Dr. Brandy Victory, Peak to Peak.

Spring is finally here, and many people are inspired by the prospect of a healthier summer and begin important lifestyle and behavior changes. Losing weight is one of the most common things I hear that motivates them and here are a few key tips to achieving a toned and healthy body.

Eliminate/Reduce Inflammation

Most people associate inflammation with redness and pain after an injury or illness, which is acute inflammation. But subacute inflammation is the type of inflammation that manifests as heart disease, cancer, fatigue, and, you guessed it, extra pounds. Chronic inflammation is not necessarily seen or felt and is often called the “silent killer.”

Eating fruits and vegetables will certainly help quell inflammation, but the key is to prevent it in the first place. One way you can do this is by eliminating sugar. Sugar is extremely inflammatory!  Did you know that fat cells are also inflammatory? Fat cells actually secrete inflammatory hormones which in turn exacerbate metabolic dysfunction. Therefore, weight loss generally helps reduce inflammation, and when you reduce inflammation, it helps you lose weight.

Maintain Stable Blood Sugar

Many people believe that hunger is mostly caused by an empty stomach, when in reality hunger is a response to blood glucose levels. This is why it’s possible to eat hundreds, even thousands of calories such as candy and sweets, then feel hungry relatively soon after. This is also the reason why it’s possible to go long periods of time without eating despite an empty stomach and having lack of hunger. Bottom line is, it’s all about blood sugar control. 

When starting a weight loss program, one of the many obstacles that eventually trip people up is wild blood sugar fluctuations which lead to unrelenting cravings and mood swings. The goal then is to optimize blood sugar stability. One way you can do this is by balancing your macronutrients in each meal and snack. In other words, every time you eat have a good fat, complex carbohydrate and a protein.

Optimize Gut Health

This means establishing and colonizing your GI tract with diverse, beneficial bacteria.  Healthy gut flora not only help protect against pathogens, they also help synthesize vitamins and impact neurotransmitter levels, ultimately effecting one’s immune system as well as how one looks and feels.  

A healthy gut flora is supported by eating prebiotic and probiotic foods. This includes fermented foods like kim chi, raw sauerkraut and yogurt. One the other hand, sugar and refined carbohydrates promote the growth of pathogenic bacteria, which often cause weight gain.

Micronutrient Balance

Micronutrients play a role in all of the systems in your body, and many influence weight loss. A few of them include vitamins A, D, E, B3, and B5.  

Vitamin A helps regulate gene expression, especially that of a certain gene that helps lower a person’s tendency to store food as fat. If one is deficient in vitamin A she may be predisposed to storing fat tissue.  You can increase your vitamin A by eating eggs, orange fruits and vegetables and cod liver oil.

Vitamin D also affects gene expression, including the way fat cells develop. A vitamin D deficiency is strongly linked to poor carbohydrate metabolism and lead sto the body storing carbohydrates as fat. Increase your vitamin D by getting in the sunshine without sunscreen for 15 minutes/day.

Vitamin B3 can increase the hormone adiponectin, which signals cells to burn fuel. It also helps muscles use glucose for energy rather than store it as fat. It is commonly used to treat high cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease. It has also been linked to better brain function and decreased joint pain. Increase chicken, liver, tuna, turkey and salmon to get more B3.

These pillars of health work synergistically too. Reducing inflammation helps promote healthy gut bacteria; optimizing blood sugar results in a smaller inflammatory burden and a healthy gut helps drive blood sugar stabilization. Optimizing micronutrients helps all your systems work at their best function. Maybe your problem isn’t really “just because you are getting older,” just maybe there is room for better health to be expressed.  

If you’d like to take it to the next level, you may want to join in on our next Blood Draw Day and get a personalized reading of your micronutrient status. We offer this to help reduce the costs of labs for our community.  For more information call 303-619-7766 or email admin@drbrandyvictory.com

(Originally published in the June 27, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)