With the New Year, you may be motivated to make yet another stab at your weight loss attempt or have already felt defeated with the progress you’re making. Clients who come to me often eat very carefully, exercise regularly, and feel like they’re doing everything right, but they feel stuck because the weight is not budging. Does this sound like you? Diet and lifestyle are the obvious factors that are driving the weight merry-go-round, but there are other underlying causes that can throw a wrench in your progress. If you’ve already exhausted yourself with diet and lifestyle and are not getting the results that you’re looking for, then tune in. You may be surprised at what’s keeping you from shedding those extra pounds and causing inflammation in your body.

Find Out What Your Food Triggers Are
Most people don’t think of trying a food elimination diet if they’re having difficulty losing weight, but this can be very insightful into uncovering your hidden symptoms and a powerful push in dropping stubborn pounds. Food allergies are often easy to identify because it triggers an extreme reaction. However, identifying food intolerances or sensitivities are not easy because the symptoms can be vague. Helping clients uncover food sensitivities is one area I work with in my clients. And often the results they get are extremely shocking once the food is eliminated and then reintroduced properly.

Food sensitivity testing can be useful in some cases, but they can also commonly generate false negative and false positive results. The gold standard for testing is by doing an elimination diet to test your bodies response. If you’re new to an elimination diet and don’t know where to begin, then a good base to start from is by taking the foods out of your diet that you frequently eat every single day. For most people, it’s gluten and dairy. These two foods commonly make their way into every meal, if not all three. They are also two foods that I see that cause the most issues in people.

​Weight struggles can also be a result of an autoimmune disease. Now if you have an autoimmune condition or have already tried a gluten and dairy-free diet and are still experiencing symptoms, then following the Autoimmune Paleo diet can be very helpful in further determining the foods that could be problematic or unhealthy for you. This diet eliminates nightshade vegetables, grains, eggs, beans, legumes, soy, nuts and seeds, and a few others. Now keep in mind as you’re eliminating these foods, you’re also following a nutrient-rich, anti-inflammatory diet as this is key for any diet you follow. You will also want to strictly avoid these potentially reactive foods for a minimum of two to six weeks, and possibly longer before you introduce each one at a time. For more information on how to effectively do an elimination diet, stay tuned for my next post.

The Scoop on Thyroid Dysfunction
The health of your thyroid has a direct impact on your metabolism. And when your metabolic function is disrupted, you gain weight that is not easily lost. A very classic symptom of low thyroid function is weight gain despite adhering to a low-calorie diet. The body is throwing up a flag saying, “Pay attention to me.” If you’re one of these people, you may have a thyroid problem. I recommend requesting a full thyroid panel that includes TSH, Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3, TPO Ab, and TGB Ab. You can develop a thyroid disorder at any age, so routinely checking a full panel is recommended if you have a family history or have many classic thyroid symptoms.

Unfortunately, many thyroid disorders don’t get caught early leaving many people suffering. This is because their labs fall within the “normal” range when they get tested, or only a TSH test is ordered. What’s considered “normal” for most thyroid markers in conventional medicine is by far not optimal. If you have thyroid symptoms, but your doctor states that everything looks great with your labs, it’s worth your health to seek out a holistic or functional medicine practitioner that can take a closer look for you and possibly address the conditions that caused the thyroid to slow down if that is indeed the case. Further, a lot of people feel that if they get on thyroid medication they will lose weight, but since it doesn’t address the root cause of the thyroid imbalance, it often doesn’t work. 

Address Gut Infections
If our gut health is poor, we suffer. Most chronic diseases, including obesity and weight gain, benefit greatly when we heal our gut.

If you think of your gut in terms of a garden, this will help you get a clearer picture of how important gut health is. For healthy plants, you need healthy soil that is balanced with the proper pH and nutrients so your plants can thrive.  The same goes for your gut. If the balance of healthy gut flora is disrupted by things like stress, alcohol, high sugar intake, poor diet, and certain medications like ones to suppress stomach acid and antibiotics, then this will lead to dysbiosis, which is just an imbalance of healthy gut flora. Now if your garden has a poor pH, then it increases your chances of developing invasive weeds and may result in increased problems with disease in your plants. Again, the same goes for our gut. If your healthy flora is disrupted, common infections like parasites, Candida, and small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) can easily develop.

In my practice, I suspect dysbiosis in anyone with digestive issues, which include symptoms of gas, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, indigestion, and reflux. You can test for gut pathogens, but some of the best functional stool tests can have false negatives, so I tend to rely heavily on symptoms. Cleaning up the diet and adding probiotics and fermented foods can help, but it’s often not the fix, especially if you have a very invasive weed in your garden. A more targeted approach would be warranted using antiparasitic and antifungal herbs to properly restore balance.

Address Nutrient Deficiencies
Nutrient deficiencies are due to many things including certain medications, stress, diet, lifestyle, and heavy metal toxicities. If we’re deficient in a vitamin or mineral, it can create other deficiencies and also affect other body systems including our hormones and our ability to effectively detox. So, if you’re trying to lose weight and you lack certain nutrients, this can slow down your metabolism. Deficiencies can also create many symptoms that one would likely get you prescribed a drug that would further deplete the very nutrient that caused the symptoms in the first place; It’s a vicious cycle!

