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Archive for the ‘Research’ category

Obesity Isn’t The Disease…It’s Only A Symptom

March 12th, 2010

I read an interesting study the other day.

In this study, the researchers argued that when it comes to Metabolic Syndrome (hypertension, dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance, hyperinsulinemia, central adiposity {big belly}, high blood sugar) obesity may actually be a good thing.

Here’s why.

Metabolic Syndrome is a result of our Standard American Diet
The S.A.D. combination of too many calories and the over-consumption of sugar + fat-centric meals causes…
An increase in the secretion of insulin. When this happens on a regular basis, we end up with…
hyperinsulinemia, which…
Causes the expression of the lipogenic transcription factor SREBP-1c and its target enzymes and so on and so on and so on until we end up with Metabolic Syndrome and all of the wonderful ailments I mentioned in the previous paragraph.

Sounds pretty grim, doesn’t it?

And the first thing that your doctor is going to tell you if she suspects you have Metabolic Syndrome is to lose weight.

As if obesity is the cause of Metabolic Syndrome.

But, it ain’t.

We know that our bodies respond to our Standard American Diet by increasing the amount of circulating insulin.

This leads to an increase in body-fat.

Common sense tells us that this is bad.

These researchers disagree.

They propose that this new body-fat delays, rather than causes, the metabolic syndrome induced by chronic caloric surplus.

They argue that subcutaneous fat in general exerts a positive effect on insulin sensitivity. Subcutaneous fat is the body-fat that exists between your muscles and your skin – we’re not talking that solid “beer belly” kind of fat.

This “healthy” type of adipose tissue is genetically determined and has a strong sexually dimorphic component as well. Females, at any given body mass index, are protected against insulin resistance more than males.

And if we prevent insulin resistance…we prevent Metabolic Syndrome.

To test this hypothesis further, the researchers bred obesity resistance mice with with db/db mice, which normally become obese and develop severe metabolic syndrome and type 2 diabetes (T2DM) by the age of 8–10 weeks.

Sucks to be a db/db mouse.

They ended up with some mice who stayed lean despite their voracious appetites.

Unfortunately, these mice developed Metabolic Syndrome in 4 weeks instead of the typical 8-10 weeks.

The researchers concluded that body-fat is a normal response designed to permit stockpiling of fuels while simultaneously protecting our lipid-intolerant organs.

Metabolic syndrome appears only after the storage capacity of the adipocyte compartment has reached a maximum, at which point a gradual accumulation of ectopic fatty acids begins.

Ectopic means “not where it’s supposed to be”. It accumulates in the abdominal region (beer belly), the liver, muscle tissue including the heart, the pancreas, and perhaps in lipid-rich deposits in the arteries.

Obesity should therefore not be regarded as a pathology or disease, but rather as the normal, physiologic response to sustained caloric surplus without which the advent of metabolic syndrome is accelerated.

Conclusions

Obesity isn’t a disease
It’s a symptom of another disease – Metabolic Syndrome
It’s better to have squishy, subcutaneous fat than the big, hard beer belly kind of fat

My Suggestion

Stop thinking of obesity as a health issue unto itself.

If obesity is a result of something else, you need to know what that cause is and then take action to reverse the problem.

You can start by dumping the Standard American Diet and replace it with something more Mediterranean or Asian or Paleo.

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Do You Have Fat Taste Buds?

March 7th, 2010

Back when I was a kid, I had 4 types of taste buds: Sweet, Salty, Sour & Bitter

And then, they discovered that I (we) actually had a fifth taste bud specifically for savory foods like meat, cheese & mushrooms. This taste is commonly referred to as Umami (fun fact – in Japanese, umami means flavor or taste.)

And because they can’t leave well enough alone, some researchers in Australia have recently discovered a sixth form of taste.

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And it just so happens to be a taste for FAT.

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And how does this fat taste bud work?

Well, according to the researchers, “people with a high sensitivity for taste of fat actually eat less fatty food and have less likelihood of being overweight“.

Unfortunately, this also means that people with a low sensitivity for taste of fat are more likely to eat more fatty food and have a greater likelihood of being overweight“.

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And there is nothing you can do about it.

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But, luckily for food manufacturers, research has already begun on creating an artificial fat flavoring that can be added to low-fat foods in order to trick your newest taste bud.

For more info check out the following links

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Teens Just Wanna Have Fun

February 17th, 2010

According to the latest research, emphasising the emotional benefits of exercise is more effective at increasing levels of (teenage) physical activity than highlighting traditional health benefits.

