Weight Research
10 Apr Diet-Induced Obesity: EPO Has Anti-Inflammatory Effect on White Adipose Tissue
MedicalResearch.com Interview witih: Dr. Constance Tom Noguchi, Ph.D. Molecular Medicine Branch National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, MD 20892 and Dr. Mawadda Al-Naeeli Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: The main findings of our study are: 1) EPO treatment has an anti-inflammatory effect on white adipose tissue macrophage population during diet-induced obesity in addition to its associated metabolic improvements on glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity in vivo. 2) In this model of obesity, EPO treatment was found to reduce M1-like [pro-inflammatory] and increased M2-like [anti-inflammatory] macrophages in visceral white adipose tissue depot. 3) In addition, EPO decreased circulating inflammatory monocytes. 4) These anti-inflammatory effects of EPO were found to be driven, at least in part, by direct EPO-R response in macrophages via Stat3 activation, where EPO effects on M2 but not M1 macrophages required interleukin-4 receptor/Stat6 axis. 5) The anti-inflammatory effects of EPO are not restricted to treatment with exogenous high dose EPO (1000U/kg), but also include endogenous physiological EPO levels as demonstrated by the series of studies conducted using ΔEpoR mice with EPO-R restricted to erythroid cells.09 Apr Eating Disorders in Men Under Recognized
MedicalResearch.com Interview with
Ulla Räisänen
Senior Researcher
HERG Health Experiences Research Group
Department of Primary Care Health Sciences
University of Oxford Oxford OX1 2ET
MedicalResearch.com : What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: We conducted a qualitative interview study exploring how young men (aged 16-25) recognise eating disorder symptoms and decide to seek help, and to examine their experiences of initial contacts with primary care in the UK.
Our data suggest that the widespread perception of eating disorders as uniquely or predominantly a female problem led to an initial failure by young men to recognise their behaviours as symptoms of an eating disorder. Many presented late in their illness trajectory when eating disorder behaviours and symptoms were entrenched, and some felt that opportunities to recognise their illness had been missed because of others’ lack of awareness of eating disorders in men. In addition, the men discussed the lack of gender-appropriate information and resources for men with eating disorders as an additional impediment to making sense of their experiences, and some felt that health and other professionals had been slow to recognise their symptoms because they were men.
02 Apr Obesity Regulating Protein May Prevent Weight Gain from High Fat Diet
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Shanthi Srinivasan, M.D.
Associate Professor of Medicine
Division of Digestive Diseases Department of Medicine
Emory University Atlanta, GA 30322
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Srinivasan: The main findings of this study are that the neurotrophic factor GDNF is was able to protect against the weight gain induced by mice on a high fat diet. The mice that had overexpression of GDNF showed less weight gain while eating the same high fat diet as the control mice. GDNF seems to have effects on the genes regulating fat metabolism and energy expenditure and this could be the mechanism of prevention of weight gain.
02 Apr Frequent Meals Don’t Promote Weight Loss
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Milan K Piya
NIHR Clinical Lecturer in Diabetes and Endocrinology
Warwick Medical School, University of Warwick;
University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust
Coventry, UK
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Our studies have identified two main findings:
Firstly that the size or frequency of the meal doesn’t affect the calories we burn in a day, but what matters most for losing weight is counting calories.
Secondly, by carrying more weight, more endotoxin enters the circulation to cause inflammation and eating more often will exacerbate this risk which has been linked to metabolic diseases such as type-2 diabetes.
02 Apr Fat and Hair Growth Synchronized By Same Signalling Pathway
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Rodney Sinclair
University of Melbourne and Epworth Hospital
Melbourne, VIC, Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Activation of Wnt signalling promoted hair growth and fat growth. Inhibition of Wnt signalling reduces fat growth and hair growth. We looked at the fat layer on the scalp. It was reduced by 50% over the bald areas of alopecia areata. The patch of alopecia areata we looked at was new- only appeared a few days earlier and so the changes in fat thickness are rapid.
What is interesting is that the fat layer is dynamic, and significant fluctuations can occur in a rapid period of time in sync with the hair cycle. It is also interesting that ligands for BMP6 and IGF2 are pro-adipogenic.
There are a couple of bigger questions that earlier media reports did not focus on- namely upstream factors regulating the hair cycle clock and the beauty of synchronization of fat and hair growth for seasonal thermal insulation.
