Participants: Claudio Japas, Hildemar Dos Santos
Series Code: WM
Program Code: WM000414
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00:01 The following program presents principles
00:03 Designed to promote good health and is not 00:04 intended to take the place of 00:06 personalized professional care. 00:08 The opinions and ideas expressed are those 00:10 of the speaker. Viewers are encouraged to 00:13 draw their own conclusions 00:14 about the information presented. 00:35 Welcome, welcome to Wonderfully Made. 00:39 I'm glad that you've join us today, because 00:40 we have a interesting and intriguing subject 00:42 that many people can relate to. I'm your host 00:45 Claudio Japas, a student at Loma Linda 00:47 University in the Preventive Care Program. 00:51 Joining me is Dr. Dos Santos which is a 00:53 professor at Loma Linda in the same 00:54 program, Preventive Care. He has been 00:57 around the world in multiple places dealing 00:59 with different lifestyle clinics. So, I know 01:01 you'll be able to add a lot to today's 01:03 program. Welcome Dr. Dos Santos. 01:06 Thank you very much, it's my pleasure to 01:07 be here and talk about this topic that is, 01:12 is very important for everywhere in the 01:14 world now. Exactly. Everywhere in the 01:16 world because it's spreading more and more. 01:20 There is a prevalence with overweight and 01:22 obesity that is alarming. In fact in America, 01:25 obesity is above 30 percent and if we add 01:29 overweight it's over 60 percent, approaching 01:32 70 percent. Something that's very common 01:35 to see in and we don't want that to become 01:37 the normal. Because we know that, there is 01:39 an ideal weight just like everything in 01:41 nature, God provided a way that is balanced, 01:43 that is above out of the extremes and in a 01:46 range that is normal and healthy. Yeah, it's 01:49 becoming an epidemic and what are your 01:51 thoughts. Why is it becoming an 01:52 epidemic in America? 01:55 Well, not only in America but in the world 01:59 you know that there is this problem even in 02:02 developing countries. We have this, 02:05 this obesity or overweight problem. 02:07 Correct. And the reason for that in my 02:09 prospective is that we are very smart people. 02:13 I mean the scientists and the people that 02:16 invented things. We invented machines to 02:21 facilitate our work and then we don't need to 02:24 spend too much energy, we just press 02:26 buttons and so. I love it. Yeah. 02:28 It makes life a lot easier. Exactly. 02:30 Just to sit back and make the machine do 02:32 most of the hard work and we can just or do 02:35 more than one person can. 02:37 Yeah, and these will, will be good in one 02:41 way. Because we will perform much better 02:44 and produce more things easier and faster. 02:47 But if you talk about the human body, 02:50 I mean we're made with muscles and 02:53 tendons and we're made to move. If we save 02:57 our moving here at the cost of new 03:00 machines, we might have a problem here 03:02 and this is one part of the equation, 03:05 the second part. So, we're paying for that. 03:07 Exactly, yeah. Way of be more efficient 03:10 to more productive we pay with our, 03:12 with our lives or our own health and you had 03:14 a second point. The second point is 03:16 related to the diet so. We're smart again, 03:22 so in the past we have a problem of under 03:24 nutrition and the concern was that we would 03:28 not have enough food and the winter will be, 03:32 would be with a lack of food and some 03:36 countries will, they have a hard time. 03:38 So, we develop ways to produce more and 03:44 more and more and foods and more foods 03:46 and new foods and those foods are delicious 03:50 and now we have so much of those and then 03:53 we have a problem. Lack of exercise, 03:56 good machines and good foods, lack of 03:59 exercise and high density foods 04:01 Right, so we've dug ourselves in this hole 04:04 that technology and productivity has caused 04:07 us to be more sedentary and also since we 04:10 have more focus on productivity, our foods 04:14 are, time to eat has to be faster, so we are 04:17 trying to eating more processed foods that 04:18 are tend to be more higher in fat and the way 04:23 they package it is not the best way for us. 04:27 So, now we have this problem on our hands 04:30 and not only here in the America, but around 04:31 the world and an interesting observation 04:34 I have made is that. Even though this is 04:37 common problem for us in America, that 04:41 different areas have different obesity levels. 