Seminar Report

The seminar was presented by Pamela W. Smith, M.D., MPH. The focus was how to lose weight and keep it off.

Summary- Causes of obesity are Physiological & Psychological

• Certain foods have mild opiate effects which causes addiction
• Chocolate has opiate effects which release chemicals that encourage addiction.
• Cheese and dairy has mild opiate effects released during digestion
• Wheat protein(gluten) breaks apart in the digestive process and the breaking down of the compounds has mild opiate effects
• Overweight patients have fewer dopamine receptor sites, so this causes them to eat more to experience the mild opiate effects (euphoric feeling) released by certain foods
  • Exercise releases dopamine
  • Healthy foods can turn on dopamine
• Men whom avoid dairy has a 30% reduction in prostate cancer
  • Dairy consumption suppresses Vitamin D activation
    • Deficient in Vitamin D causes issues in breast cancer, prostate cancer, MS, depression, colon cancer, back pain, etc…
• Sugar causes the release of opiates in the brain
• Serotonin in the brain has a considerable affect in eating behavior
  • Carbohydrate rich foods boosts serotonin
  • Diets low in tryptophan tend to decrease serotonin levels which causes people to never feel satiate
  • Serotonin levels decrease when dieting (restriction...cookie cutter diets)
    • Restrictive diets affect neurotransmitters (must consume an array of whole foods)
• Secrets to Losing Weight and Keeping it off
  • Need to eat Breakfast
    • Body makes insulin at 10a and 5pm, so we must utilize the release of insulin in those hours
    • No breakfast and release of insulin at 10a will raise triglycerides and make it harder to lose weight
  • Choose foods that hold blood sugar steady
    • Note: Cortisol is a major issue of why people don’t lose weight and keep it off.
• Add fiber to meals
  • Help stay satiated
  • Decreases calorie intake by 10% if an additional of 14grams are added per day

• Boost Leptin
  • Dieting (calorie restriction/cookie cutter) decreasing leptin
  • Leptin is a hormone that helps tame your appetite
  • Leptin also boosts metabolism
  • High bad fats interfere with leptin
  • Exercise increases leptin sensitivity
  • * Do not diet, eat enough calories to not impair leptin system
    • Dieting causes body to go into flight and fight response (stress) preventing effective fat loss
      • Example: Consuming as low as 800 calories makes the body think it’s in the state of emergency...releasing cortisol, which causes the body to store everything in the fat cells.
• Exercise is essential
  • Exercise increases insulin sensitivity and mitochondria function
    • Increases in mitochondria activity has to be there to make fat burning effective
• Stress Management
  • Elevated stress increases cortisol levels

• Sleep
  • Releases growth hormone which aides in fat loss
• Vitamins
  • People need to be nutritional sound (vitamin, minerals, enzymes)
    • *All patients should be on a good multivitamin and fish oil
      • Obesity is an inflammatory response, and must be treated with fish oil and other anti-inflammatories
• Supplements
  • CLA – helps insulin work more effectively in the body
    • *Best for plateau stages – suggested 3-4,000mg daily
  • L-Carnitine – helps with fat loss
    • *Best for plateau stages – suggested 3-4,000mg daily

Note:

• Patient losing or gaining more than 20lbs will experience a change in their hormonal status (re-balancing of the hormones is essential)
• Suggest 40%Protein, 40%Carbs, 20%Good Fats
• Never consume Carbs by itself
• Add shakes to meals of those that are addicted to food
• Add shakes and bars to assist those that complain about convenience
• Depending on how quickly the patient wants to lose weight depends on what program they should be put on.
• Allergy with foods can cause a patient not to lose weight
  • Start with an allergy elimination diet (note: people crave foods that they are allergic too)

In Conclusion: To lose weight and keep it off, patients need to be:

• Hormonally sound (female & male hormones, insulin, thyroid, melatonin, cortisol,etc..)
• Nutritionally sound (not lacking in co-factors and enzymes)
• Neurotransmitters (serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, GABA, histamine, etc..) have to be normal
• Eliminate allergies
• Decrease inflammation
• Detoxification