So, what’s the deal with intermittent fasting? Does it work and is it safe?

We’ve been getting some version of this question quite a bit: Does this new trend in intermittent fasting — which entails drastically restricting calories on one or two days per week and then eating normally on others — actually lead to sustained weight loss and better health?

One reason intermittent fasting has received so much attention lately is because of books like Dr. Michael Mosley’s “The Fast Diet” and Dr. Caroline Apovian’s “The Overnight Diet.” These books tout scientific research that shows how calorie restriction from partial fasts could help maintain a healthy weight. For Mosley, a personal tipping point was the impetus to find a useful diet.

“My start point was: Ugh, my blood sugar is terrible, I’m basically diabetic, [I have] high cholesterol. I’m a bit overweigtht. What am i going to do about it?” he tells HuffPost Healthy Living. “I started off by looking at calorie restriction. And I saw that that’s the only thing that’s ever been found to extend life. The problem is, it just is impossible to do — I cannot imagine myself doing it. I went from that to look at more four-day fasts and, subsequently, fewer day fasts — and that seemed to work.”

“Any time you lose weight, you see improvements in glucose metabolism,” says Scott Isaacs, M.D., author of “Hormonal Balance” and a clinical instructor of medicine at Emory School of Medicine. “And anytime you restrict calories, you get weight loss. But if you do something unsustaniable you get fatigue after a while and ultimately gain the weight back.”

The problem with that? Regained weight following a very restricted diet is typically comprised of fat, whereas lost weight from the diet is a combination of fat and lean tissues. What’s more, weight gain might follow a different pattern after such a diet. Extreme calorie restriction in which the body no longer is fueled by sugars, but is instead fueled by fat reserves (a process known as ketosis) can lead to both weight loss and appetite suppression.

“During a fast, a person can go into starvation ketosis, which reduces appetite. They won’t be hungry because of the ketones — a byproduct of fat — that masks hunger. But as soon as they do something where they are no longer ketotic, there’s a rebound appetite, which can be hard to control,” Isaacs says.

That contrasts with the experiences of many ‘The Fast Diet’ devotees who have lost weight on the program — and some of the physicians who think it may be worth a shot.

“The first question you want to ask with a diet is: Is this dangerous?” says Dr. Aaron Cypess, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard and staff physician at Joslin Diabetes Center. “And the second question is: Can you do this for more than a few months? It seems to me that it is not dangerous and that for some people, it may be easier than a global calorie restriction.”

That said, fasting can be considered dangerous for those with underlying conditions. In her question to Ask Healthy Living, Allie went on to specify her concerns:

I’ve heard a lot lately about various kinds intermittent fasting, and I am interested in trying it. However, I am prone to hypoglycemia, and we’re not just talking about the “hangries” (hungry+angry): we’re talking migraines, confusion, inability to focus, etc. Not eating breakfast can seriously impact my work, and I do not get days off right now. Is there a safe version of this regime that I can try?

In this context, a fasting diet would be inappropriate, according to Cypess, who says that those who take certain medications, such as beta blockers or diabetes medications, should also not fast.

So does it work? Possibly. “It’s an emerging area — let’s see how things turn out. This is early days and the people who are interested in it and have looked into it are all kind of convinced there’s something there and the question is: How a big a something is it?” Mosley told HuffPost Healthy Living during an earlier interview.

Should you check with a doctor before starting? Definitely.

The Huffington Post | By Meredith Melnick

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com

Become a Weight Loss Success Story

Finally, a weight loss program with a track record of long-term success. We’ve helped patients successfully lose weight and keep it off since 1998.

The weight-loss programs at Atlanta Endocrine Associates are designed to promote fast, maximum weight loss and better health.

Patients in our programs lose an average of 35-60 pounds.*

Many people lose over 100 pounds.

More than just a diet, our weight loss programs provide you with lifelong skills for your health and weight management. Our science-based approach is backed by years of experience. Our state-of-the-art weight management programs will improve weight and overall health at the same time. We specialize in comprehensive and compassionate approach to weight loss.

Click here to see some of our patients’ success stories.

We offer a variety of options, all of which emphasize the easiest, most effective strategies for weight loss and long-term weight maintenance.

