The Dr. Hyman Show - How To Master Hunger And Cravings with Dr. Elizabeth Boham
Episode Date: September 13, 2021How To Master Hunger And Cravings | This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and Athletic Greens So many of my patients tell me they feel their food cravings have gotten out of control and a lack... of willpower is driving their weight gain, generally making them feel like crap. But, the truth is, this is not a matter of willpower. Our industrial food industry produces food-like substances specifically made to hook our taste buds with every bite, hijacking our brain chemistry and metabolism, and giving rise to disease. Our bodies actually have a finely-tuned appetite control system that is governed by certain hormones. However, our modern diet, elevated stress, and inadequate sleep impairs this system, leading us to crave the wrong foods and feel hungry all the time. In this episode, Dr. Hyman discusses our natural hunger regulator, ghrelin, with Dr. Elizabeth Boham. They talk about how this hormone works and what can interrupt its natural production. They also discuss strategies to help the body regulate hunger naturally. Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices Functional Medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the Functional Medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well. This episode is brought to you by Rupa Health and Athletic Greens. Rupa Health is a place for Functional Medicine practitioners to access more than 2,000 specialty lab tests from over 20 labs like DUTCH, Vibrant America, Genova, Great Plains, and more. You can check out a free live demo with a Q&A or create an account at RupaHealth.com. Athletic Greens is offering Doctor’s Farmacy listeners a full year supply of their Vitamin D3/K2 Liquid Formula free with your first purchase, plus 5 free travel packs. Just go to athleticgreens.com/hyman to take advantage of this great offer. In this conversation, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham discuss: What ghrelin is and how it affects hunger and cravings How ghrelin works to tell us we are full The effects of gastric bypass surgery on ghrelin Why diet, sleep, and stress affect ghrelin Case study of a 45-year-old male’s weight loss The role of sleep apnea on ghrelin levels and weight Functional Medicine strategy to regulate hunger Additional Resources: Why Obesity, Hunger, and Malnutrition are Found Together in the Same People How Sleep Apnea Drives Weight Gain, Memory Loss, High Blood Pressure, ADHD, and More We Got it Wrong When It Comes to Weight Loss with Dr. Rangan Chatterjee The Secret to Losing Weight and Feeling Great Stopping the Stress Epidemic What is Driving Your Poor Sleep and How Can You Fix It? Book Mentioned in This Episode: Always Hungry? By David Ludwig, MD, PhD
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Coming up on this episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy.
Getting off of processed foods and onto real whole foods,
that natural ability for us to regulate our hunger just happens.
So one of the biggest things we can all do is just stop eating things with labels on them.
Hey everyone, it's Dr. Mark.
I know a lot of you out there are practitioners like me,
helping patients heal
using real food and functional medicine as your framework for getting to the root cause.
What's critical to understanding what each individual person and body needs is testing,
which is why I'm excited to tell you about Rupa Health. Looking at hormones, organic acids,
nutrient levels, inflammatory factors, gut bacteria, and so many other
internal variables can help us find the most effective path to optimize health and reverse
disease. But up till now, that meant you were usually ordering tests for one patient from
multiple labs. And I'm sure many of you can relate how time-consuming this process was,
and then it could all feel like a lot of work to keep track of. Now there's Rupa Health,
a place for functional
medicine practitioners to access more than 2,000 specialty labs from over 20 labs like Dutch,
Fibrin America, Genova, Great Plains, and more. Rupa Health helps provide a significantly better
patient experience and it's 90% faster, letting you simplify the entire process of getting the
functional medicine lab tests you need and giving you more time to focus on patients. This is really a much needed option in functional medicine space and I'm
so excited about it. It means better service for you and your patients. You can check it out and
look at a free live demo with a Q&A or create an account at rupahealth.com. That's r-u-p-a-health.com.
My main goal with diet is to use food as medicine.
But even when we eat super well,
most of us are missing out on certain essential nutrients.
Our soils have become depleted and our digestive tracts just aren't working so great.
They're compromised by stress and toxins
and they just can't absorb nutrients
as efficiently as they should.
