The 4th Helvetius Holding AG symposium will take place on 22 October 2021 from 18:00. Core topics of the public event are diabetes and obesity as well as liver diseases with the effects on personal health. The subject area will be expanded by interesting lectures on motivation in recreational sports and on liver fasting with Hepafast.
In addition to Dr. med. Jörg Zehetner, nutritional physicians Dr. med. Hardy Walle and Dr. med. Tilmann Schmitz as well as football and coaching legend Martin Andermatt will lead through the exciting topics.
Symposium of Helvetius Holding AG at the Talent Campus Bodensee Kreuzlingen
An event full of specialist medical and social topics with networking opportunities
With its 4th symposium at the Talent Campus Bodensee in Kreuzlingen, Helvetius Holding AG is heading for the highlight of this year’s lecture series.
With Dr. med. Jörg Zehetner (Professor USC), Dr. med. Hardy Walle (nutritional physician), Martin Andermatt (trainer and football legend) as well as Dr. med. Tilmann Schmitz (nutritional physician), nationally and internationally recognised personalities will be on stage and will speak on focal points of medical research, healthy nutrition, motivation and sport.
The core topics of the medical specialist subjects are
“Belching, obesity and diabetes – recognising connections” and
“Fatty liver and obesity – liver fasting with Hepafast”.
In addition, the highly interesting event deals with topics on motivation and healthy lifestyles in everyday life, but also answers questions that arise for every concerned and interested participant.
In addition to specialists from the various fields, well-known and successful entrepreneurs and personalities of public interest also meet here to exchange opinions and network.
This will provide interesting opportunities for participants in the event to expand knowledge, build skills and make valuable contacts.
The 4th Helvetius Holding AG symposium is open to all interested and registered participants free of charge.
Date: 22 October 2021, 6:00 p.m. at the Talent Campus Bodensee in Kreuzlingen.
Please note that participation in the symposium is only possible after prior registration.
Please feel free to consider this information as a personal invitation and register to participate in the event. We look forward to meeting you or seeing you again at the 4th Helvetius Holding AG symposium at the Talent Campus Bodensee in Kreuzlingen.
Whether at the football pitch or in the bar, men don’t hide their beer belly, but the 10-15kg overweight is proudly carried in front of them. No one should make fun of it, but the topic must be addressed and discussed with sensitivity. People like to keep quiet about their supposed beer belly, even at the doctor’s, even at physiotherapy or during sports.
“Male obesity”. This cannot simply be categorised as “gluttony” or “self-indulgence”. Male obesity has as many causes as it has manifestations. It primarily affects men from middle age onwards, who (like women) are undergoing a particular type of metabolic change.
Recording from 3.9.2021 ” Saaserhof” in Saas-Fee Overweight: Beer Belly & Love Dumbbells as a Danger? by J. Zehetner, MD
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Particularly with increasing age, the body strives for developmental reasons to store food reserves as fat reserves, so to speak, in order to provide for possible shortages. Especially for men who consume fewer calories than they take in due to their occupation or limited exercise, this quickly leads to unwanted excess weight. Organic processes in particular play an important role here, which cannot be “switched off” so easily.
While there is often talk of dieting and smaller portions, the topic of alcohol and alcohol consumption is talked down, ridiculed and negated, especially among men. However, liquid foods such as beer and wine contain many hidden calories that are not readily counted. The energy drinks that have become fashionable, various shakes and also protein shakes (although healthy) are also energy suppliers and usually high in calories. Fruit juices and smoothies in particular are easily consumed on the side without thinking about how much sugar is being consumed.
Obesity is now more common than malnutrition worldwide. The real problem is predominantly to be observed in the western industrialised countries, since it is precisely here that there is an ever-increasing oversupply of food at all times. The obesity rate in the USA, for example, is around 35-40 percent of the population, which is a fact that should not be underestimated. This means an overweight of at least 20 kilograms, or a BMI of 30 or more. This is also the case despite the surgical intervention options, although these methods in particular can now be classified as very safe and successful. Nevertheless, the rate of surgical interventions needed in this particular area is far too low.
