Childhood Obesity
I recently had the opportunity to interview Dr. Carol, an MD who is board certified in general pediatrics and obesity medicine but prefers private coaching for people with obesity. We got into a great discussion about how to help parents and children lose weight and how to deal with the consequences of obesity. One hugely concerning thing is the prevalence of obesity in our children. The CDC in the US notes that between 2017 and 2020, obesity prevalence was:
  • 12.7% among 2- to 5-year-olds
  • 20.7% among 6- to 11-year-olds
  • 22.2% among 12- to 19-year-olds. 
And the rates are on the rise!  Why is this? Doctors agree that consuming more calories than the body needs and not getting enough physical activity is one of the main causes. But factors such as genetics, family habits, and environmental influences can also contribute to the development of obesity in children. Personally, I feel that our modern way of life is so far removed from our physiology that most kids today haven’t got a chance. I have 2 kids and give them a choice between anything pre-packaged and sweetened and some real whole-food vegetables; I’m afraid to say they will take the sweet stuff every time.  The sad part is that childhood obesity can have serious health implications, especially an increased risk of developing chronic conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease. Obese children may also face psychological and social challenges, such as low self-esteem and bullying or shaming, as Dr Carol points out. What can be done? Prevention is key; this starts by helping parents with education and understanding. Yes, ironically, budget can be a factor as some of the calories dense, unhealthy food can be cheaper than other more healthy food, but this is not always the case. One of my colleagues, Barb Sheldon, who was featured on episode 2 of the Your Lifestyle Is Your Medicine Podcast (https://edpaget.com/?cat=search_podcasts&s=barb) [embed]https://youtu.be/XZ89j7XUyk4[/embed] Notes that not many people have the knife skills to prepare fresh food. She teaches knife skills to her clients so they can feel comfortable preparing vegetables.  This type of education needs to be country-wide or even global. You see, the problem, at the moment, is mainly concentrated in developed countries, but as other countries with large populations develop, scientists have noticed an increase in obesity. I see this where I currently am in Nicaragua. Kids and adults will prefer drinking Coca-Cola over water; for some, it’s their only drink! If you and your family struggle with obesity, I suggest seeking someone like Dr Carol or myself who can give you a holistic approach to weight loss. We address factors like sleep, stress, purpose, and community which, when combined with nutrition and physical activity, make Your Lifestyle into Your Medicine  DM me. I'm always happy to chat!
How you think can lead to heart disease or happiness
Did you know that thinking you aren’t doing enough exercise can be worse for you than not doing enough? I find this a fascinating area because when I work with people looking to improve their health and performance with lifestyle medicine, I consistently underestimate how important mindset is.  For example, aside from my work with scoliosis, I specialize in helping busy professionals reach optimal performance at work and in life.  Usually, someone comes to me with a problem or a goal. They may have high cholesterol and want to bring it down naturally, or they may want to optimize their lifestyle for longevity and continued high performance at work. As an aside, I find that osteopaths and other manual therapists need this type of coaching the most, and I’ll explain why in a minute.  But first, I want to share with you this research study. Stanford University researchers conducted it and suggested that how people perceive themselves can be linked to shorter lifespans. The researchers found that individuals with negative self-perceptions, such as thinking they were less physically capable or less active than others, were more likely to experience health problems and die earlier than those with positive self-perceptions. The study analyzed data from over 6,000 participants, who were followed for several years. The researchers considered factors like age, socioeconomic status, and overall health to ensure these variables did not influence the results. Surprisingly they noticed that the people who thought they were less physically capable or less active than others had a higher risk of developing health issues, including heart disease and other chronic conditions, ultimately leading to a shorter lifespan. This is why it’s important that busy professionals, including all my osteopathic colleagues, pay attention to this. While you are busy building your business and serving your clients, you are also exposed to an insidious feed from social media and mainstream media. It’s telling you to move more, to exercise more, and if you know it’s important but continually put self-care in second place in your life, it can affect you.  