Why Am I So Tired?: Is your thyroid making you ill?. Литагент HarperCollins USD
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Название: Why Am I So Tired?: Is your thyroid making you ill?

Автор: Литагент HarperCollins USD

Издательство: HarperCollins

Жанр: Спорт, фитнес

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isbn: 9780007388325

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СКАЧАТЬ going on a diet and being subjected to famine or starvation. But our bodies do not know the difference. When we go on a diet regime we activate the mechanisms in the body that protect us and preserves us in times of famine. And what does the body need to keep it going between times of famine? — Fat. The more often people diet, the more their bodies will protect the stores of fat. 1

      When discussing water loss in the context of dieting, it is worth noting that over 50 per cent of our weight consists of water.

      Body fat contains very little water. For this reason women’s bodies contain less water than men’s. This is because the average woman has more body fat than the average man. Consequently an overweight person will hold less water than a lean person of similar weight. The proportion of water, fat and fat-free tissue lost with dieting varies from person to person according to their sex and the diet they followed.

       Exercise and Dieting

      Dieting can trigger your innate self-protection responses. Your body will adjust to deal with lifestyle changes, and what we do not use or need will take second place to the essential. An example being a sedentary, non-active person who does not use his/her muscles will tend to lose lean tissue (particularly muscle) when on a diet. This occurs simply because the dieter’s body-wisdom does not recognize muscle tissue as being essential. Conversely an overweight individual’s body will tend to preserve the fat it has become used to. If, however, the dieter is an active, sporting individual who makes use of his/her muscles, the muscle tissue will be seen by the metabolism as essential, and the lean muscle tissue loss will be minimal, but with more fat loss occurring.

       The Thyroid and Weight Loss

      I hope now it is becoming clear that the typical low carbohydrate, calorie-controlled diet is not ideal for you to lose weight.

      Glycogen loss, temporary water loss and possible unwanted loss of lean muscle tissue can occur. The blood sugar can be reduced causing the many symptoms of hypoglycaemia that dieters can experience.

      Essentially dieting slows the metabolism and mentally and physically we become more lethargic. This is our body’s response to a reduced fuel supply.

      To summarize, our metabolism can respond in six ways to a low calorie or low carbohydrate diet.

      1 Glycogen loss occurs from muscle and liver tissue.

      2 Water loss occurs.

      3 Lean tissue (muscle) loss occurs.

      4 Brown fat activity increases with complex carbohydrate food and decreases with high fat or protein foods

      5 The metabolism slows in response to the reduced fuel obtained from food.

      6 Our metabolic rate, largely controlled by the thyroid, slows down through long-term dieting.

      Many chronic dieters learn to recognize that their metabolism has adjusted to their dieting. Initial weight loss is usually followed by a period of static weight, even when the same reduced calorie or carbohydrate diet is being followed. Unfortunately the return to a ‘normal’ diet for non-active dieters, often leads to a rapid return to their original weight or even to a heavier weight. Although the dieting may have ended, their new reduced metabolic rate or tempo is still operating and using calories at a slower rate. The reduction in lean body mass as a result of the dieting causes a fall in the calories used for energy and a vicious circle is established.

      You may be thinking: ‘well yes, very interesting, but what about the thyroid?’. As discussed in other sections of this book, the thyroid is our metabolic clock. Therefore a metabolic slowing as a result of dieting can influence the thyroid. Conversely an existing under-active thyroid will lower metabolic activity, making dieting unsuccessful.

       Brown Fat and the Thyroid

      Research has been done over the last 20 years to show that when brown fat does not efficiently carry out its heat conversion role, the body’s endocrine glands can be suspected. Underactivity of the adrenal glands and the thyroid gland being particularly implicated.

      When this thyroid-brown fat link was identified, it was assumed that a person with inactive brown fat was also suffering with hypothyroidism and a prescription for thyroxine would solve the problem.

      More recently, however, research has shown that the thyroid may be working normally, but the conversion of T4 to T3 may be inefficient. This has lead to the view that re-balancing normal hormone conversion with the help of an optimum diet, supplement use and exercise, may be the answer, Jeffrey Bland believes that the minerals copper, zinc, iodine and selenium are of particular benefit.2

      The amino acid tyrosine that combines with iodine to make T3 and T4 may also be responsible for increasing brown fat activity. It has been recommended for those individuals who show signs of low brown fat activity. As we know that this protein is so important for thyroid metabolism, it would appear to offer an invaluable dual role in treating obesity, particularly when the obesity is partly caused by underactivity of the thyroid gland.

       Weight, Exercise and the Thyroid

      Experiments involving low calorie diets have yielded significant information on the link between weight loss and the metabolic rate.

      In 1919 F. G. Benedict placed 34 American student volunteers on a diet of 1,500 calories a day. After an average weight loss of 10 per cent (this took 60 days), their metabolic rate had fallen by 18 per cent3. More recently George K. Bray at UCLA put six very overweight women on a 450 calorie diet for 24 days4. Their weight loss averaged seven per cent, but their metabolic output fell by 15 per cent. Such evidence confirms that dieting slows down our metabolic rate. In particular the vital organs are slowed, chiefly by a reduced use of oxygen. It follows that dieting cannot be seen as a healthy option. As the thyroid both regulates and reflects our metabolic rate, it is clear that a mildly underactive thyroid is incompatible with lasting weight reduction.

      Weight loss should not depend on low calorie diets or low carbohydrate diets. Any attempts to lose weight should be directed towards normalizing the thyroid activity, eating a healthy balanced diet and following regular, preferably non-competitive, exercise. I have found that those patients who come to see me with a weight problem very often show low morning temperatures, and when they have in the past lost weight this was usually rapidly regained, sometimes with interest.

      If СКАЧАТЬ