Tag Archives: obesity

Subcutaneous fat emerges as a protector of Womans’ brains

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Womans’ propensity to deposit more fat in places like their hips, buttocks and the backs of their arms, so-called subcutaneous fat, is protective against brain inflammation, which can result in problems like dementia and stroke, at least until menopause, scientists report.

Males of essentially any age have a greater propensity to deposit fat around the major organs in their abdominal cavity, called visceral adiposity, which is known to be far more inflammatory. And, before females reach menopause, males are considered at much higher risk for inflammation-related problems from heart attack to stroke.

“When people think about protection in women, their first thought is estrogen,” says Alexis M. Stranahan, PhD, neuroscientist in the Department of Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia at Augusta University. “But we need to get beyond the kind of simplistic idea that every sex difference involves hormone differences and hormone exposure. We need to really think more deeply about the underlying mechanisms for sex differences so that we can treat them and acknowledge the role that sex plays in different clinical outcomes.”

Diet and genetics are other likely factors that explain the differences broadly assigned to estrogen, says Stranahan, corresponding author of a study in the American Diabetes Association journal Diabetes.

She acknowledges that the findings are potentially heretical and revolutionary and certainly surprising even to her. “We did these experiments to try and nail down, first of all, what happens first, the hormone perturbation, the inflammation or the brain changes.”

Brain Image (NIH)

To learn more about how the brain becomes inflamed, they looked at increases in the amount and location of fat tissue as well as levels of sex hormones and brain inflammation in male and female mice at different time intervals as they grew fatter on a high-fat diet.

Since, much like with people, obese female mice tend to have more subcutaneous fat and less visceral fat than male mice, they reasoned that the distinctive fat patterns might be a key reason for the protection from inflammation the females enjoy before menopause.

They found again the distinctive patterns of fat distribution in males and females in response to a high-fat diet. They found no indicators of brain inflammation or insulin resistance, which also increase inflammation and can lead to diabetes, until after the female mice reached menopause. At about 48 weeks, menstruation stops and fat positioning on the females starts to shift somewhat, to become more like males.

They then compared the impact of the high-fat diet, which is known to increase inflammation body wide, in mice of both sexes following surgery, similar to liposuction, to remove subcutaneous fat. They did nothing to directly interfere with normal estrogen levels, like removing the ovaries.

The subcutaneous fat loss increased brain inflammation in females without moving the dial on levels of their estrogen and other sex hormones.

Bottom line: The Womans’ brain inflammation looked much more like the males’, including increased levels of classic inflammation promoters like the signaling proteins IL-1β and TNF alpha in the brain, Stranahan and her colleagues report.

“When we took subcutaneous fat out of the equation, all of a sudden the females’ brains start to exhibit inflammation the way that male brains do, and the females gained more visceral fat,” Stranahan says. “It kind of shunted everything toward that other storage location.” The transition occurred over about three months, which translates to several years in human time.

Dr. Alexis Stranahan/CREDIT:Michael Holahan, Augusta University

By comparison, it was only after menopause, that the females who did not have subcutaneous fat removed but did eat a high-fat diet, showed brain inflammation levels similar to the males, Stranahan says.

When subcutaneous fat was removed from mice on a low-fat diet at an early age, they developed a little more visceral fat and a little more inflammation in the fat. But Stranahan and her colleagues saw no evidence of inflammation in the brain.

One take-home lesson from the work: Don’t get liposuction and then eat a high-fat diet, Stranahan says. Another is: BMI, which simply divides weight by height and is commonly used to indicate overweight, obesity and consequently increased risk of a myriad of diseases, is likely not a very meaningful tool, she says. An also easy and more accurate indicator of both metabolic risk and potentially brain health, is the also easy-to-calculate waist to hip ratio, she adds.

“We can’t just say obesity. We have to start talking about where the fat is. That is the critical element here,” Stranahan says.

ultra-processed foods

She notes that the new study looked specifically in the hippocampus and hypothalamus of the brain. The hypothalamus controls metabolism and exhibits changes with inflammation from obesity that help control conditions that develop bodywide as a result. The hippocampus, a center of learning and memory, is regulated by signals associated with those pathologies but doesn’t control them, Stranahan notes.

While these are good places to start such explorations, other regions of the brain could respond very differently, so she is already looking at the impact of loss of subcutaneous fat in others. Also, since her evidence indicates estrogen may not explain the protection Women have, Stranahan wants to better define what does. One of her suspects is the clear chromosomal differences between the XX female and the XY male.

