What Causes Young Females Put On Weight?

When we talk about weight gain, we usually relate it to health issues because overweight can lead to a number of medical complications like heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and even cancer. Besides health issues, weight gain is certainly not proud of among young females.

Nevertheless, there are young girls or women find themselves gain in weight although they do not over-eat. Why is this so?

Perhaps the findings of a study published in July 2008 in “The Journal of Pediatrics” may explain. Researchers from Brigham & Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston found that girls and young women, who devote much time to Internet, get insufficient sleep, or drink alcohol regularly, are more likely to gain excess weight comparing to their peers.

A total of 5,036 girls and young women between 14 and 21 years old participated in this study, and they were followed for 1 year. They were asked questions like number of recreational hours per week they spent on the Internet (ranging from 1 to 5 hours to 16-plus hours), how long they typically slept each night (anywhere from 5 hours or less, to 9 hours or more), how much alcohol they usually took (ranging from none to 2 or more drinks per week).

The researchers found that if the girls spent more time on the Internet, were lack of sleep and had regular alcohol consumption, their body mass index (BMI) increased. BMI is a measure of weight in relation to height and is commonly used as a gauge for weight gain.

Findings of the study showed that in general, the BMI would rise as Internet use climbed, particularly among young girls age below 18 years old. Those who slept 5 hours or less tended to gain more weight than those who had a standard 8 hours sleep. Moreover, girls and women who had 2 or more alcoholic drinks per week would put on weight than those who drank the least.

The effects over 1 year were modest, for example, a 19-year-old of average weight and height would gain only 4 pounds if she were in the high-risk groups for Internet use, sleep and alcohol consumption. However, the researchers feel that this could eventually translate into significant weight change over time.

Spending hours on the Internet would likely take time away from physical activity thus increasing the weight. Lack of sleep may well cause tiredness to people who may become less active during the day. Sleep deprivation could also affect hormones and metabolism in a way that might help weight gain. Alcohol contains a significant amount of calories. If people, who usually, do not make adjustment for liquid calories by eating or drinking less throughout the rest of the day, their weight would be naturally increased.

What Is The Risk Factor For Sudden Death in Patients With Myotonic Dystrophy?

When we talk about muscular dystrophy (MD), we refer it to a group of more than 30 genetic diseases characterized by progressive weakness and degeneration of the skeletal muscles that control movement.

Myotonic muscular dystrophy or in short myotonic dystrophy, being the most common form of MD, will cause a person prolonged muscle spasms, cataracts, cardiac abnormalities, and endocrine disturbances. Patients with myotonic dystrophy have long, thin faces, drooping eyelids, and a swan-like neck.

Statistics showed that approximately 1 of every 8,000 people in the United States was affected by myotonic dystrophy. The heart muscle of the people with such disease is adversely affected.

Over the period of 10 years, neurologists and cardiologists at 23 clinics studied 406 adults with myotonic dystrophy. During that period, 20 percent of the patients enrolled in the study died, one-third of them in sudden death were likely due to cardiac arrhythmia.

Cardiac arrhythmia (also known as dysrhythmia) is a condition in which abnormal electrical activity occurred in the heart. The heartbeat, either regular or irregular, may become too fast or too slow. Some arrhythmias are life threatening, which can cause cardiac arrest and sudden death. Sudden death means death occurs in a stable patient within 1 hour of the onset of symptoms.

The study carried out by the Indiana University School of Medicine found that adults having myotonic dystrophy and abnormal electrocardiograms are more than 3 times more likely to die suddenly than patients who have normal ECG, while those with atrial (upper) chamber arrthymias had a 5 times higher risk.

The researchers had identified the risk factors that predict a high risk of sudden death in people with myotonic dystrophy and their findings were published in the June 19, 2008 edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

The report also revealed that pacemakers, commonly used to treat some forms of arrhythmia, did not help these patients prevent sudden death. However, using electrophysiological studies or by surgically implanting a cardioverter-defibrillator, doctors can guard against sudden death in patients showing this risk factor.