28 Mar Calorie Intake Goes Up As Cereal Flake Size Goes Down
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Barbara J. Rolls, PhD
Department of Nutritional Sciences
The Pennsylvania State University, 226 Henderson Building
University Park, PA 16802-6501
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Rolls: We found that as we reduced the flake size of a breakfast cereal so that it filled a smaller volume, individuals ate a greater weight and more calories of the cereal. On four occasions, we served a popular wheat flake cereal, or the same weight of cereal crushed to 80%, 60%, or 40% of its volume, to 41 adults for breakfast. As the flake size was reduced, people made reductions in the volume of cereal they poured, but they still took a greater amount of weight and calories. They ended up eating 72 more calories at breakfast when they ate the cereal with the smallest flake size, an increase of 34%. These findings show that variations in food volume due to the size of individual food pieces affect the portion of food that people take, which in turn affects how much they eat.
26 Mar Sleep Loss Associated with Obesity and Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Prof. Dr. Bernd Schultes Endocrinology and Diabetes Internal Medicine eSwiss Medical & Surgical Center Brauerstrasse 97 9016 St. Gallen Schweiz MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Professor Schultes: Sleep loss promotes the development of obesity and diabetes by metabolic and behavioral mechanism. MedicalResearch.com: Were any of the findings unexpected? Professor Schultes:...
25 Mar Bariatric Surgery May Reduce Risk of Uterine Cancer
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Kristy Ward
Department of Reproductive Medicine
UCSD School of Medicine
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Dr. Ward: As the second leading cause of preventable death, obesity is one of the nation’s most serious public health problems. Over two-thirds of the US population is currently overweight or obese and the prevalence continues to increase. A number of studies have linked obesity with an overall elevated risk of cancer and with many individual cancer types. Among obesity related cancers in women, endometrial cancer is most strongly associated with increasing body mass, with 39% of cases in the US attributable to obesity.
In patients with clinically severe obesity (BMI ≥ 40 kg/m2), bariatric surgery results in rapid weight loss and has greater long-term success when compared to non-surgical weight loss methods. Surgical weight loss procedures have been found to reduce obesity-related comorbidites and improve outcomes in clinically severe obese populations. In addition to improved cardiovascular risk factors and mitigation of physical symptoms, there is increasing evidence that cancer risk is reduced after bariatric surgery.
23 Mar Childhood Adversities Linked to Obesity Later in Life
Posted at 11:25h
in Accidents & Violence, Author Interviews, Endocrinology, Pediatrics, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Christos S. Mantzoros, MD, DSc, PhD
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and the VA Boston Healthcare
Cynthia R. Davis PhD
Judge Baker Children’s Center in Boston, MA.
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of this study?
Answer: These results highlight that chronic stressors in childhood, like child abuse and family violence, parental substance abuse, divorce and separation from a parental figure, can potentially have a long standing impact on brain structures and functioning, such as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Our work supports the notion of allostatic load, and is the first of its kind to demonstrate links between childhood adversity and central obesity later in life which leads to increased cardio metabolic risk.
This study describes the role of these novel molecules in mediating metabolic dysregulation highlighting them as a novel mechanism linking childhood adversity to obesity.
We have also used more sensitive assessments of childhood adversity, not typically employed in biomedical research, that incorporate the severity of adversities and their chronicity across childhood. Assessments of this nature are better able to detect severe and chronic adversity, and are critical in the measurement of stress, its role in allostatic load and its impact on the brain. Furthermore, the current study and others from our lab show that severe and chronic adversity in childhood is associated with metabolic dysregulation and obesity in adulthood, regardless of lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise and psychosocial factors like depression and social support.
Clinicians and patients need to be aware of the fact that subjects exposed to early life adversity are at increase risk for central obesity and cardio metabolic risk.
19 Mar Fried Food Consumption and Obesity Linked to Genetic Predisposition
Posted at 12:29h
in Author Interviews, BMJ, Brigham & Women's - Harvard, Genetic Research, Medical Research Centers, Nutrition, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Lu Qi,
Assistant Professor, Department of Nutrition
Harvard School of Public Health and Channing Division of Network Medicine
Department of Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lu Qi: In this study, we for the first time provide reproducible evidence from three large cohort studies to show that the association between regular consumption of fried foods and higher BMI was particularly pronounced among people with a greater genetic predisposition to obesity. On the other hand, the adverse genetic effects on BMI were also amplified by consuming more fried foods, the effects among those who ate fried foods more than four times a week was about twice as large compared with those who ate them less than once a week.
