Posts Tagged ‘Obesity’

Diabetics low-carb it for results; the proof is in the way it lowers insulin resistance and enables weight loss. A low-carb diet restricts the amount of refined carbohydrates, which alone is worth the effort. The best part it leaves you satisfied. Hunger isn’t your constant companion.

Diabetic Study

Obese women with insulin resistance lose more weight after three months on a lower-carbohydrate diet than on a traditional low-fat diet with the same number of calories, according to a new study. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society’s 92nd Annual Meeting in San Diego.

“The typical diet that physicians recommend for weight loss is a low-fat diet,” said the study’s lead author, Raymond Plodkowski, MD, chief of endocrinology, nutrition, and metabolism at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, Reno. “However, as this study shows, not all people have the same response to diets.”

People with insulin resistance, a common precursor for Type 2 diabetes, metabolize carbohydrates, or “carbs,” abnormally, which may affect their rate of weight loss. For them, Plodkowski said, “the lower-carb diet is more effective, at least in the short term.”

Super Booster

This way of eating shouldn’t be thought of as a super booster for accelerated weight loss. For diabetics this would help stabilize and reverse the effects of the condition.

The composition of the low-fat diet was 60 percent calories from carbs, 20 percent from fat and 20 percent from protein. The lower-carb diet also had 20 percent of calories from protein, it had 45 percent from carbs and 35 percent from primarily unsaturated fats, such as nuts. Menus included a minimum of 2 fruits and 3 vegetable servings a day.

The way they did the study was to use a high percent of carbs in the diet. The low-fat diet with 60 percent of the diet in carbohydrates is a study in disaster. Elimination of all refined carbohydrates is really the name of the game. Whole food healthy eating works. A diet high in vegetables and fruit will provide the fiber and some carbohydrates. It is not a matter of low carbohydrates only, it is where are your getting them from.

It is strange how cake, cookies, pie, white bread, white rice, and sugar are called carbohydrates. That would imply that they are food of some sort. This is where the problem  is. A low fat diet consists of low fat dairy high in sugar, and low fat cookies full of sweetners. The truth is it is easier to overeat when presented with these items. They make you hungry and play games with your endocrine, cardiovascular, brain function, and energy level.

Achieving Health

Achieving health the low-carb way is to unleash your internal defenses with plant compounds found in vegetables and fruit, and Omega-3 fatty acids in whole foods such as grass-fed meat.

Treating atria fibrillation with an alternative approach, means looking at it as a systemic problem, not just a heart condition.

Atria Fibrillation and Diabetes

People with diabetes are at a higher risk of having atrial fibrillation. There is research that found an association between atrial fibrillation and diabetes. In the Journal of General Internal Medicine Dr. Sascha Dublin of Group Health Research Institute has linked diabetes to a 40 percent greater risk of developing atrial fibrillation, and she has found that the risks rises even higher the longer people have diabetes and less controlled their blood sugar is.

Atrial fibrillation is found to be more common in both diabetics and heavier people. Patients with diabetes were 40 percent more likely to be diagnosed with this disorder. The risk of atrial fibrillation rose by 3 percent for each additional year that a patient had diabetes.

Other Causes

Another cause is an overactive thyroid gland. Steroid use can contribute to this condition. Treatment with high doses of corticosteroids, increase the risk of atrial fibrillation. A high dose of 7.5 mg/day or more of prednisone equivalents is more likely to cause atrial fibrillation than a lower dose. High blood pressure, and valvular heart disease is considered a risk for this condition.

Alternative Approach

Many times there is no known cause, that doesn’t mean there isn’t a cause. Since arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation is becoming a growing problem, it is important to look at this phenomenon.

It is known that adequate stores of iodine are necessary for a smooth heartbeat. It is also a fact that our diets fall short on providing this nutrient. Amiodarone an anti-fibrillation drug is actually iodine in a toxic, sustained released form.

Due to mineral exhausted farmland, stress, processed foods, we aren’t getting enough nutrients. The aging populaton is expected to experience more atrial fibrillation. Our quality of life in our senior years is directly related to the state of our health.

Our hearts depend on magnesium, iodine, calcium, and B complex derived from whole foods. It takes years for nutrient deprivation to show up. The heart is a muscle like all muscles it depends on a good oxygen supply, vitamins, and minerals. Nothing in the body occurs in a vacuum, so when you treat atrial fibrillation you have to treat the whole person.

Calories count on the path to longevity. Most of us know the phase you are what you eat. This says you are also what you don’t eat.

Calorie Restriction

Calorie restriction is more than a way of cutting calories. People who practice this also eat a nutrient dense diet. It has been found that in less complex organisms restricting calories can double or even triple lifespan. With the human population there are indications that this has a profound effect. These are not formal studies, but from interviews of people who have remained healthy and reached 100 years plus.

In a review article in Science, Nutrition, and Longevity researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, University College in London and the Andrus Gerontology Center at the University of Southern California, reports that calorie restriction influences the same handful of molecular pathways related to aging in all the animals studied.

The first author Luigi Fontana MD, PhD is interested in the ability of calorie restriction as a way to promote good health. “The focus of my research is not really to extend lifespan to 120 or 130 years,” said Fontana.

Calorie Counter

Instead of being up for the count, use a calorie counter. This isn’t about where is the beef; this is about where are the calories. The currency of health is in the amount and type of calories consumed.

Just putting the data out there such as in calorie counters isn’t going to save lives. People have been counting calories for a long time and look where they are. The strategic priority is to audit the type of foods that are consumed on a daily basis. Your body can’t run on 3 pieces of toast, only one candy bar, and a frozen low fat dinner.

A low calorie diet is not meant for those that keep eating the same poor diet. To see change the guiding principal should be the source of the calories. 

Calorie Poisoning

Calorie poisoning is a relatively new phase that is being used to describe the current health landscape. The growing rates of obesity, cancer, premature ageing, cardiovascular disease and cognitive problems are examples of this in action.

What happens is the desire becomes so strong for a fix that the option of both health and longevity are shoved to the sideline.

The first step in this new world of abundance is to be wary of processed foods.They are the ones that set up the cravings that lead to overeating.

Solution

The growing rates of obesity are a reason some scientist think calorie restriction is a mute cause. But, Fontana said if researches who study nutrition and aging can understand how calorie restriction lengthens life and makes people healthier, it may be possible to develop less drastic interventions of medicines that influence pathways affected by calorie restriction, and help keep people healthy

Real Solution      

The common sense solution is to eat more whole foods with lots of  fruits and vegetables. The idea is not to concentrate on calories, but nutrition. There are very few cultures that have a healthy population that counts calories. This is a phenomenon of Industrial nations. It isn’t about an abundant food supply; it is about a poor food supply.