Author Interviews, Pediatrics, UCSD, Weight Research / 17.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Geert W. Schmid-Schonbein, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor and Chairman Department of Bioengineering Adjunct Professor in Medicine University of California San Diego Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Schmid-Schonbein: Most approaches to control/reduce body weight focus on reducing food quantity, improving quality and promoting daily activity. These approaches, effective in the short term, only yield modest weight control. Weight management strategies recommended in the past have not significantly diminished the current trend towards childhood and adolescence obesity. We developed and tested an alternative approach to control weight gain in healthy individuals to reduce the risk for development of obesity and diabetes complications. The essence is to: “Eat deliberately slow AND stop eating when you feel no longer hungry”. The approach avoids any form of special diet, uses no drugs, can be adopted for a lifetime and used in any ethnic environment. Children in a Mexican School in Durango were instructed by a pediatrician to learn to eat deliberately slow and to stop eating when the satiety reflex sets in, i.e. the moment when the feeling of hunger has disappeared. They were instructed to:
  • quench the thirst at the beginning of a meal with water,
  • use a portable 30 second hourglass sand timer,
  • take a bite only when the sand timer was turned, and
  • stop eating when they were no longer hungry (as compared to feeling of fullness), and
  • limit food consumption after the point of satiety.
Over a one-year period, children not using the hourglass excessively increased their body-mass index, while in contrast children using the hourglass grew normally their body-mass index. Body surface area and waist hip ratio followed the same trend. The study shows feasibility of regulating food intake by education that is directed at developing slow eating habits and cessation of eating at satiety. A combination of behavioral training and focused eating monitoring may constitute a weight control method that may serve a life-time and can be promoted for children and adolescents at moderate costs, on a national basis. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cognitive Issues, Weight Research / 16.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Anne Martin PhD Research Associate/Research Fellow Physical Activity for Health Research Centre (PAHRC) Institute for Sport, PE & Health Sciences University of Edinburgh TeleScot Research Group Usher Institute for Population Health Sciences and Informatics Edinburgh Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Martin: Impairments in cognitive development during childhood can have detrimental effects on health behaviour, educational attainment, and socio-economic status later in life. Epidemiological evidence indicates an association between childhood obesity and cognition and educational attainment. Knowledge of when obesity related deficits in cognition and attainment emerge, and how large the deficits are at various ages, may be useful to support arguments for school-based obesity prevention initiatives and in translating evidence on this topic into policy aimed at preventing obesity. In this study we explored whether the adverse association between obesity and cognition emerges in early childhood. Measures of cognitive abilities included visuo-spatial skills, expressive language skills and reasoning skills. Our findings indicated that obesity in the pre-school years may be weakly associated with some poorer cognitive outcomes at age 5 years in boys, independently of socioeconomic status. Stronger relationships between obesity and cognition or educational attainment may emerge later in childhood. Evidence from an English cohort study suggested an adverse association between obesity in teenage girls and lower academic attainment in Mathmatics, Science and English. (more…)
Author Interviews, Rheumatology, UCSF, Weight Research / 07.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Alexandra S. Gersing, MD Department of Radiology and Biomedical Imaging University of California, San Francisco Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Gersing:  This study is part of a larger NIH-funded project focusing on the effects of weight change in individuals at risk for and with osteoarthritis. Our group has previously shown that weight gain causes substantial worsening of knee joint degeneration in patients with risk factors for osteoarthritis and now we aimed to show that weight loss could protect the knee joint from degeneration and osteoarthritis. Osteoarthritis is one of the major causes of pain and disability worldwide; and cartilage plays a central role in the development of joint degeneration. Since cartilage loss is irreversible, we wanted to assess whether lifestyle interventions, such as weight loss, could make a difference at a very early, potentially reversible stage of cartilage degradation and whether a certain amount of weight loss is more beneficial to prevent cartilage deterioration. To measure these early changes we used a novel Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technique, called T2 mapping, which allows us to evaluate biochemical cartilage degradation in the patient on a molecular level. The most relevant finding of this study is that patients with more that 10% of weight loss benefited significantly more from losing weight compared to the obese controls that did not lose weight or only lost little weight. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Weight Research / 06.