Tag Archives: Obesity

Hope for a new Fat Control Drug

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Hope for a new Fat Control Drug
The scientists, from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, found  a chemical, called C75 that stops the production of a hormone that makes the mice hungry. This compound that appears to switch off appetite in mice may hold clues to a similar drug for humans. It rapidly turns off appetite in mice and causing weight loss similar in many ways to that achieved by fasting.

Scientists have long known that a hormone called Neuropeptide Y is a major appetite regulator – if animals fast, the amount of NPY increases and stimulates appetite.

The C75 chemical was given to the mice by injection, and the scientists found that their interest in food ceased suddenly within 20 minutes. The chemical is not thought to be toxic in any other way to mice, although far more rigorous scientific testing would be needed before any similar compound could be used on humans.

Obesity

Obesity & Serotonin

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Obesity & Serotonin
It is increasingly recognized that obesity is not a failure of will or behaviour, nor is it a disorder of body weight regulation. It is a chronic medical condition, like hypertension or diabetes.In the obese person, body weight is just as carefully regulated as it is in non obese persons, but regulation is around an elevated set point. This homeostatic set point — strongly influenced by genetics and is probably controlled by neurotransmitters that signal hunger or signal satiety.Only those individuals with exceptional will power and the ability to tolerate discomfort are able to defeat this homeostatic mechanism through dietary energy restriction.
A number of major studies have shown that the majority of dieters who lose weight with low-calorie diets and behaviour modification regain that lost weight within 3 to 5 years.
If eating behaviour, like mood and personality, is simply the result of a mixture of neurotransmitters, then a pharmaceutical intervention may be more effective than attempts at behaviour modification, just as antidepressants are generally more effective for clinical depression than a psychiatrist.At one time, amphetamines were being used for weight control, although when the drug was discontinued, the patient gained back all the lost weight. However, if obesity is a chronic medical condition in the same way that hypertension is a chronic medical condition, then weight gain following drug discontinuation is no different from rising blood pressure after the discontinuation of antihypertensive medications.
Using serotonin reuptake inhibitors for weight lossIn the early 1980s, clinical investigators discovered a link between serotonin and eating disorders. The discovery was unexpected: during clinical trials of the serotonin reuptake-inhibitor fluoxetine, one side effect noted was weight loss. Even before this, seotonin was implicated in the eating disorders.

The dietary starch is converted to sugar, sugar stimulates the pancreas to release insulin, insulin raises brain levels of the amino acid tryptophan, tryptophan is a precursor of serotonin, and serotonin regulates mood, producing a sense of well-being. Therefore, obese people load up on carbohydrates to elevate mood. In studies with obese women, it was found that a high-carbohydrate snacks improved mood.

Subsequent studies showed that serotoninergics helped overeaters lose weight. One agent — dexfenfluramine — was particularly effective for cutting food intake. Dexfenfluramine is the active portion of the anti-obesity agent fenfluramine. Its side effects are dry mouth, diarrrhea, unsteadiness, and memory problems along with cardiac problems..

Because of the seriousness of the valvular heart disease associated with the use of fenfluramine, the medication was withdrawn from the market in September of 1997

According to the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, more than 30% of Americans are 20% or more overweight, and one third of women and more than one quarter of men are trying to lose weight at any given time.

Overweight people loosing a little bit of weight – gain a lot

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Overweight people loosing a little bit of weight -gain a lot
Overweight people who manage to lose just a little bit of weight – even just a pound a year – may substantially lower their risk of high blood pressure. The hard part, of course, is keeping the weight off. But a new study shows that surprisingly little weight loss – if it can be sustained – carries a big payoff in better health.

