Healthy Bytes

Not your father’s heart attack

read time: 177 words, about a minute

30 million American kids are overweight – that’s 1 in 3.
In another 3 years (2010) – if the trend holds – it will be 1 in 2.

With all these overweight kids, we’re now seeing a proliferation of “adult” diseases in kids too young to get a driver’s license… heart attacks, strokes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes, sleep apnea.
Kids experiencing these lifestyle diseases 40-50 years earlier than their parents generation. And they’re being treated with made for adults pharmaceuticals, replete with side effects.

Here’s a few scarry factoids:

A Harvard study found kids 10-15 years old who watched 5 hours of TV a day had a 500% (5 times) greater liklihood of being overweight than kids who watched 2 hours or less.

Every hour a day of TV correlates to 6 pounds of increased weight.

Another study found that kids over 15 who ate fast food 2 or more times a week gained 10 pounds.

For each sugar laden drink consumed by middle school kids a day, there was a 60% increase in the risk of obesity.

Looks like an extinction plan.

The similarity between diet soda and an ADHD drug

read time: 289 words, just over a minute

I was watching CNN House Call this morning. One of the stories was about prescribing Adderall to overweight kids.
Adderall is an amphetamine approved for ADHD prescribing.

According to Wikipedia, the active ingredients are:
1/4 Dextroamphetamine Saccharate
1/4 Dextroamphetamine Sulfate
1/4 dl-amphetamine Aspartate (racemic amphetamine)
1/4 dl-amphetamin Sulfate (racemic amphetamine)

One of the side effects of Adderall is decreased appetite. Thus some docs are prescribing it for the “side effect” rather than the “effect”. This is what they call “off label” prescribing.
(other side effects include: sleep difficulty, headaches, aggression, abnormal thoughts/behaviors, mania, growth suppression).

So they featured one kid and his family – a “success story”. It was a dinner table scene and what was the kid drinking… diet Dr. Pepper.
Now, what’s in diet soda… primarily Aspartame (some brands are switching to Splenda).
What is Aspartame (Nutra Sweet)? L-aspartic acid and L-phenylalanine.
(Some of the side effects are: headaches, brain tumors, brain lesions, and lymphoma)

Aspartic acid – which is an amino acid – is also known as aspartate.
Now I’m not a chemistry whiz. And I haven’t dug deep. But I was tickled by the dl-amphetamine Aspartate ingredient in Adderall and the L-aspartic acid in aspartame.
I’m not sure if there is a functional difference between the two.

What I do know is that aspartame is an excitotoxin. To put it simply – it’s not good for your brain.
If you notice the side effects of both Aspartame and Adderall, you’ll see there are brain issues.

Additionally, artificial sweeteners tend to make you crave more sweet stuff and mess with your brains ability to signal satiety. (I’ve posted on this a few times).

Just a thought… rather than putting the overweight kid on a strong drug, clean up his diet.

ADHD drugs – all that and more

read time: 181 words, just a minute

One of the side effects of ADHD drugs is suppressed appetite and weight loss.
Not wanting a let side effect to go to waste, some Docs are prescribing the drugs to teens for weight loss. And here I thought they didn’t really pay attention to side effects.

That would be known as an “off label” use meaning, that’s not what the drug was approved for, there are no studies using the drug for this purpose and such uses are not monitored.

Interesting how parents* have been arrested and their child literally taken away from them and subjected to court ordered harsh medical treatment they did not want and yet it’s ok to give an overweight kid ADHD drugs and a can of soda to gulp em down with.

* Three cases in the news last year:
1. Virginia 16 year old boy with Hodkins who didn’t want another round of chemo
2. Texas 13 year old girl with Hodkins who didn’t want to do radiation after she did chemo
3. Washington mother who didn’t want her 9 month old son to have kidney surgery

Weight loss surgery and brain decline

Weight loss surgery, such as gastric bypass surgery, can lead to a vitamin deficiency that can cause memory loss and confusion, inability to coordinate movement, and other problems, according to a study published in the March 13, 2007, issue of Neurology, the scientific journal of the American Academy of Neurology.
The syndrome, called Wernicke encephalopathy, affects the brain and nervous system when the body doesn’t get enough vitamin B-1, or thiamine. It can also cause vision problems, such as rapid eye movements.

Weight loss surgery and brain decline

Bariatric and lap band surgeries are getting rather popular.
Post surgery, folks consume a very limited amount of calories. Essentially, you’re shrinking your stomach size to that of a two year old. Of course you haven’t shrunk your nutritional needs to that of a two year old.

A study published this week in the Journal of the American Academy of Neurology points out numerous folks are experiencing memory loss and confusion as well as muscle coordination problems and vision problems.

