Not all infant formulas are alike: Differential effects on weight gain

Not All Infant Formulas Are Alike: Differential Effects on Weight Gain


ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2010) — New findings from the Monell Center reveal that weight gain of formula-fed infants is influenced by the type of formula the infant is consuming. The findings have implications related to the infant's risk for the development of obesity, diabetes and other diseases later in life.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Infant's Health
Fitness
Diet and Weight Loss
Down's Syndrome
Obesity
Women's Health

Reference

Colostrum
Infant
Dairy product
Baby colic

"Events early in life have long-term consequences on health and one of the most significant influences is early growth rate," said study lead author Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a developmental psychobiologist at Monell. "We already know that formula-fed babies gain more weight than breast-fed babies. But we didn't know whether this was true for all types of formula."
While most infant formulas are cow's milk-based, other choices include soy-based and protein hydrolysate-based formulas. Protein hydrolysate formulas contain pre-digested proteins and typically are fed to infants who cannot tolerate the intact proteins in other formulas.
In adults, pre-digested proteins are believed to act in the intestine to initiate the end of a meal, thus leading to smaller meals and intake of fewer calories. Based on this, the authors hypothesized that infants who were feeding protein hydrolysate formulas would eat less and have an altered growth pattern relative to infants feeding cow's milk-based formula.
In the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, infants whose parents had already decided to bottle-feed were randomly assigned at two weeks of age to feed either a cow's milk-based formula (35 infants) or a protein hydrolysate formula (24 infants) for seven months.
Both formulas contained the same amount of calories, but the hydrolysate formula had more protein, including greater amounts of small peptides and free amino acids.
Infants were weighed once each month in the laboratory, where they also were videotaped consuming a meal of the assigned formula. The meal continued until the infant signaled that s/he was full.
Over the seven months of the study, the protein hydrolysate infants gained weight at a slower rate than infants fed cow milk formula. Linear growth, or length, did not differ between the two groups, demonstrating that the differences in growth were specifically attributable to weight.
"All formulas are not alike," said Mennella. "These two formulas have the same amount of calories, but differ considerably in terms of how they influence infant growth."
When the data were compared to national norms for breast-fed infants, the rate of weight gain of protein hydrolysate infants was comparable to the breast milk standards; in contrast, infants fed cow's milk formula gained weight at a greater rate than the same breast milk standards.
Analysis of the laboratory meal revealed the infants fed the protein hydrolysate formula consumed less formula during the meal.
"One of the reasons the protein hydrolysate infants had similar growth patterns to breast-fed infants, who are the gold standard, is that they consumed less formula during a feed as compared to infants fed cow's milk formula" said Mennella. "The next question to ask is: Why do infants on cow's milk formula overfeed?"
The findings highlight the need to understand the long-term influences of infant formula composition on feeding behavior, growth, and metabolic health. Future studies will utilize measures of energy metabolism and expenditure to examine how the individual formulas influence growth, and how each differs from breastfeeding.
Also contributing to the study, which was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, were Monell scientists Gary Beauchamp and Alison Ventura.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Monell Chemical Senses Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Julie A. Mennella, Alison K. Ventura, and Gary K. Beauchamp. Differential Growth Patterns Among Healthy Infants Fed Protein Hydrolysate or Cow-Milk Formulas. Pediatrics, 2010; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2010-1675

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Treating women’s depression might help them lose weight

Treating Women’s Depression Might Help Them Lose Weight


ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2010) — For many women coping with obesity and depression, new research finds that improving your mood might be the link to losing weight.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Fitness
Mental Health Research
Diet and Weight Loss

Mind & Brain

Depression
Mental Health
Dieting and Weight Control

Reference

Seasonal affective disorder
Sleep deprivation
Postpartum depression
Menopause

The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person’s risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.
“I expect that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions,” said lead author Gregory Simon, M.D., of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which.”
Simon and his colleagues evaluated 203 women ages 40 to 65 with an average BMI of 38.3. Participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.
They placed the women into two treatment groups — one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months, and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.
The researchers found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. This compared with 21 percent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease — or an increase — in their depression score.
“Most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression,” said Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, M.D., of the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programs that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.”

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health.




Journal Reference:

Simon GE, et al. Association between change in depression and change in weight among women enrolled in weight loss treatment. Gen Hosp Psych, 32(6), 2010.

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Study probes obesity link to fibromyalgia

Study Probes Obesity Link to Fibromyalgia


ScienceDaily (Dec. 30, 2010) — Afflicting up to 5 percent of the U.S. population, mostly women, fibromyalgia is characterized by widespread pain and range of function problems. A new study in The Journal of Pain reports there is close association between obesity and disability in fibromyalgia patients.



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Fibromyalgia
Pain Control
Joint Pain

Mind & Brain

Dieting and Weight Control
Sleep Disorders
Nutrition Research

Reference

Overweight
Diabetes mellitus type 2
Sleep deprivation
Body mass index

The purpose of the study, conducted by University of Utah researchers, was to evaluate the relationship between fibromyalgia and obesity. They hypothesized that obesity significantly adds to the disease and disability burden of the condition. Two hundred fifteen fibromyalgia patients were evaluated in the study and given several physical tests to measure strength, flexibility, range of motion, and strength. Heart rates and sleep quality also were assessed.
The authors reported that consistent with previous studies, obesity is common among those with fibromyalgia. Half the study sample was obese and an additional thirty percent were overweight. Also consistent with previous findings, obese patients in this study showed increased pain sensitivity, which was more pronounced in lower body areas. The obese patients also had impaired flexibility in the lower body and reduced strength.
The study concluded that obesity is a common comorbidity of fibromyalgia that may compromise clinical outcomes. The adverse impact of obesity is evidenced by hyperalgesia, disability, impaired quality of life and sleep problems. The authors also noted that recent evidence suggests weight loss improves fibromyalgia symptoms, perhaps resulting from patients adopting healthier lifestyles and taking more positive attitudes toward symptom management, and overall quality of life.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by American Pain Society.




Journal Reference:

Akiko Okifuji, Gary W. Donaldson, Lynn Barck, Perry G. Fine. Relationship Between Fibromyalgia and Obesity in Pain, Function, Mood, and Sleep. The Journal of Pain, 2010; 11 (12): 1329 DOI: 10.1016/j.jpain.2010.03.006

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Treating women’s depression might help them lose weight

Treating Women’s Depression Might Help Them Lose Weight


ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2010) — For many women coping with obesity and depression, new research finds that improving your mood might be the link to losing weight.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Fitness
Mental Health Research
Diet and Weight Loss

Mind & Brain

Depression
Mental Health
Dieting and Weight Control

Reference

Seasonal affective disorder
Sleep deprivation
Postpartum depression
Menopause

The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person’s risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.
“I expect that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions,” said lead author Gregory Simon, M.D., of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which.”
Simon and his colleagues evaluated 203 women ages 40 to 65 with an average BMI of 38.3. Participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.
They placed the women into two treatment groups — one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months, and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.
The researchers found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. This compared with 21 percent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease — or an increase — in their depression score.
“Most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression,” said Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, M.D., of the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programs that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.”

