Health & WellnessS


Bacon

Protein that stimulates brown fat could aid other weight loss strategies

Darren Quick
New Atlas
Wed, 14 May 2014 17:09 UTC
brown fat in mice
© Toni Vidal-PuigScientists have discovered a protein that activates brown fat (pictured) in mice
For most of us fighting the battle of the bulge, fat is an enemy that must be reigned in to a healthier - and less noticeable - level. But there are actually two types of fat - or adipose tissue - found in mammals: white and brown. While white fat stores calories and is the culprit behind love handles, brown fat's primary function is to generate heat to keep the body warm through the burning of fats in a process known as thermogenesis. Therefore, the ability to activate brown fat in the body could provide a means to fight obesity and keep the weight off. Now scientists have discovered a protein that could allow them to do just that.

We recently covered the discovery at the US San Francisco Diabetes Center that a protein called PRDM16 appears to regulate the development of brown fat and could be used to promote the conversion of white fat cells to brown fat. Now scientists at the University of Cambridge Metabolic Research Laboratories at the Institute of Metabolic Science have discovered that another protein, called BMP8B, also plays a role in the regulation of brown fat and is also a potential therapeutic target in the fight against obesity.
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Hotdog

How to change the way you eat

Madeleine Howell
The Telegraph
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 14:52 UTC
overeating
© FLASHPOP/DIGITAL VISIONTreat or health threat? A poor diet contributes to one in five deaths, a study has revealed.
A comprehensive study of global disease has found that a poor diet now contributes to one in five deaths around the world. Unhealthy eating was shown to kill more people than smoking, while obesity and excess weight was revealed to be the fastest growing cause of death in the world.

The Global Burden of Diseases study, published in The Lancet, also showed that while people are living longer, they're also spending more years in ill health.

While the average man can expect to live until 79, he can only expect to enjoy good health up to the age of 69. The average woman lives to 83, but maintains good health only until the age of 71, it was reported.

John Newton of Public Health England, who worked on the study, highlighted that people in developing countries are successfully minimising the health risks associated with infectious diseases, malnutrition and dirty water - only to then turn to junk food in lieu of fruit and vegetables.

So, if overeating is the biggest risk to our health today, how can we cut back? According to Alison Whitworth, a state registered dietician, the Body Mass Index (BMI) is a good way to ascertain whether you are overeating or obese.

Comment: The obesity "epidemic" is a bit more complicated than people eating too much, and simply eating less isn't a guarantee of weight loss or improved health. Consider, also, the studies that show "overweight" people live the longest. This topic is fraught with bias and twisted science, but one of the main points of the article that a poor diet can lead to poor health later in life still stands and the advice given could be applied to changing one's diet to something that promotes wellness and not suffering.

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Ambulance

WHO issues warning on antibiotic crisis, says drug development lagging as antibiotics are unprofitable for Big Pharma

Emma Court
MarketWatch
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 11:43 UTC
antibiotic resistance hospitals
© Getty
Concern about growing global antibiotic resistance has come to a head: The World Health Organization is now warning that the world is running out of antibiotics.

There aren't enough truly new antibiotics being developed, especially for the most concerning antibiotic-resistant infections, according to a WHO report released Tuesday.

The United Nations health agency has aired its concerns about antibiotic resistance, which makes it more difficult to treat infections, for some time. Some of the group's latest moves included updating guidelines for treating sexually transmitted infections and cautioning that just three antibiotics are being developed to treat gonorrhea, a "fairly grim" situation.

But the latest WHO report takes a broad and prospective look at antibiotic development, and what it describes is not a pretty picture.

Comment: Antimicrobial resistance - The looming medical apocalypse

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Snowflake Cold

Two ways to increase brown fat cells


Women's Health and Fitness Magazine
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 14:39 UTC
whit fat brown fat
© Gregory Nemec
They're the hot ticket in warding off weight gain, but is there a formula for making brown fat cells? Yes, according to recent research.

1. Exposure to cold could cause adults to generate new brown fat cells, according to research reported in journal Nature Medicine. Unlike ubiquitous white fat cells, which lounge around storing fat, rarer brown ones burn fat at a higher rate as part of a duty to keep us warm.

2. Consuming sleep hormone melatonin may control weight gain by stimulating 'beige fat', suggests a study published in the Journal of Pineal Research. In a study of rats, long-term melatonin consumption appeared to alter the white-to-brown fat ratio in thin subjects. It also synced with production of beige fat in obese diabetic subjects.

That doesn't mean eating foods containing melatonin will turn you into Miranda Kerr, but hey, can't hurt. (How's a sandwich with mustard, goji berry, almonds, sunflower seeds, cardamom, fennel, coriander and cherries sound?).

Comment:

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Better Earth

Separating the wheat from the chaff: As EU embraces GMO frankenfoods, Russia set to become leading organic food producer


RT
Wed, 20 Sep 2017 10:31 UTC
Putin
© Eduard Korniyenko / Reuters
Last week, an EU court ruled Italy cannot ban the cultivation of an EU-approved genetically modified crop, thus publicly supporting GMO. At the same time, Russia has been ramping up production and export of organic food. "Recently the organic food market has definitely expanded in Russia. The organically produced food industry held a market valuation of $178 million in 2015, an increase from 2010's $116 million total," economist Iryna Kobuta at the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia told RT.

