The “Secret” to Weight Loss is Healthy Hormones & Optimal Body Composition
By Melanie Reidl, Naturopathic Doctor
How do we achieve healthy metabolic hormones (ie insulin, cortisol, leptin) and optimize body composition (increase muscle, decrease fat)?
Here are 3 important points:
1 – Strength Train/Lift Weights 3-4x/Week
Strength training helps build lean muscle mass, which improves metabolic health & improves insulin sensitivity. Guidance + accountability with this piece can be very helpful, and I have some excellent personal trainer recommendations and tips on integrating a strength training program.
2 – Optimize Protein + Fibre intake for your Body
Your age, activity level, and other health factors influence your daily protein requirements. Sufficient amino acid intake signals to the brain that we are full, and helps to prevent overeating. Fibre is also important for its beneficial impact on insulin sensitivity, so we need to mindfully calculate and optimize our daily intake. Guidance + accountability, such as with diet diaries and tracking Apps can really help with this piece.
3 – Assessment/Testing to Determine Your Body’s Unique Biochemistry + Physiology
Through testing + assessment, we can look at individualized factors that influence metabolic health, such as insulin resistance, thyroid health, stress/cortisol, nutrient levels, liver health, inflammation, microbiome health, and more. Your ND could be helpful in this piece in addition to point number 2! 🙂
If you’re ready to feel like your healthiest, most confident, and beautiful self, I’d be honoured to support you.
5 Ways Osteopathy Can Help with Sinus Infections:
By Leann Mai (M. OMSc)
1Â Â Â Â Â Opens blood supply and drainage through the neck
2 Realigns cranial bones to relieve blockages to the drainage and supply of the sinus tissues
3Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Reduces fascia bind at the base of the head and cervical spine to allow ease of motion through the head and eyes
4       Improves and coordinates function of diaphragms through shoulders, jaw, sinus’ and through the brain and spinal cord
5Â Â Â Â Â Â Â Restores lymphatic flow through head, neck, and brain.
MY NOT-SO-PERFECT JOURNEY TO MOTHERHOOD & FERTILITY AS WHOLE BODY HEALTH
I am blessed to now have two beautiful girls, but I do remember being on the other side. The uncertainty, the doubt; the fear of it not happening. For me, it actually happened when I was hoping to conceive my second child.
Around the time that I was wanting a second baby, my menstrual cycle had disappeared. My body was showing numerous signs of hormonal chaos. I was extremely anxious about my health, about not being able to conceive again.
My anxiety led me to (in hindsight, prematurely) set foot in the world of reproductive endocrinology (a fertility clinic) & had a host of tests done to understand what was going on with my reproductive health.
In the end, nothing was truly wrong with me. However, I did a DUTCH hormone test at the time as well, and my Cortisol levels were 2X the normal morning limit. My CORTISOL was basically suppressing my reproductive hormone signalling, so I wasn’t getting normal hormone release in order to ovulate & menstruate.
Several months later, after a comprehensive approach to Cortisol reduction & hormone balancing, my cycle came back and I conceived quickly (again, I am fortunate that it was relatively easy for me).
I share my story because I know how stressful & emotional it can be to struggle when trying to have a baby.
In the end, I learned a lot about the importance of whole body health, how all systems of the body impact fertility, not just the reproductive system.
Digestive health, mental health, hormone health, immune health – ALL of these are important and require assessment & individualized treatment.
I don’t believe in ‘UNEXPLAINED INFERTILITY’. If we dive deeper into whole body health, there absolutely are answers & solutions.Â
RE defining Health with Osteopathy
By Leann Mai (M. OMSc)
Our bodies are amazing machines, they have built in mechanisms to heal and protect that we aren’t even aware of – it’s like a software program always running in the background so that we can work, enjoy, and play our days away!
We change the way we play as we get older, running around playing tag or playing sports may be something we enjoy in the first few decades of life – we may thrive on the competition or the achievement of success as part of a team. Often in the third, fourth and fifth decades we redefine fun according to our limitations as we start to notice our body doesn’t respond the way it used to. We try training, like we did in the second decade and still, not the same response. We often notice our health isn’t what it used to be either.
Perhaps defining our health to meet the same criteria it was in previous decades is the problem. Maybe we should still focus in on the joy of what we can do and continue making goals based on where we are rather than beating ourselves up for not being able to do more.
Osteopathy can help support the body with shifting into mobility and movement focused exercise that will have way more benefit physically and physiologically to our overall health than the no pain, no gain theory. Our standard of competition should be to ourselves (not the Jones’) and redefined as progression.
We need to be open to variety- we have joints that move in multiple planes and a nervous system that loves rhythm! We can learn from young children, they love to walk, dance, swim, and swing, to name a few things they enjoy. They just enjoy discovering how their body can move!
So perhaps re defining health means being young at heart, go for a bike ride by the river, dance while making dinner, swing with your kids, it doesn’t matter- just move!
Let osteopathy show you how tomorrow can be a better day.
Cheers to you and your newly defined health!!  Â
My Secret to Sustainable Weight Loss & Optimal Body Composition
By Dr. Melanie Reidl, Naturopathic Doctor
So many of us would benefit from a paradigm shift when it comes to weight + body goals.
Yes, I know most of us care about aesthetics. And that’s fine (although I would encourage the focus to be more on overall health!)
But guess what? You’re more likely to achieve those aesthetic goals if you focus on parameters relating to overall health + longevity.
Below are the labs + items I monitor when working on weight/body goals with patients:
Fasting Insulin + Glucose + Cholesterol Panel + HA1C Thyroid Panel HS-CRP (inflammation marker) Waist:Hip ratio % Lean Mass + % Fat Mass Muscle Strength (lbs/kg lifted) Protein + Fibre intake Sugar, Refined Carb + Alcohol intake Symptom Assessments (ie energy, mood, sleep)
Improvements in these items reflect positive changes to your physiology/ biochemistry, which will facilitate your weight loss/body goals.
Focus on MUSCLE, METABOLIC, and HORMONE HEALTH, and you will feel better, achieve aesthetic goals, and improve overall health + longevity.
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564-572 Weber Street North, Unit 3A Waterloo, Ontario N2L5C6