04:45 The south commonly has a higher obesity 04:47 level than Colorado, the North West, which 04:50 tends to have a lower obesity level. 04:53 Could you comment on that, why is there a 04:54 discrepancy between these two areas? 04:58 Well, this is related to lifestyle and then if 05:02 you check what is happening in the Southern 05:05 States. We see that there is a richest thing 05:11 in the restaurants, in the fast foods and fry 05:13 foods and things like that and not much 05:17 emphasis on the exercise as compared to 05:19 Colorado and Western States that they have 05:23 more options for exercise, a lot of hiking 05:27 trails and a lot of outdoor activities, 05:30 opportunities for outdoor activities. 05:32 Right, right, and nothing against the 05:34 southern states. I grew up in Texas and the 05:36 food is delicious there. But it does become a 05:38 challenge and something that we need to 05:40 work against and perhaps still keep it as 05:43 flavorful and interesting to eat but focus 05:46 more on the world, there is situation here 05:49 so maybe increase, decrease the fat content 05:52 or the exercise or something to counteract 05:55 the challenges we find ourselves in these 05:58 different areas. Now genetics, some people 06:01 may say, well genetically they might be a 06:04 predisposed for one or the other. 06:07 Can I use that as an excuse? 06:10 Well, in terms of, you just take a look on the 06:15 statistics that happened in this country. 06:19 In 1991 we have no state in United States 06:23 with obesity levels over 20 percent. 06:28 So 20 percent of people obesity. Umm ! 06:30 No states, so now in 2009 we have only one 06:37 state in America that has the level of obesity 06:40 lower than 20 percent that is Colorado. 06:44 Just that state, the other states they have 06:47 higher levels or higher incidence of obesity. 06:50 So, it's about 20, it's about 18 years from 06:55 1991 to now that we have these change and 07:00 this cannot be explained by genetics, it's too, 07:02 it's too fast. The time is too short. 07:05 in micro change to something genetic. 07:07 Exactly, it has to be longer time for us to 07:09 explain that this is a genetic influence. 07:12 Right, so we can't really use that, 07:14 its more, it's definitely more a lifestyle issue. 07:17 So then okay going back to the question we 07:19 have this problem upon our hands. How are 07:21 we dealing it, commonly people are using 07:26 drugs for it now a days, different 07:27 medications. Is that best way to control 07:30 obesity? I would had the little bit on the. 07:33 Go ahead. On the other part about genetics, 07:38 so when we go to countries outside of 07:41 America, we have the same genetic make 07:45 up, but we have people in the rural areas and 07:48 they have people in the cities. So, then the 07:53 lifestyle is different, but the cities have more 07:56 genetic foods and less exercise more than 07:58 machines and than the rate of obesity also 08:01 are different. So same genetic make up but 08:05 different lifestyle different disease. 08:08 And you don't even need to do much 08:09 research. You just traveled to some of these 08:11 places and you just see the difference 08:12 right away. Yeah, yeah. 08:14 So, you can, it gets almost self evident 08:17 where a different lifestyle or what you are 08:18 doing with your body and you like mention 08:20 God created our bodies to be physically 08:22 active, to be moving, to be in motion. Umm! 08:26 And to burn those calories or decrease the 08:28 calories so that we burn the same amount 08:30 that we consume. So, that it's balanced out. 08:33 Now going back to the medicines, you're the 08:36 doctor, you know that a lot of doctors are 08:38 prescribing medicines for people to lose 08:40 weight. But is that healthiest way or the 08:42 best alternative or do we leave that as a last 08:45 resort? Well, medicines are important, 08:50 in fact what happened in the medical field is 08:53 that we don't have many medicines. 08:55 We have two basic drugs that we use for 08:58 weight control, that one is Orlistat and the 09:01 other is Sibutramine. Orlistat is a drug that 09:05 decreases absorption of fat in the system, 09:09 the digestive system and Sibutramine is one 09:12 that controls the appetite. But these 09:16 drugs will bring down above 5 percent and 09:20 is not very, very exciting so I believe in 09:24 terms of, if you're talking about treatment. 09:28 It's not being very successful, the rates for 09:33 that and I believe we need more research to 09:37 find more medicines and the problem is on 09:40 the other side. There is side affects 09:43 right, I took. Yeah, yeah. 09:45 That content there is Vitamins that 09:47 are fat soluble. Exactly. 