Obesity is becoming epidemic.
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There are many causes for weight gain. Additionally, there are many reasons why it is so difficult to lose weight. It seems easy, more calories equal more weight. Fewer calories should equal less weight. But, it doesn’t always work.

Just as blood pressure, headaches, cancer, and other maladies have multiple causes, weight gain cannot always be solved by a single action. Our gut is literally our second brain. What we eat affects how we think and act. If your gut is in turmoil, then your body is in a similar condition. It is hard to break out of chaos.

Antibiotics kill good and bad things in our gut. Doctors don’t tell us to take probiotics along with the antibiotics to level the playing field after the antibiotic battle. Doctors also don’t tell us to take prebiotics on a regular basis to feed the good things in our gut so they are powerful enough to fight the bad things on their own turf.

Prebiotics are the nutrients our gut needs to flourish. They restore the natural balance. One prebiotic that works well in obese rats is reishi mushrooms. Studies have shown that supplemented obese rats lost body weight, had less fat deposited in their body cavity, showed less fat beneath their skin, lower liver weight and a reduction in the size of their fat cells.

We don’t think of fat as being an organ in our body. But, when fat cells accumulate above a certain mass, they influence our bodies as if they were an organ. Fat cells can generate cytokines – pro-inflammatory signaling molecules. Reishi mushrooms reduced the production of cytokines. Additionally, the levels of nuclear factor-kappa B (NF-kB) were reduced in the presence of reishi mushrooms.

Toxins influence our health. When our bodies can’t dispose of toxins quickly enough they are stored in our fat cells. Before being stored in our fat cells they float along in the bloodstream. Mice treated with reishi mushrooms had fewer bacterial toxins in their bloodstream.

Genes are like light switches. They can be turned on or off. If a gene is supposed to be on and it is turned off, your health may suffer. Certain things, like toxins, lifestyle choices, stress and other factors affect the gene’s ability to turn on or off when needed. Reishi mushrooms were shown to have turned off genes that predominantly cause us to gain and retain weight.

Will this work for you? It is unknown. There are many causes. Treat one and move on to the next. Left untreated, you never know. Reishi mushrooms help your gut to maintain natural balance and vitality whether you are overweight or not.

Reference: Life Extension Magazine July 2016 (lef.org)

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