Making a commitment to achieve a healthy weight is one of the best health decisions you can make. Studies have shown health benefits start to occur with a 5 to 10 percent loss of body weight. For many people, this can mean benefits begin with losing just 10 pounds! So let’s look at some specific benefits achievable with weight loss as documented in research publications:
Heart: Research has shown that a 5 to 10 percent loss of body weight can result in meaningful reductions in heart disease risk. Blood pressure decreased by as much as 5 mm Hg (systolic and diastolic). Blood lipids also improved along with a five-point increase in HDL cholesterol levels and a drop in triglycerides of as much as 40 mg/dl.1
Blood sugar: Many measures of blood sugar control improve with weight loss. A measurement of long-term blood sugar control called hemoglobin A1C may drop as much as a half point (normal is under 6.5).2 Insulin resistance also improves with modest weight loss.3
Inflammation: Fat cells produce inflammatory molecules called cytokines, and a 10 percent drop in body fat reduces levels of these substances. Losing those extra pounds has wide-ranging effects throughout your body as inflammation is associated with many chronic diseases.4
Joints: Every pound of loss reduces the stress on your knees by four times; so, lose 10 pounds and you take 40 pounds of stress off your knees, hips, and ankle joints.
Key takeaways for you:
While some benefits can take a while to occur, especially the cardiovascular benefits, the good news is that as long as people maintained most of their weight loss—the benefits lasted.5
The more weight you lose, the better. When scientists crunch the data, they find a wide range of effects. Some people respond better than others do, but in general, those who lose the most weight have the best results.
The biggest benefit of losing a little bit of weight is that it sets you up to lose more. You now have your formula for weight loss—you just have to be consistent and keep going! Focus on how great you feel, and stay on your path to long-term better health.
1Wing RR, Lang W, Wadden TA, et al. Benefits of modest weight loss in improving cardiovascular risk factors in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2011 Jul;34(7):1481-6. PMID: 21593294. 2Wing RR, Lang W, Wadden TA, et al. Benefits of modest weight loss in improving cardiovascular risk factors in overweight and obese individuals with type 2 diabetes. Diabetes Care. 2011 Jul;34(7):1481-6. PMID: 21593294. 3Ho TP, Zhao X, Courville AB, et al. Effects of a 12-Month Moderate Weight Loss Intervention on Insulin Sensitivity and Inflammation Status in Nondiabetic Overweight and Obese Subjects. Horm Metab Res. 2014 Jun 30. PMID: 24977656. 4Ho TP, Zhao X, Courville AB, et al. Effects of a 12-Month Moderate Weight Loss Intervention on Insulin Sensitivity and Inflammation Status in Nondiabetic Overweight and Obese Subjects. Horm Metab Res. 2014 Jun 30. PMID: 24977656. 5de las Fuentes L, Waggoner AD, Mohammed BS, et al. Effect of moderate diet-induced weight loss and weight regain on cardiovascular structure and function. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2009 Dec 15;54(25):2376-81. PMID: 20082927.
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Andrew Brunson was elated when Turkey’s Interior Ministry summoned him on Oct. 7 in the coastal city of Izmir. The ministry, the American pastor imagined, was granting him and his wife, Norine, permanent-resident status after they’d spent more than two decades preaching the gospel in Turkey. Instead they were arrested and detained for unspecified reasons.
So began a Turkish nightmare the couple is living to this day.
Turkish immigration authorities informed the Brunsons that they would be detained pending deportation from the country. Norine was released after two weeks, but her husband was held in the immigration-detention facility for another two months, including two days in solitary confinement. He was initially denied access to legal counsel, and two U.S. consular visits didn’t take place until after he’d already spent a month in the facility.
“What’s been frustrating is that no information has been given at any time,” a lawyer for the Brunsons told me in a phone interview. (The lawyer requested anonymity given the sensitivity of the case.) By all accounts Pastor Brunson loves Turks and Turkey. He raised his children in the country, and the Brunsons have had “zero issues for 23 years,” their lawyer says.
