Rye and barley products ‘reduce obesity risk’

May 6, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 6 (ANI): A new study has shown that diets rich in whole grain reduce risk of obesity and other diseases related to the metabolic syndrome, such as type 2 diabetes and cardio-vascular disease.

And work within HEALTHGRAIN has revealed novel insights regarding some potential mechanisms.

Barley products rich in indigestible carbohydrates (dietary fibre and resistant starch), facilitated glycaemic regulation through a mechanism involving fermentation by gut micro-organisms.

Fermentation was associated with release of specific gut hormones (GLP-1), with acknowledged benefits on a variety of parameters associated with reduced risk of the metabolic syndrome, including benefits on perceived satiety.

GLP-1 is currently investigated for use as an antidiabetic, antiobesity drug, but appears to be produced endogenously in healthy subjects after intake of certain whole grain barley products rich in indigestible carbohydrates.

Addition of whole grain barley products with slow glycemic response and rich in dietary fibre and resistant starch in test meals significantly improved insulin sensitivity in type 2 diabetic subjects as compared with whole grain wheat or white wheat.

Additionally, rye products generally produce a beneficial blood glucose profile following a meal, with a low and sustained blood glucose response.

Rye products also induced lowered insulin response compared with white wheat, promoted higher post-meal satiety, and induced lowered voluntary energy intake at a subsequent meal.

Studies within HEALTHGRAIN indicate that different rye genotypes vary with respect to benefits on glycaemic regulation and insulin demand.

The results are in favour of metabolic benefits of an increased consumption of in particular whole grain barley products with low glycemic response, and foods made of certain rye varieties.

The results provide tools for tailoring of whole grain cereal products with magnified health benefits adjunct to the metabolic syndrome. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lower levels of ”rotten eggs” gas in blood linked to obesity, diabetes

April 28, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 28 (ANI): A link between blood levels of the gas hydrogen sulfide (a gas more commonly associated with the smell of rotten eggs), obesity and type 2 diabetes has been identified by researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter.

Published in the medical journal Diabetologia and presented at the British Microcirculation Society earlier this month, the study compared blood levels of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in lean men, overweight men with metabolic syndrome and male patients with established type 2 diabetes (T2DM).

Recent laboratory studies have shown H2S which is produced naturally in the body from enzymes, is able to dilate blood vessels and regulate insulin production. However, until now there have been no clinical studies investigating the role of H2S in the human circulation in health or in disease.

The study found that compared to lean and healthy men, blood levels of H2S were twice as low in men with metabolic syndrome and up to four times lower in patients with diabetes. Men with low blood H2S levels also had higher blood pressure, higher levels of blood sugar, raised lipid levels, had increased resistance to insulin and had damage to small blood vessels in the skin.

The research team also showed that the amount of H2S in the blood was determined by the extent of fat deposition in the body, in particular the amount of central or tummy fat. They found that blood H2S levels were significantly lower in people with a larger waist or hip measurement and higher BMI (body mass index) compared to those observed in lean people.

Dr. Matt Whiteman, who led the study at the Peninsula Medical School in Exeter, commented: “We have previously shown that the body can make H2S in response to a variety of stimuli and that when it”s made it can dilate blood vessels, reduce blood pressure and control the synthesis of insulin. However, up until now these observations were limited to the laboratory experiments using either isolated cells or tissues. This current study now translates these laboratory findings into a clinical setting.”

Dr. Whiteman added “It is well known that with increased adiposity (or fatness), in particular central adiposity (higher waist measurements), that there is an increased likelihood of developing diabetes and vascular disorders such as high blood pressure and stroke. It would appear that only a small increase in adiposity leads to a significant reduction in blood H2S levels. This may greatly impact upon the circulation since it will result in the loss of a key natural vasodilator and contribute to the vascular and biochemical complications associated with being overweight and having diabetes.”

Dr. Whiteman further added that “our study also adds credence to public health programmes that encourage people to control their weight through exercise and diet, as a means to control the development of vascular disease and diabetes.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Grapes cut risk factors for heart disease and diabetes

April 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 27 (ANI): Grape consumption can lower blood pressure, improve heart function and reduce other risk factors for heart disease and metabolic syndrome, according to a new study.

The effect is thought to be due to phytochemicals — naturally occurring antioxidants – that grapes contain, say the study”s researchers.

The study will be presented today at the Experimental Biology convention in Anaheim, Calif..

The research shows encouraging results of a grape-enriched diet preventing risk factors for metabolic syndrome.

