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Friday, April 16, 2021
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Bedtime Is A Helpful Ally In The War Against Obesity

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An Early Bedtime Is Crucial For A Better Later Life Development

Parents who insist on an early bedtime turned out to be right.

A recently published study uses data from the most comprehensive research in child development. According to the study, a child’s bedtime and their risk for obesity have a very strong connection.

  • 23 percent of teenagers who had an after 9 p.m bedtime during their childhood years developed a body mass index pointing to obesity;
  • Obesity is currently a health issue which cannot be directly targeted by medicine; its state can only be changed by individuals;
  • Obesity during a lifetime will increase the risk for several serious health conditions, including cancer, diabetes, heart diseases, strokes, to name a few;
  • Obesity is currently the world’s second biggest cause for premature death.

The Study

The research, now regarded as one of the most comprehensive child development studies to date, began in 1991 in the United States.

Researchers gathered data from 977 children who were then of ages between four and five years old.

Among the gathered data, the medical specialists made a note of the weekday bedtime of the study’s young members. Ten years later, when the now-teenagers began their first year of high school, the doctors noted their height and weight in order to establish their body mass index.

The results of the research were divided in three categories, based on the recorded bedtimes.

Children who went to bed before 8 p.m. has BMIs that pointed to obesity 10 percent of the time. For children went to bed between 8 and 9 p.m. the BMIs pointed to obesity 16 percent of the time. Finally, according to their body mass index, 23 percent of the children who went to bed after 9 p.m. developed obesity by the first year of high school.

Connections Between Child Bedtime And Teenage Obesity

Doctors stated that people who slept more in their childhood are statistically healthier individuals. An early childhood bedtime is considered by most specialists a critical component in the development of overall healthy adult behaviors.

Researchers also see increased sleeping time as less time available in the day to get hungry or to eat. Since the obesity cannot be controlled medically, the best way to combat obesity is to avoid it.

The research data will be used in several other studies, doctors have announced. With the connection between bedtime and the risk of obesity already made, further in-depth research can be continued to figure out the neural and chemical processes present in children that can lead to obesity later on.

Image Courtesy of Pixabay.

Pasta Does Not Cause Obesity But Fights It

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Pasta Fights Obesity

Looks Like Pasta’s Back On The Menu!

A new study has revealed that pasta can help the human body lose weight, not gain it. If the quantity consumed is calorically accurate, then as part of the Mediterranean Diet, it can help individuals combat obesity.

Pasta Got Its Bad Reputation From Unverified Speculation

The study, which was recently finished and published, started out in 2005. Over 23,000 people offered to be surveyed. The original purpose of the study was to find any possible underlying elements in cardiovascular disease and in cancer.

During the duration of the study, members of the study who ate pasta recorded no initial weight gain. Overweight members of the study additionally recorded weight loss.

By the end of the study, all members who ate pasta reported at least one of the following: a healthier body mass index, a smaller waist circumference, or an improved proportion of the hips and waist.

All members of the study who ate pasta did so as part of the Mediterranean Diet, which many specialists are starting to agree is one of the best and healthiest ways to eat. The Mediterranean Diet usually involves olive oil, tomatoes, seasoned cheese, onions, garlic, and rice.

While many other foods can be paired with the Mediterranean Diet, specialists do suggest avoiding meat or animal fats.

When it comes to foods such as pasta, it is very easy to overlook the intentional purpose of the meal. It will usually satiate people by itself but there are several food combinations and recipes which can yield a dangerously delicious result.

The Mediterranean Diet is also a much more loose and relaxed eating regimen than other available effective Diets and properly keeping track of how much of everything is being eaten can prove to be difficult at times.

While the study does permanently debunk the myth that pasta, as a carbohydrate, is unhealthy for the human body a certain amount of moderation needs to be present. Awareness in regards to each individual’s particular caloric intake is key.

With pasta now proven to be an effective fighter of obesity, the Mediterranean Diet is starting to look like one of the healthiest and most accessible ways to lose extra weight and keep a healthy lifestyle.

Image Courtesy of Free Stock Photos.

Heart Disease Rate In Decline, Still The Top Killer In U.S.

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Heart Disease Mortality Rate Appears To Be In Decline

Obesity And Diabetes Are The Suspected Guilty Parties For The Current Heart Disease Mortality Rate.

