From an appetite perspective, it can be easily seen why the chronic over-consumption of dietary fat occurs with relative ease.

Light drinkers add alcohol calories to food calories resulting in higher energy intakes than non-drinkers. This is not surprising given that alcohol intake does not produce satiety. In fact, alcohol may stimulate appetite. Alcohol also lowers inhibitions and this may lead to over-consumption of readily available, high-fat food. Hence, although alcohol per se may not result in increased fatness, use of alcohol may have this result through its other effects.

This situation is different in heavy drinkers (15-40 per cent of energy intake from alcohol), who appear to bum alcohol inefficiently; in fact, alcoholics who rely on alcohol for most of their calorie intake tend to be thin and malnourished.

*118\186\4*

If the patient’s primary physician hasn’t already done so, I order a detailed medical workup, including complete blood count, blood chemistries, thyroid-function tests, urinalysis, and electrocardiogram. Even though a problem may appear to be psychological in origin, I have to rule out potentially treatable physical causes, such as a brain tumor.

For example, many anorexics suffer from intolerance to cold. They shiver all the time, despite the fact that they wear several layers of clothes, drink hot liquids constantly, and keep the heat turned up. Such sensitivity can also be a sign that the thyroid isn’t up to par. I thus order thyroid-function tests to rule out this cause of a common anorexic symptom. It is important to distinguish between thyroid abnormalities that result from the body’s attempt to compensate for the eating disorder from those that cause disordered eating, hyperactivity, or weight loss.

I also look for signs of possible vitamin and mineral deficiencies. A recent study by Dr. Richard Hall and associates at the University of Florida showed that a phenomenal 25 percent of hospitalized eating disorder patients, regardless of their diagnosis, have severely low levels of magnesium. Patients with low magnesium may develop difficulties with cardiac arrhythmias (posing the risk of sudden death), restlessness, diminished concentration and memory, hypertension, muscle weakness, leg cramps, and decreased feelings in the arms and legs. It’s not necessarily hard to correct a magnesium deficiency-a few days or weeks of oral magnesium preparations should do it. But if the problem isn’t corrected, it can result in fatal cardiac difficulties.

Electroencephalogram Tracing

EEG tracings have some value in the eating disorders workup. However, such tracings measure the patient’s brain waves only at one point in time. They can thus fail to detect a seizure disorder even if one is present. If I strongly suspect a seizure disorder, I may order a twenty-four-hour continuous recording. Contrary to previous speculation, there doesn’t seem to be a higher incidence of seizure disorders among patients with anorexia or bulimia than in the general population. A recent study by Dr. Harrison Pope and his colleagues at Harvard University showed no significant differences in the brain-wave abnormalities spotted on the EEGs of bulimic patients compared to depressed patients.

Psychological Tests

These broad-ranging tests reveal how the patient’s mind works and may provide clues to the thinking patterns that contribute to the disorder. Such tests are certainly useful for inpatient treatment, where the expense and intensity of treatment calls for as rapid and complete a workup as possible. They may also be useful for an outpatient when there are questions about her cognitive functioning or the dynamics of her personality.

Each component – interviews, physical exam, tests-adds to understanding and reveals the direction treatment should take. However, it’s not necessary, and may even be harmful, to wait for all the pieces to fall into place before treatment begins.

Developing the treatment plan is a collaborative effort involving the doctor, patient, and family. Together we look at the problem from many angles, decide on the goals, and develop the approach that stands the best chance of working. Sometimes this involves drawing up a treatment contract that explicitly spells out goals and methods.

*55/35/5*

When 70-year-old Dolly retired, her lifestyle took a turn for the worse. The Boston grandmother found herself sleeping and eating a lot. Soon, she weighed 170 pounds, far too much for her 5-foot-2-inch frame. The excess weight pressed on a herniated disk in her back, leaving her bed bound for weeks. Then she found out that she had high blood pressure and borderline diabetes.

Dolly knew that her weight had contributed to her health problems. She also knew that she needed to dump those excess pounds. But she couldn’t get herself started. A favor for her daughter turned out to be the boost she needed.

“My daughter had taken a third job and needed me to help watch Alisha, my granddaughter,” Dolly explains. “I was thrilled. I needed a reason to get out of bed every morning.”

On fair-weather days, Dolly walked Alisha to school in the morning, then returned to pick her up in the afternoon. When Dolly took Alisha to the local pool twice a week, she did some swimming herself. She also started swimming at the YMCA on “senior days.” As Alisha got older, Dolly joined her for bike rides, an activity she enjoyed so much that she even bought a stationary bike for winter.

During the first year and a half, Dolly lost 40 pounds, going from size 18 to 10. Today, she feels great and has an excellent health record. Though she no longer watches her granddaughter as often, Dolly has maintained her new, active lifestyle.

