Pom Pom A Flightless Bully Tale Takes Flight
Today’s post is to announce the arrival of my daughter Linnie von Sky’s second children’s book, “Pom Pom A Flightless Bully Tale“, that hundreds of you helped fund by pre-ordering your copy(ies) about 12 months ago – your books are in the mail and should be there in time for the Holidays (a big THANK YOU from me for your support!). To those of you, who are new to these pages, Pom Pom is the story of the slightly rotund little penguin Pomeroy Paulus Jr III., who simply hates it when people call him “Pom Pom”. Like any boy his age he’s busy trying to impress ‘the birds’, particularly one bird: Pia. Pomeroy dreams of a pair of orange swim trunks; the ones that Pete, Pucker and Piper own. The same ones Pia said she loved. There’s just one little hiccup. The antAmart doesn’t carry them in his size. The story tells of how mom helps Pomeroy get his own pair of orange swim trunks and how Pia saves the day when she steps up and puts bullies in their place. Here is what Linnie had to say about the reason for writing this book in an interview with Lindsay william-Ross for VancityBuzz: “When you talk about bullying you have to talk about how much it hurts. Kids understand that,” says von Sky, who hopes her stories ignite conversations. Of “Pom Pom,” von Sky remarks: “I think it’s an encouragement to talk about emotions. What triggers certain actions, what makes somebody want to hurt someone else. Are they hurting?” For von Sky, whose protagonist in “Pom Pom” is picked on because of his size, the pain of bullying in the story echoes the passion she first tapped into working with the Canadian Obesity Network. “Weight bullying happens to be the one thing I’m extremely allergic to,” affirms von Sky. For any of you who would like to order your own copy of this delightful little children’s book about bullying, friendship, respect, sadness, empathy, standing up for friends, antarctica, penguins & above all, love (for ages 3 and up) – click here. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Effectiveness Of Obesity Management For Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis is one of the most common and disabling complications of obesity. Irrespective of whether or not the osteoarthritis is directly caused by excess weight, there is little doubt that the sheer mechanical forces acting on the affected joints will significantly impact mobility and quality of life. Now the Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health (CADTH) has released a report on the Clinical Effectiveness of Obesity Management Interventions Delivered in Primary Care for Patients with Osteoarthritis. This systematic review of the literature leads to the following findings: 1) Dietary weight loss interventions, either alone or in combination with exercise produce greater reductions in the peak knee compressive force and plasma levels of interleukin-6 (IL-6) in knee OA patients compared with exercise-induced weight loss. 2) There is a significantly greater reduction in pain and improvements in functions in patients who received diet plus exercise interventions compared with either diet–only or exercise–only interventions. 3) Regardless of the type of weight-loss interventions, participants who lost 10% or more of baseline body weight had greater reductions in knee compressive force, systemic IL-6 concentrations, and pain, as well as gained greater improvement in function than those who lost less of their baseline weight. 4) Participants who lost the most weight also experienced greater loss of bone mass density at the femoral neck and hip, but not the spine, without a significant change of their baseline clinical classification with regards to osteoporosis or osteopenia. Thus, in summary, weight loss, particularly when achieved through a combination of both diet and exercise can result in significant improvement in physical function, mobility, and pain scores in individuals with osteoarthritis. Unfortunately, this is by no means easy to achieve and even harder to sustain. Although I may sound like a broken record – we desperately need better treatments for obesity. @DrSharma Edmonton, AB
Obesity Weekend Roundup, December 5, 2014
As not everyone may have a chance during the week to read every post, here’s a roundup of last week’s posts: Are Sedentary Moms Promoting Childhood Obesity? Does Maternal Obesity Affect the Gut Microbiome of the Offspring? Does Your Liver Control Your Appetite? Can Gut Bugs Cause Depression? Hypothalamic Inflammation In Human Obesity Have a great Sunday! (or what is left of it) @DrSharma Madrid, Spain
Hypothalamic Inflammation In Human Obesity
Regular readers may recall the exciting body of work from animal models of obesity showing that hypothalamic inflammation involving microscarring (gliosis) may play an important role in appetite and energy regulation in obesity. Now, a study by Josep Puig and colleagues from the University of Girona, Spain, published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism, provides evidence for a similar process in humans. The researchers used an MRI technique called diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) to measure hypothalamic damage in 24 consecutive middle-aged obese subjects (average BMI 43) and 20 healthy volunteers (average BMI 24). Not only did the obese participants show greater signs of hypothalamic inflammation but these changes were also strongly associated with higher BMI, fat mass, inflammatory markers, carotid-intima media thickness, and hepatic steatosis and lower scores on cognitive tests. While these studies do not prove cause and effect, these findings are consistent with findings in animal models and point to the role of pro-inflammatory pathways in the areas of the brain known to be intimately linked to appetite and energy regulation. Understanding what exactly triggers this inflammatory response (in animal models, one fact appears to be a high-fat diet) and how this process could be inhibited, may open new avenues for obesity prevention and treatment. @DrSharma Madrid, Spain Puig J, Blasco G, Daunis-I-Estadella J, Molina X, Xifra G, Ricart W, Pedraza S, Fernández-Aranda F, & Fernández-Real JM (2014). Hypothalamic damage is associated with inflammatory markers and worse cognitive performance in obese subjects. The Journal of clinical endocrinology and metabolism PMID: 25423565
Can Gut Bugs Cause Depression?
Regular readers will by now be well aware of the rapidly growing body of researcher supporting the idea that your gut bugs (of which you have more than you have cells in your body) may well play a key role in determining your risk for obesity and other metabolic disorders. Now, a paper by Ruth Ann Luna and Jane Foster from Baylor College of Medicine and McMaster University, respectively, published in Current Opinion in Biotechnology, review the evidence that gut bugs may well also have significant effects on your stress response as well as other aspects of mental healthy, including depression. As one example, they cite a study that shows, “…a general underrepresentation of the Bacteroidetes phylum in depressed patients and an association of the Lachnospiraceae family with the depression group, and interestingly, even with a decrease in Bacteroidetes, specific operational taxonomic units (OTUs) identified as members of the Bacteroidetes phylum correlated with depression.” They also cite a number of studies showing that stress can affect gut bug populations and that certain gut bacteriomes are associated with a greater stress response, suggesting that the relationship between gut bugs and stressors may well be a two-way street. The authors go on to describe a number of pathways that may link gut bugs to humoral, neural, and cellular signaling pathways to brain function. Clearly, this appears a rich area of research that may well reveal pathways common to both neurological and metabolic issues, both of which may turn out to be amenable to dietary and probiotic interventions. @DrSharma London, UK Luna RA, & Foster JA (2014). Gut brain axis: diet microbiota interactions and implications for modulation of anxiety and depression. Current opinion in biotechnology, 32C, 35-41 PMID: 25448230
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