SO MY DOCTOR TELLS ME I’M FAT… Ok, so maybe that wouldn’t be the best way to open up a discussion with patients, but what is? In this particular study, we find that when patients were told they were overweight by their doctor they were more than twice as likely to attempt and be successful at weight loss. Without this information from their doctor, even knowing they were overweight, less than half of the patients in the study actually attempted weight loss. Wow. I can tell you that, even in my office, I am sensitive to how I bring this subject up to patients. I practice what I preach and my body fat hovers around 15-18%, which is a little better than normal for my advancing age… Because of this, there are times that I feel that some may view me as being judgmental and critical if I directly bring up their weight. But this study really does open up my eyes to just how important the recommendation to lose weight is. And maybe it’s better coming from someone who “walks the walk” than an overweight physician who just had a bagel and diet coke for breakfast. How would YOU like this to be handled? Read More…
Childhood Obesity
Is Too Little Vitamin D Making Our Children Fat?
IS TOO LITTLE VITAMIN D MAKING OUR KIDS FAT? According to this study it is playing a role. Now, don’t discount the video games, crappy school lunches, skipping breakfast, sugared drinks with only calories and little phytonutrient value and the stress they pick up from their parents. But I make sure Keegan takes his Vitamin D weekly (usually around 8,000 IU / week) even if he hates the tastes. Drama aside of a 4 yr old taking glue off of a spoon, he understands that he is taking it so that he is less likely to get sick. Of course, I could skip the Vitamin D and get a flu shot instead… Read More…
Top Mesa AZ Chiropractor Explains the Importance of Breakfast
ARE YOU MAKING SURE YOUR KIDS ARE GETTING A GOOD BREAKFAST? Better yet, are YOU? If you are not eating a good breakfast (I teach protein based like peanut butter, omega 3 eggs, granola or very high fiber >8 grams) and don’t make it a priority in your life, your kids will pick up on this whether or not you make sure they eat. Bottom line–skipping breakfast is very, very bad in the long run. In this particular study we see that kids skipping breakfast was already associated with worsening heart health. I ask again–are your kids getting a good breakfast? If the answer is NO, then you need to look yourself in the mirror and admit that you are damaging their long term health. Read More…
Should we be Eating/Drinking Dairy? – Mesa AZ Chiropractor
SHOULD WE BE GIVING DAIRY TO INFANTS?? Or adults for that matter? Those of us who make it a passion to understand physiology are, in general, against dairy products. It is a very common allergen for starters and is an animal based protein with little additional to offer. And let’s face it…name another mammal stupid enough to continue to drink milk after it’s weaned… Of greater concern, however, are the links between dairy and Type 1 diabetes. This particular study finds that using hydrolyzed formula (i.e. Alimentum, Nutramigen) was less likely to stimulate the body to attack the beta cells of the pancreas years later. The JRDF states that there is not enough evidence that dairy contributes to Type 1 diabetes. If it were my child, this stance is unacceptable. My son has very little exposure to dairy and this is a deliberate act based on everything I know about how dairy affects our children’s developing immune system.
Childhood Obesity and Breast Cancer Links
I have said that a girl developing breasts at 8 and starting her menstrual cycle by age 9 is a very scary recipe for breast cancer.
And yet this is exactly what we are seeing. The number of Elementary school girls who can be classified as overweight or obesity has risen continually in the past decade or so. While these numbers seem to be leveling off, it will remain a concern for many years to come.
I have written continually about how situations that occur in childhood will affect that child decades later as an adult. Obesity cuts across so many of future health conditions in so many ways, with conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and cancer having roots in childhood health conditions.
In this particular study, researchers looked at how the bodies of obese adolescent girls break down estrogen. In general, estrogens can get broken down into one of 3 pathways—the 16 and 4 pathways, which are known to damage DNA and cause cancer, and the 2 pathway, which is generally considered protective and lowers the risk of cancer.
In this small study, researchers looked at 12 lean and 23 obese pre-pubertal girls (Tanner Stage I breast and pubic hair) and compared body weight to estrogen breakdown products. Here’s what they found:
- Estradiol concentrations were 6.9 times higher in obese versus lean girls (3.45 pg/ml vs 0.5).
- Concentrations of 16α-OH-E1 were 14.34 times higher in the obese girls (7.17 vs 0.5).