Stranahan has been studying the impact of obesity on the brain for several years and is among the first scientists to show that visceral fat promotes brain inflammation in obese male mice, and, conversely, transplanting subcutaneous fat reduces their brain inflammation. Females also have naturally higher levels of proteins that can tamp down inflammation. It’s been shown that in males, but not females, microglia, immune cells in the brain, are activated by a high-fat diet.

She notes that some consider the reason that females have higher stores of subcutaneous fat is to enable sufficient energy stores for reproduction, and she is not challenging the relationship. But many questions remain like how much fat is needed to maintain fertility versus the level that will affect your metabolism, Stranahan says.

–Dr. Alexis Stranahan/CREDIT:Michael Holahan, Augusta University

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Mother’s ultra-processed food intake linked to obesity risk in children; Unlikely during peripregnancy

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A mother’s consumption of ultra-processed foods appears to be linked to an increased risk of overweight or obesity in her offspring, irrespective of other lifestyle risk factors, suggests a US study.

Researchers suggest that mothers might benefit from limiting their intake of ultra-processed foods, and that dietary guidelines should be refined and financial and social barriers removed to improve nutrition for women of child bearing age and reduce childhood obesity.

According to the World Health Organization, 39 million children were overweight or obese in 2020, leading to increased risks of heart disease, diabetes, cancers, and early death.

Ultra-processed foods, such as packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy drinks and sugary cereals, are commonly found in modern Western style diets and are associated with weight gain in adults. But it’s unclear whether there’s a link between a mother’s consumption of ultra-processed foods and her offspring’s body weight.

To explore this further, the researchers drew on data for 19,958 children born to 14,553 mothers (45% boys, aged 7-17 years at study enrollment) from the Nurses’ Health Study II (NHS II) and the Growing Up Today Study (GUTS I and II) in the United States.

pregnant lady/Commons.wikimedia.org

The NHS II is an ongoing study tracking the health and lifestyles of 116,429 US female registered nurses aged 25-42 in 1989. From 1991, participants reported what they ate and drank, using validated food frequency questionnaires every four years.

The GUTS I study began in 1996 when 16,882 children (aged 8-15 years) of NHS II participants completed an initial health and lifestyle questionnaire and were monitored every year between 1997 and 2001, and every two years thereafter.

In 2004, 10,918 children (aged 7-17 years) of NHS II participants joined the extended GUTS II study and were followed up in 2006, 2008, and 2011, and every two years thereafter.

A range of other potentially influential factors, known to be strongly correlated with childhood obesity, were also taken into account. These included mother’s weight (BMI), physical activity, smoking, living status (with partner or not), and partner’s education, as well as children’s ultra-processed food consumption, physical activity, and sedentary time.

Overall, 2471 (12%) children developed overweight or obesity during an average follow-up period of 4 years.

The results show that a mother’s ultra-processed food consumption was associated with an increased risk of overweight or obesity in her offspring. For example, a 26% higher risk was seen in the group with the highest maternal ultra-processed food consumption (12.1 servings/day) versus the lowest consumption group (3.4 servings/day).

In a separate analysis of 2790 mothers and 2925 children with information on diet from 3 months pre-conception to delivery (peripregnancy), the researchers found that peripregnancy ultra-processed food intake was not significantly associated with an increased risk of offspring overweight or obesity.

This is an observational study, so can’t establish cause and the researchers acknowledge that some of the observed risk may be due to other unmeasured factors, and that self-reported diet and weight measures might be subject to misreporting.

Other important limitations include the fact that some offspring participants were lost to follow-up, which resulted in a few of the analyses being underpowered, particularly those related to peripregnancy intake, and that mothers were predominantly white and from similar social and economic backgrounds, so the results may not apply to other groups.

Nevertheless, the study used data from several large ongoing studies with detailed dietary assessments over a relatively long period, and further analysis produced consistent associations, suggesting that the results are robust.

The researchers suggest no clear mechanism underlying these associations and say the area warrants further investigation.

Nevertheless, these data “support the importance of refining dietary recommendations and the development of programs to improve nutrition for women of reproductive age to promote offspring health,” they conclude.

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People who are ‘night owls’ face greater risk of diabetes: Study

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Are you an early bird or a night owl? Our sleep cycles could influence our risk of diseases, such as type 2 diabetes and heart disease, said a new study published in Experimental Physiology.

As sleep cycles cause metabolic differences and alter our body’s preference for energy sources, those who stay up later have a reduced ability to use fat for energy, meaning fats may build-up in the body and increase risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, said the study

The metabolic differences relate to how well each group can use insulin to promote glucose uptake by the cells for storage and energy use. People who are ‘early birds’ or individuals who prefer to be active in the morning rely more on fat as an energy source and are more active during the day with higher levels of aerobic fitness than ‘night owls’.