09:50 We have, we have some side affects of a 09:52 drug and Orlistat is not, is the simple one. 09:55 It's not that much side affects, because the 09:58 side affects are related to bloating and 10:01 gas and diarrhea and sometimes 10:05 bleeding when. But it's not common. Okay. 10:06 And the Sibutramine that we have to be a little bit 10:10 aware that we can increase blood pressure. 10:13 So, that's a problem, but we have to go the second 10:18 aspect of disease that what causes that 10:21 and the cause of the problem was not lack of drugs. 10:25 The cause of problem was too much food and lack of 10:29 exercise. Even if you use a medicine to fix the problem, 10:33 that is too big you have to go back to the lifestyle, 10:36 lifestyle has to go hand in hand with whatever short 10:40 term solution that you find. Right, so it's almost 10:43 like driving on a road that has nails and you're getting 10:45 flat tires and that's a problem and we're trying to 10:48 find tires that work, so we can continue driving on that 10:50 road with nails; find a new road or new lifestyle 10:53 and different way. Without nails. Without nails exactly 10:57 and that would definitely help to solve the problem 11:00 and sometimes we find this and once again there might 11:03 be viewers that you're using the drugs and we're not 11:05 condoning them, we're just saying the alternatives are 11:07 to focus on the lifestyle, try to change some things 11:10 and it's a challenge for myself, for you and for 11:12 everyone to change lifestyle it's not easy especially 11:16 when our culture or background was a certain 11:18 way, but we wanna use and pray for wisdom. 11:21 God says if you pray for wisdom, I'll gave you wisdom 11:23 and to use our minds to make the best decisions 11:26 for our body. Now, going on the same branch of medicine 11:32 and other things that has been done are surgeries 11:35 today, where either. They're putting a band around the 11:39 stomach or cutting it and it sounds a little drastic, 11:43 I don't know if you agree that's maybe a loss, is this 11:47 a good for us or not or is it something we should use? 11:52 When the patients ask me this question and the first 11:55 answer is that if you will do something that is 12:02 temporary I think is okay, if you will do something 12:07 that is gonna be irreversible. So, you should 12:11 be careful for that. Cautious and careful. 12:14 And then that band is something that you can 12:16 reverse and that's fine for a while, but and then a 12:22 Bariatric surgery. By the way we have a graphic that 12:26 we can show for a Bariatric surgery. So, they do a 12:31 bypass of the food that instead of going to the 12:34 stomach. They go directly to the intestines and then 12:38 with that the person will not have absorption of many 12:44 of the nutrients and then the person will lose weight. 12:48 But it's, you're chopping the body right and cutting 12:51 the way and again some people may need to do this 12:53 for whatever reason. They've personal reasons, 12:55 or they think I've tried everything and maybe that 12:59 is. But it sounds a little drastic to be cutting and 13:02 just putting that and there are some serious side 13:04 effects and things they have change in their lifestyle 13:06 anyway forever right, because they cut that 13:09 stomach into much smaller part or portion. 13:13 Yeah, I just talk to a patient that did this 13:15 surgery and the problem is that she changed, 13:19 she lost 40 pounds and she was very happy. 13:22 But she still very obese and then the blood pressure 13:27 was too high and the cholesterol was too high and 13:30 I asked her what are you doing and she said well 13:33 I did a surgery. But now I eat everything, 13:36 I just eat every two hours. Wow. 13:39 And but I don't have any diet, then I mean it defeat 13:44 the purpose. You cannot fix this problem only doing 13:48 some manipulation or surgery. If you don't go 13:51 to the causes and that's my point. 