The key is to plan your days, weeks, months, etc, so that you build the right amount of activity for you. This doesn’t have to be gym time; for example, one of my clients in New York just gets off the subway one stop earlier than before, and she manages to get 40 minutes extra walking into her day without a huge time sacrifice.  In addition to movement, we must pay attention to sleep, nutrition, community, stress, and what we put into and on our bodies.  Companies like Hintsa have used this holistic approach to performance coaching to help the best athletes in the world sustain high performance (Lewis Hamiton uses a Hinsta coach) and can also help busy professionals enjoy a fast-paced life while avoiding burnout and unseen pitfalls.  If you want to know more about mindset and health, below is a link to a recent video I made, but also you can DM me if you have any questions about your situation.    [embed]https://youtu.be/EBOXcSRKPfA[/embed] Sources: https://news.stanford.edu/2017/07/20/self-perceptions-linked-shorter-lifespans/  
Moving Naturally
I recently had a chance to go on a survival course in the heart of the jungle on the side of El Hoyo, a volcano, outside the city of Leon in Nicaragua. It was an experience that challenged me both mentally and physically. Over three days and two nights, I returned to nature by learning to hunt and move quietly through the forest. What was striking to me was how much I moved my body. Ducking under branches, climbing over fallen trees, holding my breath, and trying not to sweat as something to hunt came into view. In the evenings, we built a fire and cooked what we had caught, in our case, an Iguana and a rabbit...the volcano provides... But I was amazed at how sore I was. I'm meant to be a movement guy. I recently ran 50 miles and climbed seven volcanoes, all within two weeks, not even a pulled muscle. However, there is a difference between hiking and hunting. In just 3 days, my ears got better at identifying bird calls and judging distances. I worked my jaw and teeth hard, picking the meat of the unusual bones. My breath control became more acute, and somehow, my balance improved. (I'm not recommending everyone go hunting, but simply bird-watching or trying to take animal photos will have the same effect).  In the evenings, I sat cross-legged by the fire; this position was once my nemesis. I fixed that by removing the chairs in my house and sitting on the floor for a year. Now, sitting crossed-legged isn't a pleasure, but it's tolerable.  But sitting there, tending the fire, and thinking about how humans have been hunting and sitting by fires for tens of thousands of years, and yet most people in the 'developed world have yet to do it. It seems like such a waste of our innate skills, like driving a Ferrari and never taking it out of first gear.  Our bodies are capable of much more than what we use them for. I now know a few physicians that prescribe camping for stress, and I fully agree. Getting out there and going through a nature reset can profoundly change your physiology and state of mind. If you want to learn more about how lifestyle medicine can help you obtain optimal help, just email or DM me, and I’ll get back to you.  If you want to see a short video of my adventures, check out my new YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/FG_jOtlVLkA
Lose 40lb without dieting or setting foot inside a gym
Below is an article written by Liz Kershaw that first appeared in the Telegraph on May 15th, 2023. I wanted to share it with you as I really resonated with her honesty about losing weight and doing it without dieting. I also wanted to let you know what I was thinking. Therefore I’ve added my thoughts to the text in italics. You’ll read a few paragraphs from Liz, then my thoughts. _______________________________________________________ In the UK, 64 percent of adults are now overweight or obese. The NHS is spending billions on treatments for the millions of people with diagnosed conditions directly related to being overweight. Should the state be paying to repair the damage we do to our own bodies every time we fill our faces? Perhaps instead, we should all be expected to be honest with ourselves, take some personal responsibility, use our common sense, and bring on the determin­ation and willpower. That’s what I think. (Ed - There are many reasons for people to become overweight; some argue genetics play a role as humans have evolved to save calories, not expend them; some argue it is hormones, but we have the same genetics and hormones as previous generations, so we need to look closer at the food we eat.  It is designed to be high sugar, high fat, cheap and addictive, so the willpower method is hard, but as we’ll see, it's not impossible.) Because I did just that five years ago, and it works. I’m not claiming to have done anything special, unique, or clever. I’ve just been honest with myself.  