Reducing intake of niacin can prevent obesity

May 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 21 (ANI): Scientists in China have suggested that reducing the intake of niacin, also known as vitamin B3 or nicotinic acid, can prevent obesity.

Dietary factors have long been known to play a major role in the development of obesity. The global increasing prevalence of obesity suggests that there should be some common changes in diet worldwide.

In fact, a significant, yet, often-neglected worldwide change in dietary factors in the past few decades is the food fortification-induced

marked increase in the content of niacin.

However, the effect of long-term exposure to excess niacin on human health remains to be unclear.

Now, a research team from China has examined the role of excess nicotinamide in glucose metabolism using co-loading of glucose and nicotinamide test.

They have proved that excess niacin intake-induced biphasic response, i.e., insulin resistance in the early phase and hypoglycemia in the late phase, may be a primary cause for the increased appetite in obesity.

The study has also revealed for the first time that the obesity prevalence among US children and adolescents increased in parallel with the increase of the per capita niacin consumption with a 10-year lag, in which niacin fortification-induced sharp increase in niacin contents in grain products may play a major role.

Reducing niacin intake and facilitating niacin elimination through sweat-inducing physical activity may be a key factor in the prevention and treatment of obesity.

It seems that the long-term safety of niacin fortification needs to be carefully evaluated.

The study will be published on May 21, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology. (ANI)

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Lose weight quickly, not gradually, for long-term success

May 7, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Washington, May 6 (ANI): The key to long-term weight loss and maintenance is to lose weight quickly, not gradually, in the initial stages of obesity treatment, suggests a new study.

As part of the study, Lisa Nackers and colleagues, from the University of Florida in the US, and her team examined the association between rate of initial weight loss and long-term maintenance of lost weight, by looking specifically at whether losing weight at a slow initial rate results in larger long-term weight reduction and less weight regain than losing weight at a fast initial rate.

The authors analyzed data for 262 middle-aged obese women who took part in the Treatment of Obesity in Underserved Rural Settings (TOURS) trial.

These women followed a six-month lifestyle program encouraging them to reduce their calorie intake and increase their moderate intensity physical activity to achieve an average weight loss of 0.45kg per week.

They were then supported for a further year with an extended care program involving contact twice a month in the form of group sessions, telephone contact or newsletters.

Nackers and team split the women into three groups according to how much weight they lost in the first month of the intervention. Women in the FAST group lost over 0.68kg per week; those in the MODERATE group lost between 0.23 and 0.68kg per week; women in the SLOW group lost less than 0.23kg per week in that first month.

The authors then looked at the womens” weight loss at 6 and 18 months, as well as any weight regain.

They found that there were long-term advantages to fast initial weight loss.

Fast weight losers lost more weight overall, maintained their weight loss for longer and were not more likely to put weight back on than the more gradual weight losers.

In particular, women in the FAST group were five times more likely to achieve the clinically significant 10 percent weight loss at 18 months than those in the SLOW group and those in the MODERATE group were nearly three times more likely to achieve this milestone than women in the SLOW group.

“Our study provides further evidence that, within the context of lifestyle treatment, losing weight at a fast initial rate leads to greater short-term weight reductions, does not result in increased susceptibility to weight regain, and is associated with larger weight losses and overall long-term success in weight management. We suggest that, within lifestyle weight control programs, substantial efforts should be focused on promoting large rather than small behavioral changes during the initial weeks of treatment,” the authors said.

Their findings are published online in International Journal of Behavioural Medicine. (ANI)

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Junk food addiction may be clue to obesity – study

March 30, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Bingeing on high-calorie foods may be as addictive as cocaine or nicotine, and could cause compulsive eating and obesity, according to a study published on Sunday.

The findings in a study of animals cannot be directly applied to human obesity, but may help in understanding the condition and in developing therapies to treat it, researchers wrote in the journal “Nature Neuroscience.”

The study, involving rats, found that overconsumption of high-calorie food can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain and that high-calorie food can turn rats into compulsive eaters in a laboratory setting, the article said.

The scientists also found decreased levels of a specific dopamine receptor — a brain chemical that allows a feeling of reward — in overweight rats, as has been reported in humans addicted to drugs, the article said.

“Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion, for example drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity,” researcher Paul Kenny of The Scripps Research Institute in Florida said in a telephone interview.

Obesity-related diseases cost the United States an estimated $150 billion each year, according to U.S. federal agencies. An estimated two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are obese or overweight.

For the study, Kenny and colleagues headed to the grocery store.

“We basically bought all of the stuff that people really like — Ding-Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, the stuff that you enjoy, but you really shouldn’t eat too often,” he said.

They also bought healthy foods and devised a diet plan for three groups of rats.

One group ate a balanced healthy diet. Another group received healthy food, but had access to high-calorie food for one hour a day. Rats in the third group were fed healthy meals and given unlimited access to high-calorie foods.