13:53 Right, going to root, going to what the cause 13:55 the problem to began with. Yeah. 13:58 Very good, now I'm thinking well you now I won't do the 14:03 medicine, I won't do the surgery, this is little 14:05 drastic. But there is diets there is that. 14:08 You know all these different names we hear you know 14:11 I don't have to mention all of them by name, 14:12 but we're common with them and you know or maybe one 14:15 that's my color, today I'll just eat this color fruits 14:17 and vegetables and other, you know there is all kinds 14:21 of variety of diets and some are commercialized 14:24 some are not. Are they balanced, are they good for 14:27 us or what's a good diet to lose weight or what's a good 14:30 principle to use when we use diets. I've see the diets as 14:35 a treatment for short term, when the patient has asked 14:40 me should I go on this diet, should I do that, should I 14:43 and then I tell them I don't have a problem, if you go 14:46 in that diet for one month. At least, at most for two 14:51 months, but once you think about this diet for a longer 14:56 time. So, I'm a little concerned. And why is that? 15:00 Well, most of this diets and they lack some vitamins, 15:02 some minerals and so the person might get a little 15:06 bit in a malnourishment state. Okay. 15:10 That's one point. Another point many diets when the 15:13 suppress food and this is very common for 15:16 low-carb diets. Carbohydrates are important 15:20 for the fabrication, for the production of serotonin. 15:24 Serotonin is the main drug or main substance that is 15:28 important to prevent depression. So, you're 15:31 creating in a population that is already depressed 15:36 or a person that has a problem with weight is 15:38 already a little down sometimes and then you 15:41 create another epidemic of depression adding to that. 15:45 Adding to that problem. Because of low carbohydrates, 15:47 so it's not a good idea and the third and I believe one 15:52 of the worse problems is that you create with a diet 15:56 you create a system to throw this person to eating 16:00 disorders, so the person is gonna get the obsessive to 16:03 control and to. Count calories. You count calories 16:08 and then eat and then go fasting and then use 16:12 purgatives, use all methods to get the weight down. 16:18 To get weight loss. Obsessively. Yeah. 16:20 And this affects their mind and this creates a bigger 16:23 problem. So, just to recap short term is a good way, 16:27 maybe two months is what Dr. Dos Santos said, 16:30 if it's longer then that you maybe we work more on 16:33 lifestyle and to use changes that are healthy instead of 16:37 going to some of the extremes. One more thing 16:40 would be, when you go on a diet, that is very 16:43 restrictive you should have some multiple vitamins to 16:47 to compliment. You don't need to use multiple 16:49 vitamins everyday, but you should use, when they ask, 16:54 when they know every other day just to be cautious that 16:58 some vitamins might be lower in the diet. Right and some 17:02 times people lose a lot of weight at first and they 17:04 become happy and they're not realizing they're losing 17:06 a lot of water and you maybe thinking. Well I'm losing 17:10 2 pounds a day and 1 or 2 more pounds in a couple of 17:14 days later and the diet maybe very restrictive on 17:17 certain fluids or water and water can weigh a lot 17:21 and so you're seeing the little bit progress but then 17:23 it stops and then nothing is happening. Another problem 17:27 we find ourselves often time is that we're on a diet 17:31 and we're also lifting weights or doing exercise 17:35 and we see no change or very slight change and the 17:38 problem here is that very potentially you're gaining 17:41 muscle mass and muscle mass weights more than fat mass. 17:45 So, the weight change maybe very minimal, but you're 17:47 losing the fat that you're looking to lose while 17:51 gaining some muscle mass and I see lot of clients 17:53 and patients calling that and it's like there is 17:56 nothing changing on the weight scale. I've been on 17:58 it for two weeks and only 2 pounds change. 18:00 But if you measure body fat mass and 18:03 notice there is a significant decrease. 18:05 And the thing is like that, I will use one word that 18:11 I commonly use is homework. So, there is one very good 18:18 specialist in America called Steve Blair. 18:21 Steve Blair is one of the most famous exercise 18:27 physiologists in the country and he is a little shabby 18:30 and then when you, when people ask him about that 18:34 he said well I don't know what's going on with me, 18:36 but I exercise every single day and sometimes more than 18:40 once a day and I'm doing that for years and then 18:44 my body is my body. I have to accept that, but I'm sure 18:47 that this guy has a very low risk of disease 18:50 because he's doing the homework. 18:52 So sometimes we count on the pounds, but we don't count 18:56 on the days of exercise or we don't count on the foods 19:01 and vegetables that we're, how much we're eating 19:03 Right. per day. 19:04 And that's more important than the scale. 