And that's why I always use,
and I recommend to my patients,
a multivitamin mineral as nutritional insurance.
It covers the basics for all our day-to-day body functions, all the things that we need
that our food might be missing.
But there are so many products out there I wouldn't go near because they contain artificial
fillers or inactive ingredients, and you have to be pretty picky.
The one I trust and take myself is Athletic Greens.
They use high-quality, highly absorbable forms of vitamins and nutrients from real whole foods.
Athletic Greens comes in a powder that tastes great and mixes easily with water or smoothies
and specifically supports my gut health, immunity, energy, and recovery. And it's not just vitamins
and minerals. It has phytonutrient rich superfoods and adaptogens and pre and probiotics and even digestive enzymes.
I love that they add the digestive support in their powder
since so much of our immune strength and overall wellness starts in the gut.
It's really one supplement that covers so many bases
and you'd be hard-pressed to find something else in this comprehensive form in any single other product.
I use Athletic Greens in the morning
as part of my daily routine and I love having it with me whenever I travel. I also love that it's
diet friendly, whether you're vegan, paleo, keto, dairy-free, or gluten-free. Right now, Athletic
Greens is offering my audience a full year supply of their vitamin D3 K2 Liquid Formula, free with your first purchase.
Now, these two nutrients are also so vital for a strong immune system and strong bones,
and many of us are not getting enough of them.
I use the Athletic Greens Powder and their D3 K2 Formula to make sure I get extra nutrients that complement my diet.
They're also going to give you five free travel packs as well.
Just go to athleticgreens.com forward slash hyman to get your free year supply of vitamin
D3 and K2 and five free travel packs with your first purchase.
You'll get it delivered straight to your door and I promise you'll feel the difference
Athletic Greens can make in your daily wellness routine.
Again, that's athleticgreens.com forward slash hyman.
Now let's get back to this week's episode of The Doctor's Pharmacy.
Welcome to The Doctor's Pharmacy.
I'm Dr. Mark Hyman.
That's pharmacy with an F, F-A-R-M-A-C-Y, a place for conversations that matter.
And if you're ever hungry or hungry all the time or can't figure out why you can't stop
eating or binging, you better listen up because this is a podcast. that's going to help you understand why and what to do about it. And
it's with none other than my friend, colleague, and medical director at the Ultra Wellness Center,
Dr. Elizabeth Boham, and one of our special episodes called House Call. And today we're
so excited to have you back to talk about this really vexing problem, which is hunger. And if we all didn't struggle with eating and
overeating and obesity, it wouldn't be a big deal. But our hunger regulation is something that most
of us don't think about. We think we're at the effect of our hunger and not at the cause of our
hunger, that we can't really do anything about it, that if we have cravings and we want to eat
bagels and muffins and donuts and we just have
to have them, then there's just nothing we can do because willpower certainly can't fight those
cravings and urges. And we think that's just how our bodies work. But I can tell you and you can
tell me and we can tell each other after seeing so many thousands of patients that this just isn't
true, that we do understand the science of hunger. And we're going to talk about
hunger today in a particular way, because I think there's so much we can do to regulate our appetite
so we're not starving and overeating. And I found that for myself, if you don't eat right, you do
definitely feel your blood sugar swing all over the place. You feel hungry and you feel out of
sorts and you tend to overeat. So none of us want to do that. So how do we naturally regulate our appetite? And I think most people don't understand that if you have an inherent,
that you have an inherent wisdom in your body that knows how to regulate the hormones that
control your weight and your metabolism and appetite. If you're off just by a hundred
calories a day and you're, and by the way, nobody can count calories because it's kind of
a ridiculous effort in the sense that you can guesstimate, but if you're off 100 calories a day, over the course of 20 or 30 years, that's 30 or 40 pounds of
weight gain in terms of the cumulative effect of those 100 calories that you're off every day.
So it's really about letting your body's own intelligence come back to find out how to
regulate these. So let's tell us about the sort of biology of hunger and particularly about this particular hormone ghrelin, which is, you know, maybe people heard about it, don't really know what it's
about.
