21 Pounds in 21 Days (7 page)

By the time we're experiencing these types of signs, we're usually quite overweight. Before long, we'll experience signs of
chemical onslaught
or
toxic overload
. Our blood pressure starts to creep up; our cholesterol rises; our head, joints, and body ache. These are signs society teaches us are natural consequences of aging, but they have nothing to do with our age. They're actually telltale proof that we're toxic. (A body that is properly nourished, well cared for, and protected from toxins of all types will function well until we're in our nineties, and the person will die quietly in their sleep.) At this point, we usually go to the doctor. But “American physicians are not trained to look for the unavoidably ubiquitous environmental causes of disease. Nor are they trained in how to get them out of the body to reverse disease,” Dr. Rogers writes. Instead, they prescribe medication. The medication alleviates the symptoms that were bothering us, but it gives us “side effects,” a euphemism for the toxic consequences of the drugs. We then return to our doctor because we have these new symptoms.
Many people's bodies become so overloaded with toxins that it is physically impossible for them to lose weight by using traditional dieting methods.
Once people reach this point, no matter what they do, how diligent they are, what kind of diet they try, or how strictly they stick with it, there is no traditional dieting approach that will help shed excess pounds. Toxins have actually mucked up their biochemistry.
Being fat is not their fault.

Consider the case of trans fats, often contained in buttery spreads, fast foods, baked goods, chips, dips, and packaged and frozen foods. One reason scientists now warn us away from these fats is their toxicity. To allow vegetable oils to last longer before they spoil and to make them solid at room temperature (think: many margarines and shortening), manufacturers began to tinker with their molecular structure, adding hydrogen to the oils, a process called hydrogenation. Hydrogenation actually alters the shape of the oil molecules, making trans fats worse for you than saturated (animal) fats such as butter. And like the “roach motels” that
claim that roaches can check in but they can't check out, hydrogenated oils can enter your cells but your cell can't figure out how to expel them. They gunk up the cells' inner workings, increasing low-density lipoprotein (LDL—bad) cholesterol, which increases your heart attack risk, while lowering high-density lipoprotein (HDL—good) cholesterol, which protects against it. It's no surprise, then, that they interfere with our ability to lose weight, cause us to store weight in our midsection, and age more quickly. Trans fats are so dangerous that the FDA now requires them to be listed on food ingredient labels. Unfortunately, this is not the case in restaurants, where it's hard to know how your food is being prepared—unless you live in New York City or a short list of other communities that have banned trans fats altogether.

In addition to this troublesome toxin, many of us have problems with our metabolic system, including the common issues described below:

Insulin Resistance/Metabolic Resistance/Syndrome X

With a name as cryptic as syndrome X, you'd think that insulin resistance was a mysterious disease unique to a James Bond movie. In reality, this physical response to excess sugar in the bloodstream is becoming an increasingly common precursor to diseases like diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity, and kidney disease. After we eat, the body breaks our food down into glucose and other substances, which the cells use for energy. Before the cells can actually use the glucose, however, it has to be transported inside them. That's where insulin comes in. The pancreas secretes insulin, the hormone that transports glucose to the cells, then unlocks the doors or
receptor sites
so the glucose can get inside. Sometimes these receptors malfunction and the doors to the cells won't open. When this happens, too much glucose and insulin remain in the bloodstream. The pancreas senses that it isn't needed so it kicks back into low gear, over time becoming lazy. In the meantime, the blood sugar that's locked out of the cells continues to circulate around the body looking for places to store
itself as fat. As this happens, the affected person experiences a low energy level.

Hormone Imbalance

From insulin to testosterone, the body is brimming with hormones, chemical messengers that ferry information between cells. For many reasons—not infrequently, interference from toxins—our hormones can get out of balance. When they do, they alter our body function as well as our metabolic rate. Consider what happens when the metabolism-controlling thyroid hormone thyroxin drops too low: hypothyroidism develops, slowing the metabolism and causing weight gain. People also develop dry skin and dry and brittle hair and nails that break easily. Doctors usually prescribe a thyroid hormone, but it can affect the menstrual cycle, causing a new set of woes. Conversely, when thyroxin levels rise too high, we tend to lose weight.

Parasites

Most intestinal parasites are foreign to the body but live in the intestines, where they feed off of the body, to its detriment. Some sources claim that 85 percent of North Americans have one or more of these pests, which include leaches to hookworms to tapeworms and range in size from being microscopic up to eight feet long. According to data from the United Nations, over 1.5 billion people worldwide have roundworms. A chronic case of parasites interferes with the body's metabolism. They prevent it from absorbing nutrients and trigger it to produce too much yeast, making our body overly acidic and our organs sluggish, compromising the immune system and creating toxins. Parasites have caused many of my clients' digestive and colon problems. Frankly, I believe they are far more common than the medical community is willing or able to address.