In 2016, in the United States, most recent reports show that heart related diseases and conditions remain the leading cause of death. The Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention made their newest data public. The CDC also reported some progress compared to the previous years and urged licensed health officials to continue their efforts.

Heart and Cardiovascular Disease in the U.S. Today

Diseases of the heart are accounting for 23.4 percent of all deaths. In the previous year, the ratio had been 23.5 percent. While the statistical results may not be displaying that much of an improvement, a 0.1 percent still means that approximately 32,300 fewer people have died from heart disease.

The  National  Center for Health Statistics reported that cancer remains the second greatest cause of death (22.5 percent of all deaths) in the United States of America in both previous and current years. The newly released data additionally revealed that the leading ten causes of death in the United States have remained the same and kept the same order in the past three years.

The data did reveal that death rates, adjusted for age, reached record low values, dropping by one percent.

The collected research data shows that the United States are on the right track when it comes to tackling its health issues. However, medical specialists and analysts are still concerned about the still present heart disease situation.

What Is the Main Suspect?

At the turn of the century, medical specialists had estimated that cancer would be the leading cause of death in the United States, with similar but lower numbers than present today. Heart disease mortality was in decline while the mortality rate of cancer kept the same levels.

Close to 2011, the data revealed that the declining mortality rate for cardiovascular disease was quickly decelerating. This fact means that heart disease was beginning to take more lives every year.

The American Heart Association believes that the main cause of this increasing trend of cardiovascular deaths after 2010 is related to data which was first presented three decades prior.

In 1985, the first increasing rates of obesity and diabetes were being noticed in the United States. Ever since then, the health risks presented by morbid obesity and diabetes have been snowballing. Analysts originally predicted a similar spike increase in heart disease mortality rate for the 2010s, although they did not expect the issue to escalate to such an amplitude.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.

Mediterranean Diets Are The Healthy Way to Lose Weight

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Mediterranean food is usually fresh, healthy, and rich in good vegetable fats.

Vegetable fats present in Mediterranean diets let our bodies produce healthy energy.

A recently ended study is showing that natural vegetable fats may have a healthy effect on the human body. Vegetable fats are present in olive oil, fish, and nuts. These foods are all part of various Mediterranean diets. Also, olive oil, fish, and nuts are all well known for having significant health benefits.

The study took place in Spain and gathered data over a five-year span. It surveyed 7,400 men and women, of ages ranging from 55 to 80. The people enlisted in the study all had either type 2 diabetes or a high heart risk. 90 percent of its members were obese at the beginning of the survey.

The study imposed one of three potential diets:

  • An unrestricted-calorie Mediterranean diet rich in olive oil;
  • An unrestricted-calorie Mediterranean diet rich in nuts;
  • A low-fat diet as prescribed by authorized dietitians.

After its five-year duration, the research data gathered from the study’s surveys had the following conclusions:

Mediterranean diets and low-fat diets have had similar end-result values in regards to body weight and waist circumference. The Mediterranean diets, however, are abundant in vegetable fats and have several increased health benefits.

The olive oil-based diet increased the fat intake to 42 percent from 40 percent. The average lost body weight was approximately 2 pounds. Waist circumference increased by one-third of an inch.

The nuts-based diet increased the fat intake to 42 percent as well. The average lost body weight was close to 0.9 pounds. Waist circumference increased by one-seventh of an inch.

Finally, the low-fat diet’s fat intake decreased to 37 percent. The average lost body weight was nearly 1.3 pounds. Waist circumference increased by one-half of an inch.

The studies’ researchers firmly believe that the current popular fearful attitude towards vegetable (healthy) fats is one of the reasons why the ongoing 4-decade-long battle against obesity did not yield positive results. The rate of obesity has unfortunately risen.

Low-fat diets did not prove to be an efficient lifestyle. In situations where they were employed, the health status of those individuals was confirmed to decline slowly, even though they lost weight.

People wishing to stay healthy and lose weight in a healthy way are advised to avoid foods rich in starch, sugar, salt of trans-fat. To be avoided are also the primary sources of unhealthy fats such as butter, processed meat, sweetened beverages, desserts and fast food.