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Ida Donkin MD, PhD Postdoc, Medical Doctor, PhD University of Copenhagen Faculty Of Health Sciences Copenhagen, Denmark Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Donkin: We know that children of obese fathers are more prone to develop obesity themselves – regardless of the weight of the mother. We also know that obesity and diabetes are diseases with a very big inheritable components in their aetiology. If your parents are obese, you have a risk of about 75% percent of developing obesity yourself. But we do not know how the disease is inherited from one generation to the next. Despite exhaustive research trying to investigate genes potentially responsible for this, and more than 125 genetic mutations have been discovered to associate to the development of obesity, all the genetic mutations put together cannot explain more than about 10% of the actual inheritance. So how is obesity inherited from parents to children? One explanation could be the transfer of epigenetic information from one generation to the next. Epigenetic information is established in our body’s cells in response to our lifestyle and the environment around us. We discovered that the epigenetic factors of semen cells also responds to changes in our lifestyle, and we speculated whether these might be the key to understand how obesity in dads can lead to obesity in children. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Dr. Donkin: In this study we discovered that the information kept in our semen cells responds dynamically to changes in our lifestyle. If you are obese, your semen cells will contain a different epigenetic pattern than if you are lean. Weight loss induced by gastric bypass surgery will dynamically change these epigenetic patterns, meaning that by changing our lifestyle, we can actively change the epigenetic information we pass on to our children. Other research groups have created solid evidence showing us that most these epigenetic marks kept in the sperm cells will be passed on to the embryo at fertilization. The epigenetic information can affect the development of the embryo, and thereby change the health – and the risk of disease – of our children. Our study thus provides a likely explanation for the mechanism of the inheritance of acquired traits and diseases through generations, and gives us a likely explanation as to why children of obese fathers are more prone to develop obesity themselves. (more…)
Author Interviews, Karolinski Institute, Lancet, OBGYNE, Weight Research / 03.12.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Professor Sven Cnattingius Professor in reproductive epidemiology Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Department of Medicine Karolinska University Hospital Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Prof. Cnattingius: Maternal overweight and obesity are associated with increased risks of stillbirth and infant mortality. Weight gain between pregnancies increases risks of other obesity-related complications, including preeclampsia, gestational diabetes, and preterm birth. Weight gain appear to increase these risks especially in women who start off with normal weight. As these complications increases risks of stillbirth and infant mortality, we wanted to study the associations between weight change between successive pregnancies and risks of stillbirth and infant mortality (deaths during the first year of life). Medical Research: What are the main findings? Prof. Cnattingius: The main findings include:
  • Weight gain increases risk of stillbirth in a dose-response manner.
  • In women starting off with normal weight (BMI <25), weight gain  increases risk of infant mortality in a dose-response manner.
  • In women starting off with overweight or obesity (BMI >25), weight loss reduces the risk of neonatal mortality (deaths during the first four weeks of life).
(more…)
Author Interviews, Microbiome, Weight Research / 28.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Eran Elinav PhD Immunology Department and Prof. Eran Segal PhD Department of Computer Science and Applied Mathematics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot , Israel Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Response: Obesity and diabetes are rising epidemics, affecting a significant portion of the world’s population. Blood glucose levels are a major contributor to these epidemics, as they are associated with obesity and with risk to develop diabetes. Normalizing blood glucose can have highly beneficial effects on the health of individuals. Therefore, we decided to study the factors that affect blood glucose. Among these factors are the macro- and micronutrient content of the meal, a person’s lifestyle, medical state, and their microbiome. We then started collecting from participants these exact parameters, and studied their effect on blood glucose. We managed to successfully predict the blood glucose response of many people to many meals and to assign for people beneficial diets based on this prediction. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Nature, Weight Research / 26.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Andrew Whittle, joint first-author of the paper and a postdoc in the Prof. Vidal-Puig’s lab at the time the research was conducted. Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Whittle: Antonio Vidal-Puig heads the disease model core of the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories at the Wellcome Trust-MRC Institute of Metabolic Science (IMS). His laboratory has a long-standing interest in the mechanisms that regulate how adipose tissue stores, burns or releases energy. The group studies mice that have increased or reduced susceptibility to obesity and its metabolic complications, in order to dissect the molecular pathways that underpin these phenotypes. Their long-term goal is to develop more effective strategies to manipulate the body’s own regulatory pathways, both to reduce obesity itself or limit the negative impact that excess lipids have on other important metabolic organs. Professor Hideaki Bujo from Toho University Medical Center in Japan has been working for a number of years to understand the role of specific lipoprotein receptors in vascular biology. Specifically he has shown that LR11 is cleaved to release a short soluble for of the protein, sLR11, which can effect changes to vascular smooth muscle cell migration. To further his studies he generated a knock-out mouse model completely lacking LR11. One of the first observations his group made was that these mice remained leaner than control animals. I and Meizi Jiang (a postdoc in the Bujo lab) conducted a collaborative study of the LR11 knockout mice (Lr11-/-), to investigate the mechanisms by which a lack of LR11 resulted in mice being protected from diet-induced obesity.  (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, CDC, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 20.