FROM THE BOOK "CHANGE YOUR BRIAN CHANGE YOUR BODY" by Daniel G. Amen, M.D.
WEIGHT CONTINUES TO BE A RISING PROBLEM
Our poor eating habits are making us one of the fattest nations on the planet; More than half of American women have a waisthne greater than thirty-five inches, while half of their male counterparts measure in at more than forty inches around the belly. Obesity is becoming an epidemic with a devastating impact on our health and our brains. Research from 2005 and 2006 indicates that fully one-third of adult men and more than 35 percent of adult women in the United States are obese. About six million people are considered to have morbid obesity, which is defined as being at least 100 pounds overweight. Obesity is determined by a person's body mass index (BMI), which is a ratio of their weight and height.
Body Mass Index (BMI) Categories
Underweight: 18.5
Normal weight: 18.5-24.9
Overweight: 25-29.9
Obese: 30 or higher
Morbid obesity: 40 or higher
Sources: National Institutes of Health and American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery
Here are the steps to calculate your BMI: weight in pounds X 703/height in inches2
Multiply your weight in pounds times 703.
Multiply your height (in inches) times your height (in inches).
Divide the number in step 1 by the number in step 2 to get your BMI.
For example: If you weigh 148 pounds and you are five feet six inches tall, the calculation would lo ok like this:
1.148 pounds x 703 = 104,044
2.66x66 = 4,356
3.104,044/4,356 = 23.9 BMI (normal)
Or, if you weigh 260 pounds and you are five feet six inches tall, the calculation would look like this:
1. 260 pounds x 703 = 182,780
2.66x66 = 4,356
3.182,780/4,356 = 42.0 BMl (morbidly obese)
Morbid obesity is associated with more than thirty medical conditions and diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure, as well as brain-related conditions, such as stroke, chronic headaches, sleep apnea, and Alzheimer's disease. These diseases can devastate a person's life. Diabetes is a disease that occurs when blood sugar levels in the body aren't right. The high blood sugar level causes small blood vessels in the body to become fragile and break, which can lead to terrible consequences. I have a friend who is diabetic, and due to the disease, he has lost his sight and has had to have both of his legs amputated. If you have a disease such as diabetes or heart disease, it is even more important for you to eat right in order to prevent or delay progression of the disease. Obesity is also associated with significantly longer hospital stays for comparable conditions. Ultimately, obesity puts you at increased risk for death. A review of several long-term studies on obesity and longevity found that the risk of death rises as weight increases above normal weights.
People who are obese or overweight also have smaller brains than lean people, according to new research in the journal Human Brain Mapping. Scientists used brain scans to determine the amount of brain tissue in ninety-four people over the age of seventy. They found that obese individuals had 8 percent less brain tissue and their brains looked sixteen years older than the brains of people at normal weights. Overweight people had 4 percent less brain tissue and their brains appeared eight years older.
The loss of tissue occurred in several important areas of the brain. In obese people, losses affected the frontal lobes, anterior cingulate gyrus, hippocampus, temporal lobes, and basal ganglia. In the overweight crowd, brain loss occurred in the basal ganglia, corona radiata (white matter that speeds communication between different areas of the brain), and parietal lobe. Overall, zh.e loss of brain tissue puts overweight and obese people at increased risk for Alzheimer's disease, dementia, and other brain disorders.
As if we needed more proof that gaming weight is bad for our health, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh used brain imaging to examine the sirects of increases in BMI on forty-eight otherwise healthy postmenopausal women. They found that women whose BMI went up following menopause were more likely to have a reduction in gray matter.
What is even worse is that our kids are becoming overweight or obese at an alarming rate. Studies show that a whopping 34 percent of children and teens are either currently overweight or at risk of becoming overweight, and more than 16 percent of kids ages two to nineteen are obese. Amongyounger children, obesity is skyrocketing. This is putting our children at greater risk for a variety of diseases and conditions that negatively affect brain function.
