Obesity: a Modern-Day Epidemic
Roughly 75% of American adults are either obese or overweight. An overweight adult can be found in many households in the U.S. This is a tragic truth as obesity is the one medical condition that increases your risk of virtually every other known disease including diabetes, autoimmune diseases, cancer, heart disease and dementia.
You or someone you know may have succeeded at a weight loss goal only to regain it multiple times. As a result, he or she may have been left feeling like a failure. This can lead to depression, further perpetuating the cycle of weight gain.
How did things get this way? The busy, high-stress American lifestyle has a lot to do with it. The availability of convenience foods, fast food and the lack of widespread availability of real, wholesome food is not helping. I frequently hear from parents that they are busy and overwhelmed. They just don’t have energy to cook or exercise when they get home from a long day of work and tending to their kids.
Unfortunately, the world of conventional medicine has little to offer. A prescription for a stimulant, which decreases feelings of hunger, or bariatric surgery is often all that is offered to patients who seek their physician’s help in losing weight.
The good news is there is a lot that can be done to lose weight and keep it off. Here are some of the most common causes of unwanted weight gain:
1. A diet high in refined and processed foods: Eating convenience foods rather than whole foods will lead to increased fat stores.
2. Sedentary lifestyle and lack of exercise: Sitting too much and not moving your body the way it was designed to move adds to your fat stores.
3. Chronic, unmanaged stress and not enough sleep: In some people, perpetually elevated cortisol will make gaining fat easy and losing weight challenging. The number of stressed people is growing every year. If you under-sleep or work graveyard shifts, chances are you will have a harder time losing weight.
4. Imbalanced hormones: If thyroid hormones are not in optimal ranges, losing weight will be a virtual impossibility. When you hear someone say, “I eat an orange and gain a pound,” you can bet that’s someone who has low or suboptimal thyroid function. Elevated cortisol, and imbalanced estrogen and progesterone in women are common today. These both lead to weight gain.
5. Environmental toxicity: Exposure to certain chemicals on a daily basis can predispose you to gaining unwanted fat. This is why detoxification is a necessary component to any comprehensive weight loss plan.
6. Chronic pain and underlying medical conditions: If you have a condition that is causing you to feel fatigued, and if you have chronic pain you are likely having difficulty losing weight.
7. Prescription drugs: Certain medications such as steroids, anti-depressants and birth control pills/injections can rapidly increase fat storage that is then very difficult to lose.
This may all sound grim, but the good news is that you do have options and excess weight can be lost! There is no magical solution that will make us shed 20 pounds overnight. The key is identifying and treating the root causes of weight gain. Working with a holistic practitioner who can educate, empower and inspire you can be instrumental in getting you on the road to a new and slimmer you.
Roman Krupa, ND, has a passion for empowering
his patients to lose weight and achieve optimal
health. He is a graduate of the National University
of Natural Medicine and holds a Doctorate in
Naturopathic Medicine. He has helped well over
a thousand people lose weight and keep it off.
Dr. Krupa is the owner and Clinic Director of
Puyallup Wellness Center. For more information,
visit PuyallupWellnessCenter.com.
