ISSUE NO. 26 / FETEPRESS.COM.AU 47
health / WELL-BEINGIS MY METABOLISM REALLY SLOWING DOWN?
For many people, when they notice their clothes are getting tighter, their initial responseis a vow to rein things in – to go on a diet or go for a run. After all, the advice to ‘eat lessand exercise more' is something that is ingrained in so many of us from a young age.STORY / DR LIBBY WEAVERYet this age-old advice often fails us and
we can be left wondering whether there
is something wrong with us or if we should
just put it down to a slowing metabolism.
So what’s really going on here? Essentially,
the calorie equation (calories in versus
calories burned) fails to consider a
whole host of factors that impact our
metabolic rate. So what does impact
on our metabolic rate and what can
we do about it?
A RESTRICTIVE DIET
Many people, women especially, have been
dieting (restricting!) for years, decades
even. Yet we tend to forget that when
we’re restricting calories, we may also
be inadvertently restricting the essential
nutrients that drive the biochemical
processes in our body – the very nutrients
that drive cellular metabolism and
maintain proper functioning of our body
systems. Not to mention that our body
doesn’t understand the difference between
us intentionally curbing our intake of food
and there being a situation in which food
has become scarce. Your body therefore
believes it is doing you an enormous favour
by slowing down your metabolic rate, as
this will give you a better chance of
surviving a food shortage. Really think
about this... a restrictive dieting approach
is a form of stress to the body. Your body’s
natural response is to adapt to this stress
as best it can and downregulating thyroid
function – a mechanism that impacts your
metabolic rate – is just one of the ways
through which it does this.
COULD IT BE YOUR THYROID?If you’re experiencing ‘unexplained' weight
gain in addition to other symptoms such
as deep fatigue, dry skin, often feeling cold,
menstrual problems/infertility, brain fog
and a tendency to constipation, you may
be suffering the effects of an underactive
thyroid.
The thyroid gland is a little butterfly-
shaped gland that sits in your throat area.
It is an endocrine (hormone-producing)
gland that manufactures two thyroid
hormones... triiodothyronine (T3)
and thyroxine (T4). Thyroid hormones
are responsible for controlling the basic
activity of each cell in the body and
they play an enormous role in your
metabolic rate as well as body
temperature regulation.
There are a number of nutrients essential
to optimal levels of thyroid hormones.
These include iodine, iron and selenium.
Most soils are typically a poor source of
iodine, which means that soil-grown food
tends to be low in this important mineral
too. Key food sources of iodine tend to be
those from the sea and include seaweed,
seafood and iodised salt, so it’s a good idea
to check that the salt you buy contains
iodine. Foods that contain iron include red
meat, eggs, green leafy vegetables and
legumes. Iron deficiency is very common
among women of menstruation age,
however it’s important to have your iron
levels tested before starting an iron
supplement, as too much iron is also
problematic. The easiest way to obtain
your daily selenium requirement is to
consume two to six Brazil nuts each day.
While iodine, iron and selenium are
essential to thyroid function and overall
health, it’s important to be aware that
consuming higher amounts of these won’t
be beneficial for all thyroid problems. For
example, the thyroid gland is susceptible
to autoimmune diseases, so increasing
iodine intake will not necessarily be the
answer to thyroid problems that are the
result of an autoimmune process, rather
than an iodine deficiency. The road in to
your underactive thyroid will be the road
you must take out, so if you suspect any
thyroid issues, visit your doctor to discuss
having your thyroid hormone (and perhaps
also antibody) levels tested.ARE STRESS HORMONES INVOLVED?
Rushing around at a frantic pace has
become the norm, whether we have two
or two hundred things on our to-do list,
and stress hormones are produced in
response to this perception of pressure
and urgency. For the entirety of human
history, adrenaline, our short-term stress
hormone, has communicated to every cell
in the body that our life is in danger, as
this is what was true historically (think a
tiger chasing you). This type of stress was
usually over quite quickly, so adrenaline
production would only amp up for a short
period of time.
Since to our body, stress pretty much
becomes a situation of life or death, the
production of stress hormones can also
have a flow on impact on many of our
other body systems. For example, our
digestion is compromised because blood
flow is diverted to our arms and legs to
get us ready to fight or flee and our sex
hormones can be tipped out of their
delicate balance – your body doesn’t want
you to bring a baby into a potentially
dangerous world so it downregulates
fertility. It’s pretty powerful stuff, isn’t it?
Nowadays, most of our stress comes
from concerns about our finances, our
relationships, our health, of getting caught
in morning traffic and being late to an
important meeting, or managing our
overflowing email inbox. If we perceive that
these stressors are ever-present, stress
hormone production will be relentless.
And this leads us to produce cortisol,
our chronic stress hormone. Cortisol is a
catabolic hormone, which means it can
break down muscle tissue. If chronic stress
leads to a loss of muscle mass this will
slow our metabolic rate and body fat
can start to creep on even if we haven’t
changed our eating and moving habits.