Or, to put it in layman’s terms…

Teens like to do fun stuff
They don’t like to do stuff that is “good for them”

Well….duh!

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But seriously, there is evidence showing that people who believe that physical activity is enjoyable and fun are more likely to engage in sport and exercise.

To test this concept, researchers investigated whether highlighting the emotional benefits of sport and exercise to young people increased their levels of physical activity.”

The Study

To test their hypothesis, the researchers sent different types of SMS messages to kids (ages 16-19) encouraging them to “get active”.

Group 1 received messages that highlighted the emotional benefits of physical activity such as ‘Physical activity can make you feel cheerful. What activity will you do today?’ and ‘Physical activity can make you feel more enthusiastic. What activity will you do today?’.

Group 2 received messages that highlighted the physical health benefits of exercise such as ‘Physical activity can help maintain a healthy weight. What activity will you do today?’ and ‘Physical activity can keep your heart healthy. What activity will you do today?’.

Group 3 received a combination of the two messages – emotional one week, practical the next week.

Group 4 was the control group. Their SMS messages contained only the final element of the phrase used in the intervention groups, ‘What activity will you do today?’ for comparability.

Results

Analysis of the results found that the physical activity levels of all 128 participants increased after the two-week intervention by an average 31.5 minutes of moderate activity a week.

Amongst the naturally active kids…

…overall activity a little bit, but none of the 4 text messages stood out as being more effective than the others.

But… in the naturally inactive group, the teenagers who received the texts which highlighted the emotional benefits of exercise performed 120 additional minutes of moderate exercise.

That’s 4x the overall average.

Conclusion

If we (you, me & Michelle Obama) want our teens to get active, get healthy & drop a few pounds, we need to forget about motivating them with logic.

It ain’t gonna work.

We need to motivate with emotion…with fun.

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Any suggestions?

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HIIT Harder with Creatine

February 1st, 2010

This article is for all of those people who have already discovered the joys of HIIT (High Intensity Interval Training)

According to this latest bit of research, supplementing with Creatine results in:

Improved workout performance during HIIT
Higher glycogen load found in fast twitch muscles (18% increase)
No difference in slow twitch muscles
Lower blood lactate levels

Conclusion

For improved HIIT performance, supplement with creatine.

In fact, if you perform any sport/activity that requires intermittent bursts of high intensity effort (hockey, fighting, track & field, etc), creatine should be part of your supplement regimen.

However, if your sport/activity relies on slow twitch fibers and aerobic endurance, creatine may not be for you.

Recommendation

There are a lot of supplement companies selling different types of creatine supplements.

In my experience, AllMax produces one of the better versions. Quality results with no side effect bloating.

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MEND: A Better Way to Reverse Childhood Obesity?

January 28th, 2010

I want you to imagine that you’re the parent of this chubby little guy chowing down at Mickey Dees.

You know that your kid is obese.
You know that being obese is not going to make his life easier in any respect – health, social stigma, etc

And yet, here you are at McDonalds…again

How does that make you feel?

Like a failure as a parent?
Worried about your kid’s health?
Concerned that you don’t know how to fix the problem?
Upset that you can’t afford to fix the problem?

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What if there was a program that:

Has been proven to help reverse childhood obesity (study, study)
Teaches kids (and their families) what & how they should be eating to be fit
Takes the family shopping to show them how to shop for healthy food on a budget
Shows the family how to prepare healthy meals
Teaches the family psychological tips to help them improve their odds of winning the weight loss battle
Re-introduces kids to physical activity – games, sports, etc..
Was offered in your neighborhood
Make us of already existing public facilities (community centers, parks, etc)

And is FREE

If you live in the U.K., this program already exists

Unfortunately, in North America, it doesn’t.

Funny how we talk about what a huge problem childhood obesity is, but we don’t do anything about it.

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Obesity = Inflammation = Cancer

January 22nd, 2010

Every January 1st, millions of people resolve to get in shape and lose weight.

Unfortunately, before February 1st rolls around, two thirds of those people have fallen off the bandwagon, abandoned their gym memberships and returned to the normal diet of pizza & ice cream.

So, in an attempt to recharge your collective weight-loss motivation, I thought I would let you in on a recent piece of obesity research that concluded that…

Obesity = Inflammation = Cancer

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Yep, cancer…the big C.