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Quanhe Yang, PhD Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta, GA 30341 MedicalResearch: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Yang: Body mass index (BMI) is an important risk factor for high blood pressure among adolescents. Despite a recent leveling off in the numbers of overweight and obese youths, weight-associated health outcomes remain a problem in the U.S. Some researchers have suggested that the increased prevalence of high blood pressure among adolescents is associated with the epidemic of overweight and obesity in the U.S. As a result, we analyzed trends in pre-high blood pressure and high blood pressure among U.S. youth using data from a series of National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys. Nearly 15,000 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 19 were included in the surveys, which were conducted between 1988 and 2012. During that 24-year timeframe, the prevalence of high blood pressure actually decreased overall, while pre-high blood pressure remained largely unchanged. However, those rates differed based on body weight category. For example, pre-high blood pressure was consistently higher among overweight/obese adolescents (18 to 22 percent) than those of normal weight (11 to 12 percent). The observed changes in both pre-high blood pressure and high blood pressure prevalence were consistent across age group, sex and race/ethnicity. (more…)
Author Interviews, Hepatitis - Liver Disease, Surgical Research, Transplantation, Weight Research / 17.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Barry Schlansky, M.D., M.P.H Assistant Professor of Medicine Oregon Health & Science University Medical Research: What are the main findings and significance of this study? Dr. Schlansky: This study examines how obese patients fare before and after liver transplantation. Similar to other researchers, we found that obese patients do just as well as normal weight patients after liver transplantation. We were surprised, however, to find that very obese patients died more often while on the wait list before liver transplant. (more…)
Author Interviews, OBGYNE, Pediatrics, Toxin Research, Weight Research / 13.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joseph M. Braun PhD Assistant Professor Department of Epidemiology in the Program in Public Health Brown University Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Dr. Braun:  Perfluoroalkyl substances are a class of chemicals used to produce stain/water repellent textiles, fire fighting foams, and non-stick coatings. Virtually all people in the US have measurable levels of several different perfluoroalkyl substances in their blood. There is concern that early life exposure to these chemicals can increase the risk of obesity by reducing fetal growth or promoting adipogenesis. What are the main findings? Dr. Braun:  Pregnant women in our study had perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) concentrations in their blood that were over 2-fold higher than pregnant women in the United States (median: 5.3 vs. 2.3 ng/mL) during the same time period (2003-2006). Children born to women with higher serum PFOA concentrations during pregnancy had a higher body mass index, greater waist circumference, and more body fat at 8 years of age compared to children born to women with lower serum PFOA concentrations. In addition, children born to women with higher serum PFOA concentrations during pregnancy gained more fat mass between 2 and 8 years of age than children born to women with lower PFOA concentrations. (more…)
Author Interviews, FASEB, Metabolic Syndrome, Nutrition, Weight Research / 13.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Suzan Wopereis, Ph.D. TNO, Microbiology and Systems Biology Group Zeist, The Netherlands Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Wopereis: For the first time we could demonstrate the very subtle start of negative health effects caused by a high calorie snack diet in healthy men. We already knew about the negative consequences of such diets from so called epidemiologic studies. In such studies, scientists compare large populations (thousands of people) to better understand disease development. For example, by comparing  obese populations to a lean population, scientists could define various steps in the disease development related to obesity, like high cholesterol, onset of inflammation, high blood pressure, high glucose, etc. Yet, the early deviations from health  were difficult to study because human metabolism (the way we digest and metabolize our meals from a biochemical viewpoint)  is very flexible and able to efficiently deal with all kinds of daily stressors, such as a meal or intensive exercise. So, at TNO we decided to exploit  this flexibility by giving our healthy volunteers a ‘challenge test’, in the form of a high-fat milkshake. Next, we studied how multiple aspects of their metabolism react to such a challenge test. We showed that a snack diet for 4 weeks reduced many aspects of  flexibility of our healthy men, thus indicating very early changes in health. Both the high-fat challenge test and the integral study of many different outcomes form a novel approach of what “healthy” really means. In the study we used two groups of male volunteers. One group of 10 healthy male volunteers and one group of 9 male volunteers with Metabolic Syndrome, who had a combination of 2 or more risk factors that raises your risk for heart disease and other health problems (unhealthy cholesterol levels, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high blood lipids, and abdominal fat). In other words, subjects with Metabolic Syndrome have a suboptimal health condition. Both groups received a high-fat milk-shake, and before and up to 8 hours after consumption of this metabolic challenge-test, blood samples were taken. In these blood samples, 61 different biomarkers were measured, such as cholesterol and blood sugar. These 61 biomarkers were used for a thorough health assessment of these 2 groups in response to the challenge test. We noted that biochemical processes related to sugar metabolism, fat metabolism and inflammation function abnormal in subjects with Metabolic Syndrome. The next step was to provide the 10 healthy male volunteers with a snack diet for 4 weeks. On top of their normal diet they had to consume an additional 1300 kcal per day, in the form of sweets and savory products such as candy bars, tarts, peanuts, and crisps. After these 4 weeks the response of the same 61 biomarkers to the challenge test was evaluated. Here, we observed that signaling molecules such as hormones regulating the control of sugar and fat metabolism and inflammation were changed, resembling the very subtle start of negative health effects. Without the use of the challenge test, we would not have been able to observe that even this short period of overfeeding induces changes in the metabolism of healthy people that resemble what happens in people with metabolic syndrome. (more…)