The topic of beer bellies – as the starting point of the discussion – is not only about informing the population and professional colleagues accordingly. Rather, I see it as important to educate about the modern treatment options of bariatric treatment methods up to surgery. The primary aim is always to help patients according to their individual starting situation.
Information on the topic of obesity
It is important to understand that obesity is always associated with concomitant diseases. Diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnoea, high cholesterol – all these manifest themselves in the environment of obesity. But there is also another aspect that has emerged, especially in recent years. The point is that people who are overweight are simply stigmatised. At school, at work and even in private life, overweight people are described as lazy, fat, greedy, careless and lazy about exercise. This puts additional stress on those affected and does not help to tackle the problem in a targeted and conscious way. Significant overweight has been defined as a disease since 2013 at the latest. This puts morbid obesity in the same category as diseases such as diabetes, high blood pressure and many other chronic diseases.
The stigmatisation of obesity is extremely dangerous for patients, as they then withdraw and cannot address their actual problem in a targeted and active way. Professional treatment, counselling and support is the surest way out of obesity.
Everyone is challenged to exercise some restraint in their contact with morbidly obese people, both in their choice of words and in their behaviour. Even if it’s “only” about the supposed beer belly.
Why specifically “men who are overweight”?
Yes, women also suffer from morbid obesity. But men do it in a special way. There are now “curvy models” for women, but not for men. And men by nature already tend to eat the slightly larger portions, even if that seems to be gradually declining. The world view was and still is such that a belly is always subconsciously associated with prosperity. Also in modern industrial societies. The dangers are mostly conscious, but are only realised when they are actually there, visible and sometimes already tangible.
In addition, after a certain stage of life at the latest, men do not have this special view of their appearance that many women have. The actual problem is not recognised, or is recognised only very late, and is then gladly accepted as natural. This means that they don’t have to go to the doctor, and the obesity surgeon is an unknown quantity for many of those affected. Therefore, men in particular must be sensitised to actively face this problem.
What starts with a beer belly that is not taken seriously often ends in an overweight catastrophe, unless the right steps are taken in time, for example to a Swiss1Chirurgie clinic.
Dr. med. Michaela Neagu FMH Gastroenterology and Internal Medicine GGP Bern
In a lecture by the gastroenterological group practice GGP Bern AG (a company of Helvetius Holding AG), the gastroenterologist Dr. med. Michaela Neagu illustrates the connections between fatty liver and diabetes. Following the lecture, it becomes clear that fatty liver and diabetes form a vicious circle in which both diseases trigger and drive each other. In addition to diagnostics and the effects on overall health, the lecture also opens up a clear picture of how the course of the disease can be successfully influenced and, in the best case, reversed. We have made the lecture by Dr Michaela Neagu available in text form, but also as a video lecture and as a PowerPoint presentation. You can find out more here.
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Fatty liver disease and diabetes mellitus – are there correlations?
The experts at Helvetius Holding AG clarify
In a lecture by GGP Bern AG, Dr. med. Michaela Neagu presented the connections between fatty liver disease and diabetes mellitus. This is less about medical jargon and more about educating people about what a fatty liver is, what it means for people’s lives and whether there is a connection to diabetes mellitus.
Dr Michaela Neagu is a specialist in gastroenterology (gastrointestinal diseases) and general internal medicine in the Gastroenterology Group Practice Bern, a partner of Helvetius Holding AG, and has extensive experience and expertise in her specialist field.
In her lecture, Michaela Neagu, MD, highlights the clear connections between fatty liver and diabetes mellitus.
The fatty liver disease
Basically, a distinction is made between alcoholic fatty liver disease and non-alcoholic (metabolic) fatty liver disease. As the different names suggest, one form of fatty liver disease is related to excessive alcohol consumption, the other has nothing to do with alcohol consumption. In addition, there are manifestations such as viral liver diseases, autoimmune diseases, iron storage disorders and other conditions that promote fatty liver disease or make it possible in the first place.
Worldwide, about 25 percent of the population is affected by fatty liver disease. This makes fatty liver the most common liver disease of all. Among diabetics themselves, about 30 to 40 percent have a fatty liver. Also, about half of patients with severe dyslipidemia suffer from fatty liver disease.
