[Michaelangelica]

Gut flora study gives insight into obesity
A UQ academic's research into whether nature or nurture influences the development of gut flora has been published in Nature and may hold the key to understanding obesity.

Dr Florent Angly said the fundamental research was significant since some forms of obesity could be caused by the action of microbiota.

“It is necessary to include phages, or viral predators, in the discussion of microbial communities to get an accurate understanding of how gut flora complements the digestive process.

“This study represents an early step in this direction.

“In the future, it is very likely that our improved understanding of the viral and microbial communities residing in our guts will result in better, personalised dietary advice or the creation of nutritional complements such as pro-biotics to improve our health and wellbeing,” Dr Angly said.

Dr Angly, a Postdoctoral Research Fellow from UQ's Advanced Water Management Centre (AWMC), was part of a team based in California who studied viral (phage) communities in the digestive tracts of mothers and their twin children.

Dr Angly said the study showed environmental factors largely shaped viral gut flora, as twins displayed large inter-personal variations.

“Twins have an identical genome, so including twins in the study was designed to find out what is more important to determine gut flora, nature (the genome of an individual), or nurture (one's health and dietary habits).

Dr Gene Tyson, Senior Research Fellow at the Advanced Water Management Centre, said Dr Angly was an extremely talented researcher and this publication represented another significant contribution to the field of microbial ecology.

“Dr Angly joined my group in the AWMC in January and will be our first postdoctoral researcher in a new centre dedicated to environmental genomics and microbial ecology, the Australian Centre for Microbial Systems Ecology," Dr Tyson said.

“We are excited to have Dr Angly as a part of our team and look forward to generating further high impact publications.”

Director of the AWMC Professor Jurg Keller said this accomplishment confirmed the strength of the staff at the AWMC.

“The publication also demonstrates that the research at the AWMC is indeed at the leading edge of scientific discoveries," Dr Keller said.

“Getting a publication in Nature is a major achievement for any researcher, and is particularly rewarding for a young scientist such as Dr Angly.

“Our strong focus is to foster such ground-breaking scientific discoveries and utilise them to help understanding and addressing practically relevant challenges in the water and environmental biotechnology fields.”

Dr Angly's collaborators included Alejandro Reyes, Matthew Haynes, Nicole Hanson, Andrew C Heath, Forest Rohwer and Jeffrey I Gordon.

The abstract is online at: Viruses in the faecal microbiota of monozygotic twins and their mothers : Nature : Nature Publishing Group

Media: Dr Florent Angly on f.angly@awmc.uq.edu.au or 07 3346 7211; Abby Campbell at the Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Information Technology on abby@uq.edu.au or 07 3346 7696.
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[Michaelangelica]

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According to the latest statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC),

• America's over- weight/obesity epidemic now affects more than two out of three adults and 16% of children.
  
• Its obese population is now greater than its overweight population with more than 34% of American adults obese.

Quote

These findings are significant and indicate that an individual following a popular diet plan as suggested, with food alone, has a high likelihood of becoming micronutrient deficient; a state shown to be scientifically linked to
an increased risk for many dangerous and debilitating health conditions and diseases.
. . .one study that found an 80.8% increased likelihood of being overweight or obese
in micronutrient deficient subjects [1-4]. In addition, sub- optimal intake of certain micronutrients is an established factor in a multitude of dangerous health conditions and

Research article Prevalence of micronutrient deficiency in popular diet plans
JB Calton - 2010
... Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention (CDC), America's over- weight/obesity epidemic now ... uniformly raised or lowered, as necessary, so that each plan's unique macronutrient ratio ...Micronutrient deficiency has been shown to cause an 80.8% increase in the likelihood of ...

[Michaelangelica]

Shiftwork, yet another neglected cause of obesity

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ABSTRACT

Purpose: This narrative review examines the hypothesis that shift work contributes to the major public health problem of obesity and suggests ways in which weight gain might be prevented in those who must work at times outside of the conventional 8-hour daytime work period.