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According to this latest research, obesity enhances the development of a form of liver cancer called HCC (hepatocellular carcinoma) by:

Stimulating the production of tumor-promoting cytokines (interleukin-6 {Il-6} and tumor necrosis factor {tnf})
Il-6 and tnf causes inflammation in your liver, and
Activates a tumor-producing transcription factor called STAT3
STAT3 activates the formation and growth of the HCC liver cancer

Or, in layman’s terms

Obesity = Inflammation = Cancer

But, it’s not just liver cancer.

Obesity also increases the risk of developing pancreatic, GI and kidney cancers.

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So, how about that slice of pizza?

Feeling hungry?

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Exercise Builds Better Brains

January 21st, 2010

I knew it!!!

I knew there was a reason my Health Habits readers are so much smarter than the average person on the street.

It turns out that all of that exercise you do improves brain health and actually promotes the growth of new brain cells.

The Research

In a new study (published here), researchers found that voluntary running caused lab mice to grow new brain cells in the region of the brain (hippocampus) associated with memory and spatial navigation.

The 105-day study included two groups of mice. One group was allowed unlimited access to an exercise wheel and ran an average of more than 20 km (12 miles) a day. The other group of mice weren’t allowed to exercise.

Tests showed that the mice in the exercise group were better able to distinguish between memories of similar things. This is likely due to the additional brain cells generated by exercise, the researchers said.

“Keeping similar memories distinct is an important part of having a good memory,” said study senior author Timothy Bussey of Cambridge University. “It is this aspect of memory that is improved by exercise, our study shows.

The human equivalent might be remembering which car parking space you have used on two different days in the previous week. It becomes difficult to distinguish memories when events are similar.”

New brain cells…that has to be good.

But wait, it gets even better.

It’s not just the physical exercise that you do.

Another group of brain researchers believe that it’s a combination of increased blood flow (via exercise therapy) and increased neural activity (problem solving, learning new tasks, reading Health Habits, etc…) that results in both the creation and retention of new brain cells at any age.

So, when you go online to research how to get healthy & fit, you’re pushing your brain to grow & keep new brain cells.

But wait, it can get even better than that.

Supplementing your diet with Omega 3 fatty acids has been shown to improve the cellular function of your brain cells.

Conclusion

Physical Exercise = New Brain Cells
Mental Exercise = Retention of those New Brain Cells (the use it or lose it theory)
Omega 3 fatty acids via fish oils = Better Functioning Brain Cells

So, the next time some non-exercising, non-thinking, non-fish oil slurping mouth breather tells you how smart you are, you can tell them that it’s all due to Health Habits.

You’re welcome

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An Ounce of Prevention is Worth a Pound of Cure

January 20th, 2010

Mainstream Medicine may finally be catching on.

In a major shift of emphasis in the battle against cardiovascular disease, the American Heart Association is urging people to embrace prevention rather than just try to avoid risks long associated with the world’s leading killer.

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The Dallas-based organization unveiled a list of seven steps people can take to help prevent heart attacks and strokes and live healthy lives well into old age. The recommendations, which include staying smoke-free, eating healthy foods and getting regular exercise, are all familiar.

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But leaders hope a more pro-active message comprising the entire package of steps will help blunt the impact of the obesity epidemic and build on four decades of progress against the ravages of cardiovascular disease.

“We’ve always looked at this from the risk side of the equation,” said Donald Lloyd-Jones, head of preventive medicine at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, Chicago. “It’s important to push the agenda of promoting health, not just avoiding disease.”

Dr. Lloyd-Jones is lead author of a scientific statement being published in the AHA journal Circulation describing the science behind the strategy. The paper doesn’t break any new ground on heart-disease risk. Indeed, in addition to the steps on smoking, diet and exercise, the report urges people to control cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and a measure of healthy weight called body mass index.

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Each of the recommendations has long been at the foundation of heart-disease prevention, but Dr. Lloyd-Jones says their impact taken as a whole hasn’t previously been appreciated.

By attaining goals in all seven steps, Dr. Lloyd-Jones said, people would achieve “ideal” cardiovascular health with a likelihood of living healthy lives well into old age.

Together, they amount to “a fountain of youth for the heart.”

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So, here’s my question….

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How do we get from telling to doing?

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There is a big difference between knowing that you should do something and actually doing it.

And, while education about disease prevention / health promotion is important, it still doesn’t get many big ole butts up off the sofa.

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If you like what you see here, click here for updates

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Related Posts

Your body-fat wants to kill you

Health Promotion v.s Disease Prevention

Disease Prevention with an Exercise Prescription

America’s “Official” Obesity Solution

Wellness and Workouts in the Canadian Workplace

America’s Obesity Epidemic costs $147 billion

Having trouble sticking to your diet?

