Conspiracies in General Well Being and Health

Devolutionevolvd and I decided to start up an informative research thread regarding weight loss, general well being and health, and any alternative methods with can help with reducing weight. It could be considered a 'conspiracy' as many methods which work, are actually considered not to be the general media and popular news sources!

So here I start, in 2001 I weight 80kg.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6bcc160b8ad8.jpg[/atsimg]

And This is me. As of October 20th 2009, I weigh 150kg/331lb. What I am going to do is "Make a Difference". First of all, I need to work on myself before I can help others, and I am determined to do this.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/ff7db9e13d58.jpg[/atsimg]

Currently, I suffer from Diabetes, High Blood Pressure, High Cholesterol, and Schizo-affective disorder which is a mixture of Schizophrenia and Bi-Polar (Manic Depression). I have been obese since 2001. Prior to 2001 I used to weigh a comfortable 80kg/176lb. I used to go dancing, nightclubbing, hang out with friends, and most of my life I was "Living it up". Then one night, I fell extremely unwell, and gained 60kg/132lb in 3 months. I then ballooned to 160kg/353lb after that and had stayed at that weight for many years.

I have slowly dropped down to 150kg/331lb, and now have made a commitment to get back down to 80kg/176lb. This will also cure my diabetes, and will also help with my mental condition.

I currently have two personal trainers, 1 starting in a months time doing a physical exercise regime, and another who is working with me purely on Nutrition, The nutritionist is an ATS member you all love, 'Devolutionevolvd'.

He suggested we all watch this 90 minute video, a diet of HIGH FAT, HIGH PROTEIN, and LOW CARBS.

Check it out..

Managing Your Diabetes

Informative article from Managing your Diabetes

So you’ve decided it’s time to take control of your diabetes and start managing your diabetes. This will involve making some changes to your lifestyle. Do you know where to start? Probably the best place to start is with your doctor. Together you can work out a diabetes plan designed specifically for you and your lifestyle. Your goal will be to lower your blood sugar levels, which will require some changes to your lifestyle. It may seem like a lot of hard work at first, but once you start to notice how much better you feel, that will be reward enough and provide you with motivation.

Your plan should include the times of the day when you will take your medication. Your medication should be taken at the same time each day to be the most effective. Next you should plan to change to a healthy eating schedule. By planning your meals in advance, you can then shop accordingly for the foods and ingredients you will need. This is a very important part of managing your diabetes. You may also want to meet with a registered dietician, your doctor or other diabetes professional to help create a personalized meal plan for you. Discuss your new lifestyle plan with family and friends and ask for their support in making these changes.

Now that you have your medication and meal plan done, you should schedule in some daily physical activity. Studies show that exercise is one of the best ways to help control and prevent diabetes. If you are new to exercise you may want to start out small with maybe a short walk each day. Then work your way up to a longer walk or work small periods of exercise into your day while doing your gardening, shopping or housework. Consider taking the stairs instead of an elevator. You could also sign up for a class for swimming or light aerobic exercise. Dust off your bike and begin taking your bike to work. All of these activities will add up and help you with managing your diabetes.

It helps if you surround yourself with positive people who want the best for you and make it easier for you to make the right decisions when it comes to managing your diabetes. See if you can get someone in your family or a friend to exercise with you. This will help keep you motivated.

One more thing you need to work into your diabetes management plan is regular testing of your blood sugar levels. By monitoring your blood sugar levels on a daily basis, it will give you an indication of what you need to do that day, whether its paying more attention to what you eat or incorporating more exercise into your routine. It may also show you that your blood sugar levels are improving and that the new meal plan and daily exercise are paying off.

Throughout all of these changes to your lifestyle, it is important that you keep communicating with your doctor. Keep your doctor informed about the changes you have incorporated into your lifestyle and discuss how you are feeling both mentally and physically. Talk to your doctor about the positive changes you have made as well as any challenges you may still have.

So, to recap, your plan for managing your diabetes should include your daily medication, eating well, being active on a daily basis, monitoring your blood sugar levels daily and communicating with your doctor regularly. You may find some days are more difficult than others to continue with your plan, but the important thing is to never give up. Each day is a new beginning, so make the best healthy choices for yourself each day, forgive yourself when you don’t and begin fresh the next day.