19 Mar Infant Feeding: Racial and Ethnic Differences Require Culturally-Tailored Counseling
MedicalResearch.com Interview Invitation with:
Dr. Eliana M. Perrin, MD, MPH
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, and Director, Office of Research Development
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and
Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics, Division of General Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, School of Medicine
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7225
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Perrin: The study included a large, diverse sample of 863 low-income parents of two-month-olds participating in Greenlight, an obesity prevention trial taking place at four medical centers: UNC, New York University, Vanderbilt University and the University of Miami. Among all of the parents, behaviors that are thought to be related to later obesity were highly prevalent. Exclusive formula feeding was more than twice as common (45 percent) as exclusive breastfeeding (19 percent). Twelve percent had already introduced solid food, 43 percent put infants to bed with bottles, 23 percent propped bottles instead of holding the bottle by hand (which can result in overfeeding), 20 percent always fed when the infant cried, and 38 percent always tried to get their children to finish their milk. In addition, 90 percent of the infants were exposed to television and 50 percent actively watched TV (meaning parents put their children in front of the television in order to watch). There were differences in these behaviors by race and ethnicity, and study results show that culturally-tailored counseling should be offered to parents of different backgrounds who may feed and play with their children differently.
06 Mar Online Access to Dietitian Improved Weight Loss
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Beverly B. Green, MD, MPH
GroupHealth Research Institute
Seattle WA
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Green: We found that Group Health patients who were overweight and had hypertension were more likely to have lost 10 pounds in six months if they had secure online access to a dietitian than if they received only information and usual care. The patients really loved this intervention—and having access to a dietitian to work with them toward a healthier lifestyle. Although blood pressure and heart risk trended lower in the intervention group, the differences weren’t significant—unlike their weight.
04 Mar Obesity Rates Triple in Canada Over 25 Years
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr. Laurie K. Twells, PhD
School of Pharmacy, Memorial University, St. John’s
Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University
St. John’s Newfoundland and Labrador
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Twells: Obesity rates in Canada tripled between 1985 and 2011. Although class I obesity (BMI ≥ 30) appears to have increased at a slower rate, obese classes II (BMI ≥ 35) and III (BMI ≥40) continued to increase disproportionately. Over the last decade, every province in Canada experienced increases in obesity rates. Overall obesity rates were lower in the west and higher in the eastern provinces and people over age 40 years were more likely to be overweight/obese than younger people. By 2019 it is projected that twenty-one per cent of Canadians will be obese but this will vary by province from 15.7% in British Columbia to 34.6% in Newfoundland and Labrador.
25 Feb Obesity Prevalence: No Change in Youth or Adult Levels in 10 years
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Cynthia L. Ogden, PhD, MRP Epidemiologist and Analysis Branch Chief NHANES Program/NCHS/CDC Hyattsville, MD 20782 MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Ogden: We continue to track obesity levels in the US population using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. New data are now available for 2011-2012. We found that 17% of youth and 35% of adults were obese. Overall there has been no change in obesity levels among either youth or adults in the last 10 years. The prevalence of obesity among youth was 16.9% - exactly the same as in 2009-2010. In separate age groups analyses we found a decrease in obesity among 2-5 year olds and an increase in obesity among older women 60+ years.25 Feb Body Shape Index and Death Rates
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Nir Y. Krakauer Ph.D
Assistant Professor Department of Civil Engineering
The City College of New York
New York, New York
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Krakauer: We studied the association between the recently proposed body shape index (ABSI) -- which combines waist circumference, height and weight measurements -- and risk of death in a United Kingdom population sample. We found that high ABSI predicted greater mortality hazard, with death rates increasing by about 13% per standard deviation increase in ABSI. Further, ABSI was a stronger predictor of early death than BMI, waist circumference, or other indices based on waist circumference such as waist to height ratio and waist to hip ratio. For a given starting ABSI value, reducing A Body Shape Index over a 7-year period was associated with lowered mortality risk, .
