You may have never heard of Albumin, but it is one of the most researched but misunderstood proteins in your body. It’s job is to carry fat, cholesterol and other lipids around in our blood stream. If we didn’t have albumin as a transport substance, the fat would stick to the lining of your arteries and everything would come to a grinding halt.
I know you’re thinking, “Sue why is this relevant”? I’m just hearing about the new research and how understanding albumin can impact your weight and hormones. Albumin has been called the life factor by many top researchers because the more we have, the healthier we will be and the longer we will live.
The only way to increase the albumin in the body is to reduce the stress on your immune system. As I describe to my patients when we talk about doing an internal cleanse, your body only has time to do so much. That’s why if you give it easy things to digest, it has time to clean out the corners and rid yourself of gunk. The same is true of albumin. If there is a decline in the antibodies needed (as you aren’t exposed to new germs) your liver has time to produce more albumin and your blood has more room for it.
So how do you decrease stress on your immune system?
Apparently you improve your personal hygiene (good to know for all you ocd sufferers). According to Dr. Kenneth Seaton, hygiene is the single-most important factor in improving your albumin levels and in giving your immune system a break. Albumin has big influence on your weight s well. Scientists are starting to look at the correlation between levels of albumin ans weight. Apparently you can’t be too overweight if your albumin is up. Swimmers have a very high level of albumin. In the water all the time (chlorine or salt cleaning under the fingernails) and the combination of vitamin D (sunlight), exercise and water may work together to increase the albumin levels and thus keep you slim.
I’ll look into the studies further, but washing your hands, taking vitamin C and joining the pool may be the missing component you need to lose that stubborn weight.