Devolutionevolvds' thread:

Big Fat Lie: Overeating is a symptom, not the cause, of Obesity!

Is a beautiful example about Conspiracies in Health and General well being. He has stated in the above post:

Taube's broke ground and gained the attention of the world of health science in 2002 when he published an article in the New York Times, What if It's All Been a Big Fat Lie? In it, he describes how an accumulation of dietary/health misinformation over the past 30 years has given way to a medical community that bases it's research on bogus information. Taubes is quick to point out that many of the low-fat researchers of the 50's and 60's were shamelessly forced the acceptance of unproven theories. This is the first sentence of the New York Times article:

If the members of the American medical establishment were to have a collective find-yourself-standing-naked-in-Times-Square-type nightmare, this might be it. They spend 30 years ridiculing Robert Atkins, author of the phenomenally-best-selling ''Dr. Atkins' Diet Revolution'' and ''Dr. Atkins' New Diet Revolution,'' accusing the Manhattan doctor of quackery and fraud, only to discover that the unrepentant Atkins was right all along. Or maybe it's this: they find that their very own dietary recommendations -- eat less fat and more carbohydrates -- are the cause of the rampaging epidemic of obesity in America. Or, just possibly this: they find out both of the above are true.

His writings have been endorsed by the worlds leading Nutritional experts, including Andrew Weil, M.D., Mike Eades, M.D., Jonny Bowden, PhD and many others.

His new book, [cut] is nothing short of amazing. He examines both sides of the coin, presenting evidence, or lack thereof, for low-fat and low-carbohydrate diets that date back as far as 200 years. I love his writing style but his book is quite large, so if you'd rather not take the time to read it I'll sum it up and provide a video lecture.

Here's the summation: Obesity, and fat gain, is not a product of overeating, it's a symptom. It is a problem of fat deposition. Hormones control fat regulation so it is safe to conclude that obesity is caused by hormonal imbalance. Simple as that.

Want the evidence? You can read the book or you can watch this video of his lecture at Stevens. Please star and flag as this information needs to be seen. People need to know the BS being fed to them, regarding food and medical science.

Google Video Link

Just got a u2u from 'scooby doo', and he pointed to this article.

Diabetes drug helps obese adults loss weight

The finding that liraglutide was superior to orlistat was "unexpected," Dr. Arne Astrup, from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, told Reuters Health.

Until now, liraglutide has only been tested for its blood sugar-lowering abilities in people with type 2 diabetes. "This is the first state of the art trial to test its weight loss properties" in obese adults without diabetes, Astrup said.

read more for full article here...

Low-Fat diets don't work well for weightloss

Mean total fat intake as a percentage of energy intake ranged between 31.5% and 36.5% across the 6 cohorts (58% women; mean +/- SD age: 53.2 +/- 8.6 y). The mean (+/-SD) annual weight change was 109 +/- 817 g/y in men and 119 +/- 823 g/y in women. In pooled analyses adjusted for anthropometric, dietary, and lifestyle factors and follow-up period, no significant association was observed between fat intake (amount or type) and weight change. The difference in mean annual weight change was 0.90 g/y (95% CI: -0.54, 2.34 g/y) for men and -1.30 g/y (95% CI: -3.70, 1.11 g/y) for women per 1 g/d energy-adjusted fat intake (residual method). CONCLUSIONS: We found no significant association between the amount or type of dietary fat and subsequent weight change in this large prospective study. These findings do not support the use of low-fat diets to prevent weight gain.

[edit on 1-11-2009 by DevolutionEvolvd]

A randomized controlled trial on the efficacy of carbohydrate-reduced or fat-reduced diets in patients attending a telemedically guided weight loss program

Despite favourable effects of both diets on weight loss, the carbohydrate-reduced diet was more beneficial with respect to cardiovascular risk factors compared to the fat-reduced diet. Nevertheless, compliance with a weight loss program appears to be even a more important factor for success in prevention and treatment of obesity than the composition of the diet.

