New Hampshire Health News Digest

J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab. 2012;25(7-8):697-704. Metabolic impact of a ketogenic diet compared to a hypocaloric diet in obese children and adolescents. Partsalaki I, Karvela A, Spiliotis BE. BACKGROUND: The effects of carbohydrate-restricted (ketogenic) diets on metabolic parameters in children have been incompletely assessed. OBJECTIVE: To compare the efficacy and metabolic impact of ketogenic and hypocaloric diets in obese children and adolescents. SUBJECTS: Fifty-eight obese subjects were placed on one of the two diets for 6 months. METHODS: Anthropometric measurements, body composition, oral glucose/insulin tolerance test, lipidemic profile, high molecular weight (HMW) adiponectin, whole-body insulin sensitivity index (WBISI), and homeostatic model assessment-insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) were determined before and after each diet. RESULTS: Both groups significantly reduced their weight, fat mass, waist circumference, fasting insulin, and HOMA-IR (p = 0.009 for ketogenic and p = ...

Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Am J Clin Nutr. 2006 May;83(5):1055-61. Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets. Johnston CS, Tjonn SL, Swan PD, White A, Hutchins H, Sears B. BACKGROUND: Low-carbohydrate diets may promote greater weight loss than does the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. OBJECTIVE: We compared weight loss and biomarker change in adults adhering to a ketogenic low-carbohydrate (KLC) diet or a nonketogenic low-carbohydrate (NLC) diet. DESIGN: Twenty adults [body mass index (in kg/m(2)): 34.4 +/- 1.0] were randomly assigned to the KLC (60% of energy as fat, beginning with approximately 5% of energy as carbohydrate) or NLC (30% of energy as fat; approximately 40% of energy as carbohydrate) diet. During the 6-wk trial, participants were sedentary, and 24-h intakes were strictly controlled. RESULTS: Mean (+/-SE) weight losses (...

There are still health risks for metabolically healthy obese individuals Obese people who are currently metabolically healthy face a higher risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease, according to new research accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Research has found conflicting evidence about whether it is possible for some obese people to avoid health complications that increase the risk of metabolic diseases. These complications can include high blood pressure, high blood sugar, insulin resistance and low levels of high-density lipoproteins, the "good" form of cholesterol that reduces heart disease risk. Past studies have found as many as 30 percent of obese people may be metabolically healthy. "Unfortunately, our findings suggest metabolically healthy obesity is not a benign condition," said the study's corresponding author, Carlos Lorenzo, MD, of the University of Texas Heal...

Study casts doubt on whether extra vitamin D prevents disease By Kate Kelland LONDON (Reuters) - Researchers cast doubt on the prevailing wisdom that vitamin D supplements can prevent conditions like cancer, diabetes and heart disease, saying on Friday low vitamin D may be a consequence, not a cause, of ill health. The findings could have implications for millions of people who take vitamin D pills and other supplements to ward off illness - Americans spend an estimated $600 million a year on them alone. Vitamin D, sometimes known as the "sunshine vitamin" is made in the body when the skin is exposed to sunlight and in found in foods like fish liver oil, eggs and fatty fish such as salmon, herring and mackerel. [...] Researchers led by Philippe Autier of France's International Prevention Research Institute in Lyon analyzed data from several hundred observational studies and clinical trials examining the effects of vitamin D levels on so-called non-bone health - includi...

The ‘Healthy Obese’ and Their Healthy Fat Cells By ANAHAD O'CONNOR They are a mystery to researchers: people who are significantly overweight and yet show none of the usual metabolic red flags. Despite their obesity, they have normal cholesterol levels, healthy blood pressure levels and no apparent signs of impending diabetes. Researchers call them the metabolically healthy obese, and by some estimates they represent as many as a third of all obese adults. Scientists have known very little about them, but new research may shed some light on the cause of their unusual metabolic profile. A study in the journal Diabetologia has found that compared with their healthier counterparts, people who are obese but metabolically unhealthy have impaired mitochondria, the cellular powerhouses that harvest energy from food, as well as a reduced ability to generate new fat cells. Unlike fat tissue in healthy obese people, which generates new cells to help store fat as it accumulates, the fat...