It's really an important appetite regulator.
And the key to appetite regulation is regulating this particular compound, ghrelin, which is
so prevalent and so dysregulated in our bodies.
Yeah.
Oh, Mark, it's great to be with you and everybody
again today. So thanks for having me. And I think it's such an important topic, like you said,
because when our hunger is out of control, it is very hard to control what we eat and why we eat.
And so it's important to understand how all these hormones work together. And like you mentioned, taking a
step back and listening to the natural intelligence of our body is really important for maintaining a
healthy weight and having great energy and vitality. And so ghrelin is really an interesting
hormone. And it is secreted from the stomach, mostly stomach and part of the small intestine.
And it goes to the brain.
And then it says to the brain, okay, you better eat.
You're hungry.
So it is that hormone that makes us feel hungry.
And so when we eat, typically, our ghrelin levels go down.
And we'll talk about this a little later.
Sometimes our food composition, what we eat in a typical meal, impacts our ghrelin levels go down. And we'll talk about this a little later. Sometimes our food
composition, what we eat in a typical meal impacts our ghrelin levels differently. So when we eat,
typically our ghrelin levels go down and it says, okay, now you're full and you can stop eating.
And so one of the reasons people always say, don't eat too fast, or if you're hungry,
take a few minutes to make sure you still want to get seconds
is just to give the body time for that, for the hormones to shift. So and for that, you know,
ghrelin level to go down. So the other reason we know a lot about ghrelin is because when people
lose weight, they often feel more hungry. And, always explain this to my patients. I'm like,
they need to and want to lose weight. And when they do, sometimes they feel more hungry for a
period of time. And I think that's a really natural, normal thing. And we sometimes have
to work through that to continue to get to our goal if we're working to lose weight. So we've got a
lot of hormones that have an influence on what we choose to eat and when we choose to eat.
Yeah, it's so critical because if we don't understand how those are regulated,
it's really a big deal. I think when you're not eating and when you're losing weight and when
you haven't eaten for a while, your body will naturally produce this hormone in your stomach that makes you hungry which is a good
thing uh so we don't we don't starve to death right right and so you know it goes down if you
eat and you know and so forth but um if you have um a diet that's causing, um, a dysregulation of that hormones, um,
it can really create a problem.
And I think, you know, we mentioned the microbiome, which also is key, but, uh, the, the, you
know, if you're overweight, it seems like the, this hunger is so dysregulated.
So people are literally overeating and they're already so obese. And
it just seems to be counterintuitive. Why would people feel like they need energy if they're
already so overweight and they have so much energy in their body? But it really is about
this particular hormone rate that's being dysregulated.
I mean, one of the things we know with ghrelin is when people, when they do gastric bypass surgery
on people, their ghrelin levels do
decrease. And one of the reasons why that surgery can be successful, I say that with some caution,
because there's, depends on how you define success. And there's a lot of issues with the
surgery that, you know, important for us to talk about, but where they can be successful for some
people is decreasing that ghrelin levels and helping their
hunger. And not that I recommend the surgery necessarily for people, but that is one way
that it works because it decreases your hunger. Yes. So tell us about how, from a lifestyle
perspective, we're affecting ghrelin and what we can do with our diet, with our timing of eating,
with sleep and other factors that are really driving a lot of issues.
Yeah. One of the things we know is when we have a meal that has sufficient amount of protein in it,
that our ghrelin levels decrease and we feel less hungry with that type of a meal. So it's
really important. We've talked a lot about how insulin can trigger hunger too, right? But ghrelin also.
So when we eat a meal that's balanced, that has sufficient protein and fat, along with all the
good healthy carbohydrates, that helps with making us feel more full and not as hungry.