Author Interviews, Sugar, Weight Research / 12.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Peter J. Rogers PhD School of Experimental Psychology University of Bristol, Bristol, UK Medical Research: What is the background for this study? Prof. Rogers: In recent years low-calorie sweeteners have been in the headlines because of concern that they may undermine rather than help with healthy weight management. That concern is based on selective reporting of studies and outright speculation. Our aim was to review the totality of evidence on this subject, which included results from human and animal (mouse and rat) studies. Medical Research: What are the main findings? Prof. Rogers: We found that randomised, controlled intervention trials in humans showed consistently that low-calorie sweeteners versus sugar consumption reduced energy intake and body weight, with no effect or even reduced body weight compared with consumption of water. These types of studies provide the strongest form of evidence – superior to animal and observational studies. In the animal studies, exposure to low-calorie sweeteners was mostly not representative of how people consume low-calorie sweeteners. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Race/Ethnic Diversity, Weight Research / 06.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joan C. Han, MD Director, Pediatric Obesity Program, Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital Associate Professor, Division of Pediatric Endocrinology Department of Pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center Memphis, TN 38103 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Han: Obesity has become a world-wide epidemic. Our research group studies the genetic factors that contribute to the development of obesity. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein that plays a key role in regulating appetite. We found that a common genetic variant of the BDNF gene is associated with lower expression of this gene in the hypothalamus, a region of the brain that controls energy balance. The mechanism of this reduced gene expression appears to be due to diminished binding of the transcription factor hnRNPD0B. We also observed that this genetic variant is associated with higher body mass index and higher body fat in children and adults. The obesity-predisposing variant of the BDNF gene occurs more commonly in people of African-American or Hispanic backgrounds, which could have important clinical implications given the higher rates of obesity in these populations. (more…)
Author Interviews, Nutrition, PLoS, University Texas, Weight Research / 04.11.2015

Dr. Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto MD PhD Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, Houston, TexasMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr.  Marcia C. de Oliveira Otto MD PhD Assistant professor  Division of Epidemiology, Human Genetics and Environmental Sciences The University of Texas Health Science Center School of Public Health, Houston, Texas  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?  Dr. Otto: Eat a variety of foods, or food diversity, is a long standing public health recommendation because it is thought to ensure adequate intake of essential nutrients, to prevent excessive intakes of less healthy nutrients such as refined sugars and salt, thus promoting good health. However there hasn’t been empiric evidence from populational studies testing this hypothesis. In our study, we characterized three metrics of diet diversity and evaluated their association with metabolic health using data from 6,814 participants in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis, including whites, blacks, Hispanic-Americans, and Chinese-Americans in the United States, including the total count (number of different foods eaten in a week), evenness (the distribution of calories across different foods consumed), and dissimilarity (the differences in food attributes relevant to metabolic health, such as fiber, sodium or trans-fat content). We then evaluated how diet diversity was associated with change in waist circumference five years after the beginning of the study and with onset of Type 2 diabetes ten years later. We also examined the relationship between diet quality and the same metabolic outcomes. Diet quality was measured using established scores such as the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and the Alterative Healthy Eating (AHEI) score. When evaluating both food count and evenness, we found no associations with either increase in waist circumference or incidence of diabetes. In other words, more diversity in the diet was not linked to better metabolic outcomes. Participants with greater food dissimilarity actually experienced more central weight gain, with a 120 percent greater increase in waist circumference than participants with lower food dissimilarity. Contrary to what we expected, our results showed that participants with greater diversity in their diets, as measured by dissimilarity, had worse diet quality. They were eating less healthy foods, such as fruits and vegetables, and more unhealthy foods, such as processed meats, desserts and soda. When evaluating diet quality, we found about a 25 percent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes after 10 years of follow up in participants with higher diet quality. There was no association between diet quality scores and change in waist circumference.  (more…)
