Obesity: What It Means and How to Correct It

Paul Reller, L.Ac.

In many parts of the United States in 2010, rates of obesity for the general population exceeded 30%, and only 2 states had rates below 20%. The simple overweight condition is a separate factor, and is now seen in an additional 30% of the population in most states. While a simple overweight condition may lead to obesity, there are many factors in our modern society that are more serious contributors to obesity syndromes. Obesity is now considered the number one health threat by the NIH, and is highly associated with cardiovascular disease, stroke, heart attack, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, and a host of other common diseases, especially subclinical hypothyroidism and hyperparathyroidism, and other hormonal imbalances, including postmenopausal and postpartum hormonal imbalances. Besides this great association with serious disease, obesity is a primary healthy problem that is difficult to correct and severely degrades quality of life. America still refuses to come to grips with even the meaning of obesity, though. We still cling to a set of ideas from 50 years ago, equating obesity with being fat, or overweight. While obesity does create excess fatty storage, and does result in being overweight, this is not the definition of obesity in a physiological sense, and for those afflicted with obesity, these definitions are not helpful. The defining of obesity according to the 50 year old definition that included the term “simple obesity”, which is actually just now correctly termed an overweight condition, or ‘out of shape’, only obscures a serious health concern. To truly treat obesity, one has to understand what it is, and gradually work to correct the underlying health imbalances.

It is important to distinguish an overweight condition from obesity. This is not to say that everyone with a little extra accumulation of fat around the midsection is not experiencing an obesity syndrome. Obesity is a complex syndrome of dysfunction that doesn't just start when the weight gain is dramatic, and should be diagnosed and corrected before it gets out of control. Obesity should be distinguished from Metabolic Syndrome (formerly Diabetes Type 2). Obesity is not defined by the amount of body weight, but rather by the percentage of body fat, and since it is a multifactorial disease, a number of diagnostic tests are needed to clarify the individual diagnosis. Blood tests and urinalysis will look for metabolic dysfunction or abnormality. Body Mass Index (BMI) should not be the sole consideration in diagnosis, and the A1C index (an advanced glycation endproduct), urine ketones, and a glucose challenge test may clarify, as well as a Bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA). Often the standard blood tests are not dramatic, but a sometimes fluctuating high circulating triglyceride level is commonly seen. Some newer diagnostic tests utilize markers such as Insulin EIA, C-Peptide EIA, and Insulin Ultrasensitive EIA. An ultrasound to assess fatty liver accumulation is sometimes used. Serum adiponectin and resistin are now being tested, and testing for circulating cytokines TNF-alpha, IL-6, and cytokeratin CK-18 are being considered. The World Health Organization (WHO) has set a diagnostic criteria for differentiation between metabolic syndromes and obesity syndromes, with use of BMI, waist circumference, fasting and 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test and plasma glucose, fasting plasma triglycerides and HDL cholesterol, blood pressure, 24-hour albumin excretion, and fasting insulin tests recommended as guidelines, with an addition of AGTT in nondiabetic patients recommended as well (International Journal of Obesity (2005) 29, 668–674).

A dramatic percentage of America's children are now afflicted with obesity, which will stay with them their entire life, and contribute to devastating health problems, if it is not reversed. This requires much more education of both the patient population and the physicians. In 2011, standard medicine still has no effective treatment for obesity, and a number of drugs designed in the last decade have been denied FDA approval, both because they are ineffective, and because the side effects of these specific chemical blocks to physiological processes come with alarming side effects for a high percentage, if not all, patients. On the other hand, a number of current medications are being reviewed and limited in use by the FDA, with strong warnings attached, because they also appear to cause obesity, or at least contribute highly to it. The treatment of choice in standard medicine appears to be gastric banding, which has increased in use dramatically, and for want of any other effective treatment, has been granted expanded use by the FDA. This type of surgical correction, though, comes with poor long-term outcomes, and unhealthy changes in the short-term, as the body is literally starved of nutrients and forced into sudden hormonal, metabolic and immunological changes. Integration of Complementary Medicine in the treatment of obesity should be adopted immediately as a part of standard treatment protocol, but a competitive business model has kept this from happening.

The Surgeon General in 2001 stated that “Overweight (conditions) and obesity are among the most pressing new health challenges we face today. Overweight (conditions) and obesity may soon cause as much preventable disease and death as cigarette smoking. Appoximately 300,000 U.S. deaths a year are associated with obesity and overweight (conditions). The total direct and indirect costs attributed to overweight (conditions) and obesity amounted to $117 billion in the year 2000.” The problem has dramatically increased by 2011.

Obesity is defined as an abnormal increase in fat in subcutaneous tissues, and is generally associated as a disease state with poor hormonal balance or hypothalamic function. It is also often associated with subclinical hypothyroidism and metabolic syndrome, and in most cases the underlying health dysfunctions are multifactorial. So-called simple obesity, or the overweight condition, is not a disease state, but is simply a matter of excess food intake with deficient exercise. While many persons are afflicted with a habitual lifestyle that is too sedentary, often with habits acquired at a young age, this does not define those persons with a disease state. For patients that are just overweight due to a lack of good habits, changing the diet and increasing daily activity will correct the problem. For patients with an inability to lose weight, we must look farther than “simple obesity”, and discover the health problems that need to be corrected. A patient that is unable to lose weight is often made to feel guilty for their weight rather than finding help and empathy. For these individuals, a simple program of dieting and exercise will not be enough, and the options presented by standard medicine often involve harsh pharmaceutical approaches and surgical options that damage the health in dramatic fashion. The patient afflicted with obesity can find help and empathy in Integrative and Complementary Medicine, with numerous treatment options, patient education, and help to counter the harsh side effects of medications and surgery, if these options are chosen.

In my clinical practice, I have seen an almost universal lack of empathy for patients suffering from true obesity. Society has ingrained an attitude that looks down on and blames the obese for their problem, but the truth is that our modern society is the cause of their obesity. There is a societal tendency to group all overweight persons into a single entity, and a feeling that they chose bad habits that caused their obesity, and now suffer the consequences. The fact is that there is a complex variety of underlying problems that cause obesity, not just a lack of exercise and a decision to eat an unhealthy diet. Thankfully, there is finally a call to arms to counter the rates of obesity in the United States, supported and pushed by the first lady, Michelle Obama, but this movement, so far, is addressing the food industry, our educational system, and the individual choices of eating and exercise routines. It is still not properly addressing those individuals that have a true obesity, or inability to lose weight, and it is not addressing physicians, who should adopt a comprehensive integrated protocol to treat this widespread health problem. The 30% of our population that may be experiencing obesity must have more support to understand and deal with this serious health problem. Obesity affects the entire population, in health care costs that affect all of our insurance policies and taxes, as well as productivity and economic consequences. The environmental and industrial chemicals that have gotten worse and contribute heavily to the rise in rates of obesity also may affect anyone's child. A change in society's attitude is in order. Greater utilization of appropriate integrated medical care that addresses the whole physiology of the patient is also needed.

There is no better place to turn for this help than Complementary Medicine and a knowledgeable Licensed Acupuncturist and herbalist. A physician must be able to assess the health holistically and thoroughly, and must have a variety of tools to treat the systemic health problems underlying obesity. Modern medicine does not have the tools or the time to help the patient sufficiently, and should incorporate Complementary Medicine into the treatment strategy for obesity. Patients that resort to the quick fix, taking stimulant medications and surgical banding to inhibit food intake and assimilation, will often find themselves with more health problems than when they started. Newer medications being developed and marketed for weight loss are having a difficult time even getting past the industry friendly FDA, and when side effects and risks are great enough to warrant nonapproval by the FDA today, the patient needs to worry. Complementary Medicine can help the patient understand the puzzle of physiology that creates the state of disease obesity, and a wealth of research has been performed in the last few decades to help with this task.

Other articles on this website also provide valuable information concerning obesity: please refer to the articles on Diabetes/Metabolic Syndrome, Weight Loss, and Insulin to gain a more complete understanding of this complex probelm.

Understanding Obesity to correct the underlying dysfunctions

As with all chronic health problems, the first step to correcting them is to understand what needs to be corrected. Looking at obesity simply as a weight loss or dieting problem is a sure guarantee of failure in correcting the problem, and for too long, modern medicine primarily took this attitude. An objective understanding of the problem of obesity must be developed to correct this complex dysfunction. The key mechanisms to understand are the hormonal and neural controls of utilizing stored fats, and the various mechanisms that may inhibit this homeostatic control, including insulin resistance, chronic inflammatory mechanisms affecting the fat cell metabolism, and metabolic problems affecting the proper lipid metabolism, especially in regards to liver function. In addition, hypothalamic dysfunction and subclinical hypothyroidism has been positively correlated with the degree of obesity and linked to insulin and leptin resistance (see links to scientific studies in additional information below), and adrenal dysfunction or adrenal stress syndrome may also play a significant role. Hormonal regulation in our bodies depends on both a systemic and local balance of hormones, which act as a group, or quantum, to regulate cell functions. A holistic mechanism is always at work with hormonal regulation of our metabolism, and yet modern medicine is always trying to simplify the explanation and discuss specific mechanisms instead of looking at the whole picture.

Insulin stress and insulin resistance as the key to the beginning of the obesity syndromes

Insulin is a steroid hormone that is primarily produced in the pancreas, and affects an array of cell receptors to stimulate metabolic processes. Insulin chiefly regulates storage and utilzation of fats, both at the fat cells and at the liver, which processes fats, but also affects a host of other important physiological functions, including amino acid uptake by cells, and various key anabolic processes throughout the body. An anabolic process is one where the body constructs more complex molecules as needed from smaller molecules. The main function of insulin hormone is to increase uptake of glucose, or blood sugar, and cause it to be stored as glycogen, which is a concentrated molecule composed of a core protein surrounded by as many as 30,000 glucose units. The anabolic production of glycogen occurs mainly in the liver and muscle, but occurs throughout the body, and is integral to smooth brain function and fuel. Stress on the insulin system creates unhealthy fluctuations that our bodies have a hard time adapting to, and eventually insulin resistance at the cell receptors lead to a complex array of dysfunctions in the fat cells, enlargement of fat cells, and hormonal and inflammatory dysfunction.

