Uncategorized

Obesity and Inflammation

Posted on by / 0 Comment

Weeks after week we discuss health topics and the relation to the brain. It seems a common motif is the story of inflammation and its role in knocking the body out of homeostasis.

Inflammation is a key factor in the body’s immune system. It is a signal to the body that something isn’t quite right, this could be a splinter or something more serious as arthritis or autoimmune diseases. Regardless, inflammation is a signal that launches your body out of homeostasis and demands a response.

Interestingly, excessive amounts of adipose tissue can induce a chronic low-grade inflammation. This constant low-level signalling prevents the body from operating at true basal levels, which when coupled to other factors can cause serious problems.

Interleukin 6 is a key cytokine in the inflammatory response that is well associated with cardiometabolic risks, such as coronary heart disease or metabolic syndrome. Other key inflammatory factors includes interleukin 1, interleukin 8, TNFα, leptin, and resistin.

Image result for obesity and inflammation

Overeating induces metabolic overload and subsequent stress responses, like as previously discussed the inflammatory response, but as well as oxidative, organelle and cell hypertrophy contributing to the generation of vicious cycles that can be hard to break physiologically.

Insulin resistance is a key-marker in type II diabetes and the risk is significantly increased if an individual is obese. Adipocyte hypertrophy can induce inflammation, disabling the tissue’s ability to engulf fat which leads to fat depositing on other organs, especially the liver, which is vital for insulin regulation.

Excessive consumption of fatty foods (which is all too easy in western societies) induces oxidative stress, especially when antioxidant rich food is not eaten in conjunction with the fatty food; this contributes to inflammation attributed to obesity.

Diet and obesity alone are not fully responsible for the inflammation response, other factors are listed below:

  • Circadian rhythm disturbances
  • Age
  • Gender
  • Smoking
  • Sedentary lifestyle
  • Other psychological factors

It is clear there are environmental and genetic factors that contribute to an individual’s inflammation response and would therefore have a variable impact on the overall health of the individual.

It is clear obesity is a very important public health problem, especially in western societies. There is an obvious link between diet and overall lifestyle that can result in obesity. Unhealthy lifestyles can change one’s physiological response through inflammatory factors which are related to chronic degenerative diseases such as coronary heart disease. Although diet and excessive adipose tissue is an important factor in inflammation, there are other factors such as age, sex, sleep cycle, and smoking habits that play a significant role in the degree of inflammation.

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5507106/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2913796/

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0185106316300737#fig0005

Uncategorized

Opinion Article

Posted on by / 0 Comment

If you would have asked me at any point in time before this semester, what class are you most looking forward to? I without a doubt would have said neurochemistry. It was exactly the area of science I could see myself in the future. It happened to be a bonus that it also satisfied the CORE requirement of a capstone course.

Throughout the course I have greatly enjoyed the content of each paper, and has solidified my appreciation and drive to study neurochemistry.

An integral part of the semester was indeed the course content, but what made it unique was the community action project. The project consisted of students from neurochemistry as well as social work. Together, they would design and implement a project where they would reach out to the community and apply our studies to enrich the community.

This project very clearly fulfills Concordia’s five goals of liberal learning:

  • Instill a love of learning- This project sought to take current knowledge and apply it to a realm outside the classroom. Presumably students in the class would be interested in the course content due to the elective nature for most in the class. Additionally, communication between scientists and us as students in emphasized each week through the reading and critical analysis of scientific papers. Thereby cultivating a love and appreciation for learning.
  • Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities- The group work primarily jumps out to me with this goal in mind. No matter what career a student will find themselves in, they will almost certainly be in a team of some sort. Effective teamwork is an absolutely essential skill moving forward in our lives outside of Concordia. Moreover, the critical thinking and discussion leading required by the course format also lends itself well to these transferable skills.
  • Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections- With this goal in mind, the course is almost poetic. In the specific context of neurochemistry, there are many pathways and factors that contribute to the main focus of the week, mirroring disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives. However, holistically, the obvious connection is the collaboration with the social work students and identifying the most effective way to work as a team and achieve a common goal.
  • Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding- I greatly appreciate the opportunity to write this very reflection. All too often I feel people are in a rush to do something and move on. They do not take time to reflect and learn from an experience. It is exceedingly difficult for a single course to accomplish this goal of liberal learning because it is heavily reliant on the individual being willing to take the time to evaluate an understanding. A class can try to provide outlets and facilitate self-understanding, but the bottom line is that it is simply up to the individual. Activities such as this reflection and the oral portion of the exams are good ways to guide someone on the path of reflection.
  • Encourage responsible participation in the world- The classic BREW. With regards to this course, I think the concept of BREW is much more subtle, and it is rooted in our Friday discussions. Week after week, the main point of any given discussion is society. We are always looking to see how what we learned over the week can be applied in the wider context of the community, and I think that is a valuable mindset to have.

