Inaugural Bonus Jan , 2009 – Here are developments I wish to share.
SUMMARY – Start the year being especially conscious of what you put in your body. Here are the headlines, with details and references at www.beloit.edu/
1. Do you know what fish you may be accustomed to eating are endangered species?
2. There is exciting progress on Branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) especially relevant to athletic, elderly, and overweight individuals.
a. BCAAs cause weight loss and prevent rebound after dieting.
b. Brown fat cells derive from same stem cells as muscle cells. BCAAs induce the formation of muscle cells, and thus are likely to induce the formation of brown fat cells to control weight.
c. BCAAs can add both muscle cells to build muscles, and brown fat cells to control weight.
3. Residence within 50 meters of Power Lines may double your risk of Alzheimer’s and senile dementia compared to those living at a distance of 600 meters.
4. Exercise is especially effective at maintaining your mental capacity.
DETAILS – 1. Do you know what fish you may be accustomed to eating are endangered species? Here is the list: http://www.beloit.edu/nutrition/fishoilhazard
2. There is exciting progress on Branched chain amino acids (BCAAs) especially relevant to athletic, elderly, and overweight individuals. My link to a good source to purchase BCAAs is here: http://www.beloit.edu/nutrition/wghtprod
Here is information to consider from my recent reading:
a. BCAAs cause weight loss and prevent rebound after dieting.
In addition to my research published in AGE, the magazine Food Product Design, Jan. 2009, had a review article on protein for weight management. Researchers at the Univ. of Maastricht in the Netherlands found much lower rebound after dieting when people consumed an 18% vs. 13% protein diet. If you feed mice same amount of calories and protein, soy protein causes more weight loss than casein (Obesity Rev 9:219-235 (May 2008). Whey protein has high BCAAs, preventing muscle breakdown during heavy workout, promoting muscle synthesis (Glambia Nutritionals-with whom I consulted about this and weight loss). Leucine shunts the body’s energy-burning needs toward fat. Human clinical trials (similar to mine) show whey protein/mineral complex can reduce body fat mass by 5.81% vs 2.29% in controls, and 79% of weight loss is fat vs 51% in controls. Diet had two 12.2g doses of whey protein per day, in a 50g bar. Physiology and Behavior 94: 300-7 (May 2008) has a review on satiety effects of high-protein ad libitum diets up to 6 months. Approx. 30% of calories from protein are beneficial in promoting satiety.
b. Brown fat cells derive from same stem cells as muscle cells. BCAAs induce the formation of muscle cells, and thus are likely to induce the formation of brown fat cells to control weight.
This year, researchers finally uncovered the mysterious roots of so-called brown fat. Hardly blubber, the energy-using tissue turns out to be one step away from muscle.
Anatomists first noted the distinction between our two fat types more than 400 years ago. White fat is the energy-caching padding that vexes doctors and dieters. If white fat is a quilt, brown fat is an electric blanket. Thanks to plentiful mitochondria, it burns fat molecules to generate heat that warms the body.
Scientists long assumed that both fat varieties developed from the same kind of progenitor cell. Then a team led by U.S. scientists discovered that they could morph brown fat into muscle and vice versa. The researchers knew that the gene PRDM16 spurs specialization of brown fat. So when they turned down PRDM16 in brown-fat precursor cells, they expected white fat cells to result.
Instead, the cells stretched out into tube-shaped muscle cells that could even twitch. Reflecting their altered identity, the cells switched off a raft of genes characteristic of brown fat and switched on genes typical of muscle. Coercing cells that had already begun differentiating into muscle to fashion PRDM16 triggered the reverse transformation, yielding brown fat. Using a technique called lineage tracing, the researchers identified the descendants of the muscle cell clan in mice. They included muscle and brown fat cells but not white fat cells.
The discoveries could mark a step toward antiobesity treatments that melt away bad white fat, either by firing up existing fat-burning brown cells in the body or by transplanting new ones.
c. BCAAs (which activate the mTOR pathway) cause differentiation of smooth muscle cells (which can add both muscle cells to build muscles, and brown fat cells to control weight.)
“mTOR Regulates Vascular Smooth Muscle Cell Differentiation From Human Bone Marrow–Derived Mesenchymal Progenitors”
3. Residence within 50 meters of Power Lines may double your risk of Alzheimer’s and senile dementia compared to those living at a distance of 600 meters.
FROM Alzheimer’s Disease, Cognitive Decline and Nutrition Newsletter – December 2008. The relation between residential magnetic field exposure from power lines and mortality from neurodegenerative conditions was analyzed among 4.7 million persons of the Swiss National Cohort. The adjusted hazard ratio for Alzheimer’s disease in persons living within 50 m of a 220-380 kV power line was 1.24 compared with persons who lived at a distance of 600 m or more. There was a dose-response relation with respect to years of residence in the immediate vicinity of power lines and Alzheimer’s disease: Persons living at least 5 years within 50 m had an adjusted hazard ratio of 1.51 increasing to 1.78 with at least 10 years and to 2.00 with at least 15 years. The pattern was similar for senile dementia.
4. Exercise is especially effective at maintaining your mental capacity.
Effect of physical activity on cognitive function in older adults at risk for Alzheimer disease
[P]articipants in the intervention [EXERCISE] group improved 0.26 points and those in the usual care group deteriorated 1.04 points
CONSCIOUSLY MAKE THIS A WONDERFUL YEAR!
