Posts Tagged ‘obesity’
Monday, February 15th, 2010
The New England Journal of Medicine just published this disturbing study concerning childhood risk factors for cardiovascular disease on later death as adults. They set out to determine which risk factors including “body-mass index (BMI), glucose tolerance, and blood pressure and cholesterol levels predicted premature death.” Their cautionary conclusion: “Obesity, glucose intolerance, and hypertension in childhood were strongly associated with increased rates of premature death from endogenous causes in this population. In contrast, childhood hypercholesterolemia was not a major predictor of premature death from endogenous causes.”
Tags: cholesterol, obesity
Posted in Children's Health | No Comments »
Thursday, February 11th, 2010
This study just published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition adds further evidence to the importance of evaluating Vitamin B6 for chronic inflammation, cardiovascular and otherwise. As the authors state, “Low vitamin B-6 status has been linked to an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. The cardioprotective effects of vitamin B-6 independent of homocysteine suggest that additional mechanisms may be involved.” Their data demonstrated a powerful link: “We measured plasma pyridoxal-5′-phosphate (PLP), C-reactive protein (CRP), and an oxidative DNA damage marker, urinary 8-hydroxydeoxyguanosine (8-OHdG)…There was a strong dose-response relation of plasma PLP concentration with plasma CRP. Increasing quartiles of PLP were significantly associated with lower CRP concentrations and with lower urinary 8-OHdG concentrations.” Of equal importance was their finding that “Metabolic syndrome, obesity, and diabetes were also significantly associated with low plasma PLP concentrations.” It is important to note that they measured the metabolically activated form of B6, not the one found in foods and most supplements. Many people have a genotype that does not allow them to accomplish this activation efficiently, which is why we supplement with the activated form when indicated.
Tags: diabetes, inflammation, metabolic syndrome, obesity, oxidative stress, vitamin B6
Posted in Cardiovascular, General Science & Health | No Comments »
Saturday, January 9th, 2010
JAMA (the Journal of the American Medical Association) reports on research recently presented at the annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience where researchers discussed their studies of the biological causes of overeating and obesity. One interesting comment of great practical importance: “Brain imaging of volunteers drinking a shake suggests that overweight persons with a gene variant associated with fewer dopamine receptors may be prone to impulsive eating.” Functional medicine patients know better than most people how important dopamine signalling is for calm contentment, focus, satisfaction, etc. and how deficits can result in compensatory compulsive behaviors and addictions that are in fact attempts to self-medicate. How do we fix dopamine signalling? By restoring the resources the body needs to manufacture its own dopamine and the brain’s capacity to respond to its stimulus.
Tags: brain, dopamine, obesity, overeating, weight loss
Posted in Brain Health, General Science & Health | No Comments »
Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
Insulin receptors are found throughout the central nervous system. Fascinating fact: “insulin affects distinct cognitive processes, e.g. by triggering the formation of psychological memory contents.” As the authors of this paper published recently in the journal Diabetologia state: “metabolic and cognitive disorders such as obesity, type 2 diabetes mellitus and Alzheimer’s disease are associated with resistance of central nervous structures to the effects of insulin…” They go on to conclude: “Enhancement of central nervous insulin signalling…has yielded encouraging results that bode well for the successful translation of these effects into future clinical practice.” Targeted tests are available to determine how you can best take care of your brain by managing blood sugar and insulin.
Tags: Alzheimer's disease, cognitive dysfunction, insulin, obesity, type 2 diabetes
Posted in Brain Health, Insulin & Diabetes | No Comments »
Tuesday, December 1st, 2009
This paper in Current Diabetes Reports discusses how the so-called ‘thrifty gene’ effect (the tendency to conserve calories in the form of fat during times of famine, established through gene selection over thousands of years) occurs not only through this selection process, but can also manifest as a ‘thrifty phenotype’ when eating too little during gestation is followed later by overnutrition. This means that eating too little during your pregnancy can promote obesity and type 2 diabetes in your child if they consume excess calories later. Like with most everything else, moderation is key.
