Weight Loss
Maintaining the youth and fitness of body is challenging, especially as we grow older. With hectic schedules and poor time management, we often forget to exercise and take care of our health. This leads to a lot of meals out, and not enough home cooked meals. In the fast growing food industry in Dubai, restaurants, coffee shops and cafeterias are emerging on every corner. These are temptations and cause us to lose track of our diet. These temptations are one of the main reasons for excessive weight gain.
Uncontrolled weight gain may result to certain threatening conditions such as stroke, cardiovascular diseases, Diabetes Mellitus Type 2, irregular periods or even amenorrhea (absence of menstruation) and some other diseases related to lifestyle changes.
Thus, DLS, one of Dubai weight loss medical clinics, offers you a healthy weight loss program which helps each individual lose weight safely tailored to every patient's requirements and preference. This is important as it helps us understand the reason behind your weight gain. Sometimes, these reasons are medical, such as thyroid function, depression or other hormonal disorders.
The weight loss program starts by taking a comprehensive patient history and a complete list of the patient's complaints. Certain measurements will also be obtained such as abdominal circumference, hip circumference and weight. After your discussion with the doctor, a list of laboratory exams will be tailored according to the assessment performed.
The list of laboratory examinations below will serve as a tool in correcting the hormonal and metabolic imbalances:
(Includes the following LH, FSH, Estradiol, Progesterone, Prolactin, Pregnenolone, DHEA, SHBG and Testosterone)
Hormones direct our body's reactions on how we respond to outside stimuli, such as food, exercise, stress and sleeping habits. Hormones plays a big role in metabolism function. Hormonal imbalance are a contributing factor for both weight gain and weight loss.
(Includes the following: TSH, FT3, FT4, Total T3, Total T4, Thyroglobulin Antibody, Thyroid Peroxidase, Reverse T3 and Iodine in Urine)
Thyroid gland is a small, butterfly shaped gland located below the Adam's apple. The thyroid produces hormones that affect body's metabolism and energy level. Thyroid problems are among the most common medical condition but because their symptoms often appear gradually, they are commonly misdiagnosed. Most of the common thyroid problems are the underactive thyroid (HYPOTHYRODISM) and overactive Thyroid (HYPERTHYROIDISM). An imbalance of thyroid hormones, specifically hypothyroidism or thyroid hormone conversion disorders, can make it difficult or impossible to lose weight.
Our aim in DLS Clinic is to look for latent hypothyrosis which means suboptimal thyroid hormone. TSH alone is very often requested in any clinic; however, it is not enough to rule out the diagnosis.
If you're finding that weight is easy to gain and hard to lose, it's not your fault!
Weight problems aren't just about overeating or under exercising, they're about metabolic changes and one of these is Insulin Resistance.
Insulin resistance is the inability of your body to properly convert the food that you eat into energy to fuel your cells. This can be a key factor in weight gain or difficulty in losing weight. To rule out these underlying cause, relevant blood investigations will serve as a tool to weight loss management.
One of the insulin role is to control blood glucose level. Three consecutive readings of these tests give broader picture to determine the patient either be pre-diabetic, diabetic stage and or at a phase of developing insulin resistancy (either mild or high resistance).
This test reflects average blood glucose levels over the past 3 months and most reliable test for pre-diabetes. Having too much blood sugar can cause an excess amount of glucose to attach to the cells, which will give a higher HbA1c and increase risk of diabetes. One way of attaining the desirable value and avoiding the risk of diabetes can be achieved through weight loss.
What an individual eats in the process of gaining weight appears to have an impact on their lipid/fat profile.
Excess weight tends to increase your LDL (bad) cholesterol level. If you are overweight and have high LDL cholesterol, losing weight may help you lower it. Monitoring lipid/fat profile like lower triglycerides (another form of fat in your blood and one which you should aim to keep below 150 mg/dL) and raise HDL ("good") cholesterol levels gives a good progress to attain healthy body with the desired body fat percentage.