Imagine stuffing a rucksack with a bulky nine 4lb bag of potatoes and lugging it around on your back all day and all night. That’s some burden. A real hindrance to mobility that takes its toll on you physically and mentally. You’d be uncomfortable, inconvenienced, exhausted, and miserable. It’s not a good look, either. But that’s what I was doing to myself five years ago. Not with raw spuds, but nearly 40lb or three stone of fat that had got under my skin for me to carry around. When I realized that in May 2018, it was such a shock that it instantly changed my self-image, my attitude to food, and ultimately my health and quality of life. The wake-up call was a photo of me smiling obliviously by a pool in a swimsuit. The new one-piece that I’d had to buy in size 18 for my holiday because it was such a stretch to get into last year’s model. My friend took the snap and handed me her phone – I was horrified at what I saw. My burgeoning belly had meant bikinis were no longer an option, so my thickening torso was all trussed up in a tight Lycra one-piece. There, in the bright French sunshine, my thunder thighs, flabby arms, chubby cheeks, and a deepening crease in my double chin were all laid bare. I realized I’d actually disfigured myself with food. (Ed - I’ve not heard people say this before, but it’s an interesting admission of guilt.  For example, let's say I love extreme sports and injure myself; I would take responsibility for the injury and agree with people if they said I did it to myself.  By contrast, when people overeat and become obese, society has not yet allowed us to say that the damage people cause to themselves is their fault; responsibility is laid at the feet of things like the social economic spectrum, cheap fast food, addictive additives, etc, all these things play a role, but ultimately there is only one person who puts the food in your mouth). There was nobody else to blame. I’d simply eaten more than I’d burnt up. I hadn’t been pigging out. My body was just using less food as I aged and slowed down. But I hadn’t adjusted my intake.  My weight (bulk, actually – let’s be honest) had been creeping up slowly since I’d turned 50. It hadn’t bothered me on a day-to-day basis. I was conscious of the folds of fat gradually forming around my middle, but I’d been kidding myself that being tall (5ft 9in), I could cover it up and carry it off. Just pull on some sturdy pants and surrender to the next size up. But by 2018, the odd pound here and there had mounted up. As I discovered when I got back home, I braced myself and stepped on the scales. I weighed 14½ stone, 203lb, or 92kg.  I couldn’t fool myself any longer. I was fat. And fed up. I was turning 60 in just under three months, and I was certainly looking older than I wanted to. Right. I couldn’t actually turn back the hands of time, but I could get a grip and look younger by stopping the rot and damn well turning my life around. (Ed-Weight gain can be insidious like this.  Especially if you surround yourself with people who are also gaining weight, no one notices until you get some blood work back that says you are pre-diabetic, have high cholesterol, and your BP is borderline high.  That’s the first warning most people get, but really it’s there every day, looking back at you in the mirror.) For starters, I promised myself I’d be in better nick by my big birthday. At my party, I would be wearing something lovely that I’d left hanging around for years in a wardrobe bulging with beautiful clothes – in three different sizes (12, 14, and 16) that I couldn’t get into anymore. That was my first incentive.  Then I went to Tesco for inspiration. I wanted to see what the three stones looked like. I made a pile of potatoes. I got some funny looks from shoppers, but that really brought it home to me. And gave me the resolve, the steely determination, and the willpower to take back control. By July 30, 2018, I’d ditched 18lb (four and a half bags of those spuds), and my red slinky satin dress wasn’t such a squeeze. By August 2019, I’d slowly but surely (this was not a crash diet) shed 35 lbs (almost nine bags of spuds) and was loving being able to show a (long, toned) leg in a size 12, 1960s-style white mini dress. (Ed-She mentions it is not a crash diet; that is key. Really it’s about losing weight in a sustainable way that incorporates things like exercise, nutrition, and sleep into your lifestyle). By January 2020, I was three stone (42lb) down and zipping up my skinny leather biker trousers again. And that’s how I’ve stayed. For five years and counting, I’ve completely changed my attitude to food. I now think of food as what it is. Fuel. I wouldn’t ruin my car by putting any old oily stuff in the tank. I wouldn’t persist in filling it out if it were already full. I wouldn’t store up cans of fuel in the boot, on the back seat or roof, and cart them around with me. So I won’t do it to my body now if I want to keep it running properly. This doesn’t mean that I’m some kind of smug, miserable food evangelist. I love my food. I love cooking and being cooked for. I spoil myself and others with all the things I enjoy. I just won’t eat or serve rubbish that brings no benefit to body or mind. I’m never hungry. Even though I only eat twice a day – breakfast (by 10 am), and dinner (by 6 pm) – with nothing in between. I drink a lot of coffee in the morning and tea in the afternoon. With milk. So plenty of calcium and vitamins. I love a glass of wine – but I also drink loads of tap water. (Ed-There is a big clue here; she only eats twice a day and is never hungry.  