Tags: obesity, pregnancy, type 2 diabetes
Posted in Children's Health, Insulin & Diabetes, Women's Health | 1 Comment »
Thursday, November 12th, 2009
Here is more evidence of the strong correlation between erectile dysfunction and insulin. This paper recently published in the Journal of Andrology clearly discerns the “correlation between erectile function and IR and abdominal obesity.” [IR = insulin resistance. Waist circumference is a metric for abdominal obesity.] Moreover, “IR also appears to alter testosterone production.” Important: a careful reading of this paper also discloses what functional medicine practitioners and Lapis Light patients know: “a negative correlation [with erectile function] was shown only between BT (biologically active fraction) and abdominal obesity. (BT is also termed free-fraction testosterone, measured in our salivary profiles. Total testosterone is not a reliable indicator.)
Tags: erectile dysfunction, insulin resistance, obesity, testosterone, waist circumference
Posted in Men's Health | No Comments »
Friday, November 6th, 2009
Phytochemicals occur naturally in plants, especially richly colored vegetables and fruits. This interesting study reports that a Phytochemical Index (PI), derived from the proportional amount of phytochemical-rich foods in the subjects’ diets, correlated with weight-gain, waist circumference, waist-to-hip ratio and plasma oxidative stress (linked to inflammation). “The PI score was a significant contributor to yearly weight gain.” This confirms an additional benefit from a diet whose carbohydrate portion is mainly from low-glycemic vegetables and fruits.
Tags: low-glycemic, obesity, oxidative stress, phytochemicals, waist circumference, weight
Posted in General Science & Health, Good Eating | No Comments »
Sunday, November 1st, 2009
This welcome study demonstrates that capsaicin (the chemical that makes chilies hot) “lowered fasting glucose, insulin, leptin levels, and markedly reduced the impairment of glucose tolerance.” Levels of inflammatory cytokines (signalling molecules that increase inflammation) in fat and liver tissue also “decreased markedly”. Adiponectin (the hormone secreted in fat tissue that reduces body fat, type 2 diabetes, blood vessel deposits and fatty liver disease) was increased, along with other beneficial agents. “Our data suggest that dietary capsaicin may reduce obesity-induced glucose intolerance by not only suppressing inflammatory responses but also enhancing fatty acid oxidation in adipose tissue and/or liver.” So eat chili peppers to burn fat, suppress inflammation and improve glucose tolerance.
Tags: adiponectin, capsaicin, chili, cytokines, hepatic steatosis, insulin resistance, leptin, liver fat, obesity
Posted in General Science & Health, Good Eating | No Comments »
Thursday, October 29th, 2009
This interesting paper published in the Journal of Physiology & Biochemistry describes how caffeine significantly reduced levels of TNF-alpha, a major pro-inflammatory cytokine (signalling molecule). Individuals with sympathetic nervous system (”fight or flight”) hyperarousal have reason to avoid or minimize caffeine, but this and other studies that will be posted here show evidence for benefit under the right circumstances. From the paper: “Adipose tissue secretions play an important role in the development of obesity-related pathologies such as diabetes…Thus, caffeine, by decreasing TNFalpha expression, could improve adipose tissue inflammation during obesity.”
Tags: caffeine, inflammation, insulin resistance, obesity, TNF-alpha
Posted in General Science & Health | No Comments »
Saturday, October 17th, 2009
Not surprisingly, this study showed a strong correlation between increased Body Mass Index and brain atrophy. The effect was similar for both overweight and obese BMI values. Considering the connections between high BMI, insulin resistance, chronic inflammation and neurodegeneration, this confirms what we expected. “Bivariate analyses with corrections for multiple comparisons strongly linked body mass index (BMI), fasting plasma insulin (FPI) levels, and Type II Diabetes Mellitus (DM2) with atrophy in frontal, temporal, and subcortical brain regions.”
Tags: brain atrophy, brain shrinkage, obesity, overweight
Posted in Brain Health | No Comments »