Metabolic syndrome makes for more senior moments

Metabolic syndrome is a catch-all term used to cover a number of different risk factors for health problems, such as high blood pressure, a pot belly, high blood fats (triglycerides), high blood sugar and low 'good' cholesterol - to be defined as having metabolic syndrome you need to have at least three of the above. Researchers from the French National Institute of Health Research in Bordeaux studied 7,087 people aged 65 and over from three French cities. They tested them for metabolic syndrome and gave them a series of memory and cognitive tests two and four years later. Those people (16%) with metabolic syndrome were 20% more likely to show a decline on the memory test and 13% more likely to show a decline on a test of visual working memory.Specifically, higher triglycerides and low HDL cholesterol were linked to poorer memory scores; diabetes, but not higher fasting blood sugar, was linked to poorer visual working memory and word fluency scores.

Alcoholism and obesity

People with a family history of alcoholism may be more likely to become obese. Researchers from Washington University in St Louis studied 80,000 people taking part in a national survey in 2001 and 2002. They found that women with a family history of alcoholism were 49% more likely to be obese than those without. Men who had a family history of alcoholism were also at a greater risk of becoming too fat but to a lesser extent. The researchers think that the link might be due to the fact that the high levels of fat and sugar in junk food affect the same 'reward' centres in the brain that alcohol does.

Obesity and depression

Past research has shown that being obese can increase people's risk of depression by between 50 and 150%. However, a new study by researchers from the Group Health Research Institute in Seattle suggests that the relationship can work both ways and that treating fat people's depression can also help them lose weight. The study of 203 women, aged between 40 and 65 divided them into two groups. Both groups focused on weight loss but one group also included a treatment for depression. After six months 38% of the women whose depression symptoms had improved had lost at least 5% of their body weight compared to only 21% of those who showed little improvement. Unfortunately there was little further change in either the women's weight or their depression when they were assessed after 12, 18 and 24 months.

Weight loss surgery and suicide risk

Very fat people sometimes have surgery to make their stomachs smaller and stop them eating so much. Researchers from the University of Pittsburgh studied 16,683 people who had had weight-loss surgery between 1995 and 2004. By 2006 31 of these people had killed themselves, a rate of 14 per 10,000 men per year and 5 per 10,000 women - a rate substantially higher than that for other men (2.5 per 10,000) and women (0.6 per 10,000). The researchers were unclear why more people should kill themselves after weight-loss surgery although previous studies have shown that people who have the operation are more likely to suffer from depression and anxiety beforehand.

Boys, girls, weight and depression

Healthy-weight girls who think they are fat are more likely to be depressed than fatter girls who realise they are overweight. Researchers from Penn State University studied 12,683 adolescents taking part in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The children were asked about their actual weight, whether they thought they were over-, under- or the right weight and their levels of depression were assessed. 80% of the girls were overweight knew they were too fat whereas 40% of the overweight boys thought that they were at a healthy weight. The girls who thought they were overweight but were actually at a healthy weight were more depressed than girls who were overweight and knew they were. Boys who were actually underweight were more likely to be depressed than boys who were heavier with the researchers describing them as 'extremely distressed.'

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/06/29/misperception-of-weight-ups-teen-depression-risk/15189.html

Depression and abdominal obesity

Depression can make you fat but being fat does not necessarily make you depressed. Researchers from the University of Alabama used data from the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults study, a long-term study of 5,115 men and women aged between 18 and 30 who were followed over 20 years. At five-year intervals the participants were weighed, had their waist-hip ratios measured and were asked about their mood. Everyone gained weight over the course of the study but those who started the study feeling depressed increased in abdominal obesity and BMI at a faster rate. After five years their waist was, on average, 1.5cm thicker and by year 20 it was 2.6cm higher. However, a high initial BMI and waist circumference did not influence the rate of change in symptoms of depression over time. Reports have shown that cortisol - a hormone linked to stress - is also related to depression and abdominal obesity so this could be the link.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/06/100609171853.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Obesity, genes and Alzheimer's disease

FTO is a gene associated with obesity. People with one copy of it are on average 1.5kg heavier than average and people with two copies of it are 3kg heavier. The gene is carried by 46% of Western Europeans and researchers from California University now think it may also be associated with Alzheimer's disease. The scientists found that those people with the variation had 8% fewer cells in the frontal lobe of the brain and 12% less in the occipital lobe - areas associated with complex judgments and the processing of mental imagery respectively. Obesity increases the risk of dementia because it can lead to damage to the blood vessels in the brain, in turn leading to damage to brain cells but the differences could not be attributed to cholesterol levels, diabetes or high-blood pressure.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/7608210/Obesity-gene-may-also-cause-Alzheimers.html

Another study into the links between genetics and Alzheimer's disease, also carried out by researchers at the University of California looked into the effect of variations in a gene called Catechol-O-Methyltransferase (COMT). A sample of 2,858 African-American and Caucasian people between the ages of 70 and 79 were studied over an eight-year period. Their DNA was analyzed and they were tested on their language, concentration and memory, response time and attention. People with the 'Met' variant of the gene experienced a greater decline in their thinking skills over the years while people with the 'Val' variant scored, on average, 32% better if they were Caucasian and 48% better if they were African-American.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/04/100419162119.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Stress, TV and obesity make unholy trinity for under-pressure workers

