In my last post I discussed some common psychological reason preventing people from losing weight and getting healthy. This post I am covering physiological reasons that prevent weight loss & optimal health.
If you have struggled to lose weight in the past, there may be a ‘hidden’ underlying reason preventing it from happening, despite your best diet & exercise programs.
These are pretty common conditions and your doctor might not be well versed in these areas.
Modern medicine is great in certain areas like emergency medicine, surgery and dealing drugs like a Colombian cartel in the 80’s, but it tends to be lousy in other areas like identifying the CAUSATIVE factors that lead to poor health & disease.
And just to clarify something thats often misunderstood – PREVENTATIVE medicine encourages getting more tests at younger ages, however, true PREVENTION means NOT DOING THE THINGS THAT LEAD TO DISEASE and DYSFUNCTION in the first place.
I discussed CAUSE vs EFFECT in my last post…this post I’ve listed some common CAUSES that mainstream doctors are not trained to look for, thus they don’t understand these issues and may brush them off as insignificant – even when you feel awful!
These issues, when ignored or not resolved, will lead to more serious dysfunctions & disease so don’t ignore your body when you don’t feel great. Remember, we are designed to look & feel like a SUPERSTAR – all of us.
So, here we go…
1 – Digestive Stress
Most people we know have digestive problems. Being bloated, gassy, indigestion, acid reflux or stomach aches often is not normal – its a sign of a problem.
If you have that low ab bloat, experience gas often or have acid reflux, you likely have a digestive disorder. It could be as simple eliminating crappy processed food that doesn’t digest well OR you have a digestive disorder that needs to be fixed.
There are a few types of disorders like inflammation, infections (bacteria, fungus, parasite, yeast), allergies & deficiency of healthy bacteria.
IBS, in my experience, is not a real problem, its more of a ‘catch all’ phrase used by doctors who are not exactly sure what’s going on. From what I have seen, IBS is a combination of several of these factors listed below and everyone I have met who was diagnosed with IBS had multiple issues going on at once.
Several things cause digestive disorders: unmanaged stress, lousy diet, especially gluten grains, pasteurized dairy & processed foods. Eating in a hurry, traveling to lesser developed countries, some medications, you can get infections from kissing your pets on the mouth or even from your lover.
Simply pay attention to what happens to you AFTER you eat and if you keep a journal you will be able to spot patterns. Look for foods that you eat regularly that trigger digestive stress and then simply eliminate them. Common culprits are gluten, dairy (except butter), alcohol, soy and protein powders. The longer you eat allergenic or inflammatory foods, the more serious the digestive disorder becomes.
2 – Thyroid Problems
The thyroid is the Master Regulator of the body and controls many critical functions. Much like gluten intolerance, thyroid problems affect a large number of people, yet it goes undiagnosed in many.
Some thyroid problems I have worked with are caused by an adrenal overload. The adrenal glands are intimately connected to the thyroid, so in some cases, the thyroid slows down as a result of the adrenal glands being exhausted.
However, according to one of the world’s leading thyroid experts, Dr Bryan Walsh, 80% of low thyroid cases are an autoimmune issue, known as Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.
You can also have a hyper-thyroid where it speeds up, although it is much less common.
When the thyroid is sluggish, you will experience symptoms like fatigue, cold hands & feet, you can gain weight easily, thinning hair, depression, lack of motivation & constipation to name a few.
Thyroid testing done by general practitioner docs are insufficient. You need a specialized expert to run a different panel of tests, so don’t rely on standard thyroid tests. If you don’t feel well and your tests come back normal – find a better doctor!
3 – Adrenal Fatigue
The adrenal glands produce stress hormone (cortisol) and adrenaline. So the more stress, or the longer you experience stress, the more work for these little guys to do.
Its common for many people today to have adrenal glands that are overworked and cranking out too much cortisol. Eventually, this leads to adrenal fatigue and then they start to slow down and produce much less cortisol. EIther way, you have a problem.
Whenever you have these problems, weight loss is simply NOT A PRIORITY for the human body. Survival is more important.
I actually went through adrenal fatigue a few years back from overworking myself and not honoring my sleep, rest and recovery. This is New York City after all, and I got caught up in the buzz of the ‘city that never sleeps’ which eventually burned me out.