I found the community action project beneficial. I thought it was lovely how we could apply our knowledge where it would be useful for another group of people. Again, we often get bogged down in our own reality of Concordia and it becomes too easy to forget a world exists off campus. It was rewarding to feel like my team contributed something beneficial to our chosen audience. But, the project was not without its challenges, as my team consisted of a total of eight people (5 neurochem and 3 social work), I felt the teams were too large to effectively harness each members strengths. It became all too easy for members to take a back seat and only do as they are told. This is necessary in some circumstances, but each member should contribute to the conception and formation of the project. I acknowledge that one cannot have an effective team of “leaders” and similarly, “followers.” But as people have different personalities, and some louder than others, it became apparent that individuals frequently stepped into the role of “leader” and had a tendency to cast a shadow over others in the group (myself being one of these individuals).

Yes, I and other loud members of my group are to blame for overshadowing other more reserved members. But it is also their responsibility to speak up and make their opinions heard; especially when there was ample opportunity given. This I have found is a common group dynamic. However, it was accentuated due to the large group size. Therefore, ideally moving forward there would be smaller groups, but maintaining a decent class to class ratio of members in each group. There are obviously some constraints on this. The classes simply do not have the same number of students, making it nearly impossible to have the same class to class ratio in each group. Perhaps a solution to this would be to have a group of specifically neurochemistry students and they would have to work all the more to cater their project to the general public (it can be so easy to just fall into using the science jargon we, but not the public are familiar with). You do lose the aspect of class to class collaboration, but I think the overall benefit of smaller more representative groups would be worth the trade. Perhaps particularly ambitious neurochem students should be selected for the group without social work students.

Overall, I thought the community action projects were an excellent way to interact and communicate with people outside the chemistry, biology, or psychology majors. It puts science in perspective. This in tandem with the course content and layout of reading papers, diving deeper, and leading a discussion proved a valuable exercise in literature comprehension, analysis, teamwork, and most importantly, communication. Science is utterly meaningless if we do not communicate, and with the fear and misunderstanding of science that is in current society, it becomes even more imperative to communicate effectively. The community action project was an excellent outlet and mode of practice for future professionals in science.

Community/Health/Hot topics

Your Brain on a High Fat Diet

Posted on by / 0 Comment

 

Obesity is becoming more and more prevalent, as rates climb throughout both adult and youth populations. Around 40% of adults (over 20 years of age) are obese, as well as 20% of children. In the last 15 years alone these rates have shown a great increase. Obesity leads to the development of many serious health issues such as type 2 diabetes, hypertension, steatohepatitis, heart disease, stroke, cancer, depression, sleep apnea… the list goes on and on. To many people who are not obese, it seems as if there should be an easy fix to the obesity epidemic sweeping the nation: eat healthy and exercise. But what if I told you it is not as simple as that? What if I said that obesity can actually be classified as a neurological disorder? Because sometimes, there isn’t a simple answer to losing weight and keeping it off.

The high fat diets that lead to obesity change your brain. They alter the effects of leptin and insulin on certain neurons in the brain. In the brain, AgRP neurons and POMC neurons control the balance of energy expenditure and food intake. Insulin and leptin inhibit the AgRP neurons and activate the POMC neurons, which increases the release of the neurotransmitter a-MSH. These neurotransmitters activate the MC4R neuron, controlling satiety and energy expenditure. So, if your leptin and insulin activity is changed due to obesity and metabolic syndrome, AgRP is being activated and POMC is being inhibited, upsetting the balance and thus causing an increase in food intake and a decrease in energy expenditure.

So yes, the brain is altered, making it very difficult for an individual to control their desire to eat.

