Dr. John's Health Matters
Welcome to Dr. John's Health Matters blog.
The articles posted here are from various sources who are duly acknowledged. I would appreciate being immediately notified, if any copywritten material needs to be removed. This blog is not intended to replace the qualified advice of a licensed health practitioner. Readers should exercise their own judgment. Enjoy, subscribe, participate and tell others :)
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Posts tagged "weight"
Wednesday, Sep 2nd, 2009 ↓Blueberry juice displays weight management benefits: Mouse study →
Sept 2, 2009 (Foodnavigator.com)—Drinking a modified blueberry juice may reduce food intake and body weight, and offer weight management potential, suggest findings from a new study with mice.
Canadian researchers report that mice prone to obesity, insulin resistance, diabetes and hypertension drinking the blueberry juice were protected against the development of glucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus.
The blueberry juice used in the study was not standard juice but had undergone a transformation using the Serratia vaccinii bacterium.
“Results of this study clearly show that biotransformed blueberry juice has strong anti-obesity and anti-diabetic potential,” said lead researcher Pierre Haddad, from the Université de Montréal.
“Biotransformed blueberry juice may represent a novel therapeutic agent, since it decreases hyperglycemia in diabetic mice and can protect young pre-diabetic mice from developing obesity and diabetes.”
Blueberries, nature’s only ‘blue’ food, are a rich source of polyphenols, potent antioxidants that include phenolics acids, tannins, flavonols and anthocyanins.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: blueberry juice antioxidant weightloss weight management obesity carotenoid insulin diabetes hypertension serratia vaccinii bacterium cholesterol cancer alzheimer prevention
Weight Gain In Adulthood Associated With Prostate Cancer Risk; Patterns Differ By Ethnicity →
Sept 2, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Body mass in younger and older adulthood, and weight gain between these periods of life, may influence a man’s risk for prostate cancer. This risk varies among different ethnic populations, according to results of a study in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.
“The relationship of certain characteristics, such as body size, with cancer risk may vary across ethnic groups due to the combined influence of both genes and lifestyle,” said lead researcher Brenda Y. Hernandez, Ph.D., M.P.H., assistant professor at the Cancer Research Center of Hawaii, University of Hawaii.
Obesity is a risk factor for common cancers like colorectal cancer and breast cancer in post-menopausal women. However, the influence of body size on prostate cancer risk is not entirely understood. Hernandez and colleagues examined this relationship in a multiethnic population consisting of blacks, Japanese, Hispanics, Native Hawaiians and whites, and compared differences among age groups. They used the Multiethnic Cohort, a longitudinal study of men aged 45 to 75 years old established in Hawaii and California from 1993 to 1996.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: weight gain prostate cancer risk BMI body size ethnic group genes lifestyle obesity factor
People Who Don't Own A Car And Live Near Fast Food At Greater Risk For Obesity →
Sept 2, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Living without a car in close proximity to fast food restaurants is associated with excess body mass index and weight gain, according to a University of Pittsburgh study available online and published in the September issue of the Journal of Urban Health. Indeed, adults in areas with high fast food concentration who didn’t have a car were as much as 12 pounds heavier than those who lived in neighborhoods that lacked such restaurants.
“Owning a car is generally associated with a more sedentary lifestyle and excess weight gain because people spend more time in their cars and less time walking,” said Sanae Inagami, M.D., study lead author and assistant professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Yet, when Inagami and her colleagues looked at whether a high concentration of fast food restaurants impacted this association, they found that not owning a car in areas where fast food was more readily available increased the risk of obesity.
“Fast food may be specific to weight gain in particular populations and locations,” she said. “People who are less affluent don’t own cars and can’t go distances for healthier foods. As a result, they may end up opting for the lower-priced and high caloric foods available at fast food chains.”
For full article see link above.
Tags: car driving food fast fat obesity restaurant lifestyle sedentary weight gain walking risk overweight neighbourhood
Larger waists increase asthma risk →
Aug 30, 2009 (Presstv.com)—Apple-shaped women with large waists are reported to be at an increased risk of developing asthma, even if their body weight is normal.
While being overweight is a well-known risk factor for asthma, a new study links bigger waist size (abdominal obesity) with the severity of the respiratory condition.
According to the study published in Thorax, women with a waist larger than 88cm are at a one-third higher risk of developing asthma.
