Scott Isaacs - Hormonal Balance: How to Lose Weight by Understanding Your Hormones and Metabolism

How to Lose Weight by Understanding
Your Hormones and Metabolism

Third Edition

Scott Isaacs, M.D.

Foreword by Neil Shulman, M.D.

Copyright 2012 by Bull Publishing Company

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

Published by Bull Publishing Company

P.O. Box 1377

Boulder, CO, USA 80306

www.bullpub.com

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Isaacs, Scott, 1967

Hormonal balance : how to lose weight by understanding your hormones and metabolism / Scott Isaacs ; foreword by Neil Shulman. -- 3rd ed.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-936693-22-1

1. Hormones--Popular works. 2. Weight loss--Endocrine aspects--Popular works. 3. Endocrine glands--Diseases--Popular works. 4. Metabolism--Popular works. I. Title.

QP571.I833 2012

612.405--dc23

2012012063

NOTE TO READERS: The information in this book is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended to serve as medical advice or to be any form of medical treatment. You should always consult with your physician before starting any diet or exercise program. Any use of the information is at the readers good judgment and sole responsibility. This book is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition and is not a substitute for a physician.

First Edition

17 16 15 14 13 12 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Interior design and project management: Dovetail Publishing Services

Cover design: Shannon Bodie, Lightbourne, Inc.

This book is dedicated to my lovely wife, Fiona, who has
helped me with every aspect of this book, especially giving
me the love and support I needed to make it a reality.

I thank all my patients, past and present, for the knowledge they have given me about successful weight loss and the privilege of being involved in their care.

Thank you to Hossein Gharib, M.D., Lewis Blevins, M.D., Adriana Ioachimescu, M.D., PhD, Nelson Oyesiku, M.D., PhD, Vin Tangpricha, M.D., PhD, Victoria Musey, M.D., James Early, M.D., and Guillermo Umpierrez, M.D., for their continued expertise with countless curbside consultations. Thank you to Neil Shulman, M.D., Randy Kessler, and Robyn Spizman for their help with this book. A hearty thanks to Bobbie Christmas for her help writing and editing this book. I thank Jim Bull and Claire Cameron from Bull Publishing, who first published this book a decade ago and continue to support the project with this updated third edition. Thank you to Karin Slaughter for being an inspiration and teaching me how to concentrate on writing. I also thank my office staff: Janet Baldwin, R.N., Misty Roland, L.P.N., Fran Ritter, R.N., Deborah English, Annie Goode, Bethany Burton, and Shundalyn Vanderhorst. I give a special thanks to my officer manager Bethany Knott, who has helped keep my office running smoothly while I took time off to write this book. I thank Jillian Michaels, Isadore Rosenfeld, Lance Armstrong, and Robin Meade for their support in promoting our message of better health through hormonal balance.

I thank my mother and father Sheryle and Howard Isaacs. A special thanks to Sheryle Isaacs for many of the recipes used in this book. I give an extra special thanks to the two loves of my life: my wife Fiona Isaacs and my daughter Arabella Isaacs. Thank you for everything!

By Neil Shulman, M.D.

Hormonal Balance is a very important resource in todays world, where the number one preventable cause of early death and suffering in the United States and many countries throughout the world is obesity.

The everyday person needs to understand the interface between obesity and hormones. This updated book provides a unique opportunity to understand and improve the overall health crisis due to the obesity epidemic. The book should be required reading for a wide spectrum of folks: from primary and secondary school teachers to family doctors and other health professionals. It is an essential guide for everyone, because a truly global understanding of the obesity epidemic and how to help ourselves, our families, and our friends avoid obesity is not simply a matter of going on a diet or exercising. It involves having a true understanding of all potential contributors to the problem. Whether psychological, disease induced, diet induced, or the result of lack of exerciseevery case of obesity is unique and dependent on individual factors. In order to reduce the obesity epidemic, we all need to understand the big picture of what is causing the obesity we experience personally or see in our friends, relatives, and clients. Hormones play a key role.

Scott Isaacs, M.D., has written a very important book that can make a major impact on the health of many of us. He wants to empower all of us to help rein in the disastrous consequences of the obesity epidemic. He wants to empower all of us. He has written and updated, with inclusion of new groundbreaking discoveries, a very reader-friendly, comprehensive book. He is a caring, compassionate doc. He has acquired his broad base of knowledge by training in endocrinology, diabetes, and metabolism as well as by treating patients, training health professionals, and conducting research.

I have had the opportunity to work with many wonderful humanitarians, helping to organize a Global Humanitarian Summit, associate producing the movie Doc Hollywood based on my novel and starring Michael J. Fox, working with more than 120 doctors and nurses on our book Your Bodys Red Light Warning Signals, and helping to demystify medicine for kids by performing as a goofy doctor on public televisions, Whats in a Doctors Bag?, inspired by one of my childrens books. With this background, I can say that Scott Isaacs is one of the brightest, most caring, and dedicated humanitarians whom I have met.

Since the first edition of Hormonal Balance was published in 2002, research on the subject of hormones and obesity has exploded. Literally thousands of scientific articles have been published on every conceivable aspect of this topic. New discoveries are being made every day.

Despite these scientific breakthroughs, we are still fat.

Government studies estimate that nearly 75 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese. If you arent overweight, youre in the minority. And obesity-related illness, like heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, diabetes, and even certain cancers, has become the number one preventable cause of early death in the United States.

We continue to see the rise and fall of fad diets. No-fat, no-carb, low-carb, Jenny Craig, Nutrisystem, Sugar Busters, Atkins, South Beach... the more we diet, the fatter we get.

Studies have shown that about 98 percent of people who lose weight on a diet will regain the weight or even more within five years.

Why?

Hormonal imbalance.

If you want to be part of the 2 percent of dieters who experience permanent weight loss, your hormones have to be balanced. Through hormonal balance, you will be able to lose weight and keep it off forever.