obesity tagged posts

Father feeding child (stock image). Credit: © YakobchukOlena / Fotolia

A new study sheds light on how. Researchers in Associate Professor Romain Barrès’ laboratory compared sperm cells from 13 lean men and 10 obese men and discovered that the sperm cells in lean and obese men, respectively, possess different epigenetic marks that could alter the next generation’s appetite, as reported in the medical journal Cell Metabolism.

A second major discovery was made as researchers followed 6 men before and 1 year after gastric-bypass surgery to find out how the surgery affected the epigenetic information contained in their sperm cells. The researchers observed an average of 4,000 structural changes to sperm cell DNA from the time before surgery, directly after, and 1 year later.

“We certainly nee...

Getting up earlier on work days may harm metabolic health, according to researchers.

The piercing tone of the alarm clock alerts us in the most unsubtle way that we have to get up for work. But this early awakening is more than just bothersome; a new study finds it may actually be harmful to health. Published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism, the study found that routine sleep changes – such as waking up early on weekdays – may increase the risk for metabolic conditions, such as obesity, diabetes and heart disease.

Previous research has already established that sleep disruption can pose negative health implications. Eg shift workers – whose circadian rhythms are frequently disrupted due to irregular working hours – are at greater risk for poor metabolic health.

Howeve...

Mild cold and exercise stimulate creation of “beige fat” in white adipose tissue

It triggers a surprising metabolic mechanism: white fat cells are transformed into cells similar to brown fat ( ‘beige fat’), that protects the body against excess weight and its damaging consequences. In healthy humans, white adipose tissue constitutes ~25% of body mass. However, when in excess, white fat contributes to insulin resistance and diabetes. Conversely, brown fat improves insulin sensitivity and is reversely correlated to obesity.

In response to cold or exercise, cells similar to brown fat – the beige fat – can appear within the white fat, a phenomenon known as “browning...

Orosensory stimulation produced by consuming a sweetened solution and possibly the hedonic value of that sweet stimulation induces synaptic plasticity in dHC CA1 neurons in an experience-dependent manner. Collectively, these findings are consistent with our hypothesis that dHC neurons form a memory of a meal.

Neurons in the dorsal hippocampus, the part of the brain that is critical for episodic memory, are activated by consuming sweets. Episodic memory is the memory of autobiographical events experienced at a particular time and place.

In the study, a meal consisting of a sweetened solution, either sucrose or saccharin, significantly increased the expression of the synaptic plasticity marker called activity-regulated cytoskeleton-associated protein (Arc) in dorsal hippocampal neurons in ra...