San Rafael, CA (PRWEB) September 24, 2007 -- The answer to the obesity epidemic, endorsed by an increasing number of health professionals, is The Solution Method, a novel program developed at the University of California San Francisco. The method is the subject of nine national conferences at universities across the country beginning October 18, 2007 at the University San Diego.

Instead of counting calories, the method trains people to use simple skills to pop their brains from stress to joy. That state of joy short circuits the stress response and brings chemical changes that decrease appetites and promote lasting weight loss.

With the obesity epidemic growing - 75 percent of us will be overweight by 2020 - finding treatments that correspond to the underlying causes of overweight is essential. Health professionals who attend the conferences will learn the science of the method and practical clinical tools for implementing it in their practices.

Recent research has suggested that the root cause of weight gain is stress. Chronic stress decreases the capacity to experience natural pleasure and it ramps up appetites for sugary, fatty comfort foods and all their rewarding substitutes -- such as drinking, smoking, overworking, and overspending. Chronic stress also promotes the storage of belly fat, which has been shown to increase the risk of a range of metabolic disorders, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol and insulin resistance. Traditional approaches to weight have not stopped the rising rates of the problem.

According to obesity expert John Foreyt of Baylor College of Medicine "The Solution is the first method to show continued weight loss after the program ends." The national obesity watchdog group, Shape-Up America! reports that the method "provides new hope to overweight Americans" and Health magazine named the program "One of the 10 Top Medical Advances of the Year."

Laurel Mellin, founder of The Institute for Health Solutions and associate clinical professor of family and comunity medicine at the University of California, San Francisco comments: "Joy is not optional. It's essential to weight loss. The brain is reward-driven and when the brain is in chronic stress, the pleasure pathways don't get needed surges of feel-good neurotransmitters from natural sources, like eating a crisp red apple, being present in the moment, enjoying emotional closeness or going for a walk."

She explains: "When natural pleasure is in short supply and we're in chronic stress, we unconsciously search for a ready substitute. Our neurotransmitter imbalances trigger cravings and drives. These drives are intense as the limbic brain, the clearinghouse for stress, is our survival brain. When it perceives stress, the intensity of our cravings can be as strong as the drive to run away from hungry lions. We want those unnatural pleasures -- such as sugary, fatty comfort food -- as if our life depended upon it, so we relent and overindulge, then blame ourselves, which adds to our stress. This toxic cycle of stress, lack of reward and overeating is fueling the obesity epidemic."

The Solution Method trains particiants in simple skills that pop the brain from stress to joy so that the drive to overeat fades and the body returns to homeostasis, thus stepping out of the toxic cycle of weight gain. The pleasure pathways fill up with surges of neurotransmitters from eating a crisp red apple or going for a walk. Cravings fade and losing weight is easier.

Mellin says, "By using these simple skills, clients see immediate emotional results. They get a natural pulse of relaxation, power and pleasure each time they use the skills, and the drive to overeat begins to fade. When used over time, the skills appear to retrain the brain to change the happiness set point. We become happier, more resilient people and food becomes just food -- something to be enjoyed but not a "fix."

Margaret Suddeth, a program graduate who lost 60 pounds on the method and has kept it off for three years, "I exercise more now, but the biggest change in me is internal. I have the skills to pop my brain out of stress and into this zone of happiness that makes me forget about food."

For more information about conference, for groups based on the method or to interview Laurel Mellin, telephone 415.457.0905 or 415.457.3331. Visit www.thesolutionmethod.org for information on The Solution. The method was first developed for children as The SHAPEDOWN Program. For the method's use with childhood obesity visit www.childobesity.com...

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