19:07 So, don't forgot the homework, 19:09 the homework is very important to do daily, 19:11 the exercise, the good diet, the fruits and vegetables, 19:15 nuts, whole grains are helping to keep body fat 19:19 down and yeah you're true in what you say that 19:22 a lot of people are maybe come from a bigger bone, 19:25 as we called bigger bone family and they're bigger 19:29 people or we don't check sometimes 19:31 what is our normal weight or we get caught 19:33 from looking at magazines, at the magazine stand 19:36 and everybody looks real thin and slender or built 19:38 with lot of muscles and our perception 19:41 in our mind is that, that's normal 19:42 and we've been tweet or changed to think that, 19:46 that's normal and that's not even normal. 19:48 So, we need to find out what our normal weight 19:51 is and forget what the magazines and the TV 19:54 or different shows or showing us that. 19:55 You should look like this or this is what's normal 19:58 and not to create a disorder from that. 20:02 Because diets can also create different eating 20:04 disorders is that true. Yes and again our focus 20:07 should not being normal weight, 20:09 because who knows what is normal weight. 20:14 A couple of maybe 20 or 30 years ago the 20:16 normal weight was a little bit plump for women 20:20 and even for nobody care, nobody cared 20:22 much about that. Today we've this slender figure 20:26 at least for women and but if you go to 20:29 different cultures. If you go to the African Americans, 20:31 I mean the perception of normal weight is different. 20:34 It's not this slender and thin, it's a 20:37 little plumped also. So that's why they don't 20:40 have some, some problem, they don't have that 20:43 perception that we have. They have problem also 20:46 with overweight, but they don't have this much 20:50 of this eating disorders as we have, 20:53 because they have a different perception. 20:55 Oh! What's, what should normal. 20:56 Yeah, exactly, exactly. So, we should look 20:58 at the range, another thing I wanted to say 21:00 sometimes we look at the range and we weigh 21:02 the right amount and I know that there has been 21:06 patients or clients. Especially if they're more 21:08 on the petite side or smaller they come and they 21:10 weigh themselves and they weigh right about 21:12 where they should, and if you measured body 21:14 fat content. The body fat content is very high, 21:17 the muscle mass is very small, very lean and they 21:21 weigh right. But inside their body there is a lot of fat 21:24 or maybe around on the heart there might be lot of fat 21:27 in their organs and very unhealthy. 21:28 So, some people may look "healthy" or weigh 21:33 on a healthy weight but the body fat content is high. 21:37 Low muscle mass, high body fat, it means no matter 21:42 what weight you have. It means that lack of homework. 21:46 Lack of homework and I like that you emphasize that, 21:49 because that's homework is not always fun. 21:51 But if we stick to it, we get good grades right 21:54 on our body. Yeah. Yeah, so we got to be 21:56 consistent with that. Do you have any other experiences 22:00 that you like to share from working around the world 22:02 with weight clinics or people that are wanting 22:04 to lose weight? Yeah, I just worked in Brazil. 22:08 I've a picture of my clinic Sao Roque Adventist Clinic. 22:13 Some people asked me why you came to America 22:16 if you live in a paradise like that. But anyways, 22:20 this clinic has a problem for weight control 22:24 and I remember a couple of patients that I have, 22:27 one lady lost 50 pounds in 6 months 22:33 and then she was very happy that she lost this much. 22:40 So, much and. But in a couple of months 22:43 she gained everything again. Oh my. 22:44 And so it didn't help, so again a short term of diet 22:50 I mean you lose a lot of water and then you think 22:54 you're doing good. But you have the diet 22:56 mentality. So another one that I had, 22:59 that I remember and she lost 20 pounds only in 23:03 3 months. But when we interviewed her, 23:06 she said well, what I did was no secret, 23:09 I just, I just did my homework. 23:12 Okay. I follow what the professionals are telling 23:17 me to do. I start the exercise everyday and then 23:20 I kept rich foods just for celebrations 23:23 and I've less celebrations and then I like that 23:29 because I, we always invited her to talk to the patients 23:34 saying we've to bring someone successful here 23:37 that got the concept. That we've to do a change 23:40 in the lifestyle, not change something just because 23:43 I need to lose weight for the summer or for a wedding 23:48 or whatever, you know. Just for one moment. 