To reach the conclusion, researchers studied the effect of regular table grapes (a blend of green, red and black grapes) that were mixed into a powdered form and integrated into the diets of laboratory rats as part of a high-fat, American style diet. All of the rats used were from a research breed that is prone to being overweight.

They performed many comparisons between the rats consuming a grape-enriched diet and the control rats receiving no grape powder. Researchers added calories and sugars to the control group to balance the extra calories and sugars gained from getting the grape powder.

After three months, the rats that received the grape-enriched diet had lower blood pressure, better heart function, and reduced indicators of inflammation in the heart and the blood than rats who received no grape powder. Rats also had lower triglycerides and improved glucose tolerance.

The effects were seen even though the grape-fed animals had no change in body weight.

In all, researchers say the study demonstrates that a grape-enriched diet can have broad effects on the development of heart disease and metabolic syndrome and the risk factors that go along with it.

“The possible reasoning behind the lessening of metabolic syndrome is that the phytochemicals were active in protecting the heart cells from the damaging effects of metabolic syndrome. In the rats, inflammation of the heart and heart function was maintained far better,” says Steven Bolling, M.D., heart surgeon at the U-M Cardiovascular Center and head of the U-M Cardioprotection Research Laboratory.

The researchers also looked for signs of inflammation, oxidative damage and other molecular indicators of cardiac stress. Again, the rats who consumed the grape powder had lower levels of these markers than rats who did not receive grapes.

There is no well-accepted way to diagnose metabolic syndrome which is really a cluster of characteristics: excess belly fat (for men, a waist measuring 40 inches or more and for women, a waist measuring 35 inches or more); high triglycerides which can lead to plague build-up in the artery walls; high blood pressure; reduced glucose tolerance; and elevated c-reactive protein, a marker for inflammation in the body.

Those with metabolic syndrome are at higher risk for cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.

But the U-M study suggests that it may be possible that grape consumption can change the downhill sequence that leads to heart disease by prolonging the time between when symptoms begin to occur and a time of diagnosis.

“Reducing these risk factors may delay the onset of diabetes or heart disease, or lessen the severity of the diseases,” says E. Mitchell Seymour, Ph.D., lead researcher and manager of the U-M Cardioprotection Research Laboratory. “Ultimately it may lessen the health burden of these increasingly common conditions.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

‘Eat breakfast like a king’ the best way to prevent metabolic syndrome

March 31, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Mar 31 (ANI): Higher fat at breakfast may be healthier than you think, concludes a new University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) study.

According to researchers, the adage “Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper” can be the best advice to follow to prevent metabolic syndrome.

Metabolic syndrome is characterized by abdominal obesity, high triglycerides, insulin resistance and other cardiovascular disease-risk factors.

The study has been published online March 30 in the International Journal of Obesity.

To reach the conclusion, boffins examined the influence exerted by the type of foods and specific timing of intake on the development of metabolic syndrome characteristics in mice.

The UAB research revealed that mice fed a meal higher in fat after waking had normal metabolic profiles. In contrast, mice that ate a more carbohydrate-rich diet in the morning and consumed a high-fat meal at the end of the day saw increased weight gain, adiposity, glucose intolerance and other markers of the metabolic syndrome.

“Studies have looked at the type and quantity of food intake, but nobody has undertaken the question of whether the timing of what you eat and when you eat it influences body weight, even though we know sleep and altered circadian rhythms influence body weight,” said the study”s lead author Molly Bray, Ph.D., professor of epidemiology in the UAB School of Public Health.

Bray said the research team found that fat intake at the time of waking seems to turn on fat metabolism very efficiently and also turns on the animal”s ability to respond to different types of food later in the day. When the animals were fed carbohydrates upon waking, carbohydrate metabolism was turned on and seemed to stay on even when the animal was eating different kinds of food later in the day.

“The first meal you have appears to program your metabolism for the rest of the day,” said study senior author Martin Young, Ph.D., associate professor of medicine in the UAB Division of Cardiovascular Disease. “This study suggests that if you ate a carbohydrate-rich breakfast it would promote carbohydrate utilization throughout the rest of the day, whereas, if you have a fat-rich breakfast, you have metabolic plasticity to transfer your energy utilization between carbohydrate and fat.” (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gut bugs can help you lose weight

March 26, 2010 By Leave a Comment

London, March 26 (ANI): For those attending gruelling gym sessions to lose weight, here’s a simple way to get rid of those extra pounds – let your gut bacteria do the hard work for you, says a new research.