Vitamin D may be the first deficiency caught because it’s commonly the only vitamin that is included in a health screening. Vitamin D is extremely important to address if deficient or suboptimal as this can affect your ability to lose weight. Others important nutrients to look into include zinc, selenium, vitamin A, iron, magnesium, and vitamin B12  because they are all required for the thyroid to function properly, which affects your metabolism. Symptoms and medication history can be used to determine which supplements are appropriate, but testing is ultimately the best, especially if you continue to struggle with symptoms and weight issues. Sometimes testing individual nutrients is all that is needed, but for a more comprehensive approach, I prefer to check a whole panel. I use SpectraCell’s Micronutrient test as it measures 31 vitamins, minerals, amino/fatty acids, antioxidants, and metabolites at an intracellular level.

​Mind-Body Interventions
It’s next to impossible to avoid most of the stress we encounter in our lives often due to a full-time job and family life, but how we view stress and how we handle it can make a significant difference in how it affects our health. Cortisol is the most powerful stress hormone that is associated with weight gain, especially around the belly. Small cortisol surges are normal and healthy to get us through the day, but chronic surges in cortisol not only contribute to weight gain but the inability to lose it too. If you’re constantly analyzing or thinking about negative events, are in an unhealthy relationship, or are miserable at your job, they are all contributing to your weight.

Mind-Body exercises like yoga, Tai Chi, breathwork, meditation, and scheduling daily self –care are ways to attenuate the stress response and reduce the risk of stress-induced diseases. They’re also powerful tools in moving your life in a more positive direction so that you’re in a healthier state to make needed changes to your life. However, just like exercise, you have to do it consistently to experience the benefits, so you will want to find something that you enjoy doing that you can commit to.

Stick the Course
Once you make up your mind to adhere to a specific health protocol, don’t stray from it. And when you do, get right back to it. This will make for easier adjustments if needed to continue your weight loss journey. If you hit a plateau or get stuck with your progress, seek support to get you moving in the right direction.

​At the end of the day…just remember that every step you take is a step that is moving you closer to your goal. If you feel you need a little extra guidance, you can contact me.

Have you tried various herbs and supplements to boost your immune system during the cold and flu season only for the results to be disappointing? There are hundreds of products advertised for the cold and flu often with basic vitamins and cheap ingredients. Before you waste any more of your money, let’s shift gears a bit and discuss what’s truly an effective solution that concentrates more on lifestyle and less on supplements and incorporates one of my favorite immune-boosting herbs, Echinacea.

A holistic approach to illness prevention is way more effective than just relying on a handful of supplements to get you through the germy season. Plus it will do more than just prevent you from getting sick; it will support your general health and wellbeing too. With a little more awareness and self-care this season, you can have a better chance of staying healthy. And even if you do catch something, your body will overcome it quickly. Support your immune system with what I like to call the core fundamentals to health with an extra layer of protection.

Echinacea as the Herbal Holy Grail
Although there has been a great deal of research done on Echinacea, the results are conflicting. Some show a significant reduction in cold symptoms as well as cold prevention while others do not. It is for this reason I wanted to review what I look for in a high-quality Echinacea supplement because they are not all created equal.
Echinacea, also called purple coneflower, has been commonly used for the prevention of colds and flu for hundreds of years. However, most consumers are not aware that Echinacea products vary considerably in their phytochemical makeup due to the plant material used, method of extraction, time of harvest, and overall quality of plant and seed (1). It’s definitely worth your time, money, and health to know what to look out for when purchasing Echinacea. If you’re not getting the results you had hoped for with your Echinacea, then it may be the brand. It’s also best to take Echinacea throughout the cold and flu season rather than at the first sign of symptoms or one to two weeks before travel. Here are some key characteristics to look for when purchasing Echinacea and my go-to brand:

• Select Echinacea angustifolia and Echinacea purpurea, preferably a combination of the two, to treat colds and flu as these two species are cited specifically for their immune properties. In one study they found that the extract that had both Echinacea purpurea and Echinacea angustifolia is richer in phenols and total flavonoids (2).
• Choose products that contain the root rather than the aerial parts of the plant as they contain higher amounts of alkylamides, which are the immune modulating property of the plant (3, 4).
• Look for preparations that list alkylamide content for dosing and for product comparison as alkylamides appear to be bioavailable compared to the caffeic acid derivatives of the plant (5,6).
• If the product does not give detailed information as to what part of the plant was used as well as the genus and species, then avoid it.
• The brand I recommend and have great results from is by Standard Process called Echinacea Premium as it contains all the above.

Holistic Lifestyle
I get it; we’re all busy! Convenience seems to be the going theme these days if you’re human, but often what is compromised is our health. And that goes for supplements. I always tell my clients that you cannot supplement an unhealthy lifestyle. If you have a toxic body and all you do is supplement hoping for a quick fix, then the results won’t be ideal. Instead, spend your money and time on what works.

