Chapter 1: Basic Understanding
What is Obesity?
Obesity is a state of being overweight, or having excessive fat. In medical terms, obesity is defined as having excess adipose (animal fat) tissue deposits. Alternatively, obesity means that the weight ratio of fat to total body mass exceeds 25% for men or 30% for women. On average, the normal weight ratio is around 18%.
Can we say that the lower the fat ratio the better? While for most people this is true, the answer is not always yes. To keep a healthy body, we must maintain a certain fat level. Too low a fat ratio is not healthy. A normal and healthy fat ratio is around 18%. The human body largely consists of bones, muscles, and fat. The bones and muscles play the role of sustaining the body structure and its daily activities. Fat's primary role is to store excess energy for use on a rainy day. Fat also constitutes an important part of our vital organs such as our brain which is mostly fat. When we are sick and the proper level of energy and nutrition is not supplied, body-fat begins to get disintegrated, becoming an alternative source of energy and nutrition. Therefore, when the fat ratio is too low, our body is exposed to the danger of not having enough reserve energy during a period of insufficient calorie intake (e.g. serious illness). Also, an insufficient fat supply hinders the formation of certain vital organs. The fat, which helps to form the brain, is usually 3%-5% of your total body weight. Fat is an important building material for many other key organs of the body. This is why simplistic fasting and extreme dieting often harm our body permanently. Body-fat itself is not harmful. Excess body-fat is harmful and insufficient body fat is equally harmful.
Diagnosis - Body Fat Ratio
Men and women are considered obese when their body fat exceeds 25% or 30% respectively. However, measuring a person's exact body fat ratio is not as easy stepping on some scale. So, for convenience, people can use the following methods:
- Standard Weight Index: Normally, the standard weight is computed as (height in centimeters - 100cm) times 0.9. For example, for a person who stands 170cm, the above calculation is (170-100) * 0.9 = 63kg. Therefore, 63kg is the standard weight for a person whose height is 170 cm. If a person's actual weight exceeds the standard weight by more than 20%, he is considered overweight. Degree 1 obesity is weighing 20% more than the standard weight. For the person above whose standard weight was 63 kg, he is Degree 1 obese if his weight is more than 75.6kg. For Degree 2 obesity, he should weigh more than 81.9kg, which is 30% over standard. Degree 3 obesity is 40% higher than the standard weight and Degree 4 obesity is 50% higher and so on. This method is relatively easy to use. But, this method does not really distinguish between a sturdy physique and someone who is overweight. In other words, according to this method, a highly trained body builder is equally classified with someone who is more overweight.
It is true that for most people determining who is fat and who is not fat is a relatively straightforward task. Therefore, for most of us, we do not need such sophisticated methods as described above. But, remember there may be some psychological dimensions to the obesity problem. For example, some overweight individuals can deny their problem. They maintain they are not 'that' overweight. For these people, and for everyone else who enjoys calculating some weight ratio numbers, we hope you like the above calculations. But, for the rest of us, these calculations are just academic since we already know our weight situation.
Causes of Obesity: Disturbed Metabolism and Vicious Cycles
Obesity starts when something goes wrong with our basic nutrition and energy metabolism. Our basic metabolism is through which nutrients are taken in, digested and become energy to enable our activities and to maintain basic biological functions such as breathing and body temperature. Carbohydrates that are consumed are digested and turned into blood sugar, which is the fuel for human activities and basic biological sustenance. Healthy people maintain a balance between the nutrition intake (the fuel) and its usage (cellular burning of the fuel). As long as there is a healthy balance in this basic metabolism, one does not become overweight.
However, once something goes wrong your basic metabolism, the vicious cycle of obesity gradually sets in. Here is an example of the typical stages of damage that occurs to a person's basic metabolism:
Stage 1 - Constant overeating leads to high blood sugar levels and over time the unused blood sugar is converted into body fat. At the same time, high blood sugar levels require the body to produce larger quantities of insulin to process the high blood sugar. Insulin is a hormone that helps transfer the blood sugar from the blood system to the body's cells.
Stage 2 - After several years, the body's ability to produce insulin has diminished considerably. During this time the body also reacts very negatively to the prior excessive production of insulin and the body begins to use insulin less efficiently. Thus after several years of high blood sugar, insulin production becomes weak and your body also becomes resistant toward the insulin it produces. Once, the insulin balance is disturbed like this, the body has one fewer weapon to fight against obesity.
