Introduction to Your Perfect Weight
What You Gain with Weight Loss
Perhaps you're wondering if this book can really help you lose weight.
Well, it can. But it can do a lot more, too.
Following our program and tips may well deliver major health benefits that you never dreamed were associated with weight loss.
As Linda and I were working on this book, many people in the scientific community had the same idea: It's time for some fresh looks and new approaches to a problem that seems to be becoming worse almost year by year.
Discoveries in the past few years have put a whole new light on the wisdom and benefits of weight control.
Osteoarthritis of the hands is a good example. Now, you may already know that there's a link between osteoarthritis of the knees and being overweight. It's quite easy to imagine how being fat can foul up your knee joints. As Peter D. Wood, D.Sc., Ph.D., of Stanford University puts it, "Imagine carrying around a 50-pound sack of flour all day."
But now there's research from the University of Michigan showing that overweight is also linked to arthritis of the hands. A study that followed about 1,300 adults of Tecumseh, Michigan, found that people who, on first measurement, were 20 percent or more overweight were three times more likely to have osteoarthritis of the hands when checked again 23 years later, compared with slimmer people of the same age. Plus, their arthritis was more severe.
Chief author Wendy Carman of the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor and colleagues aren't sure how overweight may lead to arthritis of the hands. While it could involve some mechanical stress, there's the clear possibility that too much fat in our bodies may cause certain chemical or hormonal changes, which in turn damage joints.
And here is something even more surprising: Overweight may also be a major contributing factor to a nerve-conduction problem in the hand known commonly as carpal tunnel syndrome, or CTS. Usually, we think of this problem as being caused by physical stress on the wrist area. But a group from Portland, Oregon, says: "Not so fast!"
Their analysis shows that degree of overweight was the strongest single predictor of carpal tunnel syndrome, being twice as influential as age. Oddly, the kind of work people did had virtually no bearing on whether they'd develop the problem. Occupation might worsen the problem, but it seems that "health habits and lifestyle" are most associated with appearance of CTS, suggests the team from the Portland Hand Surgery and Rehabilitation Center.
Weight Down, Immunity Up
From Japan comes an intriguing study that implicates obesity as a dangerous weakener of the immune system. This could be why obesity has been linked with greater vulnerability to infection and even some forms of cancer. But doctors at the School of Medicine at Yokohama City University took the research a step further.
They took 34 obese people (yes, there are a few in Japan!), measured their blood for strength of immune function and then put them on pretty strict diets for periods ranging from about three to eight months. Then their blood was reanalyzed.
Finding: Immune reaction of the T lymphocytes--key body defenders--nearly doubled after the subjects peeled off an average of about 50 pounds.
More recently, there is research pointing to the fact that women who are extremely (not just moderately) obese have about twice the risk of giving birth to a baby with a neural tube defect--a very serious condition. (However, researchers do not recommend dieting while trying to conceive, since inadequate nutrient intake can also increase the risk of birth defects.)
Although all this new research is still somewhat tentative, we do know for sure that overweight encourages high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes. So it could be that the biochemical disruptions caused by overweight are more complex than we thought. Perhaps it is best to think of excess body fat not just as something that may hasten problem A or problem B but rather as a kind of toxic condition that may harm virtually every system and organ.
Besides the ones we've mentioned, obesity also has been linked with gallstones, back pain, sleep apnea, heartburn, stroke, gout, varicose veins and even cancer. Rachel Ballard-Barbash, M.D., at the National Cancer Institute, told us the link is strongest with endometrial cancer. And, she adds, it appears that women who carry fat around their middle (as opposed to on the hips and thighs) have a higher risk of developing breast cancer after the age of menopause.
Now here's the weird part. The benefit that's most immediate and often most dramatic with weight loss is just about entirely ignored by medical researchers. Yet we know from interviewing hundreds of people that it's real.
Have you guessed?
It's simple: You feel better!
The word we hear most frequently is "energy." Often, it's coupled with phrases like "unbelievable . . . what a difference! . . . it's changed my life."
When, in effect, you've turned down the force of gravity by 10, 20 even 30 percent, it's only natural to feel incredibly lighter on your feet. You breathe easier, and there's less strain on you back. A whole new, more active and happier lifestyle becomes available.
So, while most people view losing weight as just that--"How much did I lose?"--we look upon it as powerfully positive: "Look what I gained!"
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