Increased insulin also inhibits a companion pancreatic hormone called glucagon, which stimulates the use of fat as an energy source, and when there is excess insulin, there is a lack of glucagon, resulting in more stored fat. This is an example of what ancient Chinese physicians called an imbalance of yin and yang affecting the Qi (function and energy). Insulin also directly inhibits the breakdown of fat in fatty tissues by inhibiting an enzyme called lipase that breaks down stored trigycerides to release fatty acids. When insulin levels are not regulated correctly in the body, in a healthy homeostatic mechanism, many health problems arise, and either poor regulation of pancreatic hormones, or resistance to these hormones at the receptors on fat and liver cells, will create problems with insulin and glucagon regulation and balance. A variety of factors is involved in pancreatic regulation of insulin production, as well as regulation of insulin utilization at the cell receptors. Since hormonal cell receptors are affected by a variety of chemicals, not just the main target stimulator, correcting problems with insulin resistance at the cell receptors involves more than just controlling insulin levels in the body.

With insulin resistance at the receptors, there is an increased need for insulin, and when there is a flux of excess insulin, there is a marked decrease in the use of store fats as an energy source. Insulin levels fluctuate greatly during the day and night in response to our body's metabolism. In these cases of increased insulin production due to insulin resistance at the fat cell receptors, glucose, or simple carbohydrate nutrients, are not properly taken up by the body cells, as well. Muscle cells may turn to stored glycogen for fuel and show signs of easy fatique, and the brain, which requires a constant source of glucosal fuel, may use up its stored glycogen and periods of depressed mental function may result. Insulin facilitates the entry of glucose into fat cells, where it is utilized for energy and synthesizes glycerol, which combines with fatty acids to form triglycerides, or stored fat. Stored fats, the source of fatty accumulations in obesity, are in the form of glycagon or triglyceride (glycerol). Resistance at insulin receptors makes it difficult for cells to take up glucose, creating the need for more insulin, which stimulates more uptake of glucose and creates more stored fat. Insulin resistance at liver cell receptors inhibits the utilization of stored fats, increasing the problem and greatly contributing to fatty accumulation that is unused for fuel, which is what it is intended for. The inability of transport stored fats well may be also hindered by a deficiency in high density lipoproteins, which carries stored fats back to the liver for processign.

With increased insulin, there is also less glucagon, decreasing our utilization of stored fats as fuel. Stored fat in the form of triglycerides are usually transported to the liver to manufacture more glucose when we are not consuming simple carbohydrates. The advice to the population to eat often, instead of allowing portions of the day to go by without consumption of simple carbohydrates, has greatly contributed to this health dilemma. Scientific study showed that this is a misguided practice, and in 2005, the U.S. government reversed these recommendations, although it is hard to access these new guidelines because of food industry lobbying and the effect of big money on government agencies. Since glucose is our chief cellular fuel, especially in the brain, we develop increased cravings for simple carbohydrates in the diet when obesity occurs, and these unhealthy dietary habits are unconscious. These cravings do provide healthy profits for the commercial food industry, though, and are heavily promoted with unhealthy advertising. With a dysfunctional insulin regulation, the excess simple carbs are turned into more stored fat, and a state of low energy with a subsequent craving for more simple carbohydrates. After this, the health problems start becoming ever more complex. Since we need a steady state of glucose in relation to activity, both physical and mental activity, obese individuals are faced with a physiological drive to decrease activity, slow mental processes, increase intake of simple carbs, and even breakdown more proteins to create glucose at times. The increased use of proteins to create glucose can stress the liver function and decrease the ability of the body to regulate its metabolism and physiology, since proteins make up the bulk of regulating molecules in the body, especially enzymes.

Research has uncovered that an array of factors that produce insulin resistance at cell receptors, including excess PPARgamma, TNFalpha, IL-6, resistin, excess free fatty acids, deficient adiponectin, and either excess or deficiency of leptin. Despite a monumental amount of research, modern science still does not fully understand the precise nature of the defects that lead to insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, but we do know that it is a complex multifactorial pathological mechanism. The array of factors in the body that cause insulin resistance relate to chronic inflammatory imbalance, metabolic imbalance, and hormonal imbalance. We might call it an immunohormonal metabolic imbalance. Adiponectin is a protein hormone secreted by fat cells that modulates a variety of metabolic processes, including glucose regulation and breakdown of free fatty acids. Resistin and leptin are also hormones secreted by fat cells that act as inflammatory mediators, and link inflammation with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome and obesity. PPARg are proteins activated by kinins (inflammatory mediators) to stimulate peroxisomes (detox and antioxidant activity), as well as to modulate lipid binding, fatty acid metabolism and insulin receptor functions.

This research shows the importance of resolving chronic inflammatory dysfunction in the body, enhancing immune health, balancing hormones, and improving fatty acid balance. A number of herbal chemicals and dietary nutrients have been found to affect these metabolic and hormonal factors, showing how nature has evolved ways of correcting dysfunction in the organism in a safe modulatory fashion. Recent research has also uncovered the remarkable ability of acupuncture to stimulate healthy modulation of these various factors contributing to obesity and insulin receptor resistance. Some of this research is cited below at the end of this article. Trying to reverse this complex mechanism of obesity with just one tool, as allopathic medicine tries to do, is a ticket for frustration. Utilizing a more complex holistic treatment protocol is the ticket for success. A persistent, thorough, and intelligent approach will result in eventual success in therapy. Some guidelines for this therapeutic protocol, and specific research and targeted therapies within the treatment scheme are presented later in this article.

The insulin receptors on the fat cells have two parts, the extracellular and intracellular parts. The intracellular part is composed of an enzyme called tyrosine kinase, as well as a domain that utilizes ATP to phosphorylate the tyrosine to activate proteins within the cell. ATP cofactors (Vitamins B1 and B2) and the amino acid L-Tyrosine are needed to make insulin receptors work properly, and when insulin resistance occurs, there may be a greater need for these nutrients. Once again, the patient suffering from obesity must realize that this is not the cure by itself, but may be an important part of the overall treatment protocol.

As complex as the subject of insulin and insulin resistance is, this is not the whole explanation of obesity, though. When the insulin mechanism has gone awry, this affects other hormones as well, and an imbalance in these hormones has a reverse effect, perpetuating the insulin dysfunction. The companion hormone, sort of a yin and yang duo of the pancreas, called glucagon, has been discussed. Hormones produced by the fat cells themselves also play a significant role in obesity. Leptin and adiponectin are a duo of hormones produced in the fat cells that regulate appetite, creation of fatty acids, limitation on stored fats as triglycerides, and many other important functions, including immune and inflammatory regulation, and levels of leptin and adiponectin are highly correlated with obesity, as well as cardiovascular maintenance and atherosclerosis. We see that improper levels of leptin and adiponectin, another yin and yang combination, may also perpetuate improper levels of insulin. This vicious cycle of dysfunction implies that addressing the various hormone dysfunctions in obesity is important, not just one hormone dysfunction.

While each group of researchers that finds new evidence of various hormones and inflammatory cytokines highly associated with obesity claims that they have just discovered the single cause of obesity, more rational scientists realize that obesity is a multifactorial syndrome of dysfunction, and that all of these various chemicals play a part in a holistic weave of dysfunction, and they all must be brought back to a homeostatic balance in unison.

Insulin increases act to decrease the concentration of glucose in the blood, as more glucose is taken up by fat, muscle and liver cells. As the blood glucose is depleted, insulin secretion ceases, and there is a switch to utilization of fatty acids for fuel in the body. In the brain, neurons cannot utilize fatty acids for fuel, and for a short time utilized stored glycogens, but without the resupply of simple carbohydrates for more glucose, the brain becomes sluggish as glycogen stores are depleted. There is an unconscious need to eat more simple carbohydrates, and a feeling of brain fatique. The pattern of behavior that this creates perpetuates the dysfunction, though, driving excess insulin production again as a load of simple carbohydrates, for example a soda, is consumed. A better solution is to consume complex carbohydrates in the morning, for example, a bowl of steel cut oats sweetened with honey, which take longer to break down, and don't create the roller coaster ride of excess insulin, and then deficient insulin and brain fuel depletion.

When excess insulin drives a fast utilization of glucose from simple carbohydrates as fuel, a lot of glycogen is produced and stored in the liver and muscle, but there is a limit to the amount of glycogen that the liver can store. When the glycogen stores reach roughly 5% of the liver mass, glycogen synthesis is suppressed, and the insulin excess promotes synthesis of fatty acids instead, which make up triglycerides and lipoproteins. This is why most patients with obesity and insulin resistance also have high triglycerides in circulation, as well as a high level of total lipids, especially low density lipids, or LDL. Simply taking statin drugs to block lipoprotein and cholesterol will not address this underlying dysfunction. Insulin also inhibits the breakdown of stored triglycerides in fat cells that releases fatty acids. Over time, though, this self-limiting mechanism in the liver may go awry as well, and excess fat in the liver is created, impairing liver function. By the time that obesity has become chronic, there may be a lot of dysfunction to reverse, and this takes time to accomplish with a holistic treatment regimen. Usually, an obese patient just wants to lose weight fast, but the real emphasis should be on a gradual reversal of the mechanisms of obesity that perpetuate the overweight condition. The goal is not to lose a lot of weight in a short time, but to achieve a healthy restoration of weight control in the body, in the brain, liver, hormonal system, and the fat cells. A lot of work needs to be done. It doesn't help that the society around an obese person treats this condition lightly, and often acts as though they could easily lose weight if they only tried a little. Resorting to starvation diets will only make the health condition worse in the long run.

The importance of the hormone leptin in the syndrome of obesity

Leptin is probably even more important to the regulation of body weight than insulin. In mammals, the ability to store energy-dense triglycerides in fatty tissue allows us to survive when we have no source of food. Unfortunately, in modern civilization, this is not a problem. The opposite is a problem, as simple carbohydrate foods are always available, constantly, and we are encouraged wrongly to constantly consume them. Our bodies did not evolve the mechanisms to deal with this too frequent and constant intake of food. As a modern civilization, we have developed a serious neurosis concerning the desire to eat or drink constantly, and we don't just drink water, but usually sugar water. Leptin is a hormone that evolved as a product of our fat cells to regulate the stores of triglycerides and keep them at an optimum level. Leptin also signals nutritional status to other physiological systems and modulates their function as well. When we put an unnatural stress on this leptin hormonal regulation, we screw up a number of important systems in our bodies.

