Weight Gain Issues

Toxicity
We all live in a very toxic time period and most people simply do not understand the effect toxins have on their health. Toxic exposure puts a huge demand on the liver, kidneys, colon, and the immune system. This toxic load exposure has been directly associated with the continual yearly rise in cancer rates.

Just what are toxins? A toxic substance is foreign to your body. Examples are:

pesticides sprayed on fruits and vegetables
plastics such as:
drinking water bottles
containers for micro waved food (more toxic when heated)
plasticizers found in cling wrap used for foods
paper used for food and beverage packaging
phthalates that you breath in from car dashboards
bisphenol found in plastics, dental composites
chlorine found in water
pharmaceutical drugs (i.e.: Prozac has fluoride as the main substance)
synthetic hormones
detergents
cosmetics, hair spray, deodorant
house dust
paint
food preservatives
vaccinations, many of which contain mercury
aluminum from cans
silver dental fillings, which contain mercury

This list could continue for much longer, but hopefully you get this important message!

All of these toxins have very harmful effects on body functions over years of exposure. Children are very vulnerable to this problem as their immune systems are under-developed. These toxins can even act as hormones, greatly disrupting the balance of natural hormones in the body. This type of toxin is called a xenohormone. Women should always consider this when there are sex hormone symptoms such as PMS, altered menstrual cycles, infertility, uterine pain, breast tenderness, abnormal bleeding, lack of a cycle, cervical dysplasia, cancer, weight gain, etc. Men should also consider this as a cause for prostrate problems, erectile dysfunction, loss of libido, cancer, hair loss, and low testosterone.

The organs in your body are heavily stressed by these toxins, especially the liver, kidneys, colon, and the immune system, causing cellular damage and injury. Eventually, these organs cannot clean out the toxins and a multitude of problems arise. Some of the most common are fatigue, ADHD, hyperactivity, focus problems, depression, anxiety, skin lesions, hair loss, swelling, cancer, tumors, poor teeth, weight gain or loss, digestive problems, coronary blockages, all types of children’s diseases, hormonal imbalances, autism, poor development, and headaches.

It is imperative that you choose a skilled holistic doctor to teach you about detoxification methods. These are very safe, effective and will prevent an untold number of diseases in the future. I believe that if every American would detox at least once a year, the level of health would be astounding. Detox will be your greatest ally against disease and may even cure the “impossible”.

Weight Gain

Weight gain and obesity are huge problems in modern society and the number of diseases related to obesity is continually rising. Some of these are Type 2 diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. There are many factors that contribute to America being the most overweight country in the world.

Probably one of the greatest factors in weight gain is diet. Most people simply do not know how to eat properly to have good metabolism. The American diet is full of hydrogenated fat, carbohydrates, sugars, preservatives, and empty calories. The number one best diet you can eat is called the low-carb Mediterranean-type diet. This type of diet emphasizes eating protein, vegetables, some fruit, whole grains, nuts, beans, flax oil, olive oil, and fish oil. The idea is to minimize carbohydrates such as bread, crackers, cookies, pasta, processed foods, margarine, hydrogenated oils, soda pop, candy, etc.

A higher protein diet means your pancreas doesn’t have to work so hard to secrete a hormone called insulin. Insulin stores food carbohydrates as fat. The more carbs…the more fat! Eventually, people become insulin resistant which means that they secrete even more insulin which makes even more fat. Insulin excess also disrupts hormones, causes decreased growth hormone, increases the rate of aging, and contributes to the rate of cancer. The idea is to eat food which stimulates faster metabolism. The diet just described does that, and more.

Other important factors to consider for weight loss are the function of the thyroid, liver, adrenals, pancreas, and digestive system. All overweight people will have at least one of these out of balance, if not all. The important thing to remember is that standard medical tests will not reveal these problems. How can that be? The reason is that most overweight people are in a functional disease state, not a pathological disease state. A standard blood test only reveals people who are really off or even in pathology. The idea is that most people who get a clean bill of health from their M.D. have sluggish livers, poor thyroid function, adrenal fatigue, pancreas weakness, colon toxicity, multiple nutritional deficiencies, and bad diets. The absence of disease does not mean you are healthy! Holistic doctors are trained to screen patients in the “grey zone” for organ weakness. I routinely find livers, thyroids, colons, etc, severely out of balance. Once their organs were corrected with natural, holistic methods, the patient lost weight. Functional disease means your organ-gland is good enough to pass a blood test, but does not function well. You may be one of millions of Americans that have functional organ-gland disease which will never be diagnosed…unless you find a good holistic doctor.

Sometimes, even when you have followed your doctor’s or nutritionist’s weight-loss instructions exactly, you still notice you’re not able to lose much weight. You may feel like you’ve done everything you can: counting calories, controlling how much food you eat at once, and even working out or exercising regularly. Yet you still can’t seem to lose much weight at all.

You may not know this, sometimes gaining weight is not caused by lack of exercise or poor eating habits. There are actually different medical conditions or diseases that can cause you to gain weight too. And even if these conditions don’t cause you to put on extra pounds, they can make it very difficult for you to actually lose weight. By taking care of these standard medical problems though, you should be able to start seeing much better success in your weight-loss progress.

