Solving a weight-gain mystery
"You're just not a very ambitious young woman, are you?" These words echo in Christy Zacharias' ears every time she finishes a race, sweat dripping into her eyes. They're painful words her doctor, looking her straight in the eye, said to her 10 years ago. She'd gone to him for help with a growing problem. Literally. In the two years since she'd gotten married and stopped taking the pill, pounds were piling on. Her period had disappeared and, embarrassingly, she'd started growing a small beard. "I felt a great deal of shame because my body was so out of control," says Christy, now a 32-year-old stay-at-home mom in Martensville, Sask. When he flung those painful words at her, she believed them and turned her blame inward for her weight gain.
Then, six years later, still worried and now 60 pounds heavier, she tried her obstetrician/ gynecologist. "I started to cry. I said there is something wrong with me," she says. He asked if she'd ever heard of polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), which she had (she had shown an article to her previous doctor, and he told her to leave the diagnosing to him). Her new gynecologist felt her symptoms were evidence enough to get her tested, and shortly afterward, she was diagnosed with PCOS.
"I felt so alone going through that," says Christy. "Looking back at pictures of myself, I look like a linebacker. It's amazing a doctor didn't look at me earlier. PCOS just robbed me of my femininity."
Christy started taking 1,500 milligrams of Metformin daily; it was a year before her symptoms began to subside. Her weight, meanwhile, stabilized, but she wasn't losing any of those 60 gained pounds. "I realized that PCOS is connected to insulin, and I thought if I could keep my insulin under control, I'd have a better chance of losing weight," she says. "When I started the insulin resistance diet with the medication and exercise, it flipped a switch in my body. That's when I got control."
Now, four years after her diagnosis, Christy is 60 pounds lighter, weighing in at a more comfortable 126 pounds on her five-foot-three frame. Out are her beloved big bowls of cheesy pasta, and in are smaller servings of whole grain pasta with lean meats and vegetables. Walking,
in-line skating and running - not to mention those ambitious races - are personal passions now.
Diabetes dilemma: Which comes first?
Type 2 diabetes, which begins slowly, usually in adulthood (unlike type 1, or juvenile-onset or gestational diabetes), is on the rise. That means more and more people's bodies aren't producing enough insulin, or their bodies are resisting insulin (insulin metabolizes carbohydrates). But when it comes to weight-gain issues, diabetes can be a chicken-and-egg scenario.
"Eighty per cent of the time type 2 diabetes is caused by weight gain and the other 20 per cent it's genetic," says Dr. John Dornan, head of Active Living Clinic in Saint John, N.B. "Weight increase causes the diabetes because the weight contributes to insulin resistance."
But some of the medications for type 2 diabetes, such as sulphonylureas, offer a classic catch-22. "A number of these treatments are associated with even more weight gain," says Dornan. "It's troubled us as diabetes specialists for years; we say your sugars aren't good because of your weight and here's a drug that may increase your weight further."
Your best action plan if you have type 2 diabetes is changing your lifestyle: eating healthier, limiting fruits, sweets and many carbohydrates, and exercising. But not just any exercise. "One study showed that the most efficient treatment for weight loss and improvement in terms of a person's glycemia was aerobic exercise and resistance exercise. That's the exercise prescription that someone with type 2 diabetes should have," says Dr. Denis Prud'homme, the dean of health sciences at the University of Ottawa, who has studied extensively the effects of activity on obesity.
One bright note: ditching the extra pounds can bring your blood sugar back to normal.
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