The rats in the third group developed a preference for the high-calorie food, munched on it all day and quickly became obese, Kenny said.

The rats in the experiment had also been trained to expect a minor shock when exposed to a light. But when the rats that had unlimited access to high-calorie food were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger, Kenny said. Instead, they continued to eat their snacks.

“What we’re seeing in our animals is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” he said. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”

JoAnne Allen

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Junk food addiction may be clue to obesity: Study

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Mon, Mar 29 10:30 AM

Bingeing on high-calorie foods may be as addictive as cocaine or nicotine, and could cause compulsive eating and obesity, according to a study published on Sunday.

The findings in a study of animals cannot be directly applied to human obesity, but may help in understanding the condition and in developing therapies to treat it, researchers wrote in the journal “Nature Neuroscience.”

The study, involving rats, found that over consumption of high-calorie food can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain and that high-calorie food can turn rats into compulsive eaters in a laboratory setting, the article said.

The scientists also found decreased levels of a specific dopamine receptor — a brain chemical that allows a feeling of reward — in overweight rats, as has been reported in humans addicted to drugs, the article said.

“Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion, for example drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity,” researcher Paul Kenny of The Scripps Research Institute in Florida said in a telephone interview.

Obesity-related diseases cost the United States an estimated $150 billion each year, according to U.S. federal agencies. An estimated two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are obese or overweight.

For the study, Kenny and colleagues headed to the grocery store.

“We basically bought all of the stuff that people really like — Ding-Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, the stuff that you enjoy, but you really shouldn’t eat too often,” he said.

They also bought healthy foods and devised a diet plan for three groups of rats.

One group ate a balanced healthy diet. Another group received healthy food, but had access to high-calorie food for one hour a day. Rats in the third group were fed healthy meals and given unlimited access to high-calorie foods.

The rats in the third group developed a preference for the high-calorie food, munched on it all day and quickly became obese, Kenny said.

The rats in the experiment had also been trained to expect a minor shock when exposed to a light. But when the rats that had unlimited access to high-calorie food were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger, Kenny said. Instead, they continued to eat their snacks.

“What we’re seeing in our animals is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” he said. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”
Reuters

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Junk food addiction may be clue to obesity – study

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Bingeing on high-calorie foods may be as addictive as cocaine or nicotine, and could cause compulsive eating and obesity, according to a study published on Sunday.

The findings in a study of animals cannot be directly applied to human obesity, but may help in understanding the condition and in developing therapies to treat it, researchers wrote in the journal “Nature Neuroscience.”

The study, involving rats, found that overconsumption of high-calorie food can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain and that high-calorie food can turn rats into compulsive eaters in a laboratory setting, the article said.

The scientists also found decreased levels of a specific dopamine receptor — a brain chemical that allows a feeling of reward — in overweight rats, as has been reported in humans addicted to drugs, the article said.

“Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion, for example drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity,” researcher Paul Kenny of The Scripps Research Institute in Florida said in a telephone interview.

Obesity-related diseases cost the United States an estimated $150 billion each year, according to U.S. federal agencies. An estimated two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are obese or overweight.

For the study, Kenny and colleagues headed to the grocery store.

“We basically bought all of the stuff that people really like — Ding-Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, the stuff that you enjoy, but you really shouldn’t eat too often,” he said.

They also bought healthy foods and devised a diet plan for three groups of rats.

One group ate a balanced healthy diet. Another group received healthy food, but had access to high-calorie food for one hour a day. Rats in the third group were fed healthy meals and given unlimited access to high-calorie foods.

The rats in the third group developed a preference for the high-calorie food, munched on it all day and quickly became obese, Kenny said.

The rats in the experiment had also been trained to expect a minor shock when exposed to a light. But when the rats that had unlimited access to high-calorie food were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger, Kenny said. Instead, they continued to eat their snacks.

“What we’re seeing in our animals is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” he said. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”

JoAnne Allen

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Junk food addiction may be clue to obesity – study

March 29, 2010 By Leave a Comment

*Overindulgence may alter brain responses

Stocks | Healthcare

By JoAnne Allen

WASHINGTON, March 28 (Reuters) – Bingeing on high-calorie foods may be as addictive as cocaine or nicotine, and could cause compulsive eating and obesity, according to a study published on Sunday.

The findings in a study of animals cannot be directly applied to human obesity, but may help in understanding the condition and in developing therapies to treat it, researchers wrote in the journal “Nature Neuroscience.”

The study, involving rats, found that overconsumption of high-calorie food can trigger addiction-like responses in the brain and that high-calorie food can turn rats into compulsive eaters in a laboratory setting, the article said.

The scientists also found decreased levels of a specific dopamine receptor — a brain chemical that allows a feeling of reward — in overweight rats, as has been reported in humans addicted to drugs, the article said.

