SUNDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) — The human body has two kinds of fat: the “bad” white kind that stores calories and the “good” brown kind that burns them. Now, researchers say that it is actually possible to make more brown fat to help people lose weight.

“We are now even more optimistic that brown fat could be used for treating obesity and diabetes,” study lead author Dr. Aaron Cypess, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

In 2009, Cypess showed that although adults tend to have a lot more white fat than they do brown, most have some brown fat in an area extending from the front of their neck to their chest.

Now, in a follow-up study, scheduled for presentation Sunday at the Endocrine’s Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Cypess found more good brown fat cells also exist in deeper fat. In fact, some of them were actually mixed in with white fat cells.

“It’s a marbling at the cellular level,” Cypess said in the news release. “We wondered: Wouldn’t it be nice if you could grow more brown fat? The answer is yes.”

The researchers grew mature human brown fat cells from pre-adipocytes, or pre-fat cells, taken from a fresh sample of brown fat. Cypess noted that the process, which took about two weeks in a lab, would probably happen more quickly in the body.

By measuring the oxygen consumption rate of fat cells, the researchers also demonstrated that brown fat does in fact burn a significant number of calories. Although the study concluded that stimulating the growth of additional brown fat may be a promising treatment for obesity, the researchers stressed that making more good fat would not be a substitute for proper diet and exercise.

“As powerful as brown fat could be at burning calories, we can easily out-eat the benefit,” Cypess warned.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the findings should be viewed as preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the causes and consequences of obesity.

LONDON (Reuters) – Life expectancy in Europe is continuing to increase despite an obesity epidemic, with people in Britain reaching an older age than those living in the United States, according to study of trends over the last 40 years.

In a report in International Journal of Epidemiology, population health expert David Leon of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the findings counteract concerns that the rising life expectancy trend in wealthy nations may be coming to an end in the face of health problems caused by widespread levels of obesity.

They also suggest that simple factors like how rich a nation is and how much it spends on health care do not necessarily correlate with its people’s lifespans.

Despite spending more per head on health care than any other country in the world, life expectancy in the United States is at the same level as the lowest of any Western European country — Portugal for men and Denmark for women — and the rate for women is increasing at a much slower pace than Western Europe.

In 2007, life expectancy in the United States was 78 years, compared to 80 in Britain, Leon noted.

“This simple observation once again underlines that GDP and health-care expenditure per capita are not good predictors of population health within high income countries,” he wrote.

DECLINE IN DEATHS FROM HEART DISEASE

The report said that one of the most important contributors to the continued general upward trend in life expectancy had been the decline in deaths from heart disease.

Cardiovascular diseases, which can lead to heart attacks, strokes and other fatal events, are the leading cause of death worldwide, killing around 17.1 million people a year, according to the World health Organization (WHO).

Leon’s report said deaths from heart disease in Britain had seen some of the largest and most rapid falls of any Western European country, “partly due to improvements in treatment as well as reductions in smoking and other risk factors.”

Within Europe, Leon pointed to a sharp contrast in life expectancy between east and west as the former communist bloc struggles to catch up with its longer-living neighbours.

Since the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989, life expectancy has been rising in countries of central Europe such as Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, but as this has been at similar rates to Western Europe, the two halves of the continent have been following parallel trajectories, he said, making the east-west gap “very difficult to eliminate.”

Trends in Russia and other countries of the former Soviet Union have been less positive, with life expectancy going up and down dramatically over the past 25 years. This is largely due to levels of hazardous drinking, particularly among men, Leon said.

Compared with Britain, where in 2008 life expectancy was 77.9 years for men and 82 years for women, Russian men could expect to live to 61.8 and women to 74.2 years, according to data from the WHO and the Human Mortality Database.

(Editing by Diana Abdallah)

This is the time of year when many people vow to make a change in their lives, committing to exercise more and eat better.

But before you rush out to join a gym or sign a long-term contract with a weight loss center, consider these health club tips from the Maryland Attorney General’s office to ensure that your rights as a consumer are protected.

