Dear Healthy Friend,

We're now into week 7 of 2010. How are you doing with your New Year's resolutions? Remember those? Specifically the one where you promised yourself you'd lose the festive flab you gained in December? Have you managed to lose it yet or are you battling? I know, it isn't easy, but it might not be entirely your fault...

Jenny Thompson reveals a hormone that could be hindering all your weight-loss efforts...

In the name of good health,

Taryn Strugnell
Managing Editor of Nutrition & Healing

P.S. In Monday's Health Bytes I told you about the benefits meditation could have on cardiovascular disease. Now Dr Wright tells us what else you can do to fight off heart attack risk.

The hormone gremlin that makes you gain weight
Jenny Thompson
Publisher, Health Sciences Institute

Cutting back on calories in an effort to lose weight? I take my hat off to you. Cutting calories is a wise move if the axed calories are from sugar-added foods and other simple carbohydrate items.

So how is your battle with ghrelin going?

You don't know ghrelin? Oh, you need to know all about ghrelin. If you're cutting calorie intake – any type of calories – ghrelin is a formidable adversary.

When it comes to the desire for food, you're largely at the mercy of the hormones leptin and ghrelin. A rising ghrelin level prompts your brain to register the sensation of hunger. As you eat and fulfil your body's need for nourishment, leptin rises, ghrelin drops and hunger fades.

Simple. But when you're trying to lose weight – not so simple.

A 2002 New England Journal of Medicine study followed subjects' ghrelin levels over the course of a six-month weight reduction effort. After the first three months, each of the overweight subjects had lost an average of nearly 18 kilograms. By the end of the study they had managed to maintain that level of weight loss.

But here's the bad news (and possibly the key reason dieters typically regain lost weight): As body weight dropped, ghrelin output increased. At the end of the study, the subjects' LOWEST ghrelin levels were almost as high as their pre-meal ghrelin peaks before their weight-loss programme began.

It's perverse! Here you are, working hard, day after day, depriving yourself of calories, while ghrelin lays the groundwork for backsliding the moment you let your guard down.

Now for the good news: There are three steps you can take to help tame the ghrelin gremlin.

1) Get enough sleep

Research shows that ghrelin levels are generally higher and leptin levels are lower in people who regularly get inadequate sleep. As a result, you feel hungrier during the day. And worse: Sleep-deprived people tend to desire calorie-dense, high-carbohydrate foods.

But for most people, a full eight hours of sleep each night may not be necessary to moderate ghrelin/leptin levels. A 2006 sleep study shows that many overweight people may experience benefits by adding just 20 minutes of additional sleep each night.

2) Avoid fructose

Fructose makes ghrelin rise. And fructose shows up in a wide range of processed foods.

Researchers performed a study in which subjects of normal weight drank a fructose drink or a glucose drink after each meal for 24 hours. Results: High fructose intake links to higher ghrelin levels, and lower leptin and insulin levels.

3) Don't attempt a crash diet

A weight-loss diet that starts right in with a steep drop in calories is a shock to the system – a shock that's more likely to prompt ghrelin increase. If you ease into a new regime of less caloric intake your body adjusts incrementally. And of course, avoiding simple, refined carbs is a must. Consumption of inferior carbs just makes you hungry for more carbs.

So there you have it. Take strength in knowing you've got a better shot at success when you recognise and control the effects of the ghrelin gremlin.

Keep your heart healthy - without the risk of internal bleeding

Q: My doctor wants me to start taking aspirin daily to "take care of my heart". But I'm just not convinced... what do you think?

Dr. Wright: I've said it before and I'll say it again - fish oil reduces heart attack risk as well as or better than aspirin. Without the risks. And with many other beneficial effects that aspirin can't touch.

Both aspirin and fish oil reduce the inflammation in your cardiovascular system. Aspirin does this by interfering with the clotting process. Fish oil just does it differently - by doing a "lube job" on your platelets, so they can't stick together abnormally.

Not only that, it reduces your risk of sudden cardiac death, reduces abnormally high triglycerides and increases HDL cholesterol. Aspirin, well... doesn't.

For adults, I recommend at least 1 tablespoon of fish oil every day and, if your cardiovascular risk is elevated, take 1 tablespoon twice daily. I usually recommend cod liver oil, since it also supplies a substantial amount of vitamin D. Don't forget to take 400IU of vitamin E (mixed tocopherols) daily for each tablespoonful of fish oil. And make sure that the brand of fish oil you use has no heavy metals, especially mercury, and is free of other toxins.