“Obesity may be a form of compulsive eating. Other treatments in development for other forms of compulsion, for example drug addiction, may be very useful for the treatment of obesity,” researcher Paul Kenny of The Scripps Research Institute in Florida said in a telephone interview.

Obesity-related diseases cost the United States an estimated $150 billion each year, according to U.S. federal agencies. An estimated two-thirds of American adults and one-third of children are obese or overweight.

For the study, Kenny and colleagues headed to the grocery store.

“We basically bought all of the stuff that people really like — Ding-Dongs, cheesecake, bacon, sausage, the stuff that you enjoy, but you really shouldn’t eat too often,” he said.

They also bought healthy foods and devised a diet plan for three groups of rats.

One group ate a balanced healthy diet. Another group received healthy food, but had access to high-calorie food for one hour a day. Rats in the third group were fed healthy meals and given unlimited access to high-calorie foods.

The rats in the third group developed a preference for the high-calorie food, munched on it all day and quickly became obese, Kenny said.

The rats in the experiment had also been trained to expect a minor shock when exposed to a light. But when the rats that had unlimited access to high-calorie food were shown the light, they did not respond to the potential danger, Kenny said. Instead, they continued to eat their snacks.

“What we’re seeing in our animals is very similar to what you’d see in humans who overindulge,” he said. “It seemed that it was okay, from what we could tell, to enjoy snack foods, but if you repeatedly overindulge, that’s where the problem comes in.”

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New wonder pill ‘could reduce weight by 25pct in a week’

July 14, 2009 By Leave a Comment

London, July 14 (ANI): Scientists in the U.S. have created an anti-obesity pill that could dramatically reduce weight in a week.

Tests on mice have shown that the drug could decrease body weight by a quarter and their fat content by 42 per cent after seven days.

After a month, the weight of the mice had been reduced by 28 per cent and their fat mass by 63 per cent.

The researchers say further research is needed before the drug is tested on humans. However, they say the results point to a new approach for the treatment of obesity and adult-onset diabetes.

The drug is an artificial hormone made out of glucagon and glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) – natural hormones that regulate glucose metabolism.

These two hormones are similar in structure but they differ in their chemical structure and biological function.

Previous studies have shown they can suppress appetite or cause weight loss by increasing the body’s calorie usage.

Dr Richard DiMarchi and colleagues at Indiana University in the US created the synthetic hormone and carried out the trials on mice.

“Obesity and its associated consequences, including adult-onset diabetes, remain a primary health and economic threat for modern societies,” the Telegraph quoted DiMarchi as saying.

At the moment, surgical interventions such as gastric bypass remain the only therapeutic options with the potential for a cure.

Dr DiMarchi said acute glucagon administration reduces food intake in animals and in humans, and some reports indicate that sustained glucagon receptor activation not only decreases food intake but also promotes weight loss.

“Pharmacological treatment of obesity using single agents has limited efficacy or presents risk for serious adverse effects,” he said.

“No single agent has proven to be capable of reducing body weight more than 5 to 10 per cent in the obese population. Combination therapies using multiple drugs simultaneously may represent the preferred pharmaceutical approach to treat obesity, and there is ample precedent for combination therapy in treatment of chronic diseases.

“Here we present results that prove the principle that single molecules can be designed that are capable of simultaneously activating more than one mechanism to safely normalize body weight.

“The present results trigger an array of new questions and the opportunity for further enhancement of the pharmacology.

“First, there is no reason to assume that the fine-tuned combination of these two particular gut hormones in a single molecule represents the only or optimal pharmacological approach to prevent or treat obesity.

“Second, it seems at least theoretically possible to include circulating factors other than gut hormones in an analogous single-molecule co-agonist,” he added.

Dr DiMarchi said that a combination of more than two metabolic control peptides into a single molecule may “provide an even more potent” weapon against obesity.

The findings have been published online in Nature Chemical Biology. (ANI)

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Incisionless procedure ‘reverses weight gain after gastric bypass surgery’

June 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 30 (ANI): Scientists have offered an incisionless procedure to reverse weight gain after gastric bypass surgery.

To perform the procedure, known as ROSE (Restorative Obesity Surgery, Endolumenal), a small, flexible endoscope and tools are inserted through the mouth, down the esophagus, and into the stomach pouch during an outpatient procedure.

The tools, developed by USGI Medical Inc., are used to grasp, fold and stitch tissue to reduce both the diameter of the stomach opening and the volume of the stomach pouch. No cuts are made into the patient’s skin.

Santiago Horgan, MD, professor of surgery and director of the Center for the Treatment of Obesity at UC San Diego, looked at the six-month outcomes from a national registry of 116 patients who underwent the procedure.

The data showed that 88 percent of the patients stopped regaining weight after ROSE.

