Belly fat breeds fat

[Fuzzy_Bear]

Belly fat breeds fat

By JOHN MINER, SUN MEDIA


Your belly fat could be making you hungrier, triggering you to eat more and making you even fatter, London scientists have discovered.

“It is a vicious cycle,” said Lawson Health Research’s Dr. Kaiping Yang, a professor at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry.

Yang and his colleagues have discovered the hormone that stimulates appetite in the brain, neuropeptide, is also produced in abdominal fat. Previously it was believed it was made only in the brain.

If, as the Lawson scientists now suspect, neuropeptide from belly fat makes it into the blood stream and to the brain, it could explain why some people just get fatter and fatter.

“You put on pounds and produce more NPY (neuropeptide) and more NPY and it travels to the brain. Now you are hungry and need to eat,” Yang said. “This could explain why obese people are constantly hungry.” There’s more bad news.

Neuropeptide also increases the number of fat cells by stimulating the replication of fat cell precursor cells. The precursor cells then change into fat cells.

The Lawson researchers are working to confirm neuropeptide produced in abdominal fat makes its way into the blood stream, Yang said.

If that’s proven, it could open the door to new treatments for obesity that block neuropeptide production in fat cells.

“To get into the area of the brain where NPY is produced, it is very, very difficult. Targeting fat is much easier. With fat we could inject a chemical to inhibit NPY production,” Yang said. Abdominal fat has been identified as more dangerous than other fat, raising the risk for Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease and some cancers.

It would be much easier to use drugs to prevent obesity than to treat the diseases caused by fat, Yang said.

http://lfpress.ca/newsstand/CityandRegion/2008/04/15/5294826.html

[Demi]

BBC News Online
London, UK
18 April, 2008


Belly fat 'makes more fat cells'

The fat that some people carry around their middles could be making them even fatter, researchers have said.

The Canadian team found abdominal fat tissue produces a hormone called NPY - which also prompts the development of cells that turn into fat.

It is already known that high levels of the hormone in the brain produce constant feelings of hunger.

A UK expert said better understanding of how the hormone worked might lead to drugs to stop its effects.

Being overweight is bad for health, no matter where the weight lies - but abdominal fat is known to be the most dangerous, increasing the risk of heart disease, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and some cancers.

'Vicious cycle'

The researchers, from Lawson Health Research Institute which is linked to the University of Western Ontario, carried out tests on rats which showed abdominal fat, as well as the brain, produces NPY - or Neuropeptide Y.

It is thought the excessive production of NPY in the brain is one of the main reasons why overweight people eat more food.

But the scientists found NPY in abdominal tissues increases fat cell number by stimulating the replication of fat cell precursor cells - which then change into fat cells.

Their findings were published in the Federation of American Societies of Experimental Biology journal.

Dr Kaiping Yang, who led the research, said: "This may lead to a vicious cycle where NPY produced in the brain causes you to eat more and therefore gain more fat around your middle - and then that fat produces more NYP hormone which leads to even more fat cells."

The team will now look at whether NPY produced in the abdomen is released into the body's circulatory system, and therefore affecting hunger messages in the brain.

If it is, it may be possible to develop a simple blood test to detect increased levels of NPY they say.

Dr Yang added: "If you can detect NPY early and identify those at risk for abdominal obesity we can then target therapy to turn off NPY.

"It would be much easier to use drugs to prevent obesity than to treat the diseases caused by obesity."

Dr David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said the study provided more information on the "complex mechanisms" which regulate how the body stores and processes fat.

He added: "This is one of those findings that, in the not too distant future, might lead to a way of manipulating this hormone's feedback loop.

"It's not science fiction to think you could find some way to block it."


http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7352051.stm

[waywardsis]

They look at the what, come up with a how, and totally ignore the why.

[Angeline]

"It would be much easier to use drugs to prevent obesity than to treat the diseases caused by obesity."

Dr David Haslam, clinical director of the National Obesity Forum, said the study provided more information on the "complex mechanisms" which regulate how the body stores and processes fat.

He added: "This is one of those findings that, in the not too distant future, might lead to a way of manipulating this hormone's feedback loop.

"It's not science fiction to think you could find some way to block it."




Isn't eating low-carb a way to manipulate the hormone's feedbackup loop?

But I guess pharmaceutical co's are more interested in funding research on new ways of making profits.

I always cringe when I read stuff like this. Sure let's design a patented designer molecule that's going to throw a monkey wrench into our hormonal system. They are like children playing with a incredibly complex machine they don't really understand. Until scientist have a clear and complete understanding of all the metabolic pathways and how they interact which each other, I'm not interested in any drugs that tinker's with my body processes or that blocks this or that. They still don't have a full understanding of how aspirin work.

They look at the what, come up with a how, and totally ignore the why.

That's because they aren't interested in the why. They just want a chemical means of blocking it.

[KvonM]

hasn't it also been proposed that the standard western diet (since we can't call it american anymore) is so lacking in basic nutrients that the craving response is the body's way of trying to nourish itself and get as much of the vitamins that it needs, regardless of the fact that the sources end up contributing to the obesity problem?

this just goes to show that someday, pills will replace food.

[eryalen]

this just goes to show that someday, pills will replace food.
I had better get a patent on low carb pils.

[MizKitty]

Dr Davis of The Heartscan blog, says wheat (gluten?) is the biggest culprit in abdominal fat... he even calls it "wheat belly" rather than beer belly.
I wonder how that plays in with the above finding. I guess I'm wondering if wheat stimulates neuropeptide Y production, too.

At any rate, it's good to know that eating low carb will make you as lean as you can be. When I started, I had a measly 1" difference between my bust and waist measurements. Now, it's 9"!

[deb34]

are like children playing with a incredibly complex machine they don't really understand. Until scientist have a clear and complete understanding of all the metabolic pathways and how they interact which each other, I'm not interested in any drugs that tinker's with my body processes or that blocks this or that. They still don't have a full understanding of how aspirin work.


this way they have billions of lab rats called people to take their drugs then they sit back a watch what happens. They don't have to pay their "study" participants and they can rake in billions of dollars to run their giant experiments.

[mike_d]

“This could explain why obese people are constantly hungry.”I was also constantly hungry when I was fat, and also eating a high-carb relatively low-fat diet. Now I get hungry only once or twice a day and eat LC whole foods.