As a word of warning, the AG’s office recently filed administrative charges against two Maryland martial arts schools and their owner for selling memberships without registering with the state as required.

We’ve told you this before, but under state law, health clubs must also post a bond if they collect more than three months’ worth of fees or charge more than a $200 initiation fee. You can check your club’s registration at the Maryland Attorney General’s website.

The complaint states that Taekwon LLC in Laurel and APlus Taekwon LLC in Clarksburg and Matthew Roh also accepted money for summer camp services that were not provided. An administrative hearing to review the charges has been scheduled next week. The consumer protection division is seeking to both get the schools to stop taking payments without registering as well as to get refunds for consumers as well as civil penalties.

(photo: Algerina Perna/Baltimore Sun) ]]> http://www.lose25pounds.net/joining-a-gym-frugal-dilemmas/feed/ 0 http://www.lose25pounds.net/craving-for-alcohol-may-be-linked-to-obesity-livescience-com/ http://www.lose25pounds.net/craving-for-alcohol-may-be-linked-to-obesity-livescience-com/#comments Mon, 20 May 2013 00:29:41 +0000 admin http://www.lose25pounds.net/craving-for-alcohol-may-be-linked-to-obesity-livescience-com/

People with a family history of alcoholism, especially women, have an elevated risk of also becoming obese, according to a new study. And the link between the two appears to be strengthening – the risk of becoming obese, for people with alcoholics in their family, is higher now than in the past, the researchers said.

The researchers said a possible explanation for obesity in those with a family history of alcoholism is that some individuals may substitute one addiction for another.

After seeing a close relative deal with alcohol problems, a person may shy away from drinking, but high-calorie, hyper-palatable foods could stimulate the reward centers in their brains, and give them effects similar to what they might experience from alcohol, the researchers said.

“Ironically, people with alcoholism tend not to be obese,” said study researcher Richard A. Grucza, an assistant professor of psychiatry at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. “They tend to be malnourished, or at least under-nourished because many replace their food intake with alcohol.”

Further, the study showed men and women with a family history of alcoholism were more likely to be obese in 2002 than members of that same high-risk group had been in 1992.

The rise in this risk over one decade indicates that some change in the environment, rather than in people’s genes, is at work, Grucza said.

Grucza said the environmental changes at work may be in the food we eat, and the fact that more of the foods that are available to us interact with the same brain areas as addictive drugs.

“Much of what we eat nowadays contains more calories than the food we ate in the 1970s and 1980s, but it also contains the sorts of calories – particularly a combination of sugar, salt and fat – that appeal to what are commonly called the reward centers in the brain,” Grucza said.

This effect on the brain’s reward centers may be what obesity and the addictive behaviors seen in alcoholism have in common.

“Alcohol and drugs affect those same parts of the brain,” Grucza said. Because the same brain structures are being stimulated, overconsumption of unhealthy foods might be greater in people with a predisposition to addiction.

Obesity in the United States has doubled in recent decades, from 15 percent of the population in the late 1970s to 33 percent in 2004, the researchers said. Obese people – those with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more – have an elevated risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke and certain cancers.

In 2001 and 2002, women with a family history of alcoholism were 49 percent more likely to be obese than those without a family history of alcoholism, the study showed. The researchers found a similar link between the conditions in men, but the effect was not as strong, they said.

The researchers analyzed data from two large alcoholism surveys from the last two decades: The National Longitudinal Alcohol Epidemiologic Survey was conducted in 1991 and 1992;The National Epidemiologic Survey on Alcohol and Related Conditions was conducted in 2001 and 2002. Almost 80,000 people took part in the two surveys.

The researchers examined other variables – such as smoking, alcohol intake, age and education levels – but none seemed to explain the association between alcoholism risk and obesity.

Grucza said the results suggest there should be more discussions between alcohol and addiction researchers and those who study obesity. He said there may be some people for whom treating one of those disorders also might aid the other.