Overall, these 96 patients lost an average 18 percent of their excess weight six months after the procedure. For the purposes of the registry, excess body weight is defined as anything over a body mass index rating of 55.

One patient in the study lost 66 pounds or 84 percent of her excess weight during that six-month time period. Patients who were most successful losing weight after their original gastric bypass had the best results following the ROSE procedure.

This subset of patients dropped 29 percent of their excess weight during the six months after ROSE.

“We believe this registry represents the largest collection of data showing the effectiveness, safety and durability of the ROSE procedure,” said Horgan.

“There are not many options to repair a failing gastric bypass. Invasive procedures to restore the anatomy are complicated and risky for most patients. In comparison, there were no significant complications associated with ROSE and most of the patients lost clinically relevant amounts of weight,” Horgan added.

The data was presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons. (ANI)

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‘Super-sleepers’ can store enough energy to fight obesity

June 29, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, June 29 (ANI): In a new research, a team of scientists has found that animals that sleep longer store energy for a long duration, a finding that can be useful in the treatment of obesity.

Many species of animals go through a period of torpor to conserve energy when resources are scarce.

But, when it comes to switching to energy-saving mode, the champion by far among vertebrates is the burrowing frog (Cyclorana alboguttata), which can survive for several years buried in the mud in the absence of any food or water.

Now, a team of scientists at the University of Queensland, Australia, have discovered that the metabolism of their cells changes radically during the dormancy period allowing the frogs to maximize the use of their limited energy resources without ever running on empty.

This discovery could prove to have important medical applications in the long term.

“It could potentially be useful in the treatment of energy-related disorders such as obesity,” explained scientist Sara Kayes.

When the operation efficiency of the mitochondria, the tiny “power plants” of the cell, was measured during the dormancy period, it was found to be significantly higher compared to that observed in active animals.

This trick, known as mitochondrial coupling, allows these frogs to be extremely efficient in the use of the limited energy stores they have by increasing the total amount of energy obtained per unit consumed, allowing them to easily outperform other species whose energy production efficiency remains essentially the same even when they happen to be inactive for extended periods. (ANI)

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‘Good’ energy burning fat exists in adults too

April 9, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Washington, April 9 (ANI): American scientists have shown that adults too have a type of “good” fat that is generally thought to be present only in babies and children.

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Massachusetts, point out that this good fat, also known as brown fat, is active in burning calories and using energy.

They believe that their finding may pave the way for new treatments both for obesity and type 2 diabetes.

While scientists have always believed that brown fat is mostly gone by adulthood, the new study has for the first time shown it to be present and metabolically active in adult humans.

“The fact that there is active brown fat in adult humans means this is now a new and important target for the treatment of obesity and type 2 diabetes,” said Dr. C. Ronald Kahn, senior author and Head of the Joslin Section on Obesity and Hormone Action and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

According to the researchers, the idea behind a new therapy would be to find a way to stimulate brown fat growth to both control weight and improve glucose metabolism.

“Not only did we find active brown fat in adult humans, we found important differences in the amount of brown fat based on a variety of factors such as age, glucose levels and, most importantly, level of obesity,” said lead author Dr. Aaron Cypess, a Research Associate and Staff Physician at Joslin.

The study revealed that younger patients were more likely to have larger amounts of brown fat, and that the good fat was more active during colder weather, keeping with its role of burning energy to generate heat.

Brown fat was also found to be more common in adults who were thin, and had normal blood glucose levels.

“What is of particular interest is that individuals who were overweight or obese as measured by higher Body Mass Index (BMI) were less likely to have substantial amounts of brown fat,” said Kahn.

“Likewise, patients taking beta-blockers and patients who were older were also less likely to have active brown fat. For example, individuals both over age 64 and with high BMI scores were six times less likely to have substantial amounts of brown fat,” Kahn added.

The researchers say that their findings suggest a potential role for brown fat in regulating body weight metabolism, suggesting that its higher levels may protect against age-related obesity.

They are hopeful that an increased ability to measure brown fat mass and activity in vivo in humans will lead to a better understanding of its role in physiology, and its potential as a target for therapy of obesity and other metabolic disorders.

During the study, the researchers analysed a database of 1,972 patients who had undergone positron emission tomography/computed tomography (PET/CT) scans for a variety of reasons over a three-year period.

The team found substantial brown fat deposits in 7.5 percent of the female patients, and over 3 percent of males.

Dr. Kahn revealed that most of the deposits found on the scans were located in the neck region.

“In the real world, there has been a long debate as to whether brown fat exists in adult humans and whether it was important physiologically,” he said.

“This study demonstrates that it is both present and appears to be physiologically important in terms of body weight and glucose metabolism. We hope this opens up a new therapeutic area for obesity and type 2 diabetes by modifying the activity of brown fat,” he added.

A research article on this study has been published in the New England Journal of Medicine. (ANI)

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