obesity
kcollins | August 5, 2011CALORIE COUNTS AREN'T TELLING THE FULL STORY
By Joe Schwarcz, Freelance
July 30, 2011
There are undoubtedly all sorts of terrorists out there hatching intricate plans aimed at destroying the western world. They needn't bother. All they have to do is wait and westerners will eat themselves into oblivion. The average western diet, with the U.S. leading the pack, is atrocious. People are getting fatter and fatter. Obesity-related ailments such as heart disease, cancer and diabetes take a giant toll both in terms of tax dollars and human misery. Something needs to be done.
The standard answer is…
jtoney | July 12, 2011
Ridue's Flickr photostream. This is not an endorsement for use of marijuana.
I've always known that scientists and the news media don't get along so well, but this is a bit much.
A study just published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences describes how fatty foods can increase your appetite:
UC Irvine researchers Daniele Piomelli, Nicholas DiPatrizio and colleagues found that fats in these foods make them nearly irresistible and trigger a surprising biological mechanism that likely drives our gluttonous behavior. The apparent culprit? Natural marijuana-like chemicals in…
sastyk | July 7, 2011Don't get me wrong, I like to eat out. And what parent of many doesn't like the idea of food they don't have to cook and dishes they don't have to wash. At times restaurants and bakeries even may provide more energy efficiency than home cooking, especially in small households - one industrial walk in cooler is more efficient than six fridges. .Of course, that's in principle, in practice, the cooler *and* all six fridges are running! Household appliance energy usage has risen over time, even though we are eating at home less - while the efficiency of any given appliance has improved, we…
jtoney | June 1, 2011
Source.
This venomous lizard, Heloderma suspectum, harbors a billion dollar secret: a special protein in his saliva and tail. That protein, exenatide, is highly effective in treatment for type 2 diabetes.
As American's girth and weight continues to increase, so does type 2 diabetes. It is a vicious cycle:
Increased obesity leads to more enlarged fat cells that respond less and less to insulin needed for control of blood sugar - a hallmark for type 2 diabetes. This leads to increased appetite and overeating and obesity. And the cycle continues.
The protein isolated from the Gila monster…
lborkowski | May 6, 2011
As Travis Saunders has explained, evidence is accumulating about the unhealthy effects of excessive sedentary time. This isn't just because sitting burns fewer calories than walking or standing, but because sedentary behavior is associated with changes in triglyceride uptake, HDL cholesterol, and insulin resistance. And bouts of intense exercise every morning or evening can't completely offset the effects of spending several hours sitting at a desk or behind the wheel.
Given that a large segment of our population works at sedentary jobs, this is disturbing news. But a recent story by NPR's…
jhalper | May 3, 2011New research at the Institute sheds some light on a protein that could make it harder for overweight people to stick to a diet.
That protein helps regulate the effects of leptin - a hormone that reduces appetite and increases physical activity. People missing the leptin gene are invariably obese. It turns out, however, that this mutation is extremely rare; in fact, most chronically overweight people have too much leptin rather than too little. This happens because the body develops resistance to the hormone, so it amps up the signal, trying to be heard. It's also an indication that simply…
lborkowski | April 18, 2011A few months ago, Travis Saunders wrote at the Scientific American Guest Blog about the dangers of excessive sitting. He warned that those of us who faithfully log our exercise hours might still be at an increased risk of negative health effects if we spend too many hours sitting at a desk or lounging on the couch. This isn't just because sitting burns fewer calories than walking or standing, but because sedentary behavior is associated with changes in triglyceride uptake, HDL cholesterol, and insulin resistance. (Go read the whole thing.)
Now, the New York Times Magazine is taking on the…
mikethemadbiologist | March 29, 2011Whenever a new discipline, especially one using a 'sexy' technology, is brought to bear on human disease, it seems to be oversold in what it will actually accomplish. In addition, every problem is suddenly viewed through that lens, that if we understand how phenomenon X influences something, then WE CAN HAZ CUREZ. I'm worried that this is happening to the human microbiome, the study of the microbes that live in and on us (Note: I'm going to call this area of study 'the human microbiome' since a term like metagenomics doesn't include classical microbiological techniques; calling it the…
sa smith | February 24, 2011Here at ERV, Ive talked about all kinds of pathogens and all kinds of vaccination strategies against those pathogens and cancers how our immune systems respond to these pathogens and vaccines and cancers and blah blah blah.
When you think 'immunology' you think 'your body protecting itself', or if you watch 'House', you think of an autoimmune diseases like lupus.
You dont think "I feel fine, and Im not infected with anything, and I dont have an autoimmune disease... but my immune system is still FREAKING OUT."
But you should be. Because that is obesity, and how/why people develop Type II…
jtoney | February 2, 2011
Source.
Prescription medications for the management of type 2 diabetes, while effective for many patients, have been fraught with side effects including weight gain that can make the disease worse given its link with obesity. Would it be possible to replace the pill with natural alternatives?