Gut bacteria play a crucial role in digestion. In 2009, researchers found that replacing the bacteria in mouse intestines with human gut flora decreased the amount of fat absorbed by the gut, reports New Scientist.

Now, Yukio Kadooka of Snow Brand Milk Products, a dairy company in Saitama, Japan, and colleagues have found that increasing levels of one type of human gut microbe can help people shed excess weight.

In the study, the researchers gave 87 overweight volunteers 100 grams of fermented milk – which is used to make yoghurt – twice a day, while they continued with their normal diets.

The milk drunk by half of the group was enriched with Lactobacillus gasseri.

After 12 weeks, these volunteers had lost an average of 1 kilogram, while their counterparts showed no change in weight.

Scans revealed that they had lost 4.6 per cent of their ‘bad’, visceral fat, which surrounds internal organs and is implicated in metabolic syndrome, and 3.3 per cent of their subcutaneous fat.

Hip and waist circumference also went down by an average of 1.7 and 1.5 centimetres respectively.

The study has been published in the European Journal of Clinical Nutrition. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Chronic job stress leads to obesity

March 25, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, March 25 (ANI): Stressful working conditions and lack of exercise have been strongly associated with being overweight or obese in a study.

Researchers at University of Rochester Medical Center found that 72 to 75 percent of the employees studied were overweight or obese.

Lead author Diana Fernandez, an epidemiologist at the URMC Department of Community and Preventive Medicine, said her research like many others linked high job pressure with cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, depression, exhaustion, anxiety and weight gain.

She explained: “In a poor economy, companies should take care of the people who survive layoffs and end up staying in stressful jobs. It is important to focus on strengthening wellness programs to provide good nutrition, ways to deal with job demands, and more opportunities for physical activity that are built into the regular workday without penalty.”

Surprisingly, boffins also discovered that a diet rich in fruits and vegetables had little effect in offseting the effect of chronic job stress on weight gain among the employees, who were mostly sedentary.

Exercise, on the other hand, appeared to be significant in dealing with stress and keeping a healthy weight.

Fernandez said. “Other studies have shown that adults tend to eat more fatty foods while watching TV. But this requires more investigation.”

The Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine published the research. (ANI)

Filed Under: International News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Genes controlling insulin ‘alter’ body clock

September 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sept 18 (ANI): Scientists at University of California, San Diego have identified certain insulin-regulating genes that can also alter the timing of the body clock.

They said that the findings can lead to new approaches to treating disorders such as metabolic syndrome that can result, at least in part, from chronic disruption of the sleep-wake cycle.

“People knew that the clock regulates many different processes, but what they didn’t realize what that when you tweak those processes, it feeds back and alters the clock,” said Steve Kay, Dean of the Division of Biological Sciences at the University of California, San Diego, who led the study along with John Hogenesch of the University of Pennsylvania.

A molecular clock controls daily physiological rhythms in many types of cells, even cells grown in culture.

By engineering cultured cells to glow yellow when a particular clock gene switched on, the team made the cycle visible. They then interfered with every human gene to see which would shift the clock. They found that hundreds altered the timing.

“We just suddenly discovered 350 new genes that affect the clock that weren’t known before,” Kay said.

However, subsequent screening to confirm the genes’ effect on a second clock gene narrowed the list to 200.

Seven genes involved in insulin control also influenced the rhythms of the clock.

“What came out very strongly was this close relationship between circadian regulation and insulin signalling. There’s a reciprocal relationship between circadian dysfunction and metabolic dysfunction,” said Kay.

The researchers suggest that genetically altered mice with malfunctioning clocks become obese and develop diet-induced diabetes.Understanding this close relationship between circadian regulation and metabolic homeostasis should provide novel ways of identifying new therapies for metabolic disease,” Kay added.

The study appears in journal Cell. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kudzu extract shows promise as dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome

September 4, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Sep 4 (ANI): Kudzu, the nuisance vine that has overgrown almost 10 million acres in the southeastern United States, can be used as a dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome.

Scientists in Alabama and Iowa have found that root extracts from kudzu show promise as a dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome that increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and problems with their body”s ability to use insulin.

Those disorders mean a high risk for heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases.

Lead researcher J. Michael Wyss showed that kudzu root extract contains healthful substances called isoflavones.

People in China and Japan have long been using kudzu supplements as a health food.

The study found that a kudzu root extract had beneficial effects on lab rats with metabolic syndrome.