So it's really important to think about each of your meals in your day and say,
okay, did I have sufficient protein there? And remember, protein
is like your eggs and fish and chicken and beef and beans and legumes and nuts and seeds. And that
protein will help when you consume it, help that ghrelin go down and make you feel more satiated
after a meal. And ghrelin is one of those reasons that that occurs. You mentioned also with lifestyle, sleep. Sleep is critical. When people
are sleep deprived, ghrelin levels go up and they're more hungry. And so we're seeing an
epidemic of sleep deprivation in this country and worldwide even, right? So we're seeing this
epidemic of sleep deprivation, which is one thing that's driving higher levels of ghrelin. And we want to make sure that we're getting adequate sleep. If
somebody has this process called sleep apnea, if somebody has interrupted sleep where they're
having episodes where they're not getting oxygen into the body, that's what sleep apnea is. They're having episodes where either they're
somewhere in their nasal area, the back of their throat that's preventing oxygen from getting into
the body. Then the body has to wake itself up to take a deep breath. So people will often be
snoring and then will stop breathing for a period of time and then take this really big, deep breath.
They might not even realize they're having these episodes of apnea or not getting oxygen
into the body.
But what we're learning is that when you have sleep apnea, ghrelin levels are higher.
So people who have sleep apnea have higher levels of ghrelin.
And again, one reason why that drives this vicious
cycle of weight gain, obesity, weight gain, obesity, fatigue, hunger, hunger, hunger, right?
So it drives this vicious cycle. They know that when people have sleep apnea, their levels of
ghrelin are higher than the same group of people that even have the same body weight. So even if both groups
are overweight or obese, if you have sleep apnea, your level of ghrelin will be higher. And so it's
really important that we pay attention to the sleep, work with our patients and find out,
you know, are they getting adequate sleep, first of all, and, you know, adequate hours of sleep,
that is, and of the hours of sleep that they're
getting, are they restful? Are they sufficient? Is there any concern about apnea or something that
would be disrupting their sleep? But Liz, it's really true that sleep apnea is a big factor.
I remember a patient I had who was a lawyer and telling me about his struggle to lose weight,
and he needed to lose about 50 pounds.
He says, nothing you can do about it. I said, well, tell me about your life. What do you do?
He said, well, I'm a lawyer. I'm like, what do you do? I'm going to do this and that. But I have to stand up on my desk every day to work. Otherwise I fall asleep at my desk. I'm like,
oh, well, maybe you have sleep apnea. So we tested him. He had severe sleep apnea. We put
him on a CPAP machine and he lost 50 pounds like that. And I think, you know, most people don't understand the connection between sleep.
But it's not just sleep apnea if you're not getting enough sleep.
And you and I both as doctors know that when we are on call and we're working all night
or we don't sleep, that we tend to crave more food.
We crave carbs, we crave sugar, and our appetite is so screwed up.
And I remember this one study.
It was healthy young 20-year-olds who weren't overweight who were sleep-deprived on purpose compared to a control group. And they found that the sleep-deprived group
were much hungrier and they were craving more carbs and sugar. So that's an interesting phenomenon.
That's why we see such an incredible consumption in this country of these products who are sleep-
deprived as a nation and we have poor quality sleep. And there's 70 million people that suffer
from some type of sleep issue, which is a lot of people.
I think maybe even more, actually.
It's a lot of people.
And so it's not just sleep apnea, but it's all the sleep deprivation.
And so what about sugar and carbs and stuff and artificial sweeteners?
How does that affect ghrelin?
And how do we should be thinking about our diet in terms of rate on your appetite when we eat those things? Yeah, you know, so it's interesting that foods, you know, foods will, when we're, our stomach is empty, we produce more ghrelin.
And then when we eat, our ghrelin level decreases and we feel more full, right?
So, or we're not as hungry. So we know that carbohydrates as well as protein and fat can all result in a lower ghrelin release.
And as I mentioned earlier, it's really important to have that meal that's balanced with good protein and fat and fiber to feel full and cause that suppression of ghrelin. But one study that was really interesting, there were many studies that are interesting, they're looking at these non-caloric sweeteners and how they impact
the ghrelin. And so they've been able to show that artificial sweeteners don't suppress ghrelin
in the body. So we think that when we are reaching for these low calorie sweeteners,
these artificial sweeteners, that, okay, we are not getting any calories, but we're getting this substance that is,
you know, going to, it is going to make us feel more, more satiated, but actually not at all.
