High insulin could make you fat
Obesity
may develop when we eat too much, as a result of chronically high insulin levels, not the other way around.
This is the conclusion of a mouse study, which challenges the widespread view that rising insulin is a secondary consequence of obesity and insulin resistance.
The new study helps to solve this chicken-or-the-egg dilemma by showing that animals with persistently lower insulin stay trim even as they indulge themselves on a high-fat, all-you-can-eat
buffet. The findings come as some of
the first direct evidence in mammals that circulating insulin itself drives
obesity, the researchers said.
The results are also consistent with clinical studies showing that long-term insulin use by people with diabetes tends to come with weight gain, said James Johnson of the University of British Columbia.
"We are very inclined to think of insulin as either good or bad, but it's neither. This doesn't mean anyone should stop taking insulin; there are nuances and ranges at which insulin levels are optimal," Johnson said.
Johnson and his colleagues took advantage of a genetic quirk in mice: that they have two insulin genes. Insulin1 shows up primarily in the pancreas and insulin2 in the brain, in addition to the pancreas. By eliminating insulin2 altogether and varying the number of good copies of insulin1, the researchers produced mice that varied only in their fasting blood insulin levels.
When presented with high-fat food, those with one copy and lower fasting insulin were completely protected from obesity even without any loss of appetite. They also enjoyed lower levels of inflammation and less fat in their livers, too.
Those differences traced to a "reprogramming" of the animals' fat tissue to burn and waste more energy in the form of heat. In other words, the mice had white fat that looked and acted more like the coveted, calorie-burning brown fat most familiar for keeping babies warm.
Johnson said it isn't clear what the findings might mean in the clinic just yet, noting that drugs designed to block insulin have been shown to come with unwanted side effects.
But, he added, "there are ways to eat and diets that keep insulin levels lower or that allow insulin levels to return to a healthy baseline each day."
Unfortunately, constant snacking is probably not the answer.
The finding has been reported in Cell Metabolism, a Cell Press publication.
Source: www.timesofindia.com
02.01.2013
Last cadaver donor of
2012 breathes life into three
Jayshree Champanerkar doesn’t know his name, but that doesn’t stop
her from saying a silent prayer for the 18-year-old student from Kolkata each
day. She feels that’s the least she owes the man who has given her husband,
Sudhir — and their family — a fresh lease of life.
The Kolkata youth, the last cadaver donor of 2012, breathed hope
into the lives of three patients who were in dire need of an organ transplant.
The 18-year-old had arrived in Mumbai to attend a wedding, but he died in a
train mishap while on his way to meet friends at CST on December 17 last year.
“He was rushed to St George Hospital and then to JJ Hospital before the family
shifted him to Jaslok Hospital,” says a doctor from Jaslok Hospital. He was
pronounced brain dead the next day, after which his parents took the call to
donate his organs. Sudhir, a 54-year-old businessman from Jogeshwari who had
been suffering from hepatitis C for two years, was one of three “lucky” donees.
Dr Sanjay Nagral, liver transplant surgeon at Jaslok Hospital, says,
“He is extremely lucky to have got a new liver within five months of having
registered with the liver transplantation programme.”
He was discharged on Tuesday. For Jayshree, seeing her husband
back at home is the best New Year gift. The 18-year-old’s organ donations have
even inspired her to take a vow to become a cadaver donor and give back to
society.
Source: www.dnaindia.com
02.01.2013
Forgive
many things in others; nothing in yourself
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