How does a fatty liver develop?
A fatty liver occurs when the capacity of the liver cells to absorb fat is exceeded. This causes fat to be deposited in the liver itself, which can no longer be broken down by the liver. The accumulation of fat in the liver cells causes these cells to become inflamed and then send out messenger substances that inhibit the supply of insulin to the liver. Eventually, a kind of insulin resistance develops, so that insulin cannot work in the body as nature intended.
As a result, hyperglycaemia occurs in the body. This sends out a stimulus that causes even more insulin to be produced. The increased insulin level then further leads to increased fat absorption, fat synthesis and fat storage as well. This creates a cycle of action that deposits more and more fat in the liver, but also generally increases fat storage in the body far beyond normal levels.
What do people affected by fatty liver notice?
It is sobering to note that about half of all those affected live practically asymptomatic and accordingly do not worry at all about their liver health, for example. On the one hand, this may have a calming effect, but on the other hand, it is an alarm signal that effective therapeutic interventions only start late, usually very late.
Some patients experience general but rather non-specific fatigue. A certain faintness and perhaps once undifferentiated slight pain in the upper abdomen indicate that a serious condition could be present here. Mostly, however, this is not taken seriously by the patients themselves.
As a result, in most cases the fatty liver remains an incidental finding that only comes to light during the treatment of other diseases. This could be, for example, elevated liver values during a health check or visible changes in the liver during a standard ultrasound examination.
In general, there is a risk that untreated fatty liver can progress to cirrhosis. At the latest then, those affected realise that their liver is sick. Typical signs are then the well-known large water belly, certain bypass circuits in the organism and other signs come very late, however. In practice, everything is possible with the clinical picture of fatty liver, from no symptoms to severe and dangerous courses of the disease.
Between 50 and 90 percent of people with fatty liver are obese, i.e. clearly overweight. Signs of a metabolic syndrome are recognisable.
How can a fatty liver be diagnosed with certainty?
A few years ago, biopsy was the method of choice when the condition of the liver cells needed to be determined more precisely. To do this, a needle is inserted directly into the organ and a small tissue sample is taken. This tissue sample can then be further examined for fatty liver cells.
Thanks to advances in medical technology, we can now diagnose fatty liver without a biopsy in 90 percent of cases. With different imaging methods such as ultrasound or computer tomography, absolutely painless examinations can be carried out today without interfering with the body. Thanks to the excellent presentation, the fat content in the liver can be determined comparatively well with reliable values.
The basis for the evaluation of the ultrasound examinations is, for example, a comparison of liver and kidney tissue. If both organs are healthy, they have approximately the same structure and colour in the image. If the kidney tissue appears darker than that of the liver, then the lighter parts in the liver indicate fat deposits. In this way, a fatty liver can already be recognised with a fairly high degree of certainty.
If the specialists then decide to take a tissue sample, usually to exclude or detect additional liver diseases, the differences become even clearer. A healthy liver consists of neatly arranged and clearly differentiated cells. In fatty liver, the disturbance of the cell architecture due to the fatty deposits is clearly visible. This becomes even more obvious in the case of a pronounced fatty liver with infected cells.
What is the path to fatty liver
From a healthy liver to a fatty liver always takes time and certain circumstances. Various unfavourable factors cause fat storage in the liver cells, which can then further lead to infection in the liver itself. It doesn’t have to be, but it can be. However, when such an infection takes place, a certain remodelling in the connective tissue is driven forward, which can lead to complete scarring of the liver if left untreated. Then the stage of liver cirrhosis has already been reached. Liver cirrhosis, in turn, is a favourable factor for the development of liver cancer. This applies to about two percent of those affected. But even when liver cirrhosis has not yet been diagnosed, more and more cases of liver cancer in fatty liver are becoming known. And in the USA, fatty liver is now considered the most common reason for liver transplantation.
A look at diabetes mellitus
Usually we are talking about diabetes here. This is diagnosed when chronically elevated sugar levels are found in the blood. The body is over-sugared, so to speak. The factors that cause high blood glucose levels are a reduction in the effect of insulin and, in the course of time, often an insulin deficiency.