Maps: States where doctors prescribe more antibiotics also have the highest obesity rates. Why? Indeed, a growing body of evidence suggests that antibiotics might be linked to weight gain. A 2012 New York University study found that antibiotic use in the first six months of life was linked with obesity later on. Another 2012 NYU study found that mice given antibiotics gained more weight than their drug-free counterparts. As my colleague Tom Philpott has noted repeatedly, livestock operations routinely dose animals with low levels of antibiotics to promote growth. No one knows exactly how antibiotics help animals (and possibly humans) pack on the pounds, but there are some theories. One is that antibiotics change the composition of the microbiome, the community of microorganisms in your body that scientists are just beginning to understand. (For a more in-depth look at the connection between bacteria and weight loss, read Moises Velasquez-Manoff's piece on the topic.) Hicks say...

Harvard Study: Eating White Rice Increases Risk Of Type 2 Diabetes A recent Harvard study has discovered a link between higher white rice intake and a significantly elevated risk of type 2 diabetes, especially among Asian populations. White rice is the predominant type of rice eaten worldwide and has high glycemic index (GI) values. High GI diets have been shown to be associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Compared to brown rice, it has a lower content of nutrients including fiber, magnesium, and vitamins, which may contribute to the increased risk, the authors report. The authors caution that an increased intake of other sources of refined carbohydrates such as pastries, white bread, and sugar sweetened beverages may also contribute to type 2 diabetes, not simply just white rice. They recommend eating whole grains instead of refined carbohydrates, which they hope will help slow down the global diabetes epidemic. Both Asian and Western cultures are suscepti...

Excess Glucose May Harden Heart and Lungs Excess Glucose May Harden Heart and Lungs Research found that glucose suppressed ferroelectricity up to 50%.... New research conducted at the University of Washington and Boston University has shown that excess glucose in the body could damage the elastic proteins found in important organs such as the heart and lungs, which aid in breathing and pumping blood. In this study, aortic tissue was separated into two types of proteins, elastin and collagen. Ferroelectric switching is what allows the elastin to be flexible and convey repeated pulses, in organs such as the arteries. It is a response to an electric field in which a molecule switches from having a positive charge to a negative charge. Recent discoveries in animal tissue have traced this property to elastin in animal tissues. When researchers treated the elastin with sugar, they noticed a 50% suppression of the ferroelectric switching. The sugar-protein interaction mimics glycati...

The Inter-Relationships between Vegetarianism and Eating Disorders among Females The Inter-Relationships between Vegetarianism and Eating Disorders among Females Accepted 24 April 2012. Abstract When individuals with a suspected or diagnosed eating disorder adopt a vegetarian diet, health care professionals might worry that this choice could function as a socially acceptable way to legitimize food avoidance. Yet only limited research has examined vegetarianism in relation to eating disorders. Our study objectives were to compare individuals with and without an eating disorder history and individuals at different stages of eating disorder recovery on past and current vegetarianism and motivations for and age at becoming vegetarian. [...] The three recovery status groups (fully recovered, partially recovered, and active eating disorder) did not differ significantly in percentiles endorsing a history of vegetarianism or weight-related reasons as primary, but they differed signif...

From Sleep Study, Clues to Happiness - NYTimes.com A little over a decade ago, scientists discovered that narcolepsy, the neurological disorder that leads to episodes of irresistible sleepiness, is caused by the loss of brain cells that produce hypocretin, a neurotransmitter that promotes wakefulness. But the discovery did not shed light on two other mysterious problems associated with the disorder. Narcoleptics have profoundly high rates of depression — up to six times the rate in the general population — and they have a tendency to collapse when swept by some emotions, a phenomenon known as cataplexy. Now research shows that in addition to regulating sleep, hypocretin also appears to govern emotion, particularly experiences of joy and happiness. The study has implications that extend beyond narcolepsy. It suggests that the brain has several different arousal systems, and that one of them, driven by hypocretin, has the specific function of keeping people awake for pleasure.

Lol, this is rich. "Ketogenic Diet Reverses Kidney Disease (Nephropathy)" OMG! This is incredible! Kidney failure is irreversible! But eating this strange high fat diet COMPLETELY CURED IT within 2 months for mice! Let's start testing the diet on people whose total lack of kidney function is a death sentence, right? Wrong- quote "a high fat diet could have other problems. We don't want to actually put people on the diet, we want to figure out how the diet works and make a drug that does the same thing", Lol. Yeah,  not like kids with epilepsy have been on ketogenic diets for years since the 1950's with no ill effects. Maybe someday someone will find evidence dietary fat causes heart disease, ha ha Ketogenic Diet Reverses Kidney Disease (Nephropathy) - YouTube : Ketogenic Diet Reverses Kidney Disease (Nephropathy) Charles Mobbs, a scientist at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York, discovers how a low carb, ketogenic diet reverses k...

