The ability of your body to process trash, including toxic trash, is a pervasive factor in your ability to lose weight and reach a healthy goal weight. Struggling with this issue activates back-up strategies for dealing with toxic overload that include increasing the number of fat cells and stuffing them with toxins as well as fat.  This is likely done to get the toxic trash out of your circulation and away from key organs. It causes easy weight gain and it complicates weight loss as your body does not easily give up the toxic fat it has stored.

In many ways, our polluted world is a true test of genetic survival of the fittest.  The number of toxic chemicals now threatens the reproductive ability of the human race as well as being a large part of the cancer issue.  These chemicals contribute to weight gain in various ways, including disruption of the hormone signaling system that regulates your metabolism, damage to and accumulation in your white adipose tissue, and increased risk for poisoning during weight loss. It is absolutely vital that you understand this subject.

Our Toxic World is a Major Metabolic Problem

In my previous article in this series, How Digestive Problems Prevent Weight Loss, I explained how toxic LPS, the result of bacterial imbalance within the digestive tract, stimulates the formation of new fat cells and promotes weight gain.  I explained how LPS causes leptin resistance and thyroid malfunction.  LPS is an example of an internally generated toxin.  There are other internally generated toxins and there is plenty of “normal” trash like inflammatory debris and lactic acid.  Additionally, pervasive environmental toxins affect everyone to some degree and can cause all of the metabolic malfunctions of LPS, and increase the risk for cancer. Many of these environmental toxins are fat soluble, which means they readily accumulate in white adipose tissue.

Some of these toxic compounds have been banned, but the damage has already been done as they continue to bio-accumulate in the food chain and pose long-term challenges to the farming soils across America (PCBs, dioxins, furans, DDT, DDE).  Others are widely used by industry such as the biocide tributyltin (TBT) that is an antifouling agent for paint which gets into the water and accumulates in fish. Others are in daily consumer contact, including contact with food, such as Bisphenol A (BPA).  There are many others.  This is a key metabolic problem for the 2/3rds of Americans that are overweight.

Once upon a time, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a program called the National Human Adipose Tissue Survey (NHATS).  In 1982 and again in 1987 it analyzed human fat samples from cadavers from across the country – looking for the types of toxins that accumulate in human fat.  Four industrial solvents and one dioxin were found in 100% of the fat samples.  Another 9 chemicals, including 3 more dioxins and 1 furan were found in over 90% of the fat samples.  In general, 83% of the fat samples contained PCBs.  U.S. researchers have confirmed the presence of multiple toxins in human fat associated with obesity risk.  The EPA has confirmed the presence of these chemicals as pollution in the farm soil across America – meaning this problem will be with us for some time to come.

The scientific theory of how these chemicals cause weight gain and difficulty losing weight has now been established.  They bind to gene signaling within white adipose tissue and induce new fat cells to form while simultaneously increasing inflammation.  Oftentimes, the newly formed fat cells are themselves damaged by the toxins so that they cannot metabolically perform, including an inability to make leptin normally.  These damaged fat cells can fill up with excess fat and toxins, but are not able to efficiently carry out normal functions of fat cells, leading directly to increased risk for type 2 diabetes via the suppression of the important fat-cell hormone known as adiponectin.  Several human studies confirm that PCBs increase diabetes risk.  These chemicals pose a serious problem to the thyroid gland and the efficient utilization of thyroid hormone throughout your body, and can cause either hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism.  Trying to get the fat and toxins out of these damaged fat cells is no small challenge in terms of successful weight loss, yet it is vital to the restoration of normal metabolism.

Damage occurs, and may be very difficult to resolve, if exposure to these chemicals occurs while in the womb and during the early years of life (breast milk may contain numerous fat-soluble toxins depending on the health of the mother). Such toxic exposure during formative years, may influence gene settings in a way that predisposes future obesity (an adverse epigenetic change).  It has also been shown that when these chemicals disrupt thyroid hormone function during development they also adversely impact the development of the brain.  A human study has confirmed the future risk of obesity in women whose mothers had high levels of DDE.