They are tying the symptoms to lack of nutrition for the brain and nervous system – mostly B vitamins.

There have been other reports as well regarding brain functionality after weight loss surgery.

It’s basically mal-nourishment, whether you’re talking about a skin draped over bones person in a third world country, or a post-surgery “fluffy” person. The body still requires nourishment to function and rebuild itself.

Belly fat -> inflammation -> disease: cardiovascular, diabetes

read time: 417 words, about two minutes

In an apple versus pear comparison, the pear is by far the healthier option.
I’m not referring to fruit here, but rather to physical shape. Apple shape being wide through the belly. Pear shaped being wider through the hips.

What researchers have found is that not all fat is created equal. They’ve shown that ab fat has a high association with poor insulin response and inflammation.

In a study done back in 2004 at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, liposuction was used to remove about 20% of people’s total body fat mass. While that gave them different wardrobe options, there weren’t the expected metabolic benefits found with weight loss by diet and exercise.

Liposuction removes subcutaneous fat… fat right under the skin.
It does not remove visceral fat… fat that surrounds the organs. Those fat cells are more difficult (and dangerous) to get to.
Diet and exercise doesn’t remove fat cells – it shrinks them, with no apparent preference for subcutaneous versus visceral.

Back to the results… in a second phase, researchers studied the blood to determine if visceral fat was the problem, or a symptom. In this study, they took blood from obese patients going through gastric bypass surgery.

They showed visceral fat was secreting interleukin-6 (IL-6) - an inflammatory molecule – into portal vein blood. Portal vein blood had levels of IL-6 50% greater than blood at the periphery.

Increased levels of IL-6 correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP) which is an inflammatory substance.

Chronic inflammation is associated with insulin resistance, hypertension, Type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis and other diseases.

So let’s look at a few things…
Sucking out the fat doesn’t remove the health consequences.
Manufacturers of statin drugs keep telling you to lower your cholesterol – by taking their drugs for the rest of your life. And yet, folks with low and “normal” cholesterol have heart attacks and congestive heart failure. Why – inflammation.

Assistant professor of medicine Luigi Fontana, M.D., Ph.D.:

“Many years ago, atherosclerosis was thought to be related to lipids and to the excessive deposit of cholesterol in the arteries. Nowadays, it’s clear that atherosclerosis is an inflammatory disease. There also is evidence that inflammation plays a role in cancer, and there is even evidence that it plays a role in aging. Someday we may learn that visceral fat is involved in those things, too.”

A lifetime of poor nutrition and lack of exercise isn’t going to be sucked away in a simple outpatient procedure or blasted away with a daily pharmaceutical regimen.

In the year Twenty-Thirty

read time: 364 words, under 2 minutes

The CDC just issued a report - The State of Aging and Health in America 2007 – that looks at a number of data points on a State by State basis.

Let’s look at a couple of current data points (this applies to the U.S. population):

• 80% of folks over 65 have one or more chronic diseases that can lead to disability and/or premature death.
• Health care costs are 3 to 5 times greater for the 65+ group as compared to younger adults.

In 2030:

• The 65+ population by the year 2030 - that’s just 23 years from now - will nearly double to 71 million / 20% of the total population.
• Health care costs will increase by another 25%.

The report notes that 35% of deaths in 2000 are attributed to 3 behaviors:
-> smoking
-> poor diet
-> lack of physical activity

Why? These behaviors lead to the top chronic diseases – heart disease, cancer, stroke, diabetes.

What’s missing in this picture is the impact of excessive weight and obesity. Not because there isn’t one, but because it isn’t showing up in older data. The dramatic increase in obesity has been in the last 10 years. That trend is still in tact.

Chronic conditions take time.
However in the present, snippets like number of weight surgeries (lap band, bariatric) have tripled in teens portend future impact.

Here’s the thing. These are chronic conditions – meaning with you everyday – that develop over time. Diet and lifestyle choices you’re making right now are forming your reality in 2030.

As a culture we have a difficult time “saving for tomorrow”. That’s true in a financial sense as well as a health sense. Unfortunately chronic conditions generally can’t be “fixed” quickly or easily.

What choices are you making today – for yourself and for your children? If we raise our children with good diet and lifestyle habits, they’ll never need to be “re-trained”. And if we start taking care of ourselves immediately, we’ll enjoy better health now and in the year 2030 and beyond.

The CDC report concludes:

If people adopt healthier lifestyles, they will not develop the expensive, chronic diseases that raise health costs sharply, such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease.

The hot sauce diet

read time: 176 words, about a minute

CNN House Call ran a story over the weekend about the “Hot Sauce Diet”.
Dr. Spiro Antoniades weighed 265 lbs. He wanted to punish himself for eating poorly. He decided he’d do a shot of hot sauce before meals.