After weight-loss surgery, new gut bacteria keep obesity away | Reuters The logic behind weight-loss surgery seems simple: rearrange the digestive tract so the stomach can hold less food and the food bypasses part of the small intestine, allowing fewer of a meal's calories to be absorbed. Bye-bye, obesity. A study of lab mice, published on Wednesday, begs to differ. It concludes that one of the most common and effective forms of bariatric surgery, called Roux-en-Y gastric bypass, melts away pounds not - or not only - by re-routing the digestive tract, as long thought, but by changing the bacteria in the gut. Or, in non-scientific terms, the surgery somehow replaces fattening microbes with slimming ones. If that occurs in people, too, then the same bacteria-changing legerdemain achieved by gastric bypass might be accomplished without putting obese patients under the knife in an expensive and risky operation. [...] For many obese patients, particularly those with type 2 d...

Whole Milk Linked to Slimmer Kids - Neatorama The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children switch from whole milk to a lower fat milk at age two. The conventional wisdom is that getting children used to reduced fat milk will help keep them at a healthy weight. Skim, 1%, or 2% milk has fewer calories per cup. It just makes sense, doesn't it? So here's where things gets confusing. A new study of preschool-aged children published in the Archives of Disease in Childhood, a sister publication of the British Medical Journal, finds that low-fat milk was associated with higher weight. That's right, kids drinking low-fat milk tended to be heavier.

Changes in the basal metabolic rate of a normal woman induced by short-term and long-term alterations of energy intake. [J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo). 1989] - PubMed - NCBI Abstract A long-term experiment was carried out to study the effects of alterations in energy intake and meal contents on basal metabolic rate (BMR) of a normal woman. Alterations of energy intake induced changes in BMR and pulse rate in addition to body weight changes. Whether BMR was expressed per whole body, per unit body weight, or per unit body surface area, it increased progressively during long-term overeating periods, and decreased markedly during long-term undereating periods. These results suggest that there exists 'Luxuskonsumption', or adaptive diet-induced thermogenesis, during an overeating period and hypometabolism during an undereating period. BMR was affected significantly by the menstrual cycle but not by nutrient composition when daily energy intake was fixed at 2000 kcal for a long ti...

Discovery Lecture explores brain’s sensitivity to insulin | VUMC Reporter | Vanderbilt University Diabetes has a big impact on the brain. Patients with diabetes have more cognitive dysfunction, are at increased risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease, and have higher rates of depression and eating disorders. What’s going on is the brain is actually a metabolic organ, exquisitely sensitive to insulin, internationally known diabetes researcher C. Ronald Kahn, M.D., said during last week’s Flexner Discovery Lecture/Irwin Eskind Lecture in Biomedical Science at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Changing insulin signaling in the brain changes brain function in terms of things the brain normally does, which is mood and behavior activity,” said Kahn, the Mary K. Iaccoca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Through studies of genetically manipulated “knock-out” mice lacking brain receptors for insulin, Kahn and his colleagues have shown that insulin signaling affects...

Desk workers - stand up for your health: Millions may be making themselves ill by spending their working lives sitting down - Health News - Health & Families - The Independent The research, published in the journal Diabetologica, found a range of behaviours: some of the people in the study spent as little as three hours a day sitting, but most spent more than 10 hours in a chair, and a few regularly sat down for 16 hours a day. The conclusion was that people at risk of diabetes could be well advised to spend less time sitting and more time standing up, said Joseph Henson, a diabetes researcher at Leicester University. "The longer the time you spend sitting, the higher the amount of sugars and fats that accumulate in your bloodstream regardless of the time you spend exercising," Dr Henson said. "There's a significant difference between people who sit a lot and those who don't. Those who spend the least time sitting have the lowest values of glucose and f...

Normal cardiac rhythm during hypocaloric die... [Arch Intern Med. 1983] - PubMed - NCBI Normal cardiac rhythm during hypocaloric diets of varying carbohydrate content. Phinney SD, Bistrian BR, Kosinski E, Chan DP, Hoffer LJ, Rolla A, Schachtel B, Blackburn GL. Abstract Cardiac arrhythmias have been implicated in the deaths of 17 morbidly obese individuals subsisting on a collagen hydrolysate preparation ("liquid protein") during a modified fasting regimen for weight loss. Serious cardiac arrhythmias have been noted in three of six subjects studied prospectively within 28 days of starting a similar regimen, which used an inadequate protein source and was nearly devoid of all essential minerals. A comparative study of three 28-day weight loss diets of varying carbohydrate, protein, and energy content (450 to 820 kcal/day) but employing protein of good quality and adequate in micronutrients did not disclose substantial diet-related arrhythmias in five subjects on each of t...