23:51 Just for one moment, we've to do that. 23:53 Do with the long term. We long term with the idea 23:56 that we'll improve our health and our performance, 23:59 the mental and physical performance for life. 24:01 Amen and I think if we keep in mind that 24:03 we're the body, the temple of God. 24:06 Where the Holy Spirit dwells at, this is something 24:09 we don't wanna just do for ourselves. 24:11 But for the honor and glory of God, we wanna take care 24:13 of our bodies in the best way we can and we need 24:17 to help from him to do that and it's not always easy. 24:20 But I wanna encourage everybody watching 24:22 don't give up. God is there to help. 24:24 Jesus Christ wants to push you along and help you 24:27 to have optimal bodies for his honor and glory. 24:29 Sometimes we do the weight loss for selfish 24:32 reasons, we wanna look better or we wanna, 24:34 but you know be praised for how much we lost 24:37 and that maybe the wrong motive, you know. 24:40 We should make sure that God is our number 24:42 one motive while we take care of our bodies. 24:46 By the way, I use for that, for my patients 24:48 I use the 12 steps. That we use for alcohol 24:52 and I have here the report and I will just read 24:56 what I had just, what I adopted to obesity. 25:02 The first step of the 12 steps for overweight anonymous. 25:07 Okay. Is we admitted that we're powerless 25:10 over obesity and that our lives had become 25:12 unmanageable, then the second, 25:15 we came to believe that power greater than 25:18 ourselves could restore us to sanity. 25:20 So, I believe for us to change behaviors we need to, 25:25 we need to go to the supernatural, 25:29 we need to go to God and ask him to help us, 25:33 to give us the power to change and that's 25:35 what happened to alcoholic, anonymous, to smokers, 25:39 to any addiction and we might have something 25:43 similar to addiction between the people or for those 25:48 people that are having a hard time with foods. 25:52 They really enjoy the foods and there is concept 25:55 now that maybe some of this sugary foods 25:58 that are addictive and then they're relationship 26:02 might be the same. Right, right and it all starts 26:05 with their mind, the way we make decisions, 26:07 the way we decide what we want to consume 26:10 or to do with what we eat or with our lives. 26:12 Why are we're living, why do we exist and to make God 26:16 the center of it. If he gives us a purpose for life, 26:18 the purpose to enjoy life then our mind becomes 26:23 changed and our precept of why we wanna do things 26:27 becomes different. One little thing I wanted to add is, 26:32 sometimes it's the little things that make the big 26:34 difference. Maybe it's one extra soda or two extra 26:38 sodas on the day or a candy bar, just one in the 26:41 afternoon. But it's only 200 more calories, 26:43 but 200 calories everyday times 7 becomes 26:46 1400 calorie then times 50 plus weeks, 26:49 52 weeks a year becomes a lot of extra calories 26:53 that we need to be careful could end up being 20, 26:56 30 pounds a year that we're adding, 26:58 just with the little things. So the little things make 27:00 a big different. And if you check how much exercise 27:03 you have to do burn this 200 or 400 calories, 27:07 you see that is not that easy. It's not that small 27:10 number of calories. Right, right so the little 27:14 things make a difference. We realized that we need 27:16 God to help us in all our decision making 27:19 and in health we're wonderfully made and 27:22 that starts with the mind, with how we think, 27:25 how we act and to make him the center of it all. 27:28 Dr. Dos Santos. I thank you for joining us today 27:31 and for helping us to realize that, you know that 27:33 we've problem in America and in the around the world 27:36 with weight and different ways we can deal with it. 27:38 Thank you so much for joining us. 27:40 You're welcome, I'm happy to be here 27:42 and to be able to help. Thank you so much 27:44 and we wanna make sure you join us next time 27:48 for Wonderfully Made where we continue to focus 27:50 on how wonderful the body is. The different ways 27:53 that God has made it to function and I'm reminding 27:56 of a verse in First Corinthians 10:31 that whether 27:59 we eat or drink or whatever we do, to do it all 28:02 for the honor and glory of God. Thank you so much 28:05 for joining us, we hope to see 28:06 you soon in a future episode. |
Revised 2014-12-17