From Arthritis to Zoster

Let’s face it…unless you’ve lived under a rock for the past ten years, you already know that over 60% of Americans are overweight or obese. On the basis of statistics alone, two out of every three people reading this page are struggling with their weight – maybe more, if you consider the bias introduced by internet search engines.

Everyone who is overweight has also already heard the party line: In order to shed those extra pounds, you have to cut down on your calories and get off the couch; you can’t lose weight unless you burn more energy than you consume; and so on, and so forth…

What many people don’t know, and what is still unsettled in the minds of scientists who study the obesity issue, is how much influence our immune systems have on weight gain…and, by default, on weight control.

Enter the “hygiene hypothesis.” This theory postulates that many of our modern-day health issues – from asthma and allergies to rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia – are rooted in our lack of exposure to a sufficient number of germs when we are very young. Such a notion flies in the face of conventional thinking, which holds that improved sanitation, antibiotics, and other trappings of contemporary living are the main reasons we’re all living to be 80 instead of 35.

But our sanitized surroundings may actually be contributing to some health problems along the road to that golden “fourscore-and-then-some” milestone. There’s some pretty compelling evidence that our immune systems first learn to not only protect us from our environment when we are in infancy; they also develop the critical state of balance that prevents them from beoming our antagonists later in life.

Apparently, a great deal of our “immune education” requires the existence of a robust population of probiotics in our intestinal tracts, which leads in turn to an ample supply of immune messenger molecules in our bloodstreams.

Probiotics are “friendly bacteria” that live in our environment – most of them exist in the soil – and their colonization of the human gut stimulates the type of immune response that keeps us healthy throughout our lives. Proponents of the hygiene hypothesis contend that most infants in industrialized nations do not receive their requisite “dose” of probiotic organisms at a time when it will do them the most good.

How does this relate to obesity? Well, research has already demonstrated that obese individuals exhibit highly unusual responses to immune challenges:

• People who are overweight are much more likely to succumb to certain infections due to impaired immunity (abnormally low activity of T cells and NK cells).
• Obesity interferes with the production of cytokines that serve as immune messenger molecules; hence, an appropriate response to an infectious organism or suppression of a hyperactive immune system does not occur in a timely fashion.
• Obesity dampens the effects of hormones that usually trigger immune responses. Thus, infections can gain a foothold – or a revved-up immune response can continue unchecked – before the immune system’s “damage control” function can intervene.

Conversely, several recent studies have demonstrated that obesity – and many of its consequences – may actually be driven by inappropriate activities within our immune systems. In short, obesity (like coronary artery disease) is an inflammatory disorder.

It is probably premature to assume that immunomodulation (i.e., therapies aimed at balancing the immune system) will become a mainstay in the treatment of obesity. However, a great deal of scientific effort is being directed at this very idea; I have no doubt that there will soon be medications on the market for individuals whose obesity can be partly or wholly attributed to immune imbalance (although tests designed to detect the specific immune derangements that cause obesity aren’t widely available).

In the meantime, we should include a good probiotic supplement in our daily routines; no one knows for sure if reestablishing a normal population of bacteria in the gut will “repair” an unbalanced immune system, but it’s certainly reasonable to assume that it will help. Live-culture yogurt is one way to acquire some probiotics, but the number and viability of organisms in yogurt cannot be ensured. Individuals who are immunocompromised should use probiotics with caution.

Additionally, people who are trying to lose weight – particularly those whose best efforts aren’t yielding the expected results – should really consider adding some immune-balancing messenger molecules to their programs. The only such preparations that are available to the general public (and that have sufficient scientific support for their use) contain transfer factors. Transfer factors were discovered over 60 years ago, and hundreds of scientific articles attest to their effectiveness.

Only one company, 4Life Research, has the expertise – not to mention the worldwide marketing rights – to ensure the quality of transfer factor products. They’ve even coined a phrase for their preparations: “Transferceuticals®”  

Specifically, take a look at Transfer Factor Tri-Factor Formula, Shape-Fast Ultra (for people who want to improve the caloric burn) and NutraStart. All of these formulas contain healthy doses of transfer factors.

Good luck in your weight-control efforts, and don’t give up!!