An important primary function of the hormone leptin is to regulate the long-term appetite. Other mediators are more important to stimulate immediate appetite responses, such as blood sugar levels, body temperature, circulating amino acids, ghrelin, and cholecystokinin. Leptin mainly plays a role in a more constant control of appetite and food utilization, and also corrects the long-term appetite to modulate energy utilization with changes in body temperature, decreased activity, overeating, decreased immune function, and even nutritional chemical aspects related to fertility (this is why there is a strong relationship between infertility/subfertility and obesity). Unfortunately, as our fat cells develop insulin resistance, and increased needs for inflammatory cytokine modulators with chronic inflammatory states, these cells also develop improper stimulation of leptin and adiponectin production. Improper levels of leptin, and high triglycerides, also appear to create a syndrome of leptin resistance as well, that itself drives over production of leptin. Leptin acts in the brain, especially the hypothalamus command center, and a complex feedback or quantum mechanism is stressed in obesity. Recent evidence finds that leptin resistance to crossing the blood brain barrier, which requires active transport of the large molecule leptin, occurs in obesity, and may be driven by high triglyceride levels. We cannot divorce one aspect of this cycle from another, and we must treat dysfunctions of insulin metabolism and liver dysfunction if we are to really correct leptin dysfunction.

Leptin is a hormone, and thus acts on various receptors, accomplishing a wide variety of functions. Leptin is released from the fat cells and travels to receptors at the brain blood barrier, the hypothalamus, the T-cells, pancreatic beta cells (the origin of insulin and glucagon), and other cells in the body, even in the bone. Since many of the important functions of leptin occur in the hypothalamus, or main neurohormonal command center, other neurotransmitters also have an important effect on leptin function. Glucocorticoid neurohormones produced in the adrenal glands have a significant impact on leptin metabolism. High levels of glucocorticoids (adrenaline, norepinephrine, cortisol) are seen in most patients with obesity. These glucocorticoids also modulate the pancreatic insulin release. Neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine also affect the same appetite control mechanisms that originate in the hypothalamus that leptin does. This explains why depression, anxiety, and emotional states that generate adrenal stimulation, such as fear and worry, play such a large role in obesity.

Both decreased production of leptin, and higher constant levels driven by leptin resistance, could contribute to obesity, making leptin a complicated aspect of the obesity syndrome. Deficiency of leptin would cause an increase in fat mass to produce more leptin. Leptin insensitivity at receptors would decrease the negative feedback that limits fat accumulation. Therapies that target leptin dysfunction should be modulating, and should be part of a holistic protocol to restore the whole homeostatic mechanism. Using a leptin modulating drug, herb or supplement alone, or leptin modulating electroacupuncture alone, is not the ticket for success, but are important in the overall treatment protocol. Treating the whole array of factors that contribute to leptin imbalance is the key to a successful treatment protocol.

A deficiency of the hormone adiponectin in obesity must be reversed

Adiponectin is another important protein hormone created in fat cells that perpetuates the syndrome of obesity. While excess leptin is usually associated with obesity and the degree of fatty accumulation, deficient adiponectin is highly associated with obesity as well. This is another example of a yin and yang pair of hormones that cause significant health problems when out of balance, excess leptin and deficient adiponectin. Animal studies showed that low levels of adiponectin correlated with poor clearance of free fatty acids in circulation, high levels of the inflammatory cytokine tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFalpha), in fat cells and in circulation, and increased insulin resistance. A number of scientific studies have shown that obesity, insulin resistance and atherosclerosis are accompanied by decreased adiponectin levels. Adiponectin dysregulation has also been determined to be an independent risk factor for Metabolic Syndrome.

Adiponectin is the most abundant adipose-specific protein in the body. Adipose is a term that refers to fat cells and fatty tissues, where our bodies store reserve fuel for energy when we go without carbohydrate food for a period of time. Obesity is not determined by total body weight, but by an excess of the amount of stored body fat. Two types of body fat, white adipose tissue and brown adipose tissue exist in the body, and these adipose tissues serve as an important endocrine organ, or producer of our esential hormones. Adipose tissue derived hormones include estrogen (estradiol), leptin, resistin, adiponectin, TNF-alpha, Interleukin-6 (IL-6), and plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), a key inhibitor of chemicals that break down blood clots and fibrins. Adipose tissue also is an important producer of essential immune cytokines, or inflammatory regulators, some of which are now known to act both as inflammatory mediators and hormones. One of the key inflammatory cytokines that may be overproduced by the body and is now implicated in many difficult and chronic diseases, is tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha). Excess TNF-alpha is implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, depression, and many cancers. Excess TNF-alpha in the circulation is also known to be able to affect adiponectin expression in the fat cells via the MKK7 pathway. Since TNF-alpha is able to be secreted by a variety of cells in the body, including macrophages, lymphoid cells, mast cells, endothelial cells, cardiac muscle cells, fibroblasts in bone, and even neuronal tissues, the potential for excess TNF-alpha stimulation that negatively affects adiponectin is great.

Adiponectin levels are thus potentially affected by chronic inflammatory dysregulation and chronic disease. The University Pierre et Marie Curie in France declared in 2000 that: “It now appears that, in most obese patients, obesity is associated with a low-grade inflammation of white adipose tissue (WAT) resulting from chronic activation of the innate immune system and which can subsequently lead to insulin resistance, impaired glucose tolerance and even diabetes.” These researchers suggested that inhibition of excess chronic TNF-alpha and IL-6 may be a key part of the strategy to correct the adiponectin dysfunction and insulin resistance in the fat cells.

Resistin is another hormone secreted by fat cells that probably plays a significant role in obesity syndromes, and links an individual profile of chronic inflammatory problems with obesity

Resistin, also known as adipose tissue-specific secretory factor (ADSF), or C/EBP-epsilon-regulated myeloid-specific secreted cysteine-rich protein (XCP1), is a cysteine-rich protein that in humans is a cytokine (inflammatory mediator), whose physiologic role has been the subject of much controversy regarding its involvement with obesity and type II diabetes mellitus (metabolic syndrome). Now this seems pretty complicated, but to simplify, resistin is a protein immunohormone secreted by fat cells, and the important amino acid cysteine is integral to its function. This hormone was only discovered in 2001 at the University of Pennsylvania, and has been found to play a significant role in insulin metabolism, insulin resistance, other energy metabolism regulation, and inflammatory regulation. Resistin has been shown to increase expression of several pro-inflammatory cytokines including (but not limited to) interleukin-1 (IL-1), interleukin-6 (IL-6), interleukin-12 (IL-12), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) in an NF-κB-mediated fashion. These inflammatory cytokines are often produced in the fat cells and play important roles in many chronic inflammatory states and diseases, as well as perpetuating the obesity dysfunction.

Resistin is highly associated with obesity, but the exact mechanisms are still unclear. Most studies show that serum resistin levels will increase with increased adiposity. Central obesity (waistline adipose tissue) seems to be the foremost region of adipose tissue contributing to rising levels of serum resistin. Other studies, though, show the opposite effects as well, with decreased circulating resistin levels associated with adiposity in some patients. Factors that could alter the circulating levels in certain types of patients may explain this, such as increased activity of resistin, and increased clearance, but many scientists believe that study design itself is probably responsible for these contradictory findings, and are the result of economic interests and research competition. Macrophages, or immune cells, also produce most of the resistin in patients with certain immune or inflammatory diseases, and this could alter the circulating resistin levels as well. With a variety of factors affecting resistin levels in the body, specific proof of resistin causing obesity is thought to be unlikely, but the key point in a holistic perspective is the link between chronic inflammatory states and diseases and the obesity syndrome, and this may need to be addressed in therapy.

A variety of common hormonal pathologies are highly associated with obesity, and may need to be addressed in the treatment protocol

Systemic hormonal imbalances play a significant role in obesity, both as a contributing cause, and as a consequence of the dysfunctions caused by obesity. Thyroid hormones regulate the rate of metabolism in the body and operate on an elaborate feedback system. In the past, thyroid pathology was limited to disease presentations with severe symptoms, and subclinical presentations related to systemic health were rarely considered. Today, a change of attitude has occurred, and the evidence of the incidence of subclinical hypothyroid conditions, often coupled with subclinical hyperthyroid imbalances, are now seen a a common, and growing health problem in the United States, especially as standard medicine adopts a more holistic approach to health concerns and disease. These problems are now proven to be associated with obesity in many cases (see studies cited below). Metabolic Syndrome (Type 2 Diabetes) is also highly associated with obesity, as is postmenopausal hormonal syndrome. The patient may need to address systemic hormonal health in a comprehensive manner to achieve progress in treating their obesity.

Scientific research confirming the efficacy of various herbs and nutrient medicines in the treatment of obesity

There is no single treatment that will reverse obesity. As explained above, obesity is a syndrome that involves a cycle of feeback mechanisms of various hormones, hormone-like chemicals, and inflammatory mediators. Here is some of the amazing research that shows how a number of herbs and nutrient medicines can be individually prescribed to treat obesity in a step-by-step protocol that is geared to each patient's unique presentation. It is too bad that the U.S. still does not have laws mandating insurance and government coverage and payment of professionally prescribed herbal and nutrient medicines, as the cost of a comprehensive therapy often discourages patients who must pay out of pocket. The public may contact their representatives in Washington DC to bring us up to par with the European Union and other countries on these laws.

Adiponectin, a key protein hormone produced by fat cells, is deficient in almost all cases of obesity. Research shows that PPARgamma inhibitors reverse adiponectin deficiency. Studies at the University of Chicago, Illinois, Department of Medicine, in 2006, showed that 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3, or calcitriol, the hormonally active form of what we call Vitamin D, markedly suppresses PPARgamma and antagonizes PPARgamma activity, normalizing adiponectin production and exerting significant inhibition of adipogenesis (production of stored fat). The herbal chemical curcumin was also shown to downregulate the expression of PPARgamma, as well as inhibiting fatty acid synthase and suppressing lipid accumulation and adipocyte differentiation in fat cells, proving a strong potential application in the treatment of obesity, and potentially increasing adipnectin (Molecular Cell Biochemistry 2011 Jan 9: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing PMID: 21221723). Research at the University of Hong Kong in 2009 found that two chemicals in the Chinese herb Astragalus (Huang qi) significantly increased adiponectin circulating serum levels, and that this effect alone significantly alleviated insulin resistance to treat obesity (PMID: 18927219; Endocrinology. 2009 February; 150(2): 625–633). Research at Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China, in 2008, found that two chemicals in Citrus Aurantium (Zhi ke) significantly increased adiponectin levels by activating PPAR and up-regulating adiponectin expression in adipocytes (PMID: 18690615; Phytother Res. 2008 Oct;22(10):1400-3). By combining these various proven herbs and supplements, a dramatic improvement in the obesity syndrome may be seen over a period of a few months.