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health.




Journal Reference:

Simon GE, et al. Association between change in depression and change in weight among women enrolled in weight loss treatment. Gen Hosp Psych, 32(6), 2010.

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Which comes first: Exercise-induced asthma or obesity?

Which Comes First: Exercise-Induced Asthma or Obesity?


ScienceDaily (Dec. 26, 2010) — Obese people are more likely to report exercise as a trigger for asthma. Of 673 people evaluated in a new study whose results are published in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 71 percent of participants reported exercise-induced asthma (ETA).



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Fitness
Asthma
Obesity
Diet and Weight Loss
Diseases and Conditions
Men's Health

Reference

Liposuction
General fitness training
Hypoallergenic
Overweight

The findings are important, since 2.3 million Canadians are affected by asthma according to Statistics Canada.
ETA affects up to 90 percent of asthma sufferers, says lead author Simon Bacon, a professor at the Concordia Department of Exercise Science and a researcher at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. "Compared with normal-weight participants, patients who were overweight or obese were more likely to report ETA. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have explored this relationship," he says. "We also found that for every one-point increase in body mass index score was associated with a 9 percent increase in the probability of reporting exercise-induced asthma."
Participants who took part in the investigation suffered from intermittent as well as mild, moderate and severe persistent asthma. Their body mass index was calculated according to their reported height and weight. Patients were also asked to indicate factors -- exercise, animals, dust, pollen, aspirin, stress, emotions or cold air -- that could trigger their asthma.
"Exercise-induced asthma may lead to a sedentary lifestyle, increased weight and can fuel a downward spiral to worsened health," says Dr. Bacon. "Given the importance of exercise and regular physical activity in weight management, greater care should be taken when working with asthma patients to refer them to appropriate weight management specialists to help them control and safely reduce their weight."
The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.
The article was coauthored by Simon L. Bacon, Amanda Rizk and Alicia Wright of Concordia University and the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal; Kim L. Lavoie and Ariane Jacob of the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Hôpital du Sacre-Coeur de Montréal.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Concordia University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Alicia Wright, Kim Lavoie, Ariane Jacob, Amanda Rizk, Simon Bacon. Effect of Body Mass Index on Self-Reported Exercise-Triggered Asthma. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2010; 38 (4): 61 DOI: 10.3810/psm.2010.12.1826

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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Not all infant formulas are alike: Differential effects on weight gain

Not All Infant Formulas Are Alike: Differential Effects on Weight Gain


ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2010) — New findings from the Monell Center reveal that weight gain of formula-fed infants is influenced by the type of formula the infant is consuming. The findings have implications related to the infant's risk for the development of obesity, diabetes and other diseases later in life.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Infant's Health
Fitness
Diet and Weight Loss
Down's Syndrome
Obesity
Women's Health

Reference

Colostrum
Infant
Dairy product
Baby colic

"Events early in life have long-term consequences on health and one of the most significant influences is early growth rate," said study lead author Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a developmental psychobiologist at Monell. "We already know that formula-fed babies gain more weight than breast-fed babies. But we didn't know whether this was true for all types of formula."
While most infant formulas are cow's milk-based, other choices include soy-based and protein hydrolysate-based formulas. Protein hydrolysate formulas contain pre-digested proteins and typically are fed to infants who cannot tolerate the intact proteins in other formulas.
In adults, pre-digested proteins are believed to act in the intestine to initiate the end of a meal, thus leading to smaller meals and intake of fewer calories. Based on this, the authors hypothesized that infants who were feeding protein hydrolysate formulas would eat less and have an altered growth pattern relative to infants feeding cow's milk-based formula.
In the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, infants whose parents had already decided to bottle-feed were randomly assigned at two weeks of age to feed either a cow's milk-based formula (35 infants) or a protein hydrolysate formula (24 infants) for seven months.
Both formulas contained the same amount of calories, but the hydrolysate formula had more protein, including greater amounts of small peptides and free amino acids.
Infants were weighed once each month in the laboratory, where they also were videotaped consuming a meal of the assigned formula. The meal continued until the infant signaled that s/he was full.
Over the seven months of the study, the protein hydrolysate infants gained weight at a slower rate than infants fed cow milk formula. Linear growth, or length, did not differ between the two groups, demonstrating that the differences in growth were specifically attributable to weight.
"All formulas are not alike," said Mennella. "These two formulas have the same amount of calories, but differ considerably in terms of how they influence infant growth."
When the data were compared to national norms for breast-fed infants, the rate of weight gain of protein hydrolysate infants was comparable to the breast milk standards; in contrast, infants fed cow's milk formula gained weight at a greater rate than the same breast milk standards.
Analysis of the laboratory meal revealed the infants fed the protein hydrolysate formula consumed less formula during the meal.
"One of the reasons the protein hydrolysate infants had similar growth patterns to breast-fed infants, who are the gold standard, is that they consumed less formula during a feed as compared to infants fed cow's milk formula" said Mennella. "The next question to ask is: Why do infants on cow's milk formula overfeed?"
The findings highlight the need to understand the long-term influences of infant formula composition on feeding behavior, growth, and metabolic health. Future studies will utilize measures of energy metabolism and expenditure to examine how the individual formulas influence growth, and how each differs from breastfeeding.
Also contributing to the study, which was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, were Monell scientists Gary Beauchamp and Alison Ventura.

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More

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Monell Chemical Senses Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Julie A. Mennella, Alison K. Ventura, and Gary K. Beauchamp. Differential Growth Patterns Among Healthy Infants Fed Protein Hydrolysate or Cow-Milk Formulas. Pediatrics, 2010; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2010-1675

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Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.


Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Which comes first: Exercise-induced asthma or obesity?

Which Comes First: Exercise-Induced Asthma or Obesity?


ScienceDaily (Dec. 26, 2010) — Obese people are more likely to report exercise as a trigger for asthma. Of 673 people evaluated in a new study whose results are published in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 71 percent of participants reported exercise-induced asthma (ETA).



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Fitness
Asthma
Obesity
Diet and Weight Loss
Diseases and Conditions
Men's Health

Reference

Liposuction
General fitness training
Hypoallergenic
Overweight

The findings are important, since 2.3 million Canadians are affected by asthma according to Statistics Canada.
ETA affects up to 90 percent of asthma sufferers, says lead author Simon Bacon, a professor at the Concordia Department of Exercise Science and a researcher at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. "Compared with normal-weight participants, patients who were overweight or obese were more likely to report ETA. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have explored this relationship," he says. "We also found that for every one-point increase in body mass index score was associated with a 9 percent increase in the probability of reporting exercise-induced asthma."
Participants who took part in the investigation suffered from intermittent as well as mild, moderate and severe persistent asthma. Their body mass index was calculated according to their reported height and weight. Patients were also asked to indicate factors -- exercise, animals, dust, pollen, aspirin, stress, emotions or cold air -- that could trigger their asthma.
"Exercise-induced asthma may lead to a sedentary lifestyle, increased weight and can fuel a downward spiral to worsened health," says Dr. Bacon. "Given the importance of exercise and regular physical activity in weight management, greater care should be taken when working with asthma patients to refer them to appropriate weight management specialists to help them control and safely reduce their weight."
The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.
The article was coauthored by Simon L. Bacon, Amanda Rizk and Alicia Wright of Concordia University and the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal; Kim L. Lavoie and Ariane Jacob of the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Hôpital du Sacre-Coeur de Montréal.