Metabolic consequences of very-low-calorie diet the... [Diabetes. 1986] - PubMed - NCBI : Abstract To determine the effects of very-low-calorie diets on the metabolic abnormalities of diabetes and obesity, we have studied 10 obese, non-insulin-dependent diabetic (NIDDM) and 5 obese, nondiabetic subjects for 36 days on a metabolic ward during consumption of a liquid diet of 300 kcal/day with 30 g of protein. [...] The composition of the weight lost at completion was similar in both groups and ranged from 21.6% to 31.3% water, 3.9% to 7.8% protein, and 60.9% to 74.5% fat. [...] This study demonstrates that short-term treatment with a very-low-calorie diet in both obese diabetic and nondiabetic subjects results in: safe and effective weight loss associated with the normalization of elevated glucose and lipid levels, a large individual variability in total nitrogen loss determined principally by the initial lean body mass, and progressive increments in the contribution of ...

Ebony - Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=-1rJTL1zGTwC&pg=PA42&lpg=PA42&dq=Ernst+J.+Drenick+fasting&source=bl&ots=HM8xJVbpW0&sig=-p7prWjJ7oFjLo_CJUhu8Co0hjI&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Af8DUaXmKa3h0wHh4YCIDg&ved=0CGoQ6AEwBzgK#v=onepage&q=Ernst%20J.%20Drenick%20fasting&f=false

JAMA Network | JAMA | Comparison of the Atkins, Zone, Ornish, and LEARN Diets for Change in Weight and Related Risk Factors Among Overweight Premenopausal WomenThe A TO Z Weight Loss Study: A Randomized Trial ABSTRACT ABSTRACT | METHODS | RESULTS | ...

Paleolithic diets: Should we eat like our ancestors? | PCC Natural Markets By the time modern humans emerged roughly 50,000 years ago, our ancestors had adopted an omnivorous diet of cooked starches, meats (including organs), nuts, fruit and other plant foods. Although very few hunter-gatherer groups survive today, we know they eat a wide range of diets, from the nut-based diet of the African !Kung, and the palm starch diet of New Guinean hunter-gatherers, to the meat- and fat-rich diet of the Arctic Inuit. As Michael Pollan writes in "Food Rules," "There is no single, ideal human diet." Modern hunter-gatherer diets, however, tend to have certain things in common. They don't rely heavily on foods that became dominant after the development of agriculture, including dairy, grains and legumes. Starch comes from root vegetables similar to sweet potatoes, potatoes and taro. But most important, they do not eat industrial, processed foods. Other aspects of lifest...

Fat Head Why We Get Fat: Interview With Gary Taubes Fat Head: Dr. Robert Lustig insists it’s fructose that makes us insulin resistant, not starchy foods. If he’s right, then it was the Coca-Cola and Captain Crunch that turned me into a fat kid, not the mashed potatoes. But as an adult, I’ve avoided sugar yet found that starches most definitely make me gain weight. So assuming for the sake of argument that Lustig is correct, would you say that once fructose has done the damage, we lose our tolerance for carbohydrates in general? If so, why? Gary Taubes: That’s exactly the possibility I’m discussing. Once you become insulin resistant, your body responds to carbs by secreting more insulin. So it is quite possible — and laboratory work backs this up — that sugar causes the initial insulin resistance because of the effect of the fructose on the liver. So if we never had sugar, we’d be able to eat the other carbs with relative impunity. But being possible doesn’t mean it’s true. I suspe...

Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets Ketogenic low-carbohydrate diets have no metabolic advantage over nonketogenic low-carbohydrate diets1,2,3 Carol S Johnston, Sherrie L Tjonn, Pamela D Swan, Andrea White, Heather Hutchins, and Barry Sears + Author Affiliations 1From the Department of Nutrition, Arizona State University, Mesa, AZ (CSJ, PDS, and AW); Conscious Cuisine, Scottsdale, AZ (SLT); and Inflammation Research Foundation, Marblehead, MA (HH and BS) Abstract Background:Low-carbohydrate diets may promote greater weight loss than does the conventional low-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. Objective:We compared weight loss and biomarker change in adults adhering to a ketogenic low-carbohydrate (KLC) diet or a nonketogenic low-carbohydrate (NLC) diet. Design:Twenty adults [body mass index (in kg/m2): 34.4 ± 1.0] were randomly assigned to the KLC (60% of energy as fat, beginning with ≈5% of energy as carb...

