by Brendon Groves | 08/03/2019 at 10:57am | Autumn, Weight Loss
The Lancet recognised DiRECT type 2 diabetes trial
For a clinical trail to be authorised and accepted by the medical community it must be published in a reputable medical journal, in this case the DiRECT trial was published in The Lancet ref.
What result were published?
On the whole, the study found that by losing weight, on average 10 kilos, showed that they “cured” type 2 diabetes, ref. The trial ran for two years. These were the results:
- The first year of the trail, 36% of participants went into remission
- The second year 70% were in remission.
The surprising discovery about type 2 diabetes
It turns out that the biological nature of type 2 diabetes is due to fat in the pancreas and liver. So, by addressing, these fatty deposits with a low carb diet, under 800 calories per day in the trail. As a result over time the fat in the tissues diminished and in the majority of the participants they went into remission. Remission is when the long-term blood sugar levels (HbA1c) have dropped below 48mmol/mol (6.5%) without the need for diabetic medication. Also, the insulin production at meal time had returned to normal.
Consequently, researchers gave a strong warning to the trial participants who are in remission that if they put the weight back on the disease will return. At the same time, they stressed the importance of a maintenance diet as a preventive measure to continue for the rest of their lives.
A stunning example of one participates story
Take the case of a female participant in spite of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes eight years before starting the trial, it took her 17 weeks before she went into remission. She was ecstatic that she was able to live a normal life again. To further demonstrate her success four years later she is still not on any diabetes medication.
Further inspiring weight loss benefits
In addition to type 2 diabetes remission, one of the slides from the DiRECT presentation showed research by an obesity surgeon. Where he ran a study following the progress of patients four years after “Laparoscopic Adjustable Gastric Banding,” a weight loss procedure. In summary, the study noted whether the patient’s condition had improved or was it “cured” ref. Here are the conditions that had a positive result, see the graph for more details:
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- Sleep apnoea
- Dyspnoea (difficulty breathing)
- General physical activity
- Self-esteem
- Peripheral Oedema
- Joint Pain
- Reflux
DiRECT slide reference
P.S. Are you inspired and feeling passionate about this article? Let me know, I would love to hear from you. Furthermore, if you think of a friend or someone special that you would like to read this story… feel free to share it with them, it might be the change they are looking for. Ultimately, my goal is to provide you with the knowledge to make an informed decision on the way to best support your health goals.
If there are any aspects of your diet or health, you would like to discuss or clarify. Contact us through this website or if it is of a more private nature contact me directly.
In wisdom and good health
Brendon.
Phone: 0409 278 320
Written by: Brendon Groves Clinical Naturopathic Practitioner and Founder of Groves Naturopathics
by Brendon Groves | 07/03/2019 at 10:31am | Autumn, Weight Loss
Inspiring Weight Loss Story
Sometimes you come across a article that moves you and reinforces your beliefs. Thank you, Natasha Hinde, the reporter at HuffPost for publishing this inspirational story. About one man’s journal in a clinical trial and how weight loss put his type 2 diabetes into remission. He now wants to be a personal trainer when he retires in a couple of years. see article
Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disorder that requires lifelong treatment. The trial aims to assess whether intensive weight management would achieve remission of type 2 diabetes. After two years 70% of participants achieved remission and are off anti-diabetic medication. Professor Roy Taylor ran the trail with Professor Mike Lean at the University of Glasgow. ref
Have More Control Over Your Health
As a health care professional, this story is very inspirational. It makes me want to reach out to as many people as a can to help them have more control over their health, and improve the quality of their life. Even though as a naturopath I do not treat disease. I focus on addressing the imbalances with each person and follow these naturopathic principles to bring about a state of health.
- First, do no harm
- Address the underline cause
- Use the power of nature to bring about balance
- Treat the whole person
- Teach health
- Prevention
P.S. Are you inspired and feeling passionate about this article? Let me know, I would love to hear from you. Furthermore, if you think of a friend or someone special that you would like to read this story… feel free to share it with them, it might be the change they are looking for. Ultimately, my goal is to provide you with the knowledge to make an informed decision on the way to best support your health goals.
If there are any aspects of your diet or health, you would like to discuss or clarify. Contact us through this website or if it is of a more private nature contact me directly.