It's important to note that if the low-carb subjects were placed on a true low-carb diet--one in which carbohydrate intake was kept below 50g--the results would have been much more favorable, both for weight loss and cardiovascular risk factors.

-Dev

Avoid carbs at all costs. Period.

The food pyramid is actually not really suited to normal people, its more suited to athletes who constantly need that energy for performance purposes.

So remember FOOD PYRAMID= BAD

Yeah i've been avoiding carbs, its a great thing, i feel better already, and I'm continuously losing weight.

I'm looking into the Atkins Diet.

www.atkins.com...

Science has been at the core of every decision we’ve ever made. It all started in 1963, when Dr. Robert C. Atkins began to formalize the controlled carbohydrate approach after studying a series of articles published in the Journal of the American Medical Association that supported this theory.
Troubled by the increasing obesity problem among his patients and among the U.S. population, Dr. Atkins found how eating the right foods while limiting refined carbohydrates in one’s diet changed a person’s body from a carb-burning to a fat-burning machine. This, in turn, led to successful weight loss and improvements in many weight-related health issues. It was from this revolutionary thinking that the Atkins Nutritional Approach was born.

At Atkins, we continue to educate consumers about the growing body of research on weight loss and weight management. In fact, today, there are over 50 studies that highlight the positive weight loss results and other health benefits associated with following the Atkins Diet. These benefits include weight loss, improvement in risk factors for heart disease, hypertension and diabetes, inflammation, benefits in treating epilepsy and decreasing obesity in children and adolescents. We’ve included these studies right here on our site. Review the studies that support the Atkins philosophy.

Another way we have carried on in the tradition of education is through the creation of our Science Advisory Board - a multi-disciplinary collection of nationally known experts in the fields of nutrition, metabolism, physiology and food science from leading universities and institutions in the United States. These men and women are responsible for the oversight of our program as well as the development and formulation of all our products. Our members also conduct and publish additional research on the diet and its principals.

And of course, science extends to our products, whose great taste and nutrition are the result of thorough scientific formulation using the some of the best ingredients on Earth.

Contrary to popular belief, low-carb diets, such as The Atkin's Diet, improve cardiovascular protection, regardless of increased saturated fat consumption.

Effects of dietary carbohydrate restriction versus low-fat diet on flow-mediated dilation

These findings show that a 12-week low-carbohydrate diet improves postprandial vascular function more than a LFD in individuals with atherogenic dyslipidemia.

In other words, if you have abnormal blood lipid profiles, low-carbohydrate diets work better at normalizing them than do low-fat diets.

Note: Metabolic syndrome, syndrome x, is typically synonomous with dyslipidemia.

-Dev

I think I stumbled onto something here, I was looking at this very thread, 'Conspiracies in Health' and what do I see as adverts on the page? Yellow Teeth and body building results....

Here is the original image of the teeth, if you find it an ATS page, you can see it has NOT been doctored, this is what is advertised on ATS.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/dd0ffe6d2b2d.jpg[/atsimg]

Does everyone who have yellow teeth also have gaunders? Look at the skin colour above on the bottom set of teeth, his skin is YELLOW. The photo has been PHOTOSHOPPED.

To prove this, I actually photoshopped the file myself and edited it back so the skin colour matched the picture ontop of the yellow teeth. Here is the result.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/d6155da1d27f.jpg[/atsimg]

Amazing isn't it... The guy has WHITE teeth.

Ok here's another example on the SAME ATS Advert, this one is on the top of the screen. Its a body builders result. Notice the left picture is dark and gloomy, this is a photographers trick so that 'lines' do not show. Similar tricks are done for before and after shots of body fat, so you do not see the cellulite in the 'after shots'.

Here is the original advert:

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6460ab487626.jpg[/atsimg]

Here i adjusted the colour and light settings, and wow, you can see MORE lines, IE more muscle.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/8aac2d59f739.jpg[/atsimg]

Ok Ok its not the 'same' as the picture on the right, but you can distinctly tell a difference between the first and second photo......

Conspiracies in Health and Well Being!