On the other hand, ‘night owls’ who prefer to be active later in the day and night use less fat for energy at rest and during exercise, found the study

Researchers from Rutgers University, New Jersey classified participants (n=51) into two groups (early and late) based on their ‘chronotype’ – our natural propensity to seek activity and sleep at different times. They used advanced imaging to monitor body vitals as well as insulin sensitivity and breath samples to measure fat and carbohydrate metabolism.

After monitoring them for a week, they were tested while at rest before completing two 15-minute bouts of exercise: one moderate and one high intensity session on a treadmill. Aerobic fitness levels were tested through an incline challenge where the incline was raised 2.5% every two minutes until the participant reached a point of exhaustion.

Researchers found that early birds use more fat for energy at both rest and during exercise than night owls. Early birds were also more insulin sensitive. Night owls, on the other hand, are insulin resistant, meaning their bodies require more insulin to lower blood glucose levels, and their bodies favoured carbohydrates as an energy source over fats.

This group’s impaired ability to respond to insulin to promote fuel use can be harmful as it indicates a greater risk of type 2 diabetes and/or heart disease. The cause for this shift in metabolic preference between early birds and night owls is yet unknown and needs further investigation.

Senior author Professor Steven Malin of Rutgers University said: “A sensitive or impaired ability to respond to the insulin hormone has major implications for our health. This observation advances our understanding of how our body’s circadian rhythms impact our health. ”

The study also found that early birds are more physically active and have higher fitness levels than night owls.

Obesity drug may decrease type 2 diabetes risk: Study reveals

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New York, Sep 12 (IANS) The risk of type 2 diabetes is more than halved by weekly injections of the new obesity drug semaglutide, which was recently approved in the US and has been provisionally approved in England, says a new study.

The researchers of the study, to be presented at the annual meeting of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD), said semaglutide reduces the future risk of diabetes by over 60 per cent in patients with obesity.

“Semaglutide appears to be the most effective medication to date for treating obesity and is beginning to close the gap with the amount of weight loss following bariatric surgery,” said researcher W. Timothy Garvey from the University of Alabama at Birmingham in the US.

diabetes

Obesity is known to increase the risk of type 2 diabetes at least six-fold and the team was interested in understanding whether semaglutide could reduce this risk. To learn more, they conducted a new analysis of the data from two trials of semaglutide.

In STEP 1, 1,961 overweight or obese participants received an injection of 2.4 mg of semaglutide or a placebo weekly, for 68 weeks.

STEP 4 involved 803 participants with overweight or obesity. All received weekly injections of 2.4 mg semaglutide for 20 weeks. They then either remained on semaglutide or were switched to placebo for the next 48 weeks.

In STEP 1 participants receiving semaglutide, 10-year risk scores for type 2 diabetes decreased by 61 per cent (from 18.2 per cent at week 0 to 7.1 per cent at week 68). This compares to a 13 per cent reduction in risk score for those given the placebo (17.8 per cent at week +0 to 15.6 per cent at week 68).

In the STEP 4 participants, the largest decreases in risk scores were seen in the first 20 weeks (from 20.6 per cent at week 0 to 11.4 per cent at week 20). In those who continued receiving semaglutide, the risk score decreased further to 7.7 per cent but in those who were switched to placebo, it rose to 15.4 per cent.

Insufficient sleep in teenagers leads to obesity: Study

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Adolescents who sleep less than eight hours a night are more likely to be overweight or obese compared to their peers with sufficient sleep, said a new study presented at ESC Congress 2022.

Shorter sleepers were also more likely to have a combination of other unhealthy characteristics including excess fat around the middle, elevated blood pressure, and abnormal blood lipid and glucose levels, said the study by Jesús Martínez Gómez, a researcher at the Cardiovascular Health and Imaging Laboratory, Spanish National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), Madrid, Spain.

“Our study shows that most teenagers do not get enough sleep and this is connected with excess weight and characteristics that promote weight gain, potentially setting them up for future problems,” said study author Gómez. “We are currently investigating whether poor sleep habits are related to excessive screen time, which could explain why older adolescents get even less sleep than younger ones.”

Sleep/en.wikipedia.org

This study examined the association between sleep duration and health in 1,229 adolescents in the SI! Program for Secondary Schools trial in Spain. Participants had an average age of 12 years at baseline with equal numbers of boys and girls.