Stress, low levels of physical activity and obesity make up an unholy trinity in under-pressure workers. Researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center studied 2,782 employees at a large factory in upstate New York. The researchers found that after stressful days workers went home and vegetated in front of the television and the more they watched TV the fatter they became. Those employees who watched four or more hours of TV a day were 150% more likely to be obese than those who watched two hours or less. People who worked in the most stressful conditions had body-mass indices on average one point higher than those who worked in less stressful jobs and at times of redundancy the consumption of high-fat and high-calorie snacks from the vending machines increased.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/03/25/workplace-stress-linked-to-obesity/12382.html

Obesity and cognitive function

A forty-year study of Swedish twins between 1963 and 2002 has found that those who had a higher body-mass-index when they were middle-aged had 'significantly lower general cognitive ability' and 'significantly steeper decline' than their thinner counterparts over time. The study - headed by Anna Dahl, from Jonkoping University in Sweden - found the same results for men and women and that obesity was particularly damaging where there were other health problems such as poor muscle strength or depression.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100223154344.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Depression, obesity and stress

Cortisol is a hormone that is produced in reaction to stress. It is also produced more when people are depressed and plays a role in regulating people's metabolisms. There is thought to be a link between depression, cortisol and obesity but no-one is quite sure how this works. A team of researchers from Penn State University in the U.S. looked into this issue in a sample of 111 boys and girls between 8 and 13. The children were assessed for their levels of depression, weighed and measured and had their cortisol levels taken before and after an assessed maths test designed to raise their stress levels. The children who were more depressed showed a higher increase in their levels of cortisol after being stressed but this was only associated with obesity in the case of the girls.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2010/02/100223154342.htm?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+sciencedaily+%28ScienceDaily%3A+Latest+Science+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader

Obesity and ADHD

Recent research has suggested that there is a link between mothers who are obese before they become pregnant and their children's risk of developing ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder). This could be down to a number of factors. Mothers may gain weight because they are stressed and it is their stress rather than their weight problems that lead their children to develop ADHD; there may be a common genetic factor linking a tendency to obesity in mothers with a tendency towards ADHD in their children or obese mothers may be more likely to have obese children and it is the children's obesity that makes them more likely to have ADHD. Alina Rodriguez from Uppsala University in Sweden looked into this further in a study of 1,714 children and their mothers who were monitored from before the mother's pregnancy until their children were five. The study took into account the mother's circumstances (smoking, depression, 'life events', education, age and family structure), the child's birth weight and gestational age, whether the child was a boy or a girl, whether the parents had ADHD and if the child was overweight. Even after allowing for all these factors mothers who were overweight or obese before becoming pregnant were more likely to have children with attention problems. Being obese before becoming pregnant was associated with a doubling in the risk of one's children developing problems with 'emotional intensity' and managing emotions.

Rodriguez, Alina - Maternal pre-pregnancy obesity and risk for inattention and negative emotionality in children Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry February 2010, 51(2), 134-143

Interpersonal psychotherapy for teenage obesity

Teenage obesity is a growing problem. Weight gain can be caused by binge eating so if this can be reduced or prevented weight gain could be halted or even reversed. Researchers at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and the National Institute of Health have been looking at a treatment called Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT). The aim of the treatment is to improve interpersonal relationships by targeting the underlying social and interpersonal difficulties that lead people to binge eat. Interpersonal psychotherapy has been shown to help depressed adults and children and to reduce binge eating in adults. In the study 38 girls, some of whom were binge eaters, were either given interpersonal psychotherapy or standard health-education classes. The girls who received interpersonal psychotherapy were more likely to stabilize or reduce their BMI compared to those who received the health-education classes.

You can find out more about this research at

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/12/16/therapy-helps-teens-control-weight/10213.html

Amisulpride and weight gain

Second-generation antipsychotics are usually seen as an important step forward in the treatment of schizophrenia but can lead to weight gain, high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems. One solution for patients at risk of these conditions is to switch to another drug. Amisulpride has been shown to be linked to less weight gain in the past and a team of researchers from Taiwan studied the effect of switching to it in research involving 92 participants half of whom switched to the drug and half of whom stuck with their original medication. The study found that the participants who switched to amisulpride had less cholesterol and insulin resistance, decreased blood pressure and more beneficial cholesterol.

Lin, Chao-Cheng ... [et al] - Improved body weight and metabolic outcomes in overweight or obese psychiatric patients switched to amisulpride from other atypical antipsychotics Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology December 2009, 29(6), 529-536

Binge-eating and obesity on campus

Psychologists from the Center for Obesity Research and Education in Denver, Colorado have been looking into binge eating and weight problems among female college students. 715 students completed an on-line survey about health habits, behaviours and attitudes and gave their height and weight. Overall African-American students were less likely to binge eat and had less severe symptoms when they did. For both groups the triggers for binges were similar and included feeling depressed and fat. About a third of college students are overweight and this was confirmed by the study which found that 22% of the white students and 37% of the black ones were obese or overweight.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091025162457.htm

Depression, anxiety and obesity

A 19-year survey of 4,363 British civil servants by researchers at University College London has found that those who suffered from anxiety and depression were more likely to become obese. The participants were screeened four times over the course of the study with each screening assessing them for common mental disorders and measuring their height and weight. Weight gain was more common in people with mental disorders at the start of the study. Those participants who showed signs of mental disorder in the first three screenings were twice as likely as symptom-free people to be obese by the end of the study. Those who experienced more incidences of common mental disorders had a greater risk of weight gain and obesity but there was no evidence of a relationship in the other direction i.e. people who were obese at the earlier checks were no more likely to develop depression and anxiety later than slimmer people.

You can find out more about this research at

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/166566.php