18 Feb Obesity: Linked to Genetics of Appetite and Satiety
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Clare Llewellyn PhD Cpsychol
Lecturer in Behavioural Obesity Research
Health Behaviour Research Centre
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health
University College London, London
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Llewellyn:This study indicated that appetite – and, in particular, satiety sensitivity (how quickly you feel full during eating, or how long you remain full after eating) – could be one of the mechanisms through which ‘obesity genes’ influence body weight.
We know that body weight has a strong genetic basis, but the mechanisms through which ‘obesity genes’ influence weight are largely unknown.
We showed that children with a higher genetic predisposition to obesity (estimated from a score comprising 28 known obesity-related genes) not only had more body fat (a larger BMI and waist circumference), but importantly they were also less sensitive to satiety.
14 Feb Type 2 Diabetes: Weight Gain Pattern Before Diagnosis
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dorte Vistisen
Senior researcher, MSc PhD
469 - Epidemiology
DK-2820 Gentofte Denmark
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Vistisen: Our study highlights the complexity of type 2 diabetes. We show that in most people the development of type 2 diabetes is preceded by many years of overweight and not by massive weight gain.
09 Feb Obesity and Colon Polyp Risk
Posted at 14:27h
in Author Interviews, Colon Cancer, General Medicine, PLoS, University of Michigan, Weight Research
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Jenifer I Fenton
Assistant Professor
Department of Food Science and Human Nutrition
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48824
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Fenton: This was a cross-sectional study, and thus, a snapshot in time. Although it cannot infer cause or temporality of obesity and colon polyp risk in men, it does show that obese men were more likely to have a polyp than their lean counterpart. In addition, there were serum biomarkers also associated with this risk. This could eventually lead to future blood tests to identify individuals at greater risk for polyps and inform screening recommendations.
07 Feb Diabetes: Association with Depression and Eating Disorders
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr Peter de Jonge
Interdisciplinary Center for Psychopathology and Emotion Regulation, University Medical Center Groningen, University of Groningen, Netherlands
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. de Jonge: The main findings were that depression and impulse control disorders, in particular binge eating and bulimia were associated with diabetes.
28 Jan Weight Loss Healthy Living Program for Men
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Professor Sally Wyke
Deputy Director, Institute of Health and Wellbeing
Professor (Institute of Health and Wellbeing Social Sciences)
The University of Glasgow
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Prof. Wyke: The FFIT programme was very effective. The men who did the programme lost nine times as much weight as the men who did not. On average, they lost over 5.5kg (11lbs)and kept it off for the full 12 months.
In addition, we found highly significant differences in favour of the intervention objectively-measured waist, percentage body-fat, systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and self-reported physical activity, diet and indicators of well-being and physical aspects of quality of life.
06 Dec Obesity: Sleep Quality, Anxiety-Depression, and Quality of Life
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Dr G. Neil Thomas,
Regional Director,
NIHR Research Design Service West Midlands
Deputy Director, Master of Public Heath Programme
Reader in Epidemiology
Department of Public Health, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
School of Health and Population Sciences
College of Medical and Dental Sciences The University of Birmingham
Edgbaston, Birmingham, B15 2TT
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Thomas: This population of severely obese individuals (mean BMI 47kg/m2) from a regional specialist weight management service poor sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, PSQI) and daytime sleepiness (Epworth Sleepiness Scale) were strongly associated with poorer quality of life (Impact of Quality of Life-Lite (IWQOL-Lite)
25 Nov Obesity: Protein Kinase II and Hepatic Insulin Signaling
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Ira Tabas, M.D., Ph.D.
Richard J. Stock Professor and Vice-Chair of Research
Department of Medicine
Professor of Anatomy & Cell Biology (in Physiology and Cellular Biophysics)
Columbia University New York, NY 10032
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Tabas: We discovered a new pathway in the liver, relevant to humans, that controls the two hallmarks of type 2 diabetes (T2D), namely, excessive glucose production and defective insulin signaling. Thus, if drugs could be developed to inhibit this pathway, they could be very effective at treating or preventing T2D.
21 Nov Metabolically healthy obese still at increased risk of diabetes, heart disease
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Carlos Lorenzo, MD
Department of Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center
7703 Floyd Curl Drive
San Antonio, Texas 78229
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Dr. Lorenzo: Metabolically healthy obese individuals are at increased risk of developing of diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These findings were demonstrated in men and women and in Mexican Americans and non-Hispanic whites.
Management of excess weight and any metabolic abnormality appears to be important for all individuals.