Sleep was measured for seven days with a wearable activity tracker three times in each participant at ages 12, 14 and 16 years. For optimal health, the American Academy of Sleep Medicine advises sleeping 9 to 12 hours a night for 6 to 12 year-olds and 8 to 10 hours for 13 to 18 year-olds.3 To simplify the analysis, the study used 8 hours or more as optimal. Participants were categorized as very short sleepers (less than 7 hours), short sleepers (7 to 8 hours), and optimal (8 hours or more).

Overweight and obesity were determined according to body mass index. The researchers calculated a continuous metabolic syndrome score ranging from negative (healthier) to positive (unhealthier) values that included waist circumference, blood pressure, and blood glucose and lipid levels.

At 12 years of age, only 34% of participants slept at least 8 hours a night, and this dropped to 23% and 19% at 14 and 16 years of age, respectively. Boys tended to get less sleep. Teenagers who got the most sleep also had better quality sleep, meaning they woke up less during the night and spent a higher proportion of the time in bed sleeping compared to those with shorter sleep. The prevalence of overweight/obesity was 27%, 24% and 21% at 12, 14 and 16 years of age, respectively.

Compared with optimal sleepers, overweight/obesity was 21% and 72% more likely in very short sleepers at 12 and 14 years, respectively. Short sleepers were 19% and 29% more likely to be overweight/obese compared with optimal sleepers at 12 and 14 years, respectively. Similarly, both very short and short sleepers had higher average metabolic syndrome scores at 12 and 14 years compared with optimal sleepers.

Mr. Martínez Gómez said: “The connections between insufficient sleep and adverse health were independent of energy intake and physical activity levels, indicating that sleep itself is important.”

Weight loss for adults at any age leads to cost savings, study suggests

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Helping an adult lose weight leads to significant cost savings at any age, with those savings peaking at age 50, suggests a new Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study.

The findings, which will be published online September 26 in the journal Obesity, suggests that a 20-year-old adult who goes from being obese to overweight would save an average of $17,655 in direct medical costs and productivity losses over their lifetime. If the same person were to go from being obese to a healthy weight, an average savings of $28,020 in direct medical costs and productivity losses can occur. Helping a 40-year-old adult go from being obese to overweight can save an average of $18,262. If the same person went from being obese to normal weight, an average savings of $31,447 can follow.

A high body mass index (BMI) is linked to a higher risk of serious conditions like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers. Subsequently, a high BMI and associated conditions can lead to high medical and societal costs and productivity losses. More than 70 percent of adults in the U.S. are considered to be overweight or obese, which in direct medical expenses alone costs nearly $210 billion per year.

“Over half the costs of being overweight can be from productivity losses, mainly due to missed work days but also productivity losses. This means that just focusing on medical costs misses a big part of the picture, though they’re a consideration, too,” says Bruce Y. Lee, MD, MBA, executive director of the Global Obesity Prevention Center (GOPC) at the Bloomberg School. “Productivity losses affect businesses, which in turn affects the economy, which then affects everyone.”

When absenteeism occurs in the workforce, others, at times, have to take on a larger workload. This all funnels downstream and adds to the societal costs of obesity. And health insurance premiums increase across the board, even for healthy patients, as insurers spread the cost of obesity and its associated conditions.

For the study, the researchers developed a computational simulation model to represent the U.S. adult population to show the lifetime costs and health effects for an individual with obesity, overweight and healthy weight statuses at ages 20 through 80 in increments of 10. The model used data from the Coronary Artery Disease Risk Development in Young Adults (CARDIA) and Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities (ARIC) studies and included 15 mutually exclusive health statuses that represented every combination of three BMI categories (normal weight, overweight and obesity) and five chronic health stages.

The model simulated the weight and health status of an adult as he or she ages year by year throughout his or her lifetime to track the individual medical costs and productivity losses of each person. The estimated direct medical costs to the insurer and health care facility, productivity losses and sick time were included.

The research team found that cost savings peak at age 50 with an average total savings of $36,278. After age 50, the largest cost savings occur when an individual with obesity moves to the normal weight category as opposed to the overweight category, emphasizing the importance of weight loss as people age. This finding is important because people aged 50 and older make up more than 60% incremental societal costs, which includes higher taxes to support government insurance and higher copays and other out-of-pocket expenses.

“Most previous models have taken into account one or a few health risks associated with obesity. Subsequently, the forecasted costs may be unrealistic,” says Saeideh Fallah-Fini, PhD, a former GOPC visiting scholar who was part of the research team. “In our study, the model we developed takes into account a range of immediate health complications associated with body weight, like hypertension or diabetes, as well as all major long-term adverse health outcomes, including heart disease and some types of cancer, in forecasting the incremental health effects and costs to give a realistic calculation.”