Furthermore, the conventional way of measuring cholesterol is not enough. Here at DLS, we go into details wherein size of LDL (bad cholesterol) particles are measured to differentiate small dense atherogenic LDL particle, which is causing high risk of Atherosclerosis; and the big particles, which are less dangerous. With these precise measurement of cholesterol particle values and the lipid sub-fraction, therapeutic measures can be taken and recommended to patient, such as high-fiber, low-carbohydrate diet.
Plays an important role in combination with Insulin resistance and early beta-cell impairment. Proinsulin is an independent factor for cardiovascular risk. Elevated Proinsulin can be treated with diet, change of lifestyle and supplementation.
This is used as a biomarker for insulin resistance and is a proteohormone, which is exclusively secreted from fat cells and with leptin, insulin, and other hormones which regulate hunger thus food intake.
Adiponectin reduces the free fatty acids in the blood and stimulates the fatty acid oxidation. It also acts inflammatory, vasoprotective and increase insulin sensitivity in fat cells, the liver and in skeletal muscles. Adiponectin enhances muscle activity to use carbohydrates for energy and boosts metabolism rate in the body, which helps break down fats and control appetite.
Leptin is synthesized primarily in adipose tissue and plays an important role in fat metabolism, in the regulation of body weight and control of eating behavior. It reduces appetite and increase energy expenditure like fat burning.
An elevated Leptin level is mostly seen in obesity, which is correlated with body mass index. Moreover, recent studies have shown that elevated leptin levels are associated with cardiovascular risks, increased thrombogenicity and hypertension. Lowering Leptin levels reduces the risk of cardiovascular problem and can be achieved through weight reduction, substitution of omega-3 fatty acid/fish-rich diet and reduction of omega-6 fatty acids (e.g. margarine, sunflower oil or corn oil)
For patients who are unaware, saliva is a good diagnostic test to monitor and evaluate hormones. This Salivary Cortisol test uncover biochemical imbalances that can be the underlying cause of conditions such as chronic physical stress, adrenal fatigue, anxiety, obesity, diabetes, depression and insomnia. Furthermore, increase in cortisol concentration have long been regarded as a reliable indicator of psychological stress, and that stress is considered to be a contributing factor to dieters' relapsing back to old eating habits and regaining weight.
DLS laboratory, in collaboration with Germany Outsource Referral Laboratory, performs this test by checking on the adrenal gland, as its most significant function is to balance glucose levels.
Ferritin has been hidden as key to weight management success. Ferritin is a protein that stores iron and iron is essential for the blood to carry oxygen. Feeling weak and tired, or not having any stamina during exercise could indicate signs of low Ferritin levels. The goal is to maintain a healthy ferritin level, in order to replenish the iron stored in the bone marrow, which will help with fatigue and lack of energy. With low energy levels and constant fatigue, burning fat and exercising becomes harder, which in turn causes weight gain.
Vitamin D is important as it is related to multiple body functions, including weight management. Low levels of Vitamin D are often seen in people who are overweight. It is thought that the hypothalamus may sense low levels of Vitamin D and respond by releasing hunger-stimulating hormones, increasing body weight. Vitamin D may also work at a cellular level to prevent the growth and maturation of fat cells.
CRP measures inflammation in the body, which decrease cellular T3 production and may cause hindrance in losing weight. Overweight and obese people tend to have higher levels of CRP, partly because bigger fat cells make more CRP. Moreover, CRP has been an independent risk factor for cardiovascular disease and has been associated with body weight and body fatness.
So you may be thinking, "Why is it so hard for me to lose weight? I'm doing everything right." And yet weight loss still seems to be very difficult for you. Perhaps you're already following a strict diet and working out several times a week, but the weight still won't come off or worse, you are gaining weight for seemingly no reason at all! Genetic make-up may cause these issues.
DLS clinic provides a NUTRITION GENETIC test that sees exactly which diseases or conditions you're likely to develop, how you're likely to respond to various drugs, foods, or nutrients, and using that information to design a protocol just for you.
Moreover, Nutrition Genetic test result reveals the risk of certain diseases or explain why you can't lose weight. Based on that, Dr. Leila Soudah will recommend a customized diet and supplement plan that will correct or compensate for any genetic weaknesses you may have and help you lose weight and/or lower your risk of diseases.