• Rapid, safe weight loss under medical supervision
• Personalized attention and follow-up
• Weight loss optimization through hormonal balance
• Fast, easy, filling weight-loss foods
• Focus on long-term weight maintenance

Our medical research, weight loss, and weight maintenance data have been published in many peer-reviewed medical journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Journal of the American Dietetic Association, American Journal of Gastroenterology, American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Journal of the American College of Nutrition, and Diabetes Care.  

Keep the Weight Off

Of course, any low calorie diet can help you lose weight. The challenge is keeping it off after the diet is over. We see successful weight management as a matter of acquiring new skills, not just learning new information. We’ll teach these skills in specially designed weight loss classes, and then again in our extensive Phase 2 program. We’ll work closely with you as you learn and practice these new skills until they become an automatic part of your daily life.

Medical Evaluation for Abnormal Weight Gain

Many people gain weight despite eating healthier and getting more physical activity. If you are working hard at losing weight and are not seeing results, you may have a medical problem. We specialize in the medical and hormonal evaluation and treatment of abnormal weight gain and diet-resistant obesity.

Hormones and body weight are very closely related. Often times, a hormonal disorder can be the underlying cause of weight gain or failure to lose weight with diet and exercise. An evaluation with a board-certified endocrinologist can identify treatable hormonal problems that may be interfering with weight loss. Because abnormal weight gain is a medical problem, insurance companies usually allow a full evaluation with an endocrinologist. An evaluation typically includes obtaining a detailed history, physical examination and laboratory testing.

There are many different medical problems that can cause weight gain or make weight loss difficult. Dr. Isaacs prides himself in performing a detailed evaluation to look for the common and not so common causes of abnormal weight gain.

 

Amazing Food Stats:  

No fewer than $55 million is expected to be spent on food for The Big Game
Super Bowl Sunday marks the day on which Americans chow the second-greatest amount of food. (Thanksgiving is 1st)

• Almost 15,000 tons of chips and 4,000 tons of popcorn
• Some 12 million pounds of avocado are sold in preparation for the game so that Americans may gorge themselves on an estimated eight million pounds of guacamole – California avocado commission
• 7-Eleven claims a whopping 20 percent in sales of antacid the day after the Super Bowl
• 36% increase in sales of frozen breaded mushrooms prior to the Super Bowl
• 29% Percentage increase in sales of frozen shrimp
• $237.2 million spent on soft drinks at grocery stores during Super Bowl week
• 30% increase in sales of proceed-cheese loaves the week before last year’s Super Bowl
• 68% Increase in sales of flavored snack crackers
• Frozen Pizza is the top Super Bowl seller at grocery stores
• $11.8 million additional sales of beer
• 30.4 million pounds of snack food Americans scarf down on Super Bowl Sunday, twice the average daily amount
• Pizza Hut expects to sell 2 million pizzas on the day of Superbowl XLV which is 60% or 1.3 million more than an average day.

References:
http://bodypaintingtoronto.com/2010/02/superbowl-2010-body-painting-saints-vs-colts/
http://musubibunny.blogspot.com/
http://moneyformyhoney.blogspot.com/2011/01/neobux-onbux.html
http://www.footballtickets.com/super_bowl_tickets.html
http://www.nubella.com/content/view/1530/
http://the.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/2008/Jan/30/br/br7936501284.html
http://nfl.fanhouse.com/2011/02/03/whod-pay-990-to-park-at-super-bowl/
http://www.businessinsider.com/super-bowl-xlv-pizza-hut-sell-2-million-2011-1
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/19089/super_bowl_sunday_partying_eating_and.html?cat=19
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i8a0ffd20e4fc46d783cdde26d4429cd7
http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i38c60ff3da19ea86511ec2e311f86bd8

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute, Harvard Medical School, and other organizations analyzed six different prospective cohort studies of more than 632,000 people ages 40 and older. The studies had a median follow-up period of 10 years, with roughly 82,000 reported deaths. Regular, moderate intensity exercise was associated with an increased life expectancy, even when the person exercising had an unhealthy Body Mass Index (BMI).