So artificial sweeteners don't suppress the ghrelin levels in the body like food does, like whether it's carbohydrates
or protein. And so, you know, people who consume artificial sweeteners actually feel more hungry
a lot of the time. And that's a concern in terms of food regulation. And what you were mentioning
before about listening to our body's natural
hormone levels and the natural things that drive us to eat or not eat. And I think that's really
important when it comes to these artificial sweeteners. We think some people will come in
and be like, okay, it's like a free food, but it's really not in terms of how it's impacting
our hunger and satiety.
Yeah, it's true.
I mean, I think so.
So you think that, oh, if you're eating something that makes you mimic sweetness,
like an artificial sweetener would sort of suppress your appetite, but it doesn't.
You drink artificial sweeteners and you want more and more and more food,
which is really concerning.
Yes.
And there are a bunch of other things that affect.
You mentioned stress, you know, sleep deprivation, you know,
lack of sleep in any way but also stress plays a huge role in your ghrelin right stress has a huge impact
you know um stress can high levels of stress will cause us to have higher levels of ghrelin and eat
more and you know isn't that fascinating you know, it kind of probably makes sense from an evolutionary perspective that if we're going through a stressful time, we want something to be triggering us to make sure we're working with our patients and help them understand that this chronic stress that they're under can really be disrupting their hunger cues.
And so we know that, as I mentioned, stress can cause high levels of ghrelin.
And for some people, cause them to eat.
We feel more and more hungry and want to eat all the time. And so in
order to help them feel less hungry, one of the things we have to talk about is that chronic
stress that they're under. And what can we do to help with managing that chronic stress? You know,
whether it's getting outside and enjoying nature and doing regular exercise, getting on a good meditation program, doing your breath work every day, you know, journaling, gratitude,
working with a therapist, doing some other types of treatment like EMDR or, you know, other ways
to help release some of this chronic stress from the body, you know, is really important for many people.
That's huge. That's huge. So the other thing that, you know, people talk about with ghrelin is,
you know, other things that regulate appetite. So stress we talked about,
what about other foods like protein and fiber and fat? How do those affect ghrelin?
Right. Well, they'll trigger ghrelin levels to go down after you consume them.
So it's really important. We work with all of our patients to say at every meal, each meal you have,
make sure you've got a good source of protein, a good source of fiber, which is all your vegetables
and beans, legumes, nuts, and seeds, ground flaxseed, and healthy fat at every meal,
because that's going to help you feel more satiated. It's going to help those ghrelin levels go down. I mean, we also know things like cannabis, right, can cause
ghrelin to increase. And that may be why people get the munchies, right? And so it's important
to understand what things you're doing and how they're impacting your hunger in your body.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think that's right. I think, you know, obviously people smoke pot and they get the munchies for sure. And that drives appetite. So how do we work with
people who have these problems? How do we sort of help? And by the way, you know, one of the things
that I wanted to sort of mention was sort of the theory about gastric bypass. One of the theories
about gastric bypass is that since ghrelin is produced in the stomach, that when you have a
gastric bypass, it shuts down the ghrelin levels. But I'm not sure if that's the only thing
that's going on. And I think the reason I say that is it was a recent randomized controlled trial
comparing people who had a gastric bypass with those who were matched to them, but who didn't
have a bypass, but just went on the bypass diet. And they both lost the same
amount of weight. Now, I don't know what their appetites were like, or if there was a difference,
but they basically lost the same amount of weight. So I'm being very curious, actually,
to look at the fine print of the study to see if the people who didn't have the bypass were hungry,
or they just starved them and lost weight, or if it was that they actually cut down their diet,
and they actually were able to accommodate to a lower caloric intake.
Yeah, I think it's really important what you just said is that, and prior, actually, prior to working with you at both Canyon Ranch and the
Ultra Wellness Center, I worked in a practice where we worked with surgeons who were doing
gastric bypass surgery. So I saw a lot of patients who were going through the surgery, and I saw a
lot of the side effects and the negative side effects of the surgery as well. And what I think is what you mentioned is really so critical to
understand is that when we can help people get off of this vicious cycle of hunger and eating
and hunger and eating and hunger and eating, when we can help them break that cycle, they can be
successful at getting to where they want to be in terms of their intake of food.