The study is published in the December issue of the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Pass it on: People with a family history of alcoholism may be more likely than others to become obese.

Follow MyHealthNewsDaily on Twitter @MyHealth_MHND.

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Swedish researchers have found that babies born as little as three weeks early have a greater risk of developing attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). In addition, the risk for the disorder increases with each week babies are born prior to their due dates. The report on the study can be found in the online edition of Pediatrics.

An estimated 3 to 5 percent of children and adults in the U.S. develop ADHD. The condition is characterized by difficulties in paying attention, controlling impulsive behaviors, and in some cases, hyperactivity. The disorder is treated with medication and therapy.

Although prior studies have shown that a link exists between preterm birth and an elevation in risk for ADHD, the new study further defines the amount of risk associated with the length of pregnancy involved in preterm delivery. Lead researcher Dr. Anders Hjern, an adjunct professor of pediatric epidemiology at the Center for Health Equity Studies at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm pointed out, “Our study is the first to report that the risk for ADHD is 40 to 60 percent higher in babies born moderately preterm.” He went on to explain, “Even in babies born in the early term period—at 37 to 38 weeks—the risk is 20 percent higher.”

For their study, the researchers analyzed data on more than a million children born between 1987 and 2000. The children were followed to track possible development of ADHD. They found that among the group, 7,506 of the children received a prescription for ADHD medication between the ages of 6 to 19 years.

Results of the study revealed that the earlier the preterm birth, the greater the likelihood of the child developing ADHD. The risk of developing the disorder was found to increase between 10 to 20 percent for children born at 37 to 38 weeks of gestation, and climbed to 40 percent among those born at 33 and 34 weeks. For those born at 29 to 32 weeks of gestation, the risks jumped to 60, and for children delivered very preterm (from 23 to 28 weeks), the risks were doubled when compared to those of children born at full-term.

Although other factors such as the smoking habits and genetics of the mother can play a role in a child’s risk of developing ADHD, the researchers accounted for these through a comparison of siblings of children who developed the disorder. They found that very premature babies remained to be twice as likely to develop ADHD as their full-term brothers or sisters.

Hjern said that the results emphasize the risks associated with preterm birth and that greater attention needs to be given to the issue in neonatal care, as well as in health care systems in terms of follow-up. He noted, “The finding that early term birth carries an increased risk for ADHD has [especially] important implications for planned caesarian births, which are often performed during these very weeks.” He then added, “To minimize the risk for ADHD, these births should be planned as close to the full term date—that is, week 40—as possible.”

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Contrary to one theory on obesity, people with extra body fat may not have a lower body temperature than thinner folks, a new study finds.

Many factors, from super-sized fast-food portions to increasing time in front of computers, have been blamed for the rising rates of obesity worldwide.

But physiological factors also may make some people more vulnerable to becoming obese than others. One theory is that people with a relatively lower core body temperature might be predisposed to weight gain, while those with a slightly higher core temperature pack on pounds less easily.

The idea stems from the fact that the body has to burn calories in order to rid itself of excess heat and return to a desirable internal temperature. A cooler core temperature would mean less heat to shed and require fewer calories to be burned.

“Temperature could be a marker for the ‘slow metabolism’ that some people think they have,” explained senior researcher Dr. Jack A. Yanovski of the U.S. National Institute of Child Health and Human Development.

Animal research, he told Reuters Health, has suggested this could be the case.

Researchers have found, for example, that genetically altered obese mice display a decreased core temperature — along with a slower than normal metabolism and bigger appetite.

But, Yanovski said, he and his colleagues found no evidence that core body temperature is related to obesity in people.

For their study, reported in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, the researchers compared the average core temperature of a group of obese adults with that of thinner men and women.

In one experiment, 46 obese and 35 normal-weight or overweight adults swallowed a wireless, temperature-sensing capsule that continuously monitored their body temperature over 24 hours.

On average, the study found, there was no difference in the two groups’ core temperatures — with both around 36.9 degrees Celsius or 98.4 Fahrenheit.