Obesity ~ Some facts

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Obesity – some facts
  • Exercise alone is not enough to get rid of the obesity.
  • Fact is, one pound of body weight is equivalent to 3,500 kcal. To shed this much body weight one needs to walk approximately 50 miles or 80 km.
  • A slice of bread pasted with jam and butter contains some 150 kcal. To be able to burn up this much body needs workload equivalent to strenuous exercise for half an hour or a 3 mile run. How many of us can do it!!!
  • By far the only way of shedding excessive weight is to eat fewer calories, fewer that those expended.
  • Losing weight should be a gradual process. There is no miraculous diet which would take off extra large amount of weight within a few days without toiling hard.
  • Complete fasting for a week is difficult and inadvisable, but even if it is accomplished it would take away not more than 5 pounds of body fat.
  • The best way to fight obesity is to consume a properly balanced low caloric diet, to be accompanied by bouts of exercise.
  • Overweight people who manage to lose just a little bit of weight – even just a pound a year – may substantially lower their risk of high blood pressure. The hard part, of course, is keeping the weight off. But a new study shows that surprisingly little weight loss – if it can be sustained – carries a big payoff in better health.
  • If you’re overweight, losing just a pound or two a year–and keeping the weight off–can help prevent diabetes. The more weight lost, the bigger the reduction in diabetes risk. In a long-term study, the risk of developing diabetes was 33% lower in overweight people who lost between 8 and 15 pounds, while those who lost more had a 51% reduction in risk.
  • Women who repeatedly gain and lose weight, especially if they are obese, have significantly lower levels of HDL or “good” cholesterol than do women who maintain their weight.
  • Women who are not obese should try to maintain a stable weight.
  • Being overweight and having high blood pressure can independently increase a man’s chances of developing kidney cancer. 
 

 Obesity

Obesity ~ Your Weight or Your Shape ?

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Obesity What is more Important – Your Weight or Your Shape ?
The ultimate risk of diseases in relation of obesity is not the weight but the shape of the weight your body carries.
Now many studies have established the fact that if you have a pear shape – namely carrying most of your fat in your butt and your thighs – you are better off than an apple shape where your waist measurement is beyond your hip measurement.
Here is an eight-year follow-up to the nurse’s health study which began with almost 45,000 women. A definite pattern emerged which tells you that it’s not how much you weigh, but where that weight is that can be critical for heart disease. For woman, risk for dying from heart disease is much greater than the risk of dying from breast cancer and yet, the latter seems to get a lot more attention and fear.To find out what the risks are this simple test would help.First, let’s start with waist-hip ratio.To measure your waist-hip ratio, measure your waist at the level of your belly button and your hips at the largest circumference with a tape measure.On division of waist and hip measures we get the waist -hip ratio which should be somewhere between 0.7 to 1.0.If it’s above one that implies your waist is larger than your hips. That’s not good.
Now let’s go for the body mass index.
The body mass index, or BMI, is the ratio of your weight in kilograms divided by your height in meters squared.
It is now found that even if your BMI is higher than desirable, it doesn’t seem to make as much difference as your waist-hip ratio.BMI’s of less than 25 has been considered desirable, over 25 is considered to be undesirable.
It is also to be understood that the risk for women under the age of 60 is more pronounced than women over the age of 60. The risk factors that we are concerned here are mainly for coronary heart disease which includes non fatal heart attacks as well as fatal heart attacks.
If your waist-hip ratio is 0.72 or below, you are the standard, and don’t at least have to worry about heart attacks based on your body shape.If your waist-hip ratio is 0.72 to .76 and you are under 60, your risk is 1.7 times higher than the standard or 70 percent higher.If your ratio is 0.76 to 0.80, your risk is two and a half times higher.If your ratio is 0.80 to .88, your risk approaches three times higher.If your waist-hip ratio is over 0.88, your risk is four and a half times higher.If you are older than 60, the top category of risk is 1.9 times higher.So you can see that the effects of this are diminished in women over the age of 60, implying that extra abdominal fat is less risky for older woman. Now here is the major point of this study. With minor exceptions, it didn’t matter whether your body mass index was under 25 or over 25. In other words, an overweight woman, if she has more of an hour-glass figure, seems to be protected. In addition, you can look at the absolute waist circumference measurements.
At 71.1 centimetres, your waist is fine.At a waist circumference of 81.3 to 86.4 centimetres, your risk is a couple of times higher.If your ratio is over 96 centimetres, and you are under 60, your risk is up four times. If you are over 60, your risk is only up two times.

It can be easily concluded that an overweight woman, if she has more of

an hour-glass figure, seems to be protected.

A waist circumference above 100 cm in men and above 90 cm in women is associated with increased levels of triglyceride and reduced levels of HDL cholesterol.

So, for those who are in a high risk category it’s important to take preventive measures concerning exercise and cholesterol and take care of oneself as best as possible.

 
Obesity
Childhood Obesity