CLINICAL WEIGHT MANAGEMENT™

Bariatric Medicine faces the monumental task of dealing with the obesity pandemic. Drugs and surgery to control weight are not first –line options, but there is a tendency to engage in their premature use as patients and healthcare givers look for an “easy way out” of an expanding waistline. Weight control programs require strong resolve, a multipronged management approach and they must fulfill global health initiatives. As obesity rapidly becomes the number one preventable cause of premature death and disability, fad diets and false promises of quick weight loss must be rejected.

Modern concepts of weight management stress the role of excessive dietary calorie intake as the cause of adiposity. Western nations have “food portion distortion.” Standard American Diets (SAD) are composed of over processed food which is often nutritionally depleted, loaded with calories and overabundant in salt or simple sugars. SAD contain the wrong kind of fat, while being depleted in dietary fiber. Nutrient dense, low calorie diets are a major component of healthy weight control programs which must combine exercise, behavior modification and positive lifestyle change. Treating obesity without tackling the Metabolic Syndrome X, prediabetes and obesity-related diseases is incomplete management of many causes of obesity (see CLINICAL METABOLIC SYNDROME X NUTRITIONAL FACTORS™). Effective weight control is a primary target for holistic healthcare or integrative medical strategies.

Against this background, the obvious emerges. On the one hand control of calorie intake seems pivotal, whereas,
on the other, attempts to alter the metabolic problems that are associated with obesity may assist in reducing morbidity and mortality. Cardiovascular function may be often compromised or challenged in the obese individual and hypertension with other risks for stroke or heart attack go hand in hand with Metabolic Syndrome X. These issues have produced frenetic interest in the discovery of steroidal glycosides (found in the succulent plant Hoodia gordonii). These naturally occurring compounds, found in the succulent South African plant Hoodia, may cause non stimulant appetite suppression. Another proposed non-stimulant appetite suppressant is Caralluma fimbriata, but all of these “claims” are debated.

Natural Clinician™ has recognized the potential of metabolic factors that provide nutritional support for weight
management. These factors include Garcinia cambogia, green coffee bean extract containing 75% chlorogenic acid, green tea polyphenols (95%) and traditional weight management nutraceuticals including Guarana, Gotu kola, Chromium and seaweed (fucoxanthin) Apple Cider Vinegar. Variations of this formulation provide adjunct for a holistic weight management program.