Email or share this story:

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Concordia University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Alicia Wright, Kim Lavoie, Ariane Jacob, Amanda Rizk, Simon Bacon. Effect of Body Mass Index on Self-Reported Exercise-Triggered Asthma. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2010; 38 (4): 61 DOI: 10.3810/psm.2010.12.1826

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:


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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Treating women’s depression might help them lose weight

Treating Women’s Depression Might Help Them Lose Weight


ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2010) — For many women coping with obesity and depression, new research finds that improving your mood might be the link to losing weight.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Fitness
Mental Health Research
Diet and Weight Loss

Mind & Brain

Depression
Mental Health
Dieting and Weight Control

Reference

Seasonal affective disorder
Sleep deprivation
Postpartum depression
Menopause

The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person’s risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.
“I expect that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions,” said lead author Gregory Simon, M.D., of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which.”
Simon and his colleagues evaluated 203 women ages 40 to 65 with an average BMI of 38.3. Participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.
They placed the women into two treatment groups — one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months, and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.
The researchers found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. This compared with 21 percent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease — or an increase — in their depression score.
“Most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression,” said Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, M.D., of the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programs that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.”

Email or share this story:

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More

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health.




Journal Reference:

Simon GE, et al. Association between change in depression and change in weight among women enrolled in weight loss treatment. Gen Hosp Psych, 32(6), 2010.

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:


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citation();




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Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Not all infant formulas are alike: Differential effects on weight gain

Not All Infant Formulas Are Alike: Differential Effects on Weight Gain


ScienceDaily (Dec. 28, 2010) — New findings from the Monell Center reveal that weight gain of formula-fed infants is influenced by the type of formula the infant is consuming. The findings have implications related to the infant's risk for the development of obesity, diabetes and other diseases later in life.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Infant's Health
Fitness
Diet and Weight Loss
Down's Syndrome
Obesity
Women's Health

Reference

Colostrum
Infant
Dairy product
Baby colic

"Events early in life have long-term consequences on health and one of the most significant influences is early growth rate," said study lead author Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a developmental psychobiologist at Monell. "We already know that formula-fed babies gain more weight than breast-fed babies. But we didn't know whether this was true for all types of formula."
While most infant formulas are cow's milk-based, other choices include soy-based and protein hydrolysate-based formulas. Protein hydrolysate formulas contain pre-digested proteins and typically are fed to infants who cannot tolerate the intact proteins in other formulas.
In adults, pre-digested proteins are believed to act in the intestine to initiate the end of a meal, thus leading to smaller meals and intake of fewer calories. Based on this, the authors hypothesized that infants who were feeding protein hydrolysate formulas would eat less and have an altered growth pattern relative to infants feeding cow's milk-based formula.
In the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, infants whose parents had already decided to bottle-feed were randomly assigned at two weeks of age to feed either a cow's milk-based formula (35 infants) or a protein hydrolysate formula (24 infants) for seven months.
Both formulas contained the same amount of calories, but the hydrolysate formula had more protein, including greater amounts of small peptides and free amino acids.
Infants were weighed once each month in the laboratory, where they also were videotaped consuming a meal of the assigned formula. The meal continued until the infant signaled that s/he was full.
Over the seven months of the study, the protein hydrolysate infants gained weight at a slower rate than infants fed cow milk formula. Linear growth, or length, did not differ between the two groups, demonstrating that the differences in growth were specifically attributable to weight.
"All formulas are not alike," said Mennella. "These two formulas have the same amount of calories, but differ considerably in terms of how they influence infant growth."
When the data were compared to national norms for breast-fed infants, the rate of weight gain of protein hydrolysate infants was comparable to the breast milk standards; in contrast, infants fed cow's milk formula gained weight at a greater rate than the same breast milk standards.
Analysis of the laboratory meal revealed the infants fed the protein hydrolysate formula consumed less formula during the meal.
"One of the reasons the protein hydrolysate infants had similar growth patterns to breast-fed infants, who are the gold standard, is that they consumed less formula during a feed as compared to infants fed cow's milk formula" said Mennella. "The next question to ask is: Why do infants on cow's milk formula overfeed?"
The findings highlight the need to understand the long-term influences of infant formula composition on feeding behavior, growth, and metabolic health. Future studies will utilize measures of energy metabolism and expenditure to examine how the individual formulas influence growth, and how each differs from breastfeeding.
Also contributing to the study, which was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, were Monell scientists Gary Beauchamp and Alison Ventura.

Email or share this story:

|
More

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Monell Chemical Senses Center, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Julie A. Mennella, Alison K. Ventura, and Gary K. Beauchamp. Differential Growth Patterns Among Healthy Infants Fed Protein Hydrolysate or Cow-Milk Formulas. Pediatrics, 2010; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2010-1675

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:


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citation();




Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.


Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Treating women’s depression might help them lose weight

Treating Women’s Depression Might Help Them Lose Weight


ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2010) — For many women coping with obesity and depression, new research finds that improving your mood might be the link to losing weight.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Fitness
Mental Health Research
Diet and Weight Loss

Mind & Brain

Depression
Mental Health
Dieting and Weight Control

Reference

Seasonal affective disorder
Sleep deprivation
Postpartum depression
Menopause

The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person’s risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.
“I expect that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions,” said lead author Gregory Simon, M.D., of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which.”
Simon and his colleagues evaluated 203 women ages 40 to 65 with an average BMI of 38.3. Participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.
They placed the women into two treatment groups — one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months, and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.
The researchers found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. This compared with 21 percent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease — or an increase — in their depression score.
“Most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression,” said Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, M.D., of the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programs that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.”

Email or share this story:

|
More

Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health.




Journal Reference:

Simon GE, et al. Association between change in depression and change in weight among women enrolled in weight loss treatment. Gen Hosp Psych, 32(6), 2010.

Need to cite this story in your essay, paper, or report? Use one of the following formats:


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MLA


citation();




Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.


Disclaimer: This article is not intended to provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Views expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Which comes first: Exercise-induced asthma or obesity?

Which Comes First: Exercise-Induced Asthma or Obesity?


ScienceDaily (Dec. 26, 2010) — Obese people are more likely to report exercise as a trigger for asthma. Of 673 people evaluated in a new study whose results are published in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 71 percent of participants reported exercise-induced asthma (ETA).