"Euromonitor has also noticed increased spending on pre-packaged organic food and drink in Russia. 2015 saw consumers purchase close to $12 million worth of packaged eco-foods. Russia exports organic buckwheat, millet, alfalfa, flax, and wildly grown products - including wild berries, mushrooms, cedar nuts, and herbs - to a variety of countries. Russia also exports organic wheat to the EU," she added. In 2015, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced plans to make the country the largest supplier of healthy, ecologically clean and high-quality food which Western producers "have long lost."

Comment: Medvedev said in 2014: "If the Americans like to eat GMO products, let them eat it then. We don't need to do that; we have enough space and opportunities to produce organic food."

See also:

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Brain

Many patients thought to be in 'vegetative' states may still be conscious and can recover over time

Constance Gustke
healthline
Wed, 13 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
coma, vegetative state
Some experts say 40 percent of people believed to be in vegetative states may actually be minimally conscious. A correct diagnosis could save their lives.
Traumatic brain injuries aren't created equal.

Many patients once thought to be in unconscious vegetative states are actually minimally conscious, say experts, and they can recover over time.

But wrong diagnoses are rampant, according to studies.

In fact, researchers say more than 40 percent of patients with traumatic brain injuries have been wrongly labeled as vegetative.

And that diagnosis hasn't changed much in many years.

The message, say researchers, is that there's hope for patients in minimally conscious states (MCS).

But first, the diagnosis must be correct.

Comment:

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Health

Can brown fat be used to fight obesity?

Melinda Wenner Moyer
Scientific American
Tue, 15 Jul 2014 19:23 UTC
brown fat in ice
© Richie Pope
For most people, "fat," particularly the kind that bulges under the skin, is a four-letter word. It makes our thighs jiggle; it lingers despite our torturous attempts to eliminate it. Too much of it increases our risk for heart disease and type 2 diabetes (the most common form of the condition). For decades researchers have looked for ways to reduce our collective stores of fat because they seemed to do more harm than good.

But biology is rarely that simple. In the late 2000s several research groups independently discovered something that shattered the consensus about the absolute dangers of body fat. Scientists had long known that humans produce at least two types of fat tissue-white and brown. Each white fat cell stores energy in the form of a single large, oily droplet but is otherwise relatively inert. In contrast, brown fat cells contain many smaller droplets, as well as chestnut-colored molecular machines known as mitochondria. These organelles in turn burn up the droplets to generate heat. Babies, who have not yet developed the ability to shiver to maintain their body temperature, rely on thermogenic deposits of brown fat in the neck and around the shoulders to stay warm. Yet investigators assumed that all brown fat disappears during childhood. The new findings revealed otherwise. Adults have brown fat, too.

Suddenly, people started throwing around terms like holy grail to describe the promise of brown fat to combat obesity. The idea was appealingly simple: if researchers could figure out how to incite the body to produce extra brown fat or somehow rev up existing brown fat, a larger number of calories would be converted into heat, reducing deposits of white fat in the process.

Comment: See also:

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Info

Gut microbes could actually set off relapses of multiple sclerosis

Michelle Starr
Science Alert
Tue, 12 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
Gut microbes
The clue is inflammation.

The role played by the millions of bacteria that live in our intestines is poorly understood, but the more we learn, the more complex it gets.

And, according to two new studies out this week, this microbiome could play a more significant part in multiple sclerosis than we thought.

Multiple sclerosis, which affects 2.5 million people around the world, is thought to be an autoimmune disease. During a relapse, or attack, immune cells breach the blood-brain barrier and enter the central nervous system, something that is highly restricted in healthy people.

These immune cells then attack the protective coating around nerve cells. This causes inflammation in the brain, which in turn causes scarring. These scars are responsible for the physical symptoms of MS.

No one knows what causes it, but a growing body of research is connecting it to the gut microbiome.
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Eye 1

Parasitic eye infection which can blind pets and infect humans spreading throughout mainland Europe

Carl Stroud
The Irish Sun
Tue, 19 Sep 2017 01:12 UTC
Thelazia callipaeda or oriental eye worm,
Cats, dogs and even humans are at risk from the disease which can be transmitted by fruit flies.
An eye infection that can blind pets could spread to Ireland, owners are being warned.

Caused by a parasitic worm it has become increasingly common in mainland Europe.

The disease, Thelazia callipaeda or oriental eye worm, is transmitted by a type of fruit-fly that lands on the eyes and leaves infected larvae.

Humans as well as cats and dogs are also at risk from the flies which feed on eye secretions.

There have been three recent cases among dogs reported in the UK.
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Syringe

Gates foundation funding development of microparticle implant to automatically time-release vaccines in infants

Jay Syrmopoulos
The Free Thought Project
Mon, 18 Sep 2017 00:00 UTC
bill gates vaccines
In effect, a capsule with a massive dosage of vaccine would be inserted into a baby to be time released due to the scheduled degradation of the compound encasing the vaccine.
A new discovery could revolutionize the way childhood vaccines are administered, as engineers at MIT have invented a way for multiple doses of a vaccine or drug to be given over an extended period of time with only one injection.

The process involves the invention of a "new 3-D fabrication method that can generate a novel type of drug-carrying particle that could allow multiple doses of a drug or vaccine to be delivered over an extended period of time," according to MIT News.

This novel fabrication technique, called SEAL (Stamped Assembly of Polymer Layers), creates three-dimensional microparticles that resemble tiny coffee cups that can be filled with vaccines or drugs, which are sealed with a lid. The "cups," made of a FDA-approved biocompatible polymer, can be designed to degrade at specific times, spilling out the contents.

Comment: The Gates Foundation is determined to usher in an era of mandatory vaccines.

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