Dr. I-Min Lee, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the senior author of the study, says that not exercising but having a healthy weight was associated with 3.1 fewer years of life, compared to obese people who were active. Conversely, people who exercised 150 minutes a week and had a healthy BMI gained an extra 7.2 years of life.

While it’s best to be at a healthy weight for your body, Lee thinks her team’s analysis demonstrates that every bit of activity helps, regardless of a person’s size.

“This shows if you emphasize physical activity, you still get the benefit,” says Lee. “Overweight, obese, severely obese – if you are active, the results suggest that you … have more of a benefit than someone who is not heavy but not active.”

Exercise may preserve brain better than games

Lee and her team based their calculations on the World Health Organization’s recommendation that adults should get at least 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity a week. They defined leisure time activity as any physical activity that wasn’t a part of the participants’ jobs, commute, or routine housework, such as organized sports, walking, bowling, gardening and hiking.

The analysis has its limitations, most notably that the studies it’s based on used self-reported data to determine how much the participants exercised in their spare time and how much they weighed. Also, the studies did not take into account any activity that was done during the participants’ jobs or housework.

Still, Lee says the data is a good reminder that it doesn’t take a lot of time for people to be active and do something to help them live longer.

November 6th, 2012:  Published in the November 2012 Issue of PLOS Medicine

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com
www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com

There is not a simple explanation for why some people struggle to lose weight. There is no one-size-fits-all formula to shed extra pounds. Many people gain weight due to hormonal imbalances that make it nearly impossible to slim down without medical help. Other people may be eating the wrong foods, disrupting hormone levels and triggering hunger and, as a result, overeating. Now, national weight loss expert Scott Isaacs, M.D., draws on his extensive experience in successfully treating patients with obesity and recent groundbreaking medical research to offer answers – at last – to the questions of how to lose weight.Dr. Isaacs, a board-certified endocrinologist and practicing physician who has treated thousands of patients with weight control issues, presents books designed to demystify weight loss and help you lose weight NOW. Interviewed frequently by national news outlets about his unique perspective on treating obesity, Dr. Isaacs explores the reasons why people gain weight, and what interventions can reverse that process so they finally lose weight and keep it off.

The Hormonal Health Diet

In his book Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism, Dr. Isaacs explores recent medical research about how hormones affect weight levels. Only in the past five years, doctors have gained a new understanding of the many hormones our bodies produce – including key fat hormone leptin. Dr. Isaacs reveals why some people gain weight uncontrollably and struggle to lose it, while others stay slim. With corrected hormone levels, weight gain is achievable, along with higher energy levels, elevated mood and better sleep. Dr. Isaacs discusses the Hormonal Health Diet and medical interventions that can recalibrate hormones and restore a healthy weight.

For others, choosing the wrong foods – or eating foods at the wrong times and in the wrong amounts – may drive hormones out of sync and cause weight gain. In his newest book, Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast, Dr. Isaacs shows how eating incorrectly can disrupt the body’s hormonal balances in otherwise healthy people. Stress and environmental factors only make the problem worse. Internal chemical messengers go awry, triggering hunger instead of satisfaction. By learning a new way to eat – including eating more often and eating delicious foods – you can achieve a healthy metabolism and lose weight for good.

Permanent Weight Loss Through Hormonal Balance

Dr. Isaacs offers men and women who have suffered for years hope to finally lose weight. In Hormonal Balance and Beat Overeating Now! he explains groundbreaking, science-based approaches for putting hormones back in balance and beating obesity.

The best news of all: You can lose weight by eating a variety of delicious, fresh foods several times a day. You can restore your energy level, look better and fit into your clothes once again. You can feel healthier and reduce stress.

Weight loss is NO LONGER A MYSTERY. As author Dr. Scott Isaacs reveals in these two incredible books, science has unlocked the formula for losing weight, and now, you can take the pounds off and live a healthy, happy life once again.

Now, weight loss is easier to achieve than ever before! In Hormonal Balance and Beat Overeating Now! you can learn Dr. Isaacs’s scientific methods for losing pounds so you look great and feel healthy. Break your addiction to bad foods and overeating. Prevent diseases like type 2 diabetes or cardiovascular disease from excess pounds. Feel healthy, sleep better and have more energy….all by learning to eat like your body was designed to eat.