After two months of taking the extract, the rats had lower cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and insulin levels that a control group not given the extract.

Kudzu root “may provide a dietary supplement that significantly decreases the risk and severity of stroke and cardiovascular disease in at-risk individuals,” the article notes.

The study appears in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Molecule having anti-fat, anti-cancer abilities found to be a turnoff for fat genes

August 28, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 28 (ANI): Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine have found that a small molecule, earlier found to have anti-fat and anti-cancer abilities, has the potential to put off fat-making genes.

Such action in mice genetically prone to obesity causes the animals to become leaner, they say.

The researchers have also found the molecule to lowers the amount of fat in the mice’s livers, along with their blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

“We are frankly very excited about it. It goes to the origin of [fat synthesis] – all the way back to gene expression,” said Salih Wakil at Baylor.

Unlike cholesterol-lowering statins in use today, which block a single enzyme in the pathway, the chemical the researchers call fatostatin, “hits fat from the very beginning,” said Motonari Uesugi.

As a result, fatostatin influences many of the genes involved in fat production and in various aspects of metabolic syndrome – a collection of risk factors including obesity, high cholesterol and insulin resistance – in one go.

Studies in cell culture showed that fatostatin, previously known only as 125B11, significantly lowers the activity of 63 genes, including 34 directly associated with fatty acid or cholesterol synthesis.

Many of these genes were known to be under the control of SREBP – a transcription factor which act as a well-known master controller of fat synthesis.

After more detailed analysis, the researchers found that the drug candidate blocked SREBP by preventing it from becoming active and entering the nucleus, where it would otherwise switch on the fat-making program.

According to them, it operates by binding another protein (called SCAP), which serves as SREBP’s escort into the nucleus.

It was found that obese mice injected with fatostatin show noticeable reductions in their weight despite little difference in their eating habits, the researchers report.

After four weeks of treatment, the animals weighed 12 percent less and had 70 percent lower blood sugar levels.

Their cholesterol levels (both LDL and HDL) were down too. The concentration of fatty acids in their blood was actually higher- a sign of their greater demand for fat to burn.

While the livers of the obese mice were heavy and pale with fat, treated animals’ livers were more than 30 percent lighter and were a healthy-looking red.

Although less obvious, the SREBP-blocking ability might also explain the molecule’s earlier reported effects against prostate cancer cells in culture as well.

They explained that cells need fatty acids and cholesterol to build their cell membranes and continue growing.

Researchers are optimistic that fatostatin could prove to be clinically useful in the context of obesity, and perhaps cardiovascular disease and diabetes as well.

“Hopefully down the road, fatostatin or a derivative of fatostatin may be helpful. It could have a broad impact on the key diseases we all suffer from,” said Wakil.

Uesugi said that fatostatin or its analogs may also serve a tool for gaining further insights into the regulation of SREBP and fat metabolism.

The study has been published in the journal Chemistry and Biology. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Kudzu extract shows promise as dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome

August 27, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 27 (ANI): Kudzu, the nuisance vine that has overgrown almost 10 million acres in the southeastern United States, can be used as a dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome.

Scientists in Alabama and Iowa have found that root extracts from kudzu show promise as a dietary supplement for metabolic syndrome that increases the risk of obesity, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, and problems with their body’s ability to use insulin.

Those disorders mean a high risk for heart attacks, strokes, and other diseases.

Lead researcher J. Michael Wyss showed that kudzu root extract contains healthful substances called isoflavones.

People in China and Japan have long been using kudzu supplements as a health food.

The study found that a kudzu root extract had beneficial effects on lab rats with metabolic syndrome.

After two months of taking the extract, the rats had lower cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar, and insulin levels that a control group not given the extract.

Kudzu root “may provide a dietary supplement that significantly decreases the risk and severity of stroke and cardiovascular disease in at-risk individuals,” the article notes.

The study appears in Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Why menopausal women are more likely to have big bellies

August 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Aug 21 (ANI): The reason behind the increase in visceral fat, more commonly called belly fat, in middle-aged women is not age, but the change in hormone balance that occurs during the menopause transition, say researchers at Rush University Medical Center.

“Of all the factors we analyzed that could possibly account for the increase in visceral fat during this period in a woman’s lifetime, levels of active testosterone proved to be the one most closely linked with abdominal fat,” said Imke Janssen, PhD, assistant professor of preventive medicine and the study’s lead investigator.