- The protective 2-MeO-E2 levels were lower in the obese group.
In other words, even at a very young age, these girls were priming their risk for breast cancer. Obviously, maintaining an ideal body weight is a top priority. It is also very important for society to understand that being overweight as a child is not a temporary thing or something to brush aside as aesthetic but not health-damaging.
In the meantime, cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, radishes, Brussel sprouts…) are known to help our bodies break down estrogens in a protective, non-cancerous way.
Another very important factor that is hardly ever addressed is our exposure to environmental estrogens. Plastics, Styrofoam, phthlates and flame retardants can all have estrogen-like activity in the human body. Identifying and eliminating (or at least reducing) these chemicals in yours and you children’s lives needs to be a consistent habit.
Lastly, constipation can actually increase the estrogen levels in the body. The body eliminates estrogens through a process called conjugation that occurs in the liver. The conjugated estrogen is then put into bile and is supposed to be eliminated in the feces. But, if you’re constipated, that estrogen never makes it out—rather it is broken down by bacteria in the gut and thrown back into the bloodstream, free to wreak havoc on estrogen sensitive tissues like the breast and endometrial lining.
Of course, living an anti-cancer lifestyle in general will also help protect the estrogen levels from obesity from damaging the breast tissue, but this is all just going to be a band-aid until the weight is better managed.
Childhood Obesity Stats: Run if the Pediatrician Gives This
While the incidence of childhood obesity seems to have leveled off, it remains one of the biggest concerns for the future health of our population.
Every pediatric journal I read continues to highlight the concern and the aspects that are contributing to the increasing waistlines of our children. Almost immediately the need to have our children be more active was hoisted to the top of the interventions to be promoted. From Michelle Obama decrees, statewide Healthy Children initiatives and McDonald’s commercials, the push has been towards getting our kids moving more.
If only it was simple.
When that didn’t seem to be doing the trick, the focus has started to (rightfully so) shift to cutting back on calories and avoiding sugary snacks and drinks. And pediatricians have been leading the charge for getting our kids healthier.
But what if pediatricians are playing a major role in childhood obesity??
Regular readers of this blog will know where this is going. It is now crystal clear that the bacteria in our collective guts play a massive role in all aspects of our health, with obesity and autoimmune conditions topping the list.
I frequently say that mainstream medicine remains decades behind the medical research, but in few instances is this problem as glaring as the intertwined issue of gut bacteria, probiotics and antibiotics. It has only been recently that I have been reading in authors in medical journals discussing the overuse of antibiotics on the destruction of the normal bacteria in the gut.
The problem with antibiotic overuse has always been highlighted as antibiotic resistance. But while this IS a concern, it is dwarfed by the fact that antibiotics decimate the diversity of the bacteria in the gut. In this manner, antibiotics may greatly increase the risk of obesity, devastating autoimmune conditions and psychological disorders.
While we don’t know everything yet (and probably never will) about how the hundreds of different bacterial species in your gut interact with your health, current research is pointing to diversity as being very important. With this in mind, in this particular study, researchers looked at the links between antibiotic use in a group of 6114 boys and 5948 girls and the later development of obesity.
The results are a little scary:
- Children who were exposed to antibiotics in the first 2 years of life were, on average, heavier than kids who did not get antibiotics.
- The effect was strongest in those exposed in the first 6 months to macrolides (broad spectrum antibiotics–think Azithromycin, Chlarithromycin and Erythromycin). Specifically, boys were 72% more likely to be heavier and give 77% more likely to be heavier than the un-antibioticized children.
- In addition, those children who had more than one exposure to antibiotics were 80% more likely (boys) and 87% more likely (girls) to be overweight.
These are significant numbers. And it wouldn’t be so scary if antibiotics were used for life-threatening diseases instead of being used in conditions like low grade fevers, coughs and ear infections. It is rare for a child to escape the prescription pad in his or her first two years of life.
So, the next time your child’s pediatrician wants to write a prescription for an antibiotic, first find out if your pediatrician thinks that antibiotics could contribute to obesity in children. If your doctor gives you a strange look, it is absolutely time to find one that has cracked a medical journal in the past decade.
Childhood Obesity Statistics: Contributions of a Forgotten Chemical
Calories in, calories out. Seems to be a simple enough equation for weight loss or maintenance. Or, at least it used to be.