Scientists concluded that waist circumference is a more useful measure compared to body mass index as it reflects the levels of visceral fat deposits found around the body’s organs.
“Visceral fat is metabolically more active - it can produce compounds that may cause inflammation. Inflammation may then be related to asthma,” added lead researcher Julie Von Behren.
PKH/HGH
Tags: asthma risk overweight weight visceral fat inflammation waist apple-shaped abdominal respiratory lung BMI
Obesity Is A Poor Gauge For Detecting High Cholesterol Levels In Children →
Aug 29, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—With the epidemic of childhood obesity in the United States, there is concern that overweight and obese children need to be screened for chronic medical conditions, including high cholesterol levels.
However, body fat is not an effective indicator of high cholesterol in children, according to new University of Michigan research.
Those are the findings of a U-M study led by U-M pediatricians Joyce Lee, M.D., MPH, and Matthew Davis, M.D., MAPP, which will appear in the August 3 edition of the Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine.
“We found, actually, that using body mass index to find kids with high cholesterol does not work well. There were many overweight and obese kids who had normal cholesterol, and there were a fair number of healthy-weight kids who had high cholesterol,” says Lee, a member of the Child Health Evaluation and Research (CHEAR) Unit in the U-M Division of General Pediatrics, and assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics and Communicable Diseases at the U-M Medical School.
For full article see link above.
Tags: obesity weight cholesterol heart cardiovascular disease body fat BMI children child overweight prevention screening risk
Study reveals shocking effects of obesity on brain →
Aug 27, 2009 (Presstv.com)—Compared to their normal-weight peers, obese individuals have smaller and older brains, indicative of destructive processes that can lead to dementia.
Previous studies had reported obesity to be associated with various health problems including an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and certain cancers.
According to a study published in Human Brain Mapping, obese individuals have 8 percent less brain tissue than their lean counterparts. The amount, however, is reduced to 4 percent in those classified as overweight.
The brain of obese individuals is also reported to be 16 years older than that of normal-weight individuals.
The main tissue loss is reported to occur in the frontal and temporal lobes (areas in the brain responsible for planning and memory), in the anterior cingulate gyrus (attention and executive functions), hippocampus (long-term memory) and basal ganglia (movement) of the brains of the obese individuals.
Overweight individuals, however, showed brain loss in the basal ganglia, the corona radiate (white matter comprised of axons) and the parietal lobe (sensory lobe).
“That’s a big loss of tissue and it depletes your cognitive reserves, putting you at much greater risk of Alzheimer’s and other diseases that attack the brain,” said lead researcher Paul Thompson.
Scientists concluded that adopting a balanced diet, exercising and keeping ones weight under control are the best ways to reduce the risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
PKH/AA
Tags: dementia brain tissue memory alzheimer's disease cognition weight obesity planning memory attention movement risk
Low calorie drinks and low-fat foods effective for weight loss →
Aug 25, 2009 (Foodnavigator.com)—Regular consumption of low-calorie beverages and low fat foods may help maintain weight loss and a stable body weight, suggests findings from a new study.
New Zealand and American researchers examined the consumption of low calorie and low fat foods in people who have lost weight and are now maintaining their new slimness, and compared this to people who have always maintained a ‘normal’ weight.
Writing in the International Journal of Obesity, a journal published by the Nature group, the researchers report that the so-called weight loss maintainer group consumed a diet that about 5 per cent lower in fat, and three times more daily servings of artificially sweetened soft drinks, compared to the normal weight people.
“These findings suggest that WLM use more dietary strategies to accomplish their weight loss maintenance, including greater restriction on fat intake, use of fat- and sugar-modified foods, reduced consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages and increased consumption of artificially sweetened beverages,” wrote the researchers, led by Suzanne Phelan from California Polytechnic State University.
“Ways to promote the use of fat-modified foods and artificial sweeteners merits further research in both prevention- and treatment-controlled trials,” they added.
The results will go some way to vindicating the growing low-calorie and low fat formulations being offered by food manufacturers as weight conscious consumers seek waistline-friendly versions of their favourite foods.
Indeed, a study conducted by global market research firm Synovate last year found that low fat food products are most popular when attempting weight loss.
Obesity and the related health issues are ever-increasing problems in Europe. In 2006, 30 per cent of European children were estimated to be overweight. The prevalence of obesity in the UK has more than doubled in the last 25 years.