In a second experiment, the researchers used the capsules to measure core temperature in 19 obese and 11 normal-weight people over 2 days, while the participants kept a record of their daily activities.

Again, the two groups were similar — with no clear differences in body-temperature fluctuations throughout the day.

The study is the largest so far to look at core temperature and obesity in humans, Yanovski said. But it’s unlikely to be the final word.

There may be certain people for whom a lower core temperature has some effect on weight, Yanovski noted. He and his colleagues say that studies of people with alterations in genes that regulate core temperature could offer more insight into whether body temperature has a role in obesity risk.

However, Yanovski said, “For most obese individuals, it’s not that they’re just cooler inside.”

Studies into core temperature and obesity have been done with practical goals in mind, according to Yanovski. If lower body temperature were found to play a role in body weight, then measures to raise core temperature a bit might help treat obesity.

SOURCE: http://bit.ly/gEwMOZ American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online March 2, 2011.

SUNDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) — The human body has two kinds of fat: the “bad” white kind that stores calories and the “good” brown kind that burns them. Now, researchers say that it is actually possible to make more brown fat to help people lose weight.

“We are now even more optimistic that brown fat could be used for treating obesity and diabetes,” study lead author Dr. Aaron Cypess, assistant professor at Harvard Medical School and the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

In 2009, Cypess showed that although adults tend to have a lot more white fat than they do brown, most have some brown fat in an area extending from the front of their neck to their chest.

Now, in a follow-up study, scheduled for presentation Sunday at the Endocrine’s Society’s annual meeting in Boston, Cypess found more good brown fat cells also exist in deeper fat. In fact, some of them were actually mixed in with white fat cells.

“It’s a marbling at the cellular level,” Cypess said in the news release. “We wondered: Wouldn’t it be nice if you could grow more brown fat? The answer is yes.”

The researchers grew mature human brown fat cells from pre-adipocytes, or pre-fat cells, taken from a fresh sample of brown fat. Cypess noted that the process, which took about two weeks in a lab, would probably happen more quickly in the body.

By measuring the oxygen consumption rate of fat cells, the researchers also demonstrated that brown fat does in fact burn a significant number of calories. Although the study concluded that stimulating the growth of additional brown fat may be a promising treatment for obesity, the researchers stressed that making more good fat would not be a substitute for proper diet and exercise.

“As powerful as brown fat could be at burning calories, we can easily out-eat the benefit,” Cypess warned.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the findings should be viewed as preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more information on the causes and consequences of obesity.

SUNDAY, June 5 (HealthDay News) — While the finding isn’t conclusive, a new study suggests that weight-loss surgery in obese diabetics could lower their risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease.

Researchers found that gastric bypass patients, when tested six months after their weight-loss surgeries, had less expression of genes that are thought to be precursors of the debris that clogs the brains of people with Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our study shows for the first time that weight loss resulting from bariatric surgery leads to a reduction in the expression of genes related to Alzheimer’s disease,” study author Dr. Paresh Dandona, a professor at State University of New York at Buffalo, said in a news release from the Endocrine Society.

The study was scheduled to be presented Sunday at the society’s annual meeting in Boston. Research presented at meetings should be viewed as preliminary because it has not been subjected to the same level of scrutiny as studies published in most medical journals.

In the study, the researchers analyzed the blood of 15 patients with type 2 diabetes who underwent weight-loss surgery and lost an average of about 86 pounds over six months. Compared to before the surgery, the patients’ expression of amyloid precursor protein fell by 22 percent, and the researchers also noticed less expression of other genes that appear to be connected to Alzheimer’s disease.

However, the study didn’t examine the patients for signs of the disease, so there’s no way to know if their risk actually went down.

Scientists think there’s a link between obesity and diabetes, which appears to boost the risk of Alzheimer’s disease, said Greg Cole, associate director of the Alzheimer’s Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. He said obesity may boost inflammation in both the body and the brain.

