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Poor Sleep Linked to Obesity
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Poor sleep linked to obesity, other ills
ATLANTA - People who sleep fewer than six hours a night — or more than nine — are more likely to be obese, according to a new government study that is one of the largest to show a link between irregular sleep and big bellies.
The study also linked light sleepers to higher smoking rates, less physical activity and more alcohol use.
The research adds weight to a stream of studies that have found obesity and other health problems in those who don’t get proper shuteye, said Dr. Ron Kramer, a Colorado physician and a spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine.
“The data is all coming together that short sleepers and long sleepers don’t do so well,” Kramer said.
The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The study released Wednesday is based on door-to-door surveys of 87,000 U.S. adults from 2004 through 2006 conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
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Fat Cells Renew Themselves
Fat Cells Renewed Yearly in Process That May Lead to Treatment By Michelle Fay Cortez May 4 (Bloomberg) -- About 10 percent of fat cells in the body die off yearly and are replaced naturally, according to Swedish scientists who say that finding ways to interrupt the renewal process may one day offer a treatment for obesity. Researchers have long thought that the number of fat cells remains constant in adults. The newest study, published today in the journal Nature, is the first to report that some cells break down each year, and that new ones are created that may affect a person's efforts to lose weight. The number of obese adults has skyrocketed worldwide in the past 25 years. In the U.S., more than one in three adults are obese and another third are overweight, which puts them at increased risk for heart disease and diabetes, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Efforts to develop weight-loss treatments have been largely unsuccessful. ``The results may, at least in part, explain why it is so difficult to maintain the weight after slimming,'' said Peter Arner, senior author of the study and a professor of medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, in a statement. ``The new fat cells generated during and after weight reduction need to fill up their lipids rapidly.'' Fat cells shrink and stretch as people eat more or less, leading to changes in girth. In the study, researchers determined the age of the cells, and confirmed their continued production, by looking for radiation in people born before and after nuclear bomb testing began during the Cold War in 1955. Radioactive Cells The scientist examined fat cells taken during liposuction or stomach reconstruction from 35 people, including those who were adults when the testing began. Fat cells that were removed had signs of radioactivity, ``providing a first indication that there is a continuous and substantial turnover'' in adults, the researchers said. Using computer models, they calculated that about half of a person's fat cells are replaced every 8 years. ``The total number of fat cells in the body is stable over time, because the making of new fat cells is counterbalanced by an equally rapid breakdown of the already existing fat cells,'' Arner said. The study also included an analysis of fat cells, called adipocyte cells, in 687 adults and compared the findings to earlier work with children and teens. The researchers showed the total number increased through age 20, and remained the same during adulthood regardless of the person's size. That means the difference in the number of fat cells in lean and overweight people is established during childhood, they concluded. Read the rest of the article: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601124&sid=arW.A0cTSBms&refer=home# |
Can you be "fit but fat"?
MSNBC.com |
CHICAGO - New research challenges the notion that you can be fat and fit, finding that being active can lower but not eliminate heart risks faced by heavy women.
“It doesn’t take away the risk entirely. Weight still matters,” said Dr. Martha Gulati, a heart specialist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Previous research has gone back and forth on whether exercise or weight has a greater influence on heart disease risks.
The new study involving nearly 39,000 women helps sort out the combined effects of physical activity and body mass on women’s chances of developing heart disease, said Gulati, who wasn’t involved in the research.
The study by Harvard-affiliated researchers appears in Monday’s Archives of Internal Medicine.
Participants were women aged 54 on average who filled out a questionnaire at the study’s start detailing their height, weight and amount of weekly physical activity in the past year, including walking, jogging, bicycling and swimming. They were then tracked for about 11 years. Overall 948 women developed heart disease.
Women were considered active if they followed government-recommended guidelines and got at least 30 minutes of moderate activity most days of the week, including brisk walking or jogging. Women who got less exercise than that were considered inactive.
Weight was evaluated by body mass index: A BMI between 25 and 29 is considered overweight, while obese is 30 and higher.
Compared with normal-weight active women, the risk for developing heart disease was 54 percent higher in overweight active women and 87 percent higher in obese active women. By contrast, it was 88 percent higher in overweight inactive women; and 2½ times greater in obese inactive women.
About two in five U.S. women at age 50 will eventually develop heart attacks or other cardiovascular problems. Excess weight can raise those odds in many ways, including by increasing blood pressure and risks for diabetes, and by worsening cholesterol. Exercise counteracts all three.
“It is reassuring to see that physical activity really does make an impact,” said lead author Dr. Amy Weinstein of Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. However, she added, “If you’re overweight or obese, you can’t really get back to that lower risk entirely with just physical activity alone.”
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