Obesity: Why Has Dieting and Exercise Not Helped?

Posted on March 7th, 2017

Many Americans and their pets have been facing obesity problems, for many years.

Strict dieting with special nutritional programs and special exercise programs seem to be of little value for many people that are trying to lose excess weight.

Many people have consulted their physician for themselves and their veterinarian for their obese dog, thyroid tests were done, and the results were completely normal.

This situation is becoming more and more common every day, but what is the answer?

I have found that the answer lies with the development of an endocrine, immune imbalance.

This imbalance will allow the thyroid hormones to be perfectly normal  when measured, however their receptor sites are bound and therefore the thyroid hormones cannot be used by the person’s or animals body.

I refer to this state of obesity as Metabolic Hypothyroidism.

What is metabolic hypothyroidism?

Metabolic hypothyroidism is caused by a deficient or defective cortisol that leads to the production of elevated amounts of adrenal estrogen.

The elevated adrenal estrogen is responsible for binding the thyroid receptor sites.

How can this be determined?

Metabolic hypothyroidism can be determined with a simple blood test.

The blood test should include the following:

. Cortisol

. Total (adrenal) estrogen

. T3 = triiodothyronine

. T4 = Thyroxin

. Immunoglobulin A = IgA

The cortisol can be deficient, normal or even elevated and if the total estrogen is elevated, it means these normal or elevated amounts of cortisol are either bound or defective and cannot be used by the body.

If the IgA level in humans is below 68 mgs/dL, or in canines or felines below 58 mgs/dL, an oral cortisol supplement will not be absorbed.

In this instance, Depomedrol or Kenalog injections will help increase the IgA, by funding the negative feedback mechanism to the hypothalamic-pituitary axis, and help reduce the elevated adrenal estrogen, which is causing the IgA suppression, including suppression of the other immunoglobulins.

Once the IgA level reaches this level or higher, oral Medrol, Prednisolone or Hydrocortisone may be used to fund the cortisol imbalance.

Because the elevated estrogen has bound the receptor sites for both T3 and T4, a thyroid supplement, also needs to be prescribed.

The thyroid supplement has two purposes.

The first purpose is to provide the patient with active thyroid hormones.

The second purpose for using a thyroid supplement in a human or canine with the use of an ongoing cortisol supplement is to increase the metabolism of the liver and kidneys, which will allow for the liver to breakdown the cortisol and the kidneys to excrete the breakdown products, in a 24 hour period.

However if a thyroid supplement is not prescribed with the use of an ongoing cortisol supplement, the cortisol supplement will not be broken down in 24 hours and will become an overdose, causing side effects.

If you or your dog are suffering from obesity and all the standards methods of coping with this problem have not helped, you may want to consider asking your MD or your DVM, to perform this simple blood test and see if either you or your dog have a metabolic hypothyroidism causing the obesity.

For more information on Metabolic Hypothyroidism, please Google Metabolic Hypothyroidism with my name.

These are just my thoughts, which I hope will help both you and your dog conquer a major cause of obesity.

Sincerely,

Dr. Al Plechner