Put your hormones back in balance and achieve the life you deserve!

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com
www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com

Eat a cup of veggies before 10 a.m. as a morning ritual. Think of it as taking a vitamin instead of part of your diet. Even if you don’t do it every day, try it for one day. What do you have to lose.

Scott Isaacs, MD
Medical Director, Atlanta Endocrine Associates

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com
www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com

His recommendation: Sprinkle 1 to 2 teaspoons over the course of the day to reap the benefits.

Read the full article in Health Magazine

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com
www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com

If children live with criticism, they learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility, they learn to fight.

If children live with fear, they learn to be apprehensive.

If children live with pity, they learn to feel sorry for themselves.

If children live with ridicule, they learn to feel shy.

If children live with jealousy, they learn to feel envy.

If children live with shame, they learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement, they learn confidence.

If children live with tolerance, they learn patience.

If children live with praise, they learn appreciation.

If children live with acceptance, they learn to love.

If children live with approval, they learn to like themselves.

If children live with recognition, they learn it is good to have a goal.

If children live with sharing, they learn generosity.

If children live with honesty, they learn truthfulness.

If children live with fairness, they learn justice.

If children live with kindness and consideration, they learn respect.

If children live with security, they learn to have faith in themselves and in those about them.

If children live with friendliness, they learn the world is a nice place in which to live.

By Dorothy Law Nolte, Ph.D.

My addition: If children live with healthy foods, they learn how to eat.

The rapid rise in thyroid disorders and thyroid cancer has been well documented over the past several years. Surprisingly, especially with thyroid cancer, sufferers are most commonly women of childbearing age, much younger than the average cancer patient. According to the American Cancer Society, an estimated 45,000 new cases of thyroid cancer were diagnosed in 2010, with women comprising 75 percent of the group. Burke-Charvet’s admission underlines the disease’s propensity to strike an atypical demographic.

“We’re not yet sure why thyroid cancer affects more young women than men, but thyroid disorders themselves are more common among women,” says endocrinologist Scott Isaacs, MD, clinical instructor of medicine at Emory University School of Medicine. “Thyroid cancer just moved up the list of the most commonly diagnosed cancers in women, and now sits at fifth.”

Family history, genetic factors and other thyroid disorders all increase your risk of cancer. Hypothyroidism, for instance, results in high levels of Thyroid-Stimulating Hormone (TSH). When TSH levels are high, the body prompts an underactive thyroid to create more thyroid hormone, which can also stimulate the growth of cancer cells. Knowing these risk factors, and keeping disorders in check, can be helpful—but a larger culprit still looms.

“The big reason for the increase in cases has to do with the accumulation of radiation in the environment,” Dr. Isaacs says. If you live near a nuclear power plant, have been treated for past cancers or have had numerous imaging tests with high levels of radiation, like CT scans, your risk goes up.

The good news is that you can take steps to reduce your risk of thyroid cancer, and take steps to ensure that you catch it early.

Avoid Radiation
Radiation is cumulative, so every bit counts. Ask your dentist for a lead shield to cover your neck when you get dental x-rays. If your GP orders a CT scan for any reason, you should always see if another imaging method, like MRI, can be used for evaluation instead, because CT scans pack about 500 times the radiation of x-rays.

React in Emergencies
If a rare nuclear emergency happens near you, like last year’s reactor leak in Japan, listen to instructions from local officials about avoiding the damaging effects of radiation on the thyroid in particular, which will quickly seep up the iodine you breathe in or consume in the food and water supply. “The government often keeps iodine tablets (potassium iodide) on hand for these events,” Dr. Isaacs says. “Flooding the body with non-radioactive iodine will prevent the gland from taking in the harmful radioactive iodine.” One dose protects for about 24 hours, and is usually enough to halt the uptake of radiation. Never take more than instructed.

Know the Symptoms
Beware the common symptoms of thyroid disorders—like fatigue, muscle weakness, weight gain, and cold sensitivity—and tell your doctor if you notice any.

