Today obesity is epidemic in the industrialized world, causing disturbances in blood levels of insulin, sugar, and blood fats that lead to high blood pressure, type-2 (adult onset) diabetes, and fatty liver, which in turn conspire to cause cardiovascular disorders, the leading cause of premature death in the Western world. Obesity is also associated with an increased risk of various types of cancer. Children and adolescents are becoming more and more obese and are also developing these complications. In the U.S. this has meant that the next and coming generations may be the first in modern history to be sicker and a shorter lifespan than their parents, which is considered a medical disaster.
Today we do not understand at the molecular level how obesity causes diabetes, fatty liver, and blood-fat disturbances, and we therefore also lack effective methods of treatment to prevent or cure these complications. A research team led by Helena Edlund at Ume University is now publishing in the journal Cell Metabolism a breakthrough in our understanding of the role of obesity in this connection. Her associate at Ume University is post-doctoral fellow P?Īr Stenberg, and other co-authors belong to Dr. Michael D. Walker's team at the Weizman Institute of Science, Israel.
Obesity leads to heightened levels of free fatty acids that are stored and converted to fats in various tissues. A recently discovered surface receptor for free fatty acids, called GPR40, is in mice present solely in the insulin-producing beta cells. Mice, like humans, that eat a diet rich in calories gain weight quickly and experience disturbances in their blood levels of insulin, sugar, and fats, and they develop fatty liver and diabetes. The findings of the Ume team show that mice that lack GPR40 receptors are healthy and experience normal weight gain on a calorie-rich diet. These mice are, however, protected from the complications and diseases that obesity provokes.
The findings thus indicate that obesity leads to increased levels of free fatty acids that stimulate the secretion of insulin via GPR40 receptors, which in turn contributes to disease development. By inactivating GPR40 function the animals are protected from these diseases. This theory is supported by the finding that mice with an increased number of GPR40 receptors on their beta cells develop diabetes. GPR40 belongs to the class of receptors targeted by most drugs. The receptors also occur on human beta cells, and therefore substances that block these receptors are prime candidates as drugs for preventing or curing diabetes and other complications of obesity.
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There is thank goodness some good news, the incidence rates for breast cancer in women appear to be stabilizing, and death rates are declining, and the rates of incidence for ovarian cancer and cervical cancer in women is also on the decline, as are the incidence rates for testicular and stomach cancer.
The risk factors listed by the Society for developing cancer include exposure to the sun, tobacco use, an unhealthy diet, physical inactivity and excess body weight.
People can do little things every day that will help reduce the risk of developing cancer says Logan such as maintaining a healthy body weight, being physical active and eating a diet that's rich in high-fibre foods and fruits and vegetables.
She says about 60 per cent don't follow the Society's recommendations of five to 10 servings a day of fruits and vegetables, and half of Canadians are physically inactive and the government needs to put into place policy and legislation to make healthy choices easier.
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