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Health & Medicine

Fitness
Asthma
Obesity
Diet and Weight Loss
Diseases and Conditions
Men's Health

Reference

Liposuction
General fitness training
Hypoallergenic
Overweight

The findings are important, since 2.3 million Canadians are affected by asthma according to Statistics Canada.
ETA affects up to 90 percent of asthma sufferers, says lead author Simon Bacon, a professor at the Concordia Department of Exercise Science and a researcher at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. "Compared with normal-weight participants, patients who were overweight or obese were more likely to report ETA. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have explored this relationship," he says. "We also found that for every one-point increase in body mass index score was associated with a 9 percent increase in the probability of reporting exercise-induced asthma."
Participants who took part in the investigation suffered from intermittent as well as mild, moderate and severe persistent asthma. Their body mass index was calculated according to their reported height and weight. Patients were also asked to indicate factors -- exercise, animals, dust, pollen, aspirin, stress, emotions or cold air -- that could trigger their asthma.
"Exercise-induced asthma may lead to a sedentary lifestyle, increased weight and can fuel a downward spiral to worsened health," says Dr. Bacon. "Given the importance of exercise and regular physical activity in weight management, greater care should be taken when working with asthma patients to refer them to appropriate weight management specialists to help them control and safely reduce their weight."
The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.
The article was coauthored by Simon L. Bacon, Amanda Rizk and Alicia Wright of Concordia University and the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal; Kim L. Lavoie and Ariane Jacob of the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Hôpital du Sacre-Coeur de Montréal.

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Journal Reference:

Alicia Wright, Kim Lavoie, Ariane Jacob, Amanda Rizk, Simon Bacon. Effect of Body Mass Index on Self-Reported Exercise-Triggered Asthma. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2010; 38 (4): 61 DOI: 10.3810/psm.2010.12.1826

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Not all infant formulas are alike: Differential effects on weight gain

Not All Infant Formulas Are Alike: Differential Effects on Weight Gain


ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2010) — New findings from the Monell Center reveal that weight gain of formula-fed infants is influenced by the type of formula the infant is consuming. The findings have implications related to the infant's risk for the development of obesity, diabetes and other diseases later in life.



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"Events early in life have long-term consequences on health and one of the most significant influences is early growth rate," said study lead author Julie Mennella, Ph.D., a developmental psychobiologist at Monell. "We already know that formula-fed babies gain more weight than breast-fed babies. But we didn't know whether this was true for all types of formula."
While most infant formulas are cow's milk-based, other choices include soy-based and protein hydrolysate-based formulas. Protein hydrolysate formulas contain pre-digested proteins and typically are fed to infants who cannot tolerate the intact proteins in other formulas.
In adults, pre-digested proteins are believed to act in the intestine to initiate the end of a meal, thus leading to smaller meals and intake of fewer calories. Based on this, the authors hypothesized that infants who were feeding protein hydrolysate formulas would eat less and have an altered growth pattern relative to infants feeding cow's milk-based formula.
In the study, published online in the journal Pediatrics, infants whose parents had already decided to bottle-feed were randomly assigned at two weeks of age to feed either a cow's milk-based formula (35 infants) or a protein hydrolysate formula (24 infants) for seven months.
Both formulas contained the same amount of calories, but the hydrolysate formula had more protein, including greater amounts of small peptides and free amino acids.
Infants were weighed once each month in the laboratory, where they also were videotaped consuming a meal of the assigned formula. The meal continued until the infant signaled that s/he was full.
Over the seven months of the study, the protein hydrolysate infants gained weight at a slower rate than infants fed cow milk formula. Linear growth, or length, did not differ between the two groups, demonstrating that the differences in growth were specifically attributable to weight.
"All formulas are not alike," said Mennella. "These two formulas have the same amount of calories, but differ considerably in terms of how they influence infant growth."
When the data were compared to national norms for breast-fed infants, the rate of weight gain of protein hydrolysate infants was comparable to the breast milk standards; in contrast, infants fed cow's milk formula gained weight at a greater rate than the same breast milk standards.
Analysis of the laboratory meal revealed the infants fed the protein hydrolysate formula consumed less formula during the meal.
"One of the reasons the protein hydrolysate infants had similar growth patterns to breast-fed infants, who are the gold standard, is that they consumed less formula during a feed as compared to infants fed cow's milk formula" said Mennella. "The next question to ask is: Why do infants on cow's milk formula overfeed?"
The findings highlight the need to understand the long-term influences of infant formula composition on feeding behavior, growth, and metabolic health. Future studies will utilize measures of energy metabolism and expenditure to examine how the individual formulas influence growth, and how each differs from breastfeeding.
Also contributing to the study, which was funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, were Monell scientists Gary Beauchamp and Alison Ventura.

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Journal Reference:

Julie A. Mennella, Alison K. Ventura, and Gary K. Beauchamp. Differential Growth Patterns Among Healthy Infants Fed Protein Hydrolysate or Cow-Milk Formulas. Pediatrics, 2010; DOI: 10.1542/peds.2010-1675

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Treating women’s depression might help them lose weight

Treating Women’s Depression Might Help Them Lose Weight


ScienceDaily (Dec. 27, 2010) — For many women coping with obesity and depression, new research finds that improving your mood might be the link to losing weight.



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The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person’s risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.
“I expect that the relationship between depression and physical activity goes in both directions,” said lead author Gregory Simon, M.D., of Group Health Research Institute in Seattle. “Increased physical activity leads to improvement in depression and improvement in depression leads to increased physical activity. We see in our study that they go together, but we can’t say which causes which.”
Simon and his colleagues evaluated 203 women ages 40 to 65 with an average BMI of 38.3. Participants underwent baseline tests to measure their weight, depression score, physical activity and food intake.
They placed the women into two treatment groups — one focused on weight loss and the other focused on both weight loss and depression. Both interventions included up to 26 group sessions over 12 months, and researchers followed up on participants at six, 12 and 24 months after enrollment.
The researchers found the most significant changes happened in the first six months and then remained stable afterwards. At six months, among the women who had at least a one-half point decrease on the Hopkins Symptom Checklist depression score, 38 percent lost at least 5 percent of their body weight. This compared with 21 percent of the women who lost the same amount but had no decrease — or an increase — in their depression score.
“Most weight loss programs do not pay enough attention to screening and treatment of depression,” said Babak Roshanaei-Moghaddam, M.D., of the psychiatry and behavioral sciences department at the University of Washington in Seattle. “This study further underscores the importance of screening for depression in such programs that can potentially lead to both physical and psychological well-being.”

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Health Behavior News Service, part of the Center for Advancing Health.




Journal Reference:

Simon GE, et al. Association between change in depression and change in weight among women enrolled in weight loss treatment. Gen Hosp Psych, 32(6), 2010.

