Medical Gaslighting: Obesity ... It’s NOT Always Your Weight

Have you ever gone to the doctor with complaints of joint aches and pains, muscle stiffness, hand stiffness, waking up in the morning feeling groggy, not feeling good, just kind of dragging, being a little short of breath, low winded, being out of shape and been told, you know, it's all your weight, you just need to lose some weight and all these symptoms will get better. It's really interesting because even though obesity is rampant, the average American actually is overweight. 30% of us are obese. This is another form of medical gaslighting where a patient comes in the doctor's office and because of biases, because of not listening to patients, oh, you're overweight, a little overweight, a lot overweight. That is your single problem. And many times there's something else under the hood. So I want to talk about that in light of this concept of medical gaslighting. Ignoring people's concerns, ignoring what's going on. And this happens all the time, I see it all the time. Actually was recently asked to write an article for a national journal on this very topic of medical gaslighting in regards to obesity because it's a very, very common diagnosis and now people are taking GLP1s to treat it and physicians are saying that's the only thing going on. Yet something else could be under the hood. It could something else be causing the shortness of breath or the joint aches and pains? Could this be an undiagnosed tick borne illness like Lyme disease or Bartonella or Babesia? Could your shortness of breath be Bartonella? That's one of the symptoms of Bartonella. Yes. It could be your weight, but it also could be sleep apnea or, or inflammation. It's amazing how many patients I see that are overweight. We check inflammatory markers on them and their sud rate is high, their CRP is elevated, their fibrinogen level is up, the homocysteine is elevated. The white count, this is something that's routinely overlooked by medical professionals is your white count could be 8, I'm sorry, it could be 9 or 10,000. Normal range is about 3.5, right? About 10.2, 10.5, depending on the lab. They'll come in, move away to feel cruddy and make you feel awful. The white count's 9 or 10,000. It's normal. You know, it's in the normal range, but it's high normal. It's not optimal. Actually. The healthiest white counts between four to 6,000, up to seven. If you're over that, you actually have an increased risk for heart disease solely based on your white cell count. So this person's inflamed. They have something else going on in their body. Yes, your fat tissue by itself can cause inflammation. But many times I'll have people come to me trying to lose weight, hey, doctor, I want to lose some weight. I've been to three doctors, I've tried this medication, that medication, I'm eating less, exercising, all these things, and they're not losing weight. Well, it's five kinds of obesity. Did you know that? Did you know there's five kinds of obesity? And this is where the medical gaslighting really, really, really takes place. This is the standard one. Calories in versus calories out. We all get that. You know, 20 years ago, you change your diet a little bit, exercise and lost weight, and that was, you know, people weren't as overweight as they are now. I tend not to see that those individuals tend to fix themselves before they come to see me. The second time of of obesity is inflammatory. Where your body is inflamed, you have an elevated sud rate, you have elevated autoantibodies. You know, how many times do your obesity specialist or primary doctor and you're overweight, and they check a thyroid antibody or an ANA antinuclear antibody or a celiac panel for that matter. The answer is never. If you had a autoimmune predisposition and your body is inflamed, one of the impacts of that is affects all your downstream metabolism, affects sugar metabolism, insulin affects a whole host of stuff. So being inflamed can be related to your weight issues, yet it's not looked at by our current healthcare system. The third type of obesity of being overweight is metabolic. And many of us are familiar with this. This is your insulin resistance. This is when someone has an elevated A1C, your fasting insulin's up. That's a marker of your ability. You can store energy and fat tissue, but you have a hard time getting it out. So you can eat things and gain a lot of weight, but then you stop eating and the weight just doesn't come off. But besides that, with metal box, there's also your gut microbiome. We're finding out now, your gut bacteria can be a big driver of your metabolism. They actually make these things called postbiotics, butyrate, which is important for our metabolism. Vitamins, you know, vitamin K is made in your gut. B vitamins are made by bacteria in your gut. And so you can have a metabolic derangement related to your gut. Microbiome or gut bacteria in addition to insulin resistance. And so you know, how many times has your specialist, if you have weight issues, looked at that? And the answer is not commonly. You can also have toxin related obesity. There's these things called obesogens or estrogen mimicking chemicals. You know, if you've heard about bpa, plastics, you've heard about phthalates, you've heard about all these chemicals in the environment forever chemicals. One of the ways these things disrupt our body is they actually are neuroendocrine disruptors, meaning they mess up our brain hormone axis. Well, if you have the brain hormone axis messed up, that could be all kinds of things, including obesity, anxiety, mood swings, sleep disturbances, autoimmune problems, immune dysregulation issues, and all of a sudden now your obesity is more than just calories and there's a toxic kind of obesity which includes this. The last one is I refer to as trauma induced. It's basically when your nervous system is in a fight or flight state chronically, your cortisol is up, your adrenaline and noradrenaline are staying up, and your body just stays in this, this anxious state. And when you're in that situation, it's hard for your body to repair. It's also hard for it to utilize energy. There's that part of it. But also, you know, when people come with these obtuse symptoms and they're overweight, it's unfortunately commonly assumed it's just because of your weight. And a full evaluation is not done for autoimmune issues, for insulin resistance, for toxin exposure. If your liver enzymes are high normal, they're, you know, 38, 40, which in some labs is normal. If your GGT, which is a mark for glutathione production is over 38, which many times it's in the 40s and 50s, those are very sensitive markers that your body's been exposed to toxins or your thyroid antibody levels. You know, one interesting thing with people with positive thyroid antibodies is that a big trigger for that can be molecular mimicry, which is where your body thinks something in your environment or your diet looks like your body. And because it's crosstalk, it gets confused and starts attacking yourself. And a big driver for that is gluten. Well, gluten is also filled full of toxins and chemicals. If you have positive thyroid antibodies, you have weight issues. All of a sudden, a gluten free diet has to be a major part of your program. So as you can see, like this whole idea of medical gaslighting and using obesity as an excuse. It's just the tip of the iceberg. You look for a lot more things. And so knowing this information now, what can you do? Well, one, look for a provider who's going to listen to you. Someone who'll say, hey, you're an educated person. You've done your homework. I should listen to you. What other symptoms do you have? You know, we've done a whole series on how to talk to a doctor buried in our social media and also on our website. But that's an important thing. In today's day and age, with the technology, with AI, with educated individuals can figure out 80% of the stuff going on with them when they take it to their provider. And then with their expertise, can refine things. And so if you're feeling medically gaslit, but I encourage you to one, be proactive, two, get educated. And three, find a partner, someone who can work with you. Because in today's day and age, we have to start listening to patients. We can't keep on assuming because we're the educated individual with degrees and pedigrees and stuff that we know best. Many times, you know, Willem Osler, who's considered one of the fathers of modern medicine, always said, listen to your patient, they'll tell you the diagnosis. And we've lost that basic wisdom that one of the revered physicians of the 19th century, 1800s, early 1900s, we've lost that wisdom. We need to get that back. And medical gaslighting is a thing. Being educated can be helpful. And when you get back to our roots of listen to the patient, the patient will tell you what's going on. Hopefully this was helpful. I'd be interesting for you to hear your comments. Take care and we'll talk to you soon.