Author Interviews, NYU, Weight Research / 03.11.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian Elbel, PhD MPH Associate professor, Department of Population Health NYU Langone Medical Center and at NYU’s Wagner Graduate School of Public Service  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Elbel: Since New York City implemented in 2008 its mandatory calorie counts in all chain restaurants, including in fast-food eateries, public health officials and the general public have wondered what impact it’s having on curbing the obesity epidemic gripping the nation and the city. An estimated third of adult Americans are obese (with a body mass index of 30 or more), and that number is expected to rise to 42 percent by 2030, among the highest of any country in the developed world. Our study looks at the effects of so-called calorie counts some six years out from when the law took effect. Between 2013 and 2014, a team of NYU Langone researchers analyzed the receipts of some 7,699 diners at fast-food restaurants in NYC and in nearby NJ cities to see if the menu labels reduced the overall number of calories that consumers of fast food order and presumably eat. Our research team compared calories consumed at fast-food eateries with and without calorie labels. Researchers found that the average number of calories bought by patrons at each sitting between 2013 and 2014 was statistically the same as those in a similar survey we conducted in 1,068 fast-food diners in 2008, when New York City initially imposed menu labeling. Diners were surveyed at major fast-food chains: McDonald’s, Burger King, KFC, and Wendy’s. Calorie counts in the 2013-2014 analysis averaged between 804 and 839 per meal at menu-labeled restaurants, and between 802 and 857 per meal at non-labeled eateries; whereas, they averaged 783 per meal for labeled restaurants and 756 per meal for non-labeled restaurants shortly after the policy was introduced. For the surveys, diners entering the fast-food restaurant were asked to return their itemized receipt to research assistants and answer some follow-up questions in person in exchange for two dollars. Our study suggests that menu labeling, in particular at fast-food restaurants, will not on its own lead to any lasting reductions in calories consumed. (more…)
Author Interviews, Weight Research / 30.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Joshua H. West, Ph.D., MPH Department of Health Science Brigham Young University Provo, UT 84602 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. West: Americans consume too much food. Yet most of our focus is on the qualitative aspects of food. Overconsumption of ‘good’ food can also negative outcomes. Most diets are confusing, costly to the individual, and difficult to adhere to. Even counting calories can be cumbersome and time-consuming. We found that participants lost weight by prioritizing worrying less about what they were eating and simply reducing how much they were eating, as estimated using a bite counting method. (more…)
Author Interviews, Blood Pressure - Hypertension, Weight Research / 29.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Mirna Azar MD Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism University of Ottawa Weight Management Clinic The Ottawa Hospital Ottawa, ON, Canada  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Azar: Previous studies have shown an association between beta-blockers and weight gain but little is known about the effect of beta-blockers on weight loss. Here we demonstrate that patients treated with beta-blockers exhibit a reduced ability to lose weight in response to a standardized 900 kcal meal replacement program. From a database of 3,582 patients who participated in a 6-week 900 kcal/day Optifast meal replacement weight loss program, 173 patients were on beta-blockers. We determined differences in rate of weight loss and changes in waist circumference in the first 6 weeks of meal replacement program in these subjects as compared to controls, matched for sex, age and initial weight and to the entire population with adjustment for age, sex, initial body weight, ACE inhibitor and diuretic therapy and existing cardiovascular disease. In comparison with matched controls, beta-blocker treated subjects lost a mean of 0.67 kg less than their matched controls (P = 0.01) and their percent weight loss was 0.6% lower (P = 0.0001). Differences were also noted for changes in waist circumference (-24.2 vs -25.2 cm, P= 0.04). Findings were not altered after adjustment for cardiovascular indications for beta-blocker therapy. (more…)
Author Interviews, Nature, NYU, Weight Research / 28.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Margaret E. Rice, PhD Professor, Department of Neuroscience and Physiology Neurosurgery NYU Langone Medical Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Rice: Insulin is released from the pancreas into the bloodstream in response to a rise in circulating glucose levels when we eat. In most cells in the body, including those of liver and muscle, insulin acts at insulin receptors to promote glucose transport and other metabolic functions. Insulin also enters the brain and acts at brain insulin receptors, particularly in the hypothalamus where insulin acts as a satiety signal to indicate that we are full and should stop eating. The rising incidence of obesity, in which circulating insulin levels are chronically elevated, suggests insulin may play a role in other brain regions, as well, including regions that regulate motivation and reward. Indeed, our new studies introduce a new role for insulin as a reward signal that acts in the dorsal striatum to enhance release of dopamine.  Dopamine is a key neurotransmitter in reward systems; most drugs of abuse enhance release of dopamine, which contributes to their addictive properties. We found that insulin, at levels found in the brain by the end of a meal, enhances dopamine release by activating insulin receptors on acetylcholine-containing striatal cells that boost dopamine release. Consistent with a role of insulin in signaling reward, companion behavioral studies in rodents indicate that insulin signaling in the striatum communicates the reward value of an ingested meal, and thereby influences food choices. These studies reveal the dual nature of insulin in the brain, which not only tells us when to stop eating, but also influences what we eat. (more…)
Author Interviews, Columbia, OBGYNE, Weight Research / 26.10.2015