Regulation of leptin is now a well studied subject. Excess levels of leptin and leptin resistance are a hallmark of most cases of obesity, although some cases of obesity show a normal leptin level, and some a deficient leptin level. Leptin levels vary on a diurnal basis, with an increase at night by about 30%. While studies showed that feeding in the evening did not appear to raise leptin levels, fasting in the evening and night did significantly lower excess circulating levels of leptin. High levels of glucosamine in skeletal muscle and fat tissues increased leptin production, indicating that chronic tissue injury requiring higher concentrations of glucosamine to effect repair may contribute to leptin excess, and perhaps addressing chronic pain and soft tissue problems with physiotherapies may help with modulation of excess leptin. Expression of leptin was also found to be affected by not only levels of insulin, but also TNFalpha, IL-1, and glucocorticoids, key inflammatory mediators. Key glucocorticoids include cortisol, adrenaline and norepinephrine. An analysis of diurnal cortisol levels, and a full hormonal profile, assessed via active hormone metabolite testing with saliva and veinous blood stick samples, is highly recommended in obesity therapy. Normalization of steroid hormones, especially progesterone in relation to estradiol, is very helpful in the overall treatment protocol. Melatonin is a neurohormone that is now known to have dramatic effets in controlling most diurnal metabolism in the body, and a normalization of melatonin production may also be very helpful (a blend of low dose melatonin, active B6, or P5P, 5HTP, and St. John's Wort works best to achieve an adequate bioavailability of melatonin precursors at night - re: Positrol by Vitamin Research). Siberian Ginseng has been found effective to normalize leptin production, and electroacupuncture has also been found to be very effective at key points.

Seven years of research at the University of Minnesota revealed in human clinical trials that a patented blend of prepared high viscosity polysaccharides from the herb acacia gum, and esterfied fatty acids, significantly helped to regulate both leptin and adiponectin, and reduced midsection fat accumulation in obese subjects over time. This research was confirmed at the University of Connecticut. This patented herbal and nutrient medicine is available as LeptinX from Vitamin Research. While this herbal and nutrient medicine alone will not cure obesity, it is a valuable tool in the treatment protocol. Once again, patients afflicted with obesity need to realize that there is not just one medication that reverses this condition, but that a comprehensive and persistent treatment regimen will restore normal fatty metabolism and hormonal balance.

Research links below in additional information also show sound research findings supporting a number of herbs and nutrient medicines in the treatment of insulin resistance and obesity. Resveratrol, a chemical extracted from the Chinese herb Polygonum cuspidatum, or Hu zhang, is proven effective to reverse insulin resistance. Berberine, a chemical found in the Chinese herb Huang lian has been found effective. Chemicals in Astragalus, or Huang Qi, are found effective. As time goes on, the list grows. These herbal and nutrient medicines should be judged by the sound research and findings of long-term utilization, and not judged by whether a significant weight loss occurs in the first few weeks of use. This type of attitude is what has prevented acupuncture, TCM and herbal medicine from working in most patients to date. A knowledgeable Licensed Acupuncturist and herbalist will be able to best guide this therapy in a step-by-step fashion individually tailored for best results.

The role of environmental chemicals in the creation or perpetuation of obesity

Bisphenol-A (BPA) and a host of other common chemicals used in industrial production are proven to have potentially harmful affects that alter hormonal mechanisms and contribute to obesity, and the effects may be cumulative. BPA has been proven to alter the adiponectin metabolism, creating an indirect causative or contributing effect to obesity and metabolic syndrome. While the industry claims that the small amount of such chemicals in one container, or other product, is not enough to cause such problems as obesity, the public is becoming aware that there are many sources for such chemicals in our daily lives now, and synthetic chemicals may be stored in the tissues, exerting a cumulative effect over time. The public is also becoming aware that such problems as hormonal dysfunction and obesity are due to a variety of factors, and eliminating these pieces of the puzzle may be necessary to regain healthy function. Chemicals such as BPA exert an estrogen-like effect in the body, and many studies now prove that a variety of hormones in the body may be affected by these products. While the corporations that utilize these chemicals stubbornly fight all attempts to switch to more benign products, spending enormous sums of money to counter governmental health studies around the world, change is finally occurring because the consumers are demanding it.

BPA has been known to be estrogenic since the 1930s, and many countries now ban the chemical from products used by infants and children because of the evidence of potential hormonal and metabolic harm. BPA has been shown to be able to bind to hormonal receptors, albeit more weakly than natural hormones. A number of hormonal receptors have been identified that BPA binds to, including estrogen, testosterone, and thyroid receptors. Dr. Thomas Zoeller, a biology professor at the University of Massachusetts, has stated that he is unaware of any other single molecule that does this. Due to heavy lobbying against a broader BPA ban in the United States, legislation such as Senator Diane Feinstein's proposed ban of BPA in most baby products in the U.S., which is already in effect in Canada, has been put on hold until the NIH conducts a new series of larger scientific studies. A small study of foods packaged in tin cans lined with a plastic coating containing BPA showed that 89% of the foods were significantly contaminated with BPA from this lining. Hundreds of studies around the world show that low doses of BPA, similar to doses humans are exposed to with consumption of canned food, beverages in soft plastic containers exposed to sunlight, and microwaved foods in plastic containers, alter the hormonal function and balance in laboratory animals. The effect on adiponectin is the most dramatic effect found so far in these studies, linking BPA to obesity, but in a complex manner.

Patricia Hunt, a biologist at Washington State University, states that BPA isn't the only endocrine-disrupting chemical in our environment, just the one that a lot of researchers have becomed alarmed with when reviewing scientific findings. To truly protect our children from potential harm, our government has to start exerting some influence on the choices in industry, as well as educating the public to make healthier choices as they purchase products. This latter method may be more effective than regulatory legislation, which is easily blocked by Republican opposition fueled by industrial lobbying. In 2009, an organization called the Endocrine Society, reviewed all studies concerning low dose endocrine affectors, and issued a 34-page report that expressed serious concerns about a host of endocrine disrupting chemicals in industrial use, including BPA, dioxins, PCBs, DDT, phthalates, and DES. This scientific group has about 14,000 members in over 100 countries, who work in research and medical fields, as well as industrial research. These scientists state that there is strong evidence that these chemicals cause epigenetic changes, altering the potential functions of our genes, and exert a wide range of potential endocrine function alterations due to this mechanism, which can also be passed on to future generations. Epigenetic changes have been shown to be reversible in just a couple of generations, though, if the persons affected change the habits that created the harmful epigenetic changes in the first place. When modern science is able to come up with more natural products, there seems to be no reason to persistently stick with these potentially harmful environmental chemicals that may contribute to obesity and other hormonal diseases.

While the evidence for a single environmental chemical being the sole cause for obesity is not proven, the evidence is strong that a combination of chemicals, drugs, dietary factors, epigenetic changes, and other factors comprise a complex of physiological events that create and perpetuate obesity. A 2008 study at the University of Alabama (cited below with a link) reviewed endocrine disrupting environmental chemicals (EDCs) and concluded that the evidence was strong that these chemicals contribute to this multifactorial cause of obesity. The researchers stated: “Public health officials should think of the obesity epidemic as a function of a multifactorial complex of events, including environmental-endocrine disruptors, in addition to more commonly perceived and discussed putative contributors to obesity.” The chemicals cited include BPA (bisphenol A), DES, DDT, phthalates, dioxins, PCBs, butyltins, heavy metals airborne pollutants, other pesticides, flame retardant chemicals, and solvents. The researchers concluded: “Individually, in some instances these compounds may pose little risk at the levels that they are typically found. However, in various combinations, weak compounds may interact synergistically and prove to be more potent than either compound alone.” When a patient has other hormonal imbalances, epigenetic inheritances or tendencies, and a poor diet, these environmental chemicals and pharmaceutical drugs, may play an even more important role in the complex nature of physiological imbalance that causes and perpetuates true obesity.

The role of pharmaceuticals in the creation or perpetuation of obesity

We take pharmaceutical medicines to get healthier or to avoid health problems, but we all recognize that there are often a wide array of serious side effects that come with most pharmaceutical drugs. The array of side effects is now sometimes so dizzying that we do not pay attention anymore. Even medical doctors that prescribe often ignore the long lists of potential side effects and risks. Medical research, though, continues to uncover the relationships between various pharmaceuticals and obesity with long term use. Often, if the patient does not experience a medical side effect in the short term after starting a medication, the relationship between a developing health problem and the drugs that they are taking is no longer clear. This is why the patient must pay attention to medical research.

Today, medical authorities are alarmed by the fact that the list of prescription medications that are known to cause significant weight gain now exceeds 50 different types of drugs. There is also much concern that there is a lack of research and understanding in this field, despite its dire consequences with the rising rate of obesity in the United States. The list includes steroid medications, such as prednisone, antidepressants, atypical antipsychotics, antiseizure medications, newer diabetes drugs, blood pressure medications, antihistamines, and even heartburn and stomach acid inhibitors. While not 100% of patients experience weight gain, patients with other health factors predisposing to obesity are at higher risk with these medications, and this is being largely ignored. The general attitude in medicine is that the benefits probably outweigh the risks of obesity, and an even more alarming attitude is that other medications can be prescribed to induce weight loss in cases where the medication has created obesity. Of course, each case must be individually assessed to weigh risks versus benefits, but there are options other than adding more prescriptions or continuing with prescriptions drugs that cause obesity. As standard medicine begins to embrace Integrative Medicine, more and more enlightened medical doctors are turning to Complementary Medicine to offer more options in treatment.

Atypical antipsychotics are a group of drugs that are increasingly prescribed to treat off label diseases, especially depression, bipolar disorder, dementia, childhood behavioral problems and irritability, and personality disorders. In 2007, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services AHRQ (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality) issued a statement that there was a lack of evidence to support many of these off-label uses, and with some of these drugs, most patients experienced significant weight gain that offset any modest benefit from the drug (see the links below in additional information). Often, the patient does not realize that they are actually taking an atypical antipsychotic, because they do not have a psychosis, and the prescribing medical doctor only uses the commercial name of the drug, not explaining what class of drug it is from, or even the real pharmaceutical name of the chemical. Often, there are many commercial names for the same drug. This system is very confusing to the patient, and lends itself to a lack of attention to the drug itself, and a complete dependency on the prescribing doctor to keep track of the potential health problems that can be caused. Some of the widely prescribed atypical antipsychotics in the United States are called Zyprexa, Abilify, Seroquel, and Risperdal. Some atypical antipsychotics are more associated with weight gain, probably due to the action of inhibiting, or antagonizing, dopamine receptors in the brain more effectively, or 5HT receptors as well. Some of these drugs may affect hormonal balance as well, with increased prolactin secretion typical due to the ill effects on the hypothalamic function.

