What your fat says about you…

Posing with Charles Poliquin - creator of Biosignature Modulation

I’ve just come back from London and one the most inspiring and thought provoking courses I have ever attended.

The course was Biosignature Modulation, a body composition and hormonal measuring method devised and developed by Charles Poliquin, that has been continually developed since 1982.

Orginally devised to help Olympic athletes get the most from their short off -season periods for their strength and conditioning, Biosignature has been slowly gathering support in both the medical and fitness industries; for its abilities to vastly increase the rate at which fat is lost and improve the long-term health of the client.

How does it work?

Bisignature works by using bodyfat calipers to take measurments at 12 different sites around the body, the readings will then give a picture of the state of various hormones in the body, with each site relating to health of a particular hormone:

• Love-handle and shoulder-blade areas = related to insulin levels and the ability to handle carbohydrate in the diet
• Knee and medial calf = reflect growth hormone and quality of sleep
• Chest and triceps = indicate how well androgens (testosterone) is produced – so if you are a man, you can consider this a measure of how male your current diet and lifestyle is making you
• Mid-axillary = shows how well the Thyroid is functioning
• Belly-button = reflects cortisol levels and exposure to long-term stress
• Front and back of thighs = indicate Estrogen levels, both produced by the body and xenoestrogens present in your food, water and environment . Also a good indicator for the risk factors of developing estrogen related cancers (breast, ovarian, prostate, etc)
• Chin and cheek – have no real relation to particular hormones – but are usually the first sites to decrease in a successful fat loss programme

The main causes of fat storage…

One of the first we things we learnt on the course was that fat is simply not just used to store excess energy.  In fact one of its most important functions to act as a toxin store when the body over-whelmed and is unable to effectively break down and excrete toxins.

We are also going to store more fat if we are stressed and deficient in important vitamins and minerals that are used to help the body de-toxify.

So one of the main points that Charles hammered home, was to NOT COUNT CALORIES. Instead focus on eating a Paleo style diet (meat, fish and plenty of green veg with some fruit), increasing both the amount and the quality of the water we drink, and identify and resolve any deficiencies present.  This would in turn increase our body’s health and its abilities to de-toxify and handle stress.

One way to sum it up would be – A scientific approach to fat loss spot-reduction via improving long-term health.

Insulin – possibly the most important hormone to control

Insulin is the only hormone we have 100% control over, via the foods we choose to eat.

Insulin is released in response to an increase in blood sugar, which occurs after we eat or drink something. The higher the carbohydrate content, or the more sugary something we eat is, the higher the insulin response (this is also true for foods designed to be fast absorbing that don’t contain carbohydrate – for example whey protein powders used by bodybuilders).

So whats the problem with having high levels of insulin? Well apart from running the risk of eventually becoming Diabetic (our bodies stop repsonding to insulin as well as they should due to over-exposure – called Type-2 diabetes), insulin has also been linked to play a significant role in many other issues. One of which is the development of alzheimer’s.

We learnt on the course that in America there is a growing push amongst the functional medicine community to get alzheimer’s classed as diabetes type-3; as it is linked to high levels of circulating insulin carrying aluminium in our blood across the blood-brain barrier and into our brain cells. So if you cook with aluminium pans, use aluminium foil on your food and eat a lot of sugary, refined foods – you are increasing your risk of developing the disease.

Fish oils – possibly the best supplement to start on…

EVERY SINGLE CELL in the human body has a receptor site (a place for it attach – like a parking spot) for omega-3.

We learnt on the course that supplementing with HIGH QUALITY fish oils can have multiple health benefits, including:

• improving concentration levels and mental acuity
• improving insulin response and levels after meals
• reducing inflammation
• encourage the production of lipase enzymes that start the fat-burning processes in the body
• can help alleviate the symptoms of depression
• can drastically improve the rate at which fat is lost and drastically improve heart health and blood pressure when combined with a good quality carnitine

The importance of biosignature

Not only can it be used to give each client their own unique blue-print to successful fat loss and health improvement, it can also help – via nutrional and supplemtational support –  the body to:

• improve mental clarity and acuity – via improving the body’s abilities to produce neurotransmitters that control the brain
• reduce risk factors associated with a variety of diseases and cancers: heart disease, diabetes, prostate cancer, breast cancer, ovarian cancer, alzhemier’s, etc
• reduce the impact of neurological issues such as depression and ADHD
• improve sporting performance and the body’s ability to recover and respond well to training
• increase the body’s abilities to handle and process the toxins present in our environment

Further details

If you would like to find out more about Bisosignature Modulation, you can visit Charles Poliquin’s website at: http://www.charlespoliquin.com/

Here is a video of Charles himself discussing the benefits at a lecture back in 2008:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acWvZQYNL7s

Booking your an assessment

If you would like to book your own assessment, which takes around 30mins, please contact me at brian@brianellicott.com or call 07736015864 – it could be one of the most important things you do for your health.