In wisdom and good health
Brendon.
Phone: 0409 278 320
Written by: Brendon Groves Clinical Naturopathic Practitioner and Founder of Groves Naturopathics
by Brendon Groves | 06/03/2019 at 2:16pm | Autumn, Weight Loss
Why We Eat And What’s Missing.
Most of us have food cravings of one kind or another. The most common of all is junk food, so much so that it has been labelled addictive food. Is it just the food or is there another reason we cannot resist the impulse?
So what’s the big deal, its just food, walk away. Well, it’s not that simple, it is not through a lack of will power, it goes much deeper than that. The power behind the desire to crave is a neurotransmitter called dopamine know as our happy hormone it is released when we feel pleasure mostly stimulated by food or drugs. In this article, I am going to talk about food addiction.
How Does Food Addiction Work?
In our brain, we have what is known as a rewards system. This has evolved with us over 1000s of years to let us know when we have done things that helped us survive. The brain is geared to find behaviours in this case foods that release dopamine. However, the more we have that food the less the dopamine is release so we eat more of that food to get the dopamine release. The foods like steak, fish and eggs release moderate amounts of dopamine in contrast doughnuts, ice cream, and chocolate release high amounts of dopamine. Hence the problem, the more you crave, the more dopamine foods you will need to eat and eventually it becomes an addiction.
What’s Triggers The Addiction?
So, you go off and get your fix and like magic you feel good just long enough to forget you felt ordinary 30 minutes ago. The brain is wired for you to eat the foods that make you happy and it’s been doing this for most of your life. It would be wise to address the unhappiness around the emotion instead of using food for a temporary fix.
The trigger for a dopamine hit can be:
- Tiredness
- Feeling flat
- Melancholy
- Board
What to Do About it?
Firstly it is a good idea to see a health care professional to be on the safe side, to check for any underlining problems that you may not have thought about. Secondly, have a planned approach, to cover:
- Diet should contain adequate protein with each meal. This will help to balance blood sugar levels and reduce cravings.
- Sleep 7-8 hour per night will balance hormones and reduce overeating.
- Exercise improves your health and release dopamine also boosts your mood and overall sense of well-being
- Supplements:
- Some amino acids are boiling block for dopamine production, Tyrosine is one of the amino acids, the food that contain these are meat, eggs, and fish.
- Fish oils have been shown in one study to increases dopamine levels in the brain’s of rats by 40% ref
- Vitamin B6 helps convert L-Dopa into dopamine.
- Vitamin C helps convert dopamine.
Personalised Q & A
If there are any aspects of your diet or health, you would like to discuss or clarify. Contact us through this website or if it is of a more private nature contact me directly.
In wisdom and good health
Brendon.
Phone: 0409 278 320
Written by: Brendon Groves Clinical Naturopathic Practitioner and Founder of Groves Naturopathics
by Brendon Groves | 05/03/2019 at 11:43am | Autumn, Weight Loss
Dear reader, now that we have covered eight diets in 8 days, I would like to match these diets to 8 common health issues. Some may have more than one match. Furthermore, there are 1000s of diseases that exist today. Nevertheless these diets are not limited to just the application or prevention of these eight health issues.
Health issues
- Ageing.
- Digestive disorders.
- Overweight.
- Insulin resistance.
- Heart disease prevention.
- Sleep disorders.
- Mood & Anxiety disorders.
- Celiac disease.
Diets
The longevity diet
Ageing in inevitable no one living person can avoid it, yet, despite this a small number of people make it past 85 years. Due to their ability to defying odds and overcoming their health challenges and avoiding fatal accidents making it to a ripe old age. Of particular interest, is there diet can that act as an insurance policy and maybe give us a fighting chance and reduce early mortality in our older years? Yes, there is, and it has the most researched of all the diets too… it’s the:
Digestive disorders diets
Damage and inflammation in the gut is the biggest driver of gastrointestinal disorders, like irritable bowel syndrome constipation and diarrhoea. So, what diets reduce inflammation, improves the microbiome’s diversity and supports gut repair?