• Whole Foods Diet: This is definitely at the top of the list because food is what your body runs off of. If you feed it an artificial, processed diet, your output will likely be subpar, and your immune system will not have what it needs to do its job effectively. Just take a look at the ingredient list of some of the foods that you eat. If you don’t recognize what’s in the label, your body won’t either. It’s also important to avoid added sugars because consuming too much lowers immunity.You can still leave room for treats and indulgences, but a majority of your diet should be from whole food sources. This is food that is close to its natural state as possible:
  • Fresh fruits and vegetables. Mix it up and include a variety of leafy greens, cruciferous, and other non-starchy and starch vegetables.
  • Healthy fats found in nuts, seeds, fatty fish, whole eggs, and avocados, as well as other sources like Ghee, real- preferably raw- butter from grass-fed cows, extra-virgin coconut and olive oils.
  • Intact grains like quinoa, oats, millet, spelt, buckwheat, brown rice, barley, and whole wheat.
  • Unprocessed, preferably grass-fed, organic, meat that is baked, grilled, broiled, and roasted.

 

• Sunlight- We were not meant to be indoors all day as Vitamin D is essential to health. While getting out in the sun for 10-20 minutes a day can help to boost your own natural production, this may not be feasible or not enough for some. Vitamin D is well cited in the literature that supports the notion that the lower your Vitamin D levels are the higher the risk for illness. I always recommend going into the colder months knowing what your Vitamin D levels are so that you can adjust your dose for Vitamin D accordingly. Supplementing with Cod Liver oil is a great way to supply a natural source of Vitamin D. However, if you’re deficient, then you may need to supplement with Vitamin D3 at a dose that can be anywhere from 2,000-10,000 IU per day depending on your blood level.

• Sleep: One way to burn yourself out quickly is by cutting hours from your sleep. If you’re not getting adequate sleep, then your immune system is taking a direct hit. Studies show that those that don’t get quality sleep or enough sleep are more prone to getting a cold or virus. Most adults need between 7-9 hours of sleep. It’s important to factor in how long it takes you to fall asleep too so that you can plan to get your full amount. If you don’t feel rested the next day after 7 hours of sleep, you may want to experiment by increasing your sleep by increments of 30 minutes to find what works best for you as we’re all different.

• Exercise- There are numerous health benefits to exercise, but specifically on the immune system. Exercise is a wonderful way to naturally boost the body’s ability to fight off the cold and flu. Some people may enjoy exercise more than others, so if you’re one of those that can’t seem to get into the groove of a workout routine, maybe it’s time to reevaluate what it is that you love. Do you enjoy working out indoors or outdoors, with groups or alone, in the morning or evenings? Once you find what makes you happy, try sticking with it for as long as you can, then reevaluate and adjust it as needed.

• Stress Management- Why does illness seem to creep in right when we put down our defenses? This is because cortisol is released during periods of stress, which negatively impact our immune system, especially if it is prolonged. The above can help to mitigate the effects that stress plays on the body, but it’s also important to take time out for yourself so that you can add balance to your chaotic life: have dinner with a friend, incorporate hot soaks in the tub, work on that project that you love but have found excuses to put off.

• Water- Clean water is essential to health. However, most tap water is contaminated with industrial and agricultural pollutants as well as fluoride, which have a direct impact on our health. Be sure that your water is filtered using a high-quality water filter that filters this junk out. Most filters that you can place in your refrigerator door, a pitcher in your fridge, or on your faucet do not fall under the category of high-quality.

• Increased awareness- Many people try to override symptoms that manifest in the body with either drugs, caffeine, or both to keep going. But it’s important to tune into these subtle clues that the body gives to address the cause of the symptoms, so they don’t lead to other imbalances or lowered immunity. For example, symptoms such as fatigue, muscle tension, and headaches often are tied back to an imbalance in one or more of the core fundamentals to health that can be corrected naturally once addressed. These symptoms can also closely be related to food sensitivities too, so an elimination trial with your diet may also help uncover the cause.

And last, even though this is not part of the core fundamentals of health, frequent hand washing with plain soap is one of the top ways to prevent the cold and flu. According to the FDA, plain soap is just as effective as antibacterial soap at eliminating germs. Also, in 2016 the FDA banned 19 antibacterial additives in over-the-counter wash products including the most commonly known ones, triclosan and triclocarban. This is because manufacturers could not prove that these ingredients are safe for long-term use (7). So it’s best to skip antibacterial soaps altogether as they are likely doing more harm than good.

Sources

1. https://www.gaiaherbs.com/articles/detail/8/A-Research-Review-on-the-Short-and-Long-Term-Use-of-Echinacea
2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6130640/
3. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308814699001296
4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4441164/
5. https://www.mdpi.com/1420-3049/10/10/1242/htm
6. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1046/j.1365-2710.2003.00530.x
7. https://www.fda.gov/ForConsumers/ConsumerUpdates/ucm378393.htm