Is Rapid Heartbeat Just a Benign Side Effect In Athletes?

There has been news that elite athletes who were seemed healthy died during or after their games. As suggested by health experts, the athletes might have hidden heart disease and their death could be caused by the rapid heartbeat developed during the game.

Researchers from the Italian Olympic Committee in Rome found more evidence that the rapid heartbeat seen in many hard-training athletes is typically a benign side effect of physical conditioning. Their findings were published in July 2008 in the “American Journal of Cardiology”.

It is known that the heart rate for elite athletes is usually lower than the normal when they are at rest. However, when they are active, rapid heart rhythms known as ventricular tachyarrhythmia might be developed. In fact, up to 30 percent of those high-level athletes have irregular ventricular rhythms, as shown from previous studies.

People with ventricular tachycardia may have symptoms such as palpitations, shortness of breath, or lightheadedness, depending on the rate of the arrhythmia, its duration, and the underlying heart disease. Faster heart rates may cause athletes who already have underlying heart disease loss of consciousness (syncope) or even sudden death.

If the athletes have no underlying heart abnormality, the irregular rhythm is just the effects of training and is considered as a part of a benign condition known as ‘athlete’s heart’. Furthermore, there might be enlargement in the heart’s main pumping chamber of the athletes known as left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH).

Another feature of athlete's heart is an enlargement of the heart's main pumping chamber, known as left ventricular hypertrophy, or LVH. In non-athletes, pathological LVH usually increases the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmia as it worsens. Therefore, in the current study, Italian researchers looked at whether there is a similar relationship in elite athletes.

The researchers studied 175 Olympic and world-class athletes using portable monitors to record their heart's electrical activity over 24 hours. They also had them undergo ultrasound scans to detect LVH. It was found that 14 percent of these athletes were found to have evidence of LVH, though there was no indication that LVH raised the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmia.

From the findings, the researchers suggested that, in contrast to pathological cases, the ventricular arrhythmias found in elite athletes, are not caused by LVH-induced changes in the heart's electrical activity. In fact, it is the alterations in nervous system activity, brought on by high-level athletic training, should be responsible. Previous research had indeed shown that ventricular tachyarrhythmia does decline after athletes stop training and playing at a competitive level.

The findings do offer a measure of clinical reassurance about the benign nature of ventricular tachyarrhythmia in elite athletes and the expression of so-called athlete's heart.

Where You Live May Just Determine Your Blood Pressure Level!

If you live in a neighborhood where harmony exists, you will tend to be happy most of the time. On the other hand, if your neighborhood is one in which frequent collision between residents persists, I am sure you can hardly have good mood. Nevertheless, do you know that the state of your neighborhood will also determine the level of your blood pressure?

A study published in journal “Epidemiology” in July 2008 indicated that people who lived in neighborhoods with less crime, better grocery stores, a closer sense of community and more opportunities for exercise, would have a lower risk of high blood pressure, irrespective of the income and education level. Therefore, the researchers from the University of Michigan School of Public Health in Ann Arbor suggest that building better neighborhoods might also improve residents’ cardiovascular health. High blood pressure is known to be a risk factor for heart disease.

In area where walking in streets is safe and with recreational facilities and better access to healthy foods, people can exercise and maintain a healthy diet easier. In addition, stress may play a role because if people find their living conditions hard to relax and recover from daily stresses from work or elsewhere, their blood pressure might well be affected.

A large survey of cardiovascular health on 2,612 adults ages 45 to 85, lived either in New York City, Baltimore or Forsyth County in North Carolina, was used as the basis for the findings. In the survey, conditions in the mile surrounding the participants’ home, including things like whether they felt safe, whether nearby markets had a good selection of fruits and vegetables, and whether it was easy to walk in the neighborhood were asked.
The participants were also questioned about their neighborhood’s 'social cohesion', including if their neighbors were generally friendly and willing to help each other.