Yet overnight on Dec. 8 the pastor was transferred to a counterterror center, brought before a judge the next day and charged with “membership in an armed terrorist organization.” To this day the limited case documentation provided to the family doesn’t specify which “terror” organization the pastor supposedly joined. Court proceedings revealed, however, that the Turks may have pegged Pastor Brunson as a Gülenist.
Fethullah Gülen is a Pennsylvania-based imam whom President Recep Tayyip Erdogan accuses of masterminding July’s failed coup. For years Mr. Gülen’s followers worked hand-in-hand with Mr. Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party to purge the country’s secular establishment. The relationship soured in 2013, however, and a power struggle ensued between the rival Islamist camps.
Most observers in Turkey, including members of the opposition, believe Gülenists were behind the attempted putsch this summer. But “Gülen” plays the role of Goldstein in Mr. Erdogan’s personal “1984”—the devious traitor who lurks behind every doner-kebob stand and behind every tragedy. Under the pretext of rooting out Gülenists, the government has jailed or fired tens of thousands of police officers, prosecutors, judges, journalists, educators and members of the armed forces.
Now even evangelical pastors are secret Gülenists.
Pastor Brunson’s treatment is also symptomatic of growing Christian persecution in Turkey. “Turkish President Erdogan sees anti-Christian conspiracy theories as an effective strategy for galvanizing popular support for his one-man rule,” says Aykan Erdemir, a former member of the Turkish Parliament and a senior fellow at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies.
A pro-government columnist in July claimed that Mr. Gülen’s mother is Jewish and his father an Armenian. Mr. Gülen himself “is a member of the Vatican Council” who “uses the methods of the Jesuit Order that captured the Vatican.” Another columnist the same month asked whether Gülenists might be hiding “in churches.” Still another tabloid doctored photographs to suggest Mr. Gülen is a Roman Catholic prelate.
Mr. Erdogan’s defenders insist the president has no say over what’s printed in the papers. But that’s hard to believe in a country where the state has banned at least 120 news outlets in six months. Nor is the government’s own rhetoric much better. At an anti-coup rally in August, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim denounced Turkey’s enemies as a “crusaders’ army.”
Then there are cases like Pastor Brunson’s. A court on Thursday denied his appeal against imprisonment. So far his is the most serious, but authorities have also expelled a number of evangelical missionaries in recent months and shuttered a Protestant church in Antakya for offering “unauthorized” Bible courses.
“The idea that Mr. Brunson’s arrest was related to his religious affiliation is ludicrous,” a senior Turkish official told me. “There are hundreds of thousands of Christians in Turkey who freely exercise their religion.” He added: “It’s absolutely crucial to avoid stereotypes and focus on the fact that Turkey has taken unprecedented steps in recent years to promote cultural diversity, including religious diversity.”
Promoting diversity and upholding basic rights aren’t the same thing. Turkey under Mr. Erdogan is fast coming to resemble the neighboring Islamic Republic of Iran. The difference is that Ankara is a NATO ally of the U.S. that shows little respect for Washington. Perhaps the Trump administration can restore the relationship to its proper balance. Meanwhile, say a prayer for an American pastor in an Izmir prison cell.
Mr. Ahmari is a Journal editorial writer in London.
The Izmir Dirilis (Resurrection) Church, where Andrew Brunson is the pastor. (WorldWatchMonitor)
The above is a continuation of the article on Andrew Brunson.
All it took was a sniff and a nibble of these pungent Myanmar food products. Our Caucasian friend, Helen, knew that only other Asians would enjoy and appreciate these gifts from overseas students she supports. My family and me are thus the happy, thankful and willing victims of her use of profiling, whoohoooo!
as gracious and hospitable as ever
pro·fil·ing
ˈprōˌfīliNG/noun
the recording and analysis of a person's psychological and behavioral characteristics, so as to assess or predict their capabilities in a certain sphere or to assist in identifying a particular subgroup of people.
Where I have my devotions, my wife Leslie "Sugarbabe", has a plaque on the wall that I look at all the time. It reads as follows: BELIEVE LEARN FROM YESTERDAY LIVE FOR TODAY HOPE FOR TOMORROW When you are DOWN to NOTHING God is UP to SOMETHING RUTH 1 #BELIEVEGOD Maranatha James Ford, Jr
