Secret Key to Weight Loss

This is one of the most important posts I have written on health so I want you to carefully read this.

My site has been around for over 10 years and from day one I have been extolling the importance of insulin in nearly all chronic degenerative diseases. Well now we have a landmark study confirming that insulin is the central part of the weight-loss equation.

There are over 200 million Americans who are overweight, and collectively they are carrying around an extra 5 BILLION pounds of excess fat.

What the Boston researchers specifically found was that those who secreted high insulin levels had a far more difficult time losing weight than those who secreted low levels of insulin.

I am very grateful that these researchers produced this landmark confirmation of insulin truth. Unfortunately, they completely blew the interpretation of what they found. So let me help you sort through the researchers’ confusion.

Like most scientists they want to attribute the problem to your genes. They want you to believe that 200 million Americans are heavy because they have flawed genetics that make them hypersecrete insulin.

Folks, nothing could be further from the truth.

The reason 200 million Americans are overweight is not because of flawed genetics that cause them to make excessive insulin. Hypersecretion of insulin is an effect -- NOT the cause. The reason 200 million are overweight is because they have impaired insulin receptor sensitivity.

Impaired Insulin Receptor Sensitivity
 
How do your insulin receptors stop working effectively?

Very simple.

This is a natural consequence that occurs when you don’t exercise and move the way you were designed to. Your body dynamically makes this adjustment because the receptors are not being used. This is very similar to what happens if you lie in bed for a few weeks; your muscles start to atrophy. Some have called this the “use it or lose it” phenomena.

So when your insulin receptors become desensitized the only way your body can adjust is to make MORE insulin. You become an insulin hypersecretor.

Why Is This Important?

Once your body releases insulin it immediately starts to inhibit your fat-burning hormone called hormone-sensitive lipase. This hormone is responsible for releasing fat into your bloodstream to be utilized as fuel. Once this enzyme is inhibited, your body is unable to burn fat and will then begin utilizing amino acids from your muscle and carbohydrates as fuel.

This will cause you to become abnormally hungry, which further feeds this vicious cycle.

The key is to have LOW levels of insulin so your body can produce large amounts of hormone-sensitive lipase and burn fat all day so you can look thin and slim.

You might want to pick up the paper edition of this week’s Time magazine as the online version of How the World Eats only shows one of the pictures from Japan, which for the most part is really healthy food. No wonder they live over 80 years. They show a picture of a family from Chad, which is virtually no food, and then a picture of food for a typical U.S. family.
This is one of the most powerful graphic illustrations as to why the United States has an obesity epidemic. Nearly all of the U.S. food (over 90 percent) was highly processed junk food. Of course, if you shop at a grocery store you probably see this all the time. It is shocking what people are putting into their bodies.

Processed junk foods will absolutely impair your insulin receptor sensitivity.

So What Can You Do?

The bottom line is very simple here, folks. Keep your insulin levels low, very low. You can measure this with an inexpensive blood test that nearly any doctor can draw for you. Your level should be about 2 or 3. The way you lower it to these levels is by exercising, avoiding processed foods and refined carbs, and by eating the appropriate amounts of carbs for your nutritional type.

This is NOT rocket science. If you apply these simple principles you will see dramatic and remarkable improvements not only in your ability to achieve your ideal weight but also in just about every other chronic degenerative disease.

Personally, I think it is criminal malpractice that fasting insulin levels are not aggressively monitored in all cases of cancer and heart disease, because they are central to the causes of both of these diseases.

Article Source: Dr Mercola at Mercola.com 

Why Eating Hot Chilies May Actually Cool Your Guts

Image Credit: media.mercola.com

Research has recently discovered that hot chilies may help soothe your gut when you suffer from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). IBD is not to be confused with inflammatory bowel syndrome (IBS), which is a less serious functional disorder that doesn't cause ulcers or intestinal damage as does IBD.

IBD is an autoimmune condition that may have serious consequences. Currently there are nearly 3 million Americans who suffer from IBD, with nearly 70,000 new cases diagnosed each year. This is nearly triple previous estimates, which may be due to a combination of rising rates and improved diagnostic criteria.

The rising rates of the condition may be related to genetics, environmental factors, diet and changes in your gut microbiome. Research has demonstrated your microbiome is so important that physicians may even use it as a diagnostic tool.

While improving your microbiome plays a significant role in reducing or eliminating your symptoms, capsaicin and endocannabinoids may also play a role in reducing your symptoms through control of your neuroimmune axis. Before understanding how it works, it's helpful to understand the condition.

What Is Inflammatory Bowel Disease?

IBD is a chronic inflammation of part or all of your intestinal tract that may result in ulcerations, vomiting, bloody diarrhea and weight loss. The condition is often debilitating and may lead to a life-threatening situation. There are two different types of IBD: Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis (UC).

UC is generally more common in men, while more women suffer from Crohn's disease. Both forms of IBD are more common in developed countries, while ex-smokers and nonsmokers more commonly have UC, and smokers more commonly develop Crohn's.

People who experience UC will often suffer from ulcers and inflammation in the lining of the large intestines, while Crohn's is a disease that affects your entire digestive tract. Doctors believe your symptoms are the result of widespread recurring immune response focused in your intestines.

Your immune system mistakes substances in your intestines for a foreign material and sends out white blood cells that trigger inflammation. Without significant changes to your lifestyle, symptoms continue to get worse and affect your quality of life.

Unfortunately, the symptoms are often associated with stigma, fear and isolation that have resulted in the disease being relatively hidden and people suffering in silence. While there is no real cure for the condition, there are strategies that may reduce or eliminate your symptoms.

Why Hot Chilies May Calm Your Gut

Recent research has found when mice were fed capsaicin, the substance in chili peppers that makes them "hot," they had less inflammation in their gut — and some were even cured of a mouse model type 1 diabetes Researchers found capsaicin acted on receptors, causing local production of anandamide.

Anandamide acts through your cannabinoid receptor 2 (CB2) that increases the number and function of immune macrophages in your gut. You have endogenous cannabinoids or endocannabinoids produced in your system from glycerophospholipids. Anadamide is an endogenous intestinal cannabinoid.

It controls your appetite and energy balance through the nervous system in your intestinal tract. This study uncovered the immunological role anandamide and endocannabinoids play in the regulation of immune tolerance in the gut, and in maintaining immune homeostasis between the nervous and immune systems.

Following the discovery of endogenous cannabinoid production in the mid-2000s, a large number of studies exploring the system and regulatory function were initiated, as scientists were hopeful for a pharmaceutical approach to health.

Interactions in the endocannabinoid system are much like those that occur in the brain, as your gut has a very large nervous system affected by the endocannabinoids produced after ingesting chili peppers. Researchers question if people who use edible cannabinoids may experience the same relief.

Article Source: Dr. Mercola at http://articles.mercola.com