Introduction

After cardio-vascular disease and cancer, the two main causes of death in the western world, obesity is now identified as the “third epidemic”. Obesity is linked to a higher risk of cancer, heart disease, non-insulin dependant diabetes, osteo-arthritis, osteoporosis and psychological problems. Overweight people have a significantly shorter life span than those of normal weight. It is currently estimated that a 20% (1 in 5) of the UK population falls in the category of clinical obesity.

Weight problems might be present even when one is not truly “obese”. Patients are often surprised to hear that their ideal weight was when they reached full growth at the age of 18-20, assuming of course they were not overweight young folks! The impact of the weight on one’s longevity can be seen in those who live beyond the 90 year mark: the overwhelming majority seem to have remained as slim as they were at full growth.

Commonly recognised factors causing obesity include:
a) high energy diets ie regular intake of excessive amounts of carbohydrates and dietary fat

b) sedentary life style – lack of regular excercise

c) medical conditions causing immobility such as arthritis, under-active thyroid, forms of disability (from multiple sclerosis or stroke)

d) some medical treatments (oestrogens and progesterone as contraceptives or in HRT, long term courses of oral steroids, some antidepressants). As with the side-effects of most medicines, increased weight may not occur until well after the course was started.

With regard to the medical conditions and treatments, most doctors are well trained to assess the need for appropriate treatment and refer to more specialised hospital units.

TIP! If you feel that you have a weight problem, it is worthwhile seeking the guidance of your general practitioner, who might recommend testing you for diabetes or thyroid problems.

TIP! If there is no medical contraindication, taking up a pleasurable physical activity involving aerobic effort such as swimming, cycling or brisk walking will help to spend some of more unused kcal/energy.

TIP! If you feel that the diet favours high-energy foods, hospital dieticians (operating in most NHS general hospitals) offer skilled guidance on how to lose weight by eating more healthily. In our clinics we calculate one’s fat, fluid percentages and basal metabolism.

TIP! Sugar and alcohol are not essential for human survival so, removing sugar-containing foods and alcoholic beverages (a source of hollow energy) from your diet for 2-4 weeks may be all you need to do to tip the scales to the right direction.

In spite of adhering to a “healthy” diet and having tests ruling out any underlying medical conditions, a number of people continue having weight problems without apparent reason. Some experience a range of other symptoms, which can vary from intermittent tiredness, bloating and other digestive symptoms to low moods and aches and pains. Some of these symptoms are often mistakenly attributed to stress, menopause or “comfort” eating.

The less known explanation

In the above group, the commonest causative factor in obesity is fluid retention. This type of fluid retention is not caused by congestive cardiac failure or gravitational forces but from simple food reactivity/intolerance. In our clinics we often see overweight patients, who insist they live on a scarce diet and that their weight fluctuates by 2-6 lbs after eating even a small amount of a reactive food which promote this.

This phenomenon has been known for some decades to doctors specialising in clinical allergy and some academic centres, to be the direct result of activation of immune system cells attempting to dilute the presence (and the adverse effects) of some reactive foods. Typically, such fluid retention often causes the affected person to get puffy eyes and swollen fingers, mainly noticed when rising in the morning and improves later on as the fluid is re-distributed with the gravity to lower parts of the body (the ankles and feet) and again changes over night. This is not subcutaneous fluid, whose characteristic is to leave an indentation on the skin if the area is pressed hard but is fluid diffused in the tissues (“interstitial”).

Immunologists are familiar with this phenomenon, which they see in standard skin prick tests: The first thing that happens when a tiny amount of an allergen enters the skin is local inflammation and swelling, the result of rapid influx of fluid, forced by the nearby immune cells, in an attempt to “dilute” the reactive substance and minimise its influence.

Food intolerance has many features and symptoms, explained in a separate section
(Read more…)

Due to the absence of highly accurate laboratory tests the diagnosis of food intolerance is not currently widely accepted in Medicine; its variable symptoms can be mild, intermittent or constant and severe; they can be confusing for patients and clinicians, who are trained to recognise an “organ-problem” and believe these symptoms to be psychosomatic.
Allergy tests available in our clinics (read more…)

TIP! Many patients are surprised to hear that many common foods such as bread, potato, milk and many others seem to have this extraordinary capacity to create fluid in susceptible individuals. The same foods also seem to have an addictive effect, which explains why so many patients experience “withdrawal” symptoms when they attempt to give up some foods, the same items they crave for.

Management

We often use a combination of some of the above measures. Most patients will start responding to a strict dietary regime, which aims to identify reactive from non-reactive items, as a process of elimination and challenge. The project is temporary if after some progress the person is told to gradually relax the diet. If the diet proves impracticable, our patients are offered a safe, low-dose method of desensitisation on the basis of special skin tests
(Read more on desensitisation….).

In order to correct the person’s cellular enzymes and chemistry, which depend on important nutrients, we recommend blood tests for vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids and correct any deficiencies identified this way.

The nature of obesity is serious and goes beyond the limitation of fitness and deserves one’s whole hearted attempt to regain control of health. We offer skilled support to those prepared to make some changes in their life style.

No diet, however effective, can have long-term benefits unless it can be sustainable long term. This is precisely the reason why so many fashionable diets fail: after a brief period of success, the person tires of the diet and soon after relaxing it, the weight starts creeping back up again. A long term use of a variety of safer, non-reactive foods often overcomes this problem.

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