People who lived in the most walkable neighborhoods were found to be about one quarter less likely to have high blood pressure than those in the least pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods. Similar differences were also revealed when neighborhood safety, availability of healthy foods and social cohesion were being looked into. However, when participants' race and ethnicity were factored in, the links did diminish.

In conclusion, the researchers suggest that the characteristics of the neighborhood do play some role in the risk of high blood pressure. This also means that policies, which could improve communities (from fewer crime to more parks and better food choices), might just help improve people’s health.

Perhaps, you may want to access the state of your neighborhood should you intend to locate a new house in future.

Would Gastric Bypass Help Achieve Diabetes Remission?

Gastric bypass surgery is a procedure, which involves sectioning off a small portion of the stomach, to create a pouch to limit the amount of food for a person to take. Meanwhile, the surgeon will add a bypass to reroute food past the rest of the stomach and part of the small intestine so that calorie and nutrient absorption could be limited.

Previous studies had shown that such procedure could actually control Type-2 diabetes that is commonly associated with obesity. In the past, it has been thought that the surgery creates hormonal changes that help improvement in diabetes control.

However, the surgeons at Duke University Medical Center in Durham, North Carolina, showed in their latest study that while gastric bypass could cause important metabolic effects that rapidly improve Type-2 diabetes, the key is still the amount of weight patients lose in the first 6 months after surgery. The findings of the study were presented in the month of June 2008 at the annual meeting of American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery in Washington, DC.

The team studied 71 morbidly obese patients with severe diabetes, which were prescribed with high doses of insulin and oral medications for controlling their blood sugar levels. The purpose of the study was to find out factors that differentiate patients who go into remission from those who do not. “The amount of weight loss by the patient” was identified as the most important factor.

All patients were found to have a better diabetes control as evidenced by better long-term blood sugar levels and lesser medication. Yet, only 48 percent of the patients went into complete remission. According to the researchers, the hormonal effects of gastric bypass surgery are still important but the weight loss in the first 3 weeks to 6 months appears to be a critical factor in diabetes remission.

Morbidly obese patients usually lose about 10 percent of their body weight within 3 weeks of surgery and they can take less medication within the first day or two. This could be an effect on gut hormones, with dramatic improvements in insulin resistance, as explained by the researchers. Nevertheless, greater amount lost at a faster pace seems to improve the chance that patients will remain in remission.

In conclusion, the researchers believed that if the weight-loss effect of surgery could be enhanced by adding medications or rigorous behavior change, it is possible to do better than a 50 percent remission rate.

Is Finland Spared From Obesity Epidemic?

The number of people with overweight and obesity has been increasing at a horrible rate. For example, two-thirds of people in the United States are overweight. Even in Finland, every 1 in 5 adults is considered overweight.

As we know, when one is overweight or obese, he or she is subject to a much higher rate of developing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, cancer, and many other complications. Therefore, obesity epidemic will definitely put tremendous pressure on the governments in terms of medical cost to deal with diseases associated with overweight or obesity.

A recent study found that women in Finland weigh on average almost 1 kilo (approximately 2.2 pounds) more than in 2002 yet obesity remains primarily a problem for male. The researchers from Finland's National Public Health Institute reported on July 21, 2008 that people in Finland are getting fatter at a steady rate for decades and this is obvious among young adults.

The report showed that during the past 5 years, men in Finland have gained an average of 500 grams (1.1 pound), whereas women have gained 900 grams (1.98 pounds). Interestingly, the weight index is the lowest among those people in the most educated group. Data also showed that 1 in 2 Finnish women are of normal weight, as compared to only 1 in 3 men.

According to the researchers, the increasing rate of obesity may well be attributed to the fact that people in Finland eat better quality food in large quantity yet exercise less. Meanwhile, Finns also smoke less than they did 5 years ago.