I hope you guys don't mind me adding to this.
Not exactly sure how this forum works still.

I would like to add some information about gluten intolerance and celiac disease.

From the source.gluten-intolerance-symptoms.com...

What is Celiac Disease?
The cold clinical definition to a Celiac Disease diagnosis is this: Positive antibodies to the proteins glutenin and gliadin, tissue transglutaminase, and intestinal endomysium, along with the verified presence of HLA-DQ8 or HLA-DQ2 genes. Fun, huh?

If you and your doctor (or natural physician) determine your gluten intolerance symptoms are distinctly a result of consuming gluten, you may be diagnosed as having celiac disease. Celiac Disease is an autoimmune disorder of the small intestine. It can rear its troublesome head at any point from infancy to old age. Currently, Celiac disease symptoms are believed to be inherited. However, as it has often gone misdiagnosed in the past, you may have gluten intolerance in your family and not realize it. Thankfully, people are becoming more sensitive and aware of gluten intolerance in children so gluten intolerance symptoms in children are now much more likely to be diagnosed than they were just ten years ago. Gluten intolerance symptoms in adults, however, are still somewhat nebulous as they often dovetail with conditions such as ulcerative colitis, Crohn’s disease, lactose intolerance and yeast intolerance.


Update: Please note that information on gluten intolerance vs celiac disease is undergoing quite an evolution right now. Please see gluten intolerance test for more. For example, testing for steatorrhea, or excess fat or lipids in one’s stool, has become part of a more rigorous gluten intolerance test and examination.

Because it is difficult to test conclusively, many people will be diagnosed based on a wide variety of screenings and observations. The most common symptoms are gastro-intestinal problems (or gastrointestinal distress) such as diarrhea, flatulence, gas and bloating. Other symptoms may include joint pain, fatigue and headaches but many other peripheral symptoms may also lead to a celiac disease diagnosis or non-Celiac gluten sensitivity. (I don’t want to make everyone reading this paranoid so over time this site will provide a wide range of essays on different ways people have come to evaluate gluten intolerance symptoms.)

What is Gluten?
Gluten is composed of the proteins glutenin and gliadin. They exist in the grass-like grains wheat, barley, rye and spelt. While western civilization has come to rely on gluten not only as an important nutritional protein but as a utility for obtaining a desired texture and elasticity in foods, in recent years some controversial studies indicate our bodies may not tolerate and digest gluten as well as everyone has always assumed.

What Is Gluten Intolerance?
First you must separate gluten intolerance into three distinct categories: Celiac Disease, Non-Celiac Gluten Sensitivity and a Wheat Allergy.

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My buddy had this undiagnosed for almost a year.During that year his life was turned upside down because of the changes in his body.
After changing his diet his body was transformed quite a bit since then.
He has ALOT less body fat then he used to and thats just from his new diet.

This is a somewhat contoversial issue right now from what I understand but they can now diagnose it alot easier then ten years ago.
My link has alot of info on this so give it a look.

Just to add to the post above:

Forbidden Endocrinology

Scientific Laboratory for Food Intolerance is an organization located in Canada that is at the forefront of food allergy testing. Using a multi test called ImuPro 300, they test for hypersensitivity or intolerance to certain foods(Type III Food Allergy).



Eighty to ninety percent of north Americans have some sort of food allergy or intolerance. Eating these foods can result in many symptoms, one of which being weight gain. Many of the foods that people react to are not the junk food you might be thinking of but actually healthy foods that we may be eating because we are on a diet !



One intolerance that seems to be quite prevalent, Coeliac Disease or Gluten Intolerance, happens to be directly correlated with over 200 chronic symptoms such as ADHD, Arthritis and Migraines. The gluten found in whole grains, such as wheat, is what triggers these symptoms in people with this disease, all the while they go about eating what they were told was healthy food. In fact, most people with Gluten Intolerance have no idea they are even suffering from this ailment.