The study, which has been published early online in the medical journal Obesity, included 359 women in menopausal transition, ages 42 to 60, about half black and half white.

Fat in the abdominal cavity was measured with CT scans, a more precise measurement than waist size. Blood tests were used to assess levels of testosterone and estradiol (the main form of estrogen). Medical histories covered other health factors possibly linked with an increase in visceral fat.

Statistical analyses showed that the level of “bioavailable” testosterone, or testosterone that is active in the body, was the strongest predictor of visceral fat.

A woman’s age did not correlate significantly with the amount of visceral fat. Nor did race or other cardiovascular risk factors.

The level of estradiol also bore little relationship to the amount of visceral fat.

Visceral fat, surrounding internal organs around the waistline, is metabolically different from subcutaneous fat, which is fat located beneath the skin. Research has shown that visceral fat is a source of inflammation that contributes to premature atherosclerosis and risk of acute coronary syndrome.

The study’s findings extend earlier research conducted by Janssen on testosterone’s link with what is called the metabolic syndrome during the menopausal transition, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine in 2008. That study found that the rise in metabolic syndrome – a collection of risk factors for heart disease – corresponded with the rise in testosterone activity. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Grapefruit derivative ‘prevents obesity’

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 14 (ANI): A new study on mice, conducted by University of Western Ontario researchers, has shown that grapefruit contains a substance that’s a natural fat fighter.

Derived from citrus fruit, particularly grapefruit, the substance has shown it can reduce weight gain and fatty particles in the body, Murray Huff of UWO’s Robarts Research Institute said.

The substance, a flavonoid – a bioactive molecule – called naringenin, shows promise as an inhibitor of conditions associated with type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, he said.

In the study, one group of mice was fed a high-fat diet to induce the symptoms of metabolic syndrome. A second group was fed the exact same diet and treated with naringenin.

Naringenin corrected the elevations in triglyceride and cholesterol, prevented the development of insulin resistance and completely normalized glucose metabolism.

The researchers found it worked by genetically reprogramming the liver to burn up excess fat, rather than store it.

“Furthermore, the marked obesity that develops in these mice was completely prevented by naringenin,” said Huff.

“What was unique about the study was that the effects were independent of caloric intake, meaning the mice ate exactly the same amount of food and the same amount of fat. There was no suppression of appetite or decreased food intake, which are often the basis of strategies to reduce weight gain and its metabolic consequences,” Huff added.

This study investigated naringenin’s preventative properties, but Huff is also investigating whether it can treat obesity and other existing metabolic problems.

The findings are published online in the journal Diabetes. (ANI)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Lap-band weight-loss surgery can cure obese teens of metabolic syndrome

July 2, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, July 2 (ANI): Laparoscopic gastric banding surgery – the “Lap-Band” procedure – not only helps obese adolescents achieve significant weight loss but can also improve and even reverse metabolic syndrome, reducing their risk for cardiovascular disease and diabetes, according to a new study.

The study was conducted by Drs. Ilene Fennoy, Jeffrey Zitsman and colleagues at NewYork-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital and Columbia University Medical Center.

“Until recently, there have been few treatments capable of helping these young patients lose weight, much less improving their lifelong health prospects. The Lap-Band may well be a useful intervention for tackling teen obesity-which is why it is so important to investigate the procedure’s safety and efficacy in this growing population,” says Dr. Fennoy.

In the new study, Dr. Fennoy and her colleagues followed 24 morbidly obese adolescents between the ages of 14 and 17 who underwent the Lap-Band procedure.

The study participants either had a BMI of greater than 40 or greater than 35 if already suffering from diabetes or obesity-related illnesses.

Six months after surgery, they noted a significant drop in participants’ BMI, waist circumference, and blood levels of C-reactive protein. These indicators continued to improve among the 12 patients being followed up at the one-year point.

The authors reported that other measures of metabolic syndrome such as blood lipid and sugar levels came down quickly in the first six months, with “less dramatic” changes seen one year after surgery.

“Of all the bariatric procedures, the Lap-Band is the most benign, with complication rates of less than 1 percent,” Dr. Fennoy said.

Dr. Fennoy said that the device, inserted via minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery, consists of a simple band to make the stomach smaller and a balloon that can be decompressed when necessary.

Although it is technically reversible, the procedure should be considered a long-term solution for extreme and intractable obesity.

