Hormonal Harmony: Why Balancing Your Hormones Can Help You Zip Your Skinny Jeans--And Feel A Whole Lot Better.

When your body's hormone levels get out of balance, you put on weight. A new book by endocrinologist Scott Isaacs explains why this happens--and what you can do about it.

You already know fad diets don't work. In fact, studies have shown that about 98 percent of people who lose weight on a diet will gain it back (and maybe even then some) within five years. If you've tried everything and are still overweight, it's easy to get discouraged. But Dr. Scott Isaacs has great news for anyone longing to lose weight and keep it off forever, and it can be summed up in two words: hormonal balance . Achieve this state and you won't just slim down . . . you'll get amazingly healthy in every respect.

Hormonal balance improves just about every aspect of your life, says Dr. Isaacs, author of Hormonal Balance: Understanding Hormones, Weight, and Your Metabolism, (Bull Publishing Company, 2006, ISBN: 0-923521-69-0, $16.95) . Your body will be lean and efficient. You won't have excessive hunger or cravings and your metabolism will work to keep your body at a healthy weight. You will feel more energetic but without stress or anxiety. Your mood will be elevated. You will have deep, restful, rejuvenating sleep every night. You will have a sharp mind. Hormonal balance means feeling better and living longer.

Dr. Isaacs, an endocrinologist, lays out the importance of hormonal health in his groundbreaking book which was published in 2002 and is now being re-issued with updated, revised and expanded information. Hormonal Balance pioneered the idea that hormones play a key role in weight loss control. The new edition incorporates recent medical breakthroughs about hormones and weight that have occurred over the past 5 years.

Writing in clear, simple terms, Dr. Isaacs profiles each hormone system, discussing what can go wrong and explaining how imbalances can affect weight and perpetuate obesity. The book explains how to reverse symptoms of hormonal imbalance through diet changes and other remedies, and then expands the discussion, teaching readers how to deal with everything from menstrual cycles to diabetes by recognizing and remedying hormonal problems.

Before you try a drastic series of extreme diets that either eliminate your fat intake or encourage you to avoid carbs, take a look at your hormonal health, says Dr. Isaacs. Sure, you can lose weight on these diets, but you won't be truly healthy, and you'll probably put all the weight back on when you go off the diet. The Hormonal Health Diet is a different type of diet. It is a balanced and nutritious way of eating that will help you balance your hormones and have permanent weight loss without hunger or cravings.

What is hormonal balance? It depends on who you ask. If you ask a gynecologist, she'll tell you it's the female hormones--estrogen, progesterone and prolactin. Ask a urologist and he'll tell you it's all about testosterone. Ask a diabetologist and he'll tell you it's about balancing your insulin, glucagon and blood sugar. An endocrinologist will tell you that it's about having all your hormones balanced. All your hormones affect one another, says Dr. Isaacs. It's one big circle. When one hormone is out of balance, it has profound effects on all your hormones. They are all connected. Hormonal balance means having the perfect amount of every hormone. It means having a body that's healthy and resilient.

As you read the book you'll learn how all your hormones work together to control your appetite, body weight and metabolism. You'll learn about the subtle or not so subtle signs and symptoms of hormonal imbalance and what you can do to get your body's system of communication back on track. And you'll learn the powerful influences food can have over your hormones.

Below are insights from Hormonal Balance :

Food isn't the only thing that affects your hormones. Medications, vitamins, and supplements can and do affect your hormonal balance. Often people don't even consider how a medication, vitamin or supplement is affecting other parts of their body as long as the substance is treating whatever they are taking it for. To clear up any confusion, Hormonal Balance has the most up-to-date listing of currently available medications, vitamins, and supplements and how they affect your hormones, sometimes positively and sometimes negatively. The comprehensive listing of medications and how they influence your hormones sets Hormonal Balance apart from all other diet books. Here are few examples from the book:

1. Certain blood pressure medications help improve insulin resistance, while others can slow metabolism and worsen insulin resistance. If you take a blood pressure medication that is an ACE inhibitor or an Angiotensin Receptor Blocker (ARB), not only are you lowering your blood pressure but these drug have also been shown to improve insulin resistance reducing the risk for diabetes, kidney disease, and cardiovascular disease. However, if you are taking a blood pressure medication that acts as a beta-blocker, the medicine could make insulin resistance worse.

2. Most antidepressants affect your weight in one way or another. This is because the brain chemicals related to depression--serotonin, norepinephrine, and dopamine--are the same brain chemicals that help regulate appetite.

3. There are also certain medications out there that may be increasing your growth hormone (GH) secretion levels without your knowledge. These include drugs used to treat Parkinson's disease, blood pressure problems, and seizures.

4. Several vitamins such as folic acid, Vitamin B7, and Niacin can be used to treat insulin resistance.

These are only a few examples of how substances other than food can affect your hormones, says Dr. Isaacs. Being educated in these areas is a huge benefit to anyone trying to balance their hormones.