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You are what your father ate, too: Paternal diet affects lipid metabolizing genes in offspring, research suggests

You Are What Your Father Ate, Too: Paternal Diet Affects Lipid Metabolizing Genes in Offspring, Research Suggests


ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2010) — We aren't just what we eat; we are what our parents ate too. That's an emerging idea that is bolstered by a new study showing that mice sired by fathers fed on a low-protein diet show distinct and reproducible changes in the activity of key metabolic genes in their livers. Those changes occurred despite the fact that the fathers never saw their offspring and spent minimal time with their mothers, the researchers say, suggesting that the nutritional information is passed on to the next generation via the sperm not through some sort of social influence.



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Computational genomics

The new findings reported in the Dec. 23 issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, add to evidence that epigenetic reprogramming of genes may be an important mechanism for passing information about the environment, and in this case the nutritional environment, from one generation to the next. Epigenetics refers to heritable chemical modifications to DNA that can alter the way genes are expressed without changing the underlying sequence of their As, Gs, Ts and Cs.
"The take away is that we are more than just our genes," said Oliver Rando of University of Massachusetts Medical School, "and there are many ways our parents can 'tell' us things."
Rando said the notion that what our fathers and grandfathers ate can influence our metabolism isn't new. Perhaps the best evidence in humans comes from epidemiological studies showing that if your paternal grandfather went hungry, then you will be at greater risk of developing obesity and cardiovascular disease. Earlier this year, a study in rats by another team found that fathers on a high-fat diet can pass health problems on to their daughters.
In the new study, the researchers wanted to test whether environmental conditions have transgenerational effects by screening the activity of genes in mice whose fathers were fed on a low-protein diet from the time they were weaned until they reached sexual maturity. It turned out that hundreds of genes changed in the offspring of those protein-starved males. Epigenomic profiling of the young mouse livers showed numerous differences depending on paternal diet, including chemical modification of a sequence of DNA that is thought to serve as an enhancer for the key lipid transcription factor known as Ppara. Those changes were associated with lower activity of the Ppara gene."It's consistent with the idea that when parents go hungry, it's best for offspring to hoard calories," Rando said, noting the transcription factor's role in controlling cholesterol and lipid synthesis in the liver.
However, he says it isn't yet clear whether the changes in cholesterol metabolism will prove advantageous in the context of a low-protein diet, although it's a tempting idea.
They aren't sure yet how the information is encoded and passed from father to offspring either. It isn't obvious in that the sperm don't show the same epigenetic pattern seen in the livers of the offspring.
One thing is clear. The new findings in combination with other evidence have important implications for future studies and their mice now offer a useful model for working out the mechanisms responsible for transgenerational reprogramming of metabolism.
"Together, these results suggest rethinking basic practices in epidemiological studies of complex diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, or alcoholism," the researchers wrote in conclusion. "We believe that future environmental exposure histories will need to include parental exposure histories as well as those of the patients to disentangle induced epigenetic effects from the currently sought genetic and environmental factors underlying complex diseases. Our observations provide an inbred mammalian model for transgenerational reprogramming of metabolic phenotype that will enable dissection of the exposure history necessary for reprogramming and genetic analysis of the machinery involved in reprogramming, and they suggest a number of specific pathways likely to be the direct targets of epigenetic reprogramming."
Rando is curious to see what happens in the next generation of mice. "The human studies suggest that it is grandchildren who are most affected by their grandparents' exposure histories," he says.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Cell Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Benjamin R. Carone, Lucas Fauquier, Naomi Habib, Jeremy M. Shea, Caroline E. Hart, Ruowang Li, Christoph Bock, Chengjian Li, Hongcang Gu, Phillip D. Zamore, Alexander Meissner, Zhiping Weng, Hans A. Hofmann, Nir Friedman, Oliver J. Rando. Paternally Induced Transgenerational Environmental Reprogramming of Metabolic Gene Expression in Mammals. Cell, 2010; 143 (7): 1084-1096 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.12.008

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Which comes first: Exercise-induced asthma or obesity?

Which Comes First: Exercise-Induced Asthma or Obesity?


ScienceDaily (Dec. 26, 2010) — Obese people are more likely to report exercise as a trigger for asthma. Of 673 people evaluated in a new study whose results are published in the journal The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 71 percent of participants reported exercise-induced asthma (ETA).



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Health & Medicine

Fitness
Asthma
Obesity
Diet and Weight Loss
Diseases and Conditions
Men's Health

Reference

Liposuction
General fitness training
Hypoallergenic
Overweight

The findings are important, since 2.3 million Canadians are affected by asthma according to Statistics Canada.
ETA affects up to 90 percent of asthma sufferers, says lead author Simon Bacon, a professor at the Concordia Department of Exercise Science and a researcher at the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal. "Compared with normal-weight participants, patients who were overweight or obese were more likely to report ETA. To our knowledge, there are no studies that have explored this relationship," he says. "We also found that for every one-point increase in body mass index score was associated with a 9 percent increase in the probability of reporting exercise-induced asthma."
Participants who took part in the investigation suffered from intermittent as well as mild, moderate and severe persistent asthma. Their body mass index was calculated according to their reported height and weight. Patients were also asked to indicate factors -- exercise, animals, dust, pollen, aspirin, stress, emotions or cold air -- that could trigger their asthma.
"Exercise-induced asthma may lead to a sedentary lifestyle, increased weight and can fuel a downward spiral to worsened health," says Dr. Bacon. "Given the importance of exercise and regular physical activity in weight management, greater care should be taken when working with asthma patients to refer them to appropriate weight management specialists to help them control and safely reduce their weight."
The study was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the Fonds de la Recherche en Santé du Québec.
The article was coauthored by Simon L. Bacon, Amanda Rizk and Alicia Wright of Concordia University and the Hôpital du Sacré-Coeur de Montréal; Kim L. Lavoie and Ariane Jacob of the Université du Québec à Montréal and the Hôpital du Sacre-Coeur de Montréal.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Concordia University, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Alicia Wright, Kim Lavoie, Ariane Jacob, Amanda Rizk, Simon Bacon. Effect of Body Mass Index on Self-Reported Exercise-Triggered Asthma. The Physician and Sportsmedicine, 2010; 38 (4): 61 DOI: 10.3810/psm.2010.12.1826

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You are what your father ate, too: Paternal diet affects lipid metabolizing genes in offspring, research suggests

You Are What Your Father Ate, Too: Paternal Diet Affects Lipid Metabolizing Genes in Offspring, Research Suggests


ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2010) — We aren't just what we eat; we are what our parents ate too. That's an emerging idea that is bolstered by a new study showing that mice sired by fathers fed on a low-protein diet show distinct and reproducible changes in the activity of key metabolic genes in their livers. Those changes occurred despite the fact that the fathers never saw their offspring and spent minimal time with their mothers, the researchers say, suggesting that the nutritional information is passed on to the next generation via the sperm not through some sort of social influence.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Diet and Weight Loss
Genes
Epigenetics