Weight cycling also plays a role in the difficulty of losing weight. Say an individual loses a large amount of weight. Due to weight cycling, they are more predisposed to gain the weight back. This is because the repeated loss and gain of weight promote fat deposition in adipose tissue. Fat increases leptin concentrations, causing the hypothalamus to signal to decrease food intake and increase your metabolic rate with the hope of weight loss. But then, as you lose fat, leptin levels decrease, causing the hypothalamus to signal to increase food intake and decrease the metabolic rate, causing weight gain. It is a tough cycle to try to and break.

 

The obesity epidemic is tough to solve because once obesity has altered an individual’s brain, it is very difficult to try and correct the problems. Of course, having a healthy lifestyle decreases the occurrences of these neurological changes. So, take care of yourself in order to keep your brain healthy, because a healthy brain is a healthy body.

 

Uncategorized

The Final One

Posted on by / 0 Comment

When I first signed up for Neurochemistry last spring, I was incredibly nervous to take the class. Having recently added a neuroscience minor to my music and psychology majors, I was afraid that I was not going to have enough background knowledge to succeed or understand the content in this class. Once we got into the rhythm of the class, I was pleasantly surprised that I was not as behind as I thought. Neurochemistry was a great class to have a capstone experience for many reasons.

First, the class itself was set up in a way that I have never experienced before. It is uncommon to be able to spend 3 class meetings on a single topic or article – I was glad we were able to do that. Especially in the sciences, the majority of our undergrad classes are spent rushing through as much lecture that will fit into a class period. First, deciphering difficult concepts in the articles we read was crucial to retaining information from about dense topics. I always felt that we could have continued conversations about each topic for another hour after class was over. After we figured out what we didn’t know, we were able to research interesting topics based on our requests. Having the ability to write out our own questions and interests for people to research for next class was so beneficial. We were able to be the teachers and the learners every week. Have that dual role in a classroom is difficult to achieve, but was done very well in this class. Lastly, my favorite part of the week was on Fridays when we would get out of the classroom and discuss freely. Physically leaving the normal classroom and extending class to another part of campus is fantastic for keeping students alert and interested.  Fridays were a time to really dive in to the societal issues of each topic and also showed off Concordia’s liberal learning goal of “instilling a love for learning.”

Secondly, Neurochemistry worked so well as a capstone because we were able to use information from so many of our past classes in order to understand the content fully. For example, to learn about how a disease works in someone’s body, we could pull knowledge about the molecular level of signal pathways in the brain and out to the body, the chemical makeup of a neurotransmitters malfunctioning in the disease, and many more areas of study. This is a perfect example of another goal of liberal learning, which says “develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities.” What better way to do that then in this class. I was so thankful to have peers who knew so much about chemistry that I could learn from them and be brought up to their level while still sharing my knowledge of neuroscience and psychology.

Lastly, Neurochemistry exemplified what a capstone class should be like by being low-pressure class. What I mean by this is that it was not centered around grades, tests, or lab quizzes. Having a class at Concordia where people were striving to achieve the highest grade or just studying content to do well on the tests is vital to creating a holistic, liberal arts education. Grades were not mentioned by the professor nearly as much as they are in other classes. That created an environment in which the focus of the class was to simply learn about and explore different diseases that affect our society today. I appreciated having a low-pressure feel to this class – it felt like a perfect way to tie together all of these classes we have taken pertaining to these topics.

While there are many other reasons why Neurochemistry worked so well as a capstone class at Concordia, these were my main reasons that I thought about several times throughout the semester. I look forward to using this class when discussing diseases further in graduate school, at interviews with institutions that work with people suffering from these diseases and topics, as well as when discussing my education overall. Having the knowledge achieved from our 4 years at Concordia will only send us to bigger and better places in the future. Thank you for a fantastic capstone experience!

Uncategorized

Obesity: Get Out and Play?

Posted on by / 0 Comment

Fast food restaurant at every street corner. Packaged and processed foods becoming more and more available – even able to be delivered to our front door. Screens literally everywhere. It is not a secret that society in the United States has evolved into a more sedentary and often lazy lifestyle. We have the statistics to prove it. Almost 40 percent of adults in the US are considered obese, meaning that they have a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30.0 or higher, according to the CDC. As with many health and societal issues in our world, it feels as though nothing can be done about it. But, we will not make any progress if we simply sit around and complain about these issues.