When it comes to hormones, you are what you eat. An important focus of the Hormonal Health Diet is helping you choose foods that will influence your hormones in a positive way. The book gives an in-depth look at how different foods affect different hormones both negatively and positively. Sometimes the results can be surprising. Here are a few examples taken from the book:

•  Uncooked vegetables from the Brassica family, known as goitrogens can cause hypothyroidism or an underproduction of the thyroid hormone. These vegetables include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, cabbage, mustard, kale, radishes, and turnips. These vegetables do not cause problems if cooked or if consumed raw in small quantities. Hypothyroidism can result in a number of symptoms including weight gain, loss of appetite, fatigue, premature, loss of memory, and depression.

•  Sometimes the foods you know are bad for you are also bad for your hormones. Often these foods include trans fats which can lower good-cholesterol levels and increase bad cholesterol levels. Trans fats almost always come from one of three sources animal products, tropical oils (like palm oil or coconut oil), and processed oils (like margarine or partially hydrogenated vegetable oil).

•  There are also good fats that play an important part in the Hormonal Health Diet. These fats are unsaturated fats, and they help the body produce hormones such as cholecycystokinin, leptin, and glucagon-like peptide-1. These hormones tell your brain that it's time to stop eating and make you feel full. Unsaturated fats are found in nuts, olives, seeds, and avocados.

Of course there are plenty of other foods that play an important part in the Hormonal Health Diet and plenty of foods that you should avoid, says Dr. Isaacs. The book lays everything out for you, and even provides a set of menus and recipes for those just starting the diet.

The glycemic index and glycemic load: what you don't know will hurt you.

While the glycemic index measures the amount of glucose in your blood, what you should really be interested in is insulin. Scientists take a giant leap of faith and assume that the response of insulin parallels that of glucose. Many experts and professional organizations do not support the use of the glycemic index. The criticisms include variability in testing as well as the fact that we have no idea what these foods do in a real-life meal situation. The glycemic index is based not on a typical serving, but on the amount required to get those 50 grams of carbs. For some foods, the portion is so huge that it is not a realistic serving size. On the other hand the portion of another food may be unrealistically small.

Therefore, the glycemic load was created to correct for the serving size problem with the glycemic index. The glycemic load measurement gives a rating of the blood glucose response to the amount of carbohydrate in a typical serving of food. A glycemic load of 20 or more is considered high, between 11 and 19 is moderate, and 10 or below is considered low. The experts do agree on some things. The bottom line: slowly digested carbs are more beneficial than quickly digested carbs: beans and lentils are far better for you than mashed potatoes and white rice.

Stress throws your hormones out of whack. We are living in stressful times. Certainly, many generations have uttered those words, but think of what our generation faces: instantaneous communication, constant availability, just-in-time production methods. Our lives have sped up in ways previous generations never could have imagined. And all this speeding around creates--you guessed it--stress. When your body is under stress two things usually happen: First, it goes into conservation mode. Metabolism slows, and even your normal diet leads to weight gain. Second, you look to one of the most familiar items in your life for consolation: food.

Any kind of stress--whether mental, physical, or emotional--can disrupt the hormonal balance in our bodies in ways that make us gain weight, says Dr. Isaacs. It causes the brain, pituitary gland, and adrenal glands to pump out stress hormones. These hormones cause the biological reactions we associate with stress, from rapid heartbeat to a rise in blood sugar to slowed digestion. They prepare us for the ‘fight or flight' response. Too much stress and longer-term elevations of stress hormones cause weight gain. Many diets make you lose weight in a way that puts a tremendous stress on your body. This is why most diets ultimately fail. We have enough stress in our lives without adding more to the body by going on a harmful diet!

Fat cells are hormone culprits, not victims. You probably already know that hormones can make you hungry. Insulin, thyroid hormone, estrogen, progesterone, and cortisol--all have potent effects on appetite. There are hundreds of other hormones that also affect appetite, and they're not necessarily made in the traditional way, by glands. In fact, one of the biggest hormone producers in the body is the fat cell. Yes, the same little piece of the puzzle that collects and reproduces and causes so much of our misery also makes hormones. Until recently, the fat cell was seen as an innocent bystander in the obesity saga, but now we know better. It is actually one of the biggest hormone producers in the body. It is the culprit, not the victim. Leptin was one of the first hormones discovered to be produced by fat cells. Leptin is known as a satiety factor because of its potent effects on appetite. Satiety has both hormonal and psychological overtones,” says Dr. Isaacs. During times of satiety, hunger is at a minimum. Yet some people never feel satisfied. They never reach satiety. For some, this may be a hormonal disorder. Ultimately, hormones trigger hunger, uniting your brain, your glands, and your appetite.