Elizabeth M. Widen, PhD, RD Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine, Institute of Human Nutrition & Department of Epidemiology Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health New York, NY 10032MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Elizabeth M. Widen, PhD, RD Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Medicine, Institute of Human Nutrition & Department of Epidemiology Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health New York, NY 10032 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Widen: The Columbia Center for Children’s Environmental Health Mothers and Newborns Study was started in 1998 and is based in Northern Manhattan and the South Bronx. Pregnant African American and Dominican mothers were enrolled from 1998 to 2006, and mothers and their children have been followed since this time. Pregnancy weight gain and maternal size and body fat was measured at seven years postpartum, allowing us to examine the role of nutrition in pregnancy on long-term maternal health. We found that high pregnancy weight gain, above the Institute of Medicine 2009 guidelines, was associated with long-term weight retention and higher body fat at seven years postpartum among women who began pregnancy with underweight, normal weight and modest overweight body mass index (BMI). These findings suggest that prepregnancy BMI and high pregnancy weight gain have long-term implications for maternal weight-related health, especially among mothers who begin pregnancy with lower prepregnancy BMI values. (more…)
Author Interviews, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 24.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Brian S. Schwartz, MD, MS Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Epidemiology, and Medicine Co-director, Program on Global Sustainability and Health Senior Investigator, Geisinger Center for Health Research (Danville, PA) Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health Baltimore, Maryland 21205 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Schwartz: Sub-therapeutic doses of antibiotics (not a high enough dose to treat an infection in the animal) have been added to animal feeds for decades to promote weight gain. An increasing number of studies of therapeutic uses of antibiotics in humans have reported weight gain, mostly in young children. Using electronic health record data on over 163,000 children between 3 and 18 years of age from the Geisinger Health System, our study was the first one to study the full childhood age range among mostly healthy children; to find effects of antibiotics on weight gain at all ages; to find that the more the cumulative number of antibiotics the greater the weight gain; and that some of the effects were progressive, in that the cumulative number of antibiotics caused an increasing divergence of the body mass index trajectory over time from the trajectory in children who had not received antibiotics. (more…)
Author Interviews, Endocrinology, Genetic Research, Weight Research / 22.10.2015

Urszula T. Iwaniec, Ph.D. Associate Professor Skeletal Biology Laboratory School of Biological and Population Health Sciences Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Urszula T. Iwaniec, Ph.D. Associate Professor Skeletal Biology Laboratory School of Biological and Population Health Sciences Oregon State University Corvallis, OR 97331 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Iwaniec: Excessive weight gain in adults is associated with a variety of negative health outcomes. Unfortunately, dieting, exercise, and pharmacological interventions have had limited long-term success in weight control and can result in detrimental side effects, including accelerating age-related bone loss.  Leptin, a hormone produced by fat cells plays an essential role in weight regulation. Delivery of leptin directly into the hypothalamus by gene therapy normalizes body weight. We investigated the efficacy of using hypothalamic leptin gene therapy as an alternative method for reducing weight in skeletally-mature female rats and determined the impact of leptin-induced weight loss on bone. Our findings show that hypothalamic leptin gene therapy reduced body weight with minimal effects on bone mass or microarchitecture. (more…)
Author Interviews, Metabolic Syndrome, Weight Research / 22.10.2015

Robert Wong, M.D., M.S. Attending Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology Director, GI Education & Research Highland Hospital A member of Alameda Health System Oakland, CA 94602MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Robert Wong, M.D., M.S. Attending Physician, Gastroenterology & Hepatology Director, GI Education & Research Highland Hospital A member of Alameda Health System Oakland, CA 94602 Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Wong: The rising prevalence of obesity and diabetes has led to concurrent rise in metabolic syndrome in the U.S.  Identifying metabolic syndrome is important to implement targeted treatment as metabolic syndrome contributes to cardiovascular disease, nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, and overall mortality.  However, while obesity is a major risk factor for metabolic syndrome, out study highlights the importance of considering metabolic syndrome even in individuals who do not meet criteria for obesity.  We demonstrated that nearly 20% of adults who do not meet current definitions of obesity still have metabolic syndrome in the U.S. (more…)
Author Interviews, Cost of Health Care, Gastrointestinal Disease, Weight Research / 22.10.2015

[wysija_form id="5"]Salman Nusrat M.D. Assistant Professor, Section of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition University of Oklahoma Health Sciences CenterMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Salman Nusrat M.D. Assistant Professor, Section of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Nusrat: Obesity is a global epidemic and is one of the most taxing issues affecting healthcare in the United States. It is a well-established risk factor for increased morbidity and mortality. We looked at how morbid obesity (BMI>40) affected inpatient health care utilization over the last two decades. We found that:
  • From 1997 to 2012, the number of patients discharged with a diagnosis of morbid obesity increased 11 folds from 10,883 to 124,650
  • The majority of these patients were female (~80%) and aged between 18-44 years.
