Scare Yourself Thin

Scare Yourself Thin

Sometimes knowledge can motivate (scare!!) us into better behavior. It is a kind of „away from“ method but it works for many people.  Personally, I use both the „away from“ and the „toward“ types of motivation.

Read on and observe your feelings and motivation to lose weight and get fit:

Before Dr. Frederick Banting and his colleagues at the University of Toronto isolated insulin in the 1920s, doctors tried to treat diabetes with high doses of salicylates, a group of aspirin-like compounds. (They were desperate and also tried morphine and heroin.) Sure enough, the salicylate approach reduced sugar levels, but at a high price: side effects included a constant ringing in the ears, headaches and dizziness. Today’s treatments for diabetes are much safer and generally work by replacing insulin, boosting its production or helping the body make more efficient use of the hormone. But researchers over the past few years have been re-examining the salicylate approach for new clues about how diabetes develops.

What they have discovered is a complex interplay between inflammation, insulin and fat — either in the diet or in large folds under the skin. (Indeed, fat cells behave a lot like immune cells, spewing out inflammatory cytokines, particularly as you gain weight.) Where inflammation fits into this scenario — as either a cause or an effect — remains unclear. But the case for a central role is getting stronger. Dr. Steve Shoelson, a senior investigator at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, has bred a strain of mice whose fat cells are supercharged inflammation factories. The mice become less efficient at using insulin and go on to develop diabetes. “We can reproduce the whole syndrome just by inciting inflammation,” Shoelson says.

When doctors treating Alzheimer’s patients took a closer look at who seemed to be succumbing to the disease, they uncovered a tantalizing clue: those who were already taking anti-inflammatory drugs for arthritis or heart disease tended to develop the disorder later than those who weren’t. Perhaps the immune system mistakenly saw the characteristic plaques and tangles that build up in the brains of Alzheimer’s patients as damaged tissue that needed to be cleared out. If so, the ensuing inflammatory reaction was doing more harm than good. Blocking it with anti-inflammatories might limit, or at least delay, any damage to cognitive functions.

Losing weight induces those fat cells — remember them? — to produce fewer cytokines. So does regular exercise, 30 minutes a day most days of the week. Flossing your teeth combats gum disease, another source of chronic inflammation. Fruits, vegetables and fish are full of substances that disable free radicals.

How about the connection between overweight and hair loss:

Overweight people tend to lead sedentary lifestyles, which for various reasons helps to create the conditions that trigger hair loss.

Very little exercise also means lower peripheral circulation of blood, and this can be a problem for the health of the hair follicles, but it is also true that it is a statistical fact that the obese people eat too much fatty food and especially saturated fatty acids, which are the most damaging to your hair and overall health.

So the cholesterol levels rise, the sebaceous glands get irritated because the sebum contains one of the two forms of DHT, and the hair falls out.

In addition, obesity is a condition that can cause hormonal imbalances, and this can trigger the thinning of your hair.

Or, if you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant:

Being overweight during pregnancy can cause complications for you and your baby. The more overweight you are, the more likely you are to have pregnancy complications and the more risk the child has for defects after birth.

(CNN) „Risks of major birth defects increased in step with the severity of a mother's obesity or overweight, a study published in the BMJ medical journal found.

Based on these results, women should be encouraged to adopt a healthy lifestyle and be at a normal body weight before conception, said researchers led by Martina Persson, a researcher in the clinical epidemiology unit at Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden.“

Overweight and Alzheimer’s

Weight, which includes obesity, is linked with Alzheimer’s disease. This is an area of very active investigation as researchers discover associations between brain health and the body chemistry that controls weight.

Too much body weight often means too much fat tissue, and fat tissue can have dangerous effects on health. Overweight or obesity, too, increases the risk for many medical diseases. In the United States, more than a third of adults are obese. The medical cost each year for an obese adult is estimated to be $1,429 higher than for someone of normal weight.¹ Some scientists point with alarm to the increase in obesity. They warn that this is going to raise the rate of Alzheimer’s disease development in our population, which is already increasing due to higher numbers of people who are older or overweight.²

1. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data/adult.html 2. Nepal B, Brown LJ, and Anstey KJ. Rising midlife obesity will worsen future prevalence of dementia. PLOS ONE September 2014;9:1-5.

Proper exercise and a healthy diet are easily accessible tools that can help us reduce the risk not only for Alzheimer’s disease but for many other medical problems as well. Stated in a more positive way, a healthy lifestyle, which includes weight management, can increase the likelihood of optimal aging, prolonged independence, and a greater quality of life.

What kinds of health problems are linked to overweight and obesity?

Excess weight may increase the risk for many health problems, including

• type 2 diabetes
• high blood pressure
• heart disease and strokes
• certain types of cancer
• sleep apnea
• osteoarthritis
• fatty liver disease
• kidney disease
• pregnancy problems, such as high blood sugar during pregnancy, high blood pressure, and increased risk for cesarean delivery (C-section)

I don’t know about you but I’m inspired to go for a brisk walk and then eat a healthy meal consisting of veggies and a salad.

You in?