HEALTH MATTERS to struggle until one day the doctor told me that my blood pressure might damage my organs and this scared me! I was referred to a cardiologist who confirmed that I had hypertension after further examinations. I was referred to see a nutritionist and this was when I met Kepha and began my journey 10 years ago.
Gladys: Kepha, what are the dangers of excessive body fat?
Kepha: We are worried about the body fat, because what is actually very dangerous is not the muscle but the excess body fat and especially when the fat accumulates around the abdomen. We calculate the Waist- Hip Ratio which assist us to understand where most of the body fat is located. When the excess body fat accumulates around the abdomen, it increases the risk of chronic diseases including diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, cancer etc. We should always ensure we maintain our body fat percentage within the recommended range.
Gladys: Now, let me hear from Nancy. Kepha mentioned that you were also struggling with constipation and you mentioned about fatigue. What other challenges were you struggling with?
Nancy: Yeah. I had constipation, acidity and acid reflux. I used to work in the hotel industry and I remember Kepha came to our workplace for lifestyle sensitization. I decided to visit his office for consultation and to my surprise, he didn’ t prescribe medication for heartburn, acidity reflux and constipation. He prescribed a personalized meal that helped me to get rid of these conditions. In fact, I had H-pyroli and was taking medication but after implementing the meal plan, I did away with all the medications.
Gladys: How soon after starting your journey with the nutritionist did you see the changes?
Nancy: I experienced drastic improvement after one month and I stopped all the medications.
Gladys: Ahaa, interesting! Kepha, you have something to say?
Kepha: Most people with digestive disorders really struggle with weight loss as they slow down the rate of metabolism. With a slow metabolism, you might take the right foods, but most of the foods are usually converted into body fat which gets deposited around the abdomen. There are many ways you can use to know whether your waist circumference is within the recommended range. For instance, you can use a tape to measure your waist circumference and compare the measurements with the recommended range for men and women. The waist circumference for men should range between 69cm to 94cm while women should range between 60cm to 80cm. At times the weight might be normal but if the weight circumference is above the recommended range, you are still at risk of getting lifestyle diseases.
Gladys: Edward, you said you were borderline hypertensive which means you hadn’ t gotten there but you were almost getting there. How soon after you had started seeing the nutritionist did you start reversing the trend?
Edward: I started losing weight immediately and within the first month my blood pressure readings were back to normal. In fact, the cardiologist reduced my medication dosage because of the normal readings and I felt so well. Just like Nancy, I remember chronic fatigue used to put me down for a whole week and I didn’ t know it was because of excessive weight gain.
Gladys: When you say it used to put you down, what do you mean?
Edward: I would feel pain even after taking pain killers and I felt very exhausted and uncomfortable. In fact, I lack words to explain how I felt because even medication like pain killers didn’ t make any difference. The only thing that assisted me was getting enough rest for almost a week.
Gladys: Mmh, Okay. Kepha?
Kepha: Most overweight people tend to experience fatigue and have digestive disorders. It’ s always important to work on the root-cause of these conditions. Unfortunately, most of the quick weight loss programs don’ t focus on addressing the rootcause. They actually work on the smoke instead of the fire. At Crystal Consultants, we practice a holistic approach to health and wellness. We look at how all areas of your life are connected and our primary focus is to find out the underlying factors affecting your health. As we work together, we look at how different dimensions of your lifestyle affect your health as a whole. Through this approach we have successfully assisted many patients to lose weight and get rid of various medical conditions without medication. Some of these conditions include gastritis, irritable bowel syndrome( IBS),
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