Teen sleeplessness piles on risk for obesity

August 20, 2014
Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Teenagers who don't get enough sleep may wake up to worse consequences than nodding off during chemistry class. According to new research, risk of being obese by age 21 was 20 percent higher among 16-year-olds who got less than six hours of sleep a night, compared with their peers who slumbered more than eight hours.

"Lack of sleep in your teenage years can stack the deck against you for obesity later in life," says Suglia. "Once you're an obese adult, it is much harder to lose weight and keep it off. And the longer you are obese, the greater your risk for health problems like heart disease, diabetes, and cancer."

Daytime sleepiness and fatigue are known to affect what and how people eat, by altering appetite and stimulating cravings. Energy levels may also play a role. For the sleep-deprived, ordering calorie-dense fast food is easier than preparing a nutritious meal. Information on what the teens ate was not captured in the surveys, although it could play a role. Future research may look whether, for example, soda consumption is a factor in sleeplessness and, in turn, obesity. (A 2013 study by Suglia found young children who drink soda are more likely to have behavioral problems.)
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140820111958.htm

Early to mid-life obesity linked to heightened risk of dementia in later life

August 21, 2014
Science Daily/BMJ-British Medical Journal
Obesity is linked to a heightened risk of dementia in later life, reveals an observational study. But the age at which a person is obese seems to be a key factor, the findings show, with an apparent tripling in risk for people in their 30s. Estimates suggest that almost 66 million people around the globe will have dementia by 2030, with the numbers predicted to top 115 million by 2050.

Estimates suggest that almost 66 million people around the globe will have dementia by 2030, with the numbers predicted to top 115 million by 2050. There is growing evidence that obesity is linked to dementia, but the research indicates that risk may be heightened or lowered, depending on age. And as yet, no study has looked at the age related effect of obesity on dementia risk across the whole age range in the population of one country.

Later analyses demonstrated that higher total testosterone level strongly correlated with more shallow sleep. This association, Van Cauter said, was independent from the presence of other factors known to decrease sleep quality, such as age, race/ethnicity and OSA severity.

Because doctors are increasingly prescribing testosterone replacement therapy for middle-aged and older men with low testosterone levels, Van Cauter said, "Further studies are needed to clarify the impact of testosterone replacement on sleep quality, especially sleep depth."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/08/140821090649.htm

High testosterone may predict more shallow sleep in overweight or obese men

June 23, 2014
Science Daily/Endocrine Society
In overweight and obese men, higher testosterone levels are associated with poorer sleep quality, according to a new study.

"This finding could have clinical relevance in the context of the recent increase in testosterone prescriptions in middle-aged men, as poor sleep quality has been linked to increased risk of diabetes and hypertension," said Eve Van Cauter, PhD, the study's senior investigator. She is director of the University of Chicago Sleep, Metabolism and Health Center, where the study took place.

With three of four U.S. men now overweight or obese, the researchers wanted to determine which factors influence sleep quality in this population. Overweight and older age can contribute to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a condition in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep and which disrupts sleep.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140623141730.htm

Sleep, mood improves after substantial weight loss

June 24, 2014
Science Daily/Endocrine Society
Obese adults who lose at least 5 percent of their body weight report that they sleep better and longer after six months of weight loss, according to a new study.

"This study confirms several studies reporting that weight loss is associated with increased sleep duration," said the study's lead investigator, Nasreen Alfaris, MD, MPH, a fellow in the Department of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

In addition, the study found that weight loss at 6 months improved sleep quality, as well as mood, regardless of how the individuals lost the weight.

Examining all three groups together, subjects who lost at least 5 percent of their weight at month 6 reported that they gained an average of 21.6 minutes of sleep a night, compared with only 1.2 minutes for those who lost less than 5 percent. Likewise, subjects who lost >5% of initial weight reported greater improvements on measures of sleep quality and mood (i.e., symptoms of depression), compared with subjects who lost <5%.
Only improvements in mood remained statistically significant at 24 months, according to Alfaris.

"Further studies are needed to examine the potential effects of weight regain in diminishing the short-term improvements of weight loss on sleep duration and sleep quality," she said.
 

Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/06/140624135755.htm

Non-diet approach to weight management more effective in worksite wellness programs

July 7, 2014
Science Daily/University of Missouri-Columbia
Researchers have found that 'Eat for Life,' a new wellness approach that focuses on mindfulness and intuitive eating as a lifestyle, is more effective than traditional weight-loss programs in improving individuals' views of their bodies and decreasing problematic eating behaviors

Problematic eating behaviors and dissatisfaction with one's body are familiar struggles among women. To combat those behaviors, which have led to higher healthcare premiums and medical trends, employers have offered worksite wellness programs to employees and their families. However, the vast majority of wellness programs limit their approach to promoting diets, which may result in participants regaining the majority of their weight once the programs end. 

Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found that "Eat for Life," a new wellness approach that focuses on mindfulness and intuitive eating as a lifestyle, is more effective than traditional weight-loss programs in improving individuals' views of their bodies and decreasing problematic eating behaviors.

"Intuitive eating and mindfulness are two relatively new intervention approaches that have been effective in supporting healthy eating and body image," Rossy said. "Eat for Life encourages individuals to become more engaged with their internal body signals and not the numbers on the scales."

Rossy found that women who participated in Eat for Life reported higher levels of body appreciation and intuitive eating and lower levels of problematic eating behaviors such as binging, purging and fasting, as compared to women who did not participate in the program. Eat for Life participants' weights ranged from normal to morbidly obese, and some women displayed eating disorder behaviors. At the end of the program, participants in the Eat for Life program were significantly more likely not to exhibit disordered eating. Mindfulness was a major factor in all of the positive outcomes, Rossy said.

"Eat for Life is not just for individuals with eating disorders," said Rossy. "This type of intervention program is for a variety of individuals who want to have more knowledge on how to be healthy and how to appreciate their bodies' value."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/07/140707134331.htm

Working night shift burns less energy, increases risk of weight gain

November 17, 2014
Science Daily/University of Colorado at Boulder
People who work the night shift are likely burning less energy during a 24-hour period than those on a normal schedule, increasing their risk for weight gain and obesity, according to a new study.

Researchers have known that people who work, and therefore eat, at night when their bodies are biologically prepared to sleep are prone to put on pounds. But the reasons have not been clear.

For the new study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, fourteen healthy adults spent six days at the University of Colorado Hospital's Clinical and Translational Research Center. For the first two days, the participants followed a normal schedule sleeping at night and staying awake during the day. They then transitioned to a three-day shift work schedule when their routines were reversed.

The researchers found that total daily energy used by participants decreased when they were put on a shift work schedule. The reduction is probably linked to the mismatch between the person's activities and their circadian clocks, Wright said. Humans have evolved to be awake--and eat--when it's light outside and sleep when it's dark. In large part, the human circadian clock is set by exposure to sunlight.

People's circadian clocks can shift over time--even radically--with the use of artificial lights if they aren't exposed to the sun. But because shift workers typically switch back to a daytime schedule on their days off, their biological clocks don't flip to fit their night shift schedules.

"Shift work goes against our fundamental biology," said Wright, also an associate professor of integrative physiology. "Shift work requires our biological day to occur at night and our biological night to occur during the day and that's very difficult to achieve because the sun is such a powerful cue. We can have some change in our clock--a couple of hours--but then on days off, it goes right back. Shift workers never adapt."

The research team was surprised to find that the study participants burned more fat when they slept during the day compared to when they slept at night. It's not clear why this happens, but Wright said it's possible the extra fat-burning is triggered by the transition day between a daytime schedule and a nighttime schedule.

On that day shift workers often take an afternoon nap to prepare for the first nightshift, but in total, they are typically awake more hours than usual and, therefore, burn more energy. The need to meet the extra demand for energy may cause the body to begin burning fat, Wright said.

Further research is needed to determine if the fat-burning phenomenon would happen among actual shift workers, whose diet is not being strictly controlled, Wright said. For example, shift workers may eat more calories on the transition day--an option not available to study participants--which could eliminate the need for the body to start burning fat. Still the findings suggest that shift workers may be prone not only to gaining weight, but also to a changing composition of fat and muscle mass in their bodies.

Wright cautions that even though participants initially burned more fat, this would not lead to weight loss because in total, the energy expenditure over the three days of shift work was lower.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141117164232.htm

Longer work hours for moms mean less sleep, higher BMIs for preschoolers

November 20, 2014
Science Daily/University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
A link between moms' employment and overweight/obesity in preschoolers has been found by researchers. The study investigated links between mothers' employment status and their children's weight over time, exploring the impact of potential mediators, such as children's sleep and dietary habits, the amount of time they spent watching TV and family mealtime routines.

"The only factor of the four that we investigated that mediated the relationship between maternal employment status and child obesity was how much sleep the child was getting each night," said lead author Katherine E. Speirs, a postdoctoral research associate in human and community development at the University of Illinois.