- Gluten-Free Diet. ref
- Low Carb Diet. ref
Overweight diet solutions
Weight Loss involves many factors like planning, preparation, regular exercise and a suitable diet. So, to lose those extra kilos the diet needs to be able to reduce the excess body fat and improve health by reducing risk factors like cardiovascular disease, and hormone imbalances. So, here are my top three diets for losing weight:
- Ketogenic Diet ref
- Mediterranean Diet ref
- Low Carb Diet ref
The Insulin resistance diets
Entails that, insulin your body produces to control blood sugar is not recognised by your tissues and consequently, you become resistant to insulin. Forever, higher amounts of insulin are required to manage blood sugar levels. As a result, this may lead to:
- Metabolic syndrome.
- Obesity.
- Fatty liver disease.
- High blood pressure.
- PCOS.
- Type 2 diabetes.
Finally, here are my top diets for insulin resistance prevention:
- Ketogenic Diet ref
- Low Carb Diet ref
Heart disease prevention diet
Despite all our efforts, heart disease is the biggest killer in western society. Resulting in three times more deaths than cancer. Hands down the Mediterranean diet has the most research of any diet relating to cardiovascular disease (coronary artery disease, heart failure, hypertension). As a result the Mediterranean diet is part of the longterm preventative management protocol for this disease.
- Mediterranean Diet ref
Sleep disorders diet
At this point, there is emerging evidence that sleep duration and quality is related to certain dietary patterns. Subsequently, the Mediterranean diet has fewer insomnia symptoms (difficulty initiating sleep, difficulty maintaining sleep, early morning awakening).
- Mediterranean Diet ref
Anxiety disorders diets
In comparison anxiety disorders are the most prevalent mental disorder. After all anxiety can interfere with a person’s ability to carry out their day-to-day life and or partake in pleasurable activities. On the whole what you eat plays a significant role in the symptoms of anxiety. For example, fats are anxiolytic (they reduce anxiety) while high carb diets are anxiogenic (cause anxiety) ref. In this case, here are my diet picks to prevent anxiety:
- Mediterranean Diet
- Ketogenic Diet
- Vegetarian Diet
- Vegan Diet
- Low Carb Diet
Coeliac disease diet
Ultimately, coeliac disease classified as an autoimmune disease. Interestingly, gluten triggers an immune response in the gut and can damage the lining of the small intestine. As a result, and due to the length of exposure to gluten, the damage wears away the gut lining, so much so, that it reduces absorption of nutrients to the whole body. For example, you may experience symptoms like:
- Bloating.
- Wind.
- Constipation.
- Diarrhoea.
- IBS.
- Chronic Fatigue.
- Weight Loss.
- Anaemia.
- Depression.
On the whole, you guess it the diet of choice her is:
- Gluten-Free Diet
Personalised Q & A
If there are any aspects of your diet or health, you would like to discuss or clarify. Contact us through this website or if it is of a more private nature contact me directly.
In wisdom and good health
Brendon.
Phone: 0409 278 320
Written by: Brendon Groves Clinical Naturopathic Practitioner and Founder of Groves Naturopathics
by Brendon Groves | 03/03/2019 at 1:59pm | Autumn, Weight Loss
Looking for the edge on how to safely lose weight, here are the four tips that I have found worked for myself and my patients over the last 19 years in practice. Each one offers a benefit add them together, and you maximise your weight loss.
Follow A Successful Diet
Double Your Weight Loss With A Food Diary
Keeping a track on when and what you eat — is a proven way to lose weight. A study in 2008 found that keeping a food diary can double your weight loss when you’re trying to lose weight. So, many people resist the dreaded diet dairy? YES, it’s going to be a painful, but after the first week, you will be a pro. It takes 10-15 minutes per day write down your:
- When you ate.
- What you ate.
- How much you ate.