For full article, see link above.
Tags: low calorie weight loss nutrition diet beverage low fat food body maintain restriction prevention obesity food
Low-carb Diets Linked To Atherosclerosis And Impaired Blood Vessel Growth →
Aug 25, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Even as low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets have proven successful at helping individuals rapidly lose weight, little is known about the diets’ long-term effects on vascular health.
Now, a study led by a scientific team at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) provides some of the first data on this subject, demonstrating that mice placed on a 12-week low carbohydrate/high-protein diet showed a significant increase in atherosclerosis, a buildup of plaque in the heart’s arteries and a leading cause of heart attack and stroke. The findings also showed that the diet led to an impaired ability to form new blood vessels in tissues deprived of blood flow, as might occur during a heart attack.
Described in the online version of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), the study also found that standard markers of cardiovascular risk, including cholesterol, were not changed in the animals fed the low-carb diet, despite the clear evidence of increased vascular disease.
“It’s very difficult to know in clinical studies how diets affect vascular health,” says senior author Anthony Rosenzweig, MD, Director of Cardiovascular Research in BIDMC’s CardioVascular Institute and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We, therefore, tend to rely on easily measured serum markers [such as cholesterol], which have been surprisingly reassuring in individuals on low-carbohydrate/high-protein diets, who do typically lose weight. But our research suggests that, at least in animals, these diets could be having adverse cardiovascular effects that are not reflected in simple serum markers.”
For full article, see link above.
Tags: cardiovascualr diet long term weight loss carbohydrate high protein atherosclerosis blood vessel cholesterol disease
Daylight Could Help Control Our Weight →
Aug 25, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Exciting research into Brown adipose tissue (BAT) — brown fat, which is found in abundance in hibernating animals and newborn babies — could lead to new ways of preventing obesity.
Studies have already shown that BAT activity in adults is reduced with obesity. Therefore, promoting BAT function could prevent or reduce obesity in some people.
New research, led by Michael Symonds, Professor of Developmental Physiology in the School of Clincal Sciences at The University of Nottingham, has shown — for the first time — that daylight is a major factor in controlling BAT activity.
Professor Symonds said: “Our research has suggested a previously unknown mechanism for controlling BAT function in humans and this could potentially lead to new treatments for the prevention or reversal of obesity.”
Winter was traditionally a time of the year that was accompanied with increased thermal demands and thus energy expenditure, but the body’s requirements for BAT has been reduced in recent times by central heating plus global warming. BAT is capable of producing up to 300 times more heat per unit mass compared with all other tissues.
For full article, see link above.
Health Tip: Choosing a Backpack →
Aug 23, 2009 (Therapytimes.com)—Along with pens, paper and notebooks, for many youngsters, a backpack is a back-to-school necessity.
The U.S. National Safety Council offers these safety guidelines for selecting a backpack:
- Look for features that offer better support, comfort and safety.
- Choose a backpack with padding in the back to minimize pressure.
- Opt for a backpack that has belts around the hip and chest to more evenly distribute the contents.
- A backpack with lots of compartments is better, as it also helps evenly distribute the weight of school supplies.
- Look for compression straps at the bottom or side of the backpack to bring the contents closer to the back.
- Look for reflective material so your child is easier to see if walking in the dark.
— Diana Kohnle
Tags: backpack napsack support comfort safety padding back pressure belt weight distribute compartment compression strap reflective
Seizures up premature birth: Study →
Aug 24, 2009 (Presstv.com)—Women experiencing seizure attacks when pregnant are more likely to give birth to a premature or small infant, a new study finds.
Despite controversial studies regarding the impact of seizures on the newborn, the new study revealed that seizures are what contribute to the increased risk of complications in infants.
According to the study published in the Archives of Neurology, babies born to have low birth weight (weighing less than 2,500 grams) and be small for gestational age (having a birth weight below the 10th percentile for age).
Scientists claim seizures lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes through various mechanisms. Trauma caused by the attacks may rupture fetal membranes, increasing the risk of infection and early delivery.
Seizure attacks may also result in contractions in the uterus, leading to tension and acute injury, and subsequently to premature birth.
“Neonates born pre-term, of low birth weight and small for gestational age may be predisposed to diseases during infancy and later life, highlighting the significance of proper intervention strategies for prevention,” the authors stressed.
