Obesity does not impact the risk of cardiovascular disease for individuals without other risk factors, a Dutch study suggests. Read the full story

Childhood obesity is linked to untimely death, according to a new study. Read the full story

Obesity and related health complications, including insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, could be reversed by blocking a specific protein secreted by fat cells, according to a team of researchers from the U.S. and Australia. Read the full story

High Prolactin May Lower Metabolism

A recent doctoral thesis by Louise Nilsson of the University of Gothenburg in Sweden explores the function of the hormone Prolactin, which is naturally high in women who are pregnant or breast feeding. Prolactin is what stimulates the mammary glands right before lactation. It is also present in men at lower levels.

This hormone aids in the function of the nervous system and helps provide humans with sexual pleasure. When present in normal levels, prolactin helps regulate the body.

However, the new thesis proposes that prolactin levels can be raised too high by some prescription drugs, by stress or by hypothyroidism. When this happens, the body responds badly.

Fatty tissue in both genders may respond by reducing the amount of another hormone called adiponectin, which aids in fat metabolism. Prolactin can also reduce the ability that human fatty tissue has to store sugar and fat, thus causing the tissue to release those elements into the bloodstream. This alone can raise a person’s risk of cardiovascular disease.

Nilsson’s thesis stated more than 30,000 men and women in Sweden may have raised levels of prolactin. And a study from our National Endocrine and Metabolic Diseases Information Service explains that too much of it can be symptomatic of having a tumor in the pituitary gland. Such tumors, however, are almost always benign.

Even Moderate Obesity Shortens Life Expectancy

According to new analysis of 57 studies that involved a total of nearly a million subjects, researchers have found that being obese can shorten a person’s average lifespan by two to four years, and by up to eight to ten years for the very obese.

The study was primarily done to see how body mass index, or BMI, effects mortality.

BMI is calculated by multiplying a person’s weight in pounds times 703, and dividing that sum by their height in inches squared. A BMI between 30 to 35 is considered moderately obese and a BMI of 40-50 is considered morbidly obese.

Though there is controversy of the use of measuring one’s health with BMI – for example, some weightlifters have high BMIs due to their muscle mass – it is still a useful tool for assessing the extent that fat can cause health problems.

Study participants were 46 years old, with an average BMI of 25 when the study began in 1979, and were mostly from North America and Western Europe.

During the follow-up period, which averaged eight years, mortality was found to be lowest in the men and women who maintained a BMI between 22.5 and 25. However, with every additional 5 BMI points, the mortality risk rose by 30%. The highest BMI deaths were due to cardiovascular disease, diabetes, kidney and liver disease, and even some cancers.

In presenting these findings, researchers hope that people may become more motivated to prevent weight gain or attempt to lose weight in efforts to extend their life.

Majority of EMS Recruits are Overweight or Obese

A research study in Massachusetts reports that 75 percent of candidates for emergency medical and response service providers in Boston are either overweight or obese.

In a field where young recruits are expected to be at the pinnacle of their career fitness, recruiters are instead witnessing future fire fighters, ambulance personnel, and policemen who aren’t fit enough to physically perform the strenuous duties that the job entails.

This not only compromises their own safety and that of their co-workers, but also the public who they are supposed to serve and protect.

These findings are troublesome to researchers because this career field already sees a high level of cardiovascular disease and musculoskeletal injury as causes of morbidity and mortality.

Among the 370 recruits studied, the results showed that today’s young recruits are significantly heavier than veteran firefighters a couple of decades ago, and that only 22% were of normal weight. An astonishing 44% of recent recruits were overweight and 33% were obese.

The research also showed that those with high BMIs were also associated with higher blood pressures, worse metabolic profiles and lower tolerances to stress tests performed on treadmills.

Given that these professionals are hired to perform highly psychologically and physically stressful work, they already tend to be at a higher risk for cardiovascular events, and these results reveal additional potential health risks due to their unhealthy weights.

There are also important economic implications to these findings as state and federal legislation exists that awards benefits to emergency responders who die or are disabled by cardiovascular events, malignancies and work-related orthopedic problems, being that they are public servants. Of course, all of these risks increase with obesity.

New Study Links Abdominal Fat With Lung Function

A new study from France published earlier this month in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine has linked waist circumference with lung function – the larger around a person’s waist is, the less functional their lungs are likely to be.

The study was conducted on 120,000 smokers who came from different social and ethnic backgrounds and who also varied in their smoking history and alcohol consumption. Researchers looked at each subject’s incidence of health conditions, like diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, and found a clear relationship between impaired lung function and these types of health issues. The correlation was due mainly to abdominal obesity, which the doctors defined as a waist measurement of 35 inches or more for women and 40 inches for men.

The researchers theorize that belly fat may degrade lung function by causing inflammation, and also by simply squeezing against the diaphragm and other internal organs. In any case, the study only adds to the growing body of evidence that excess abdominal fat weakens both your heart and lungs. With asthma season on the way, now would be a great time to lose that belly fat, and breathe a little deeper.