Now That's What We're Talking About!

Now this is the kind of research we need that doesn't blame the "couch potato" in all of us. It comes from the University College London and Professor Dominic Withers: “Blocking the action of the S6K1 protein helps prevent a number of age-related conditions in female mice,” explained Professor Withers. “The mice lived longer and were leaner, more active and generally healthier than the control group. We added ‘life to their years’ as well as ‘years to their lives’.”

The pill form that mimics this genetic manipulations is currently available - but unlike the current flu shot we're not in a hurry to run out and sign up for it. We applaud this wonderful first step but we'll still wait and see. We've seen THINNER (we didn't read the book but the movie was the same thing wasn't it?) and we know how losing weight can be a curse.

Drugs that activate AMPK are already in use in human patients to treat type 2 diabetes – metformin, a widely-used drug for the disease, is thought to work by activating AMPK. A recent study in the journal Nature showed that the drug rapamycin also extended the lifespan of mice. Rapamycin is used in humans to prevent organ rejection after transplants, and could not be administered as an anti-ageing drug in its current form. However, rapamycin blocks the activity of S6K1 and may therefore extend lifespan through its effects on S6K1. Together these studies provide evidence that this is a drug-sensitive pathway controlling ageing in mammals and suggest new approaches for the treatment of age-related diseases. We are suddenly much closer to treatments for ageing than we thought,” said Dr David Gems, one of the study’s authors. “We have moved from initial findings in worm models to having ‘druggable’ targets in mice. The next logical step is to see if drugs like metformin can slow the ageing process in humans."

It's just good to know that some researchers are moving in the right direction instead of the normal blaming the victim studies that tell us we need to eat right and exercise. We know we need to eat right and exercise. That's why we pay those monthly gym memberships that we never use.

Obese Kids

No one likes an "I told you so" person and we don't mean to be that way BUT... "Researchers are recommending that officials in the United States, United Kingdom and Australia rethink their efforts to combat obesity in children because the current strategies -- emphasizing healthy diets and exercise -- aren't working." While the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) got the numbers wrong and it's not that we need the validation. Our reason to be is to correct these widely reported errors. According to the actual research in the BMJ ( formerly the British Medical Journal): "3958 children visiting their general practitioner in May 2005-July 2006 were surveyed for BMI." The information from the survey is in this decade. We believe that the right prescription is important to receive the right remedy.

Their conclusion is: "Primary care screening followed by brief counselling did not improve BMI, physical activity, or nutrition in overweight or mildly obese 5-10 year olds, and it would be very costly if universally implemented. These findings are at odds with national policies in countries including the US, UK, and Australia."

That's why we blah, blah, blah all these studies of studies that say the answer is more victim blaming like more exercise, dieting, better nutrition. Blah, blah, blah.... We don't get overweight because we want to get overweight. The answer has to be more than just saying: "No!"

The issue of spiraling health care costs must be addressed we support the most effective and efficient methods as an alternative to the current system. Smart and effective change is the only change needed rather than change for change sake. We support "better difference (trademark pending)."

Brown Fat Burning

Of "mice and men" the future is still not now but sooner and closer than we thought. The same people who brought us the theory that there exists a new kind of fat in mice have found a "brown fat" in adult humans. This brown fat is a self reducing variety that shakes itself smaller. This shiver function that automatically makes itself smaller could be the future for the lazy among us. This type of fat can be injected within the body and the body will automatically make itself thinner, shades of Stephen King!

It's no where near ready but it is a possible solution to the problems of obesity in children and adults for the future. All is not lost and type 2 diabetes for tomorrow offers us the hope that the present research did not. We do have a problem now and the solutions don't seem immenent nor too far off. There is hope. Nature magazine shows the technical specs which though confusing to us thankfully everyone else can explain it better. This is one example where the reporters get it right.

Living & Dying

There have been two more deaths in our lives. Our name sake's twin sister died on Friday before midnight only hours before the family reunion. Today before writing this blog we learned that a young man died from a heart attack that one of us had known. What ties this together with what we do here is that their children preceded them in death. Although their sons' deaths were untimely the young man's death which could have been prevented.

Our favorite former female governor and secretary of HHS reported today about the need to protect our children and save the suffering health care system by addressing the issue of obesity. "...(E)nding obesity would save our health care system fifty percent more dollars than curing cancer." At the Weight of the Nation conference Kathleen Sebelius added that we're saying we want to lose weight but: "Only three in ten Americans said they were actually trying to lose weight. And only one in ten said they had a specific plan to do so."

I'm over weight and before her death Aunt Pearlie was inactive and while neither of us were obese we didn't and I don't do enough to stay fit. (Mamie her twin lived a life as a slim and trim woman.) So what can we do to fix our fat behinds America well not much according to the Recommended Community Strategies and Measurements to Prevent Obesity in the United States. Anything that's not our fault and doesn't take any additional effort on our part we love. Their suggestions and causes of our weight gain: "Environmental factors (including lack of access to full-service grocery stores, increasing costs of healthy foods and the lower cost of unhealthy foods, and lack of access to safe places to play and exercise) all contribute to the increase in obesity rates by inhibiting or preventing healthy eating and active living behaviors."

Fat Stupid

What are you stupid? No, but "explain it to me like I'm a four-year-old." What is obese? I know it means we're overweight. (Actually its when an overweight person is overweight.) Think of it as your eating habits. If you order a Starbucks anything and its Venti, or a you morn the loss of McDonald's supersize choices, if you 7-11 and "Super or Double Big Gulp" you're probably obese. If you think snack foods should be eaten between meals and you snack every day, you're probably obese.   I don't mean to sound like an overweight Jeff Foxworthy but you just might be obese. If you desert every day and the size of the desert is larger than all the fresh vegetables you've eaten all day, you just might be a fat person.

We all feel fine and not fat at all until we're having problems breathing while walking somewhere we couldn't park close enough to enter, or can't make love as long as we use to while trying to satisfy our partners desires, or we just plain run out of steam. When we're leaning against everything to hold ourselves up while standing still or asking the young ones to slow down because we're a little tired. But we're not fat. Fat is someone else we know bigger than us but its not us. Or if it is we're happy with the way we are and you just have to accept us for who we are you skinny heifer!

Blaming you isn't the solution anymore than reminding me that I'm an obese person in waiting. What might help is more than perpetual naked mirror watching or news stories telling us that we're not as large as people from Mississippi. BMI (Body Mass Index) - It takes some higher math abilities to figure out how to compute how overweight you are scientifically. Let's just KISS (keep it simple sweetie) "if you can pinch and inch" then walk one around your neighborhood everyday.

How Fat Are We

We're not as fat as our kids who are pretty fat. Not that fat is a nice word it's really just a three letter four letter word. Washington DC (34th out of 40) is also not as fat as Maryland (tied for 19th) and Virginia (three way tie for 21st) either, well, us adults anyway. Our children, rather, your children are fatter in DC (9th out of 44) than in the surrounding jursidictions. Since your offspring don't usually commute for hours a day that's probably why the obese Maryland (32nd) and Virginia (23rd three way tie) adults probably have slimmer children. While their children are awaiting mommy and daddy's arrival home from work they're out and about playing until their parental units arrive.

WED MD says that Mississippians eat to much fried foods according to the comments of a newly transplanted Washingtonian. Lack of a public transportation system throughout the state could also be another reason but that's just speculation.

Who says we're fat - we'll they don't use the word fat the use the "O" word. How obese we are comes from the Trust for America's Heath in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation who get the actual numbers from the government's U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They do the math so we don't have to!