Methods: A comprehensive literature review was performed using several relevant electronic databases and print journals.

Results: Those who do shift work are at a greater risk for weight gain than those who work daytime hours. The exact mechanism by which this occurs is unknown, although eating and exercise habits as well as the disruption in circadian rhythm appear to contribute.

Conclusions: It is imperative that clinicians be aware of the relationship of shift work to obesity and of interventions that can help prevent obesity in those who must work during unconventional hours.

Obesity and Shift Work in the General Population

[Michaelangelica]

Quote

Recently the number of obese people on earth exceeded for the first time the number of people who do not get enough to eat [1].
Because the obesity crisis is most dramatic in nations that have escaped from hunger, it is tempting to think of obesity as a consequence of wealth, affecting people who can afford excess food, who do not walk long distances or do physical labour.
Within developed nations, however, obesity is strongly associated with socioeconomic disadvantage [2], [3], [4], [5], and low socioeconomic and educational status seem to have particularly strong effects on obesity rates among women [6], [7], [8].

There are enormous differences among countries in obesity rates, from less than one percent of adults in Ethiopia and Cambodia to more than sixty percent of adults in Nauru and the Cook Islands [9].
Much of this variation is associated with differences among countries in economic development and associated phenomena like medical care, urbanisation, education, leisure time and sedentary work.
. . .
far more women are obese than men. As far as we are aware there are no published studies that attempt to explain why countries differ in the size of the male-female obesity gap.
. . .
Our results are consistent with smaller-scale studies that document an association between low income, material deprivation, food insecurity or minority status and increased obesity in women but not (or less often) in men [6], [8], [11], [19], [20].
. . .
Several recent studies across a variety of countries and circumstances from rural Iraqi women to middle-income Mexicans to Americans of all ethnicities and incomes suggest that parity (the number of times a woman has given birth) is positively associated with increased obesity risk [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26].
. . .
Our results also suggest that high income inequality within countries may elevate the incidence of obesity in women but not in men,
. . .
our results are also consistent with a recent proposal that selection since the advent of agriculture may have favoured metabolic traits that put women at elevated risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, polycystic ovary syndrome and diabetes [32]. The historic dependence of agrarian societies on a few key seasonal crops exposed them to seasonal food shortages and occasional famine. Strong fertility selection may have made women, particularly pregnant women, more resistant to insulin, thereby protecting the foetus in times of chronic food shortage. As societies have escaped from the severe periodic food shortages typical of agrarian lifestyles, insulin resistance has begun confer a net fitness disadvantage via the metabolic syndrome and obesity.
. . .

PLoS ONE: Sex Differences in Obesity Associated with Total Fertility Rate

[Michaelangelica]

Quote

Gut biota affected by diet
Tuesday, 03 August 2010
ABC News
istock_food-junk.jpg
Researchers point to the paradox arising in the
Western world between advances in medical
technology and the rise of conditions induced
by a poor diet.
Image: iStockphoto

The researchers compared intestinal bacteria from children in the European Union and young villagers in remote Burkina Faso, and found enough differences to help explain disparities in chronic disease and obesity.

The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, may support the development of probiotic products to help restore the ancient balance and keep humans leaner and healthier, the researchers say.

"Our results suggest that diet has a dominant role over other possible variables such as ethnicity, sanitation, hygiene, geography, and climate, in shaping the gut microbiota," says Paolo Lionetti of the University of Florence in Italy and colleagues write.

"We can hypothesise that the reduction in richness we observe in EU compared with Burkina Faso children, could indicate how the consumption of sugar, animal fat, and calorie-dense foods in industrialised countries is rapidly limiting the adaptive potential of the microbiota."

Gut biota affected by diet*(Science Alert)

Quote

The study builds on a body of evidence that human health relies heavily on the trillions of microorganisms living in and on our bodies. Only a fraction cause disease directly - many more help digest food, affect other bacteria and may influence hundreds of biological functions.