Antidepressant and antianxiety medications are also found to have a strong association with obesity, metabolic syndrome and unhealthy lipid profiles (see study cited below). SSRIs and SSNRIs are very commonly taken today, and these selective serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors are shown to have a strong association with obesity in a subset of patients. The effects associated with weight gain occur with chronic use, and increased serum prolactin has also been noted. Despite such findings, a new obesity drug rejected in January of 2011 by the FDA was actually composed of a combination of the SSRI medication Wellbutrin and

The failure of the allopathic pharmaceutical industry to develop even a single effective medication for the treatment of obesity, our most prevalent medical condition in the United States hinges on the stubborn refusal to explore more holistic treatment protocols

In late 2010 and early 2011, the FDA rejected four new drugs designed to counter obesity. These drugs, Meridia (Sibtramine), Lorcaserin (Lorqess), Qnexa, and Contrave, were designed mainly to block neurological signals that stimulate appetite in obesity. They were all rejected by a panel of medical experts because they failed to show much positive effect (the minimum criteria for efficacy was a 5% weight loss in a majority of subjects over a short time, or a greater than 5% reduction in weight in a higher percentage of subjects than the placebo effect), and evidence that long-term damage to the health and short-term side effects in a considerable percentage of patients was unacceptable. Because of the consistent long-term risks to cardiovascular health, and numerous other metabolic and hormonal problems potentially engendered by these drugs, the FDA now asks the drug makers to demonstrate that long-term use will not create significant negative health risks.

These four new drugs all were combinations of prior drugs used for other diseases, mostly utilizing anti-depressants, which oddly enough, are associated with obesity as a cause with long-term use. Lorcaserin has serotonergic properties as a 5-HT receptor agonist (hydroxytryptophan) and mildly inhibits appetite. Tryptophan, an essential amino acid, was one of the most popular nutritional supplements in the world in the 1990s, aiding in the treatment of mood disorders, depression and anxiety, before a strange contamination of the main production line in Japan with a rare harmful bacteria ruined its reputation and sales. Since then, 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan precursor) has become a very popular supplement derived from the herb Griffonia seed. Lorcaserin failed to demonstrate significant positive effects over these natural supplements, and demonstrated considerable long-term negative effects.

Qnexa was a combination of phentermine (part of the prior anti-obesity drug Phen-fen that was pulled from the market in 1997 due to reports of tens of thousands of cardiovascular deaths attributed to its use) and the drug topiramate (Topomax). Topiramate is an anticonvulsant drug adapted to treat a wide variety of conditions in the last 20 years, with a dismal record of success, but huge profits. It has been marketed to treat migraine headaches, bipolar depression, nerve pain, and other disorders, but long-term studies revealed that it is ineffective in the treatment of bipolar disorder, and eventually creates metabolic acidosis, may cause kidney stones, osteoporosis, glaucoma, peripheral neuropathy, and psychiatric problems, as well as contribute to liver dysfunction, and worsen allergies. Topiramate also can cause cognitive problems with short term memory and attention span, fatique, and may negatively interact with many common medications.

Meridia, or Sibutramine, is a serotonin and norepinephrine reuptake inhbitor (SNRI) that is related to amphetamines. Other SNRI medications include Cymbalta and Effexor, widely prescribed to treat anxiety and depression disorders. Common side effects of these SSRI medications were loss of appetite, weight loss, poor quality sleep, loss of interest in sex, difficulty in reaching orgasm, drowsiness, fatique, headache, nausea, imbalance of central hormones such as oxytocin and prolactin, and elevated blood pressure. Since some of these health problems were often seen in obesity, and considered part of the long-term health threat in obesity syndromes, the FDA panel rejected this drug.

Contrave, or Buproprion/naltrexone, is a combination drug composed of the antidepressant Wellbutrin (norepinephrine and dopamine reuptake inhibitor) and the anti-alcoholic drug Revia (an opioid receptor antagonist). Wellbutrin was initially withdrawn from the market due to alarm at its potential to cause seizures, and subsequently the dosage was reduced. Wellbutrin is also associated with hypertension, and common side effects included dry mouth, nausea, insomnia, tremor, abnormal sweating, and tinnitus. A black box warning was added by the FDA due to the large number of reports of adverse behaviral effects and suicidal ideation in patients under the age of 25. The association of buproprion with high blood pressure, a significant health threat in obesity, prompted the FDA to demand assurance with long-term study that this Contrave would not cause increased cardiovascular risk in obese patients.

What can the public learn from this failure of the allopathic pharmaceutical industry to treat obesity with even a single effective drug? The lesson to be learned is that obesity is a systemic disorder, or syndrome, that needs a broad treatment approach, not an allopathic solution. Modern medicine needs to integrate with Complementary Medicine to work on a program that restores normal weight control and fat metabolism homeostasis, and also to prevent the syndrome from developing in the early adult stage, or during periods of increased incidence from hormonal imbalance, such as postpartum and postmenopausal states. While it would be nice to have that simple magic pill to cure obesity, it does not appear that modern science will develop such as drug, and the strategies seen in modern pharmaceutical research demonstrate that there is little hope for a new pharmaceutical approach. Intelligent patients will turn to a more restorative and comprehensive holistic therapy, and the Licensed Acupuncturist and herbalist is the ideal physician to deliver this long-term comprehensive treatment.

The essential treatment protocols in the overall comprehensive scheme to reverse the obesity syndrome and restore normal fat homeostasis

We see from the above information that those patients expecting the pharmaceutical industry to come up with a magic pill that will reverse obesity without correcting the whole array of physiological dysfunctions and changing dietary and activity habits are not being realistic. A complete protocol must be adopted, and an array of changes in dietary and lifestyle habits are the foundation for this treatment protocol. Complementary and Integrative Medicine provide professional help and guidance, but the bulk of the work must be accomplished by the patient.

The most important lifestyle changes needed to make an obesity treatment plan work are: 1) start the day with a breakfast of complex carbohydrates and healthy essential fatty acids (for example, a porridge of steel cut whole oats, sweetened with banana and a little agave syrup, or stevia, and with fresh shelled walnuts and a few dried black currants); 2) stop eating simple carbohydrates, and when the need for a sugary snack occurs, try a cup of peppermint tea with a spoonful of honey; 3) go for a period of time midday without eating, drinking only water, not soda or coffee, and quit eating in the evening and before bedtime; 4) make sure that your sleep is sound and restful, and that you have a regular sleep schedule; 5) assess your medications and discuss with the prescribing doctor whether some of these medications may be contributing to weight gain and obesity; 6) avoid environmental chemicals that could disrupt your hormonal regulation and contribute to obesity, such as soft plastic containers, canned foods, insecticides, chemical househould cleaners, flame retardant chemicals, solvents, and food additives and preservatives; 7) eat a predominantly plant-based diet with healthy fats, including a variety of whole grains and beans, legumes, fresh organic vegetables, and whole fruit that is not too sweet (not fruit juice); and 8) start a daily short exercise and stretch regimen to decrease chronic inflammatory problems and burn midsection fat (5-10 minutes per day of targeted abdominal muscle exercises after eating a small meal predominated with healthy fats, such as avocado, olives, nuts and seeds, will result in the body burning that midsection fat each day, little by little).

Much scientific study has demonstrated that increased excercise and cardiorespiratory work, and well as periods of caloric restriction, meaning hours of time without eating snacks, will reduce excess leptin and increase deficient adiponectin. Of course, if the obesity syndrome is too pronounced, this tactic may only work when some progress on the syndrome is made first. Now, the public has been told for many years that frequent smaller meals are the healthiest approach. This is completely wrong. Much research in recent years clearly demonstrates that long periods during the day without food intake is very helpful, and essential to reverse obesity. To access such study, click here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21257708. Now, to help with this protocol, one may utilize herbs and nutrient medicines to help curb midday appetite, such as hoodia, an herbal extract from an African cactus, and green tea or whole grape extracts. One may also drink peppermint tea sweetened with a little honey to stop the carb cravings, or eat a sheet or toasted nori seaweed. A midday exercise routine, such as a brisk long walk, instead of lunch, may also be an easy routine that can be accomplished at work. Of course, to prepare oneself for this intermittent calorie restriction, eating a breakfast of complex carbohydrate is essential, as these complex carbs take a long time to break down, supplying glucose over time without generating an insulin increase. No, quick cooking oatmeal or supposedly whole grain cheerios will not work. A breakfast of eggs and sausage will also not work, and avoiding breakfast and drinking a glass of sweet frozen orange juice with coffee will not work. Eating whole rye bread for the breakfast toast is also proven to be very effective to sustain a high glycemic prolonged blood glucose response and lower insulin demand. To see a study proving this, click here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21247415. Educating oneself to intelligent dietary science, something sorely lacking in our educational system, is important when a disease such as obesity, which is integral to your dietary habits and routines, is oppressing you.

Avoiding processed and fast foods whenever possible is also essential to the overall treatment protocol with obesity. Commercially processed foods have gradually incorporated ingredients that are proven to cause obesity, and our government has been lax in regulating this industry, despite the enormous evidence of harm to public health. High fructose corn syrup and processed and altered transfats are proven to be the worst offenders, and the food industry has been very stubborn in the elimination of these harmful processed food ingredients. An article in the New York Times Sunday edition of February 20, 2011, outlines the findings of current research in obesity, which now largely utilizes study of monkeys. One of the top researchers in this field, a Dr. Kevin Grove, director of an obesity research program at the Oregon National Primate Research Center, stated in this article that obesity did not occur in the study population until these types of altered simple carbohydrates were added to the diet. A number of primate research projects on obesity have given rhesus monkeys as much food as they want, and restricted their activity, to mimic the modern human dilemma. About 60% of these primates put on a lot of weight, and Dr. Grove and other researchers have found that until high fructose corn syrup was added to the diet, with an equivalent to about 2 cans of soda per day, that obesity related fat changes did not occur. High fat diets did not cause obesity, but altered fats, such as transfats, appear to contribute to obesity as well. Dr. Barbara Hansen, of the University of South Florida, stated that to now still suggest that humans and monkeys get fat from a high fat diet is not a reasonable suggestion based on current scientific research, and that carbohydrates, and quality of carbohydrates, not high fat, were important in the cause of obesity. The low fat diet that has been recommended by the American Heart Association for the last two decades appears to be misleading. Dr. Hansen states that her most obese rhesus monkey ate nothing but an American Heart Association recommended diet and ballooned to 70 pounds, about 45 pounds over his normal healthy weight. Avoiding high-fructose corn syrup, transfats, altered simple carbohydrates, and other commercial food chemicals, and trying to stick with unprocessed fresh whole foods, appears essential in the treatment protocol for obesity.