Toxins Pose a Major Challenge to Weight Loss

There are a variety of reasons toxins pose a major challenge to weight loss.  A person who has too many toxins to process will be making new fat cells and storing toxins along with fat in them.  This is partly a form of self defense against being poisoned, a secondary strategy to get toxins out of the circulation and away from major organs.  This means that some people will not be able to lose any weight at all, regardless of how little they eat, until the acute nature of their plumbing problems are addressed.

It is very clear that these toxins are released back into the circulation during weight loss. This is especially the case during significant weight loss.  During a weight loss of 12% of body weight toxins in the blood increased 23% - 51%, with the heaviest individuals releasing the most toxins.  Over a 1-year period of weight loss toxic exposure ranged up to a whopping 388%.  Scientists have shown that such toxins can interfere with thyroid hormone function during weight loss.  Human data shows that as the toxins go up in the blood during weight loss the levels of biologically active thyroid hormone (T3) go down. This data means that your plumbing and detoxification systems must be good working condition for healthy weight loss – or possibly even to engage weight loss.

Toxins make you feel irritable. Many people report feeling “poisoned” at a certain point in their weight loss process.  Such people will always feel better when they eat a lot of food, as the toxins are pulled out of their blood and placed back in fat – along with plenty of fat.  Most people with a little effort can readily lose the weight they have most recently gained. After that, I like to call it the toxic plateau. This means that detoxification strategies may need to be adjusted if weight loss slows too much or stops.  In my clinical experience, the difficult to lose pounds are typically toxic fat. Strategies to improve detoxification often enable weight loss to proceed. While any overweight person who struggles to lose weight with a good diet and exercise has this problem to some degree, those who are the most overweight experience this issue to a greater degree. 

Individuals with chemical sensitivity issues are extremely challenged. Virtually all individuals with chemical sensitivity are hyper-inflamed, have lost physical strength and fitness, and are either overweight or underweight. Oddly enough, overweight is generally better than underweight, as at least the back up system of stuffing toxins into fat still works. Underweight people usually have excessive damage to their white adipose tissue and can’t store toxins in fat. This usually equates to more damage in their bodies from the toxins (including type 2 diabetes).  However, as the weight is lost and the toxins come back into the blood, it is like a fresh new chemical exposure with a reaction.  Such individuals must optimize their vitamin D levels—keeping them in the upper 2/3 of normal range—while using anti-inflammatory nutrients like quercetin and grape seed extract,  to help lower the amount of chemical reactions that will otherwise derail progress.

Strategies for Improving Detoxification During Weight Loss

The basic nutritional support strategies I outlined in the first article in this series, The Leptin Diet Weight Loss Challenge – Overview and Basic Needs, cover basic detoxification needs.  Of special importance is increased fiber intake.  Fiber acts like a sponge for toxins.  In that article I suggest 35 – 60 grams of fiber per day, using supplemental fiber to ensure needs are met.  Individuals with this toxin issue should try to get their fiber to the 50 – 60 grams range, which may be all it takes to get this problem on tract.  The next most important nutrients to boost would be antioxidants in general and vitamin D.

The next step would be to boost antioxidant nutrients that are known to help detoxification processes while protecting the liver, brain, white adipose tissue, and/or circulation.  Top choices are silymarin, R alpha lipoic acid, chlorella, quercetin, grape seed extract, vitamin C, and tocotrienols.  It is now understood that “toxic” blood triggers the formation of new fat cells.  This is because the endothelial cells of your circulatory system directly communicate to your baby fat cells and can tell them what to do.  Keeping your blood as clean as possible while supporting your liver, are vital steps to ensure that this process goes smoothly.

There are other aspects of detoxification that may need to be addressed, but explaining them in detail goes beyond the scope of this article. For more information and articles on this subject simply type “detoxification” into the search engine on my website at http://www.wellnessresources.com.  Part of getting a handle on weight loss is becoming a master plumber.  The success of your body in processing trash, including toxic trash, is a major key to eventually getting to a healthy goal weight.

 

Posted by Byron J Richards at 04:50 PM.

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