Scientists therefore urged physicians to control seizure attacks before pregnancy, improve sleep quality in women and teach them required strategies for coping with stress.
Tags: premature infant baby seizure mother small newborn complication birth weight pregnancy infection risk uterus tension injury sleep stress
Diabetes Drug Linked To Increased Risk Of Heart Failure →
Aug 24, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Rosiglitazone, a drug used to treat type 2 diabetes, is associated with an increased risk of heart failure and death among older patients compared to a similar drug (pioglitazone), concludes a study published on bmj.com.
As such, the researchers say it is difficult to advocate continued use of rosiglitazone for most patients.
Rosiglitazone and pioglitazone belong to a class of drugs called thiazolidinediones and are widely used for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. They help to control blood sugar levels, but both drugs can also cause side effects including weight gain, fluid retention and heart failure.
It is unclear whether there are clinically important differences in the cardiac safety of these two drugs, so researchers in Canada compared the risk of heart attack, heart failure and death in patients treated with rosiglitazone and pioglitazone.
Using prescription records, they identified nearly 40,000 patients aged 66 years and older who started treatment with either rosiglitazone or pioglitazone between April 2002 and March 2008.
Data on hospital admission for either a heart attack or heart failure during the six-year study period were recorded and deaths were identified from a national database.
Detailed analysis showed that patients treated with pioglitazone had a significantly lower risk of heart failure and death compared to patients treated with rosiglitazone, but there was no significant difference in the risk of heart attack.
The researchers estimate that, for every 93 patients treated with rosiglitazone rather than pioglitazone, one additional cardiovascular event or death would be predicted to occur annually.
“Our findings suggest clinically important differences in the cardiovascular safety profiles of rosiglitazone and pioglitazone in clinical practice,” say the authors. “Given the accumulating evidence of harm with rosiglitazone treatment and the lack of a distinct clinical advantage for the drug over pioglitazone, it is reasonable to question whether ongoing use of rosiglitazone is justified,” they conclude.
For full article see link above.
Tags: diabetes drug cardiovascular stroke heart attack failure rosiglitazone pioglitazone thiazolidinedione blood sugar level control weight gain fluid retension risk danger
10 Reasons Why Exercise is Good for Your Weight →
Aug 20, 2009 (Mercola.com)—A recent Time magazine article, “Why Exercise Won’t Make You Thin,” is misleading at best. Exercise is critical to losing weight and maintaining a healthy weight, especially when paired with healthy eating habits. Countless studies, numerous experts who study exercise, and the millions of people who have lost weight all attest to the fact that working out works.
1. Exercise zaps belly fat
Regular moderate to high intensity aerobic exercise has the greatest impact on reducing abdominal fat — the dangerous fat that increases your risk of diabetes and heart disease.
2. Exercise controls calories
You need to burn more calories than you consume in order to lose weight. Regular exercise uses up excess calories that would otherwise be stored as fat.
3. Exercise keeps lost pounds MIA
Ninety percent of people who have successfully lost weight and kept it off for a year do about an hour of physical activity a day.
4. Exercise boosts metabolism
You’ll lose fat when you diet without exercising, but you’ll also lose muscle, which means you’ll burn fewer calories. The more muscle you have, the higher your metabolism and the more calories you’ll burn.
5. Exercise does more than the scale shows
If you gain 3 pounds of lean muscle and lose 4 pounds of fat, you’ve actually experienced a 7-pound improvement in your body condition, despite the scale only showing 1 pound of weight loss.
6. Exercise curbs emotional eating
Working out has been proven time and time again to help regulate mood, which has a direct effect on people who eat when they’re stressed or upset.
7. Exercise creates a healthy chain reaction
Healthy habits tend to cluster together. When people make positive changes, like getting more exercise, they tend to work on other health improvements as well, such as eating better.
8. Exercise brings on the fun
Rock-climbing is more exciting than eating a celery stick. That’s why it’s sometimes easier to be active to stay slim than to maintain a strict diet.
9. Exercise stops hunger
People who exercise and diet are actually less hungry than those who only diet, according to at least one study.
10. Exercise ups energy
Regular physical activity increases stamina by boosting your body’s production of energy-promoting neurotransmitters. That gives you even more motivation to get moving and shed pounds.