The modern scientific evidence is supporting the moderate gain of calories from fruits, whole grains, nuts, olive oil, vegetables, beans, and fish. Many of these foods are part of several Mediterranean diets.

Image Courtesy of Flickr.

Exercising Reduces the Threat of Cancer

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"exercising reduces cancer"

Exercising Prevents Cancer. Do Some Aqua Aerobics; You Won’t Regret it!

Newly released study links exercising to the reduction of 13 different types of cancer. The study is called “Association of Leisure-Time Physical Activity With Risk of 26 Types of Cancer in 1.44 Million Adults” and was published this Monday in JAMA, Internal Medicine.

While it is known to lift moods, protect hearts and preserve memory, exercising also seems to work against a broad array of malignant cell diseases.

The more you include exercising in your life, the better; even for smokers or ex-smokers and people suffering from obesity conditions. The rule of thumb is regular exercise.

The study reflects the findings of other 12 large studies in which over one million people reported how often and how much exercise they do. Tracking participants from nine to up to twenty years, cancer diagnoses were detected.

The researchers took the intensity and duration of the exercising and standardized them to give participants scores from 1 to 100. Correlating the score with the cancer rates, researchers were able to link higher scores of exercising with fewer cancer diagnoses.

These participants had 10 to 42 percent chances not to develop these types of cancers: of the breast (10%), cancers of the rectum or bladder (13%), myeloma (17%), colon (16%), head and neck (15%), myeloid leukemia (20%), gastric cardia and endometrial (22%), lung (26%), liver (27%) and esophageal adenocarcinoma (42%).

These results push exercising as being more “suggestive” for cancers to the small intestine and gall bladder, and non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

The findings “support promoting physical activity as a key component of population-wide cancer-prevention and control efforts,” write the authors.

When the researchers took into account obesity and smoking as a factor, the results showed that despite these conditions cancers to the liver, gastric cardia and endometrium have lower rates when correlated to exercising.

The authors want to encourage physicians all over the country to tell obese and smoking patients that exercise does not only help them lose weight and reduce smoking effects, but it also helps them increase their odds of not developing cancer.

Future studies should evaluate timing, type, and intensity of the exercising and give a better perspective into the link between fitness and cancer reducing methods.

Image source: Wikimedia

Consumption of Whole-Fat Dairy Tied to Lower Diabetes Risk

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'Spoonful of Cereal.

A recent analysis suggests that consumption of whole-fat dairy products may decrease diabetes risk.

Yes, you heard it right: whole-fat foods are associated with LOWER diabetes risk. A new study suggests that people who drink full-fat milk are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes than people who drink skim.

Well, this is awkward since Americans have been told for decades to skip full-fat and go for low-fat instead. School lunches provide low-fat milk while the official dietary guidelines hail the virtues of skim milk.

But recent studies have challenged such claims and so does the latest one. New research has found that people who consume full-fat dairy products are at a lower risk of developing diabetes and becoming overweight.

A recent study, which was published this week in the journal Circulation, shows that people who had more healthy byproducts from whole-fat dairy in their system had a 46 percent lower risk of having diabetes than people who regularly consumed only low-fat foods.

The study was based on data provided by a national survey called the Nurses’ Health Study of Health Professionals and involved more than 3,000 participants, who were tracked for nearly 15 years.

Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, lead author of the study, believes that official recommendations to opt for low-fat dairy should be reconsidered. He argued that no ‘prospective human evidence’ currently supports the idea that people who eat low-fat dairy products fare better than their less health-concerned peers.

The reasoning behind the current recommendations to skip full-fat is based on the assumption that lower calorie intake from low-fat products would stave off diabetes. But countless studies had shown that people who go for low-fat tend to compensate and consume more sugar or bad carbohydrates, which can boost diabetes risk.

The results of the latest study were adjusted for other risk factors for diabetes such as weight gain. The research team noted that the association between low-fat and lower diabetes risk remained unchanged, regardless of weight gain.

The recent study is consistent with a separate research paper published in the American Journal of Nutrition that has found women who regularly consume full-fat diary lower their risk of weight gain by eight percent.