Future Trends in Global Obesity

How the Free Market makes you FAT and why “Big Food” likes it that way

Obesity Drugs v.s Health Habits

Nutritional Information on Restaurant Menus – Does it make any difference?

The Future of Fast Food

The status-quo is broken…We need a new model for burning fat and getting fit

Reference

Wall Street Journal

American Heart Association – main site

American Heart Association – My Life Check

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Posted in Diet/Nutrition, Exercise, I Wanna Be Healthy, I Wanna Look Great, Research, fat loss, health, healthcare, nutrition, obesity, politics, weight loss

Tags: american heart association cardiovascular diet fitness health heart heart disease high blood pressure nutrition obesity omega 3

Is America as Fat as It Can Get?

January 14th, 2010

According to the latest data collected for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey [NHANES], Americans are still getting fatter, but they may be getting fatter at a slightly slower rate.

Data from 1988-1994 showed that obesity in adults had increased by approximately 8 % in the United States since 1976-1980, after being relatively stable over the period 1960-1980.

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By 2007-2008, 33.8% of all Americans were obese (BMI = 30+), while the percentage of overweight Americans had jumped to 68% (BMI = 25+)

68%…not good.

But wait, there may be good news.

The data also showed that during the period from 1999-2008, female obesity levels showed no statistically significant changes. Similar results have been seen for males since 2003.

What does this mean?

This means that the increases in obesity we have been seeing since 1976 may be slowing down.

America may be reaching “peak obesity”.

That’s kind of like “peak oil” except that instead of a future world where Mad Max type characters run around killing and hoarding the dwindling supplies of oil, America may be on the road to de-flabbifying itself.

BUT…

…before you get all excited and celebrate with a box of twinkies, previous data from the NHANES survey produced the following projections

Obesity trends - USA

This data showed that while the numbers of overweight Americans was flattening out, the number of obese Americans is likely to increase.

This means that future America may be populated by a large group of really fat people, a smaller groups of “normal” fat people and another small group of fit people.

Unless the whole “peak oil” thing is right…and in that case, we’re looking at the whole Mad Max scenario

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High Intensity meets High Tech

November 24th, 2009

do-your-tabatas

It’s no secret – I love High Intensity Interval Training.

I love that it’s great for melting body-fat
I love that it’s great for improving aerobic fitness
I love that it’s great for improving anaerobic fitness
And I love the fact that I get all of these benefits without having to spend hours on a treadmill like some kind of human/gerbil hybrid.

BUT, one thing I don’t like about HIIT/Tabata Training is that intensity is highly subjective.

When I tell a client that I want 100% on a set of interval sprints, how can I know that they are giving 100% effort.

How do we measure intensity?

Well, up until now, here’s what I have been doing (I will use HIIT bike sprints as an example)

After an adequate warm-up, I set the exercise bike at the appropriate level of resistance.
Then we start banging out 10 second sprints going as fast as possible
I help things along by “encouraging” my client to go faster.

I also ask the client to track the number of revolution one leg makes during the 10 second sprint.
For example, a new client recently tested out at 25, 27, 28, 28, 29, 27 and 24 revolutions per leg per 10 seconds. (bike resistance set at level 7 of 10)

This means that their maximum speed at resistance level 7 was 29 revs per leg per 10 sec.

This is also the number we now use to judge performance.

If they pedal slower than 29 rev @ level 7, then they are either fatiguing, not working hard enough or just having a bad day.

It’s not very high tech, but it has worked pretty well…up until now.

Now, I want to get my hands on some of this technology.

These new pieces of technology (Pulse Oximeters, portable ECGs and Activity Monitors) are being used right now by elite level athletes and in research settings to determine how to make exercise more efficient.

And when you consider that every IPhone and Google Android phone comes equipped with a built-in accelerometer, a proximity sensor and is bluetooth ready, it is highly likely that in the very near future, you are going to be able to ramp up the efficiency of your workouts by at least 25%.

And where did I get that 25%, you might ask?

And the answer is…from this study.

Without going into all of the highly technical details, researchers used some of the technology mentioned above to collect performance data while putting their test subjects through a modified Tabata workout.

data set Then they took that data, combined it with the data collected via a medical survey questionnaire and plugged it into a data mining decision tree.

I told you it was technical.

The upshot is that after all of this data was crunched, the researchers were able to design optimized interval training programs personalized for each and every test subject.

And, as a result of those optimized programs, the test subjects were able to improve their performance by 29.54%

What do you think of that!!!

29.54%

I can’t wait to get my hands on some of this technology.

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