The study has been presented at the annual Endocrine Society meeting in Washington, D.C. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Patients with lower urinary tract symptoms ‘at increased metabolic syndrome risk’

June 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 20 (ANI): A new study has revealed that patients with severe to mild lower urinary tract (LUT) symptoms are at a greater risk of developing metabolic syndrome, a collection of cardiovascular risk factors.

“These findings have important diagnostic and management implications,” said the authors.

“Patients who present with components of metabolic dysfunction should be routinely queried with respect to urological function, particularly voiding symptoms such as intermittency, incomplete emptying and nocturia, as well as the degree of associated bother.

“Sexual dysfunction symptoms, particularly erectile dysfunction, are similarly reported by the majority of men with MetS and should be routinely evaluated,” they added.

During the study, the researchers interviewed 2,301 men 30 to 79 years old. They found an increased odds ratio of 1.68 for metabolic syndrome was observed in men with mild to severe LUTS symptoms compared to those with few or no symptoms.

They also found increased odds of the metabolic syndrome even with mild symptoms, primarily for incomplete emptying, intermittency and nocturia.

The study appears in The Journal of Urology. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ghrelin hormone increases appetite, favours build up of abdominal fat

May 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 21 (ANI): In a new study, scientists the University Hospital of Navarra have found that the ghrelin hormone not only increases appetite, but also favours the accumulation of lipids in visceral fatty tissue, located in the abdominal zone and considered to be the most harmful.

Ghrelin is a hormone produced in the stomach and its function is to tell the brain that the body has to be fed. Thus, the level of this secretion increases before eating and decreases after.

However, Amaia Rodríguez Murueta-Goyena, doctor in biology and main researcher of the study, and colleagues discovered that, besides stimulating the hypothalamus to generate appetite, ghrelin also acts on the tabula rasa cortex.

They observed how this hormone favoured the accumulation of lipids in visceral fatty tissue. In concrete, it causes the over-expression of the fatty genes that take part in the retention of lipids, Rodríguez said.

It is precisely this accumulated fat in the region of the abdomen that is deemed to be most harmful, as it is accompanied by comorbilities, visceral obesity being related to higher blood pressure or type 2 diabetes.

Moreover, being located in the abdominal zone and in direct contact with the liver, this type of fatty tissue favours the formation of liver fat and increases the risk of developing resistance to insulin.

The researcher pointed out that normally, on being associated with hypertension, high levels of triglycerides, resistance to insulin and hypercholesterolemia, visceral fat favours the metabolic syndrome.

Rodriguez said that ghrelin can show itself in acylated or deacylated form, the difference being in the octanoic acid present in the composition of the former.

Previously it was thought that only the acylated form was active in the process of weight increase, but many studies point to both hormones being biologically functional.

Researchers pointed out that this discovery of the twin action of ghrelin on the organism opens the door to future treatment for obesity and which, for the time being, is limited to in vitro studies in cell and animal models.

The study was published recently in the International Journal of Obesity. (ANI)

Filed Under: Science News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Big waistline could surprisingly be a lifeline for heart disease sufferers

May 19, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 19 (ANI): Despite being a leading contributor to heart disease, obesity appears to play a protective role in a range of cardiovascular problems, says a new study.

Researchers found that obese heart patients respond better to strokes and heart attacks compared to normal or underweight patients.

Although obesity is a leading cause of heart disease, paradoxically scientists say fat and even high cholesterol may have protective benefits.
However, researchers say, losing weight is still best because obesity triggers more heart attacks and strokes.

The study has been published in the May 26, 2009, issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

“Obese patients with heart disease respond well to treatment and have paradoxically better outcomes and survival than thinner patients,” said Carl Lavie, M.D., F.A.C.C., medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation and Prevention, Ochsner Medical Center, New Orleans, LA and lead author of the article.

“Although these patients have a more favorable short- and long-term prognosis, we don’t yet understand the mechanisms for why this might be the case,” the expert added.

The obesity paradox in patients with cardiovascular disease (CVD), which was first noticed earlier this decade, is complex. It is likely due to a combination of obesity’s impact on fat cells and other metabolic processes (e.g., insulin resistance, glucose metabolism, metabolic syndrome), as well as other consequences of being obese.

Dr. Lavie speculates that excess weight may be somewhat protective because these patients have more reserves to fight disease than thinner patients. Another explanation might be that obese patients present with problems earlier due to physical deconditioning (being out of shape) and other non-cardiovascular symptoms and, therefore, have the opportunity to be diagnosed with milder disease.