The cycle of obesity is very difficult to break. It effects many aspects of your body and brain, from parts of your central nervous system to certain proteins in your cells. Your body is stuck in a cycle of needing more and more, usually unhealthy, foods in order to main energy, thus creating changes to your body and lifestyle. If the obesity epidemic in the United States is this horrific, why don’t we focus more on not allowing the obesity cycle to begin? At least to the best of our ability. What I mean is with the kids. It is true that there have been a few campaigns through Michelle Obama, the NFL, and other organizations to try to get kids to be more active then they currently are. However, I don’t believe that we are doing enough. Below are some factors that contribute to obesity in children:

  • Metabolism
  • Community/Neighborhood
  • Short sleep duration
  • Genetics
  • Eating and physical activity behaviors

As one can see, many of these factors are environmental. It is now uncommon to see children out together in neighborhoods simply playing. While parents and guardians are often worried about the safety of neighborhoods and streets for their young children, there are simple ways to ensure safety or find an alternative. Having parents of the neighborhood switch off watching the kids or going to the local community center during winter months and playing games in the gym are a few options. Changing the factors above is a start in the right direction to dealing with the issue of childhood obesity.

So, what’s next? Childhood obesity is arguably one of the most daunting issues to take on and try to solve. If we look at it on a small-scale level, there are a few things that we can encourage ourselves and children around us to do.

  1. Less screen time. This doesn’t mean a full social media cleanse. Perhaps starting with taking out 30 minutes each day and seeing what effect that has on mood and energy levels.
  2. Go for walks. I think that our sedentary lifestyle stems from our long work hours. This is where the responsibility of parents comes into play as well. If parents or older siblings created time in their schedule to go for walks with their children or siblings, safety during these walks would be covered.
  3. Participate in sports or physical activity groups to the best of your ability. The issue of money and socioeconomic classes is often a barrier to participating in sports teams for kids. However, there are plenty of recreational teams through parks districts and schools that cost much less than traveling teams and leagues.

These are not fool proof options for improvement. It is also much easier to write ideas in a simple blog post than actually implementing these strategies in daily life. However, if we can start small with our own friends and family, who knows where that can lead?

Uncategorized

#rollthesecobbs…all the way to graduation

Posted on by / 0 Comment

Whenever I tell people that I am in a class this semester called Neurochemistry, I get very startled responses such as “wow that sounds so intense” or “sounds difficult, no thank you,” yet when I first declared my major in Neuroscience I was SO EXCITED to have the opportunity to take this course. Like seriously since my freshman year I’ve wanted to take it. Now the reactions I got from people are normally what happens when I say that I’m in a science class, and yet I couldn’t imagine myself doing anything other than science.

Neurochemistry is considered a “capstone” course at Concordia College, and every student must take a capstone in order to graduate (now called PEAK, or Pivotal Experience in Applied Knowledge), but more on that later. I cannot even begin to explain how much I LOVED this class, but I’ll attempt to do just that in the rest of this blog.

 

While the class is aimed mainly for Neuroscience or Chemistry majors, many of us come into the course with a wide range of knowledge about neurons, neurotransmission, and the brain in general. We all have different backgrounds and strengths that can be extremely helpful while going through the course. In this class, we were teachers, listeners, and most importantly, learners. At the beginning of the semester we would spend time orienting ourselves to the major aspects of neurotransmission and the signaling pathways that would be beneficial when we started reading papers. After that, we would spend an entire week on ONE paper. Let me repeat that. THREE class days for ONE paper. It was amazing. It actually made me want to read the papers and discuss what the topic was for the week versus reading one or two articles for one class period, like some of my other classes have done in the past.