Stage 3 - Numerous years of this vicious cycle of obesity can lead to numerous medical complications with diabetes and heart disease being the most common.
To summarize the vicious cycle can be seen as 1) Habitual overeating that leads to 2) high blood sugar and long term high blood sugar which leads to 3) insulin insufficiency and insulin resistance. Insulin insufficiency and insulin resistance leads to diabetes 4) diabetes and other major complication that lead to a still higher blood sugar levels.
In fact, there are several dimensions of this vicious cycle of obesity. In the above example, even though the individual is overeating, the person's cells may still receive insufficient fuel (blood sugar). How can this happen? Since insufficient insulin was released, the excessive blood sugar of the overeater remains in their blood stream. Therefore, their cells cry to the brain for more energy/nutrition. The brain interprets this signal as a demand for more food and the individual will feel a need to eat more. Additional overeating starts another cycle.
In sum, in the vicious cycle of obesity, eating more leads to eating still more through a few well-known mechanisms. As long as the disturbed basic metabolism stays unfixed, the basic energy metabolism tend to get worse and worse. Somehow, one must cut this vicious cycle, and rehabilitate the body's basic metabolism. Remember the quicker you stop this vicious obesity cycle the better. Prevention is always preferred. In order to prevent obesity, one has to be aware of those factors which lead to obesity.
Six Factors of the Vicious Cycle of Obesity
There seem to be about six factors that start the above mentioned vicious obesity cycle:
1. Poor Eating Habits - Overeating obviously starts and aggravates obesity. This does not require too much explanation. Just look around. Modern men and women simply eat too much and too often. However, it is no only quantity of the food consumed but also the quality. It is noteworthy, that the lack of some important nutrients also leads to obesity. Partial malnutrition leads to obesity too. When certain nutrients are insufficient due to an unbalanced diet, our body continuously demands those insufficient nutrients, and more often than not this leads to additional overeating. You would be surprised to find out how unbalanced a fast-food meal is or how few nutrients are contained in all junk food. If one relies on junk food for even 15% of your food consumption, it can lead to serious obesity and malnutrition at the same time.
2. Environmental Factors - Our way of living is constantly changing, new environmental changes are introduced daily. For example, Chinese people used to drink a lot of tea. Tea, in general is extremely healthy, and contains some very important nutrients. Now, soft drinks especially Coke-Cola China have saturated their market and are massively consumed. It is no wonder that because of this environmental change the obesity problem in China has increased. Another simple example would be more automobiles lead to more obesity. Also, we believe that more computers will lead to more people spending their time in front of a screen rather than moving around. Definitely more obesity will result from more computers. If we look around, whenever there is a change in our life style toward more convenience, it almost always leads to more obesity. This is tragic price we have to pay for modernity.
3. Drug Side Effects - Medications like birth control pills, antihistamine medications, asthmatic and allergy pills may also be a cause to obesity. These drugs are quite frequently used. Therefore, most of us have been exposed to the danger of obesity from the side effects of these drugs. As a principle, any drug that causes a change in your hormone balance tends to lead to obesity. We should know that gaining weight is one of the most common side effects of all the drugs. Some herbal products also have weight gain side effects because they stimulate appetite. We tend to underestimate the seriousness of obesity related drug side effects. The obesity caused by drug side effects is harder to handle than the obesity caused by other factors. Thus, we have to pay extra attention to the obesity related drug side effects.
4. Genetic Factors - When parents are overweight, the chance of children being overweight is as high as 50-70%. When parents are overweight, children should be very careful. Recently, scientists have claimed to have found the "fat genes." In theory, this is fantastic. Wouldn't it be fashionable to blame everything on certain "fat genes?" This would be great because then no one has to feel guilty and the solution sounds simple to fix. Although promising, it will take numerous years until a miracle gene therapy safely blocks the culprit fat genes.
5. Psychological Factors - Stress can cause people to overeat. Such compulsive eating surely contributes to a person's obesity. Also, stress adversely affects the hormonal balance which is another contributing factor to obesity. Other more serious psychological problems like depression can also lead to overeating. If this is an important factor in your situation, we recommend that you seek expert guidance to ensure that this factor is minimized.
6. Hormone Disorders - As was just mentioned, any hormone disorder can cause obesity. Some argue, quite controversially, that hormone disorders are very rare and only apply to 1% of obesity patients. As pregnancy hormonal problems can lead to large permanent weight gain, we do not agree with this assessment. However, as not much is known about this cause, we are unable to substantiate this belief.
