Tag Archive: Obesity


Link between fat parents & fat kids

Filed Under: The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
August 6, 2009

If their mothers are obese the statistics show that the daughters are 10 times more likely to be overweight; with sons the chance is 6 times more likely that they will be overweight if their father is overweight.

These results came from a study into whether childhood obesity was linked to environmental influences instead of genetic ones. The study involved looking at BMI’s for 226 five-year-olds and their parents. The researchers noted a relationship between the BMI of the children and the same sex parent. However no link was found between the children and the parent of the opposite sex. This suggests that the link is environmental as if it was genetic it would be unlikely to be gender selective.

These findings are not really surprising as it is a logical step that the parents eating habits and lifestyle would influence the child but what is surprising is that it seems to be gender specific. One possible explanation for the relationship between children and same sex parents is that the children use their parents as role models and so model their behaviour on the parent of the same sex.

If this is the case you would have thought that the parents would ensure that they are a positive role model for their children. Also they should take into consideration that the “fat kids” are usually singled out by bullies and are more prone to health problems such as diabetes and heart problems, add into the mix the psychological problems such as low self esteem. It is also worth pointing out that your eating habits can be passed down through the generations so not only are your children affected but your grandkids and great….grandkids.

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Risk Cause Found

Filed Under: Healthcare News by Kirsty — Leave a comment
July 12, 2009

Scientists claim that they have uncovered a reason why obese people have a raised risk of health complications such as type 2 diabetes. The cause seems to be a specific protein – pigment epithelium-derived factor (PEDF) – which is secreted by fat cells hence the reason people who are obese have higher levels of the protein in their blood. Scientists claim that this can be treated by blocking the protein.

It seems that the protein triggers tissue in the muscle and the liver to develop an insulin resistance, PEDF levels are also believed to release fats into the bloodstream, raising the risk of complications such as heart disease. Therefore tackling insulin resistance directly, even in the absence of weight loss, could potentially strengthen our ability to help obese patients reduce their risk of life-shortening disease

These findings mean that a drug can be developed which blocks blocks the protein. This is believed to reduce the number of obese people suffering from the life threatening conditions but this does not cure the obesity therefore wouldn’t it make more sense to deal with the obesity which would in turn reduce the health risks?

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Obesity Drug – Good or Bad?

Filed Under: Healthcare News, The NHS and Healthcare by Kirsty — Leave a comment
March 30, 2009

We’ve all heard about the growing rates of obesity in Britain and the USA. With the increasing number of bizarre diets and diet pills it was only a matter of time before somebody invented a pill that could apparently cure obesity. The company that invented the drug called Lorcaserin saw a 20% decline in shares after it announced that the 2 year trial period on 3,000 patients at over 100 sites throughout the US had fallen short of the benchmark sought by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The results of the trial were:

  • 47.5% of Lorcaserin patients lost 5% or more of their body weight, compared to 20.3% in the placebo group in 12 month.
  • In the first 12 months the Lorcaserin group lost on average 5.8% of body weight (12.7 pounds), compared to 2.2% (4.7 pounds) in the placebo group.
  • In total 22.6% of Lorcaserin patients lost 10% or more of their body weight compared to 7.7 % in the placebo group.

It seems that there are also reports the results are more than good enough to meet the FDA requirement for approval, the Arena claims that the drug has met all its primary endpoints, and shows significantly greater weight loss compared to placebo.

It is already accepted that obesity is a widespread disease, so having an effective therapy that can be used by the majority of patients who need to reduce their weight that could also be beneficial for conditions, such as diabetes, lipid disorders, and cardiovascular disease, Lorcaserin is the first in a new class of selective serotonin 2C receptor agonists; the serotonin 2C receptor is in the hypothalamus and other parts of the brain and helps to control of appetite and metabolism. This could potentially save the NHS millions of pounds as instead of paying for patients to have procedures such as stomach stapling and liposuction, a simple course of tablets can be just as effective.

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