For each paper, we would come to class on Monday having read the paper, taken good notes and summarized each section, tried to wrap our brains around what exactly was going wrong with, for example, Autism, AD, or Concussions, and (my favorite) our QUESTIONS. Literally anything we didn’t understand or anything we wanted to know more about in order to put the story together. Dr. Mach created a learning environment in which it was okay to not know everything and be able to ask in-depth questions that no other science class did. I didn’t have to memorize every possible detail about every signaling pathway or function of the brain in a certain disorder for an exam, but rather was able to synthesize information and come up with hypotheses to the problem and guess what: if we weren’t 100% spot on to the “correct” answer, that was OKAY. This is what pushed me to be a better scientist. On Wednesdays, each student would come to class having researched a topic that we would discuss on the previous Monday class period (i.e., pathways involved, regions of the brain, more information about the disease, basically anything we wanted/needed to know more about) and we would teach each other about our topic in 2-3 minutes. At this point in the week, more and more pieces to the puzzle would come together about the topic for the week and everything would begin to make more sense from the first time reading through the paper. On Fridays, the class would split into two groups and we would just discuss anything we wanted related to the topic, given some direction from whoever was the discussion leader for the week. Fridays were especially fun because we would be able to talk about controversial topics and again, this is where student’s backgrounds in various disciplines was most helpful. As a celebration, we even got to go to Village Inn on the last day of class-YUM.

 

Concordia strives itself on 5 “Goals for Liberal Learning” as the following:

  1. Instill a love for learning
  2. Develop foundational skills and transferable intellectual capacities
  3. Develop an understanding of disciplinary, interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and their connections
  4. Cultivate an examined cultural, ethical, physical and spiritual self-understanding
  5. Encourage responsible participation in the world

 

Our capstone course, in addition to the entire four years we have spent at Concordia, are supposed to be dedicated to these goals and values. While Neurochem wasn’t the most challenging course that I have taken in my time on campus, I strongly believe it has more than fulfilled these requirements. As one of my strengths is being a learner, the first goal for liberal learning fits very well into who I am and the experiences I have had at Concordia. Another big component of the course is the Community Action Project, where we were put into a group with peers from the class and a Social Work class to address an issue in the community and come up with an action plan/intervention to successfully address that need. This was a great collaborative experience to be a part of, as well and really addressed many of the goals for liberal learning, even if not in a direct manner.

 

I mentioned above the new “version” of capstones at Concordia being called PEAKs. For more information on a PEAK, follow this link: https://www.concordiacollege.edu/admission/commitment/peak/

While the name of capstone will be changing, and students will now need two PEAKs in order to graduate, this course will still exist and might just be tweaked slightly for the requirements needed.

I could honestly go on and on and on (and on) about how great this course was and how much it has impacted my education and experiences at Concordia College. I learned SO MUCH information, not just on the science behind various diseases, but also how to be a better scientist and valuable insights that I can take with me as I pursue a degree in Medicine in the future. I would highly recommend this course-Dr. Mach is phenomenal!

Now time for my last semester of undergrad to start in January…#rollcobbs

Disease/Health

ALS: Tragedy Unfolded Proteins

Posted on by / 0 Comment

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in weakened muscles and one’s overall physical functions. It has garnered a lot of attention in the media over the last decade, along with a lot of money flowing into research on ALS. However, your average person doesn’t know much about the disease. The muscle atrophy leads a person down a devastating path, where they deteriorate physically and need much assistance with performing daily functions, such as going to the bathroom. This muscle atrophy occurs because of oxidative stress on motor neurons (motor neurons are nerve cells that send signals to our muscles). Conversely, the mental aspect of a person is not altered. The leading cause of death for those with ALS is respiratory failure.

 

What’s Going Wrong?

There is a response in the body that occurs to combat the oxidative stress in ALS. This response is known as the unfolded protein response, or UPR. UPR helps with protein folding in the endoplasmic reticulum and occurs when there is an accumulation of misfolded proteins in the mitochondria. UPR is important in the maintenance of the integrity of the mitochondria in the face of increased oxidative stress. In UPR, there are three signaling pathways trying to mediate this problem. There are two pathways involved in a process known as ERAD (ER-associated degradation). These pathways are known as ATF6 and IRE1α. They lead to increased levels of ER chaperons, to fix this unfolded protein issue. ERAD is responsible for giving the correct folding of proteins, but if these pathways have too much protein folding demand, the ER can be put under stress (oxidative stress). With overactive ERAD, there is an abundance of unfolded proteins, leading to activation of UPR. In ALS, a common mutation is SOD1, and this gene interacts with components of ERAD, triggering apoptosis in motor neurons (progresses disease).