Get Tested
Have your GP check for nodules and test TSH levels every few years if you have risk factors for cancer.

Check Yourself
Feel for any lumps in the front of the neck, just like you might with a breast self-exam. If you locate a lump, find that you have difficulty swallowing or experience unusual hoarseness in your voice, mention it to your doctor. He can check your neck and order an ultrasound.

Early detection of nodules is the best form of cancer prevention. But even if you do feel a lump, don’t panic. “Only about five percent of nodules end up being cancer,” Dr. Isaacs says. “The biggest thing for people to understand is that it’s not a death sentence. The vast majority of thyroid cancers are very treatable.”

by Jenna Birch

Click here to read the full article in Women’s Health.

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com
www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com

Does Working Out Affect Testosterone Levels?

If you’re a man with low testosterone, exercise may help.

Doctors and fitness professionals still have a lot to learn about exercise and its effects on testosterone. Several factors besides your workout are involved.

But one thing is clear: You need to make exercise a habit in order to get the benefits.

After exercise, testosterone levels rise — but not for long. 

“Sometimes it’s 15 minutes after exercise that testosterone is elevated. Sometimes it can be up to an hour,” says Todd Schroeder, PhD, who studies exercise and hormones in older men at the University of Southern California.

It’s not yet clear what health effects, if any, these temporary boosts may have. Of course, exercise has many other well-known health perks.

For men who have low testosterone, exercise alone probably won’t raise their levels enough to make a difference in how they feel, says endocrinologist Scott Isaacs, MD, of Emory University. But he says for men whose testosterone level is on the borderline between normal and low, “I think it’s going to have a much more potent effect.”

4 Factors That Matter

Your weight, age, fitness level, and the timing of your workout all matter.

1. Your weight: Isaacs treats men with low testosterone. He sees obesity as a big part of the problem.

If you’re overweight, exercise can improve your testosterone levels by helping you shed pounds, says Isaacs, the author of Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight By Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism.

2. Your age: Older men seem to get less of a post-exercise boost in testosterone, Schroeder says — though this needs more research.

Still, exercise offers many other health benefits for older men, including bone and muscle health and better balance.

3. When you exercise: Your testosterone levels vary throughout the day. Levels are typically highest in the morning and lowest in the afternoon.

Research has found that strength-training workouts may have a bigger effect on testosterone in the evening. As a result, the brief boost from your exercise session might be even bigger if you schedule it after work instead of early in the morning, Isaacs says.

4. Your fitness level: Not in great shape? If you start exercising, you maybe get a bigger, though still brief, boost in testosterone than a man who’s already in good shape.

But after a few weeks, your body gets used to the challenge. Eventually, you’ll get a lower hormone response from the same workout, Schroeder says.

All Types of Exercise Count

Endurance training and resistance training (such as weight lifting) both boost testosterone levels briefly, Schroeder says.

Lifting weights or doing other strength-training workouts has a bigger effect on your testosterone, Schroeder says. He says the following strategies will give you an even bigger boost in testosterone from your strength training workouts, which is backed up by research.

Use more muscles. (For instance, a full-body workout affects this hormone more than doing one exercise, such as biceps curls.)

Lift heavier weights rather than doing many reps of light weights.

Have shorter rest periods during your workout.

Still, you should build an overall exercise plan that also includes cardio and flexibility training, so you’re helping your overall health.

Overdoing it, though, could backfire. Elite athletes (and amateurs who overtrain), can see a drop their testosterone level, which is a sign that they’re doing harm to their bodies. In these cases, they tend to have low testosterone and high cortisol, a stress hormone, Schroeder says. He notes that a rise in cortisol can be linked to a fall in testosterone.

Signs of overtraining include:

• Excessive soreness
• Trouble recovering from workouts
• Trouble sleeping
• Losses in performance and strength

Give yourself enough time to rest between workouts, and eat healthfully to help your body recover after workouts.

By Eric Metcalf, MPH

Click here to read the full article on WebMD

For more information, please read my books Beat Overeating Now!: Take Control of Your Hunger Hormones to Lose Weight Fast and Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism or visit my Facebook page.

www.YourEndocrinologist.com
www.IntelligentHealthCenter.com