Although obese patients appear to experience fewer cardiovascular events and have better survival rates, Dr. Lavie is quick to caution that patients with heart disease shouldn’t incorrectly assume that gaining weight is the answer.

“Obesity is often what’s causing high blood pressure, blockages in arteries, and increased risk of sudden death in the first place. Such excess weight has adverse effects on all of the major cardiovascular risk factors and has increased the prevalence of heart disease,” he said.

“Taken together, most studies are supportive of purposeful weight loss for preventing and treating cardiovascular disease,” he added.

Health-promoting behaviors to stay active and lose weight can also confer benefits beyond initial heart disease. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

More sunlight may cut older people’s heart disease, diabetes risk

May 12, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 12 (ANI): Older people can reduce their risk of developing heart disease and diabetes by spending more time in the sunshine, a new study has suggested.

Sunlight boosts vitamin D in the skin and older people are more likely to have a vitamin D deficiency due to the natural aging process and changes in lifestyle.

In the new study, researchers at the University of Warwick have shown vitamin D deficiency is significantly associated with metabolic syndrome, a combination of medical and metabolic disorders that increase the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

For the study, a research team, led by Dr Oscar Franco at Warwick Medical School, studied the association between vitamin D levels in the blood and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in 3,262 people aged 50-70 years old in China.

Franco and colleagues found a high correlation between low vitamin D levels and the prevalence of metabolic syndrome.

They found 94 percent of people in the study had a vitamin D (25-hydroxyvitamin D) deficiency or insufficiency. The results showed 42.3 percent of these people also had metabolic syndrome.

Franco said there were many factors which could explain why older people had less vitamin D in their blood, including changes in lifestyle factors such as clothing and outdoor activity.

“As we get older our skin is less efficient at forming vitamin D and our diet may also become less varied, with a lower natural vitamin D content. Most importantly, however, the dermal production of vitamin D following a standard exposure to UVB light decreases with age because of atrophic skin changes. When we are older we may need to spend more time outdoors to stimulate the same levels of vitamin D we had when we were younger,” he said.

The study is published in Diabetes Care journal. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Even modest exercise can cut belly fat’s negative effects

April 24, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 24 (ANI): Moderate amounts of exercise alone can reduce the inflammation in visceral fat-belly fat, says a new study.

Fat around the belly has been linked with metabolic syndrome, a group of risk factors that predict heart disease and Type 2 diabetes.

“In the study, the benefits of exercise were apparent, even without a change in diet. We saw improvements in insulin sensitivity, less fat in the liver, and less inflammation in belly fat,” said Jeffrey Woods, a U of I professor of kinesiology and community health and faculty member in the U of I Division of Nutritional Sciences and the Integrative Immunology and Behavior Program.

Belly fat is particularly dangerous because it produces inflammatory molecules that enter the bloodstream and increase the risk of heart disease and diabetes, he said.

“Scientists now know that obesity is associated with a low-grade systemic inflammation. Obese people have higher levels of circulating inflammatory markers, such as C-reactive protein (CRP), which are produced and secreted by fat tissue. This inflammation then triggers the systemic diseases linked with metabolic syndrome, such as Type 2 diabetes and heart disease,” he said.

To reach the conclusion, researchers examined the effects of diet and exercise on the inflammation of visceral fat tissue in mice. A high-fat diet was first used to induce obesity in the animals.

After 6 weeks, mice were assigned to either a sedentary group, an exercise group, a low-fat diet group, or a group that combined a low-fat diet with exercise for 6 or 12 weeks so the scientists could compare the effects in both the short and long term.

“The surprise was that the combination of diet and exercise didn’t yield dramatically different and better results than diet or exercise alone,” said Vicki Vieira, the lead author of the study.

“Unexpectedly, the only significant increase from 6 to 12 weeks in belly fat-the type of fat that triggers these inflammatory diseases-was in the mice who were sedentary, which suggests that exercise is an effective behavioral approach to reduce the accumulation of visceral fat even when fat in the diet is high,” she said.

Woods says that is a promising finding.

“The benefits of exercise were apparent even if the animals were still eating a high-fat diet. That tells me that exercise could decrease or prevent these life-threatening diseases by reducing inflammation even when obesity is still present.

“The good news is that this was a very modest exercise program. The mice ran on a treadmill only about one-fourth of a mile five days a week. For humans, that would probably translate into walking 30 to 45 minutes a day five days a week,” he noted. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Diabetes, obesity, hypertension up mortality in hepatitis C patients

April 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): Type 2 diabetes, obesity and hypertension are associated with overall and liver related mortality in hepatitis C (HCV) infected patients, a new research has claimed.

