Question:
I need some help with a lupus client. She has
been with me since Dec. and has not lost any weight.
She weight trains twice a week and does cardio
three days a week. Her doctor told her that her
muscle enzymes are high and she needs to back
off weight training. She also stopped having her
monthly cycles and he told her this was also due
to too much weight training. She is 5'9'' and
weighs 231 lbs she has a body fat % of 41. Doesn't
she need more lean muscle tissue to help her lose
weight? She also has a thyroid issue they have
just recently started to control. Any suggestions
on workouts etc. would be great! Thanks, Rhonda
Answer:
This is a great concern for you to look into,
as well as I am sure many other trainers run into,
but don’t know what to do. First off, let
me give you two definitions so we have a base
to work from. (www.lupus.org)
1. What is lupus?
Lupus is a chronic (long-lasting) autoimmune disease
in which the immune system, for unknown reasons,
becomes hyperactive and attacks normal tissue.
This attack results in inflammation and brings
about symptoms.
Addendum: “For unknown reasons” is
because society and the medical community all
enjoy blaming others for their illness, ill fortunes,
etc. It is time that people start realizing that
it is not by chance things happen, but by choice.
If we start focusing on prevention, then things
like this will not have to happen. Western Medicine
focuses on the eliminating the symptom, where
Eastern focuses on prevention.
2. What does autoimmune mean?
Literally it means immune activity directed against
the self. The immune system fights the body itself
(Auto=self). In autoimmune diseases, the immune
system makes a mistake and reacts to the body's
own tissues.
This is a very common disease/dysfunction that
we humans have brought upon ourselves. Remember
in life, nothing happens by chance, but by choice.
So, what does that mean? I could sit here and
type for hours about lupus, its effects on the
body, nutrition, lifestyle, factors contributing
to it, mental/emotional well being prior, during,
after, etc., but I am not. I want you to do that
so you can learn for yourself. I am going to give
you some basic info to give you a base and some
direction.
When someone has lupus or any other auto-immune
disease, there are a lot of commonalities that
you want to focus on. I know we should treat each
person as an individual and you should. But when
someone has lupus, fibromyalgia, etc (there are
distinct differences, but lots of commonalities=auto-immune),
the first goal is to reduce the amount of stress
in ones life (physical, mental, emotional, spiritual,
chemical, EMF, environmental, etc). You can track
any disease, dysfunction or injury back to some
sort of stress. Stress causes the release of many
hormones, as well as causes inflammation in the
body and with an auto-immune disease the goal
is to reduce this.
Anytime there is inflammation, there is excess
heat in the body that can cause inhibition of
organ function and muscular function (visceral-visceral,
visceral-somatic, somatic-visceral, somatic-somatic).
This can cause many other problems within the
body and can be dealt with down the line with
some more advanced tools (CHEK NLC 3, Naturopath,
Healers, Acupuncturist, etc).
When you have inflammation in the body, there
is a sympathetic (stress) response that occurs.
Certain stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline)
are released and other hormones are inhibited
(estrogen, progesterone, DHEA, melatonin, etc=hormonal
imbalances, menstruation problems, decreased concentration,
depression, and mood swings). We are meant to
handle stress, but not 24hrs a day from 20 different
directions. When this becomes too much for the
body to handle, dysfunctions and diseases start
to occur. In the long run, we have an auto-immune
response secondary to the overload secondary to
the body seeing everything as its enemy.
These hormones are catabolic or break down tissue.
So with a client like this, the goal is to get
them more into a Parasympathetic (relaxed) state
internally and externally in order to assist with
the five alarm fire that is going off inside.
Getting them more into a Parasympathetic state
will assist with repair and regeneration, allowing
the body to feel safe in order to loose weight,
etc.
There are many ways to do this and many tools
that you can use. I will give you some recommendations
that you can try, but at the same time if you
are in doubt, refer out! The goal here is stress
reduction and stress can come from many different
directions. If you read some of my other Research
Q&A responses, you can learn more about stress.
As I have said, any time there is stress, the
adrenal glands release hormones called cortisol.
When this goes up, insulin as well is elevated
and the other repair and regeneration hormones
go down. So, if a person is “stressed”
internally/externally all the time, cortisol/insulin
never truly come down (adrenals and pancreas become
taxed) and the end result leads to more physiological
dysfunctions throughout the entire bodies organ
and endocrine systems. What usually happens is
adrenal fatigue. It is somewhat like running the
engine of your car as hard as you could, without
refilling the gas tank, changing the oil, etc.
Eventually there will be burn out. Symptoms of
adrenal “burn out” are fatigue, depression,
ups/downs, decreased concentration, altered hormone
levels, and thyroid dysfunction.
Now why thyroid dysfunction? The hypothalamus,
adrenals, and pituitary gland are all on the same
axis (H-P-A). When there is stress, the hypothalamus
is the guy who releases CRF (cotrophin releasing
factor), which signals the pituitary to release
ACTH (adrenal corticotrophic hormone), which signals
the adrenals to release more cortisol. When there
is stress to the adrenals, etc the thyroid (master
regulator of metabolism) will slow the body down
thinking that we are under a time of “feast
or famine.” It slows things down, burning
less calories, holding onto as much as it can
hormonally, physically, etc and not letting go
of anything=fat (so it can use it for energy since
the body is deficient in so much. Attacking the
thyroid can really do some damage, secondary to
it being the byproduct of an adrenal problem.
To learn more about this, read Adrenal Fatigue:
The 21st Century Stress Syndrome by Wilson.
Here is what I would do: (if you don’t know
how, refer out to a skilled PT, Naturopath, Acupuncturist,
or CHEK/NLC Practitioner)
1. You need to put the exercise on the back burner
for a while. The goal here is stress reduction.
Focus more on energy cultivating exercises or
parasympathetic stimulating exercises: Qi Gong,
Tai Chi, light Yoga, light walks outside, stretching,
meditating, light swimming, etc.
2. Focus more on your clients Nutrition and Lifestyle
Factors:
• Metabolic Typing (discovers individuals
macro-nutrient ratios: carbs to proteins to fats)
• Comprehensive Health Appraisal (discovers
imbalances in the body’s systems: muscular,
hormonal, limbic)
• Lifestyle Evaluation (discovers what external
stressors a client has and how it is effecting
their bodies systems, i.e. stress stimulates sympathetic
nervous system=poor digestion among other things)
• Physiological Load and Daily Readiness
Assessments (discovers amount of stress in musculoskeletal,
hormonal, and limbic systems and what strategies
will reduce and bring about a healthy balance)
• Food and Sleep Diary (establishing eating
habits, food intolerances, and discovering circadian
rhythms)
• Digestive Health (processed foods, sugar,
flour and dehydration, i.e. is your digestive
system healthy or do you have a fungal or parasitic
infection?)
• If needed: toxic home/office checklist,
gluten and candida questionnaire
Assessing and evaluating the above will give you
and your client some answers to where the stressors
are coming from and how to approach eliminating
them. This should be the first priority of your
clients program. If exercise were always the answer,
everyone in the world would be healthy and they
are not. That is why they focus so much on exercise
and put less into focusing on why, prevention,
nutrition, lifestyle, etc. That is because most
like to think or numb themselves to the fact that
it is not their fault that they are dysfunctional.
They all believe it is because of lack of exercise,
genetics, etc. It is about taking responsibility
for oneself. That is health!
Good luck and feel free to email me or call with
further questions. I learn from you, as you learn
from me.
Joshua Rubin
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