Addictive & Disordered Eating

Disordered eating refers to a wide range of abnormal eating behaviours, that can have a negative impact on a person’s emotional, social and physical wellbeing, lead to malnutrition, fatigue, poor concentration, and social issues leading to anxiety and depression & ultimately loss of Quality of Life

If you feel you can identify with any of the following?

• Extreme Dieting
• Anorexia Nervosa
• Binge eating
• Bulimia Nervosa (Purging)
• Skipping meals regularly
• Obsessive calorie counting
• Orthorexia (obsession with only healthy food)
• Misusing laxatives and or diuretics

Asthma

Asthma is chronic inflammatory and complex immune disorder of the airways, which reacts to triggers causing flare-ups. During a flare-up the muscles around the airways squeeze tight, swell up becoming narrow, making it difficult to get enough air inside the lungs restricting normal breathing. A sudden or severe flare-up is called an ‘Asthma Attack’.

Symptoms often occur at night, early morning or after physical activity include;

• Breathlessness
• Wheezing
• Tightness in the chest
• Constant dry coughing

Asthma severity is defined by the intensity of treatment required to achieve good asthma control, common triggers include;

• House dust mites
• Feathers
• Animal dander
• Exercise
• Pollens
• Smoke
• Cold air
• Food preservatives

Diagnosis and Investigations are important to rule out any differential diagnosis, this is done by Chest x-rays, allergy testing, lung function test and in severe cases arterial blood gas and oxygen saturation levels.

Building a resilient ‘Immune System’

Our Immune system is built to protect us against the effects of microbe pathogens (germs), that we face on a daily basis, as well as react against foreign substances and cancer cells. A healthy functioning immune system is crucial to overall health & wellbeing and is a complex ‘system’ not a single entity, to function well it requires balance & harmony.

First line of defence is to choose a healthy lifestyle, which will protect you from environmental assaults, bolstered by healthy strategies;

• Good regular nourishment
• Don’t smoke
• Exercise regularly, at least 20-30 minutes a day
• Maintain a healthy weight range (BMI 20-24)
• Keep your blood pressure under control
• Drink alcohol in moderation
• Get adequate quality sleep
• Be responsible in infection control (wash hands regularly)

Nutrition is a critical determinant of immune responses and malnutrition is the most common cause of immunodeficiency worldwide. Protein-energy malnutrition is associated with a significant impairment of our immune system, along with over nutrition and obesity, low birth weight of infants and the ageing.

Evidence of micro nutrient deficiencies in certain vitamins and minerals can alter our immune responses.

Carbohydrate & Sugar Addiction

“Food Addiction” seems plausible because brain pathways that evolved to respond to natural rewards are also activated by addictive drugs.

Sugar is noteworthy as substance that releases opioids and dopamine, thus have a potential addictive effect.

Each day Australians consume over 20 teaspoons of sugar (5g x 20 = 100g), not only does it make us gain weight but it affecting dental hygiene and contributing to insulin resistance and the development of Type 2 Diabetes.

Obesity rates continue to climb, World Health Organisation tell us 1.9 billion people worldwide are overweight, 600 million, of those considered Obese.

Excess sugar consumption has been proven to contribute to weight gain, the more consumed the lower dopamine levels become leading to a higher consumption to get the same reward.

Research has found as well as weight gain, maintaining an extremely high sugar consumption and binge eating into adulthood causes neurological and psychiatric consequences affecting mood and motivation.

FDA have approved a nicotine addiction medication to treat sugar addiction because it works on the same principles.

Withdrawal of chronic sugar abuse and reducing sugar has the same effect as going ‘cold turkey’ as would a drug addict, therefore is seen as a psychological dependency like gambling not just a biochemical addiction.

Obesity & Weigh Loss

Being Overweight & Obese are widely recognised as one of Australia’s leading health concerns involving all ages and socioeconomic groups, and a strongly association with several chronic diseases like cardiovascular disease, cancers, type 2 diabetes, mental health & eating disorders.

The causes of obesity and being overweight are complex, and although diet and physical activity are central to energy balance. Iit is also directly and indirectly influenced by a wide range of social, environmental, behavioural, genetic and physiological factors.

Common factors which may be inhibiting your ability to lose weight or cause you to gain weight;

• Thyroid dysfunction
• Stress Hormones
• Lack of Vitamin D
• Lack or Quality sleep
• Hormonal Imbalances (leptin resistance, Insulin resistance, menopause, PCOS, andropause)
• Neurotransmitter dysfunction
• Lack of exercise, fibre or water intake
• Allergies & food intolerances
• Poor detoxification (liver dysfunction)

Leptin; produced by the fat tissue is supposed to increase when there is an abundance of fat … reducing the desire to eat. If levels decrease, then the desire to eat increases.