So you're right.
Maybe at the beginning, for that group of patients who didn't have the surgery, that
first couple of weeks may have been really hard of saying, OK, I'm going to really cut
back on the amount of calories, the types of calories that I'm eating, the balance of
my nutrients.
And they might have felt really hungry for those first couple of weeks. But we see this all the
time. Once people get through that time, they start to feel better. They don't have that hunger
anymore, that drive to constantly eat and snack and choose unhealthy foods. then they, they can kind of start to be successful. You know,
the surgery prevents, you know, makes, you know, makes it so you can't eat for those first few
weeks. And then that just spirals into, yeah. But then of course you're dealing with all the
side effects of the surgery, unfortunately. So, you know, I think that is an interesting
thing that we see, right? Fascinating. And, and the, you know, I think that is an interesting thing that we see, right?
Fascinating. And the, you know, you've seen patients with this, and you've had,
you know, I remember many patients who have struggled with this, and you get their
numbers dialed in, and you kind of sort through everything with them, and they do so much better.
So can you tell us about this patient who's a 45-year-old guy who was, like, hungry all the
time, was overweight and struggling with his appetite
and hunger. Yeah. He came to see me and he was really trying to be healthier. He was working
hard to be healthier and really frustrated that he couldn't get his weight to where he wanted it
to be. He had gained 25 pounds over the last couple of years. He was feeling
hungry all the time. He didn't have the same level of vibrancy anymore. He was just feeling
kind of sluggish and low energy. We noted when we did his vitals and his physical exam that he had
really gained a lot of weight around his abdomen and around his belly, right? That visceral adiposity,
that belly fat that's really causes a lot of inflammation in the body, causes high levels of insulin and, you know, is associated with all of those negative things like heart disease and
stroke and cancer. So he gained a lot of weight around his belly. His waist to hip ratio was one, which is higher than it should be. And, you know,
when you look at his diet, he was trying to be healthier, but he was grabbing coffee drink for
breakfast. You know, at lunch, he was having orange juice. He had switched that out instead
of soda, sandwich and chips. You know, he did have a few beers at dinner, you know, and maybe snacked on crackers and popcorn after dinner.
And, you know, so he was trying, he felt like he was trying to make the healthier food choices.
But we saw a lot of issues when we really delved deeper in terms of his diet, where we needed to do some work.
And we also, when we got his full history, realized, you know, that he was a snorer.
So he was, you know So he was snoring frequently. And we talked about how snoring can be a sign that you may have sleep apnea. I mean, there's lots of other signs too. High blood pressure, weight gain, fatigue, falling asleep during day, or when you don't want to fall asleep. So, but because of all this, I really encouraged him to get a sleep study. And we found
out that, you know, he did end up having sleep apnea. So, but what we saw with his blood work,
we saw high levels of fasting insulin. They were 10. We saw a C-reactive protein, that marker for inflammation was really
high. We saw that he had low levels of vitamin D, and we know vitamin D is critical for so many
things in our health, including insulin sensitivity. We saw that his omega-3 fat levels,
you can do something called an omega quant, which looks at the amount of omega-3s in the red blood
cell membrane. And we saw that his omega-3 levels were low. And we know that omega-3s are really
important for resulting in helping lower inflammation in the body. We can also do
some special testing, something called an organic acid testing. And we did that for him. And we saw
that his mitochondria, which are the powerhouse of your cells,
needed a lot more support. And one of the reasons that people develop problems with hunger and
weight gain and insulin resistance is with issues with their mitochondria. And we saw that we needed
to really support that. He had high levels of free radicals or oxidative stress.