Mozaffarian said that official recommendations may be biased because they take into account only one nutrient in a specific food, rather than considering the food as a whole. If you take from people the fat in their diet, they’ll try to replace it with carbohydrates and added sugars, which are converted into body fat later on, the researcher explained.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Without This Brain Enzyme Lab Mice Become Obese in 3 Weeks

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'Laboratory Mouse'

Scientists have found that a specific brain enzyme may tell mice when they should stop eating.

A Johns Hopkins research team has identified a type of brain cell that it is responsible for appetite control in rodents. The team found that if an enzyme is missing from the nerve cell the animals do not know anymore when to stop eating and, thus, they become obese.

Scientists report that mice without the enzyme OGT in their system became obese in about three weeks. If the findings are confirmed in human trials, they could pave the way to a revolutionary tool to prevent and cure obesity.

The findings were published Friday in Science.

Richard Huganir, lead author of the study, noted that whenever the brain cell was working properly it could signal mice that they ought to stop eating. The team discovered the brain cell responsible for appetite in mice during a study on synapse strength in the cortex and hippocampus.

In the latest study, Huganir and his team focused on OGT because the enzyme has been long known as an important catalyst in many biological processes such as insulin control and blood sugar metabolism. Plus, the enzyme shapes proteins’ behavior.

To find what role OGT plays in regulating appetite, researchers genetically altered laboratory mice’s brains not to release the enzyme anymore. Researchers observed that the rodents became obese in less than a month afterwards.

The team also learned that while rodents without the enzyme ate the same amount of meals per day, they ate more calories than their normal peers. Furthermore, when they were given the same amount of food as to the control group, the genetically modified mice stopped gaining weight.

Scientists concluded that the enzyme is responsible for appetite control, i.e. without it, the lab mice cannot sense when they had enough food.

Scientists, however, detected the new nerve cell in a brain area that regulates feeding, metabolism, and sleep: the hypothalamus. It was there that the OGT enzyme was missing from. The brain cell was detected in an area dubbed the paraventricular nucleus.

Scientists have long suspected that the paraventricular nucleus may be regulating food appetite. Brain scans showed that OGT-deficient brain cells had weaker synapses and three times as few brain cell connections as in normal cells.

Huganir concluded that the enzyme keeps synapses alive. Plus, he noted that in its absence there were so few synapses that the cells did not have enough input to beam the ‘stop eating’ signal.

Image Source: Wikimedia

Poor Memory Tied to Being Obese

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"Obese man alongside young girl"

A small study suggests that obese people may have more memory problems than thin people.

A recent study suggests that obese people have harder times in recalling past experiences than their slimmer peers. Nevertheless, their overall ability to remember general knowledge was not impacted by the excess weight.

The study, which involved 50 participants, showed that being obese triggered not only a plethora of health conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, but it also affected obese people’s ability to remember past events.

Researchers explained that poorer memory may reinforce overeating because people tend to forget how much food they had consumed at a previous meal.

The findings were published this week in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology.

The study results confirm past mouse studies that had revealed overweight is tied to poorer scores in memory tests designed for rodents. Nevertheless, no such link was found in humans until now.

The latest study tried to assess volunteers’ episodic memory, i.e. the ability to recall specific experiences in one’s past such as the voice of a beloved person or the smell of a garden rose.

Scientists put to test 50 people. Some of the participants had a normal weight, while some were deemed ‘very obese’ based on their body mass index (BMI). Volunteers were asked to play a brain game on a computer and try to hide different objects at different times in various contexts.

Next, they were given a test to remember what object they had hidden, at what specific time, and in what context. Scores of the obese group were 15 percent lower than the thin group.

Prof Lucy Cheke, lead author of the study and researcher with the University of Cambridge, recently told reporters that a high BMI is not associated with complete blankness or amnesia. Obese people seem to have less ‘vivid’ memories of their past experiences.

Cheke is concerned that a less vivid remembrance of what you had eaten several hours ago may make you more prone to overeat later on that day. Researchers noted that not only hunger hormones trigger satiety cues, but also a vivid memory.

Past studies had revealed that people who watch TV while they consume foods tend to eat a lot more than people who are having a meal without a screen in their faces. Plus, past research had also found that people with amnesia tend to eat or feel hungrier sooner than people not affected by the condition.

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High BMI is Not Necessarily a Sign of Poor Health

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'Big Belly'

A UCLA study shows that many overweight and obese people are perfectly healthy.