The cause of the remarkable rise of obesity in the United States may seem obvious, but science has been unable to identify the exact physiological causes

While scientists in the past have tried to explain the explosion in rates of obesity in the past by implying that eating too much and not exercising enough is the problem, changing this pattern in the individual did not appreciably correct the obesity. Genetic blame was a prevalent explanation, but the large increase in rates of obesity cannot be explained by a change in the gene pool, and a complete mapping of the human genome has failed to identify specific genes responsible for obesity. Adopting a low fat approach in the commercial food industry has not slowed the rise of obesity rates at all. The most prevalent scientific explanation is that the human organism evolved energy conserving physiological mechanisms to maintain a healthy energy in the abscence of food intake, and that the modern civilization has ignored this, and instructed the population to eat constantly, and often. Coupled with this, is the lack of adherence to physical activity each day, as more and more, we sit sedentary in front of a computer or television, and ride in vehicles instead of walking. Even the amount of required physical activity in early schooling has been cut as budget problems occur.

Equation of obesity with body mass index (BMI) has also led scientists down a road that ignores the holistic field of factors responsible for acquiring an imbalance in the energy utilization homeostasis that we all need. The tendency to see this health imbalance in binary terms, and separating the genetic predisposition from environmental factors has also damaged our scientific ability to define a field of factors that together create the obesity pathology. Studies in recent years have shown that there is a high association with inherited traits in relation to BMI, but that these traits appear to be most associated with epigenetic inheritance, which are determined largely by environmental factors, and may be reversed in just a few generations. The effects of inherited epigenetic traits associated with BMI appears to be similar for all ages and body types. Leptin is a fat cell hormone highly associated with obesity and BMI, or fatty accumulation, and studies examining the genetic traits of twins have shown that genetic variance tied to leptin expression appears to be correlated with additive genetic factors, especially epigenetic effects, on leptin expression accounting for 34% of the influence in women, and 45% in men. The other effects on leptin expression variance appears to be attributable to unique environmental effects. In other words, epigenetic additive traits and immediate environmental factors appear to about evenly affect the expression of leptin in both men and women (PMID: 1124469: Int J Obes Relat Metab Disord 2001 Jan;25(1):132-7). This large Finnish twin study followed 5967 adult Finnish twins. As recently as 1995, scientists were convinced that a few major genes contributed to the development of obesity. Since then, the entire human genome has been mapped and no such handful of genes have been found.

The problem with modern civilization and science is that both the individuals in society, and the scientists, are neurotically focused upon simple allopathic solutions to the problem of obesity. The search for the single answer, and simple change or chemical medication that will reverse a disorder that is systemic and holistic, is preventing us from realizing what is needed to correct the problem of obesity and metabolic disorder that has become a dire threat to our health. Not only is the individual health threatened by obesity, but now the financial health of our nation is threatened. By 2001, about 60% of all health care expenditure for children and teens was related to Metabolic Syndrome and obesity. Health care costs are bankrupting our nation. It is time to reverse course, and realize the holistic explanations and problems with a non-adherence to natural dietary habits, that results in this extreme endemic health problem.

The origins of obesity in the lack of adherence to natural dietary needs

The human body has evolved dietary needs that help maintain the complex homeostasis of its energy metabolism. A stubborn ignorance of these needs, driven by the marketing of man-made foods has led us to a place where soon, a majority of the population may suffer from obesity. The lack of adherence to natural dietary habits may even begin in early infancy. Researchers at Children‘s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School studied 847 children to determine the effects of diet on health in a long-term study called Project Viva. These researchers found that for those children who were not breast fed for the first 4 months of their lives, but given formula at an early age, that those children who were fed solid baby food before 4 months of age were 6 times more likely to be obese by the age of 3 years. Babies breast fed till the fourth or sixth month did not develop early obesity, even if solid baby food was introduced at this early age. Our medical establishment, and the marketers of infant formulas and baby food for infants, often give mothers the impression that breast feeding is not important, that science has created infant formula even superior to breast milk, and that a variety of baby foods are scientifically proven to benefit the baby, even at an early age. Even producers of organic baby foods show pictures of early infants eating a variety of gourmet organic baby foods, and modern mothers sometimes get the impression that their children will be better off eating a variety of solid baby foods, pureed, at an early age.

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, the advice has always been to breast feed the infant for at least six months, if possible, then introduce a very limited diet to the infant in the first three years of life. Avoidance of soy milk, and undiluted sweet fruit juice is recommended. If infant formula must be introduced at an early age, Traditional Chinese medicine has advocated a dilute, slow cooked, strained rice soup, or rice-based formula. Boiled whole cow's milk, slightly diluted with water, or goat milk, is also preferrable to a complex soy infant formula. Juices at an early age are given with precaution, in small quantities, and diluted, using juices that are not too sweet, such as apricot, peach, plum, papaya and pomegranate. Overfeeding is a typical mistake with infants, leading to food stagnation, fullness, and reflux. Many early infant symptoms are due to overfeeding, feeding too much at night, feeding on demand, and early introduction of more complex foods. Establishing a healthy dietary routine of feeding in infancy may prevent a tendency to bad eating habits in the future. A majority of pediatric diseases are thought to be due to indigestion in Traditional Chinese Medicine. Allergies, asthma, cough, and eczema are thought to be most often caused by digestive problems. The system of the spleen, pancreas and stomach does not mature until about age 6, and Traditional Chinese medicine advocates slowly introducing solid foods only when the infant starts naturally grabbing for solids at about 5-6 months of age, and then avoiding all raw foods, cold foods, cheese, meat, fish, poultry, wheat and corn until the child's digestion is shown to be strong enough to handle complex proteins and raw foods. Foods are introduced one or two at a time, with mashed roots and vegetables, squash or pumpkin introduced with dilute strained rice soup during the first year, and sweetened foods are not given children until age five or six, and then only in small portions and at special occasions. Complex infant diets do not benefit the child, are unnecessary to their health, and throw off their developing digestive and pancreatic system.

This traditional advice is a very hard sell in modern society, yet such studies as the Harvard Project Viva are showing that our modern introduction of complex foods at an early age disrupt the pancreatic energy regulation and often result in early obesity. Even as adults, we assume that our bodies do not actually need to adhere to millions of years of evolved dietary habits, and that eating the modern diet is not only harmless, but probably best for us. What does Nature know that science doesn't. This mistake is proving to be very costly, and even those of us that adopt Vegan diets, and various dietary regimens that we consider healthy, are still ignoring basic natural dietary rules and regulations. A common mistake with Vegan diets is to give in to cravings for sugar and simple carbohydrates, while justifying bad dietary behavior by telling oneself that strictly avoiding all animal products is a morally superior behavior, and thus should keep one healthy. Traditional diets are shunned, but these diets of our prior generations, full of garden grown vegetables, and traditional combinations of foods, are very important to our health.

Of course, a diet of fast food, hamburgers and fries, is the worst diet ever, yet even those of us that have adopted a more natural dietary scheme are often deluded into thinking that some dietary fad that we read about is superior to a traditional natural diet. Slipping into bad dietary habits for relatively short periods of time may also create health imbalances that take longer to correct. The documentary Supersize Me presents that most vivid example of how the modern diet can produce Metabolic Syndrome and obesity in a very short time. The film producer in this documentary went from a plant-based fairly health diet, with a moderate amount of meat and fish, to eating only MacDonalds meals supersized for two months, monitored by his M.D., and acquired Metabolic Syndrome, with high cholesterol and LDL lipids, high triglycerides, fatty weight gain at the midsection, high blood pressure, etc. in just two months. If this isn't a wake up call to America, and the rest of the world, I don't know what is. Poor dietary habits are the root of the problem, and dietary intelligence should be incorporated into each of our lives, and into our educational system, before it is too late.

Diet & Nutrition

The Chinese were perhaps the first culture in history to adopt dietary recommendations as part of a public health program by government. Of course, diet and nutrition, from a medical perspective, is a huge subject. The most sensible way to approach health benefit from diet and nutritional medicine is to both study this science and consult with a knowledgeable physician whose medical schooling incorporated nutritional medicine in its curriculum, such as a Licensed Acupuncturist or Naturopathic physician.

Considering the enormity of the subject of nutritional medicine and dietary science, the article presented here is not meant to be a thorough guide for a complete dietary and nutritional approach. Instead, I am offering a small article focused on a few key issues, and presenting just a snack of the information available from a physician such as myself. The article will be ongoing and improved over time. The key to healthy changes in diet and nutrition, which may be the most important part of your healthcare, is first to avoid being overwhelmed by the enormity of the information available, and proceed step-by-step in a logical and open-minded manner. Don't let your beliefs or your appetites control your health. Instead, let your intelligence take over and learn what could make the biggest difference in your life, both for specific health problems, and for overall quality of life and healthier function and productivity.

You may wonder if you are trying to improve your diet what exactly you should eat. Many healthy foods are unfamiliar and thus difficult to incorporate into your daily routine of cooking as well as being strange to your taste buds. Once you find a way to prepare these foods properly you will be glad that you did, but this process is a bit of work and most people will ultimately avoid it and stick with familiar tastes and habits. Unfortunately, this has led most of us down an unhealthy road, conditioned since childhood to favor foods rich in simple carbohydrates like processed sugar cane, white flour & potatoes, and meats that are increasingly raised on these simple carbohydrates and processed foods and chemicals. We’ve been convinced by a food industry that our only protein is from meat, our only calcium is from dairy, vitamins are obtained from pills, and that foods labeled whole grain and natural are just that, when the truth is that most often there is just a little processed whole grain and ‘natural’ ingredients in these foods. Most of us convince ourselves that we are ‘eating healthy’ when in actuality this is becoming difficult, due to industry lies, propaganda, and a corporate food industry that has succeeded in reducing the essential nutrients in our crops by long term use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, farming practices that have severely depleted topsoil, and now genetic engineering. The Food and Drug Administration was created to provide minimal standards of safety in the industries of food production and pharmaceuticals, and even today, the great government of the United States, unlike even ancient Chinese governments, has very little actual input into public health and what we eat. It is up to the consumers, it would seem, to become better educated and control this important issue of public health.

