Free Webinar: Assessing Body Fat – Taking Obesity Phenotyping To The Next Level
As readers will be well aware, n terms of health risks, fat is not fat is not fat is not fat. Rather, whether or not body fat affects health depends very much on the type of body fat and its location. While there have been ample attempts at trying to describe body fat distribution with simple anthropometric tools like measuring tapes and callipers, these rather crude and antiquated approaches have never established themselves in clinical practice simply because they are cumbersome, inaccurate, and fail to reliably capture the exact anatomical location of body fat. Furthermore, they provide no insights into ectopic fat deposition – i.e. the amount of fat in organs like liver or muscle, a key determinant of metabolic disease. Recent advances in imaging technology together with sophisticated image recognition now offers a much more compelling insight into fat phenotype. In this regard, readers may be interested in a live webinar that will be hosted by the Canadian Obesity Network at 12.00 pm Eastern Standard Time on Thu, Nov 23, 2017. The webinar provides an overview of a new technology developed by the Swedish company AMRA, that may have both important research and clinical applications. The talk features Olof Dahlqvist Leinhard, PhD, Chief Scientific Officer & Co-Founder at AMRA and Ian Neeland, MD, a general cardiologist with special expertise in obesity and cardiovascular disease, as well as noninvasive imaging at the UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, US. Registration for this seminar is free but seats are limited. To join the live event register here. I have recently heard this talk and can only recommend it to anyone interested in obesity research or management. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Residential Schools And Indigenous Obesity – More Than Just Hunger?
A recent CMAJ article, by Ian Mosby and Tracey Galloway from the University of Toronto argues that one of the key reasons why we see obesity and diabetes so rampant in Canada’s indigenous populations, is the fact that widespread and persistent exposure to hunger during the notorious residential school system may have metabolically “programmed” who generations toward a greater propensity for obesity and type 2 diabetes. There is indeed a very plausible biological hypothesis for this, “Hunger itself has profound consequences for childhood development. Children experiencing hunger have an activated hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal stress response. This causes increased cortisol secretion which, over the long term, blunts insulin response, inhibits the function of insulin-like growth factor and produces long-term changes in lipid metabolism. Through this process, the child’s physiology is essentially “programmed” by hunger to continue the cycle of worsening effects, with their bodies displaying a rapid tendency for fat-mass accumulation when nutritional resources become available.” While the impact of hunger may well have been one of the key drivers or metabolic changes, the authors failed to acknowledge another (even more?) important consequence of residential schools – the impact on mental health. Oddly enough, in a blog post I wrote back in 2008, I discussed the notion that the significant (and widespread) physical, emotional, and sexual abuse experienced by the generations of indigenous kids exposed to the residential school system would readily explain much of the rampant psychological problems (addictions, depression, PTSD, etc.) present in the indigenous populations across Canada today. The following is an excerpt from this previous post: This disastrous and cruel [residential school] policy resulted in much pain and despair in the First Nations’, Inuit and Metis people that lasts to this day (known as the “generational effect”). Sexual, physical and mental abuse was widespread; students were broken in heart and spirit; culture and identities were destroyed. Much (if not all) of what ails the Aboriginal peoples of Canada can be traced back to this policy – including possibly issues that affect Aboriginal health to this day. It is no secret that obesity and its consequences (e.g. diabetes) are rampant amongst the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. While poverty, breakdown of traditional lifestyle and culture and even genetic factors (thrifty genotype) have all been implicated in this, I wonder how much the misery caused by the residential school program had to contribute. Early traumatic life experiences including sexual, mental and physical… Read More »
Weight Change (Not Weight!) Is A Vital Sign
Why do doctors weigh people? Because, very early in medical school, we are taught that body weight is an important indicator of health. While one may certainly argue about the value of a single weight measurement at any point in time (especially in adults), there is simply no denying that weight trajectories (changes in body weight – up or down) can provide important (often vital) clinical information. Let’s begin with the easiest (and least arguable) situations of all – unintentional weight loss. Among all clinical parameters one could possibly measure, perhaps non should be as alarming as someone losing weight without actively trying. In almost every single instance of “unintentional” weight loss, the underlying problem needs to be found, and more often than not, the diagnosis is probably serious (cancer is just one possibility). As with any serious condition, the earlier you detect it, the sooner you can do something about it, therefore, the more often you weight someone, the more likely you will detect early “non-intentional” weight loss. The contrary situation (un-intentional weight gain) is as important. When someone is gaining weight for no good reason, one needs to look for the underlying cause, which can include everything from an endocrine problem to heart failure. On the other hand, weight stability, is generally a sign that