cmcgee
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response 39 of 41:
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Jul 5 19:40 UTC 2007 |
From today's Dean Ornish column in Newsweek
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19617152/site/newsweek
"A new study published this week in the prestigious journal Nature
Medicine looked at the effects of stress on weight gain in mice.
Investigators reported that chronic emotional stress turns on a peptide
(chemical messenger) called neuropeptide Y, which is found in body fat.
This hormone increases appetite, especially for carbohydrate-rich
foods. It also causes your body to convert these calories into belly
fat, a double whammy.
What's especially interesting is that chronic stress alone didn't have
much effect on weight gain in only two weeks, nor did a high-fat,
high-sugar diet. However, combining both together was especially toxic
and markedly increased abdominal fat deposits in only two weeks.
When the researchers blocked the effects of neuropeptide Y, it reduced
stress-induced visceral (belly) fat by 50 percent "without any
discernible effect on food intake, which remained as increased as it
was" according to the investigators.
In other words, they ate the same amount of food, didn't exercise more,
yet their belly fat decreased by half when the effects of neuropeptide Y
were blocked. This is amazing stuff."
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First time I've seen research that begins to explain why some people
might not be able to lose weight even by eating fewer calories.
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slynne
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response 40 of 41:
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Jul 5 20:55 UTC 2007 |
Yeah, that stress research has been ongoing. It is nice to see that it
continues. I have heard it as a possible explanation for some of the
differences in weight among people of different socio-economic classes.
There is also some research that suggests that belly fat increases
certain hormones that in turn cause a person's body to become resistant
to insulin (aka type 2 diabetes). So if a drug could be developed that
prevented the belly fat, it might also be something useful in treating
diabetes.
There really has been a lot of research in this subject because, let's
face it, there is a huge economic insentive here. Can you imagine how
rich a drug company would be if they actually could develop a drug that
caused people to lose weight without the terrible side effects of
current and past weight loss drugs?
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