If you are overweight or love someone who is overweight, it is important to think of this as a life-threatening problem. Mind-set here is critical. Some anxiety, or brain alarm, is often necessary for people to take the actions needed to be healthy. I think it is also important to treat obesity like a chronic disease, because it is. And we need to think about being on healthy diets for life, not just for a few months to fit into a wedding dress or a suit for a special occasion.
When it comes to the brain, size matters. A smaller brain means reduced brain function, which can affect every aspect of your life—your relationships, your career, and your mood.
FAT IS MORE THAN JUST FAT
I remember the first day of my anatomy dissection lab in medical school like it was yesterday. Some of my fellow students had weak stomachs and had to get the mop. Even before the vomit, there was a smell in the room unlike anything most of us had ever experienced. Some of the students were nervous. I was excited and fascinated. Anatomy and neuroanatomy were my favorite sub-jects. Irma was the woman who donated her cadaver so that my colleagues and I could become skilled physicians. Irma and I spent many, many hours together. I remember when I cut through her skin how amazed I was to see the bright yellow, greasy layer of fat below. I had no idea at the time that fat was anything more than, well, fat. Since that day in the fall of 1978, fat has taken on a whole new meaning. The fat on your body is not just an energy-storage reservoir; it is a living, biologically active, toxin-storing, hormone-producing factory, and more fat is definitely not better.
Fat produces the hormone leptin, which usually turns off your appetite. Unfortunately, when people are overweight, the brain becomes sensitized to leptin, and it no longer has a positive effect on curbing hunger cravings. Fat cells also produce the hormone adiponectin, which also helps to turn off appetite and increases fat burning. As fat ^stores increase, adiponectin levels drop, and the process of burning fat as fuel actually becomes less efficient. In addition, fat cells pump out immune-system chemicals called cytokines, which increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, msulin resistance, and high blood sugar, diabetes, and low-level chronic inflammation.
Inflammation is at the heart of many chronic illnesses. The level of fat on your body, especially abdominal fat, is also directly linked with higher total cholesterol and LDL (bad) cholesterol and lower HDL (good) cholesterol. Together, insulin resistance, high blood sugar, excess abdominal fat, unfavorable cholesterol and triglyceride levels, and high blood pressure constitute the metabolic syndrome, a major risk factor for heart disease, stroke,.depression, and Alzheimer's disease.
In recent years, it has been found that fat stores toxic materials, so that the more fat on your body, the more toxins you have. The more animal fat you eat, the more toxins you have as well. Also, fat tends to increase the amount of estrogen in your body, especially if you are male. Fat cells store estrogen. They contain an en2yme that converts several other steroid hormones to estrogen. Having increased estrogen makes it difficult to lose fat. Estrogen binds with a receptor on the surface of fat cells, which promotes the growth and division of fat cells, especially in your butt and thighs.
IS FAT CONTAGIOUS?
A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that one of the strongest associations in the spread of obesity is whom you spend time with. It is not a new virus that has been discovered, but the social and behavioral influence of your friends. The study was conducted using information gathered from more than twelve thousand people who had participated in a multigenerational heart study collected from 1971 to 2003. The study showed that if a subject had a friend who became obese, he had a 57 percent higher chance of becoming obese himself. That went up to a 171 percent higher chance if both friends identified each other as very close friends. Friendship was apparently the strongest correlation, and it didn't matter how far away geographically the friends were. Distance did not have a notable influence on the results. Sibling influence was also ranked high, with a 40 percent greater chance of becoming obese if another sibling was obese.
The study highlights the social network effect on health issues and makes an important point: Our health is heavily influenced by many factors, not the least of which are the role models around us. Whom you spend time with matters to the health of your brain and your body. This powerful influence works both ways, it seems, as the study's authors also stated that the same network effect showed up between friends who were losing weight. Health-conscious friends improve their health and their friends' health as well. By taking the information in this book seriously, you can influence your whole network of friends and family.
If you lead the way to better health in your circle of friends, your friends may also benefit, The author of the study said, "People are connected, and so their health is connected."
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