact that without social support, individuals have a hard time losing weight and keeping it off. This is definitely information to consider when trying to lose weight and/or diet. The best way I have found to break this cycle is to teach people how to fit healthy eating and healthy lifestyle habits into our busy schedules. Most of us know that we need to eat better….. too many of us think that this means eating tasteless, expensive and ime consuming meals.
In addition to the nutritional programs and counseling in my Portland, Oregon chiropractic, nutrition, functional medicine and hypnosis clinic, Optimum Function, I often recommend books like Gourmet Nutrition Vol. 2 (Click for link); an excellent recipe book that will sow you how to cook nutritious and delicious meals that will help you lose weight and be healthy.
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum HealthIs Being Overweight Bad???
In one word….yes!
Click on the following link to read more about this topic: Being a Little Overweight Can Reduce Life Expectancy And Increase Health Risks
It’s not that simple though; it’s beneficial to find out how much body fat you have, how strong your cells are and how much lean muscle mass you have. How can you find this out quickly and affordably? Bio-Impedance Analysis or BIA.
Click on the following link for body fat testing and BIA in Portland, Oregon: Optimal Body Composition Testing at Optimum Function
Yours in Health, Tim Irving DC, MS, LMT, CKTP, GSTM cert, Nutritionist, Hypnotherapist Optimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215 Optimum Function = Optimum Health Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum HealthAre Your Fat Cells Happy: Health has much more to do with happy fat cells than how much total fat you have
Fat cells or adipocytes are MUCH more than “bags filled with fat” (lipids). Recent research has shown that fat cells send out signals to the rest of the cells in your body when they are “happy” and a whole new set of signals when they are “unhappy”.
What makes a fat cell “happy” or “unhappy”?
Well, the internal (intracellular) and external (extracellular) environment that the adipocyte exists in has everything to do with it. If the adipocyte is overfilled with lipids (fat) and/or it is surrounded by inflammatory chemicals, that cell will be “unhappy”.
“Happy” fat cells release signals to many cells in your body, most notably those in the muscles, liver, brain, and pancrease, that help to increase insulin sensitivity and create an anti-inflammatory effect. Insulin is a hormone needed for proper sugar metabolism and decreased sensitivity to it is associated with diabetes, obesity, metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular problems. Inflammation, not coincidentally, is indicated in all these too and also general aches and pains from muscles and joints.
One of the signals sent out by a “happy” fat cell that has just recently been discovered is called adiponectin. When adiponectin is released to important cells in your body, those cells retain their sensitivity to insulin and are protected from adverse inflammation. (not all inflammation is adverse)
Three of the signals sent out by “unhappy” adipocytes are: Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha), C-reactive protein (CRP), and resistin. These signals create insulin resistance (this is bad), and increase adverse inflammation in the cells they communicate with. These signals unfavorably alter the function of these cells (liver, brain, muscles and pancreas) leading to things like obesity, metabolic syndrome, heart problems, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, stroke, muscle wasting and muscle weakness.
So, body “fatness” is not directly related to health but fat cell “hapiness” IS. You can be overweight and be healthy as long as your adipocytes are “happy” (although there is a limit to how overweight you can be is you have a lifestyle that keeps your fat cells “happy”); and you can have a skinny person with “unhappy” fat cells who is vastly unhealthy.
How can I figure out if your fat cells are “happy” or not?
At Optimum Function, I utilize blood chemistry markers as my first line of investigation. Markers like:
- High sensitivity C-reactive protein (should be below 0.9)
- Glycosylated hemoglobin (should be below 5.5%)
- Triglycerides should not be more than half of the total cholesterol number
- HDL cholesterol (should be below 40 in men and 50 in women)
- Triglyceride to HDL ratio (should be less than 4:1)
- Liver enzymes should not be elevated above the laboratory range
In addition to these baseline markers, I may look at the levels of your apolipoproteins, these markers are proving to be incredible for monitoring the state of your fat cells and cholesterol in general. I will also ake your blood pressure which should be below 120/80.
You will notice here that I don’t mention blood sugar. That’s not because it is not an important marker but by the time it is affected, your fat cells have been “unhappy” for a while and disease may have begun. I really encourage my patients to investigate all of this BEFORE your blood sugar is affected.
To find out more about my FBC2000 program which entails looking into your current blood chemistry, relating it to your current health status, contrasting that with your desired health status and coming up with a plan to get there…..click here
Yours in Health,Tim Irving DC, MS, LMTOptimum Function: 819 SE Morrison St. ste. 215, Portland, OR, 97215Optimum Function = Optimum Health