Several recent studies have found that certain bacteria cause inflammation that can affect appetite as well as inflammatory bowel conditions like Crohn's disease and colitis, including a study published in Science in March.
Trading one for another

"Western developed countries successfully controlled infectious diseases during the second half of the last century, by improving sanitation and using antibiotics and vaccines," the researchers write.

"At the same time, a rise in new diseases such as allergic, autoimmune disorders, and inflammatory bowel disease both in adults and in children has been observed," they add

Lionetti's team studied the DNA of the gut bacteria of children in Burkina Faso, who are breast-fed up to age two and eat a diet rich in whole grains such as millet, legumes such as black-eyed peas, and vegetables. They eat very little meat.

The Western diet, in contrast, is heavy in meat, processed grains, sugar and fat.

The Italian team found the African children had many bacteria that help break down fibre, but the European children were lacking these microbes. The ratios were similar to studies comparing the gut bacteria of lean people to obese people.

This bacterial balance could even be causing obesity, the researchers say. It may also be useful to test children for these bacteria to see if they are at high risk of becoming obese, they add.

"Reduction in microbial richness is possibly one of the undesirable effects of globalization and of eating generic, nutrient-rich, uncontaminated foods."

Western diet changing gut biota › News in Science (ABC Science)
There is a growing science on the neurobiology of the gut.
We have very recently discovered some amazing tings like:-
1 the gut has its own neuronal system same as the brain
2 the gut brain can act independently from the brain, in fact it can actually countermand instructions from the brain. No other bodily system can do this
3 while the gut brain does not appear as big as the brain, size may not matter.
for example there is growing evidence that the gut communicates with gut biota, these in turn communicate with each other, and again communicate with the gut. A symbiotic system of infinite complexity. So suddenly you have trillions of cells communicating with a phone system that makes the brain look like the first Alexander Grahme Bell Phone, not the iPhone4

it is all very fascinating
Does the brain sort the chemicals it wants from our food. ie is it an active rather than a passive force to be acted on only by what we put into it?
If so why does it excrete the vitamins pills we give it-- after it has taken what it needs?

with our love of corn there may be problems
The American Indians always ate corn as part of the "Tree Sisters" Diet -corn squash and beans which apparently provides all the amino acids needed by the body. However corn by itself is difficult for us to digest. It may be that it is best digested when taken with squash and beans-- probably rarely done today.

[Michaelangelica]

glutathione homeostasis and obesity

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Dysregulation of Adipose Glutathione Peroxidase 3 in Obesity Contributes to Local and Systemic Oxidative Stress
Yun Sok Lee, A Young Kim, Jin Woo Choi, Min Kim, Shintaro Yasue, Hee Jung Son, Hiroaki Masuzaki, Kyong Soo Park and Jae Bum Kim

Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics (Y.S.L., A.Y.K., J.W.C., J.B.K.) and Department of Biological Sciences, Research Center for Functional Cellulomics (Y.S.L., A.Y.K., J.W.C., J.B.K.), Seoul National University, Seoul 151-742, Korea; Department of Internal Medicine (M.K., K.S.P.), Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul 110-744, Korea; Department of Medicine and Clinical Science (S.Y., H.M.), Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto 606-8507, Japan; and Samsung Medical Center (H.J.S.), Seoul 135-230, Korea

Address all correspondence and requests for reprints to: Jae Bum Kim, Ph.D., Institute of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Department of Biological Sciences, Seoul National University, San 56-1, Sillim-Dong, Kwanak-Gu, Seoul 151-742, Korea. E-mail: jaebkim@snu.ac.kr.

Glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) accounts for the major antioxidant activity in the plasma. Here, we demonstrate that down-regulation of GPx3 in the plasma of obese subjects is associated with adipose GPx3 dysregulation, resulting from the increase of inflammatory signals and oxidative stress. Although GPx3 was abundantly expressed in kidney, lung, and adipose tissue, we observed that GPx3 expression was reduced selectively in the adipose tissue of several obese animal models as decreasing plasma GPx3 level. Adipose GPx3 expression was greatly suppressed by prooxidative conditions such as high levels of TNF{alpha} and hypoxia. In contrast, the antioxidant N-acetyl cysteine and the antidiabetic drug rosiglitazone increased adipose GPx3 expression in obese and diabetic db/db mice. Moreover, GPx3 overexpression in adipocytes improved high glucose-induced insulin resistance and attenuated inflammatory gene expression whereas GPx3 neutralization in adipocytes promoted expression of proinflammatory genes. Taken together, these data suggest that suppression of GPx3 expression in the adipose tissue of obese subjects might constitute a vicious cycle to expand local reactive oxygen species accumulation in adipose tissue potentially into systemic oxidative stress and obesity-related metabolic complications

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Obesity, asthma, and oxidative stress
Fernando Holguin1 and Anne Fitzpatrick2

1University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and ; 2Department of Pediatrics, Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia

Submitted 1 July 2009 ; accepted in final form 17 November 2009

Obesity is associated with increased systemic and airway oxidative stress, which may result from a combination of adipokine imbalance, comorbidities, and reduced antioxidant defenses.
While obesity-mediated increased oxidative stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of vascular disease and nonalcoholic hepatic steatosis, little is known of how it may affect the lung. Contrary to what has previously been thought, the combination of obesity and asthma, both chronic inflammatory diseases, does not necessarily result in a synergistic effect, leading to even greater oxidative stress. However, most available studies have compared the levels of oxidative stress biomarkers on stable asthma patients, and it is possible that the interaction of oxidative stress between obesity and asthma is not readily detectable under basal conditions.
We propose that obesity-mediated oxidative stress, which may affect the lung function of asthmatic subjects by increasing airway inflammation and reducing the effectiveness of inhaled corticosteroids, may become evident during exposure to an aggravating factor or during periods of asthma exacerbation. Understanding whether obesity-mediated oxidative stress has a mechanistic role in the association between obesity and asthma will help in the formation of public health policies and increase our capacity to develop therapeutic interventions that improve the life of obese asthmatic subjects.

[Michaelangelica]

HFCS

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In the first study, published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior, researchers from Princeton University found that rats consuming high fructose corn syrup gained more weight and developed more cardiovascular risk factors than rats consuming equivalent amounts of sucrose.

"Some people have claimed that high-fructose corn syrup is no different than other sweeteners when it comes to weight gain and obesity, but our results make it clear that this just isn't true, " researcher Bart Hoebel said.

Quote

In a followup experiment, the researchers compared metabolic changes in rats fed only rat chow with rats fed chow plus a high-fructose corn syrup solution. All the rats consumed the same amount of calories.

After six months, the rats in the corn syrup group had gained 48 percent more weight. They also underwent an increase in fat deposition (especially in the abdomen) and a drop in circulating triglycerides. These changes are consistent with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that predispose humans to cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

HFCS - the poison that promotes obesity and liver damage

[Gardamorg]

We are mainly getting fat because anyone can provoke dopamine food cues, which trigger cravings for food as opposed to a need to eat. There is no limit to how potent these cravings in dopamine food cues can become over time with constant consumption of salt and sugar.

There rare cases of virus and thyroid problems, but the neurological/dopamine food cues are the real problem.

[Michaelangelica]

Green tea
Do you not see a lot of obese Asians/Chinese because they drink green tea?

Quote

Mol Nutr Food Res. 2006 Feb;50(2):176-87.
Anti-obesity effects of green tea: from bedside to bench.

Wolfram S, Wang Y, Thielecke F.

