YourHealthMatters

Secrets to Successful Weight Control - Part III

Here are 2 more principles of successful weight loss from the March 2008 article in the Life Extension Foundation magazine with my own comments.

3. REDUCE CARBOHYDRATE ABSORPTION WITH FIBER - studies show that fiber intake correlates better with weight  loss than calorie intake, especially fat intake in a number of world studies. Betaglucans and glucomannans have been shown to reduce both blood sugar and insulin levels after meals. High insulin levels after meals promote fat storage from the calories you have just eaten, when what you want is calorie burning immediately to provide you with energy.
I do not recommend the use of drugs that are promoted to block carbohydrate absorption as they will leave the carbs intact in the gut for your friendly bacteria to ferment. Supplements sold as fat blockers or carb blockers also are not that effective in most people. Starting your day with oatmeal can help because its fiber content slows carb absorption in that meal. Just add some protein to balance the carbs in the oatmeal.

4. INCREASE PHYSICAL ACTIVITY - but which activity? In the NWCS registry that I mentioned in Part I of this series, the majority of people successfully keeping weight off were walking 60 minutes daily. This is not necessarily the best way to burn fat effectively. How many of us have 60 minutes spare time to devote to this exercise? Remember that a key way to reduce insulin resistance is to do some form of muscle resistance exercise regularly.

Dr. Al Sears, MD has shown that his PACE System involving interval training with a difference will burn fat, regardless of changes in diet and even without any change in supplements. In his book entitled PACE - Rediscover Your Native Fitness, he details how to use at least a dozen different exercises to achieve significant fat burning in only 15-20 minutes daily. I tell my patients to buy his eBook, then go to the local fitness center and work their way around the different stations using his instructions. Varying your exercise routine in my experience avoids boredom and lessens the chance of quitting.

I have recently come across another system I like for building muscle and burning fat. This eBook was written by a bodybuilder expert Tom Venuto and covers exercises and nutrition issues in over 300 pages of well-written and well-researched ideas. I will have more to write about this soon.

Stay tuned for Part III

drBob

Secrets to Successful Weight Control - Part II

From a recent article in the March 2008 Life Extension Magazine come 7 principles I find very helpful in thinking about weight management. I like to incorporate  these in individualized programs for patients, if the patients are motivated to really reduce weight and remain lighter for life.  Here are the first 2 of these principles with my own comments on each:

1. RESTORE INSULIN SENSITIVITY - likely the most common disorder I see in the office on a daily basis is insulin resistance, an epidemic problem created by our excess carbohydrate intake and lack of muscle stimulating exercise. Of course the food industry likes to see us eat more carbs, as this breeds addiction and increasing profits. But the insulin resistance that results leads to excess fat storage, damage to circulation with resulting high blood pressure and heart disease, increased risk of diabetes, and earlier aging.

To restore normal insulin response, we must reduce calories and especially bad carbohdrate intake. Exercise that stimulates muscle such as resistance training or Dr. Sear's PACE program is very important to restoring insulin sensitivity. Supplements such as chromium, and cinnamon will enhance insulin response. I personally recommend a product called Insulife which contains a number of natural ingredients to enhance insulin sensitivity. This is available in our office for purchase.

A recent book called  Stop PreDiabetes Now details how to reverse the epidemic trend to diabetes in our society caused by faulty diet, lack of exercise and increasing insulin resistance as a result.

2. RESTORE YOUTHFUL HORMONE BALANCE - it is well known that our metabolic rate drops as we age and this is why we store our food calories more as fat instead of burning them all up. The levels of our thyroid, testosterone, growth hormone and DHEA must be optimal as we age to maintain metabolic rate. Excess estrogen in both women and men will add to our fat storage. What is not widely known is that our excess fat can produce many hormone-like molecules, especially estrogen and molecules that are pro-inflammatory and add to our early aging. Research into DHEA supports its use in improving fat metabolism. Similar results have been found for testosterone ad growth hormone.

I believe taking supplemental hormones may be necessary for many people after the age of 40 to really enhance fat burning. Evaluating your hormone function can be done with a combination of questionnaires and blood testing. I do not recommend using saliva testing for hormone testing as it is not representative of blood levels of hormones. Urine testing can provide the best information about hormones and their metabolism in the body but is not covered by insurance.

My recommended books for more info:
For women is The Natural Superwoman, and
For men is Forever Ageless.

More to come.....

drBob

Flu Season in Full Swing and Vaccine Failing Again

According to recent reports, the flu season is still building in the US. But the flu vaccine is not doing a good job this year. The FDA has reported that only about 40% of the flu viral strains this season are blocked by this year's shots. The infections this year are also more severe than last year, and I certainly see that so far in my office patients.