Sixty-six percent of the mothers in the sample were employed full time, defined as working 35 hours or more per week. Another 18 percent of the women were employed part time, or 20 to 34 hours per week.
Children whose mothers worked full time got fewer hours of sleep than peers whose mothers worked less than 20 hours per week. The children of women who worked full time also tended to have higher BMIs at the second weigh-in.

Just 18 percent of the preschoolers in the sample were getting the 11 to 12 hours of nightly sleep recommended by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, the researchers found.
On average, the children were getting about 9.6 hours of nighttime sleep. Each additional hour of nighttime sleep that a child obtained was associated with a 6.8 percent decrease in their BMI at the second weigh-in, the researchers found.

"We looked at nighttime sleep in particular, because studies show that the amount of nighttime sleep matters for regulating weight," said Liechty, a professor of medicine and of social work.

"We think that it might be the more hours that mothers are working, the less time they have, and there may be some sort of tradeoff going on, 'Do I spend quality time with my child or do we get to bed early?'" Speirs said. "And then in the morning, when mothers leave for work, their children also wake up early to get to day care."

Mothers whose children were enrolled in 32 licensed day care centers in Central Illinois were recruited for the study. Sixty-six percent of the women had college degrees; about a third had household incomes under $40,000 a year, and just over half the sample had household incomes under $70,000 a year. "The challenges of ensuring that children obtain adequate sleep may be even greater for low-income women, who often hold multiple jobs or work rotating shifts or nonstandard hours," Speirs said.

"There are lots of characteristics about mothers' employment that are really important to help us better understand the relationship between mothers' employment status and child obesity, such as whether women are working part time voluntarily or involuntarily, or scheduled or nonscheduled hours," said Wu, a professor of social work. The authors are exploring some of these characteristics and possible links with child obesity in a related study, which is currently underway.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141120153950.htm

Obese children burdened by more than weight

November 24, 2014
Science Daily/University of California, San Diego Health Sciences
High blood pressure and nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) are two emerging health problems related to the epidemic of childhood obesity. In a recent study, researchers sought to determine the prevalence of high blood pressure in children with NAFLD, which places them at risk for premature cardiovascular disease.

"As a result of our study, we recommend that blood pressure evaluation, control and monitoring should be included as an integral component of the clinical management of children with NAFLD, especially because this patient population is at greater risk for heart attacks and strokes," said Jeffrey Schwimmer, MD, in the Department of Pediatrics at UC San Diego School of Medicine and principal investigator of the study. "Hypertension is a main cause of preventable death and disability in the United States in adults, but much of the origin occurs in childhood."

"Along with being at an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, we found that children with NAFLD who had high blood pressure were significantly more likely to have more fat in their liver than children without high blood pressure. This could lead to a more serious form of liver disease," said Schwimmer.

"There are some reasons to believe that blood pressure control could be beneficial for NAFLD. Thus, we may be able to decrease the risk of premature cardiovascular disease in these children, and also help their liver," said Schwimmer. "Parents and doctors need to be aware of the health risks of children who have NAFLD. The sooner high blood pressure is identified and treated in this patient population, the healthier they will be as they transition into adulthood."
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141124143330.htm

Another case against the midnight snack

December 2, 2014
Science Daily/Salk Institute for Biological Studies
These days, with the abundance of artificial light, TV, tablets and smartphones, adults and children alike are burning the midnight oil. What they are not burning is calories: with later bedtimes comes the tendency to eat. 

A new study cautions against an extended period of snacking, suggesting instead that confining caloric consumption to an 8- to 12-hour period-as people did just a century ago-might stave off high cholesterol, diabetes and obesity.

Researchers gave some of the time-restricted mice a respite on weekends, allowing them free access to high-fat meals for these two days. These mice had less fat mass and gained less weight than the mice given a freely available, high-fat diet the whole time. In fact, the mice that were freely fed just on weekends looked much the same as mice given access to food 9 or 12 hours a day for seven days a week, suggesting that the diet can withstand some temporary interruptions.

"The fact that it worked no matter what the diet, and the fact that it worked over the weekend and weekdays, was a very nice surprise," says the study's first author Amandine Chaix, a postdoctoral researcher in Panda's lab.

More importantly, for the mice that had already become obese by eating a freely available high-fat diet, researchers restricted their food access to a nine-hour window. Although the mice continued to consume the same number of calories, they dropped body weight by five percent within a few days. Importantly, eating this way prevented the mice from further weight gain (by about 25 percent by the end of the 38-week study) compared to the group kept on the freely available high-fat diet.
Science Daily/SOURCE :http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141202123735.htm