Diet and exercise has long been known to be a highly effective method to manage type 2 diabetes, giving some patients more benefit than typical prescription medications. Since the discovery of the "French paradox" in the early 1990's that noted a low incidence of heart disease in France despite diets…
cmonforton | January 18, 2011Have you seen the new TV commercial for Jack-in-the-Box set in a busy police precinct? A confident, all-business police detective barks into the phone:
"Tell the Mayor to shove it."
He slams down the phone, walks purposely across the room and asks outloud:
"Hey rookie, did you get lunch?"
A guy in a black police uniform with a large ping-pong ball smiley face head says:
"Yes I did. I went to the convenient Jack in the Box and got each of us the Jumbo Deal, comprised of a Jumbo Jack (burger), two classic tacos, fries and a cold beverage for only $3.99."
The price might be right, but…
jtoney | December 1, 2010
NBC's "Biggest Loser" has become a phenomenon, with over 10 million regular viewers. There is no doubt that this show delivers dramatic entertainment. Sagas about victory of the human spirit, against all odds, are timeless. With the final four contestants being featured next week, I would like you to consider the message that this show coveys.
Public embarrassment defines much of today's entertainment - consider the sharp wit of "The Office". The German term, Schadenfreude, expresses it well - deriving pleasure from the misfortunes of others. On the "The Biggest Loser", each contestant…
kbonham | November 12, 2010Macrophages are really good at gobbling stuff up. It's all right there in the name - they are big (macro) eaters (phage). I study them in the context of the immune system - one of the things they do really well is eat up bacteria and other pathogens that have found their way into your tissues. As a front line sentinel, they also are capable of kick-starting inflammation and recruiting the rest of the cells necessary to clear an infection. But that's not all, there's more.
Weight loss and lipolysis promote a dynamic immune response in murine adipose tissue
Here we characterized the response of…
lborkowski | October 8, 2010The Washington Post's Jane Black gives us a heads-up about the forthcoming update to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. Every five years, USDA's Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion issues new dietary guidelines based on analysis by the Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee, a group of scientific experts appointed by the Secretaries of HHS and USDA. Here's how the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2005 publication explains the guidelines' role:
The intent of the Dietary Guidelines is to summarize and synthesize knowledge regarding individual nutrients and food components into…
jhalper | October 4, 2010Feel the need to eat chocolate when under pressure? You might be able to blame it on your genes, specifically a gene in the brain that responds to stress. This gene, when active, brings out your anxiety and as well as bringing about metabolic changes that tell your body to burn sugar, rather than fat. The same metabolic changes reduce insulin sensitivity in muscles, raising sugar levels in the blood, and causing the pancreas to churn out more insulin. According to the Institute scientists who revealed the gene's function, if the constant stress of daily life keeps this gene overworked, the…
lborkowski | September 28, 2010Peter Janiszewski at Obesity Panacea has posted a fascinating series on the issue of people who are obese but metabolically healthy. We worry about rising rates of obesity because obesity increases the risk for health problems like diabetes and cardiovascular disease -- but what if that's not universally true? And if it turns out that some obese people aren't at an increased risk of chronic diseases, should they still be urged to lose weight?
The first post in the series introduces the definitions of "obese" and "metabolically healthy":
To date, countless epidemiological studies have shown…
lborkowski | September 1, 2010As we try to figure out how to curb an unhealthy increase in obesity, one of the factors under consideration is the built environment. Those who in live in places where few destinations are within walking/biking distance, public transit is limited, and the environment is unfriendly to pedestrians and cyclists may find it harder to get the recommended amount of physical activity. Studying the built environment's effect on obesity is challenging, though. People who live in pedestrian-friendly areas with good public transit may be more likely to get enough activity and less likely to be obese…
gregladen | August 27, 2010A recent paper provides the groundwork to establish a way for exercise to diminish appetite. Or, more likely, for sedentary behavior to increase appetite.
It is well known that exercise burns calories. Personally, I think that's overrated: Strength building raises your metabolic demand, and THAT burns calories. But that is not the main topic at hand. New research indicates that exercise also increases the sensitivity of neurons that are related to the control of the feeling of satiation. Therefore, you feel full rather than hungry sooner and/or more often.
In rodents. So far.
The…
tsaunders | June 25, 2010
By now, readers of Obesity Panacea have hopefully learned that excess weight is not directly predictive of health risk, and that excess fat mass is not in itself unhealthy. Recall that approximately 30% of individuals who are classified as obese by their body weight turn out to be metabolically healthy, and in fact seem not to get much metabolic benefit (or may even get worse) when they lose weight. Also consider that individuals who have NO fat tissue (e.g. lipodystrophy) have extremely elevated metabolic risk factors, meanwhile others who can apparently indefinitely grow more fat mass (…
mpendergrast | June 21, 2010Mark Pendergrast writes: To kick off this book club discussion of Inside the Outbreaks, I thought I would explain briefly how I came to write the book and then suggest some possible topics for discussion.
The origin of the book goes back to an email I got in 2004 from my old high school and college friend, Andy Vernon, who wrote that I should consider writing the history of the EIS. I emailed back to say that I was honored, but what was the EIS? I had never heard of it. I knew Andy worked on tuberculosis at the CDC, but I didn't know that he had been a state-based EIS officer from 1978…