DSM Nutritional Products, Department of Human Nutrition and Health, Basel, Switzerland. swen.wolfram@dsm.com
Abstract

During the last decade, the traditional notion that green tea consumption benefits health has received significant scientific attention and, particularly, the areas of cardiovascular disease and cancer were subject to numerous studies. Due to the ever-growing obesity pandemic, the anti-obesity effects of green tea are being increasingly investigated in cell, animal, and human studies. Green tea, green tea catechins, and epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG) have been demonstrated in cell culture and animal models of obesity to reduce adipocyte differentiation and proliferation, lipogenesis, fat mass, body weight, fat absorption, plasma levels of triglycerides, free fatty acids, cholesterol, glucose, insulin and leptin, as well as to increase beta-oxidation and thermogenesis.
Adipose tissue, liver, intestine, and skeletal muscle are target organs of green tea, mediating its anti-obesity effects.
Studies conducted with human subjects report reduced body weight and body fat, as well as increased fat oxidation and thermogenesis and thereby confirm findings in cell culture systems and animal models of obesity.
There is still a need for well-designed and controlled clinical studies to validate the existing and encouraging human studies. Since EGCG is regarded as the most active component of green tea, its specific effects on obesity should also be investigated in human trials.

PMID: 16470636 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

Anti-obesity effects of green tea: from bedside to... [Mol Nutr Food Res. 2006] - PubMed result

Some other interesting reseach
Balázs A. 'Role of phytotherapy in the prevention and treatment of obesity'.,Orv Hetil. 2010 May 9;151(19):763-73.[Article in Hungarian]

This post has been edited by Michaelangelica: 10 August 2010 - 12:51 AM

[paigetheoracle]

A few other thoughts have occurred to me, in relation to my last post on this subject:-

Snacking is less likely to lead to fat storage as opposed to heavy meals that the body has difficulty dealing with. Fast food and boredom eating (leisure entertainment, which our ancestors and those in third world countries don't have the luxury of) means we eat more and more often as well as exercise less (The emotional side of eating as opposed to Bulimia). On top of this mothers in the UK it seems equate fat babies with health and wealth as do some African states.

I pointed out the introduction of foreign substances and intolerance, including steroids (big animals, big people - a coincidence?) as well as infant inoculations (All that junk being pushed into babies bodies, including mercury and other fillers/ stabilizers, can't be helping). Has anybody studied whether the countries with the highest incidences of disease inoculation has also the highest incidence of childhood bloating (Not just overweight but so fat the arms cannot hang at the sides of the body: Michelin Man effect).

Virus? Possibly in some cases but man-made action/ inaction seems the biggest culprit in my opinion.

[maikeru]

Michaelangelica, on 04 August 2010 - 01:39 AM, said:

with our love of corn there may be problems
The American Indians always ate corn as part of the "Tree Sisters" Diet -corn squash and beans which apparently provides all the amino acids needed by the body. However corn by itself is difficult for us to digest. It may be that it is best digested when taken with squash and beans-- probably rarely done today.

I want to note there are significant nutritional differences between standard white and yellow corn varieties and heirloom or more ancient Indian corns. Indian corns can have more protein, which slows digestion and encourages satiety, and they may have more antioxidants as seen in their bright, vibrant colors, usually anthocyanins or carotenes. I've been using Indian corn flour for polenta. It tastes a bit different and doesn't seem to spike my insulin or blood sugar. I know when my blood sugar gets too high, because I feel nauseous, and sometimes that happens after eating too much white or yellow corn or eating things that have a lot of corn syrup.

[HydrogenBond]

One possible answer is the power of suggestion. This is big business which creates jobs and the fat people are doing their civic part.