Treatments

Sadly, there is no option to reverse the muscles damage of ALS once it has occurred; the only thing treatments can do at this point is slow the progression of the disease. Some available drugs include Riluzole (slows down disease by lowering NT glutamate levels), Edaravone (shown to reduce decline in physical function), Baclofen (helps spasticity), or Gabapentin (controls pain). Furthermore, therapies are another method for treatment. Some available therapies include speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and breathing care. Physical therapy helps with the pain and with physical functions like walking and overall mobility. Breathing care can supply patients with equipment that can assist them in breathing as it becomes more and more difficult.

 

Sources:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6111088/

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5526845/

http://2018neurochem.pbworks.com/w/page/128067408/Oxidative%20stress%20and%20mitochondrial%20damage%20in%20the%20pathogenesis%20of%20ALS%3A%20New%20perspectives

Uncategorized

Obesity: The Realities of the Western Diet

Posted on by / 0 Comment

 

https://3c1703fe8d.site.internapcdn.net/newman/csz/news/800/2017/15-researchersf.jpg

 

What is obesity:

Obesity is characterized as a medical condition where excess fat has accumulated on an individual’s body to the point in which it may cause negative health effects. People are diagnosed with obesity though a measurement called the BMI, or body mass index.

BMI:

A person’s BMI is their weight in kilograms divided by the square of their height in meters. A high BMI can indicate high body fat. It is important to remember that this is just a screening tool and not always accurate.

-If BMI is less than 18.5, it falls within the underweight range.                                      –If BMI is 18.5 to <25, it falls within the normal.
-If BMI is 25.0 to <30, it falls within the overweight range.                                               -If BMI is 30.0 or higher, it falls within the obese range.

Obesity and the Brain:

Obesity is far more than just having too much fat on your body. Obesity can actually alter the physiology of your brain. Hypothalamic inflammation has been associated with both the progression and the development of obesity. This inflammation can actually impair energy balance and contribute to insulin resistance. Consumption of a high fat diet (HFD) activates molecules such as JNK and IκB kinase (IKK) which contribute to the brain inflammation. This can happen regardless of if an individual is already characterized as obese or not. This inflammation causes the uncoupling of your consumed calories and your energy expenditure. This causes overeating leading to weight gain.

Insulin resistance can also occur due to this prolonged hypothalamic inflammation. Insulin resistance causes an individual to overeat due to a dysregulation in the brain. Activation of AgRP neurons signal the body to eat. Activation of POMC neurons signal the body to stop eating. However, when there is insulin resistance, they insulin cannot signal the POMC neurons to tell an individual to stop eating, and thus there is overexpression of the AgRP neuron causing an individual to continue eating, thus leading to weight gain.

The Western Diet:

The western diet, like here in the U.S. is characterized by overconsumption of sugars, saturated fats, animal proteins, and a reduced intake of plant-based fibers. It is also characterized by unnecessarily large portion size. This leads to inflammation in the brain as discussed earlier. We as Americans choose to eat this way largely due to both the convenience and affordability.

 

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/8vJhfZeC9RY/maxresdefault.jpg

So How Can We Treat This?

Medication can be prescribed to treat obesity but should always be used in conjunction with a healthy diet and exercise. These are not a diet replacement. Medication are also usually only given to patients who have a BMI > 30 or have a BMI > 27 with a medical history of high blood pressure, obesity, etc. Surgeries such as gastric bypass can also be performed but are much riskier and qualification are much more intensive.

We as a society should work to compensate for this increasing rate of obesity here in the United States by bettering the health of ourselves. We can do this by:

-leading an active and healthy lifestyle
-eating less salt and sugar
-keeping gut healthy and eating more plant-based foods
-replacing bad fat with healthy fat
-choosing healthier processed foods such as: canned vegetables, frozen fruits and vegetables, whole grain pasta, nuts and nut butters, yogurt, canned and frozen fish

Disease/Health/Hot topics

Is Obesity Really a Brain Disease?

Posted on by / 0 Comment

The short answer to that question is: yes, obesity can be considered a brain disease. However, I encourage you to read on further for the longer answer.

