Pilates, Blood Pressure & Obesity

An April 2020 study "hypothesized that Mat Pilates might decrease the risk of hypertension in young obese women.”

The study found that, “Mat Pilates benefit[s] cardiovascular health by decreasing blood pressure, arterial stiffness, and body fatness in young obese women with elevated blood pressure. Because adherence to traditional exercise (both aerobic and resistance) is low in obese individuals, Mat Pilates Training might prove an effective exercise alternative for the prevention of hypertension and cardiovascular events in young obese adults."

Sugar, Longevity, Uric Acid, Gout and Stones

A March 2020 study by the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences and Kiel University said,

• "Just like humans, flies fed a high-sugar diet show many hallmarks of metabolic disease - for instance, they become fat and insulin resistant."

• "Obesity and diabetes are known to increase mortality in humans, and so people always assumed that this was how excess sugar is damaging for survival in flies".

• "Water is vital for our health, yet its importance is often overlooked in metabolic studies. Therefore, we were surprised that flies fed a high-sugar diet did not show a reduced lifespan, simply by providing them with an extra source of water to drink. Unexpectedly, we found that these flies still exhibited the typical metabolic defects associated with high dietary sugar".

The researchers found that the excess sugar is related to a build up of uric acid but that,

• "the sugar-fed flies may live longer when we give them access to water, but they are still unhealthy. And in humans, for instance, obesity increases the risk of heart disease. But our study suggests that disruption of the purine pathway is the limiting factor for survival in high-sugar-fed flies. This means that early death by sugar is not necessarily a direct consequence of obesity itself".

• "Strikingly, just like flies, we found that dietary sugar intake in humans was associated with worse kidney function and higher purine levels in the blood."

• "It will be very interesting to explore how our results from the fly translate to humans, and whether the purine pathway also contributes to regulating human survival."

• "There is substantial evidence that what we eat influences our life expectancy and our risk for age-related diseases. By focusing on the purine pathway, our group hopes to find new therapeutic targets and strategies that promote healthy ageing".

Avocado, Lutein, Attention, Obesity

A March 2020 study by University of Illinois of eating an avocado each day found

• "Previous work has shown that individuals with overweight and obesity are at higher risk for cognitive decline and dementia in older age … We are interested in whether dietary approaches may have benefits for cognitive health, especially in midlife."

• "It could be that nutrients in avocados have a specific action in the brain that supports the ability to do this task in particular, or they could be more beneficial for certain cognitive abilities over others."

• "It's also possible that with a longer study or different tests, we could see other effects. Other studies have found broader effects in other populations, so it is interesting to see a more specific benefit for this population."

• "Avocados also are high in fiber and monounsaturated fats. It is possible that these other nutrients may have played a role in the cognitive effects we saw, but we focused on the lutein in our analyses."

• "Future analyses may focus on other nutrients found in avocados, or avocado consumption's impact on other measures such as weight status, inflammation and potential changes in the microbiome."

• "Our mission is to give people options. There are multiple ways people can eat to optimize brain health."

• "What we're learning is that avocados may be one of those fruits that may be neuroprotective in certain ways. This work provides some evidence behind one option people have from a plethora of healthful foods that we can consume."

Diabetes, Obesity and Bacteria

A March 2020 study by McMaster University, Université Laval, and the Québec Heart and Lung Institute said,

• "Our findings suggest that in people suffering from severe obesity, bacteria or fragments of bacteria are associated with the development of type 2 diabetes,"

• "We know that the intestinal barrier is more permeable in obese patients."

• "Our hypothesis is that living bacteria and bacterial fragments cross this barrier and set off an inflammatory process that ultimately prevents insulin from doing its job, which is to regulate blood glucose levels by acting on metabolic tissues."

• "Location, location location...Beyond knowing the names of bacteria, their location is key to understanding how gut microbes influence host metabolism."

• "Our next objective is to determine if the bacteria found in the liver and fat deposits of people suffering from severe obesity are also present in those who are overweight or moderately obese."

• "We also want to see if certain pathogenic bacteria found in the tissues can trigger type 2 diabetes in an animal model. And lastly, we want to find out if certain beneficial bacteria found in these tissues can be used to prevent the development of the disease. If so, they might lead us to a new family of probiotic bacteria or a source of bacteria-based treatments to help fight diabetes."

Proposal for a Scientifically Correct and Medically Actionable Disease Classification System (ICD) for Obesity

Obesity Society: “Objective: Obesity is responsible for a huge burden of suffering and social costs, and yet many patients lack access to evidence-based therapies. The diagnostic term "obesity" and inadequate International Classification of Diseases (ICD) codes contribute to suboptimal efforts to prevent and treat obesity as a chronic disease. The goal of this review is to develop a medically actionable classification system based on the diagnostic term "adiposity-based chronic disease" (ABCD) that reflects disease pathophysiology and specific complications causing morbidity and mortality.

Methods: A coding system based on the diagnosis of ABCD with four domains is proposed: A codes reflect pathophysiology, B codes indicate BMI classification, C codes specify specific biomechanical and cardiovascular complications remediable by weight loss, and D codes indicate the degree of the severity of complications. Supplemental codes identify aggravating factors that complicate care and that are relevant to a personalized therapeutic plan.

Results: The coding system addresses pathophysiology and therapeutic goals and differential risk, presence, and severity of specific complications that are integral to ABCD as a chronic disease.

Conclusions: The scientifically correct and medically actionable approach to diagnosis and disease coding will lead to greater acknowledgement of ABCD as a disease and accessibility to evidence-based therapies on behalf of patients across the life cycle.”

Sources

About the journal - Obesity is the peer-reviewed, scientific journal of The Obesity Society.

Proposed Coding System Addresses Pathophysiology, Therapeutic Goals, W. Timothy Garvey, garveyt@uab.edu, and Jeffrey I. Mechanick (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.22727)

Also see accompanying commentary by Johannes Hebebrand (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.22740), posting online on Feb. 24, 2020

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2020-02/tos-rpn022120.php