  • Southern States accounted for majority of these admissions (37%). Majority of these patients were insured (~90%) and about three quarters of these admissions were in area with mean income above the 25 percentile.
  • The number of hospitalizations for patients aged >45 years increased from 33% to 50%.
  • -Even though the length of stay decreased from 5 days (1997) to 2.1 days (2012), the aggregate charges increased from $198 Million (1997) to $5.9 Billion (2012).
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AHA Journals, Author Interviews, Weight Research / 17.10.2015

Dr. Eric J. Belin de Chantemèle PhD Georgia Regents University Augusta Georgia MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Eric J. Belin de Chantemèle PhD Georgia Regents University Augusta Georgia  Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response:  Obesity is currently a worldwide epidemic and a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease including among others hypertension, endothelial dysfunction, atherosclerosis and coronary artery disease. Despite decades of research, the mechanisms linking obesity to cardiovascular disease still remain incompletely understood. Obesity is commonly associated with increased levels of the mineralocorticoid hormone aldosterone. Excessive amounts of aldosterone promote hypertension, vascular and heart disease but also lead to inflammation, and facilitate the development of diabetes. The present study aimed at deciphering the origin of these high aldosterone levels. We have been the first to demonstrate that the adipocyte derived hormone leptin controls the level of expression of the enzyme producing aldosterone: aldosterone synthase (CYP11B2), in the adrenal glands, and leptin stimulates the release of aldosterone. This was demonstrated in different mouse models as well as in cultured human adrenocortical cells. We also demonstrated that leptin-mediated aldosterone production promotes the development of cardiovascular disease, notably impairs endothelium-dependent relaxation in major arteries and promotes the development of cardiac fibrosis. Both endothelial dysfunction and cardiac fibrosis are precursors of major cardiovascular disease. (more…)
Author Interviews, Smoking, University of Pennsylvania, Weight Research / 16.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Samuel H. Preston Ph.D Professor, Department of Sociology and Population Studies Center University of Pennsylvania Philadelphia, Pennsylvania  Medical Research: What is meant by the Obesity Paradox? Is it reported more in some groups? Dr. Preston: The obesity paradox is a term that is used when a study finds that obese people have lower mortality than non-obese people. The finding is considered paradoxical because the obese do not have lower mortality in cross-sections of the general population. The paradox is, however, commonly observed among people who suffer from a particular illness such as heart disease or diabetes.  Medical Research: What are the main findings of your study? What is reverse causation and how does it affect obesity studies? Dr. Preston: We find in a nationally representative sample that, among people suffering from cardiovascular disease, mortality is indeed lower for people who are overweight or obese than for people of normal weight. So the paradox appears among this group. However, when we study people's mortality according to their maximum lifetime weight, the paradox disappears. We attribute its disappearance primarily to the fact that many  people who have lost weight from their maximum are doing so because they are ill. This phenomenon is referred to as "reverse causation" because illness is affecting weight rather than weight affecting illness and mortality. (more…)
Author Interviews, Diabetes, Weight Research / 14.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Guofang Chen MD Endocrine and Diabetes Center Jiangsu Province Hospital on Integration of Chinese and Western Medicine Nanjing University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Guofang Chen: With the high prevalence of diabetes in China (about 11.6% in adults from 2013 data), finding a way to improve remission of diabetes, and decrease the risk of developing diabetes, can be considered urgent. Very low calorie diet (VLCD) has been reported as a quick therapeutic tool to improve glucose control in obese type 2 diabetic patients. We investigated the effects of short-term Very low calorie diet in both lean and overweight/obese type 2 diabetic patients in China. We find that short-term VLCD effectively improved insulin sensitivity, beta-cell function, glucose control, and lipid profile in overweight/obese rather than lean patients with type 2 diabetes in China. (more…)
Author Interviews, Genetic Research, Nutrition, Weight Research / 05.10.2015

Jacqueline Alvarez-Leite MD, Ph.D Full Professor, UFMG Moore Laboratory Massachusetts General HospitalMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Jacqueline Alvarez-Leite  MD, Ph.D Federal University of Minas Gerias in Brazil Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Dr. Alvarez-Leite : Obesity is now a global epidemic and bariatric surgery is now the main therapeutic option for those individuals with extreme obesity in which clinical treatments failed. However, a significant proportion of those patients regain the weight lost 3-4 years after surgery. Therefore, some metabolic or genetic trait may be related to weight regain. The rs9939609 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the fat mass and obesity- associated (FTO) gene is one of the most studied genes involved in obesity. However, few studies have been conducted on patients who underwent bariatric surgery. In our study, we evaluated the influence of  this FTO SNP on body weight and composition, and weight regain in 146 patients during a 60-mo follow-up period after bariatric surgery. We observed that there was a different evolution of weight loss in individual with obesity carriers of the FTO gene variant after bariatric surgery. However, this pattern is evident at only 2 y post bariatric