things are probably “under control”, as they should be when energy homeostasis works fine and people are in energy balance. Perhaps my own obsession with weighing people comes from my work in nephrology, where we obsess about people’s “dry weight” and use weight as a general means to monitor fluid status. The same is true for working with patients who have heart failure. Note for all of the above, that while a single (random) weight measurement tells you very little (almost nothing) about anybody’s health status, unexplained changes in body weight are one of the most useful and important clinical signs in all of medicine. Obviously, to plot a trajectory, one has to start somewhere, which means that every patient needs to have a “baseline” body weight recorded somewhere in their chart. While this value may not provide any valuable information, the next one may. This is why every single patient needs to be weighed at least once in a clinical setting. As you will imagine, both the context and interpretation of serial weight measurements becomes most challenging in the setting of obesity… Read More »
Use of Low Calorie Diets in Type 2 Diabetes
Managing weight in patients with type 2 diabetes (most of who have significant overweight or obesity) is always challenging, not least because many medications used to treat diabetes can also promote weight gain. Now, a paper by Judy Shiau and colleagues from the University of Ottawa, in a paper published in the Canadian Journal of Diabetes, present the results of a retrospective cohort study (1992 to 2009) of weight, glycemic control and diabetes medications changes in 317 patients with obesity and type 2 diabetes at 6 months on a low-calorie diet program. The program (week 1 to week 26) included mandatory weekly group sessions led by a dietitian, behaviour therapist or exercise therapist. All patients received OPTIFAST ®900 as full meal replacements (MR) starting at week 2. Patients consume 4 MR shakes per day for a total of 900 kcal per day, a regimen that is high in proteins (90g/day) and moderate in carbohydrates (67 g/day). Patients with initial body mass indexes (BMIs) of 33 kg/m2 or higher commited to 12 weeks of full MRs, while patients with initial BMIs below 33 started with 6 weeks of full MRs and the option to increase to up to 12 weeks of full MRs. Once patients completed their full MR regimen, there was a 5-week transition period to regular food, typically followed by a maintenance diet, as determined in a one-on- one dietitian counselling session. As glycemic control improved with weight loss, anti-diabetes medications were adjusted or discontinued, thereby stopping any weight-gain-promoting medications first. As the authors note, “At 6 months, both groups had lost 16% of their weight, and the decreases or discontinuations of medications were 92% sulfonureas, 87% insulins, 79% thiazolidinediones, 78% alpha-glucosidase inhibitors, 50% meglitinides, 33% dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-4) inhibitors and 33% metformin. At 6 months, compared with baseline, A1C levels improved significantly and at 6 months, 30% of patients were no longer taking diabetes medications and had significantly better percentages of weight loss compared with those taking medications (18.6% vs. 16%; p=0.002).” Thus, this paper shows that, a low-calorie meal replacement program can substantially improve glycemic control and reduce the need for anti-diabetes medications. Unfortunately, as participants were transitioned to community care at 6 months, little is know about how long these effects last. Nevertheless, with the increasing availability and use of weight-neutral or even weight-reducing anti-diabetes medications, one may expect that some of these effects can be… Read More »
1st International Diabetes Expert Conclave (IDEC) 2017
Last week I was an invited plenary speaker at the 1st International Diabetes Expert Conclave (IDEC2017) held in Pune, India. This 3-day event, organised by Drs. Neeta Deshpande (Belgaum), Sanjay Agrawal (Pune) and colleagues, brought together well over 900 physicians from across India for a jam-packed program that covered everything from diabetic food disease and neuropathy to the latest in insulin pumps and devices – all in a uniquely Indian context. I, of course, was there to speak on obesity, which featured prominently in the program. Topics on obesity ranged from the potential role of gut bugs to bariatric surgery. While Dr. Allison Goldfine, former Director of Clinical Research at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston spoke on the latest developments in anti-obesity pharmacotherapy (delivering her talk via Skype), I spoke about obesity as a chronic disease and the need to redefine obesity based on actual indicators of health rather than BMI. During my visit in Pune, I also had the opportunity to visit with my friend and colleague Dr. Shashank Shah, whose bariatric surgical center in Pune alone performs about 75 to 100 bariatric operations per month – a remarkable number by any standards. Of course, the overwhelming number of talks were given by Indian faculty (there being only a handful of select invited international faculty at the meeting), and I did come away most impressed by the breadth and depth of knowledge presented by the local speakers. Diabetes care certainly appears to be in good hands although the sheer number of patients with diabetes (estimated at about 70 million, which I assume to be a rather conservative assessment), would provide a challenge to any health care system. On the obesity front, things are a lot less rosy, given that (as everywhere else) obesity has yet to receive the same level of professional attention and expertise afforded to diabetes or other chronic diseases. Thanks again to the organisers for inviting me to this exciting meeting and congratulations on an excellent event that bodes well for the 2nd Conclave planned for 2018. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
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