In fact, the problem in high blood pressure had been decreasing since 1972, but the decline had come to a halt due to the change to rising alcohol consumption. Since 2005, alcohol abuse has been the leading cause of death among Finnish males aged between 15 and 64.

Is Reducing Diabetes Risk That Hard for Men?

As we know, people with diabetes are exposed to a higher risk of developing heart disease and other medical complications, regardless of whether their diabetes is of Type-1 or Type-2.

For Type-2 diabetics, whether they are male or female, losing weight through diet and exercise are one of the alternatives that might just lower their risk of getting it. Nevertheless, men may have to work harder in order to have the same benefit.

Researchers at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Aurora studied more than 1,100 adults at risk of Type-2 diabetes and found that those who aggressively perform calorie-cutting and exercise did lower their risk of getting diabetes over the next year. However, although men lost more weight and exercised more than women did, their diabetes risk was not greatly reduced by doing so. These findings were published in July 2008 in the Journal “Diabetes Care”.

In the study, participants were randomly assigned to either an intensive program of lifestyle changes or standard lifestyle advice. People in the former group had to lose 7 percent of their body weight by cutting calories and fat from their diet and exercising for at least 2.5 hours per week. Both men and women were 58 percent less likely to develop diabetes over the next year when they were put in the intensive group.

According to the researchers’ observation, men generally exercised more and were more successful at losing weight: 47 percent reached the 7-percent target compared with 37 percent in women. It is known that weight loss can actually be translated into a reduction in triglycerides (a kind of blood fat) and hence blood sugar could be better controlled. For male participants, the decrease in these 2 factors was greater than the female participants.

Interestingly, there was in fact no additional benefit for men when it was related to diabetes risk. The rates of return to normal glucose tolerance levels and the development of diabetes did not differ very much for both sexes.

One possible reason for such phenomenon is perhaps men had more diabetes risk factors to begin with. Therefore, the researchers suggested carrying out further studies to discover whether and how various diabetes prevention tactics would affect men and women differently.

Are Heart Tests Necessary for All Athletes?

The collapse of athletes during or after the match is not uncommon. For instance, in 2007, Sevilla footballer Antonio Puerta died 3 days after collapsing during a Primera Liga match, and in 2003, Cameroon's Marc-Vivien Foe died during a Confederations Cup match.

Figures revealed by the Italian researchers from the Institute of Sports Medicine at the University of Florence, show that one young athlete dies every 3 days from an unrecognized heart disease in the United States alone. Therefore, the researchers recommend mandatory heart screenings for all athletes as this could detect potentially fatal problems and save lives.

Their paper published on July 4, 2008 in the British Medical Journal indicated that exercise electrocardiograms could identify cardiac abnormalities among people who seek to take part in competitive sports. In their opinion, a family history and physical examination may miss many undiagnosed heart problems

The study analyzed data from more than 30,000 heart screenings over a period of 5 years (between 2002 and 2006). It was found that 1,459 people showed some form of heart problem during an exercise electrocardiogram and 348 people had abnormal results during their resting electrocardiogram. Only 159 of these people had serious conditions that prevent them from competing. Yet, only 6 of these athletes would have been identified through a family history and physical examination.

Incidentally, Italy is the only country where these tests are mandatory. The tests will cost 40 euro and is recommended by the researchers as mandatory in other countries.

The issue of pre-screening programs using electrocardiograms has been controversial. In fact, the American Heart Association had reaffirmed in 2007 their recommendation against universal use of electrocardiography, citing cost, low prevalence of disease and a high false positive rate. On the other hand, the European Society of Cardiology, International Olympic Committee and other sports league do endorse the screenings on grounds on grounds basis as some studies have found them effective.

A detailed personal and family history and physical examination will detect some athletes with underlying heart disease, but the addition of screening process using electrocardiograms will detect more athletes with silent cardiovascular disorders at risk of sudden death, as indicated by some health experts.