So even if you had a flu shot you may still be at risk for a flu attack. The symptoms come in two form, Type A and Type B..Both start abruptly with body aches all over, fever and chills which can be severe.
Type A flu then proceeds with  dry cough and sore throat. Ear ache and sinus symptoms are uncommon with the Type A flu.
Type B flu proceeds with nausea and possibly vomiting or diarrhea. It does not produce a cough or throat symptoms. The Type B virus this year was not well blocked by the flu shot.

Treatment of both infections in adults can be done with Tamiflu which acts quickly to stop the virus from multiplying and thus aborts the infection's duration.  For best results Tamiflu should be started within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms.

Can you lower your risk of getting the flu? Yes, frequent hand-washing can help. Remember the carts in Wal-Mart and other supermarkets have been handled by potentially many people with colds and flu. Take antiseptic wipes with you to wipe the handles. Consider taking certain supplements to boost your immune system, such as beta-glucan. If symptoms start and you wish to treat with natural agents only, consider Oregacillin which I keep in the office.

Read the MSNBC report here - http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23187315/

drBob

Help Me Pick a New Pic & Maybe Win a Prize

Before Lynda & I left for Mexico for some R&R, I had some pictures taken for my website. Aaron Novack of Jolies Images in Liberal took my pictures and they are posted on this website -

http://www.pictage.com/429981 - under Categories click on All Pictures to see all the choices.

The event key to view the pics is  "drbob"

I'd like some feedback from my  readers about which picture you most like to replace the current one. Leave me your top choices in the comments to this message. I'll put all the email addresses of those who leave a comment in a hat and then pick one on Feb 29. The winner will receive a free copy of one of my favorite health books of 2007 - UltraMetabolism by Dr. Mark Hyman, MD.

Aaron's website is www.joliesimages.com - I highly recommend her to you if you are in the Liberal, KS area.

I'll also soon be  announcing a new website to complement my current blog site.

Thanks for helping me in the evolution of my web presence,

drBob

PS - Lynda & I will be back in office Monday Feb 18.

Secrets to Successful Weight Control - Part I

Have you successfully reduced your weight and kept it off more than a 2 years? If so, then you have cut your chances of regaining that weight over 50%. The sad thing about most of us is we rarely are that successful. We lose the same 10 pounds over and over don't we?

Like to know some secrets of successful weight management?

Here is an interview first reported in Nutrtition Action Health Letter in which Rena Wing reports the results of monitoring over 6000 people over 10 years through the National Weight Control Registry.  The criteria for inclusion was the ability to maintain a weight loss of 30 pounds for over 2 years.

The seven secrets Rena Wing found were -

• They eat a low-calorie diet
• They eat a consistent diet from day to day
• They eat breakfast
• They're very physically active
• They weigh themselves frequently
• They watch only a limited amount of television, and
• They don't let a small weight gain become any bigger.

I read this interview and thought I could agree with much of it. My own experience with many patients over 30 years of practice is a diet that controlled carbs ( which is also reduced in calories as a result) works best.  More and more evidence links our typical high carb intakes with increased risks of diabetes and heart disease. Recording your intake is key to getting this under control and maintaining it.

Most of the successful people used diet and exercise. Only 10% had used diet alone and less than 1% had used only exercise. I have found this combination of an effective fat-burning exercise with controlled intake to be essential for long-term weight control.

Physical exercise is as essential as controlled intake, and my personal exercise recommendation is Dr. Al Sear's PACE program  of interval training with a difference. Instead of having to do at least 60 minutes of daily strenuous exercise as the people in this registry were doing, with Dr. Pace's program, 15-20 minutes daily will burn more fat very effectively by increasing your metabolism.

Eating breakfast is definitely important and I find most people with weight problems never eat breakfast and often concentrate much of their intake later in the day. But, do not eat a breakfast on the run at the Double Arches.

The interview can be found here on the Life Extension Foundation website.

However be aware this is a somewhat select group of people who may not represent the really best ways to get weight off. No information is provided about diseases these people had or that were improved with their weight loss.

In succeeding parts I'll look at seven different secrets that make better sense in view of the modern problems caused by obesity.

To Your Success

drBob

Is Your Attractor Factor Working?

I just found a website with a wonderful free test to help you develop your use of the Law of Attraction which has been publicized widely since a movie The Secret was released last year. The test uses 25 questions in 5 categories related to your abilities to set goals, have a positive mental attitude, have a strong faith, and keep positive thoughts in front of you. Each question has 3 possible answers.
My free personal report ran to about 20 pages when I copy/pasted all the text over to Word. The small report text on the site is a teal color against a black background and printing it directly produces a hard to read document. So I recommend you copy/paste the text for later reading and re-reading.
As part of the detailed suggestions for me, the report contained specific book and CD recommendations in each of the 5 sections to help me improve my weak spots. The product links are all to Amazon.com for easy purchase.
I have no connection to this web-site. I do highly recommend you take the test and study your personal report carefully. I'm indebted to Joe Vitale for posting this on his blog www.blog.mrfire.com

www.smart-attractor.com

To Attracting The Life You Want

drBob