Results from this study could inform policymakers about the specific implications and costs associated with obesity in order to design more successful interventions that are tailored to specific groups (defined by age, current health condition and weight). Understanding the resulting lifetime costs and health effects for an individual with obesity at different ages can also aid physicians and other health care professionals in implementing more targeted preventive management decisions for patients with high BMIs and associated health conditions. On the flip side, it could be beneficial for patients to better understand the health outcomes associated with potential future health risks and impending medical costs, given their existing BMI status and health condition.

Finally, realizing the reverberating effects of obesity on the productivity of their employees and consequently their profits, employers may look to redesign or sponsor healthy lifestyle programs with weight-loss initiatives. In turn, this could decrease absenteeism and poor performance. “In the end, the heart of a business is its employees,” says Lee. “Having employees who are overweight and unhealthy is akin to a football team trying to compete with chronically injured players.”

Obesity in Children on Rise

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Junk Food is a term used for food containing high levels of calories from sugar or fat with little fiber, protein, vitamins or minerals. These foods lead to a rapid increase in blood sugar levels (high glycemic index) which forces the body to produce high levels of insulin to counter the rising blood sugar.

As reported by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), development of obesity is multi-factorial and eating of junk and processed food is one of them. Childhood obesity is a risk factor of developing heart diseases and diabetes in later life.

The results available from 15 States/UTs of an ongoing ICMR India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) Study on the prevalence of diabetes indicate overall prevalence of Diabetes varying from 4% to 13%. According to the Report of National Commission on Macroeconomics and Health, there were 641 lakh cases of Cardiovascular Diseases (CVDs) in India in the year 2015.

Ministry of Women and Child Development had constituted a Working Group on addressing consumption of foods High in Fat, Salt and Sugar (HFSS) and promotion of healthy snacks in schools of India, which has given its report.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) constituted an Expert Group on Salt, Sugar and Fat. The Expert Group prepared a draft report on consumption of these items and its health impacts among Indian population and recommendations on healthy dietary intake of these items. While preparing the above report, Expert Group has considered WHO guidelines on ‘Sugar Intake for Adults and Children regarding the adverse impact of high sugar in foods.

ICMR, National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and other institutions carry out research and studies related to food and healthy diet. Apart from this, the consumers are made aware of food safety through consumer awareness programmes launched jointly by the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) which also includes advertisements in different media, campaigns, educational booklets, information on FSSAI website and Mass awareness campaigns.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Smt Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.

Regulating Contents of Sugar and Salt in Food and Beverages

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Increased consumption of soft drinks, colas and other canned foods, contribute to obesity which is risk factor of Hypertension, Cardio-vascular problems, Diabetes, Stoke, etc. Further, as per sub-regulation 2.2.2.3(ii) of the Food Safety and Standards (Packaging and Labelling) Regulations, 2011, quantity of sugar per 100g or 100 ml or per serving of the products, is required to be specified on the label. However, there is no proposal to fix quantity of sugar in aerated drinks and energy tonics, under consideration in the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).

Strengthening of Food and Drugs Administration at Central and State levels is a continuous process. FSSAI has rolled out a scheme for strengthening of food testing system in the Country with an outlay of Rs. 481.95 Crore. Further, the Government has also approved a proposal for strengthening of drug regulatory system in the country, both at the Central and State levels at a cost of Rs.1750 cr. Out of this, Rs.900 cr. are for strengthening of Central regulatory structure, while Rs.850 cr. have been approved as the Central Government’s contribution for upgrading and strengthening the States’ Drug Regulatory System.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Sh Faggan Singh Kulaste stated this in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha here today.

So lonely I could die

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Social isolation, loneliness could be greater threat to public health than obesity, researchers say.

Loneliness and social isolation may represent a greater public health hazard than obesity, and their impact has been growing and will continue to grow, according to research presented at the 125th Annual Convention of the American Psychological Association.

“Being connected to others socially is widely considered a fundamental human need–crucial to both well-being and survival. Extreme examples show infants in custodial care who lack human contact fail to thrive and often die, and indeed, social isolation or solitary confinement has been used as a form of punishment,” said Julianne Holt-Lunstad, PhD, professor of psychology at Brigham Young University. “Yet an increasing portion of the U.S. population now experiences isolation regularly.”

Approximately 42.6 million adults over age 45 in the United States are estimated to be suffering from chronic loneliness, according to AARP’s Loneliness Study. In addition, the most recent U.S. census data shows more than a quarter of the population lives alone, more than half of the population is unmarried and, since the previous census, marriage rates and the number of children per household have declined.