The specific impact of metabolic syndrome on mortality in hepatitis C patients has been revealed by new research to be presented on Sunday April 26 at EASL 2009, the Annual Meeting of the European Association for the Study of the Liver in Copenhagen, Denmark.

In HCV-infected patients, the top three predictors of liver related mortality were having higher body mass index (BMI), presence of insulin resistance (IR) and elevated serum cholesterol. Overall mortality in HCV patients was most linked to metabolic syndrome, higher BMI and hypertension.

Metabolic syndrome is a combination of medical problems that increase risks of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Recent data have suggested that metabolic syndrome is associated with adverse outcomes in HCV patients. This study set out to assess which aspects of metabolic syndrome are of most risk to such HCV patients and to quantify their specific impact on mortality.

Professor Zobair Younossi MD, MPH from the Center for Liver Diseases at Inova Fairfax Hospital and the Executive Director of Betty and Guy Beatty’s Center for Integrated Research, Virginia, USA, who led the study, said: “Exploring the risk factors associated with adverse outcomes in HCV patients helps us to better understand the complex nature of this highly prevalent disease.

“This study shows a clear association between key components of metabolic syndrome and mortality in HCV patients and demonstrates the importance of lifestyle improvements and coaching in the management of HCV patients, to potentially minimise the onset and impact of metabolic syndrome and its associated mortality risks.”

Researchers in this study utilised the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES III) and Linked Mortality Files. HCV was defined as positive HCV RNA by PCR assay. Subjects without other causes of chronic liver disease such as presumed NAFLD with elevated serum aminotransferases, excessive alcohol use, elevated transferrin saturation and positive hepatitis Bs antigen were designated controls without liver disease. HCV patients were compared to HCV-negative individuals and controls without liver disease using Rao-Scott chi-square statistics.

Adjusted hazard ratios for overall mortality and cause-specific mortality were calculated for HCV patients using persons without HCV. The Cox proportional hazard model was used for calculation of AHR for independent risk factors, and for the presence of HCV as a potential risk factor for overall mortality and cause-specific mortalities.

The cohort included 15,866 individuals with complete data. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

100 percent fruit juice lowers obesity, stroke risk

April 23, 2009 By 1 Comment

Washington, Apr 23 (ANI): A glass of 100 percent juice every morning can lower the risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome – a cluster of conditions that increases risk for stroke, heart disease and diabetes, concludes a new study.

New research presented at the Experimental Biology (EB) 2009 meeting highlights the association among adult men and women, with evidence showing that 100 percent juice drinkers were leaner, had better insulin sensitivity and had lower risk for obesity and metabolic syndrome.

Looking at data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) 1999-2004 – an ongoing data collection initiative through the Centers for Disease Control and Promotion – University of Minnesota’s Dr. Mark Pereira and co-author Dr. Victor Fulgoni found that, compared to non-consumers, 100 percent juice consumers had lower mean Body Mass Index (BMI), smaller waist circumference and lower insulin resistance (as estimated by homeostasis model assessment, HOMA).

The researchers noted an inverse association between level of juice intake (oz/day) and these parameters.

Based on the analysis, risk for obesity was 22 percent lower among 100 percent juice drinkers, while risk for metabolic syndrome (defined as the presence of three or more of the following: central obesity, elevated blood glucose, elevated fasting triglycerides, low HDL-cholesterol, elevated blood pressure) was 15 percent lower compared to non-consumers.

“We know that maintaining a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables is linked to decreased risk of some chronic diseases,” notes Dr. Pereira, who is an associate professor in the University of Minnesota’s Division of Epidemiology and Community Health.
One cup of 100 percent fruit juice counts as a serving of fruit and, based on our analysis, 100 percent juice consumption is associated with some of these same benefits,” the expert added.

According to the researchers, intake of 100percent juice was generally associated with other healthful behaviors. Among more than 14,000 participants in the survey – a multiethnic sample of U.S. adults ages 19 and older – juice consumers had higher physical activity levels and more favorable dietary intake patterns (including: lower fat intakes, higher fiber intakes, lower added sugar intakes).

After taking these lifestyle factors into account, the inverse relationship between 100 percent fruit juice consumption and metabolic syndrome was no longer statistically significant. However, risk for obesity remained 14 percent lower among juice consumers even after the adjustment. (ANI)

Filed Under: Health News Tagged With: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
« Older Posts