Synthesis: Low-Carb and Food Reward/Palatability, and Why Calories Count | Free The Animal What's the distinction? Food Reward & Palatability is the short answer. Again, I'll get to that in more depth later. First, let me ask you a few questions, aimed at LC/Paleo, or Plain Vanilla LC. Do you find it pretty easy to draw a distinction between say, a free range, organically fed whole turkey you bake in the oven, and supermarket turkey franks with a side helping of "animal by-products," hormones, fillers, texture enhancers, preservatives, nitrites, added sodium, coloring, and cruelty...that you nuke? Additionally, do you find it easy to draw a distinction between say, leaf lard from a pastured pig that gets lots of time in the sunshine, and industrially processed, extracted, heated, churned, & turned, deodorized and left out to dry soy oil...in a plastic container? Yes and yes? OK, then how come you find it so difficult to draw a distinction bet...

JAMA Network | JAMA Internal Medicine | Therapeutic Fasting in Morbid ObesityLong-term Follow-up ABSTRACT The weights of 207 morbidly obese patients were reduced via prolonged fasting. Half the patients fasted for close to two months, losing a mean of 28.2 kg; one fourth fasted for less than one month; and the other fourth fasted for more than two months, with a mean 41.4-kg loss. This latter group was heavier initially, and more than 50% attained near-normal weight. Patients with onset of obesity in childhood had the lowest tolerance for fasting and the lowest success rate in attaining normal weight. Over a 7.3-year follow-up period in 121 patients, the reduced weight was maintained for the first 12 to 18 months. Subsequently, regain proceeded equally in all groups irrespective of length of fast, extent of weight loss, or age at onset of obesity. Regain to original weight occurred in 50% within two to three years and only seven patients remained at their reduced weights. Regain to...

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.58.3.477 Article by Dr. Drenick on the patients he fasted. Take away, muscle was lost in small amounts, but obese people have more muscle to begin with to support their large frames, so protein loss is not a burning issue.

LIFE - Google Books Page 105, the zero calorie diet. Article about Dr. Drenick fasting patients in 1968. "The zero calorie diet- a 315lb patient eats nothing for 117 days"

DNA pioneer James Watson takes aim at cancer establishments | Reuters One such commonality is oxygen radicals. Those forms of oxygen rip apart other components of cells, such as DNA. That is why antioxidants, which have become near-ubiquitous additives in grocery foods from snack bars to soda, are thought to be healthful: they mop up damaging oxygen radicals. That simple picture becomes more complicated, however, once cancer is present. Radiation therapy and many chemotherapies kill cancer cells by generating oxygen radicals, which trigger cell suicide. If a cancer patient is binging on berries and other antioxidants, it can actually keep therapies from working, Watson proposed. "Everyone thought antioxidants were great," he said. "But I'm saying they can prevent us from killing cancer cells." 'ANTI-ANTIOXIDANTS' Research backs him up. A number of studies have shown that taking antioxidants such as vitamin E do not reduce the risk of cancer but...

Profits over your dead body | Ars Technica : Profits over your dead body Health regulatory and advocacy groups are deliberately corrupted. Now, the conspiracy minded among you might be thinking of cartoon villains covering up dastardly poison pills, but this is not actually the case. Ben Goldacre, a physician who writes the Bad Science blog, has now made a comprehensive catalog of these practices published in a book called Bad Pharma. In examining the healthcare industry, he paints a complicated picture in which almost all the actors are both bad guys and good guys. It can be read as a stinging rebuke, but more than anything it's criticism from someone who appreciates everything modern medicine has done—but wants to see it do even better.

Appetite Heightened By Ingestion Of Fructose - Health News - redOrbit A new study from Yale University School of Medicine examines possible factors regarding the association between fructose consumption and weight gain. The researchers used brain magnetic resonance imaging, which indicated that ingestion of glucose but not fructose reduces cerebral blood flow. Activity in brain regions that regulate appetite was also reduced. The participants reported an increase in feeling sated and full from the ingestion of glucose but not fructose. “Increases in fructose consumption have paralleled the increasing prevalence of obesity, and high-fructose diets are thought to promote weight gain and insulin resistance. Fructose ingestion produces smaller increases in circulating satiety hormones compared with glucose ingestion, and central administration of fructose provokes feeding in rodents, whereas centrally administered glucose promotes satiety,” according to the authors. “Thus, fructose p...