• When your body is stressed, either physically or emotionally, it secretes cortisol. Cortisol is part of the fight or flight response. Faced with a “life or death” situation, cortisol increases the flow of glucose (as well as protein and fat) from your tissues and into the bloodstream to increase energy and physical readiness to handle the stressful situation or threat.
• Stress creates high cortisol levels in the bloodstream, which can result in overeating and weight gain.
• Cortisol is a steroid hormone produced in the cortex of the adrenal glands. Cortisol assists you in regulating blood pressure, cardiovascular functions, and your body’s use of fats, proteins and carbohydrates. Cortisol is also involved in glucose metabolism, insulin release for blood sugar maintenance, and inflammatory response. Cortisol helps in responding to and coping with stress, trauma and environmental extremes.
• Chronic job stress can lead to metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and other health problems.
• Increased abdominal fat, which is associated with a greater amount of health problems than fat deposited in other areas of the body. Health problems associated with increased stomach fat include heart attacks, strokes, metabolic syndrome, and higher levels of “bad” cholesterol (LDL).
• One in four Americans are considered clinically obese.
• General health and stress resistance can be enhanced by regular exercise, a diet rich in a variety of whole grains, greens, vegetables, and fruits, and by avoiding excessive alcohol, caffeine, and tobacco.

Info from the Cortisol Connection

Wow, it’s 2012! It’s time to up-level to a new you and get those excessive pounds off!

Did you know that excess abdominal fat is the most dangerous type of fat to have?  The fat is packed around your intestines, your liver, and your heart, which interferes with the way those organs work.  This fat secretes chemicals and hormones that inhibit proper function of those vital organs.  It is also an indicator of Type II diabetes and heart disease.

For women, if your waist is more than 35 inches at the belly button; and for men if it is more than 40 inches; then you are within the high risk category of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure , stroke…time to lose weight. Excess fat in the body causes the arteries in your heart to become clogged which raises your blood pressure to force the blood to your organs.  Having just an extra 30 excess pounds forces your heart to work twice as hard to do the same job it did when you were just 30 pounds lighter.

Excess blood pressure damages the blood vessels in your kidneys and can cause them to fail.  High blood pressure is also linked with blindness caused from burst and bleeding blood vessels in the backs of the eyes. High blood pressure can also cause weakened blood vessels to burst and bleed on the brain causing a stroke.  Blood clots can also become lodged within narrowed arteries also causing a stroke.

Diabetes causes the blood to thicken which raises the risk of blood clots forming resulting in strokes and heart attacks from your already thickened arterial walls.

Being overweight can cause a cascade effect on your health because it affects everything.  Each organ relies upon the other to work effectively to keep you well.

New Year, New You. It’s time to change the way you eat and change your life!

According to Dr. Dave Mirkin, board-certified in four specialties: Sports Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, Pediatrics and Pediatric Immunology, abdominal obesity comes from high blood insulin levels. To prevent blood sugar levels from rising too high after you eat, your pancreas releases insulin, which converts blood sugar to a type of fat called triglyceride. Insulin drives triglycerides into the fat cells in your belly. So having high triglycerides and a fat belly are signs of high blood insulin levels, and high blood levels of insulin constrict arteries to cause heart attacks. Insulin also acts on the brain to make you eat more and on your liver to manufacture more fat, and on the fat cells in your belly to store that fat.

The liver removes insulin from the bloodstream, but insulin causes fat to be deposited in the liver which prevents the liver from removing insulin from the bloodstream. People with fat bellies store too much fat in their livers, which prevents the livers from removing insulin, so insulin levels rise higher and higher to cause heart attacks, more abdominal obesity and eventually diabetes. If you store fat primarily in your belly, you should restrict refined carbohydrates: foods made with flour, white rice, milled corn or added sugars.

Fat cells in your belly are different from those on your hips. The blood that flows from belly fat goes directly to your liver, whereas the blood that flows from your hips goes into your general circulation. The livers of those who store fat in their bellies are blocked from removing insulin by the extra fat and therefore do not remove insulin from the bloodstream as effectively as the livers of people who store fat primarily in their hips. People who store fat primarily in their bellies have higher blood insulin and sugar levels, which raise levels of the bad LDL cholesterol that causes heart attacks, and lower levels of the good HDL cholesterol that prevents heart attacks.