Currently, about six percent of the world’s population, including children, are affected by diabetes. In children, type 1 diabetes is mostly observed. With the increase in morbid obesity, also in children, type 2 is also becoming more common. Diabetes can be diagnosed in a very reliable and uncomplicated way in various test procedures.
What does diabetes mellitus mean for people’s lives?
The presence of diabetes mellitus is actually associated with serious risks and consequences for the health and life of those affected. One problem is the damage to the small veins. This mainly affects the kidneys, the retina of the eye and the nervous system. The range extends from relatively mild kidney problems to complete kidney failure requiring dialysis. In the case of retinal diseases, such disorders can lead to blindness due to diabetes mellitus. In terms of damage to the nervous system, there is a loss of certain sensory impressions, which can manifest itself, for example, in patients no longer being able to feel the ground beneath their feet. Problems with coordination and spatial position change are also observed. Gastrointestinal disorders with diarrhoea and other symptoms are also reported. Cardiac arrhythmias can complete the picture.
In addition to damage to the small veins, damage to the large veins is also a consequence of diabetes mellitus. Particularly worth mentioning here are coronary heart diseases. At least here, the risk of diabetes patients is significantly higher compared to the normal population. For diabetics, this risk can be assessed as about twice as high. A full 75 percent of diabetics die from a cardiovascular event.
The risk of suffering a stroke is also about 2.5 times higher than in the comparison group of people without diabetes. A circulatory disorder, especially in the legs, has a risk of 4.5 times more than in the comparison group. The diabetic foot is well known, which is caused by precisely these circulatory disorders and can even lead to the necessary amputation.
Diabetes mellitus also generally increases the risk of infection in relation to practically all infectious diseases.
The relationship of fatty liver and diabetes mellitus
What is special about the relationship between fatty liver disease and diabetes mellitus is the fact that both diseases can be mutual and reciprocal triggers as well as consequences of the other disease. This means: fatty liver patients are or often become diabetics and diabetics often suffer from fatty liver. So there is a causal relationship between fatty liver and diabetes.
Let us imagine a possible course of events: An initially physically completely healthy and normal person begins to gain weight for various reasons. Fat tissue increases and at some point the ability to store fat is exhausted. This then leads to a veritable flooding of the entire organism with free fatty acids. At some point, the organism becomes resistant to the effect of insulin and hyperglycaemia occurs. Now the question arises: Where to put the sugar?
Some of the free fatty acids are deposited in the liver cells, where they lead to the fatty liver already described. This significantly limits the liver’s ability to metabolise healthy fats. In addition, there is an increasingly pronounced insulin residual tendency, which in turn affects blood sugar in the interaction and ultimately leads to type 2 diabetes. Other effects are always included here, such as high blood pressure, disorders of the function of the pancreas, etc.
The mutual condition of fatty liver and diabetes creates a vicious circle that is difficult to break, and then only with radical methodology.
What can be done?
At least up to a body mass index BMI of 30, maximum 35, it is still possible to take countermeasures and something should be done actively. It is worth noting that the fatty liver is reversible, i.e. it can also be regressed. Even if liver infection has already occurred, the process can still be reversed. Timely action is crucial. If cirrhosis of the liver has already occurred, it can hardly be stopped. Nevertheless, even then, consistent lifestyle adjustments and regular check-ups should be aimed at preventing further liver damage.
The way back to a healthy liver is always through a reduction in body weight and a corresponding reduction in the over-fatness of the organism. Even a five percent reduction in body weight leads to a relevant defatting of the liver.
With seven to ten percent weight loss, infections in the liver or incipient scarring of the liver tissue can also be reversed. These are encouraging facts that have been sufficiently tested and researched.
Several factors are crucial for weight loss. This starts with a significant reduction in calorie intake and continues with healthy and regular exercise. A period of at least eight weeks, but usually considerably more, is to be set. The closest possible consultation and care by specialists is highly advisable, as other risk factors must also be observed and ruled out. This applies especially to cardiovascular risks.
Toxic foods such as alcohol, drinks with a high fructose content and nicotine should be avoided at all costs.