WINNING ACTION

Keep up with a kid. If you don’t have children or grandchildren of your own to chase around, make friends with youngsters in your neighborhood. Or volunteer to help out at a nearby day care center or elementary school. Kids often have so much energy that keeping up with them is a challenge. But you can sure have a blast—and burn some calories—trying.

*109\89\8*

Average calorie amount per fruit serving: 60

Figuring Your Daily Protein Requirement

1. Determine your weight.

2. Multiply your weight by .36.

3. The result equals grams of protein you need each day.

Example: Weight = 110 1b.

110 X .36 = 39.6 (rounded
to 40) Grams of protein needed per day
= 40

*79\29\2*

Let me repeat that. It’s just as important as a sensible, unthreatening eating program. Don’t try to do more exercise than you enjoy and can keep doing. If you start by moving from essentially no exercise to a daily regimen of an hour of heavy aerobics, you’ll exhaust yourself, probably feel nauseous, and quit. If you overstrain your body, it will rebel. Pain, tiredness, excessive panting, overheating, heart palpitations—none of these symptoms of overexertion are good for you, and your body knows it. In reaction, it forces you to slow down, and it sends ever more urgent messages to your brain to tell you to stop being so
foolish.

Rather, start your exercise program slowly by adding just a little more to what you are currently doing. Try to make it fun. And always keep this goal in mind when you’re exercising: You want to burn calories, increase your metabolic rate, and improve your health, not set Olympic records.

*62\29\2*

The lower, the result, the better.
Men have an average risk of a heart attack when their CADRF1 is 4.97. That risk drops to one-half of average when the CADRF1 falls to 3.43, and continues falling as your ratio drops. But beware of an elevated CADRF1, for the risk of suffering a heart attack becomes double the average when the CADRF1 rises to 9.55.
For women, a CADRF1 of 4.44 represents an average risk of having a heart attack. The risk is cut in half when the CADRF1 falls to 3.27

*45\29\2*

Consuming a high-fat diet that “thickens” the blood and clogs the arteries pushes the blood pressure up, often to dangerously high levels. There are medicines to handle the situation, but they sometimes have serious side effects. The best, safest, natural, and most permanent solution is to clean out your arteries and thin your blood by adopting my Fat Blocker Program. You can also often reduce the risk of elevated arterial pressure by losing weight. This is another way of lowering the risk of suffering or dying from cardiovascular disease.⁷

I’ve seen the beneficial effects of the Fat Blocker Program on elevated blood pressure many times. In fact, one of my early successes was with my longtime friend Dick, who one day discovered that his blood pressure had shot up to 195/115 as his waistline ballooned to 42. His personal physician put him on beta-blockers and calcium channel blockers, two very powerful medicines. The drugs pushed his pressure down to 130/85, but they also gave him depression, fatigue, vertigo, and impotence. He was given other drugs to deal with those problems, but the second round of medications left the poor 42-year-old feeling weak and more tired than ever.

By the time I saw him he said was ready to “drop the damn drugs altogether and take my chances with the high blood pressure.”

I convinced Dick to stay with the drugs for just a little while longer, until they could safely be reduced, then eliminated. After 4 months of the Fat Blocker Program, he had lost 40 pounds and was consuming or absorbing significantly less fat than before. His blood pressure dropped down to 120/80, which is normal and healthy. He was able to discard all his medicines, and the unpleasant side effects were soon nothing more than an unhappy, distant memory.

*27\29\2*

Diets don’t work; we’re genetically programmed to eat more than we need. We’re just stuck with the problem, right?

Wrong!

For years I’ve had a great deal of success helping patients lose weight with my 8-Point Fat Blocker Program. It’s not a faddish diet and it’s not a gimmick; it really works. The program

helped many of my patients control their weight and, equally important, reduce their fat intake. This, in turn, helps to control their cholesterol and blood fats, reduce their risk of heart disease and cancer, and otherwise brighten their health outlook.

The Fat Blocker Program, combining healthful eating with exercise and positive thinking, is based on the safe and sane principles that have won praise from medical experts all across the country. It also has something extra, a little lift to help get people started and keep them going through difficult periods. That something is Chitosan. For each gram (1,000 mg) of Chitosan that you take before a fatty meal, three to six grams of fat will pass through your body undigested. That fat won’t contribute calories, and it won’t increase your cholesterol or blood fat levels. It’s as if it were never there.

The Fat Blocker Program does not make outrageous claims. You will not lose 30 pounds in two weeks while gorging on cake and ice cream. Instead, you will improve your health as you safely, steadily drop down to your ideal weight and stay there. I’ve seen it happen—many times.

*10\29\2*