The New England Journal of Medicine in a November 2008 issue published research that had tracked nearly 360,000 men and women in 9 European countries for nearly 10 years. The results confirm research that has proliferated in the U.S. medical literature that is, a full to bursting waistline is a stronger predictor of premature death than one’s overall weight.
It is called apple shaped weight deposition. Carrying your excess weight around your middle is correlated with insulin resistance, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, poor blood sugar control, acne, polycystic ovarian syndrome, male pattern baldness, and fatty liver, to name many of the symptoms that comprise this symptom complex called Syndrome X among other names. Adipose tissue is better termed ‘an organ’ that produces hormones that have total body effects.
The current medical approach of treating the respective symptoms individually, i.e. a pill for high cholesterol and another pill for high blood pressure is uniformly poor in the long run. Researchers like Loren Cordain, PhD at CO State University, author of The Paleo Diet, find their research falls on deaf ears in a medical system devoted to treating using prescriptions and procedures. There is no concerted public health effort to adopt this message even though the fastest growing group of type II diabetics is teenagers in the U.S.
The TN Medicaid system was convinced to reimburse chromium supplementation as a means of dealing with insulin resistance that underlies the medical conditions that consume billions of dollars in the treatment of chronic disease. Chromium is critical yet it is only one piece of the multifactoral lifestyle to address carrying excess weight around your waist.
Integrative medicine treats the bulging waistline and its healthcare consequences very effectively because it treats the whole person rather than the symptoms of the consequences of carrying weight around the waistline. While this study ended with the traditional call for more money for more study (further research should focus on whether treatment for weight problems should focus on preventing increases in waist size rather than holding down weight overall), perhaps the money is better spent to adopt integrative health practices into the prevention and treatment of chronic disease.
From Deborah A. Ray, MT(ASCP)
Copyright © 2010 Natural Health Science News. Permission granted to forward, copy, or reprint with date and attribution to Natural Health Science News.
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thank you. for over 2 years now ( i am 70 now) i have asked by doctor why my waistline has just bloosomed and the stomach. have always been in good physical shape (sports minded-love walking also). am told age/gravity. then cholesterol/blood pressure/blood sugar. felt i always ate good food (organic). where can i find more information on what to do regarding this “syndrome X” thanks, carol
I just bought a copy of Gabriel Cousens book: There is a Cure for Diabetes. In it he mentions inflammation and toxins. I only half way followed his protocol and I used enzymes he mentioned both with and between meals and my mid-section is almost back to normal.
Please note that I said I halfway used his protocol. Just think of my results if I had followed it.
I agree with the integrative approach.
It would be good if the pharmaceutical companies would start giving medical doctors better medicines to use on their patients.
Thanks MaryAnn, I have the problem with the midsection and I will check out Gabriel’s book. I have often heard that this could be a problem if this area is large, but no one ever mentioned a cure or how to reduce that part of the body other that exercise.
Thanks again
My Wii exerciser tells me every day that I am obese; however, I am propportioned very nicely. Perhaps that is because I use the exercises nearly every day and have for almost two years. I do not take medications; my blood pressure is normal—perhaps not quite the new normal, but low enough for 72. My heart is healthy, my HDL is excellent and my blood profile shows me to be normal in all categories. So i don’t allow my weight to go higher but I don’t worry about it.
My husband and I eat pretty healthy meals. I do follow a gluten-free diet and my husband does mostly. Maybe that helps also. Maybe having all my body parts helps also, as does my husband. Perhaps it helps that for the first 15 years of my life, I ate grass-fed beef, whole milk, our garden vegetables and home-baked bread.