[Michaelangelica]

The pop theory of Obesity is that it is caused by eating too much and exercising too little.
While this is no doubt true it oversimplifies the issue.
What I have been trying to show in these many, many, posts is that there are many, many, reasons for obesity
Unless we address them all we will not control the world wide epidemic or intelligently come to grips with the problem.
it is unfair to stigmatize people who may just suffer from a super efficient digestive and/or immune system

paigetheoracle one way a human body has of dealing with chemicals that it cannot break down (so many of our new man made 'plasticy' ones that the human organism has never encounted in its evolution) is to wrap them in fat and store them away.
When someone diets they often get sick due to the release of toxins as the fat breaks down.
In some mammals these can lead to all sorts of problems
Seals contaminated with agricultural chemicals live off fat when birthing. The chemicals released in them can then lead to deadly confusion of the mothering instinct.

One wonders if this storage of chemicals is also partly responsible for the epidemic of breast cancer. A recent European study found over 400 man made foreign chemicals in mothers milk. They only found 400 because that was all they could afford to analyze and detect!

We know chemicals act synergistically but in reality have no way of proving a scientific link between illness and the countless thousands of environmental contaminants. You would think that common sense would be enough, but no, we continue to go on poisoning our planet and our bodies with impunity as if we were supermen. IMHO This costs us more in health costs than the money saved by using the chemicals, let alone the human costs.

[Michaelangelica]

After six weeks, peripheral insulin sensitivity significantly improved in 18 patients who received feces from lean donors compared with those who received an autologous transplant (P<0.05), said Anne Vrieze, MD, of the Academic Medical Center in Amsterdam, and colleagues.
http://natmednews.po...ulin-resistance


"It is tempting to think that if you wanted to treat human obesity, that you could do fecal transplants with the microbiota from lean individuals," Rawls said. But it may be somewhat premature to proceed, he cautioned — "if we don't understand the rules that govern the establishment and maintenance of those microbial communities in the gut, the effects of other people's transplants could potentially be short-lived or even deleterious." <br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Read more: Same poop, different gut - The Scientist - Magazine of the Life Sciences http://www.the-scien.../#ixzz157VW1F6B
http://www.the-scien.../display/57795/




Gut Microbiota and Its Possible Relationship With Obesity

http://mayoclinicpro...t/83/4/460.full

the definition
http://www.nejm.org/...200206273462617

[Michaelangelica]

Quote

If you were a UK Health Secretary faced with soaring rates of obesity, alcohol misuse, and diet-related diseases, what would you do? Were you to take an evidence-based approach, you might consider minimum pricing per unit of alcohol and restrictions on its availability. You might look at toughening the regulation of how the least healthy foods are marketed to children. You could even demand that manufacturers reformulate their least healthy products to meet minimum nutritional standards. Or you could, if your name was Andrew Lansley, dismiss all of the above and instead invite representatives of McDonald's, PepsiCo, and the drinks giant Diageo among others, to submit their policy suggestions on how best to deal with the UK's public-health crises for a forthcoming governmental white paper.After the initial surprise, it can still take a while for the bizarre reality to sink in—that the companies who have profited the most from the epidemics of obesity and alcohol misuse should now be responsible for setting the agenda on public health simply beggars belief.

http://www.thelancet...2150-2/fulltext

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There's no question that humans have been getting bigger and bigger, and now it seems that animals living near us are coming along for the ride. A new study of 12 distinct populations of eight different mammals -- including feral rats, lab animals and domestic pets -- shows that they, too, have been gaining weight over the last several decades.
. . .Allison pointed out at least three potential contributions to this and the other observations: endocrine disrupting chemicals, pathogens such as a virus, and/or changes in temperature where the animals are kept.

There is evidence to support a role for each of these in obesity. The endocrine-disrupting chemical tributyltin, for instance, which is added to marine paints to prevent growth of aquatic life on ship hulls and other places, has been shown to make mice fatter, Allison said.

Meanwhile, several types of animals have been shown to gain weight when injected with a virus known as adenovirus-36, indicating that pathogens may play a role in some cases of obesity.


As for temperature, Allison pointed out that hog farmers know that it's easier to fatten pigs if you keep the temperature just right:

http://news.discover...ity-weight.html