He lost 70 lbs.

His theory is he attached pain to bad food, which made him avoid bad food.

Clifford Woolf of Harvard Medical School said:
“One of the major features of pain is to learn to avoid danger. And by taking a swig of Tabasco, you’re switching on that avoidance mechanism.”

I don’t agree with the theory.
If hot sauce = pain, then why do people like spicy food? Or are they all masochists?

The burning sensation is from capsaicin – a chemical in the hot sauce. It’s believed capsaicin increases calorie and fat burning.

Capsaicin is in numerous pain relief products.
Research also has shown it:

• Lowers blood pressure
• Lowers cholesterol
• Kills cancer cells without harming healthy cells
• Lowers insulin after a meal
• Has reversed diabetes in mice

Spice it up.

Health ensured

read time: 223 words, about 2 minutes

Back in 2004, University of Baltimore created the Obesity Initiative and gave states a grade based on what they were doing about childhood obesity. The measurements included:
Controlling the types of food and beverages during school
Vending machine usage/access
Body Mass Index (BMI) scores
Recess and physical education
Obesity programs, research and treatment

The first year there were no A’s. there were 23 Fs, 16 Ds.

In 2004 16% of kids were obese. In 2006 – 17.1%. The 2010 projection is 20%.

New Jersey was one of the states that didn’t do so well.
In one particular school that was featured on CBS Evening News last night, they chatted with the school nurse who was responsible for taking height and weight measurements and calculating BMI.

For kids with high BMI scores, she would send a “referral” to the parents informing them of average scores and their kids score.

The cafeteria does not serve food with little nutritional value, no candy, no soda, no snacks with more than 8 grams fat. The kids also get exercise and in some cases exercise homework.

According to the nurse, in the 2 years they have instituted the program, referrals are down, especially for the lower grades.

Nearly $120 billion a year in medical care is obesity related.

Change the eating, add exercise. Health ensurance rather than health insurance.

Belly fat and heart disease

read time: 388 words, about two minutes

There’s been a bit in the news as of late about the relationship of belly fat and heart disease.

Excess abdominal fat is one (of 5) indicators of metabolic syndrome (formerly called syndrome X). Metabolic syndrome is a diagnostic tool used to identify folks at high risk for Type 2 Diabetes, heart attack and stroke.

As you’re likely aware, there’s been some questioning over the value of BMI (Body Mass Index) which is a measure of weight in relation to height. Using BMI, muscular and fit folks can be classified as “overweight”. Measuring belly fat is a better gauge of risk related to weight.

In one study researchers looked at 101,765 men and women using Sagittal Abdominal Diameter (SAD) as a predictor of heart disease risk.

Men with the largest SAD had a 42% greater risk of heart disease. Women with the largest SAD had a 44% greater risk. The relationship between SAD and heart disease was strongest among the youngest.

Lead author of the study, Dr. Carlos Iribarren of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California in Oakland told Reuters:
“The message is really obesity in the abdomen matters even more than obesity overall.”

Dr. Arthur Agatston, heart surgeon and creator of the South Beach Diet will soon release The South Beach Heart Program book. Part of his message is – lose the belly fat. It’s an important predictor of heart disease.

Another study done at Wake Forest University School of Medicine looked at abdominal fat and weight loss.

Dr. Barbara Nicklas, professor of internal medicine at Wake Forest Univ. School of Medicine has shown that it’s not just abdominal fat, but the size of the fat cells that matter.

Her study divided women into groups of diet alone, diet + low-intensity exercise and diet + high intensity exercise.

At the end of the study all 3 groups had lost a similar amount of weight. However, the diet alone group didn’t have a significant change in their abdominal fat cells; whereas, the other two groups decreased the size of their abdominal fat cells by 18%.

The diet alone group lost weight in other parts of their body such as the thighs.

This study did not show a statistical difference between low intensity and high intensity exercise.

Get started. Do something. Walk around the block. Walk in place while watching TV.

Dieting – Give Up?

read time: 147 words, just a minute

The lowest percentage of Americans in 16 years are dieting according to research firm NDP Group as reported by CNN.

At the same time 60% of U.S. adult would like to lose 20 pounds.

So, are these 60% of folks:
convinced that diets don’t work
have given up
waiting for a magic pill

Well it’s true, statistically diets don’t work long term. In fact, diets can ultimately lead to weight gain. Hence the “yo-yo” adjective.

As far as a magic pill, well I know the pharmaceutical companies are working on it. At what cost will it come both financially and to your health? That I don’t know.

The only consistent, sure fire way to maintain a healthy weight is to work with your body not against it. Your body thrives on good food, exercise and tempered stress.
We’ve tried to beat or fool “Mother Nature”… doesn’t work.