“These trends suggest that Americans are becoming less socially connected and experiencing more loneliness,” said Holt-Lunstad.

To illustrate the influence of social isolation and loneliness on the risk for premature mortality, Holt-Lunstad presented data from two meta-analyses. The first involved 148 studies, representing more than 300,000 participants, and found that greater social connection is associated with a 50 percent reduced risk of early death. The second study, involving 70 studies representing more than 3.4 million individuals primarily from North America but also from Europe, Asia and Australia, examined the role that social isolation, loneliness or living alone might have on mortality. Researchers found that all three had a significant and equal effect on the risk of premature death, one that was equal to or exceeded the effect of other well-accepted risk factors such as obesity.

“There is robust evidence that social isolation and loneliness significantly increase risk for premature mortality, and the magnitude of the risk exceeds that of many leading health indicators,” said Holt-Lunstad. “With an increasing aging population, the effect on public health is only anticipated to increase. Indeed, many nations around the world now suggest we are facing a ‘loneliness epidemic.’ The challenge we face now is what can be done about it.”

Holt-Lunstad recommended a greater priority be placed on research and resources to tackle this public health threat from the societal to the individual level. For instance, greater emphasis could be placed on social skills training for children in schools and doctors should be encouraged to include social connectedness in medical screening, she said. Additionally, people should be preparing for retirement socially as well as financially, as many social ties are related to the workplace, she noted, adding that community planners should make sure to include shared social spaces that encourage gathering and interaction, such as recreation centers and community gardens.

Early term babies are at greater risk for diabetes and obesity-related diseases

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Early term deliveries impact babies’ long-term health with increased risk of diabetes and obesity-related illnesses as well as a shortened life span, according to a new study by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers.

“Early term” is defined as delivery between 37 and 39 weeks. Pregnancy is considered at full term when gestation has lasted between 37 and 42 weeks. Babies born between 39 and 41 weeks of gestation have better outcomes than those born either before or afterward.

In the study, published in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology, the researchers investigated hospitalizations of children up to age 18 to determine the impact that early-term versus full-term gestation had on pediatric health and hospitalizations. A population-based cohort analysis was conducted of 54,073 early-term deliveries and 171,000 full-term deliveries.

“We found that hospitalizations up to the age of 18 involving endocrine and metabolic morbidity were found to be more common in the early-term group as compared with the full-term group, especially at ages five and older,” says Prof. Eyal Sheiner, M.D., Ph.D., a vice dean of the BGU Faculty of Health Sciences (FOHS) and head of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Soroka University Medical Center. What’s more, “Obesity was significantly more frequent among the early term.”

The researchers also discovered that children older than five exhibited significantly higher rates of type I diabetes mellitus when born early term.

“Pregnancies ending at early term were more likely to be complicated by hypertensive disorders and maternal diabetes (both gestational and pre-gestational). Deliveries were more often cesarean, and mean birthweight was significantly smaller,” Dr. Sheiner says. “Babies delivered at early term were also more likely to be low birthweight — less than 5.5 pounds (2.5 kilograms).”

These diseases may increase the likelihood of other associated maladies with a detrimental long-term impact on one’s health and well-being, increased lifetime healthcare expenditures and a shorter life span, the researchers conclude.

Dulled taste may prompt more calories on path to obesity

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Cornell University food scientists have found that people with a diminished ability to taste food choose sweeter – and likely higher-calorie – fare. This could put people on the path to gaining weight.

“We found that the more people lost sensitivity to sweetness, the more sugar they wanted in their foods,” said lead author Robin Dando, assistant professor of food science, whose research has been published online by the journal Appetite.

Nutritionists, researchers and doctors have long suspected a connection between diminished taste sensitivity and obesity, but no one had tested if losing taste altered intake. In his research, Dando temporarily dulled the taste buds of study participants and had them sample foods of varying sugar concentrations.

For the blind tests, the researchers provided participants with an herbal tea with low, medium or high concentrations of a naturally occurring herb, Gymnema Sylvestre, which is known to temporarily block sweet receptors. During the testing, participants added their favored levels of sweetness to bland concoctions.

Without realizing it, they gravitated to 8 to 12 percent sucrose. Soft drinks are generally around 10 percent sugar. “That’s not a coincidence,” said Dando. But those participants with their taste receptors blocked began to prefer higher concentrations of sugar.