As you might have guessed, one of the symptoms associated with Coeliec Disease is weight gain, or Obesity. The Science Laboratories for Food Intolerance has composed an article on 20 Diseases and Conditions Directly Attributed to Obesity. Here are a few of them:



# Cancer has many different forms and types and many of them could be prevented with more attention to eating healthy and avoiding obesity..
# Congestive Heart Failure is a condition in which the heart can’t pump enough blood to the body’s other organs.
# Enlarged Heart is another heart condition where the muscle of the heart become larger due to being overworked which naturally happens if you are overweight.
# Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome is when cysts develop in your ovaries. These can burst causing even further problems.
# Gastro esophageal Reflux Disease means that stomach acid and juices flow from the stomach back up into the esophagus. It is common in overweight people.
# Fatty Liver Disease is a reversible condition where large pockets of fat accumulate in liver cells. Fatty liver can be considered a single disease that occurs worldwide in those with excessive alcohol intake and those who are obese.
# Hernia is caused when the hole in the diaphragm weakens and enlarges.
# Erectile Dysfunction is the inability to develop or maintain an erection which can be caused by a medical problem due to obesity or a psychological effect.
# Urinary Incontinence is the inability to control ones urine and is frequently associated with obesity, weak bladder and pelvic floor muscles
# Chronic Renal Failure meaning the kidneys fail to work is a much greater risk to those that are overweight or obese.
# Stroke is a lack of blood supply as the body has to work harder when you are obese.



Stay with me, this may get confusing but I do have a point to all of this madness. So, whole grains cause weight gain for those inflicted with this increasingly common disease but what about those who are tolerant to gluten? Should those individuals that metabolize gluten normally be concerned about consuming whole grains as well? Well, First of all, it is a misnomer to say that humans can ingest whole grains. We can't. Well, we can, but unless you want them to pass through you like a kernel of corn, they have to be processed. Secondly, you might not have Gluten Intolerance but if you eat too many grains, or any carbohydrates for that matter, you may become Glucose Intolerant or develop Impaired Glucose Tolerance (IGT) . Insulin sensitivity and Glucose sensitivity go hand in hand. If you have IGT, you are probably Insulin Resistant and Pre-diabetic.



Patients identified as having an IGT should exercise regularly and limit sugar intake.



Why limit sugar intake? So your teeth don't rot out? Sure, but the main reason is to keep blood glucose levels down so to increase glucose sensitivity. In case you didn't know,cereal grains are broken down into sugar very quickly by the digestive system. It's then immediately absorbed into the bloodstream as glucose. When blood glucose(blood sugar) gets too high, the body has to release insulin from the pancreas to lower it back to normal. Constantly spiking your blood sugar will ultimately cause your body to become insulin resistant due to overexposure.

This is, essentially, why a Type 2 Diabetic doesn't produce enough insulin.


Insulin Resistance = Type 2 Diabetes


If you've read the 20 Diseases and Conditions Directly Attributed to Obesity list, you may have noticed that I left out the number one disease on the list:



# Diabetes which is a disorder where the pancreas is not producing enough or sometimes not any insulin. Diabetes can lead to a whole host of other medical issues and obesity is one of the main causes due to the body having excess glucose due to overeating.



When your body receives a blood glucose spike from the diet, insulin is released if it isn't burned as fuel immediately. Insulin will lower blood sugar by one of three methods; storing sugar as glycogen in the liver, then muscle tissue, and finally it will convert the remaining sugar to saturated fat to be stored for later use(body fat). What does that mean? Basically, without getting too technical, It means if you become insulin resistant, you'll be storing fat every time you eat. I don't think I have to explain this;

Too Much Fat = Obesity.

Continued.......

Forbidden Endocrinology

To wrap this up:

Is obesity really one of the causes of diabetes or is it a symptom diabetes? Better yet, is obesity a symptom of the cause of diabetes? Make sense? It will. When you consider that many of the diseases and conditions in the list above, as well as many others, are usually preceded by diabetes, you might you might begin to connect the dots. The dots that lead directly to Insulin.

You might even start to find that if you control insulin and blood sugar levels by eating a low grain and carbohydrate diet, you'll end up preventing diabetes, heart disease, cancer and nearly all chronic illnesses.

-Dev

www.abovetopsecret.com...