New Article by Charles A. Moss MD: Lose Stress, Lose Weight

Lose Stress, Lose Weight

Article by Charles A. Moss MD, author of Power of the Five Elements: The Chinese Medicine Path to Healthy Aging and Stress Resistance

Sarah, a long-standing patient of mine was baffled. Despite eating well and exercising she had put on thirty pounds in the past two years, mostly around her midsection. In addition she was tired and achy, had poor sleep and worsening memory and concentration. And she was only thirty years old. The one thing that had changed in her life was a difficult divorce leading to on going stress with her ex husband and their two children.

Sarah is not alone in joining the ranks of the obese. Obesity is an epidemic that is sweeping the developed world. Excess weight is not only a risk for diabetes and heart disease, but recent research has shown obesity associated with increased cancer incidence and worse outcomes in those with cancer. Dietary habits are strongly linked to this new health challenge, especially the use of high glycemic foods (those that spike blood sugar), excess calories (supersized meals) and fats that stimulate inflammation (trans fats, baked goods, red meat and whole dairy not organically produced). One common thread in all these dietary indiscretions is the effect on blood chemistry including elevating cortisol levels, the main stress hormone from the adrenal gland. However, as Sarah now knows, it is not diet alone that raises cortisol and increases the risk for obesity and disease. The other major trigger is chronic stress.

Cortisol is essential for life, without it survival would be impossible. It is the main way we respond to any stress–mobilizing energy through release of fatty acids, raising blood sugar, moving blood from the digestive system to the muscles. In addition cortisol suppresses the immune system, reduces inflammation and decreases sex hormone production. It is catabolic, breaking down muscle for energy. All these changes help survival, and normally after the stress is resolved, cortisol returns to baseline levels.

However, the stress we experience today and that experienced by our ancestors and to which our body’s response is geared are different. In past generations stressful events were about survival: you either caught lunch or you were lunch. Today, whether the stress is a boss who does not respect you, a sick family member, a difficult relationship, or dealing with the onslaught of stimulation and lack of quiet time, the cortisol response does not resolve as it does after a fight or flight response. Elevated cortisol continues to change the body and is associated with obesity, diabetes, heart disease, high blood pressure, depression, and increased cancer risks. This is what happened to Sarah.

The next time you see a friend with an expanding waistline, (or yourself for that matter), the likelihood is that excess cortisol is bathing every cell in their body and directly contributing to visceral (abdominal) fat accumulation. Even more disturbing is that the fat cells of an obese person can make as much cortisol as the adrenal gland itself, perpetuating a vicious cycle of stress increasing weight causing more cortisol which adds more weight.

New research on several fronts has helped to clarify the mechanisms behind the stress and obesity connection. First, is allostasis and allostatic load. Medical science had always taught that after a change in organ function, increasing heart rate with exercise for example, the body would go back to the preset state. This is called homeostasis, and describes the majority of body functions such as the kidney setting blood pH and filtration rates.

However, it is not true in the control of stress hormone levels. With long-term stress or a traumatic event, the midbrain resets the level of cortisol at a higher point even if the original stress is resolved. This is called allostasis and the impact it has on health is called allostatic load. I have found in my patients with obesity, insomnia, anxiety, depression and fatigue, (all symptoms of excess cortisol) there is often a history of poor recovery from previous traumas or stress whether it is a divorce, abuse, accident or other unexpected events.

Another recent breakthrough in the use of brain functional MRI scans has shown the consequence of allostatic load. Unknown before the advent of fMRI the brain actually remodels itself under the burden of too much cortisol. The part of the midbrain that contains detailed and specific emotional memories, the hippocampus, is injured by excess cortisol and actually decreases in size. In fact, studies of depressed patients showed as much as a 20% decrease in the size of the hippocampus.

While this is happening the amygdala, the part of the midbrain that contains the fear and anger centers, as well as non-specific memories of trauma and stress, enlarges. This brain remodeling leads to more cortisol secretion and poor control over the regulation of the adrenal glands. Over time we are left with a vague and non-specific memory of stressful events that leads to anxiety, insomnia, depression and obesity with a loss of the specific details of what the earlier trauma involved. No wonder some of the most commonly prescribed medications are for sleep, anxiety and depression.

My thirty years of helping patients recover from stress and these new insights in understanding the effect of stress on well-being and obesity led me to write Power of the Five Elements and a companion book on controlling cortisol through diet, The Adaptation Diet. One unique solution to the cortisol challenge is presented in Power of the Five Elements. To improve resistance to stress the Five Adaptation Types, based on the Five Elements of Chinese medicine, provide a map to recognize perceptions and expectations that can create excess stress response and techniques to enhance adaptation.

The Five Adaptation Types (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) bring clarity to constitutional patterns, looking at the person, not just the symptoms. When my patients understand why they react to certain stress in their own unique way they can become more resistant to the negative impact of poor adaptation. The Five Adaptation Types are a way to map and organize a person’s stress response and provide the tools to reduce the stress. Example-the Wood Type responds with frustration and anger if feeling restrained and unable to control their environment while the Metal Type responds with withdrawal melancholia and poor self esteem if they do not feel well respected and experience life’s perfection. This ‘map’ provides a way to be mindful and observant of the stress response and then decouple from it and achieve objectivity and not emotional reactivity. This is the path to ramping down the cortisol response.

For example, in relationships each Type, if maladapted, would have a different ‘lens’ coloring his or her experience. The Wood Type might be in conflict over control in the relationship; the Fire Type could feel emotionally vulnerable and sensitive to possible abandonment; the Earth Type would likely want attention and security above all else; the Metal Type might seek respect and a deeper meaning from the relationship; the Water Type could need to trust a partner and feel protected so that life does not become overwhelming. The more out of balance a person is, the stronger these tendencies would be, and the more stressful the relationship.

Through knowledge of these patterns my patients have been able to lower their stress response and improve cortisol levels and well-being. This information is now available in Power of the Five Elements. The answer to controlling the obesity epidemic is not only found in the diet, but in how well each person stays adapted to changing life circumstances and controls their stress response and cortisol levels.

For more information, please visit:

PowerOfTheFiveElements.com

TheAdaptationDiet.com

CharlesMossMD.wordpress.com

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Charles A. Moss, MD, has been practicing integrative medicine and Five Element acupuncture in La Jolla, California, since 1978. A pioneer in combining Eastern wisdom and the best of scientific integrative medical practice, he has taught Five Element acupuncture through the UCLA School of Medicine, the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, and the Five Element Acupuncture Physician Training Program. He holds a master’s degree in acupuncture from the College of Traditional Acupuncture, UK, participated in the founding of the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture and the American Holistic Medical Association, and is a Fellow and Diplomate of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine, the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture, and a Diplomate (Board Certified) of the American Board of Family Medicine. Dr. Moss has written multiple articles on Five Element acupuncture and regularly presents workshops through the American Academy of Medical Acupuncture.