Digestive Bugs; a Hidden Cause of Weight Gain in Women

Did you know, digestive bugs are a hidden link to unexplained weight gain in women?  The great news is, there is herbal and nutritional support that WILL make a difference.

Although I have previously discussed digestive flora before from it's influence on serotonin and cravings, new findings directly link it to poor glycaemic control and unexplained weight gain – and after 16 years of practice, it really makes so much sense!
 
Recent research has shown that digestive health, plays a significant role in both obesity and diabetes, primarily due to a deficiency in a protein called toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5), a regulator of digestive flora in our gastro intestinal tract. This allows harmful bacteria to multiply and taking probiotics can actually make it worse!

In short, a TLR5 deficiency changes your metabolism. It means you can exercise and count calories or live on lettuce leaves and not lose weight.

The reason being, the food you eat is absorbed at a faster caloric rate than it is meant to. Think of the example of you are out to coffee with a friend, you both have a skiny latte – your absorbency is the equivalent to having two! This is because a deficiency in TLR5 causes:

• Increased carbohydrate storage
• Increased caloric absorption
• Increased insulin production
• Increased leptin resistance
• Increased fatty acid absorbency

This means, if you have unhealthy digestive flora and a 'gut bug', although you eat healthy, you may extract more calories from your foods, even if they are 'healthy' and gain more weight.

This is why you might eat less than your friends but still gain weight!

Top three causes of toll-like receptor 5 (TLR5) deficiencies

• Gram negative digestive bacteria
• Chronic infections
• Genetics
• Chronic stress
• Antibiotic use

Symptoms

• Cravings and increased appetite
• Unexplained weight gain
• Stubborn fat around the middle
• Bloating, digestive disturbances
• Unexplained high cholesterol
• Unexplained high blood pressure
• Unexplained fatigue
• Unexplained pain and inflammation
• Poly Cystic Ovarian Disorder

Test results may show:

1. Elevated CRP
2. Digestive dysbiosis or inflammatory bowel conditions
3. Elevated Free Fatty Acids
4. Auto immune markers
5. Poor glycaemic control
6. Poly Cystic Ovarian Disorder or Cysts

3 Easy Steps to Stopping This Cycle Today

1. Don’t wait. I can guarantee you, it won’t 'fix' itself, it will only get worse.

2. You MUST reduce bacterial levels and restore balance

3. You MUST restore glycaemic control and improve insulin sensitivity

To Join or Not To Join?

Deciding to make the change is often one of the hardest steps, simply because making change takes energy. You may even be exhausted from trying to find solutions!  There are so many reasons why you may need help. But with the right expert advice, you can make a difference, starting today.

Making a change is easy. Just join my $149 program at http://www.massattack.com.au/f_form.php and let me know if you are on board and ready to go so I can coach you along the way.

If you would like further information or for me to call you, please email me at info@massattack.com.au

Warmest regards,

Narelle Stegehuis
MHSc. Naturopath. Medical Herbalist.

Tel. 1300 133 536 or www.massattack.com.au

Detox Your Way To Better Health

Spring is a great time for a good clean up, not only of your house and garage, but also your own body. 

With the season changing and the end of the year fast approaching, take this time to think about how you are feeling.  

Perhaps over winter your body has become a toxic dumpsite and is crying out for help?  But how do you know if you need to detox?  

Top 5 Questions To Ask Yourself

1. Do I feel less healthy and energetic?
2. Do I often have difficulty thinking clearly?
3. Do I often feel tired, sluggish, flat and get sick often? 
4. Do I have digestive disturbances (wind, bloating, constipation, candida or heartburn)?
5. Do you eat junk food, drink alcohol or make poor lifestyle decisions?

If you answered ‘yes’ to any of these questions, you may be in need of a ‘spring clean’. These are the types of symptoms you may experience when many of the toxic substances you have been exposed to have accumulated within your body, leaving you feeling less than your best.

Our Integrated Detoxification Program is recommend as a safe and effective professional detoxification program to improve the way in which your body eliminates toxins and to bring you back to a state of health and vitality.

Toxic Exposure - A Reality of Modern Life

Toxin exposure is seemingly unavoidable in our modern world. Every day we are exposed to toxins like heavy metals, pesticides, chemicals, food additives and pollutants, which are present in the air, water and food that we consume. 

Toxins do not only come from our external environment; toxins can also be generated internally by ‘unfriendly’ bacteria, yeasts, and parasites in our digestive systems.

Your body has numerous mechanisms to help eliminate all these toxins, but these detoxification pathways can become overwhelmed if you produce, consume or absorb more toxins than you can easily clear. A professional detoxification program supports toxin clearance through these pathways, leaving you feeling healthy and energetic.

A Safe and Effective Detoxification Program

Detoxifying is serious business and your safety and comfort during detoxification is important to us. Undergoing the wrong type of detox for your individual needs may actually leave you feeling sick and tired. This is why you should not attempt a detoxification program without the guidance and support of a trained health care Practitioner.