Make sure your son or daughter stays active. Throw out any Kellogg’s breakfast cereals and keep them away from fruit juice. These recommendations are simple enough and makes sense for keeping the rising obesity tide in children at bay.
But somewhere along the process the equation changed.
When you took math class, you were dealing with numbers you understood and could work with. But what if the equation your teacher put in front of you had numbers that weren’t even on the page? Makes absolutely no sense, right?
But when it comes to health, this is exactly what is happening. As society and manufacturing have progressed we have introduced chemicals into the environment that can have a very strong impact on your risk of chronic disease. It’s no longer about watching the calories you eat and making sure you stay active. The equation now contains chemicals in the environment that are affecting your health. And not in a good way.
Many are aware of the more common chemicals like bisphenol A (BPA) in plastic water bottles, thermal register receipts and soda cans. Teflon in non-stick cookware. Flame retardants in your clothing, mattress and furniture.
But if in casual conversation I asked your thoughts about dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene I’m pretty sure you’d give me a blank look and steer the conversation to politics. Unless, of course, you’re a biochemist for DuPont.
If instead I asked you if you had ever heard of DDT used as a insecticide in farming, that glossy look in your eyes would disappear and you’d become more and more animated as you recall the damage this chemical did to animals in the environment and how it was banned from use in the US in 1972.
The rest of the world was a little slow to catch on. DDT was banned worldwide during the Stockholm Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs) on May 21, 2002, going into effect in 2004. Over a decade ago. Little did we know just how tough it was for Mother Nature to degrade and get rid of DDT.
With this in mind, if you knew that dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene was a breakdown product of DDT, things would make a little more sense. And your cause for concern would go up.
Here in the US, 40+ years after DDT was banned, almost all of us have breakdown products of DDT that can be found in our blood. Scary.
The DDT ban is not so new in Europe and given how long it takes for DDT to clear from the environment it’s hard to imagine that this is not having an effect on our kid’s health.
As if this wasn’t enough to worry about, phthalates are incredibly common in our lives. That “new shower curtain smell” or the new car smell likely indicates that phthalates are present. Many “fragrances” have phthalates embedded within them. Think about how many household items you use on a daily basis that have a scent to them. It’s likely that phthalates are at work.
All of these environmental chemicals have been shown to contribute to chronic disease. Top of the list is obesity. But just how much do these chemicals contribute? Just a little? A lot?
This is the exact question posed in this particular study. In it, a panel of researchers used models to estimate the potential that dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene, BPA, phthalates and other chemicals were contributing to childhood obesity. Then they went further, determining the costs related to healthcare expenditures due to these chemicals. Here’s what they found:
- The panel identified a 40% to 69% chance that dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene caused 1555 cases of overweight at age 10 (in 2010) with associated costs of $36.7 million.
- There was a 20% to 39% chance that dichlorodiphenyldichloroethylene caused 28,200 cases of adult diabetes with associated costs of $12.5 billion.
- The panel also identified a 40% to 69% chance that phthalate exposure caused 53,900 cases of obesity in older women and $232 billion in associated costs.
- Phthalate exposure had a 40% to 69% chance of causing 20,500 new cases of diabetes in older women with $907 million in associated costs.
- Prenatal bisphenol A exposure had a 20% to 69% chance of causing 42,400 cases of childhood obesity with associated lifetime costs of $2.16 billion.
These are estimates, but they are based on what it known about how much these chemicals contribute to poor health. Unless you take these chemicals into account for the equation of your good health, the solution won’t balance.
In everything you do, you need to pay attention to the chemicals you may be exposed to and do your best to avoid them whenever possible.
Pregnancy Weight Gain and Childhood Health
BREAKING THE CYCLE OF CHRONIC DISEASE BEGINS HOW EARLY?
Based on previous posts, this shouldn’t be a trick question. The answer is before pregnancy. In this study, women who gained excess weight during pregnancy had children that, at 9 years of age, had pretty much EVERY risk factor for heart disease elevated. A literal time bomb that will explode decades before it exploded for the parents. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, we need to stand up for the health of our children by taking better care of ourselves during pregnancy. This goes for BOTH the dad and the mom. The decisions you make today are either helping your child grow up healthier, or you are loading a bullet in the chamber. Decide. You can’t sit on the fence.