Sources:
Fitness Magazine August 19, 2009Tags: exercise energy hungry eating fun diet nutrition positive change mood emotion body condition fat muscle metabolism weight physical activity calories aerobic abdominal diabetes heart disease thin
Obesity Increases Risk Of Prostate Cancer Recurrence For Both Blacks And Whites →
Aug 17, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—A new look at a large database of prostate cancer patients shows that obesity plays no favorites when it comes to increasing the risk of recurrence after surgery: Being way overweight is equally bad for blacks and whites, say researchers at Duke University Medical Center.
Studies have shown that obesity is linked to generally worse outcomes in many cancers, including prostate cancer. Because blacks are more likely than whites to develop and die from prostate cancer – and because there is a higher prevalence of obesity among black men with prostate cancer, compared to whites – some studies have suggested that obesity might be a more ominous risk factor for blacks than whites.
“Not so,” says Stephen Freedland, M.D., an associate professor of urology and pathology in the Duke Prostate Center and the senior author of the study appearing in the journal Cancer. “Obesity leads to worse cancer in both groups.”
Freedland and Jayakrishnan Jayachandran, M.D. a urologic oncology fellow at Duke and the lead author of the paper, examined the records of 1,415 men enrolled in the Shared Equal Access Regional Cancer Hospital (SEARCH) database who had undergone a radical prostatectomy. Black men comprised almost half (47 percent) of the sample.
After adjusting for various preoperative characteristics, researchers analyzed the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and the aggressiveness of the cancer, as measured by the risk of recurrence. In contrast to other studies, investigators found no association between race and obesity.
Almost a third of the men were obese, regardless of race. “We found that higher BMI was associated with significantly increased risk of cancer recurrence for both blacks and whites,” said Jayachandran. “Though prior SEARCH-based studies from our group found that obesity was associated with a higher risk of disease progression as measured by a rising PSA after surgery, it now appears that being obese just means a poorer prognosis, period, regardless of race.”
As for why that might be, Jayachandran says he’s not sure, but he says it may have something to do with altered hormone levels.
“Obesity is associated with more estrogen and less testosterone, and it may be that lower testosterone promotes more aggressive tumors as recent studies have suggested.” In addition, Jayachandran says alteration in the production of other hormones, like insulin, insulin-like growth factor or leptin, which occur in obese men, may also be involved in the development of more aggressive tumors. “This is something we simply do not understand, but we are actively studying all of these factors.”
For full article see link above.
Certain Behavioral Traits And Feeding Practices May Increase Risk For Weight Gain In Children →
Aug 14, 2009 (Sciencedaily.com)—Many clinicians and public health officials view parental involvement as an essential part of solving the current childhood obesity epidemic. However, it’s important for parents to use the right approach when trying to combat childhood obesity. Restrictive feeding practices, or forbidding certain foods, may not always be the best solution. A child’s inhibitory control, a behavior similar to self-control, may be more important than parental restrictions.
An article and related editorial soon to be published in The Journal of Pediatrics, explore the relationship between a child’s low inhibitory control, parental restrictive feeding practices, and childhood weight gain.
Stephanie Anzman, MS, and Leann Birch, PhD, of the Center for Childhood Obesity Research at Pennsylvania State University studied 197 non-Hispanic white girls. They collected information from the girls and their parents over a 10-year period, beginning when the girls were 5 years old. In addition to recording their body mass index (BMI), the researchers asked the girls whether their parents restricted or forbade certain foods. The researchers also recorded the parents’ BMI, income, and education level. Additionally, mothers were asked to describe their child’s level of self-control.
Anzman and Birch found that girls with lower self-control had higher BMIs and gained more weight than those girls who demonstrated better self-regulation. Girls with lower self-control were almost twice as likely to be overweight by the age of 15. The authors also noticed a relationship between a child’s perception of parental restrictive feeding practices and weight gain. In other words, the combination of high parental restriction and low self-control put girls at the highest risk for weight gain among the group studied.
According to Ms. Anzman, “Parental attempts to help children with lower self-control by restricting their access to favorite snack foods can make the forbidden foods more attractive, thereby exacerbating the problem.” She suggests that parents can help their children learn to control their eating habits by allowing them to choose between healthy options. She adds that it is often better to not keep restricted foods in the house. “That way,” she explains, “it is not necessary to constantly tell children they cannot have the foods they want.”
For full article see link above.