Eat those miracle foods. If you're following the Hormonal Health Diet, miracle foods are vegetables and fruits. Under the diet you are allowed to have unlimited amounts of fruits and vegetables. Why? Pound for pound, vegetables and, to a lesser extent, fruits are extremely low in calories. Fresh vegetables and fruits are high in fiber and health-promoting phytonutrients and antioxidants. In fact, many studies have been published proving the effects of vegetable and fruit consumption on the reduction of cancer, heart disease, and strokes, among other ailments. I encourage you to consume at least five servings of vegetables and five servings of fruits each day, says Dr. Isaacs. I consider these numbers minimums. As far as vegetables and fruits go, more is better! If you are hungry, vegetables and fruits are the first thing you should eat.

He adds that you should stick to fresh vegetables and fruits (although frozen or canned fruit in unsweetened juice is also acceptable). Dried fruits, sweetened canned fruits, and fruit juices are high in calories and are like other processed carbohydrates. Also, grapes, watermelon, bananas, pineapple and other tropical fruits are higher in sugar and are not off-limits, but should not exceed 5 to 7 servings in a given day. Fruits and vegetables are two of the keys to successful and permanent weight loss under the Hormonal Health Diet.

Avoid diets that claim to enhance digestion. Any diet that combines specific foods for the purposes of enhancing digestion is, at its heart, fundamentally flawed. Slower digestion is beneficial. It produces a more gradual supply of energy to the body. If the digestion of starches is sped up, the energy load comes hard and strong and all at once, and you get an insulin surge. The insulin surge causes energy to be converted to fat, instead of being burned as fuel, and results in a rapid lowering of blood sugar (also known as hypoglycemia), which can result in dizziness, hunger, perspiration, and sleepiness. So beware of diets that base their food combinations on enhancing digestion: all they're doing is enlarging your waistline.

Eat throughout the day. The Hormonal Health Diet provides for three meals and three snacks a day. It is important that you have all of these meals. Small frequent feedings keep hormones in balance and prevent excessive hunger. You should try to eat some protein at breakfast or for your midmorning snack. This provides energy and quenches hunger later in the day. Lunch and the mid-afternoon snack should be light. Dinner is protein, starch and lots of vegetables. A snack at bedtime is important to keep fueling your metabolism throughout the night. By following the Hormonal Health Diet, you provide a constant low-level source of glucose (energy) to your body, and your body will not respond with a huge insulin surge, which can cause weight gain.

Skipping breakfast turns you into a Sumo wrestler, not a swimsuit model. Do you know how a 400-pound sumo wrestler gains all of his weight? He skips breakfast. He wakes up, exercises, and practices his technique all morning, and then has a big lunch. It's a healthy lunch--the Japanese have notably healthy diets, high in seafood and low in fat--but it's also loaded with starch in the form of white rice, a high-glycemic food. After that lunch, he sleeps for several hours. Metabolism slows after a big meal, and sleep slows metabolism (and digestion) even more.

Several studies have linked obesity to skipping breakfast, says Dr. Isaacs. Many of my patients have told me that they simply aren't hungry for breakfast. I have found that the most common reason is overeating the night before. It is a vicious cycle. Skip breakfast and get too hungry for lunch and dinner. Overeat at night and feel full the next morning. The cycle repeats itself. If you follow the Hormonal Health Diet, you will be hungry for breakfast. Always start the day with protein because it has been shown to reduce hunger cravings and you'll be less likely to overeat at both lunch and dinner. There are many ways to enjoy protein in the morning. My favorite is an egg white omelet packed with fresh vegetables and a slice of fat-free cheese.

Beat those PMS cravings. Progesterone is the primary culprit behind the cravings that come during the second half of the menstrual cycle. It provokes appetite and makes you sleepy and less likely to want to exercise. It causes insulin resistance and makes blood sugar levels rise. This can increase weight gain, especially during the second half of the menstrual cycle. Progesterone may also be the culprit behind premenstrual syndrome with its host of unpleasant symptoms: short tempers, bloating and fluid retention, depression, crying spells, anxiety, panic attacks, fatigue, and headaches and migraines. Ultimately, though, we're still not sure what causes PMS. What is known is that PMS is a problem of the brain and is caused by the brain's response to hormones. The good news is that PMS can be tamed, if not cured. Try these tips:

•  Follow the Hormonal Health Diet

•  Exercise and reduce stress

•  Stop smoking

•  Minimize caffeine intake

•  Get plenty of sleep

•  You're allowed a little chocolate. Just don't over do it.

•  Take calcium supplements

•  Get enough vitamins C and E

And here's the best thing about following the Hormonal Health Diet and achieving hormonal balance in your life: not only will it help you achieve and maintain a healthy weight, but it reduces your susceptibility to many serious and even deadly medical problems.

Remember, the principles in this book are not designed specifically for weight loss; they are to help you achieve hormonal balance, asserts Dr. Isaacs. However, they'll help you optimize your metabolism and you will lose weight. And by learning what triggers hormonal balance and hormonal imbalance, you can tailor the optimal diet and vitamin/mineral/supplement program for yourself and your family members. Hormonal balance can save your life--and the lives of the people you love.

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