UCLA researchers have found that a high BMI is not necessarily a sign of poor health as common belief has it. BMI, or the body mass index, is a ratio of an individual’s weight and height.

Many employers and even lawmakers currently believe that BMI could tell them how healthy their employees or citizens are. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has even advanced a proposal to force people with a high BMI to fork out more cash for their health insurance premiums.

But UCLA scientists have found that if we consider BMI an indicator of how healthy a person really is about 54 million Americans would be deemed ‘unhealthy’ although that may not be the case at all.

A study detailing the new findings was published Thursday in International Journal of Obesity.

“Many people see obesity as a death sentence,”

noted A. Janet Tomiyama, lead author of the study and UCLA psychology expert.

Tomiyama added that many people are obese, but they are also perfectly healthy.

During their study, researchers analyzed participants’ BMI, blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The information was gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.

Scientists found that about 47.4 percent of U.S. residents (about 34 million) that fall under the ‘overweight’ category if we take into account their BMI have no health issues. About 20 million more which are obese are also perfectly healthy.

Study authors concluded that since these people’s BMI does not affect their health, overcharging them on a false assumption would be unfair. Plus, about 20.7 million Americans that have a normal weight are unhealthy, the data revealed. By contrast, 2 million ‘very obese’ Americans do not struggle with any health issue. About 15 percent of population is considered ‘very obese’ as the BMI is over 35.

Tomiyama explained that a faulty health policy would charge perfectly healthy people some extra money, while the unhealthy that have a low BMI would simply ‘fly under the radar.’

Jeffrey Hunger, another study investigator, believes that measuring health through BMI is deeply flawed. He also believes that people should stop being obsessed about their weight and focus more on a healthy diet and exercising to stay healthy and fit.

People with a normal BMI should also refrain from pointing the finger at overweight people, blaming them for imaginary high health care costs. Under the new rules, the EEOC wants to force employers to impose higher insurance rates on workers who have a BMI of 25 or higher.

Image Source: Pixabay

Binge Eating, Depression Sometimes Go Hand in Hand with Bariatric Surgery

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'obesity'

Researchers found an association between bariatric surgery and higher prevalence of depression and binge eating in weight-loss surgery patients.

A new research suggests that binge eating, depression sometimes go hand in hand with bariatric surgery especially in the severely obese.

After they have sifted through nearly 70 studies on the topic, researchers at University of California found that nearly 25 percent of patients who had underwent bariatric surgery reported mood changes and emotional instability. Another 17 percent said that they developed binge-eating disorder after the procedure.

The findings were published Tuesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Bariatric surgery, also known as weight-loss surgery, is usually recommended to people that are severely obese, or are over 100 pounds, and all efforts to shed the extra pounds through dieting and exercise had failed.

Dr. Aaron Dawes, lead author of the study, said that the severely overweight often display mental health symptoms such as binge eating and depression, but in patients who underwent obesity surgery those symptoms were twice more likely to occur than in the general public.

Yet, there is also a piece of good news: the depressive symptoms and other mental health symptoms did not seem to hinder weight loss in the wake of the medical procedure.

Bariatric surgery has multiple versions but the final goal is to help patients lose weight by limiting the quantity of food they can ingest. Additionally, after the surgery patients are recommended to change their diets to help them lose weight without falling ill.

This is why, researchers suspect that the mood of surgery patients could be affected by the changes they need to make after surgery. Dawes noted that the new findings underscore the significance of these patients’ mental health, which is often overlooked.

Study authors recommend doctors to keep an eye o their patients post surgery and prescribe them a treatment if mental health symptoms are visible. Currently, obese patients only need to undergo mental health screening before surgery.

If a professional concludes that they aren’t mentally fit to be referred to weight-loss surgery, they are barred from the procedure. And since mental health issues often affect severely obese patients, constant evaluation is critical.

Yet, depression is not a reason to ban the patient from obesity surgery. Doctors should evaluate the severity of the depression in each particular case and take the best decision. Additionally, people diagnosed with binge-eating disorder before surgery are not at risk of being excluded. Although these patients could find it harder than other obese patients to restrict their food intake, binge eating did not hider them from losing weight after obesity surgery.
Image Source: Flickr

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