Heart Healthy Living - Summer 2010

2 diabetes in her late 40s. In her mid-50s and morbidly obese at 272 pounds, Kathy knew that the six pills she took every day for those conditions would not stop the heart attack she saw looming in her future. “I just thought I didn’t have the willpower,” she says. What is compulsive overeating? Compulsive overeating, sometimes called food addiction, is a complex problem that requires more than a simple diet or exercise regimen to solve. “It’s like an alcoholic with a drink,” says Tricia Walker, manager of weight management services for Vista Health Systems in Vernon Hills, Illinois. “You can’t do without the food of choice: chocolate, pizza, doughnuts.” Nora D. Volkow, M.D., director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, who has directed much of the brain research New research suggests that for some people, the problem with eating is in their brains rather than their stomachs. See how a di;erent approach may work for you. How to Fight Food Addiction Mind Stomach Over

BY Patricia Prijatel

“Overeating is an
addictive behavior, similar
to addiction to alcohol.
It hijacks the brain.”
—Gene-Jack Wang, M.D., Brookhaven Center for
Translational Neuroimaging

Beat Stronger. Live Longer.

KATHY KNEW SHE NEEDED TO LOSE weight, but to save her life, the Baxter, Iowa, woman didn’t think she could do it.

Then, in 2007, she heard a group of normal-size women speak about how they lost weight and kept it o; through a program for compulsive overeaters. Until that moment, it had never occurred to Kathy that the reason for her overeating might be more complicated than a lack of discipline.

What she did know was that being
overweight prompted an escalating series of
health problems—high blood pressure at age
18, high cholesterol in her early 40s, and type
on obesity, says the food-addicted brain
typically responds to foods high in sugar,
salt, and fat. Sugar can cause the same type
of brain activities that occur in the brains of
people who are addicted to drugs or alcohol.