A common health issue which can cause you to gain weight is stress. When you’re stressed your body actually produces a hormone which is called cortisol. Small amounts of stress and cortisol aren’t usually a problem. But when you become overly stressed, your body starts producing more cortisol, and this can cause you to gain weight.

Depression is another very common reason for having problems with gaining weight or not being able to lose weight. Usually this is because people tend to eat too much when they’re depressed. Or they eat more junk food because it’s what’s called comfort food for them.

Something you may not have heard of before is called insulin resistance. Insulin resistance is a condition where your body resists insulin so your blood sugar levels increase to excessive amounts. And when your blood sugar levels increase too high, it causes you to gain weight.

An active or underactive thyroid, also known as hypothyroidism, can also cause you to gain weight or make it very difficult for you to lose weight. The thyroid is what regulates your body’s metabolism. So when the thyroid is not functioning properly, your body can have a slower metabolism, and thus have a problem with losing weight.

One other medical condition that can cause problems with weight-loss is hormonal changes. For women particularly, hormones play a very big role in the body’s weight loss or weight gain. But men can have the same problem, because they can have hormonal changes and balances as well.

If you think you may have a problem with one or more of these medical conditions, visit your doctor and discuss the issues, then work out a plan to correct the problems.

More Than Weight Control

Weight gain is one of the primary symptoms menopausal women experience. Other common complaints include: hot flashes, mood swings, cramps, forgetfulness and irritability. In fact, around 75 percent of women have health concerns related to menopause. Weight gain affects 90 percent of menopausal women, although some gain more than others.

Root Cause

A woman enters menopause after her period stops for a whole year. All the symptoms are actually peri-menopausal symptoms. Perimenopause refers to the period leading up to the end of menstruation – menopause. This period can last up to ten years.

During the perimenopausal period, women’s bodies gradually produce less estrogen. Over a long time, the low levels of estrogen start to cause physical and emotional changes. Weight gain is caused by extra production of fat tissue, another supply of estrogen for the body, to compensate for the low levels of estrogen.

Another usual cause is that as people get older, the metabolism slows down. Human body’s ability to burn calories drops with aging. As a result, more fat is accumulated.

Women’s gained weight always shows around the waist, whereas men usually gain a beer gut – belly fat. Some women have also reported increased breast sizes.

Risks Linked To It

Gaining excessive weight affects women’s health more than they normally think.

Accumulated body fat can cause heart disease, high blood pressure, kidney problems and breast cancer. Shockingly, a weight gain of 20 pounds in menopause can increase the chances of breast cancer by 20 percent.

Emotionally, excessive weight can damage women’s self-esteem and make some menopausal conditions even worse, such as anxiety and depression.

Keeping Weight Under Control

There are simple measures to keep weight under control: healthy diet, good exercise and reliable menopause supplements for weight gain.

1. Eat a healthy and balanced diet. Women with weight problems should ditch foods that are processed or contain excessive fats.

2. Exercise regularly. Exercise can be extremely beneficial to menopausal women. Moderate exercise is good enough for weight control in menopause. Studies show that quality and duration of life can be improved by moderate exercise of one hour per time at 5 times a week.

3. Take a reliable menopause supplement. Menopause supplements for weight gain can be very helpful in restoring hormonal balance and alleviating symptoms, without causing harsh side effects.

More often than not, people in our society who are experiencing challenging weight issues truly need to explore the underlying psychological state or emotional turmoil they may find themselves in.

It is a well known fact that depression is closely associated with eating disorders. These disorders include obesity as well as binge eating and anorexia. Different people react to depression in different ways. The majority turn to food in order to comfort themselves, thus relieving, albeit temporarily, the bad feelings depression brings with it. Others, and certainly the minority, do exactly the opposite. They respond to strong emotion by avoiding food altogether. Both situations can cause serious consequences to one’s health and lead to a spiral into an even deeper depression. Often depression can cause stress or be caused by stress. This stress can lead to unhealthy eating which in turn leads to a less energetic individual eliminating the likelihood of exercise being a daily routine. The combination of eating for comfort and lack of exercise is absolutely going to result in weight gain which can exacerbate the depression.

Emotional eating is a symptom of a deeper emotional issue one may be experiencing. While physical hunger comes on gradually and can be easily put off for the time being, emotional hunger tends to appear suddenly and needs to be satisfied immediately. It is obvious that if one eats when the body is not truly hungry, and does this often, weight gain will be the result. Some of the triggers of emotional eating can include unemployment, relationship troubles, financial hardship, boredom, and fatigue. There is a danger of falling into a vicious cycle of eating for comfort (to feel better) and becoming upset with oneself for overeating. This can lead to feeling badly and eating for comfort again in order to alleviate those bad feelings. The cycle must be recognized before it can be broken.

Some people actually eat due to an issue with insecurity and low self-esteem. This may be a mechanism to protect oneself from potentially harmful relationships. It may be an issue of hiding behind or within an overweight body without truly being aware of the unconscious sabotage taking place.

Finally, some weight problems that are caused by deeply rooted psychological issues may be traced to childhood. If your parents or grandparents expressed love and approval through food, you may still be associating the two. It may be that food was seen as a reward or even a punishment during childhood. This often follows well into adulthood. We need to remember that love and food are not synonymous. What is the saying? “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Not true.