Who Suffers from Obesity?
In affluent countries, obesity is more prevalent. Of course, in North America, the obesity problem is very serious. In Canada, 30.5% of the total population suffer from weight problems. The above figure when further segregated is more startling. Over 50% of all adults in Canada are considered overweight. The situation is no better in the U.S. In 1996, there were also more overweight adults than normal adults. In 1996, there was an estimated 70 million people who were overweight. Due to the steep growth rate and pervasive effect on all age categories, U.S. obesity forecasts are very pessimistic. Some forecasts indicate that within 20 years, a clear majority of all Americans (65%) will be overweight if nothing is done. Nobody, it seems, is safe from the threat of obesity.
What are Sensible Weight Control Methods?
It is important that 'weight control' methods should be sensible. Weight control methods should be about more than simple weight loss. They should focus on a method to normalize the person's metabolic balance, and as a result they should provide weight loss. Weight loss at any cost is a wrong approach and always very dangerous. Let's take the example of a glamorous weight control method called 'liposuction'. This is an extreme weight control method that works by directly removing body fat out of a person's body through a surgical operation. Of course, the immediate consequence of this surgery is that your body weight is declined, and your body fat ratio is reduced. However, there are very serious side effects from this operation and the initial weight loss tends to return very quickly. This surgical operation does not address the fundamental causes of weight gain it simply an quick way for individuals to experience a large loss in weight. Of course, the fat comes back quickly. In order for a weight control method to have real and long lasting benefits, that weight control method should contribute toward the normalization of the basic nutrition and energy metabolism. There is no other way. Basic nutrition and energy metabolism is where the problem started. Therefore, that is where the solution must be found.
Obesity and Diabetes: Siamese Twins
Diabetes and obesity are so closely related that many experts say that obesity and diabetes are like two sides of the same coin. That is, these experts feel that any discussion about obesity must include a discussion about diabetes because they are so similar. It is little wonder that many obesity specialists are also diabetes specialists. Let's review their similarities. Diabetes like obesity also results from a metabolic imbalance that is very similar to obesity. Diabetes is a disease that results from 1) Insulin not being produced or secreted properly, 2) an increase in insulin resistance. The outcome is high blood sugar, which will result in body fat increase. The second similarity is that diabetes and obesity are highly correlated. That is, 75% of all obese individuals also suffer from diabetes. Obesity often can trigger diabetes and diabetes often leads to obesity. Diabetic patients should be extra careful about their weight and obese individuals should take preventative steps due to their high likelihood of becoming diabetic. Diabetes disarms an individual of the weapons to fight obesity and obesity worsens diabetes. There are so many similarities between them that doctors refer to the two as Siamese Twins. Also, experts agree that if there are permanent solution to diabetes, it must be also permanent solution to obesity, and vice versa.
The discovery presented in this book, Eleotin®-Mb, was originally based on diabetes treatment called P-700. The Julia Macfarlane Diabetes Research Center (the University of Calgary) developed the P-700 diabetes treatment. The P-700 treatment was shown to naturally and safely control blood glucose levels. After a six-month usage of P-700, diabetic complications were reduced and the reduction was maintained semi-permanently. This diabetes treatment technology has been licensed to Eastwood Bio-Medical Research Inc. since January 1998 under the brand name - Eleotin® A, B, and C. When Eleotin® was reported to the American Diabetes Association, one of the world's leading diabetic scholars suggested to Eastwood that they should apply the Eleotin® technology to develop a weight control product. His reasoning was that since Eleotin® provided semi-permanent diabetes protection and control, it would also be successful at providing long lasting weight loss. As we explained earlier, diabetes and obesity are two sides of the same coin. The improvement and control of diabetes naturally requires weight loss if that is a contributing factor to the diabetes. Therefore, Eastwood began to review how the Eleotin® technology could be amended and developed into an effective weight control product. Based on the recommendations of the American Diabetes Association and the University of Calgary, Eastwood completed its analysis and review and a new weight control technology has emerged. From the original diabetes treatment technology, Eleotin®, primary hypoglycemic ingredients (blood sugar lowering ingredients) were removed, and metabolism-boosting ingredients were added. The result was the creation of Eleotin®Mb.
<Table of Content> <Previous Page(Introduction)> <Next Page(Chapter 2)>