 surgery, inducing a lower proportion of surgery success (percentage of excess weight loss >50%) and greater and earlier weight regain after 3-y of follow-up. Multiple regression 
analyses showed that the variation in rs9939609 was a significant and independent predictor for regaining weight during the 
5-y follow-up period. (more…)
Author Interviews, Kaiser Permanente, Pediatrics, Weight Research / 05.10.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr-Corinna-Koebnick Corinna Koebnick, PhD Research scientist with Research & Evaluation Kaiser Permanente Southern California MedicalResearch: Please describe your study, what you were looking for, and why.  Dr. Koebnick: This study is based on the Kaiser Permanente Southern California Children’s Health Study, which includes all children and adolescents 2–19 years of age in Southern California who are actively enrolled in a large, integrated, managed health care system. We examined the body weight from electronic health records of more than 1.3 million children and adolescents 2-19 years of age from 2008 to 2013. The objective of this study was to investigate recent trends in pediatric obesity in Southern California between 2008 and 2013. Several recent studies have investigated national trends in childhood obesity in the United States and indicated that childhood obesity rates may have reached a plateau, but are not declining. Ours is one of the few studies that is large enough to be able to detect small changes in the prevalence of obesity in time periods of less than 10 years. MedicalResearch: What are the findings of this study?  Dr. Koebnick: Our study provides strong indication that the prevalence of overweight and obesity between 2008 and 2013 has not only plateaued, but also is slowly declining. While the decline in overweight and obesity was less pronounced in girls, adolescents, some minority groups and youth living in low income and low education areas, the decline was remarkably stable across all groups and significant even in minority youth and youth of lower socioeconomic status. We found the prevalence of overweight and obesity decreased overall by 2.2 percent and 1.6 percent, respectively. This change corresponds to a relative decline of 6.1 percent in overweight youth and 8.4 percent in obese youth. Although a decline was seen across all groups, the decrease was not as strong in adolescents aged 12-19 years, in girls compared to boys, and Hispanic and black children compared to non-Hispanic whites. (more…)
Author Interviews, BMJ, Weight Research / 01.10.2015

Dr Jonas Minet Kinge PhD Researcher, Department of Health Statistics, Norwegian Institute of Public Health Associate professor, Department of Health Management and Health Economics University of Oslo Norwegian Institute of Public Health Oslo, NorwayMedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr Jonas Minet Kinge PhD Researcher, Department of Health Statistics, Norwegian Institute of Public Health Associate professor, Department of Health Management and Health Economics University of Oslo Norwegian Institute of Public Health Oslo, Norway Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: Previous studies have shown that the number of people with obesity increases with the gross domestic product (GDP) of a country. Previous research has also indicated that education can be an important factor in this context. The aim of this new study was to explore the assumption from previous studies that obesity is linked to GDP and education, and to include new data from several different countries. The results from this study confirm that there is an association between obesity, education and GDP. The prevalence of obesity increases with rising GDP, but only among individuals with lower levels of education. There is no significant increase in obesity among those with higher education. This means that:
  • In countries with low GDP there is more obesity among those with high education.
  • In countries with high GDP there is more obesity among those with low education.
  • The study also found that the relationship was somewhat more marked among women than among men.
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Author Interviews, Psychological Science, University of Pittsburgh, Weight Research / 21.09.2015

MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Linda J Ewing PhD RN Department of Psychiatry and Lora E Burke PhD, MPH, RN, FAAN Department of Health and Community Systems University of Pittsburgh School of Nursing Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania Medical Research: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings? Response: This study was the product both of work done in Dr. Burke’s lab as well as cumulative findings of other investigators demonstrating that improved self-efficacy is related to positive changes in health behaviors (e.g., physical activity, increased Intake of healthier foods, such as fruits and vegetables).  Given that, we designed a behavioral weight loss study that included an intentional focus on enhancing participant self-efficacy for healthy behaviors related to weight loss maintenance.  No previous study had self-efficacy enhancement as a focus of intervention with the long-term goal of increasing weight loss maintenance.  Thus our study focused on mastery performance of weight loss related behaviors.  Findings supported our hypothesis; participants in both arms of the study (standard behavioral weight loss (SBT) and SBT with self-efficacy enhancement (SBT+SE) achieved clinically significant weight loss.  Participants in the SBT+SE group had greater weight loss maintenance while those in the SBT group had clinically significant weight regain. (more…)