You can watch the entire lecture by Dr. med. Michaela Neagu with a lot of additional interesting information and further questions and answers here in the video lecture.
A PowerPoint presentation on the topic illustrates and complements the lecture.
When Martin Andermatt talks about his experiences with liver fasting, the football legend and FC Schaffhausen coach is mainly talking about experiences with himself. The core of his presentations is that something only changes if you change yourself. This is just as true in active sports as it is in maintaining the health of one’s own body. The well-known Swiss also shares this experience at the 4th Helvetius Holding AG symposium at the Talent Campus Bodensee in Kreuzlingen. Read the report here and find out where you can watch the live stream.
A field report on liver fasting with HEPAFAST® by Martin Andermatt
Dr. med. Jörg Zehetner, Professor (USC), and Dr. med. Hardy Walle spoke on the topic of liver health and fatty liver at the 4th specialist conference of Helvetius Holding AG at the Talent Campus Bodensee Kreuzlingen. The highlight of the evening was undoubtedly the lecture by Dr. Hardy Walle, MD, who not only used the latest scientific approaches to shed light on non-alcoholic fatty liver from a somewhat different perspective, but was also able to present an effective concept for liver fasting in the form of HEPAFAST®.
In the following, football legend Martin Andermatt reported on his own experiences of liver fasting with HEPAFAST®. As a successful professional footballer and now coach of FC Schaffhausen, Martin Andermatt knows very well how important stable health is and what effects a healthy liver has on the entire organism.
As a football coach, Martin Andermatt likes to talk about his own practical experiences. With his own experience, Martin Andermatt was the first Swiss coach of a German Bundesliga team and also knows the German league business from the perspective of a supervisory board member at the Hannover 96 club.
In line with his own sporting career, also as an active player, Martin Andermatt has always been interested in how a good, balanced and healthy diet can be designed. As he got older, the question of how to continue in life after active football also came into focus. The main interest was in the physical and psychological effects of no longer exercising so intensively and practically losing a previously accustomed amount of exercise.
As a coach, Martin Andermatt also sees his responsibility in conveying information to adolescent and also adult players that is also correct and underpinned. Conjecture, hearsay and supposed knowledge are not really strong arguments. That is why Martin Andermatt knows very well that only one’s own experience is a good basis for passing on knowledge. He also sees this fundamental approach as important when he gives his very own experience report on liver fasting with HEPAFAST® at the 4th Helvetius Holding AG symposium.
Even though Martin Andermatt, as a non-medical doctor, does not know the formulas for liver health, he was able to follow every step in the lectures by Dr. med. Jörg Zehetner, Professor(USC), and Dr. med. Hardy Walle, founder of BODYMED and co-developer of liver fasting with HEPAFAST®. Especially from his own experience.
Personal experience is what really counts
Martin Andermatt also knows from his experience with liver fasting that this is not simply a matter of doing things quickly for a short time. It is always important to look at the development. Martin Andermatt sees this in his sporting commitment as well as in his personal attitude to health. However, even here beautiful and melodious words are always worth less than one’s own experience. And this is exactly how Martin Andermatt reports on his own experience with liver fasting with HEPAFAST®.
His first observation is about the dream world. For example, he reports that he dreamed much more intensely than usual during the periods of liver fasting. In addition, he felt extremely vital and efficient in every phase of the liver fast.
With now already 60 years of life experience, Martin Andermatt still feels very well today and knows that he has already tried a lot of things regarding health maintenance. Be it juice cures or various diet programmes. Martin Andermatt knows what he is talking about when he passes on information to his athletes.
Especially with regard to older people, nutrition is very important. Too little exercise, a lack of good proteins and the loss of muscle mass all impact on health. Overall, the quality of life can suffer a lot, which is an important issue for Martin Andermatt. After all, quality of life is an important issue for all people. Especially when they get older. Then you also need a good measure of discipline if you want to stay physically and mentally fit over a long period of time.
Just thinking that maybe you should lose some weight is not enough to really achieve that. Only then, when one becomes active in the process, will success be achieved. So it’s about real action, which is always crucial for change.