This makes sense; think back to why we eat 3 meals a day.  Originally this way of eating might have come about in order for us to get enough food for the manual farm labor or factory jobs that our predecessors had. They needed the extra calories, but our modern lifestyle with all the ‘labor-saving devices’ means we don’t.  Put simply; we eat too much). I walk a lot. And very fast. But I won’t run. That just pummels and wrecks your joints. And I like a swim. I get asked all the time whose book I bought or which diet I followed. But I just made it up myself, based on what we were taught in school biology lessons about food groups and nutrition. And on what I learned from my grandma, who taught me how to turn even the cheapest meat or fish and raw, fresh veg into tasty family meals. In her lifetime, due to poverty or rationing, she had to count the cost or points, and so, out of necessity, not choice, family food was simpler and healthier. And none of us was fat. So I went right back to those basics.  I’ve always cooked meals for me and my children using fresh ingredients. We’ve never eaten ready meals, take­aways, or sugary foods. Like me as a child, they’ve never even wanted chocolate. Easter eggs have been left untouched. Chocolate money in the Christmas stockings has been recycled from year to year but never eaten. And yet I’d still piled on the pounds. So I worked out that the only thing I could and needed to cut out were all the savory things I love but which fill up a plate and your stomach. They’re full of starch and sugars, which, as I don’t run marathons, I know I can’t possibly use, and so they end up being stored as fat. That’s anything with flour, rice, pasta, potatoes, and bread, for starters. Mostly white and beige food. And also foods that do you no good and that you just don’t need. Sweet stuff. I never liked it, so not eating sugary breakfast cereals, cakes, biscuits, chocolates, sweets, puddings, fruit, juices, and fruit yogurts is nothing new for me, and I have no sense of deprivation.  In fact, most factory-processed foods, including ready meals, sauces, soups, and even bread, are packed with sugars and preservatives. So I don’t touch them, either. (Ed-Luckily, Liz had not developed a taste for ultra-processed foods.  However, the good news is that it doesn’t take long to break the additions.  You only need a week or so without any sugar to realize how sweet everything is.  I recommend my clients do a sugar detox once a year and help reset their taste buds). I now realize I’m following a low-carb lifestyle as I fill my boots with protein – chicken, steak, lamb, salmon, cod, kippers, prawns, lobster, eggs, and cheese. And loads of veg – spinach, broccoli, asparagus, mushrooms, and tomatoes. All lovely grub and hardly a hardship. And no, it’s not more expensive because it’s all unbranded and VAT-free. Check your receipt next time you fill your supermarket trolley. You’ll find there’s no VAT on real food. The Treasury knows what we need. They don’t tax real food. (Ed-This applies to the UK but might also apply to other countries, as she says, check the receipt) I did it. So can you. Ed- For me, this article was a breath of fresh air.  There wasn’t any of the usual political correctness of not using the word fat or avoiding blaming people for being fat. She was blaming herself, but that ultimately led her to take responsibility, not looking for a quick fix and making the lifestyle changes necessary for sustained weight loss. As we know, being overweight or obese also comes with an increased risk of comorbidities, so she may have decreased her chance of developing diabetes, Alzheimer's, high blood pressure,  heart attack, stroke, osteoarthritis, cancer, and mental health problems.  It’s speculative, as we will never know for sure, but this would also alleviate future stress on the medical system, her family, and her finances.  Her decision that day to change her life around might just have been the best decision she ever made.  Sources: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/health-fitness/body/liz-kershaw-lost-three-stone-without-dieting-gym/ https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn03336/#:~:text=Adult%20obesity%20in%20England,BMI)%20of%2030%20or%20above. https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/obesity/causes/#:~:text=Obesity%20is%20a%20complex%20issue,in%20the%20body%20as%20fat. https://www.emetabolic.com/locations/centers/owensboro/blog/crash-diets-can-cause-metabolic-weight-gain/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7721435/