“Others have suggested that the overweight may have a reduction in their perceived intensity of taste. So, if an overweight or obese person has a diminished sense of taste, our research shows that they may begin to seek out more intense stimuli to attain a satisfactory level of reward,” explained Dando. This can influence their eating habits to compensate for a lower taste response, he said.

The study showed that for a regular, sugary 16-ounce soft drink, a person with a 20 percent reduction in the ability to taste sweet would crave an extra teaspoon of sugar to reach an optimal level of sweetness, as compared to someone with unaltered taste response.

“The gustatory system – that is, the taste system we have – may serve as an important nexus in understanding the development of obesity. With this in mind, taste dysfunction should be considered as a factor,” Dando said.

Hunger-controlling brain cells may offer path for new obesity drugs

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Is the solution to the obesity epidemic all in our heads? A study by researchers at The Rockefeller University suggests that it might be.

“We have identified two new populations of cells in the brain that potently regulate appetite,” says Alexander Nectow, first author of the paper, published in Cell on July 27. The two types of cells, located in a part of the brainstem called the dorsal raphe nucleus, are potential targets for new drugs to treat obesity by controlling the hunger signals that drive the search for and consumption of food.

The new findings are the latest evidence that eating is a complex biological behavior mediated by multiple sites in the brain. They also offer a possible solution to a problem that has dogged previous efforts to address obesity at the neuronal level.

In 1994, Jeffrey Friedman, Marilyn M. Simpson Professor and head of Rockefeller’s Laboratory of Molecular Genetics, launched a new era in obesity research by discovering a hormone called leptin, which acts on neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus region to suppress hunger. Injections of the hormone have been shown to promote dramatic weight loss in patients with a rare leptin deficiency, however many obese people don’t respond to this therapy.

“Obesity is generally associated with leptin resistance,” says Friedman, whose lab produced the new study. “And our recent data suggest that modulation of the activity of specific neurons with drugs could bypass leptin resistance and provide a new means for reducing body weight.”

The cells that trigger eating

Nectow and his colleagues zeroed in on the dorsal raphe nucleus, or DRN, when whole-brain imaging made with iDISCO, an advanced technique developed at Rockefeller, revealed that this part of the brain becomes activated in hungry mice. Subsequent imaging of other mice that were fed more than their normal amount of food, until they were full, revealed a different pattern of DRN activity. These results indicated quite clearly that neurons in that part of the brain played a role in feeding behavior.

The next step, explains Nectow, now an associate research scholar at Princeton University who did the research while a Ph.D. student and visiting fellow in Friedman’s lab, was to determine which of the several types of neurons that make up the DRN were involved. Genetic analysis of the activated cells in the two groups of mice showed that the neurons triggered by a full belly released glutamate, a chemical that nerve cells use to signal one another, while the neurons triggered by hunger released a different neurotransmitter, known as GABA.

“There are two possibilities when you see something like that,” Nectow says. “One is that the cells are just along for the ride–they are getting activated by hunger but they’re not actually driving the food intake process. The other possibility is that they are in fact part of the sense and respond mechanism to hunger–and in this case, we suspected the latter.”

Manipulating the system

Armed with two proven methods for activating targeted neurons at will–one optical, one chemical–the researchers were able to turn on the glutamate-releasing cells in obese mice. This suppressed the animals’ food intake and made them lose weight. And it confirmed that the DRN neurons turned on by hunger did indeed drive food intake.

Similarly, flipping on the GABA-releasing neurons in the same part of the brain had the opposite effect and increased food intake. Notably, turning on the “hunger neurons” automatically turned off the “satiety neurons,” maximizing the effect.

The researchers also studied the effect of switching off hunger neurons in obese mice. “We were excited to see that prolonged inhibition of these neurons could dramatically reduce body weight,” says postdoctoral fellow Marc Schneeberger Pane, a co-first author of the paper.

The findings open up new avenues of research into exactly how the brain controls eating, and suggest that drugs designed to activate or inhibit neurons in the DRN could be effective in treating obesity and preventing its related disorders, such as diabetes and hypertension.

And it offers fresh hope to hundreds of millions of obese people around the world. As it turns out, the brainstem, the oldest part of the brain in evolutionary terms, is the new frontier.

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Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institution

Life Style Diseases

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The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is conducting a study namely ICMR-INDIAB involving all States and Union Territories – both urban and rural population for ascertaining the exact number of Diabetic patients. 15 States have been covered so far and the prevalence of diabetes varies from 4.3% in Bihar to 13.6% in Chandigarh.

According to report published by International Diabetes Federation (IDF; 6th Edition, 2013), number of people with diabetes (20-79 years) in Urban setting of India were about 30.5 millions in 2013.