Plants & Animals

Epigentics Research
Mice
Genetics

Reference

Trait (biology)
Twin
Calorie restricted diet
Computational genomics

The new findings reported in the Dec. 23 issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, add to evidence that epigenetic reprogramming of genes may be an important mechanism for passing information about the environment, and in this case the nutritional environment, from one generation to the next. Epigenetics refers to heritable chemical modifications to DNA that can alter the way genes are expressed without changing the underlying sequence of their As, Gs, Ts and Cs.
"The take away is that we are more than just our genes," said Oliver Rando of University of Massachusetts Medical School, "and there are many ways our parents can 'tell' us things."
Rando said the notion that what our fathers and grandfathers ate can influence our metabolism isn't new. Perhaps the best evidence in humans comes from epidemiological studies showing that if your paternal grandfather went hungry, then you will be at greater risk of developing obesity and cardiovascular disease. Earlier this year, a study in rats by another team found that fathers on a high-fat diet can pass health problems on to their daughters.
In the new study, the researchers wanted to test whether environmental conditions have transgenerational effects by screening the activity of genes in mice whose fathers were fed on a low-protein diet from the time they were weaned until they reached sexual maturity. It turned out that hundreds of genes changed in the offspring of those protein-starved males. Epigenomic profiling of the young mouse livers showed numerous differences depending on paternal diet, including chemical modification of a sequence of DNA that is thought to serve as an enhancer for the key lipid transcription factor known as Ppara. Those changes were associated with lower activity of the Ppara gene."It's consistent with the idea that when parents go hungry, it's best for offspring to hoard calories," Rando said, noting the transcription factor's role in controlling cholesterol and lipid synthesis in the liver.
However, he says it isn't yet clear whether the changes in cholesterol metabolism will prove advantageous in the context of a low-protein diet, although it's a tempting idea.
They aren't sure yet how the information is encoded and passed from father to offspring either. It isn't obvious in that the sperm don't show the same epigenetic pattern seen in the livers of the offspring.
One thing is clear. The new findings in combination with other evidence have important implications for future studies and their mice now offer a useful model for working out the mechanisms responsible for transgenerational reprogramming of metabolism.
"Together, these results suggest rethinking basic practices in epidemiological studies of complex diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, or alcoholism," the researchers wrote in conclusion. "We believe that future environmental exposure histories will need to include parental exposure histories as well as those of the patients to disentangle induced epigenetic effects from the currently sought genetic and environmental factors underlying complex diseases. Our observations provide an inbred mammalian model for transgenerational reprogramming of metabolic phenotype that will enable dissection of the exposure history necessary for reprogramming and genetic analysis of the machinery involved in reprogramming, and they suggest a number of specific pathways likely to be the direct targets of epigenetic reprogramming."
Rando is curious to see what happens in the next generation of mice. "The human studies suggest that it is grandchildren who are most affected by their grandparents' exposure histories," he says.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Cell Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Benjamin R. Carone, Lucas Fauquier, Naomi Habib, Jeremy M. Shea, Caroline E. Hart, Ruowang Li, Christoph Bock, Chengjian Li, Hongcang Gu, Phillip D. Zamore, Alexander Meissner, Zhiping Weng, Hans A. Hofmann, Nir Friedman, Oliver J. Rando. Paternally Induced Transgenerational Environmental Reprogramming of Metabolic Gene Expression in Mammals. Cell, 2010; 143 (7): 1084-1096 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.12.008

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Complementary medicines can be dangerous for children, experts say

Complementary Medicines Can Be Dangerous for Children, Experts Say


ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Complementary medicines (CAM) can be dangerous for children and can even prove fatal, if substituted for conventional medicine, indicates an audit of kids' CAM treatment published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.



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But parents often misguidedly think CAM treatments are better for their children because they are "natural" and therefore less likely to have harmful side effects, say the authors.
They base their findings on monthly reporting of adverse events associated with CAM to the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2001 and 2003.
During this period, 46 instances of adverse events associated with complementary medicine treatment -- including 4 deaths -- were reported. But only 40 questionnaires were completed, and one of these was a duplicate, leaving 39 cases.
Reports highlighted several areas of concern, including: the substitution of conventional medicine with CAM therapies; changes to medication regimens made by CAM practitioners; and dietary restriction in the belief that this would cure symptoms.
In over three quarters of cases (77%) the adverse events were considered to be probably or definitely related to CAM, and in almost half of cases (44%) the paediatricians said the child had been harmed by a failure to use conventional treatment in favour of CAM therapies.
The reports included children of all ages from birth up to the age of 16, and ranged in severity. Almost two thirds of the reported cases (64%) were rated as severe, life threatening or fatal.
The adverse events reported ranged from constipation, bleeding and pain to allergic reactions, mouth ulcers, seizures, vomiting, stunted growth, infections, malnutrition and death.
All four reported deaths were related to the substitution of conventional treatment with CAM.
These included the case of an 8 month old child admitted to hospital with malnutrition and septic shock following naturopathic treatment with a rice milk diet from the age of 3 months for the treatment of constipation.
One of the other deaths involved a 10 month old child who developed septic shock after being treated with homeopathy and a restricted diet for chronic eczema.
Two of the adverse events were associated with overdoses of medicinal CAM, which the authors say parents often do not consider in the belief that the products are natural and harmless.
Parents sought to treat anything from constipation to clotting disorders, and diabetes to cerebral palsy.
"Discussions with families about CAM use may empower them to talk about any medication changes suggested by a CAM practitioner before altering or ceasing the medication," suggest the authors.
"However, many of the adverse events associated with failure to use convention medicine resulted from the family's belief in CAM and determination to use it despite medical advice," they add.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Alissa Lim, Noel Cranswick, Michael South. Adverse events associated with the use of complementary and alternative medicine in children. Arch Dis Child, 22 December 2010 DOI: 10.1136/adc.2010.183152

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Designer probiotics could reduce obesity

Designer Probiotics Could Reduce Obesity


ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Specially designed probiotics can modulate the physiology of host fat cells say scientists writing in Microbiology. The findings could lead to specialised probiotics that have a role in the prevention or treatment of conditions such as obesity.



