The weather is getting warmer and you may be thinking about losing some of those winter-pounds. If you have difficulty losing weight (even with a healthy diet and exercise) then you might be running up against chronic inflammation. I can’t tell you how many patients I have seen that go to the gym 3-5x/week, follow a healthy diet and still can’t lose a single pound! Upon further investigation, we often discover that inflammation is preventing weight loss. Taking a functional medicine approach can help you discover if you suffer with chronic inflammation and how to fix it.

Common symptoms associated with chronic inflammation:

• Poor sleep

• Body aches and pains

• Allergies (seasonal / food)

• Fatigue

• Brain-fog

• Difficulty losing weight

• Frequent headaches

• Mood swings

• Anxiety / depression

• Hormonal imbalances

• Adrenal fatigue

• Hives

• Poor digestion

Inflammation interferes with your metabolism and ability to lose weight. So how does it do this? Let’s start with where metabolism is regulated in your body; the brain. There is an area of your brain called the hypothalamus and it is where metabolism regulation begins. Your hypothalamus controls many factors related to ideal body weight and metabolism including:

• Metabolic rate and body temperature regulation

• The first stage of thyroid regulation

• First stage of adrenal gland regulation

• Monitors levels of body fat using leptin (a hormone produced by fat cells)

• Regulates hunger and satiation

• The first stage of hormone regulation (estrogen, progesterone and testosterone)

As you can see, your hypothalamus is kind of a big deal! It actually has more functions than those I have listed above but I kept the list relevant to weight loss. In order for your hypothalamus to function properly, it needs to receive accurate information from the rest of our body and then provide healthy instructions in response to this information. Inflammation interferes with proper communication and regulation between the hypothalamus and the rest of the body.

If your body (and hypothalamus) are chronically inflamed, then you are not only going to have problems losing weight, you will probably some other indications that your hypothalamus is struggling (see list of common symptoms associated with chronic inflammation).

I rarely see a patient who ONLY has problems losing weight and does not also have other signs of chronic inflammation / hypothalamus dysregulation.

Some of the most common causes of chronic inflammation include:

• Food sensitivities or allergies

• Histamine imbalances

• Key nutrient deficiencies

• Chronic gut infections (yeast/harmful bacteria)

The goal of functional medicine is to discover WHY your body is not functioning the way it should and restore it to a state of normal and healthy function again. The best way to “boost our metabolism” is to correct your metabolism! If you are struggling to lose weight or if you think you might have a problem with inflammation, seeking the help of a function medicine doctor just might be the answer you have been looking for.

If you would like more information about weight loss, chronic inflammation, functional medicine or Dr. Sexton contact our Naperville office or go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com

Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information, you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today; even from the most respected sources and organizations.