As informed by Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), current estimates from one-time cross sectional studies conducted in different regions of country indicate that the prevalence of coronary heart disease (CHD) is between 8-10 percent in urbanand 3 to 4 percent in rural India.

As informed by ICMR the estimated prevalence of cancer cases in India during 2013, 2014 and 2015 are 2934314, 3016628 and 3101467 respectively.

Nationwide scientific estimation of number of patients of Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) has not been carried out. However, in some of the small population based studies, it was found to be in 0.79 % in North India and 0.16% in South India.

National Center for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), Bengaluru is running Hospital and Population based Cancer Registries. As informed by ICMR some studies have been conducted on NCDs. A study is commissioned to ICMR on Burden of Non-Communicable Diseases and Associated Risk Factors for India (BOD-NCD).

The factors responsible for increase in Lifestyle Diseases (NCDs) are unhealthy diet, lack of physical activity, harmful use of alcohol, overweight, obesity, tobacco use, etc.

Public health is a State subject, however, under National Health Mission(NHM), financial and technical support is provided to States/UTs to strengthen their healthcare systems including setting up of / upgradation of public health facilities, based on the requirements posed by the States/UTs in their Programme Implementation Plans (PIPs).

Government of India is implementing National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke (NPCDCS) for interventions up to District level under the National Health Mission. Under NPCDCS, diagnosis and treatment facilities are provided through different levels of healthcare by setting up NCD Clinics in District Hospitals and Community Health Centres (CHCs). Intervention of Chronic Kidney Diseases (CKD) has also been included in NPCDCS for proper management.

For early diagnosis, Population-based Screening of common NCDs viz. Diabetes, Hypertension and Common cancers (Oral, Breast, Cervical) is initiated under NHM utilizing the services of the Frontline- workers and Health-workers under existing Primary Healthcare System. This process will also generate awareness on risk factors of common NCDs.

Under strengthening of Tertiary Care for Cancer Centre (TCCC) Scheme, Government of India is assisting States to set up / establish State Cancer Institute (SCI) and Tertiary Care Cancer Centres (TCCCs) in different parts of the country. Support under the National Health Mission (NHM) is also being provided to States for provision of dialysis services free of cost to the poor under Pradhanmantri National Dialysis Programme (PNDP).

The Central Government, through its hospitals augments the efforts of the State Governments for providing health services in the country. Under Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), 6 new AIIMS have been set up and upgradation of identified medical colleges has been undertaken which will also improve health care facilities.

The Minister of State (Health and Family Welfare), Smt Anupriya Patel stated this in a written reply in the Lok Sabha here today.

Weight Loss, Diabetes Interlinked, Says New Study

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Since diabetes can only be controlled by an individual either by medicines, diet contrl or regular exercise, experts have come out with the finding that diabetes can be reversed if people who reversed it keep their weight considerably low.

A study by Roy Taylor at the Newcastle University showed that those with Type 2 diabetes who were able to loose their weight could also successfully reverse the chronic ailment because the excess fat remooved from the pancreas helped normal production of insulin.

The researchers studied 30 volunteers who have Type 2 diabetes for 10 years or less and found that it may not apply to those with more than 10 years of chronic ailment. Out of 30 volunteers, 12 had the ailment for less than 10 years and were able to reverse their condition and remain free from diabetes after six months, said the study published in Diabetes Care.

The volunteers reducedd their weight by a strict diet of 600 to 700 calories per day, mostly consisting of three diet shakes per day and 240 grams of non-starchy vegetables for 8 weeks. Later they returned to their normal food but within the control regime for next two weeks. Later, they ate only one-third of their normal food to maintain their weight loss.

For those who had diabetes for over 10 years, Taylor has an advice: “If you had the diagnosis for longer than that, then don’t give up hope – major improvement in blood sugar control is possible.”

Explaining the Personal Fat Threshold theory, he said:“If a person gains more weight than they personally can tolerate, then diabetes is triggered, but if they lose that amount of weight then they go back to normal.” It depends on each individual as to how much weight they can afford to keep their metabolism in tact, said Taylor.

Even 70% of those who are obese are not necessarily diabetics. Even the 13 volunteers who reversed their condition were either overweight or obese, but their insulin production levels remained the same, he explained. Taylor is planning a bigger sample of 280 volunteers to study the finding in-depth.

About two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese, facing an increased risk for diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, osteoarthritis, stroke, gallbladder disease, sleep apnea and respiratory problems, while India is also increasingly facing the problem of obesity and overweight, thanks to modern life and TV viewing by kids and adults alike.