And so there were a lot of things we needed to work on with him. One of the first things we did is we got him his sleep apnea treated. He got a CPAP machine and he started to feel better right
away. You know, patients resist this a lot, but, but, you know, we see that when they,
when they really do jump on board and start using that CPAP machine and it's fitted right,
many times they just feel so much better. Their energy is better. And one of the reasons,
and their hunger decreases because that ghrelin decreases. Because remember we said that if you
have sleep deprivation or sleep apnea, your ghrelin is going to be higher and you're just
going to, you're going to just be wanting to eat and eat and eat. So that was one of the first things we really,
really helped him do. And it really was very helpful for that, that decreasing his hunger
and that drive to just eat and eat. We also really supported him nutritionally with cutting way back
on his carbohydrates, getting more vegetables in his diet, more nutrient-dense
foods. We gave him some supplements that supported his mitochondria like CoQ10 and B vitamins and
alpha lipoic acid. And he did really well. I mean, with some of these simple shifts,
he started to lose weight. After like six months, he, down to his ideal weight. After about four months,
his waist to hip ratio got to 0.9, which is really where we wanted to see it. And he just
started feeling better and he was having more energy and not hungry all the time. And he really
understood what foods to choose. And then most importantly, from my perspective was that, you
know, we just really decreased his risk of all sorts of diseases,
right? Because we know that, that that insulin resistance pattern drives heart disease and
stroke and cancer and dementia and diabetes. And, you know, so we really, you know, that,
that was really great that we were able to intervene at this age and, and I think help
prevent a lot of diseases for him in the future. A hundred percent. So, you know, hunger is
complicated because it's, you know, it's not, and we talked about a lot of diseases for him in the future? 100%. So, you know, hunger is complicated because it's, you know, it's not,
and we talked about a lot of the aspects that regulate hunger, right?
The protein you eat, the fat you eat, how much starch and sugar you eat,
because those make it worse.
Artificial sweeteners, whether you use substances like cannabis, for example,
sleep deprivation, stress.
And so even hormones or, you know, levels of insulin,
which goes along with carbohydrate intake,
all drive our appetite.
And so if we begin to understand how to regulate our appetite, we can really have a huge impact
on our metabolism and health.
Why do you think people's hunger is so dysregulated?
And what are the other sort of strategies from a functional medicine perspective that
we can use to help people get into the place where they're feeling even and not swinging all over the place with hunger and cravings and sugar?
I mean, I think the biggest reason that people are so dysregulated is from our food supply.
You know, I think it's, you know, it's hijacked, as you always say, our taste buds and our drive
for food and just helping people get onto, you know, getting off of processed foods and onto real whole foods,
that natural ability for us to regulate our hunger just happens. So one of the biggest
things we can all do is just stop eating things with labels on them, right? And stop eating
processed food because so many things, even if they're sort of marketed as being more healthy, have things in it that contribute to hunger and dysregulated hunger signals in our body.
So I think that's probably the first thing we should be focused on with everybody.
So our diet and then sleep, right?
Yeah, absolutely.
Absolutely.
The other, like we said, people are,
are just sleep deprived in this country. We're living this, this, this lifestyle of sleep
deprivation and chronic stress. And all of that is just driving, um, our hunger. And we're not
really, you know, able to listen to our body. If we're just going, going, going, looking at our
phone, you know, checking, checking an email, rushing, eating
quickly, not taking the time to let our food digest and signal that we're full, we're just
rushing, rushing, rushing, and not sleeping and not managing stress, we're not paying attention
to what our body naturally knows how to do. So true.
So with people who are struggling with hunger and cravings, I think one of the books that I really loved about this is called Always Hungry by David Ludwig, who's a friend of
ours.
Brilliant book.
He's a Harvard professor.
And he's really studied the biology of hunger.
And he showed that you can literally retrain the brain to not be hungry by regulating what you're eating, by increasing fat, protein, decreasing sugar, timing of eating when you're eating, you know, not being late at night, making sure you have a little period of fast.
Snacking is probably the worst thing in the world.
When you go to the grocery store, I mean, most of the food is snack food, which is crazy.