A first step for Martin Andermatt in his encounter with liver fasting was to pick up the HEPAFAST® preparation himself in Bern and not simply have it sent to him. In the Swiss1Chirurgie clinic, he had his measurements taken, so to speak. What really counts are actual and current values. Martin Andermatt already knows this from his sporting career.
Motivation counts
As in many other areas, the right motivation is the best starting point for good results in liver fasting. If one’s own motivation can then be supported in a discussion with a medical specialist, this is a good prerequisite for active action.
What counts then is the real doing. Not tomorrow or perhaps the day after tomorrow, but ideally right away, one should start with what one has recognised as good and right for oneself.
From Martin Andermatt’s point of view, it is sometimes the small vanities that can be an impetus for liver fasting. Who doesn’t want to please their partner even at an older age? Who doesn’t want to be active and fit even as they get older? You also want to be a role model for the children and if you are a coach, it all has something to do with a positive aura on the people you are training. Only if you like yourself can you radiate that positively, says Martin Andermatt.
In addition, of course, there are the thoughts about one’s own health. Even if you have paid absolute attention to a healthy diet and lifestyle for many years, sometimes this changes as you gain experience in life. However, personal health always remains the most important asset. You have to decide what is good and what is right. Those who decide for themselves do not have to let others decide for them. And health should always be a very important factor in these decisions as well.
What advice should you give to active athletes at the end of their career?
In general, active athletes eat a diet very rich in carbohydrates, as they need this energy for their physical exertion. Often, at the end of their career, it can be observed that many athletes quickly gain weight and even tend to become obese. Then it is important to get back to normal life as well. A deeply human factor also plays an important role here. As an athlete, you are suddenly no longer in demand. This can quickly lead to letting oneself go. In every respect. It is then all the more important to recognise one’s own human value. You have to see what you still want to achieve in life and what you can accomplish and with what charisma you want to meet your fellow human beings. The short-lived lucky charms like good food, Coke or a bag of crisps are then not really what you need. The short happiness is a fallacy that in the end only makes people dissatisfied and unhappy.
The recommendation for active athletes at the end of their career
In any case, those who are at the end of their career have to train off slowly. It is not the end from one day to the next that counts, but the gradual change to a normal status. Just as you then gradually say goodbye to high athletic performance, you naturally also have to change your diet. The mental load also changes, which must also be considered.
Martin Andermatt is convinced that what counts now are good conversations, even beyond one’s own horizon of experience. Good medical supervision can be useful. This is not about fear of any diagnosis, but about developing visions for one’s own future. At the same time, it is also important for Martin Andermatt to simply live in a more relaxed and happy way.
As a coach, he follows a very clear philosophy, which he likes to sum up in three words: Laugh, learn, sweat. When he passes this on to his players, Martin Andermatt himself also likes to think about whether he has already laughed, learned and maybe even sweated today. The most beautiful thing is when you can give the players something beyond pure sport that is still of value for life after active sport.
Your own experiences with liver fasting
From his own experience, Martin Andermatt can only associate liver fasting with pleasant perceptions. This includes above all the real feeling of well-being and the new energy he felt for himself.
Especially in times when one wants to recognise oneself anew, liver fasting is an additionally exciting experience. Martin Andermatt has already completed a liver fasting cure with HEPAFAST® three times and is sure that he will do it again and again. If only because of all the positive energy it has given him. He is also happy to recommend liver fasting to others. He stands behind it with all his personality and experience.
Of course, it can be difficult for individuals to face their issues. People often prefer to make fun of themselves instead of tackling important changes. Certainly also because change can be uncomfortable. But those who listen to themselves know that only change brings change. And that is exactly what applies to liver fasting.
The question is not why you fell into the water, but how you get out of it. It’s about making decisions and then following through with them consistently. And if you need support to do that, you have to get that support.
The path from chronic belching to oesophageal cancer is often shorter than suspected. As part of GERD Awareness Week 2021, Swiss1Chirurgie is focusing on even more education about reflux disease and treatment options. Read more in the detailed article.
Swiss1Chirurge wishes all patients, referring physicians, partners and interested parties a happy new year 2022. You can also find out what can be done about this in Swiss1Chirurgie’s detailed New Year’s greeting here.
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