The Obesity Epidemic

Nearly 34% of adults and 15-20% of children and adolescents in the United States are obese and the rates of obesity have nearly tripled in the past 50 years. The CDC defines obesity based on body mass index (BMI) values of 30 and higher. So what exactly is causing this increased prevalence of obesity? Is it due to our “go-go-go” lifestyle and thus increased consumption of fast foods? Are children becoming more obese because of the use of technology and screen time and are less physically active? These are both viable options, but we also need to discuss how obesity affects the brain.

Figure 1. The rise of obesity rates in the United States from 1985-2014. The blue color indicates lower obesity rates, whereas the orange/red color indicates higher levels of obesity. To read more: https://www.dietdoctor.com/the-american-obesity-epidemic-reaches-a-new-record

Obesity and the Brain

Obesity can lead to changes in the brain’s physiology, including insulin and leptin receptor resistance, both of which can actually promote over-eating and inhibit the pathways in the brain associated with appetite suppression. Molecules known as saturated fatty acids can freely cross and accumulate within brain tissue that can lead to the activation of inflammatory pathways within the brain. This inflammation can further contribute to the insulin resistance and inability to utilize insulin for energy.

Figure 2. The control of energy and maintaining homeostasis in the hypothalamus, where leptin and insulin both act directly on neurons in the ARC. Once AgRP neurons are activated, they tell the body to eat, while the POMC neurons tell the body to stop eating (shown on the left). However, if there is insulin and/or leptin resistance, this increases activation of the AgRP neurons and inhibits the POMC neurons, thus indicative of over-eating and an imbalance in energy throughout the body (shown on the right).

Insulin resistance can also lead to inhibition of POMC neurons. These neurons are especially important to the story because they are normally activated after we eat food and tell us to STOP eating. However, inhibition of POMC neurons leads to the overeating associated with obesity. Under normal conditions, when you feel hungry, AgRP neurons are activated and tell us to go ahead and eat food in order to gain energy. There is evidence that the body’s ability to maintain homeostasis is imbalanced as there is an increased ratio of AgRP:POMC neurons in the brain.

 

Treatment options

While fast food French fries, pizza, donuts, ice cream, and cookies all sound like great snacks to have, it is important to remember to eat these high-fat foods in moderation, especially with finals week and Christmas break approaching right around the corner. Stress eating is real, friends! We can’t get rid of sugar once and for all, but we can start to eat healthier and regularly exercise.

However, sometimes the use of medications in combination with a healthy diet and exercise program may be beneficial. Some common medications prescribed:

 

  • orlistat (Xenical)– this medication belongs to a class of lipase inhibitors. Orlistat works by preventing fat in foods eaten from being absorbed in the intestines.
  • lorcaserin (Belviq)– this medication belongs to a class of serotonin receptor agonists. It works by increasing feelings of fullness so that less food is eaten essentially.
  • phentermine and topiramate (Qsymia)– Phentermine is in the medication class known as anorectics. It works by decreasing appetite. Topiramate is in a class of medications called anticonvulsants. It works by decreasing appetite and by causing feelings of fullness to last longer after eating.
  • liraglutide (Saxenda)– Liraglutide  is used with a diet and exercise program to control blood sugar levels in adults with type 2 diabetes (condition in which the body does not use insulin normally and therefore cannot control the amount of sugar in the blood) when other medications did not control levels well enough. It is in the medication class known as incretin mimetics. It works by helping the pancreas to release the right amount of insulin when blood sugar levels are high. Insulin helps move sugar from the blood into other body tissues where it is used for energy. Liraglutide injection also slows the emptying of the stomach and may decrease appetite and cause weight loss.

 

Now you know a little bit more info on obesity and how constantly consuming a high-fat diet can re-wire and change the physiology of the brain. Obesity is a brain disease. Remember that “everything in moderation” are good words to live by when it comes to eating food.

Read more on BMI and obesity here: https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/adult/defining.html

Image 1: https://steamregister.com/obesity-and-your-brain/

Image 2: https://moodle.cord.edu/pluginfile.php/733031/mod_resource/content/1/hypothalamic%20inflammation%20in%20obesity%20and%20metabolic%20disease.pdf

Image 3: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/317546.php

 

Uncategorized

Obesity and Genetics: Are your genes making your jeans too small?

Posted on by / 0 Comment

In short the answer is maybe, it depends on who you are. What do your genes look like? Could your genes be making your jeans too small? As stated earlier, it depends on a number of factors. There are genes that predispose someone to weight issues, while there are other genes that are direct links and considered for genetic obesity.