Ghrelin; is opposite of Leptin,

Endorphins; are a natural body tranquiliser that can prompt you to eat

Serotonin; is released as a result of consuming a high carbohydrate meal, high levels decrease desire to eat carbohydrates eg. become tired.

Another consideration in weight loss resistance is your gut microbiome, because the bacteria and other microbes that live in your gastrointestinal tract may also be playing a significant role in obesity.

These microbes play an important role in how we get nutrients and calories from our food and how we burn them for energy. Some studies have shown that potentially the gut microbiome affects fat storage and ability to get energy from food. Different ratios of key bacteria and alterations in the genes of bacteria could play a role in how many calories you can get from food. Some bacteria might even be linked to more efficient food metabolism.

There are many facts that can be taken into account and reasons which maybe explain the inability to lose weight successfully, when attempting to lose weight, without starving yourself, taking over the counter preparations with false promises or adopting unsustainable eating habits.

Depression, Anxiety, Mental Illnesses

Depression & Anxiety are common but different conditions, and is not uncommon for both to occur together, and is the leading cause of disability on a Global scale, in Australia alone it is estimated 45% of people will at stage in the lifetime experience mental health issues.

Depression is not just feeling sad, moody or low from time to tie, it is an intense feeling for weeks, months or years, physical signs include;

• Tired all the time
• Sick and run down
• Headaches & muscle pains
• Stomach churning all the time
• Sleep problems
• Loss or change of appetite
• Major weight Loss or gain

Anxiety is not just feeling stressed or worried, but when those feelings never subside, are ongoing with no apparent stressors, making it hard to cope with everyday life and normal functioning. These manifest;

• Physically; panic attacks, hot or cold flushes, racing heart beats, tightening in the chest, breathing quickly, feeling tense, edgy.
• Psychologically; excessive fear, worrying, catastrophizing or obsessive thinking.
• Behaviourally; avoidance of situations that cause you stress or feeling anxious, impacting on work, or socialising.

Lifestyle choices can have a significant effect on mental health, poor choices can aggravate the symptoms associated with both anxiety & depression, so making positive changes can speed up recovery, like avoiding excessive caffeine, alcohol, cigarettes, social isolation, toxic relationships.

Causes of depressive disorders include;

• Nutrient insufficiency when the brain is starved of essential enzymes to promote a balance of healthy neurotransmitters.
• Seasonal affective disorder, (SAD) can affect those people indoors, during winter when the spend most of the time under false light, lack of exposure to the sun
• Metabolic disorders like PKU
• Certain medications can alter brain chemistry
• Lack of sleep
• Genetics

Gut Health

The gastrointestinal tract (GIT)/ Digestive System, encompasses not just our stomach but starts from …..

Mouth > Oesophagus > Stomach > Small Intestine > Large Intestine

The overall function is to break down the food we eat into smaller macro & micro nutrients to be further absorbed and utilised by the body to maintain optimum health and free from disease. Different nutrients being broken down and absorbed in different areas of these 4 parts of GIT.

‘Gut Health’ is a term used by the medical & food industry to denote effective digestion and absorption of food, the absence of gastrointestinal illness, normal intestinal microbiota, effective immune status and a general state of optimal wellbeing.

An impairment to the gastrointestinal barrier can increase the risk of developing infectious, inflammatory and functional GI diseases, as well external intestinal diseases such as immune regulated metabolic disorders.

There are over 100 trillion bacteria that call our intestines home, otherwise known as ‘gut flora’, ‘gut microbiome’ or ‘gut microbiota’

While new discoveries are being made almost daily, some of the key findings are strong links to our immune system – in fact, 70-80 per cent of our immune tissue resides in our digestive system.

Therefore, it is crucial to have a good gut microbiome to have a fully functioning immune response and be less prone to pathogen infection.

Also key is the role gut microbes play in regulating the degree of inflammation in the human body, with inflammation linked to such diseases as Alzheimer’s, coronary artery disease, diabetes and cancer.

Another recent finding is that an incorrect balance or absence of certain bacteria has been linked to an inability to lose weight or maintain weight loss. Also the strong link between our gut and our brains, with implications in depression and dysfunctional mental health.

Neurotransmitters are produced in our gut, 90% of our serotonin comes from the gut thus impacting on our moods.