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Scientists from the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), Cork, University College Cork and Teagasc, in Ireland engineered a strain of Lactobacillus to produce a version of a molecule called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). When this engineered bacterial strain was fed to mice, the researchers found that the composition of the mice's fat tissue was significantly altered, demonstrating that ingesting live bacteria can influence metabolism at remote sites in the body.
CLA is a fatty acid that is produced in different versions by different bacteria. One type, called t10, c12 CLA, has been shown to be associated with decreased body fat in humans and other animals. t10, c12 CLA also has the ability to inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells and induce their death. However, this type of CLA is only produced by certain types of bacteria including Propionibacterium acnes -- a skin bacterium that can cause acne.
In this study, an enzyme-encoding gene from P. acnes was transferred to the Lactobacillus strain allowing it to produce t10, c12 CLA. Lactobacillus strains are common inhabitants of the normal gut flora and are often found in probiotic products. The researchers found that the level of t10, c12 CLA in the mice's fat tissue quadrupled when they were fed this recombinant probiotic. Thus, this study demonstrates that gut microbes have an impact on host metabolism, and in particular fat composition.
Dr Catherine Stanton, from Teagasc who led the study explained the significance of the results. "CLA has already been shown to alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that often accompanies obesity. Therefore, increasing levels of CLA in the liver by ingestion of a probiotic strain is of therapeutic relevance," she said. "Furthermore, fat is not an inert layer around our bodies, it is active and proinflammatory and is a risk factor for many diseases, including cancers. The work shows that there is potential to influence this through diet-microbe-host interactions in the gut."
The same group of researchers previously found that microbially produced CLA was able to reduce the viability of colon cancer cells by 92%. "It is possible that a CLA-producing probiotic may also be able to keep colon cancer cells in check. All our findings to date demonstrate that the metabolism of gut bacteria can modulate host cell activity in ways that are beneficial to the host," explained Dr Stanton. "We need to further investigate the effects of CLA-producing bacteria on human metabolism, but our work so far certainly opens up new possibilities for the use of probiotics for improvement of human health."

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Society for General Microbiology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Eva Rosberg-Cody, Catherine Stanton, Liam O'Mahony, Rebecca Wall, Fergus Shanahan, Eamonn Quigley, Gerald Fitzgerald and Paul Ross. Recombinant lactobacilli expressing linoleic acid isomerase can modulate the fatty acid composition of host adipose tissue in mice. Microbiology, Dec 22, 2010 DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.043406-0

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Complementary medicines can be dangerous for children, experts say

Complementary Medicines Can Be Dangerous for Children, Experts Say


ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Complementary medicines (CAM) can be dangerous for children and can even prove fatal, if substituted for conventional medicine, indicates an audit of kids' CAM treatment published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.



See Also:
Health & Medicine

Alternative Medicine
Children's Health
Personalized Medicine

Mind & Brain

Child Psychology
Child Development
Caregiving

Reference

Herbalism
Hypercholesterolemia
Alternative medicine
Yoga (alternative medicine)

But parents often misguidedly think CAM treatments are better for their children because they are "natural" and therefore less likely to have harmful side effects, say the authors.
They base their findings on monthly reporting of adverse events associated with CAM to the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2001 and 2003.
During this period, 46 instances of adverse events associated with complementary medicine treatment -- including 4 deaths -- were reported. But only 40 questionnaires were completed, and one of these was a duplicate, leaving 39 cases.
Reports highlighted several areas of concern, including: the substitution of conventional medicine with CAM therapies; changes to medication regimens made by CAM practitioners; and dietary restriction in the belief that this would cure symptoms.
In over three quarters of cases (77%) the adverse events were considered to be probably or definitely related to CAM, and in almost half of cases (44%) the paediatricians said the child had been harmed by a failure to use conventional treatment in favour of CAM therapies.
The reports included children of all ages from birth up to the age of 16, and ranged in severity. Almost two thirds of the reported cases (64%) were rated as severe, life threatening or fatal.
The adverse events reported ranged from constipation, bleeding and pain to allergic reactions, mouth ulcers, seizures, vomiting, stunted growth, infections, malnutrition and death.
All four reported deaths were related to the substitution of conventional treatment with CAM.
These included the case of an 8 month old child admitted to hospital with malnutrition and septic shock following naturopathic treatment with a rice milk diet from the age of 3 months for the treatment of constipation.
One of the other deaths involved a 10 month old child who developed septic shock after being treated with homeopathy and a restricted diet for chronic eczema.
Two of the adverse events were associated with overdoses of medicinal CAM, which the authors say parents often do not consider in the belief that the products are natural and harmless.
Parents sought to treat anything from constipation to clotting disorders, and diabetes to cerebral palsy.
"Discussions with families about CAM use may empower them to talk about any medication changes suggested by a CAM practitioner before altering or ceasing the medication," suggest the authors.
"However, many of the adverse events associated with failure to use convention medicine resulted from the family's belief in CAM and determination to use it despite medical advice," they add.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Alissa Lim, Noel Cranswick, Michael South. Adverse events associated with the use of complementary and alternative medicine in children. Arch Dis Child, 22 December 2010 DOI: 10.1136/adc.2010.183152

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You are what your father ate, too: Paternal diet affects lipid metabolizing genes in offspring, research suggests

You Are What Your Father Ate, Too: Paternal Diet Affects Lipid Metabolizing Genes in Offspring, Research Suggests


ScienceDaily (Dec. 24, 2010) — We aren't just what we eat; we are what our parents ate too. That's an emerging idea that is bolstered by a new study showing that mice sired by fathers fed on a low-protein diet show distinct and reproducible changes in the activity of key metabolic genes in their livers. Those changes occurred despite the fact that the fathers never saw their offspring and spent minimal time with their mothers, the researchers say, suggesting that the nutritional information is passed on to the next generation via the sperm not through some sort of social influence.



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The new findings reported in the Dec. 23 issue of Cell, a Cell Press publication, add to evidence that epigenetic reprogramming of genes may be an important mechanism for passing information about the environment, and in this case the nutritional environment, from one generation to the next. Epigenetics refers to heritable chemical modifications to DNA that can alter the way genes are expressed without changing the underlying sequence of their As, Gs, Ts and Cs.
"The take away is that we are more than just our genes," said Oliver Rando of University of Massachusetts Medical School, "and there are many ways our parents can 'tell' us things."
Rando said the notion that what our fathers and grandfathers ate can influence our metabolism isn't new. Perhaps the best evidence in humans comes from epidemiological studies showing that if your paternal grandfather went hungry, then you will be at greater risk of developing obesity and cardiovascular disease. Earlier this year, a study in rats by another team found that fathers on a high-fat diet can pass health problems on to their daughters.
In the new study, the researchers wanted to test whether environmental conditions have transgenerational effects by screening the activity of genes in mice whose fathers were fed on a low-protein diet from the time they were weaned until they reached sexual maturity. It turned out that hundreds of genes changed in the offspring of those protein-starved males. Epigenomic profiling of the young mouse livers showed numerous differences depending on paternal diet, including chemical modification of a sequence of DNA that is thought to serve as an enhancer for the key lipid transcription factor known as Ppara. Those changes were associated with lower activity of the Ppara gene."It's consistent with the idea that when parents go hungry, it's best for offspring to hoard calories," Rando said, noting the transcription factor's role in controlling cholesterol and lipid synthesis in the liver.
However, he says it isn't yet clear whether the changes in cholesterol metabolism will prove advantageous in the context of a low-protein diet, although it's a tempting idea.
They aren't sure yet how the information is encoded and passed from father to offspring either. It isn't obvious in that the sperm don't show the same epigenetic pattern seen in the livers of the offspring.
One thing is clear. The new findings in combination with other evidence have important implications for future studies and their mice now offer a useful model for working out the mechanisms responsible for transgenerational reprogramming of metabolism.
"Together, these results suggest rethinking basic practices in epidemiological studies of complex diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, or alcoholism," the researchers wrote in conclusion. "We believe that future environmental exposure histories will need to include parental exposure histories as well as those of the patients to disentangle induced epigenetic effects from the currently sought genetic and environmental factors underlying complex diseases. Our observations provide an inbred mammalian model for transgenerational reprogramming of metabolic phenotype that will enable dissection of the exposure history necessary for reprogramming and genetic analysis of the machinery involved in reprogramming, and they suggest a number of specific pathways likely to be the direct targets of epigenetic reprogramming."
Rando is curious to see what happens in the next generation of mice. "The human studies suggest that it is grandchildren who are most affected by their grandparents' exposure histories," he says.