“Weight loss is likely to improve health, but one caveat is that the epidemiology of weight loss is complicated,” he added. “Weight loss in elderly people can be a harbinger of incipient dementia. Further, according to a National Institute on Aging study, there may be significant differences in the way in which changes in mid-life weight impact the risk for Alzheimer’s: women who lose weight between 30 and 45 actually appear to be at increased risk.”

More information

For more about Alzheimer’s disease, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

MONDAY, March 14 (HealthDay News) — The benefits of bariatric (weight loss) surgery may outweigh the risks for some severely obese people, according to a new scientific statement from the American Heart Association.

By restricting food intake and/or preventing full absorption of food as it passes through the gastro-intestinal tract, bariatric surgery is meant to reduce a person’s caloric intake.

The statement-writing committee reviewed available scientific literature and concluded that bariatric surgery can result in long-term weight loss and significant reductions in cardiac and other risk factors for certain people who are severely obese, which is defined as having a body mass index of 40 or more.

“The statement is not an across-the-board endorsement of bariatric surgery for the severely obese,” statement lead author Dr. Paul Poirier, director of the prevention/rehabilitation program at the Quebec Heart and Lung Institute, Laval University Hospital, cautioned in an American Heart Association news release. “Bariatric procedures are generally safe; however, this is not a benign surgery. At the moment, bariatric surgery should be reserved for patients who can undergo surgery safely, have severe obesity and have failed attempts at medical therapy.”

Specifically, bariatric surgery can lead to improvements in weight-related health problems such as diabetes, high cholesterol, liver disease, high blood pressure, obstructive sleep apnea and cardiovascular dysfunction, the authors say.

The statement authors also noted that some recent studies have suggested that bariatric surgery helps prolong the lives of severely obese people.

However, like all surgeries, bariatric surgery does carry surgical risks — including infection, internal bleeding, blood clots and death, according to the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery. It also has long-term implications for patients’ lifestyle. For example, patients have to make lifelong behavior changes, such as eating less and taking vitamin and mineral supplements, and follow up with the surgical team.

The statement appears March 14 in the journal Circulation.

More information

The U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive Diseases has more about bariatric surgery.

SATURDAY, June 4 (HealthDay News) — The risk of fractures after weight-loss surgery may be even higher than previously thought, a new study suggests.

Prior research has shown that people who undergo surgery to lose weight, such as gastric bypass, have an increased risk for bone fractures. One study, for example, showed a 1.8-fold increased risk of fracture compared to the general population.

But further analysis showed the risk was actually closer to 2.3 times greater, according to the study to be presented Saturday at the Endocrine’s Society’s annual meeting in Boston.

Researchers noted the odds of breaking the feet or hands are even higher — about three times higher than normal.

“A negative effect on bone health that may increase the risk of fractures is an important consideration for people considering bariatric surgery and those who have undergone bariatric surgery,” said study author Kelly Nakamura, medical student at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine in Rochester, Minn., in a news release.

In following 258 patients who had bariatric surgery, researchers found that 79 of them had 132 fractures over the course of nine years. On average, the first break happened about six years after surgery. The study noted patients who got more physical activity before surgery had a lower risk of fracture than those who were more sedentary.

The study’s authors pointed out the increased risk of bone fracture does not necessarily coincide with a greater risk for developing osteoporosis, the age-related bone-thinning disease.

As a result, they said, drugs used to treat osteoporosis may not be appropriate for these patients. The researchers concluded additional studies are needed to not only explain the link between weight loss surgery and fractures but also to determine the best way to prevent these breaks from happening in the first place.

“Clinicians may need to consider measures to optimize bone health and reduce fracture risk after bariatric surgery, such as fall prevention and optimizing calcium and vitamin D nutrition,” said the study’s principal investigator, Dr. Kurt Kennel, assistant professor of medicine in the endocrinology division at Mayo Clinic, in the news release.

Because this study was presented at a medical meeting, the data and conclusions should be viewed as preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed journal.

More information

The American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery has more information on the benefits of bariatric surgery.