News & Views

It takes guts to have good health

W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

January 11, 2021

BY W. GIFFORD- JONES MD & DIANA GIFFORD-JONES

Why is it that some people eat to their heart’s content and never gain a pound, while others gain weight with a glance at the plate? As Bill Gates said, “Life is not fair. Get used to it.” But fair or unfair, is there a complex, unseen system that plays a role in weight management for each of us?

Your ability to maintain a healthy weight involves factors beyond diet and exercise. Some people’s metabolism, or operating system, is faster than others, requiring more energy to run.

But there is more than speed and efficiency. The gut microbiome contains microbial cells, including bacteria, that outnumber the cells in the body. Having evolved with us for millions of years, they all serve important functions, using us as hosts and interacting with our environment. The conditions of our environment and our interactions with the world affect the microbiome and thus our performance.

It’s a mistake, therefore, to think about weight gain and obesity in simple terms. Similarly, it’s a mistake to equate poor mental health or neurological conditions like Alzheimer’s or depression solely with problems located in the brain. The gut and the brain are intricately connected.

A growing body of research demonstrates that the gut microbiota is a significant environmental factor contributing to obesity, diabetes, and metabolic syndrome. This is the basis for recommendations in favour of diets rich in fruit and fibre. Apples and other fruit contain prebiotics, compounds that support the growth and function of healthy bacteria in the gastrointestinal tract. These prebiotics can change the speed and efficiency of your digestive engine, in turn affecting the performance of other systems and organs.

These alterations in your gut microbiome are important because bacteria regulate how much fat you absorb, thereby affecting your weight and susceptibility to problems such as non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Changes in the environment, and thereby in the microbiome, may be an important part of the explanation for the obesity pandemic. Increased use of antimicrobial soaps and sanitizers are killing good and bad bacteria alike and we have become increasingly exposed to environmental pollutants.

Furthermore, studies show that stress triggers changes in the circuits between the gut, the nervous system and key organs such as the brain, heart and lungs. When you are feeling stressed, your body is programmed to focus less on the work of digestion and more on fight-flight or freeze-hide response – the former involving high energy and the latter like a shut down.

Chronic stress can result in sustained poor digestion. It should be no wonder that our systems get out of whack, leading some to gain weight more readily or to suffer other unhealthy consequences.

This is why we’ve recommended in past articles that supplements like AppleSlim can help with weight management. There’s a growing body of research showing that apple polyphenols and other prebiotics can assist with the functions of a “good gut.” One study showed that apple polyphenols could help to improve the composition of our gut bacteria towards a ratio that reduces inflammation and the likelihood of obesity. This microbiome “renovation” is believed to account for ability of apple polyphenols to reduce dangerous visceral fat and improve cardiovascular health markers.

Bill Gates understands how to build an operating system. Had he done for medicine what he did for computers, he would have created integrated health systems with gastroenterologists, dieticians, and other nutrition specialists working with doctors who care for your nerves, heart, head, and all other parts.

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Written By W. Gifford-Jones MD & Diana Gifford-Jones

Dr. W. Gifford-Jones, MD is a graduate of the University of Toronto and the Harvard Medical School. He trained in general surgery at Strong Memorial Hospital, University of Rochester, Montreal General Hospital, McGill University and in Gynecology at Harvard. His storied medical career began as a general practitioner, ship’s surgeon, and hotel doctor. For more than 40 years, he specialized in gynecology, devoting his practice to the formative issues of women’s health. In 1975, he launched his weekly medical column that has been published by national and local Canadian and U.S. newspapers. Today, the readership remains over seven million. His advice contains a solid dose of common sense and he never sits on the fence with controversial issues. He is the author of nine books including, “The Healthy Barmaid”, his autobiography “You’re Going To Do What?”, “What I Learned as a Medical Journalist”, and “90+ How I Got There!” Many years ago, he was successful in a fight to legalize heroin to help ease the pain of terminal cancer patients. His foundation at that time donated $500,000 to establish the Gifford-Jones Professorship in Pain Control and Palliative Care at the University of Toronto Medical School. At 93 years of age he rappelled from the top of Toronto’s City Hall (30 stories) to raise funds for children with a life-threatening disease through the Make-a-Wish Foundation. Diana Gifford-Jones, the daughter of W. Gifford-Jones, MD, Diana has extensive global experience in health and healthcare policy. Diana is Special Advisor with The Aga Khan University, which operates 2 quaternary care hospitals and numerous secondary hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, and laboratories in South Asia and Africa. She worked for ten years in the Human Development sectors at the World Bank, including health policy and economics, nutrition, and population health. For over a decade at The Conference Board of Canada, she managed four health-related executive networks, including the Roundtable on Socio-Economic Determinants of Health, the Centre for Chronic Disease Prevention and Management, the Canadian Centre for Environmental Health, and the Centre for Health System Design and Management. Her master’s degree in public policy at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government included coursework at Harvard Medical School. She is also a graduate of Wellesley College. She has extensive experience with Canadian universities, including at Carleton University, where she was the Executive Director of the Global Academy. She lived and worked in Japan for four years and speaks Japanese fluently. Diana has the designation as a certified Chartered Director from The Directors College, a joint venture of The Conference Board of Canada and McMaster University. She has recently published a book on the natural health philosophy of W. Gifford-Jones, called No Nonsense Health – Naturally!

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