Excess weight is about inflammation & insulin

There are many possible reasons for weight gain such as sex hormone and thyroid imbalances. But int his post I’m going to talk about inflammation, stress hormones and diet.

case study

I had a client recently who had many long-term health issues, but also wanted to lose weight. We’d been working for some time and they’d gone from a 10/10 to 4/10 in terms of how they felt.

But although we removed general inflammatory foods from their diet, they still weren’t losing weight. In fact, they were putting it on.

This was a clear message that we hadn’t got to the root cause.

We did some deep genetic testing and histamines came up as an issue from multiple angles, not just because they were born with SNPs or genetic glitches, but because epigenetics meant that environmental factors had switched them on. We needed to calm them.

We did some blood testing which confirmed this, and then I put them on a low histamine and moderate oxalate diet (for other reasons).

Within a few days they’d already lost 3kg, began sleeping well, and felt much better.

inflammation & stress hormones

Excess weight can be a result of inflammation.

How?

Because histamines, a key factor in the inflammatory process, bring blood and nutrients to your wound or disease site, and require lots of water for this making you gain fluid.

But this inflammation also causes your stress hormones to rise like cortisol, which can raise insulin (your blood sugar hormones), which determines how your food is being used and stored e.g. as inflammatory fat around your belly, or as good energy.

In addition, when eating foods that are inflammatory for your body, it releases substances called cytokines, which activate your body’s immune response. Cytokines are pro-inflammatory, and they also interfere with the body’s insulin response.

As you can see, it’s not just calories that count, but other factors as well. Could resolving your health issues, and eating accordingly, be a key factor in your weight issues?