The human metabolism needs a rich varied diet. This is what we have evolved into. Our bodies have always been primarily vegetable, grain, fruit, nut, seed and herb consumers historically. Meat consumption came late in our evolution, yet today we are led to believe that meat should be our primary source of nutrients. We only need to look at the structure of our teeth to understand logically that we were not originally meat eaters. Dietary habits can become a type of belief system, though, and the strength of these beliefs can be powerful. Even late twentieth century anthropologists have stuck to beliefs that early humans migrated out of Africa in search of meat, while science tells us that this migration occurred because of climate changes that effected that fields of seed grains that were the diet staple. Study of stone tools in many parts of the world show that harvesting of seed grain and vegetable roots were a key to human cultural evolution, and modern scientific tools that now can analyze microbotanical evidence clearly keep pushing back the earliest timelines of organized agriculture and trade of seed grains and roots. Give it up meat lovers, humans are essentially a whole grain eating animal.

Today, many of these same seed grains that were the key to our evolved health are foreign to us, as agribusiness has reduced our staple grains down to the most profitable wheats, corns, and soy hybrids. Local crops and home gardening, which produced a high percentage of our food in the past, have all but disappeared, and megafarms and enormous livestock factories, where animals are raised in very unhealthy conditions, produce the clean packages of preserved foods that be buy in the supermarket. This is not to say that one must suddenly become a vegan vegetarian, which presents its own set of metabolic challenges and changes in the body, but it does logically point to a healthier analysis of what we should be eating to maintain the most efficient bodily health and prevent common diseases from ruining our lives. Of course, eating healthy meats and fish as a relatively small percentage of the diet is nutritionally beneficial. Many scientific studies now confirm, though, that a diet dominated by unhealthy red meats creates various imbalances and stresses in our bodies that ultimatedly lead to common diseases. Even the beliefs of what constitutes healthy meat has been manipulated by big business, though. Lean cattle are not healthier than cows fed a traditional healthy diet, and who develop a proper degree of fat. Corn fed cows, and cows fed industrial feed are not healthier than cows that graze on grasses and fresh seed grains. Turkeys, which are now primarily hybrids that are raised in filthy conditions, do not produce the healthiest meat for your children. Spending more on naturally healthy meats and eating smaller portions guarantees a healthier diet. Experimenting with a variety of whole grains, beans, legumes, and fresh vegetables to complement these healthy meats will make a dramatic difference in your overall health.

The most publicized imbalance related to excess meat consumption is the essential fatty acid imbalance, commonly referred to as a deficiency of omega 3 and 6 fatty acids. This refers to the fact that excess red meat consumption produces excess arachidonic acid, and relative deficiency of the inflammatory mediators created from linolenic and linoleic acids, namely healthy prostaglandins. Eating too much meat and uhealthy meat products has been shown to be very unhealthy for a variety of reasons, slowing digestive elimination, allowing excess fermentation in the gut, creating an acidic environment, etc. Our medical industry has done little to correct this basic nutrient disease-creating problem, instead creating pharmaceuticals that block inflammatory mediators, or prostaglandins, rather than restore the ability to achieve healthy inflammatory mediation. We now have warnings and restrictions on all NSAIDS and synthetic COX2 inhibitors, and lack of healthy inflammatory mediation is linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer etc. There are many amino acids and proteins in grains and vegetables, and they are much easier to digest than from a meat source. Meat from animals with health problems is also deficient in certain nutrients, just like we are deficient in essential nutrients when we eat an unhealthy diet. Eating unhealthy meat creates dangerous nutrient deficienies by both consuming deficient nutrients from the meat, and also by decreasing intake of healthy grains, vegetables etc. Visit a modern feedlot to see just how unhealthy today’s commercial meat is.

Another health problem surrounding the dominance of red meat in our diets and lack of seed grains and fresh vegetables, is the effects of a chronic acidic diet on our hormonal balance and regulation of mineral balance in our bodies. One of the chief functions of our hormonal, or endocrine system, is the regulation of charged mineral molecules, especially calcium, in our bodies. Calcium, as well as other common minerals, are large molecules that hold a high degree of electrical charge, or ionic energy. Acidity is determined by a measure of pH, or electrical potential of hydrogen, which carries a very useable free electron. This pH is a standard for the electrical potential, which could be referred to as a type of Qi, or energy, in Daoist medicine, and refers to the fact that our bodies operate optimally at a highly controlled level of acidity, namely a pH of 7.0 in most tissues, but a varied regulation of pH in the digestive processes, as well as other metabolic systems. To regulate this pH, the body mainly utilizes charged mineral molecules, especially calcium and magnesium, but also phosphates, and mineral salts containing bicarbonate, a combination of hydrogen, carbon and three oxygen molecules, which is highly regulated by the hormonal system and the kidney, to maintain optimal healthy function. Circulating carbon dioxide may also serve as a modulator of acidity, and is affected both by kidney function and the amount of cardiorespiratory activity.

When the body struggles with buffering a chronic acidic system it pulls excess amounts of calcium, magnesium, and other minerals from the body and forms buffers. In older individuals this often leads to osteoporosis, especially if the hormonal system has also been challenged by poor menopausal health, by use of synthetic hormone replacement, of by drugs that challenge the healthy maintenance of the kidney and adrenal functions. While modern pharmaceutical medicine has treated osteoporosis with drugs that block the endocrine system from pulling minerals out of the bones to buffer the chronic acidic condition (biphosphonates), it doesn't take a scientist to understand how unhealthy the consequences of this therapy could be. To read more of how a varied whole grain and fresh vegetable diet can reverese osteoporosis, read the New York Times article below in additional information.

Diet as an important part of medical treatment protocol in Traditional Chinese Medicine and Complementary Medicine - combining centuries of public health traditions with modern scientific research

Unlike standard allopathic medicine, Traditional Chinese Medicine and Complementary Medicine has always emphasized the importance of healthy dietary measures and restoration of essential nutrients to prevent and treat disease. China was the first country in history to officially create public health guidelines for dietary protocol, and the first to recognize that nutrient depletion is a cause of disease. Medicinal herbs help restore these nutritional depletions, and many Chinese herbs contain linolenic and linoleic acids, and other common essential nutrients that many be depleted and causative of your health problem. Certain plants develop high concentrations of these nutrients, which make them ideal medicines to quickly restore health. Nutrient cofactors also evolve in these medicinal plants, making them much more efficient than simple supplements in correcting nutrient imbalances. Today, TCM practitioners, or Licensed Acupuncturists, utilize professional herbal medicines that combine herbal formula with specialized nutrient supplements that help restore your nutrient balance and health based on sound scientific research.

Studies have shown that vegetables, fruits and grains today often contain over 30% less of key nutrients than 70 years ago because of farming methods. U.S. history is full of political mistakes that led to destruction of the nutrient topsoil in this country, beginning with the homesteading push and subsequent dust bowl of the 1930s, and continuing today with the accomodation of corporate farming and synthetic fertilizer as a substitute for healthy nutrient rich topsoil. The public is finally starting to realize that their health depends on nutritious food, and the market for local, small farm, organically produced foods is expanding rapidly. Purchase of organic local produce is thus vitally important when you need nutrients to get healthy. If you are already in the peak of health, you may not have much to worry about, but those with health problems should be concerned about the nutritional content of their foods and buy fresh, local, organic produce when possible.

Public research worldwide is now heavily focused on health issues related to nutrients. One example is the vast amount of research devoted to phytohormones, or plant-based hormonal chemicals. Lignans and enterolactones are chemicals that are now highly studied in relation to cancer prevention. Lignan precursors are key nutrients found in healthy grains, seeds, nuts, fruits and green vegetables, and are essential to our bodies creating healthy lignans, enterolactones and enterodiols. There are a variety of lignans and lignan precursors, and certain lignans are concentrated in medicinal plants. These lignans stimulate increased production of enterolactones and enterodiols that help maintain hormonal balance, prevent cancer, act as hormonal stimulators when there is hormonal deficiency, reduce cardiovascular risk, and play other key roles in health maintenance. More potent lignan extracts have been patented and stimulate a great production of enterolactones that may help reverse the obesity syndromes.

The term entero refers to the intestinal metabolism, and the enterolactones and enterodiols are produced when the bacterial balance in the intestines is healthy and we eat sufficient foods or take herbs rich in lignans and lignan precursors. To fully benefit from these chemicals and restore health, we need to take a holistic and comprehensive approach, restoring healthy flora and fauna to the digestive tract, eating locally grown organic vegetables, grains, legumes, seeds, nuts and fruit, and correcting health problems that may inhibit our bodies' ability to utilize and metabolize these nutrients. One step instead of a holistic approach may not be effective, such as taking probiotics. If your gut flora and fauna are unhealthy, probiotic foods and supplements may not colonize efficiently. You may need to correct unhealthy intestinal enviroments first with herbal therapy and acupuncture, and then introduce quality probitics and nutritional cofactors to restore healthy gut flora and fauna. Healthy diet should be accompanied by healthy medical treatment and restoration. This is the key to success. A knowledgeable Licensed Acupuncturist can help identify and correct health problems, provide quality nutrient products that are specific to the individual, and guide the holistic approach to full restoration of your bodies' metabolism to prevent disease.