Obesity

Obesity is not just being overweight, that is but one small piece of it. As you go about your day your body releases certain neurotransmitters that are responsible for sending signals to either spend energy or take in energy via food. This balance can be disrupted by a number of things such as overeating, food addiction, lack of exercise to deplete energy, dietary habits, insulin, medications, etc. Everyone’s heard the spiel of eating right and exercising to maintain a healthy life. Well we need to start doing it sooner than later.

According to the CDC “the prevalence of obesity was 39.8% and affected about 93.3 million of US adults in 2015~2016.” This is in part due to fast food and easy prepared food with a lot of crap in it. Fast food and prepackaged food sales are on the rise as laziness and time commitments take over society. This food contains many saturated fats which are one of the biggest inputs into obesity. The picture below simply highlights obesity, ways to prevent it and why you don’t want it. 

The Obesity Epidemic – Childhood

The percent of obese children and teens has tripled since the 1970s, increasing to the point where in 2016 it was reported that 1 in 5 children were obese. So what is going on with these kids? A lot of it has to do with lack of physical exercise within the world today as children turn more to screens and less to playing outside. Its not just home life either, schools have been reducing gym classes to the point where now less that 25% of high school students take gym classes daily.

Genetic Obesity

There are genes that influence your ability to gain and lose weight depending on how they function in addition to their expression. Certain genes may make you more predisposed to having weight issues. Your family matters too though, in addition to your genetics they pass teach specific behaviors regarding food and exercise. Depending on your family’s lifestyle this can be problematic, especially as a child because they aren’t in control.

So what about the kids that are obese from the start? The ones that no matter how hard they try throughout their life they will never lose weight? These children have a genetic obesity. There are 5 major forms of genetic obesity, proopiomelanocortin (POMC) deficiency, leptin receptor (LEPR) deficiency, Bardet-Biedl syndrome, Alström syndrome, and Prader-Willi syndrome. One thing to note is each of these conditions produces a baby with a healthy weight at birth and the baby will become severely obese over the next few months. Each of these has their own symptoms and unique attributes like the polydactyly of Bardet-Biedl.

Prader-Willi Syndrome is the most common genetic cause of obesity to date with 1 in 12,000-15,000 people diagnosed, it is also the most common diagnosed at genetic facilities. There are 3 different ways one can obtain Prader-Willi genetically and they all involve a region on chromosome 15. Chromosome 15 is responsible for making small nuclear RNAs that regulate other RNA molecules. Also in chromosome 15, the maternal copy is inactive and thus all gene expression comes from the paternal copy. 70% of cases have a segment of the parental chromosome deleted, this leads to completely lacking certain genes. 25% of cases have two maternal copies and zero paternal. The rarest of them have a translocation or mutation/ defect that abnormally inactivates the genes on the paternal chromosome.

A Documentary on the Lives of those with Prader-Willi Syndrome

Alström Syndrome is an autosomal recessive condition caused by a mutation in the ALMS1 gene that encodes for an abnormally short and nonfunctional ALMS1 protein. These proteins are implicated in ciliary function, cell cycle control, and intracellular transport.

Bardet-Biedl Syndrome is a condition caused by a mutation in one of 14 different genes. These genes all play a role in cilia function and structure. When mutated these are not right and it disrupts signaling pathways during development which leads to abnormalities in sensory perception.

Leptin Receptor (LEPR) Deficiency is an autosomal recessive condition caused by mutations in the LEPR gene preventing the leptin-receptor from responding to leptin. This doesn’t allow the leptin to trigger a “full” feeling so the individual is always hungry.

Proopiomelanocortin (POMC) Deficiency is an autosomal recessive condition that is extremely rare, only about 50 documented cases in literature. It is caused by mutations in the POMC gene leading to an abnormally short protein or none at all. This protein naturally gets spliced into multiple pieces, or peptides, which each work in their own fashion. When this is incorrect you have lowered levels of ACTH which reduces cortisol production leading to adrenal insufficiency and hypoglycemia which can lead into even more problems. With lowered α- and β-MSH the body’s energy balance is dysregulated leading to overeating and severe obesity.

Spam prevention powered by Akismet