We’ve all heard the fiendishly simple and completely untrue colloquialism that to lose weight you just have to eat less and exercise more. Or that it’s all about willpower and that it’s the individual’s fault if they are fat. Not only are these ideas completely unsupported by the scientific literature, but they also lead to a blame-the-victim mentality that tells people who are struggling with their weight, in a not-so-subtle way, that if they only tried harder they would lose weight. There is only one problem with this point of view: It’s just not true.

What makes us thin, fat, or somewhere in between does indeed have something to do with how much we eat and exercise. But the oversimplification stops there. Complex forces that govern our survival control our weight and metabolism. In fact, there is no one simple reason why an individual may have trouble with his or her weight.

In this mini-episode, Dr. Hyman is joined by Dr. Elizabeth Boham to discuss the Functional Medicine approach to weight gain and weight loss.

Elizabeth Boham is a physician and nutritionist who practices functional medicine at The UltraWellness Center in Lenox, MA. Through her practice and lecturing she has helped thousands of people achieve their goals of optimum health and wellness. She witnesses the power of nutrition every day in her practice and is committed to training other physicians to utilize nutrition in healing. Dr. Boham has contributed to many articles and wrote the latest chapter on Obesity for the Rankel Textbook of Family Medicine. She is part of the faculty of the Institute for Functional Medicine and has been featured on the Dr. Oz show and in a variety of publications and media including Huffington Post, The Chalkboard Magazine, and Experience Life. Her DVD Breast Wellness: Tools to Prevent and Heal from Breast Cancer explores the functional medicine approach to keeping your breasts and whole body well.

This episode is sponsored by AirDoctor. We need clean air not only to live but to create vibrant health and protect ourselves and loved ones from toxin exposure and disease. Learn more about the AirDoctor Professional Air Purifier system at a special price at www.drhyman.com/filter

In this episode, Dr. Hyman and Dr. Boham discuss:

Common factors that contribute to weight gain such as blood sugar and insulin levels, environmental toxins, hormonal imbalances, mitochondrial Issues, and more.

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