Our study is also in agreement with previous studies that indicate that metabolically unhealthy normal weight individuals are at increased risk of developing of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
21 Nov Atrial Fibrillation: Effects of Weight Reduction
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Prof. Prashanthan Sanders
Director, Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders
University of Adelaide | Royal Adelaide Hospital | SAHMRI
NHMRC Practitioner Fellow
Centre for Heart Rhythm Disorders
Department of Cardiology | Royal Adelaide Hospital
Adelaide 5000 | Australia
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Aggressive treatment of risk factors and weight reduced the symptom burden associated with atrial fibrillation. It is therefore important that in a similar manner to how we treat coronary artery disease, in atrial fibrillation there should be management directed at the reasons why these individuals got AF in the first place.
19 Nov Binge Eating May Predispose to Diabetes
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Alison E. Field, ScD
Associate Professor of Pediatrics Boston Children's Hospital
Division of Adolescent Medicine
Boston, MA 02115
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: Girls who engage in frequent binge eating are much more likely than their peers with the same BMI to develop diabetes. The risk was greatest among girls with binge eating disorder.
16 Nov Food Addiction and Obesity
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Guang Sun MD, PhD Professor, Discipline of medicine Faculty of medicine, Memorial University Canada MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Dr. Sun: Plenty of anecdotal reports on how ‘Food Addiction’ may be a potential culprit of the rising prevalence of obesity. However to date no scientific study, based on a comprehensive criterion of the diagnosis of Food Addiction, has been performed at the population level. The main findings are in the following fours aspects: 1) Food Addiction is indeed an important contributing factor in the development of obesity. 2) The prevalence of Food Addition was 5.4% and increased concomitantly with obesity status defined by either body mass index (BMI) or body fat percentage (%BF). In another word, there is one food addict in every twenty adults (Newfoundland Province, Canada) 3) Clinical Symptom Count(s) of Food Addiction is strongly associated with the severity of obesity. 4) Women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with “Food Addiction” than men.16 Nov After Bariatric Surgery: Risk of Preterm Babies
MedicalResearch.com: Interview with: Olof Stephansson MD, PhD Associate professor, senior consultant in obstetrics and gynaecologyDepartment of Medicine, Clinical Epidemiology Unit, Karolinska InstitutetDepartment of Women’s and Children’s Health, Division of Obstetrics and Gynaecology Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Women with a history of bariatric surgery have an increased risk of preterm delivery, a doubled risk for small-for-gestational-age births and a reduction in large-for-gestational-age births. Also when considering maternal weight, education, age, parity and year of birth. There was no increased for stillbirth or neonatal mortality.15 Nov Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Gender-Specific Adiposity and Metabolic Syndrome
MedicalResearch.com Interview with: MedicalResearch.com Interview with: Dr. Emilia Mazzuca Biomedical Department of Internal and Specialistic Medicine (DIBIMIS) Section of Pneumology and Dr. Maria R Bonsignore, MD Associate Professor in Respiratory Medicine University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study? Answer: Our main goal was to investigate gender-related interactions between obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and obesity while taking associated metabolic abnormalities into account. We analyzed 423 men and 105 women previously studied for the association of OSA and the Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) (Bonsignore et al, Eur Respir J, 2012), to assess whether markers of general and visceral obesity were differently associated with OSA in men and women. Multivariate analysis showed that in men the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI), an indicator of OSA severity, was associated with waist circumference, a marker of visceral obesity, and body mass index (BMI); conversely, in women AHI was associated with hip circumference, a marker of subcutaneous fat deposition, and neck size. The results were similar when patients without a diagnosis of MetS were analyzed; conversely, in patients with MetS, waist circumference was the only significant marker of OSA in both genders.12 Nov High Chocolate Intake and Lower Body Fat
MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Magdalena Cuenca García, PhD
University of Granada
Department of Physiology, School of Medicine
Avd. Madrid 12; 18012 Granada (Spain)
MedicalResearch.com: What are the main findings of the study?
Answer: In conclusion, the results of the present study showed that a higher chocolate consumption was associated with lower levels of central and total fatness in European adolescents. Of note is that the observed association was independent of total energy intake and saturated fat intake as well as objectively measured physical activity. In addition, results remained unchanged after adjusting for foods with high catechins concentration as fruit, vegetables and tea; as well as other products such as coffee that could influence the observed association between chocolate consumption and markers of total and central body fat.