Prescription Drugs

From antihistamines for allergies to beta blockers for blood pressure, to diabetes and antidepressant meds, to hormones like birth control pills and hormone replacement therapy (HRT), medications can alter your metabolism, making it difficult, if not impossible, to lose weight. Medicine introduces chemicals into your bloodstream the body didn't intend to be there. In addition to causing side effects that may be worse than the disorder, these chemicals slow the metabolism and cause people to pick up pounds.

For example, many women have hormone problems, most often a condition called
estrogen dominance
, where there is more estrogen in the body than progesterone. Excess estrogen not only causes women to retain fluid and become irritable, it causes the blood sugar to become imbalanced, causing many women to crave sugar or carbohydrates, which, in turn, cause the body to create fat. Ugh! No wonder women know that if they go on the Pill, HRT, or other hormones, they are likely to get heavy. If a woman has too much estrogen in her system, she tends to retain fluid, gain weight, bloat, and become irritable.

When the antidepressant medications Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Celexa were brought to the market, the manufacturers originally claimed they would cause weight loss. Nonsense! Many people who take antidepressants find that they pick up pounds. Sometimes it's because the drugs increase their appetite; in other cases, it slows their metabolism. Even over-the-counter sleeping pills cause water retention.

When my patients learn that the meds they thought were helping them are causing them to gain weight, they inevitably want to stop taking their pills. But this, too, can be dangerous. I always recommend that my clients consult with their doctor before discontinuing any medication. That said, there are many natural approaches to treating common health conditions. For instance, many people find that essential fatty acids relieve their depression, and garlic capsules are an age-old and effective approach to decreasing blood pressure. For more information about treating medical problems with natural remedies, I suggest
Natural Cures
by Kevin Trudeau
⁶
or the classic
Prescription for Nutritional Healing
by Phyllis and James Balch.
⁷
It is important to keep your physician in the loop. For instance, natural approaches like herbs can interact with other medicines, causing unwanted reactions.

Sluggish Metabolism

When the body doesn't get enough oxygen, it becomes sluggish and the metabolism slows, making it harder to lose weight. This can occur among smokers, people who have asthma and are unable to breathe deeply, and those who don't exercise or are chronically ill and unable to move much.

Smoking

Many people keep smoking just to keep from gaining weight. Nicotine artificially elevates the heart rate, stimulates feel-good areas of our brain by elevating our dopamine pathways, increases the metabolism, suppresses the appetite, and causes the liver to release glycogen, which is basically stored glucose (sugar). As it enters into the bloodstream, glycogen raises the blood sugar slightly, making you feel less hungry.

And let's not ignore the reality that many people become accustomed to putting something in their mouth. When the person stops smoking and nicotine is no longer in their system, the metabolism slows to its normal level and blood-sugar levels fall, making them feel hungrier. Even if they keep eating at their normal rate, they will, of course, gain weight. And as their dopamine pathways return to normal levels, they may overeat, pick fights, or create outrageous fears in an attempt to induce the body's fight-or-flight pathways to give them the dopamine fix they're used to. When people quit smoking, they should expect to be hungry and
irritable for 30 days. What's the best medicine? Exercise. It stimulates a dopamine rush and metabolism!

Yeast Overgrowth

Everyone's body contains at least a little yeast, which is a type of fungus. There are three major causes of disease, fungus being one of them (viruses and bacteria are the other two, with parasites in hot pursuit). Excess yeast causes a variety of symptoms, depending on the person. Common signs include vaginal yeast infections among women, rashes that can develop under large breasts, male jock itch, and athlete's foot. When there is so much yeast in the body that it overwhelms the entire system, it is called
Candida
, which places a significant strain on the immune system. The allopathic medical community acknowledges that
Candida
exists, but traditional practitioners mistakenly believe that you have to be half dead to have it. They're wrong. Between the time people experience a yeast infection or jock itch and the time it becomes systemic, they experience many symptoms of the fungus's spread, including extreme fatigue, serious brain fog, weight gain or loss, craving carbohydrates and sweets, and thrush in their mouth, which is common among people with AIDS. When a person who has
Candida
is also sensitive to mold, the combination can suppress the metabolism, depleting the body of vital energy. When this happens, the body gains weight.

The Three Levels of Food

Fortunately, a lot of people are waking up to the presence of toxins in their lives. Folks used to give me funny looks when I'd talk to them about poisons in our food and bodies. Now they tell me, “I know I'm toxic! I need to eat more organic foods.” According to the Organic Trade Association, organic food sales have consistently increased by between 15 percent and 21 percent annually since 1997. More organic foods are becoming available in mainstream grocery and food stores. In fact, the two largest health-food chains, Whole Foods and Wild Oats, now account for less than
half of organic food sales, as supermarkets, mass merchandisers, and even Wal-Mart have gotten in on the act.