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Cell Press, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




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Benjamin R. Carone, Lucas Fauquier, Naomi Habib, Jeremy M. Shea, Caroline E. Hart, Ruowang Li, Christoph Bock, Chengjian Li, Hongcang Gu, Phillip D. Zamore, Alexander Meissner, Zhiping Weng, Hans A. Hofmann, Nir Friedman, Oliver J. Rando. Paternally Induced Transgenerational Environmental Reprogramming of Metabolic Gene Expression in Mammals. Cell, 2010; 143 (7): 1084-1096 DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2010.12.008

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Designer probiotics could reduce obesity

Designer Probiotics Could Reduce Obesity


ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Specially designed probiotics can modulate the physiology of host fat cells say scientists writing in Microbiology. The findings could lead to specialised probiotics that have a role in the prevention or treatment of conditions such as obesity.



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Scientists from the Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre (APC), Cork, University College Cork and Teagasc, in Ireland engineered a strain of Lactobacillus to produce a version of a molecule called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). When this engineered bacterial strain was fed to mice, the researchers found that the composition of the mice's fat tissue was significantly altered, demonstrating that ingesting live bacteria can influence metabolism at remote sites in the body.
CLA is a fatty acid that is produced in different versions by different bacteria. One type, called t10, c12 CLA, has been shown to be associated with decreased body fat in humans and other animals. t10, c12 CLA also has the ability to inhibit the growth of colon cancer cells and induce their death. However, this type of CLA is only produced by certain types of bacteria including Propionibacterium acnes -- a skin bacterium that can cause acne.
In this study, an enzyme-encoding gene from P. acnes was transferred to the Lactobacillus strain allowing it to produce t10, c12 CLA. Lactobacillus strains are common inhabitants of the normal gut flora and are often found in probiotic products. The researchers found that the level of t10, c12 CLA in the mice's fat tissue quadrupled when they were fed this recombinant probiotic. Thus, this study demonstrates that gut microbes have an impact on host metabolism, and in particular fat composition.
Dr Catherine Stanton, from Teagasc who led the study explained the significance of the results. "CLA has already been shown to alleviate non-alcoholic fatty liver disease that often accompanies obesity. Therefore, increasing levels of CLA in the liver by ingestion of a probiotic strain is of therapeutic relevance," she said. "Furthermore, fat is not an inert layer around our bodies, it is active and proinflammatory and is a risk factor for many diseases, including cancers. The work shows that there is potential to influence this through diet-microbe-host interactions in the gut."
The same group of researchers previously found that microbially produced CLA was able to reduce the viability of colon cancer cells by 92%. "It is possible that a CLA-producing probiotic may also be able to keep colon cancer cells in check. All our findings to date demonstrate that the metabolism of gut bacteria can modulate host cell activity in ways that are beneficial to the host," explained Dr Stanton. "We need to further investigate the effects of CLA-producing bacteria on human metabolism, but our work so far certainly opens up new possibilities for the use of probiotics for improvement of human health."

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The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by Society for General Microbiology, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




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Eva Rosberg-Cody, Catherine Stanton, Liam O'Mahony, Rebecca Wall, Fergus Shanahan, Eamonn Quigley, Gerald Fitzgerald and Paul Ross. Recombinant lactobacilli expressing linoleic acid isomerase can modulate the fatty acid composition of host adipose tissue in mice. Microbiology, Dec 22, 2010 DOI: 10.1099/mic.0.043406-0

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Complementary medicines can be dangerous for children, experts say

Complementary Medicines Can Be Dangerous for Children, Experts Say


ScienceDaily (Dec. 23, 2010) — Complementary medicines (CAM) can be dangerous for children and can even prove fatal, if substituted for conventional medicine, indicates an audit of kids' CAM treatment published online in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.



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But parents often misguidedly think CAM treatments are better for their children because they are "natural" and therefore less likely to have harmful side effects, say the authors.
They base their findings on monthly reporting of adverse events associated with CAM to the Australian Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2001 and 2003.
During this period, 46 instances of adverse events associated with complementary medicine treatment -- including 4 deaths -- were reported. But only 40 questionnaires were completed, and one of these was a duplicate, leaving 39 cases.
Reports highlighted several areas of concern, including: the substitution of conventional medicine with CAM therapies; changes to medication regimens made by CAM practitioners; and dietary restriction in the belief that this would cure symptoms.
In over three quarters of cases (77%) the adverse events were considered to be probably or definitely related to CAM, and in almost half of cases (44%) the paediatricians said the child had been harmed by a failure to use conventional treatment in favour of CAM therapies.
The reports included children of all ages from birth up to the age of 16, and ranged in severity. Almost two thirds of the reported cases (64%) were rated as severe, life threatening or fatal.
The adverse events reported ranged from constipation, bleeding and pain to allergic reactions, mouth ulcers, seizures, vomiting, stunted growth, infections, malnutrition and death.
All four reported deaths were related to the substitution of conventional treatment with CAM.
These included the case of an 8 month old child admitted to hospital with malnutrition and septic shock following naturopathic treatment with a rice milk diet from the age of 3 months for the treatment of constipation.
One of the other deaths involved a 10 month old child who developed septic shock after being treated with homeopathy and a restricted diet for chronic eczema.
Two of the adverse events were associated with overdoses of medicinal CAM, which the authors say parents often do not consider in the belief that the products are natural and harmless.
Parents sought to treat anything from constipation to clotting disorders, and diabetes to cerebral palsy.
"Discussions with families about CAM use may empower them to talk about any medication changes suggested by a CAM practitioner before altering or ceasing the medication," suggest the authors.
"However, many of the adverse events associated with failure to use convention medicine resulted from the family's belief in CAM and determination to use it despite medical advice," they add.

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Story Source:

The above story is reprinted (with editorial adaptations by ScienceDaily staff) from materials provided by BMJ-British Medical Journal, via EurekAlert!, a service of AAAS.




Journal Reference:

Alissa Lim, Noel Cranswick, Michael South. Adverse events associated with the use of complementary and alternative medicine in children. Arch Dis Child, 22 December 2010 DOI: 10.1136/adc.2010.183152

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