Trust me, I learned my lesson: it took one year to recover my adrenal health and feel normal again.
Whatever you do – don’t fall into adrenal fatigue – it sucks. If you aren’t sleeping well, or are tired when you wake up, tired throughout the day, have low sex drive, forgetful – these are common symptoms of this condition which plagues, in my opinion, 90% of New Yorkers.
4 – Brain Chemistry Imbalance
Mood swings, depression, anxiety, lack of motivation, inability to tolerate stress – these are signs of imbalanced brain chemistry and I will say this again and every friggin day for the rest of my life:
YES, IT CAN BE EASILY CORRECTED.
There is an idea propagated in our culture that says if your depressed you were born with a deficiency, but it showed up as a teenager. I hear this often and that idea is great for keeping people on medications for life. Medications dont make you healthy, identifying & CORRECTING the problem and getting healthy MAKES YOU HEALTHY.
These issues can also be mental, not chemical – the result of imbalanced thoughts, so remember to balance out any thought that creates a strong emotion so you stayed centered and balanced…but it is quite common to have a chemical imbalance.
Digestive disorders, processed foods, dieting, skipping meals, caffeine, sugar, recreational and pharmaceutical drugs and certain so called ‘health’ foods can cause the chemical imbalances. Grains have mineral blockers which leads to imbalance; dieting starves the brain of important nutrients especially amino acids; sugar, caffeine & drugs deplete the hormones and neurotransmitters that keep us focused, motivated, feeling balanced and help us tolerate stress.
FYI – I didn’t tell anyone here to stop taking meds. If you or your child are experiencing these issues, I strongly suggest you look at your diet first before considering medications.
Again, you simply can’t lose weight – which is a hormonal process – when your hormones and neurotransmitters are depleted.
5 – Food Intolerance / Allergy
I have posted about these before because they are really common. I had gluten and dairy issues for 30+ years and although I wasn’t overweight, I suffered hard! All the ‘best’ doctors, advanced tests and specialized hospitals I went to missed it. Way to go ‘modern’ medicine!
Food intolerance/allergies cause inflammation in the gut and that causes a cascade of problems that interfere with normal hormonal process involved with weight loss and brain chemistry.
Gluten, pasteurized dairy, soy are common. Click here >>> Food Intolerance / Allergies to learn more.
6 – Hormonal Imbalance
There are different types of imbalances and different causes, but skipping meals and dieting causes serious hormonal imbalances in young women.
There are estrogen-like chemicals in the pesticides sprayed on our food; we eat out of plastics which leak xenoestrogens into our foods & water; there’s growth hormones in the meat & dairy products we were raised on; women use TONS of chemical crap cleverly disguised as ‘Beauty Products’ – all create hormonal problems, especially with estrogen, which is a serious problem.
This is a serious and complicated issue and some symptoms can include irregular menstrual cycles in women, low sex drive in men, cravings for sweets, water retention, anxiety, uterine fibroids, mood swings and PMS, just to name a few.
Fat loss is a hormonal process. In order to lose weight, you need a healthy hormonal system.
To summarize…
All of these are serious issues are common and many mainstream doctors are not trained to look for them, especially thyroid and adrenal issues. Many doctors, not all, but a LARGE percentage of mainstream docs don’t understand these issues or nutrition, that well.
All of these will PREVENT WEIGHT LOSS despite your best diet & fitness efforts. Its simply NOT A PRIORITY for the body to lose weight when your health & survival is being threatened.
This list of symptoms is by no means comprehensive, and you dont want to guess when it comes to your health, but they can clue you in to POSSIBLE problems that prevent weight loss and cause serious health problems later down the line. These issues, especially female hormones, require lab testing and proper supervision of trained & experienced experts.
If you think you might have one or more of these issues and you want to get tested, shoot me an email at healthyurbankitchen@gmail.com and either I can work with you or I can hook you up with someone in your area that can set you up, get you tested and get you back in the health and fitness game!
Human beings are designed to be vital, healthy and strong! Sometimes, we need to correct some imbalances from dieting or poor eating & lifestyle choices, but with a little work, you can heal your body and get healthy and only then can you lose weight. Remember this and please share this idea with some people you know…
You cannot lose weight to improve your health, you must improve your health in order to lose weight.
Peace out and talk soon
Antonio
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