5 Ways To Start The Detox Process at Home

 

1. Drink More Water
2. Consider adding super foods to your diet like Goji Berries and Spirulina
3. Eat more greens
4. Add fresh herbs like Rosemary and Tumeric to your cooking
5. Include bitter foods like endive in your diet

Make a Clean Start with Professional Help

If winter has left you feeling tired, sluggish, and less than your best, a detoxification program can help you to make a clean start with renewed health and vitality. 

Our $295 Integrated Detox Program Includes

• Nutritional, herbal and essential probiotics to cleanse, support, rebuild and regenerate your body and eliminative systems 
• Comprehensive booklet and directions to guide you how to safely and effectively detoxify and to get the best results possible.
• 6 weeks of guidance and email and telephone support from a fully qualified naturopath trained in detoxification.

Call 1300 133 536 to find out more about a safe and effective professional detoxification program to suit you. 

Or why not start today? 

 

http://www.massattack.com.au/shopping_cart.php

Tips To Lose Weight

Hormonal profiling is the first step towards wellness and maintaining a healthy body weight, as Simone*, mother of 2 discovered.

Simone’s Story

After the birth of my children, my health changed.  For starters, I always felt bloated and constipated and to top it off, a family trauma left my immune system so low that I would catch everything that was going around.   I was so fed up of feeling run down.  In spite of several courses of antibiotics, I just couldn’t get well again and now I was suffering from thrush!

It was when my periods stopped that I knew I was really unhealthy .  Over the next 12 months my symptoms worsened; (weight gain, poor immunity, bloating) and I was also constantly fatigued.  I had a scan and although I had ovarian cysts, I didn’t have enough to be diagnosed with Poly Cystic Ovarian Disorder. 

There had to be a reason why I was so unwell – and I knew I had to find it. Over the counter remedies from the health food store, although helping a little, were not enough.

Narelle’s Comments

Simone’s story is a perfect example of how important hormonal profiling and wellness mapping is.  We see all too often the effects of ‘blanket treatments’ that treat the symptom rather than the cause. 

It is important to remember that to restore long term health, you need to identify the initial cause and this takes time and expertise.  Investing time into getting to the ‘root’ cause of Simone’s health challenges is what made the difference.  This is what Simone’s ‘wellness’ map looked like:

After chatting to Simone, I established her hormonal profile and a wellness map that was not only going to improve her immune system and energy, but also restore digestive health and hormonal balance.  It was time to help Simone lose weight and feel fantastic.   

Simone’s  treatment strategy included a personalized tonic using traditional medicinal herbs such Golden Seal and Gentian to restore  digestive infection and Withania combined with Astragalus to restore adrenal health, lower inflammation and improve immunity.  Other herbs such as Paeonia and Pasque flower were included throughout her treatment  to support hormonal balance and improve glucose control. 

Targeted dietary changes to support healthy hormonal balance including limiting broccoli and eating more blueberries were provided in an easy to understand format, that fitted well with Simone’s busy life. 

Personalized orthomolecular therapy and nutritional therapy, formed part of Simone’s long term plan.  These changes, combined with gentle detoxification techniques; gently guided her health to new levels.  Her new wellness plan was a must for overcoming her symptoms of fatigue, bloating, lowered immunity, hormonal imbalance and weight gain.

Outcome

Today, Simone has restored energy levels and is no longer bloated.  Her immune system is healthy and she has lost weight.  She has her health and ‘body back’.

To discover your hormonal profile and wellness map complete your Assessment online at www.massattack.com.au or call my clinic on 1300 133 536

Narelle Stegehuis, is a practicing medical herbalist and naturopath specializing in restorative endocrinology for women, with over 14 years clinical experience.  She is both an accomplished writer, editor and technical training advisor for the Complementary Health Care Council.  A recipient of the Australian Naturopathic Excellence Award, Narelle adopts an integrated approach of both medical science and traditional complementary health care principles.

Exciting New Research - Tummy Troubles Cause Hormonal Havoc

Healthy digestion is high up on the list of health priorities for many women.   However, did you know, tummy troubles are considered the top triggers of hormone imbalances in women?  

Those niggling symptoms of bloating and irregular bowel movements are important signs that things are not right.  They are your bodies way of crying out for help.  Ignoring these can lead to heightened imbalances in female reproductive hormones such as estrogen, progesterone and testosterone and those associated with metabolic performance such as insulin.  This combination creates the perfect blend for unexplained weight gain, especially around the middle.

New and Exciting Research  

While traditional research indicates rises in obesity and type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) to be due to a combination of genetics, inflammation and environmental influences [i] [ii] [iii][iv] [v] [vi] [vii] [viii] [ix] [x], exciting new research suggests tummy troubles or ‘digestive dysbiosis’ also play a role and contribute to female reproductive disorders [xi] [xii] [xiii] [xiv] [xv] [xvi][xvii] [xviii]. This is one reason why getting on top of your health and maintaining a healthy body weight may prove so challenging! 