To help in this complex subject of healthy diet, since it is a very complex subject, let me urge you to buy a Paul Pritchford book on nutritional healing, called Healing with Whole Foods, and access the website of the Linus Pauling institute. Let me also urge you to seek professional guidance when necessary from a practitioner of Complementary Medicine, and finally, let me give you a few bits of information that may help. Of course, a small webpage article is insufficient to fully educate on the vast subject of nutritional health, and this is why we study this subject for years in medical school. Keep in mind that your medical doctor has received zero formal trainging in nutrient medicine. The Licensed Acupuncturist and Naturopathic doctor may have received much formal training. To instruct and entertain a little, here is a small list of some foods and why they are valuable:

• Comfrey: extremely high in allantoin in both leaf and root. This simple herb food can be grown in a small garden, or the leaf & root are available, usually in a dried form or capsule, but unfortunately still unpopular in a fresh form. The young leaves are very tasty in a salad or with braised greens, and the root is tasty in soup stocks or other root dishes. Mature leaves should be avoided. Allantoin is a powerful antioxidant & anti-inflammatory immunostimulant, so comfrey is often found in topical herbal creams for skin healing. It is also a very good sunscreen and antidandruff agent topically. Allantoin is also useful to control excess stomach acid and treat indigestion. Other foods with a sufficient amount of allantoin include beets, turnip, rapini, soy, rice and tea (real tea, or camellia sinensis).
• Pumpkin seed: high in arginine and essential fatty acids of benefit, as well as plant steroid hormones, beta-carotene, copper, cystine, iron, lysine, magnesium, zinc, selenium, potassium, urease, tryptophan & tyrosine. The amino acids are often deficient in chronic health problems and essential fatty acids are essential to regulate inflammatory process. This food is available as an oil, or as a seed snack, or you can fix pumpkin and save and wash the seeds, lightly toasting them with a bit of soy sauce and oil. They taste great. Pumpkin seed has been found to be very beneficial to control benign prostate hypertrophy, a disease of deficiency in hormones & minerals as well as poor inflammatory regulation. Pumpkin seed would also benefit the woman with menopausal problems or fibroids. In fact, it would benefit all of us as we age.
• Avocado: rich in the useful and often deficient Vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), as well as essential fatty acids, amino acids (alinine, arginine, etc.), beta-carotene, biotin, calcium, copper, cystine, complex carbohydrates, iron, isoleucine, fiber, dopamine, serotonin, tryptophan, lecithin, magnesium, methionine, niacin, plant hormones, vitamin D, zinc. A few weeks of eating one avocado a day will do wonders to fulfill many nutritional deficiencies that you may be experiencing. Vitamin B6 is often a deficient nutrient, and is a group of chemicals that is very important in our metabolism. All of the vitamins are a group of chemicals, and not just a single chemical. Often, it takes a healthy liver metabolism and other nutrients to transform our vitamins into active metabolites. Just taking a pill will not always do the trick. B6 pyroxidine helps with pain relief, spasms, PMS, acne, depression, atherosclerosis, infertility, diabetes, neuropathy, kidney stones, anxiety and insomnia. Other sources of B6 include whole wheat, barley, barleygrass powder, soy, lentil, steel cut whole oats, & corn (e.g. polenta or grits).
• Walnuts: like avocado, walnuts are rich in essential fatty acids, amino acids and serotonin. Other serotonin rich foods include nettle, banana, and plum, although these common fruits have small amounts. Nettle can be purchased as a dried herb supplement, or if you are adventurous, stinging nettle is a common forest herb that can be harvested fresh using gloves. The stinging part goes away when the plant is cooked, and it tastes quite good as a vegetable or tea. It also prevents getting poison oak rash. Fresh garden nettle is also available in healthy groceries these days. Walnuts should be purchased in the shell to insure that the nut isn’t rancid, which breaks down all of the useful chemicals and creates a lot of unhealthy oxidants. Toasted walnut oil is also a good source, but get a high quality in a metal container, as this oil goes rancid easily. Walnut is also high in plant hormones, biotin, inositol, calcium, citric acid, copper, beta-carotene, iron, lecithin, potassium, protein, quercetin etc. Wild black walnut meats are even more nutritious.
• Shallots: speaking of quercetin, a very valuable nutrient, tasty shallots are very high in this beneficial substance, as is evening primrose oil and steel cut whole oats. Quercetin helps with allergies, pain, viral infection, cancer, PMS, aging, asthma, autoimmune disorder, diabetes, prostate hypertrophy, candidiasis, poor liver function, birth defects, and neurological disorders. It is also a strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and MAO-A-inhibitor in depression. Other plants rich in quercetin include okra, garlic, beet, tea, escarole, endive, cilantro, parsley, buckwheat, sour cherry, black currant, rose hips, cranberry, ginger, spinach, valerian and milk thistle.
• Melons: cantelopes, melons & muskmelons are all very high in linoleic acid, essential fatty acid of much merit. Linoleic acid is anti-inflammatory, liver protective, cholesterol reducing, cancer preventative, immunomodulator, and helps with eczema, prostatitis, skin disorders, allergic symptoms, arthritis, acne and heart disease. Other foods rich in linoleic acid include walnuts, avocado, safflower oil, hemp seed, pumpkin seed, cumin, coriander and evening primrose oil.
• Sage, basil, cumin, coriander & caraway seed: these common cooking herbs are rich in beta-sitosterol, an important plant hormone that stimulates human hormone production of androgens, progesterone and estrogen while also being regulatory of estrogen excess. Beta-sitosterol is antioxidant, antiviral, anti-candida, antitumor, and helps with high blood sugars, blood lipids, and leukemia.

These are but a few of the many wonderful sources of beneficial nutrients often lacking in the modern diet. To explore more of these nutrient sources, purchase the nutritional guide books of Paul Pritchford or the good doctors Bach, or go the internet and search the Dr. Duke database at http://www.ars-grin.gov/duke/.

Information Resources

1. A July, 2010 article by CNN outlines the current state of affairs with pharmaceuticals that treat obesity, and the newest combo drug seeking FDA approval, a combination of two older drugs with poor reputations, Topamax (topiramate) and part of the banned Phen-Fen. The benchmark for success with long-term use is only a 5% weight loss: http://www.cnn.com/2010/HEALTH/07/14/new.diet.drugs/index.html
2. A review of Topiramate, or Topomax, the new drug touted in treatment of obesisty is conservatively presented on Drugs.com, and the number of adverse physical effects from long-term use is alarming: http://www.drugs.com/pro/topiramate.html
3. As far back as 2004, the FDA issued warnings about common side effects that occurred either acutely or after chronic use of Topiramate, the new drug touted for obesity, including the prevalence of systemic metabolic acidosis, which has many serious potential consequences over time: http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb4345/is_2_32/ai_n29074942/
4. Studies at prestigious U.S. Universities have found that metabolic acidosis has serious chronic consequences, including the development of insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, which is also one of the chief causes of obesity: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16736444
5. A 2009 New York Times article reveals research that finds a low-acid diet with reduction of meat and simple starches and high consumption of alkiline fresh vegetables to significantly prevent and reverse osteoporosis: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/health/24brod.html
6. A 2010 study at the University of Milan found that subclinical hypothyroid dysfunction was correlated wtih obesity and mainly influenced by insulin resistance: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20339314
7. A 2007 study at Pamukkale University in Turkey also found that thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH), secreted by the hypothalamus/pituitary, was positively correlated with the degree of obesity independent of clinical thyroid disease. Poor function of the regulatory hypothalamus is suspect: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17705106
8. A 2010 study at Duke University Medical Center correlated the degree of severity of hyperparathyroidism with obesity, with larger tumors, higher parathyroid hormone levels, and a higher frequency of the related symptoms of depression, gastroesophageal reflux, musculoskeletal symptoms of pain and weakness, etc. These findings were independent of the Vitamin D3 hormonal levels that are associated with primary hyperparathyridism: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20685860
9. A 2008 review of scientific studies of environmental chemicals contributing to obesity by hormonal disruption, conducted at the University of Alabama, concluded that an array of common environmental chemicals may contribute to obesity mechanisms at low dose, including BPA, DES, PBDE, DDT, chemical solvents, flame-retardant chemicals, phthalates, dioxins, PCBs and butylltins: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56339&page=2
10. A typical standard warning of the increasingly alarming findings of the number of pharmaceutical drugs that cause or contribute to obesity is found on MedicineNet.com: http://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/art.asp?articlekey=56339&page=2
11. Another typical website that explores more clearly the array of medications that cause obesity is found at the women's health organization Green Mountain: http://www.fitwoman.com/fitbriefings/medications-weight-gain-2.shtml
12. A 2007 report by the Federal government AHRQ reported that there was insufficient evidence to justify the off-label uses of many atypical antipsychotic pharmaceuticals, and that a high incidence of weight gain offset the very modest benefits, especially with Olanzapine/Zyprexa: http://www.ahrq.gov/news/press/pr2007/antipsypr.htm
13. A 2006 study of over 20,000 patients at Universities in Norway found that common antidepressants and antianxiety medications, SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), were associated with obesity, metabolic syndrome, and an unhealthy lipid profile: http://cat.inist.fr/?aModele=afficheN&cpsidt=18367468
14. A 2009 review of Bisphenol A, a chemical in many plastic products, by the Dartmouth Journal of Science, reveals how research found that BPA could contribute to obesity by inhibiting adiponectin and contributing to Metabolic Syndrome and insulin resistance - a 2010 President's Council on Obesity confirmed this warning: http://dujs.dartmouth.edu/fall-2009/bisphenol-a-unfit-for-consumption
15. A 2005 review of the fat cell hormone adiponectin, whose deficiency is highly correlated with obesity and insulin resistance, is note here, from experts at Sumitomo Hospital in Japan: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science
16. A 2010 study at the University of Ulm, Germany, found that a chemical constituent of Chinese herbs, resveratrol, countered insulin resistance and inflammatory cytokines (IL6 and IL8) associated with the pathophysiology of insulin resistance in fat cells. The conclusion was that resveratrol could be a novel addition to the treatment of obesity-associated hormonal and metabolic dysfunction: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20463039
17. A 2010 study at the Karolinka University Hospital in Stockholm, Sweden, found that a Chinese herb, Gymnostemma pentaphyllum, or Jiao gu lan, significantly decreased insulin resistance and A1C index with 12 weeks of use, in a modulatory fashion that had no adverse effects and did not affect glucagon levels, cortisol levels, lipid profiles, or blood pressure: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20213586
18. A 2009 study at the Chungman University Colege of Pharmacy in Daejeon, Korea, found that the Chinese herb Moutan, or Mu dan pi, paeonia suffruticosa, significantly stimulated glucose uptake and glycogen synthesis in insulin resistant liver cells: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19716700
19. A 2010 study at Tajen University in Taiwn found that the Chinese herb Abelmoschus maschatus (Ye or Shan you ma / Huang kui / muskmallow) significantly increased post-receptor insulin signaling in skeletal muscle, making this herb a useful adjunct therapy for patients with insulin resistance: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19610024
20. A 2009 study at the University of Hong Kong found that chemicals in the Chinese herb Astragalus (Huang qi) improved insulin resistance by elevating adiponectins in circulation, and were thus potentially useful in the treatment of obesity as part of the treatment protocol: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18927219
21. A September 7, 2010 article in the New York Times Health reviews the evidence linking excessive weight gain and obesity in pregnancy with passing of epigenetic traits of obesity to children, with small metabolic changes likely to be compounded over time if health corrections are not made: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/07/health/07brody.html?src=me
22. A February 8, 2011 article in the New York Times describes a Harvard Medical School public health study called Project Viva that showed that infants not breast fed till the fourth month, but fed infant formula, and that were introduced to solid baby food by age 4 months, were 6 times more likely to develop obesity by age 3: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/02/08/timing-of-baby-food-tied-to-obesity-risk/

The information on this website is not intended to be used as a specific medical advice or cure. Please consult with the practitioner or an appropriate physician, such as a licensed acupuncturist, naturopath, or medical doctor, to discuss the proper application of the information contained on this website.