The knowledge gained from information this is invaluable to your success. Furthermore, once you have reached your goal weight maintaining a food diary give you ongoing success in the maintenance phase. A study in 2017 demonstrated that using a food journal protect the participants from challenges as they following a healthier lifestyle after a diet ref
Get Coached And Boost Your Weight Loss
Coaches enhance performance. A weight loss study in 2011 showed that participants under the care of a wellness coach for 12 months, lost significantly more weight than the control group that did not receive coaching. Besides that, the coaching had a positive impact on weight both statistically and clinically significant. ref
Measure Your Progress
“What gets measured gets managed” quote by Peter Drucker, Author. Regularly measuring is one of the best ways to monitor how far you are on track off track. No matter what the number is, it will help you to align yourself closer to your goal. That’s why it is essential to have regular contact with a health care professional who is coaching especially when numbers go against you. It is wise to align yourself with a practitioner who can assist you regularly before things get out of hand. It will make your hurdles on your health journey more manageable.
Personalised Q & A
If there are any aspects of your diet or symptoms, you would like to discuss or clarify, please feel free to contact me through this web site or if it is of a more private nature contact me through my direct email.
Ultimately, my goal is to provide you with the knowledge to make an informed decision on what diet best supports your health needs.
In wisdom and good health
Brendon.
Phone: +61 409 278 320
Written by: Brendon Groves Clinical Naturopathic Practitioner and Founder of Groves Naturopathics
by Brendon Groves | 02/03/2019 at 12:57pm | Autumn, Weight Loss
Common Mistakes Peolpe Make When Trying to Lose Weight.
Weight Loss not only involves planning, preparation and regular exercise. Also, it requires making a smart decision on what you are going to eat. However, there is so much information out there to choose from it can seem overwhelming and make it difficult to know what to follow. Here are some of the common mistakes people make when they are trying to lose weight.
Doing The Latest Fad Diet
Doing the latest diet craze is a sure fast way to set yourself up to fail. They usually promise quick weight loss. In many cases, the weight comes off but does not last. Rebound weight gain is typical, especially a few weeks after you stop the diet.
Solution: Look for a diet that has an initial weight loss program with proof that it has worked for others. Besides that, it must be followed on by a maintenance phase this will help you to integrate the eating plan into your everyday life. Other qualities to look for in a diet are:
- Whole-foods
- Low or no processed foods
- Low carbs
- Lean protein
To long In-between Meals
Unless you are following Intermitted Fasting Diet rules, skipping meals is a sure fast way to slow down your metabolism and gain weight. Heres how a stressful day may present itself:
- Breakfast at 7:00 am followed by a busy morning at work in meetings and answering emails.
- Lunch at 12:00 pm but there is not enough time to eat before you know it, you are starving, and it’s 3:00 pm. So you stop off on the way home to pick up kids and grab something to tide you over.
- Dinner at 6:00 pm and now you are starving so, you overeat and wonder why you have no energy shortly after finishing your meal.
Solution: Plan your day, if you know tomorrow is going to be busy prepare your lunch and pack some healthy snacks nuts (walnuts, almond, macadamia nuts). The snacks will vary depending on your diet’s guidelines. In addition to the daily preparation you will need to eat more frequently:
- 3 main meals per day.
- 2 snacks in-between meals
Overdoing One Type Of Food
Salads are a great example where most people go overboard, while they are very nutritious, many people go overboard with toppings like mayo, cheese, croutons, potato, rice, and noodles. All this does is create a high-carb meal and put weight on.
Solution: Increase the lean protein, use raw nuts for crunch and fresh herbs for the favour. Use a healthy dressing (mix 1 teaspoon of apple cider vinegar and 1 tablespoon of olive oil together).
Cheat Days
The problem is “cheat days” For a start you are not cheating. Secondly, a day is way too long. You will most likely overeat and knock yourself out with a food coma and feel tired.
Solution: Change the psychologically and call them free meals, they are a much better way to manage your social eating and other times when you need to indulge. Furthermore spread free meals out over the week as needed. You need to allow yourself to have the occasional free meal. I recommend doing that in the morning, so your body has the opportunity to burn off the carbs by the afternoon. The Free meal frequency will depend on the diet.
Personalised Q & A
Ultimately, my goal is to provide you with the knowledge to make an informed decision on what diet best supports your health needs. With that said, if there are any aspects of your diet or health, you would like to discuss or clarify. Contact us through this website or if it is of a more private nature contact me directly.
In wisdom and good health
Brendon.
Phone: 0409 278 320
Written by: Brendon Groves Clinical Naturopathic Practitioner and Founder of Groves Naturopathics