 

Break Free and Restore Health 

Getting on top of your tummy troubles and health is like peeling back the layers of an onion and takes expertise, experience and time. Establishing the cause of your bloating and digestive upsets is an involved process, requiring professional symptomatic screening techniques and targeted dysbiotic testing. But this is only the first stage.  Repairing the damage and restoring balance with medicinal herbs and targeted probiotics is fundamental to finally becoming symptom free.

Narelle Stegehuis, CEO of Mass Attack is a practicing naturopath with over 30,000 hrs of in-clinic experience and health editor for Empower magazine. Specializing in the natural treatment of women's hormonal imbalances, she has a trained eye for hormonal weight gain. She is both an accomplished writer and recipient of the Australian Naturopathic Excellence Award. To find out if your hormones are making you fat, visit http://www.massattack.com.au

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[i] Hossain P, Kawar B, El Nahas M (2007) Obesity and diabetes in the developing world–a growing challenge. N Engl J Med 356: 213–215.

[ii] Lazar M. A (2005) How obesity causes diabetes: not a tall tale. Science 307: 373–375

[iii] Doria A, Patti M. E, Kahn C. R (2008) The emerging genetic architecture of type 2 diabetes. Cell Metab 8: 186–200.

[iv] Rankinen T, Zuberi A, Chagnon Y. C, Weisnagel S. J, Argyropoulos G, et al. (2006) The human obesity gene map: the 2005 update. Obesity (Silver Spring) 14: 529–644. 

[v] Walley A. J, Asher J. E, Froguel P (2009) The genetic contribution to non-syndromic human obesity. Nat Rev Genet 10: 431–442.

[vi] Freedman A. S, Freeman G. J, Rhynhart K, Nadler L. M (1991) Selective induction of B7/BB-1 on interferon-gamma stimulated monocytes: a potential mechanism for amplification of T cell activation through the CD28 pathway. Cell Immunol 137: 429–437.

[vii] Wellen K. E, Hotamisligil G. S (2005) Inflammation, stress, and diabetes. J Clin Invest 115: 1111–1119. 

[viii] Weisberg S. P, McCann D, Desai M, Rosenbaum M, Leibel R. L, et al. (2003) Obesity is associated with macrophage accumulation in adipose tissue. J Clin Invest 112: 1796–1808. 

[ix] Xu H, Barnes G. T, Yang Q, Tan G, Yang D, et al. (2003) Chronic inflammation in fat plays a crucial role in the development of obesity-related insulin resistance. J Clin Invest 112: 1821–1830.

[x] Arkan M. C, Hevener A. L, Greten F. R, Maeda S, Li Z. W, et al. (2005) IKK-beta links inflammation to obesity-induced insulin resistance. Nat Med 11: 191–198. 

[xi] Meadows R (2011) Gut Bacteria May Override Genetic Protections against Diabetes. PLoS Biol 9(12): e1001215. doi:10.1371/journal.pbio.1001215

[xii] Cani P. D, Amar J, Iglesias M. A, Poggi M, Knauf C, et al. (2007) Metabolic endotoxemia initiates obesity and insulin resistance. Diabetes 56: 1761–1772.

[xiii] Cani P. D, Bibiloni R, Knauf C, Waget A, Neyrinck A. M, et al. (2008) Changes in gut microbiota control metabolic endotoxemia-induced inflammation in high-fat diet-induced obesity and diabetes in mice. Diabetes 57: 1470–1481. 

[xiv] Creely S. J, McTernan P. G, Kusminski C. M, Fisher M, Da Silva N. F, et al. (2007) Lipopolysaccharide activates an innate immune system response in human adipose tissue in obesity and type 2 diabetes. Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab 292: E740–E747.

[xv] Chung S, Lapoint K, Martinez K, Kennedy A, Boysen Sandberg M, et al. (2006) Preadipocytes mediate lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammation and insulin resistance in primary cultures of newly differentiated human adipocytes. Endocrinology 147: 5340–5351.

[xvi] Spor A, Koren O, Ley RUnravelling the effects of the environment and host genotype on the gut microbiome. Nat Rev Microbiol 9: 279–290.

[xvii] Khan, K.N., et al., Toll-Like Receptors in Innate Immunity: Role of Bacterial Endotoxin and Toll-Like Receptor 4 in Endometrium and Endometriosis. Gynecologic and Obstetric Investigation, 2009. 68(1): p. 40-52.

Candida Could Be The Cause Of Your Bloat

Getting to the cause of "the bloat" is something that some women only dream of!

One of the major causes of bloating - aside from constipation; is Candida overgrowth. When we are healthy,Candida lives in our intestines in harmony with other "good bacteria". If it over grows, it spreads roots into the walls of the intestines.

The damage to the intestinal wall allows toxins to enter the bloodstream. This condition called 'leaky gut syndrome' often leads to food allergies, foggy thinking, migraines and depression and of course - bloating.

Once through to the rest of the body, the Candida can live anywhere there are mucous membranes - it particularly likes the vagina, lungs and the sinuses, providing food for bacteria and viruses. It has an ability to disrupt the endocrine system causing symptoms such as weight gain or weight loss, PMS, menstrual irregularities, joint pains, asthma, hay fever, muscle fatigue and chronic tiredness.

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