You know, and it's just like I don't even go into those aisles but it's mostly just snack food and it's just striking to me how we've kind of gotten this culture of
eating all the time and snacking and hunger and ups and downs and something we can really manage by
addressing these underlying biological systems and and paying attention to the simple daily
rhythms that we need to follow in order to regulate our appetite and then you know i i just
i just um noticed in my own biology when i am dysregulated, I get hungry, I get cravings,
I want this, I want that. When I'm eating well, and I'm eating whole foods, and I'm giving myself
the nutrients I need, I don't, I don't feel hungry, I don't want, actually, I'm suddenly,
you know, before dinner, I'll get a little hungry, that's fine. Or if I'm working out a lot,
I'll get a little hungry. But it's not this crazy, oh, I want to eat, you know, a muffin,
or I have to have something bad. So I think there's a real science of hunger and people are interested more in this topic.
I'd encourage them to read his book called Always Hungry.
He's got a great cookbook that goes along with it.
But this is something we see all the time, Liz.
We see so many people struggling with weight and with metabolism and hunger and cravings
and feel discouraged.
But I found people within days can change quickly their biology and get rid of the craving, get rid of the hunger.
I just remember this one woman who came to one of my workshops years ago on ultra metabolism, I think.
And we basically put people on a, you know, really simple whole foods diet.
We even broths and protein shakes and lots of vegetables and good quality protein, good fats.
And she was like, look, I'm never going to be able to do this.
I've been craving sugar my whole life. I have to eat it. I don't know what to do. I'm really worried
about it. I'm so stressed. I'm like, look, just try it for a couple of days, see what happens.
And the design of the program was really designed to regulate these hormones, to regulate the
ghrelin and to regulate the insulin and to regulate the blood sugar and the brain chemistry.
And within two days, she's like, I can't believe it. I don't have any cravings anymore. I don't
want this. I don't want that. So she's like so happy.
And I think people don't realize just how close they are to feeling good.
And you're bringing them all those cravings that are really driving their behavior.
And you can't do it really without using the science of understanding all of this.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
It's so powerful.
And like people's bodies change really quickly.
And they can start to feel better really quickly with just some simple changes. I agree. I love that book, Always Hungry, question mark. I recommend it to so many
of my patients. So thank you, Dr. Boham, for joining us again on the Dr. Schwarmcy podcast
and talking about another challenging topic we're all struggling with, which is weight and hunger.
I think, you know, given the science of functional medicine and our approach here at the Ultra
Wellness Center, we really help people do the right kind of testing, navigate these problems,
get to the root of them, and help them restore balance. So we're happy to see you. We've got
now five physicians, and we're just kind of growing because you guys keep asking for more.
We'd love to see you. Go to ultrawellnesscenter.com. If you love this podcast,
please share with your friends and family on social media. Leave a comment. We'd love to
hear from you, maybe how you've conquered your hunger.
Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts, and we'll see you next week on The Doctor's Pharmacy.
Thank you, Mark.
Hey, everybody. It's Dr. Hyman. Thanks for tuning into The Doctor's Pharmacy. I hope you're loving
this podcast. It's one of my favorite things to do, and introducing you to all the experts that I know and I love and that I've learned so much from. And I want to
tell you about something else I'm doing, which is called Mark's Picks. It's my weekly newsletter.
And in it, I share my favorite stuff from foods to supplements, to gadgets, to tools to enhance
your health. It's all the cool stuff that I use and that my team uses to optimize and enhance our health.
And I'd love you to sign up
for the weekly newsletter.
I'll only send it to you
once a week on Fridays.
Nothing else, I promise.
And all you do is go to
drhyman.com forward slash PICS
to sign up.
That's drhyman.com forward slash PICS,
P-I-C-K-S,
and sign up for the newsletter
and I'll share with you
my favorite stuff
that I use to enhance my health
and get healthier and better and live younger, longer.
Hi, everyone.
I hope you enjoyed this week's episode.
Just a reminder that this podcast
is for educational purposes only.
This podcast is not a substitute
for professional care by a doctor
or other qualified medical professional.
This podcast is provided on the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other
professional advice or services.
If you're looking for help in your journey, seek out a qualified medical practitioner.
If you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, you can visit ifm.org and search
their find a practitioner database.
It's important that you have someone in your corner who's trained, who's a licensed
healthcare practitioner, and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to
your health.