Posts Tagged ‘health perspectives’

The type 2 diabetes stupid study will get $1.3 million in new funding from the National Institutes of Health. It is going to be used to continue with the world’s longest running study on obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Arizona Pima Indians

Obesity and diabetes have been described as the major public health concern of the 21st century says Leslie Schulz, executive dean of Northern Arizona University’s study’s principal investigator. “This study is taking those necessary steps toward finding a way to protect people against these pervasive diseases,” she said.

A related study has shown that Pima Indians in Arizona who have a diet and lifestyle similar to most Americans have a much higher rate of diabetes than the national average: 38 percent verses 8 percent nationally, giving them the distinction of being the most diabetes-prone group in the world.

The Arizona Pima Indians have been genetically linked to a village of Pima Indians living a more traditional lifestyle in a remote, mountainous region of Mexico. A 1995 study of the Mexican Pimas revealed only a rare occurrence of diabetes. Schulz explains that the genetic similarities between the two groups of Pima Indians, along with the contrast in their lifestyles, provides an ideal setting to study the relationship between environmental circumstances and diabetes.

The researchers returned in the fall after 15 years to the Mexican village to study the relationship between the Mexican Pima Indians’ increasingly “westernized” lifestyle and their genetic predisposition for obesity and diabetes.

“Since we were last there, the environmental circumstances of the village have changed,” Schulz says, explaining how the electrical supply to the region has increased, cars have become more prevalent and grocery stores have appeared.

She points out that this changing environment affects non-Pima Mexicans who also live in the village as much as it does the Mexican Pima Indians living there.

“These two groups of people have undergone the same lifestyle changes over the past 15 years but they have different genes,” Schulz explains. “Therefore, we hope to separate out the role genes play versus the role lifestyle plays.”

Question

The researchers are attempting to answer why a person who is genetically predisposed to develop diabetes does not develop it.

ANSWER: GENES AREN’T YOUR DESTINY

Just as genes provide the codes for producing proteins, various chemicals called epigenetic marks sit atop genes and offer basic instructions to them, telling them to switch on or off

Biologists offer this analogy as an explanation: if the genome is the hardware, then the epigenome is the software. “I can load Windows, if I want, on my Mac,” says Joseph Ecker, a Salk Institute biologist and leading epigenetic scientist. “You’re going to have the same chip in there, the same genome, but different software. And the outcome is a different cell type.”

At its most basic, epigenetics is the study of changes in gene activity that do not involve alterations to the genetic code but still get passed down to at least one successive generation. These patterns of gene expression are governed by the cellular material — the epigenome — that sits on top of the genome, just outside it (hence the prefix epi-, which means above). It is these epigenetic “marks” that tell your genes to switch on or off, to speak loudly or whisper. It is through epigenetic marks that environmental factors like diet, stress and prenatal nutrition can make an imprint on genes that is passed from one generation to the next.

Save The Money

Save the money, the studies already prove epigenetics is the main factor in gene expression.

Drug Like

Refined sugar is refined, and that is one of the reasons for it being a dangerous substance. When you take a substance out of nature and refine it some adverse things happen. You maximize its properties, biological and chemical potency. Sugar is refined from sugarcane; cocaine is a drug that’s refined from coca leaves. Opium is a drug that’s refined from poppies.

Sugar is cheap and widely available so it effects are seen, but they are so common that you will not notice them.

Health Effects   

The health effects of sugar are all around us. Yet, it is so common that most people are not aware that it isn’t normal function of human biology. It is capable over a period of time to cause toot decay, gum disease, disrupt normal brain function, promote heart disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and nutritional deficiencies

After sugar enters the body, the blood sugar levels rise, causing the pancreas to release insulin. Insulin is needed to convert sugar into energy. When a large amount of sugar is consumed, more insulin is released. The insulin converts the sugar into an immediate energy source. It produces a jolt that gives you a jump start. However, it doesn’t work like a battery jump start. Because if the battery has enough life left in it the jump start it can keep it going. Where as in this situation the blood sugar level begin to decrease rapidly, and you crash in the sense you feel a letdown in energy.

Glucose and vitamin C have similar chemical structures. They compete with one another upon entering the cells. The same thing that mediates the entry of glucose into the cells is the same thing that mediates the entry of vitamin C into the cells. If there is more glucose hanging around, there is going to be less vitamin C allowed into the cell. You just lowered the ability of your immune system to protect you.

Sugar aggravates asthma and nourishes nervous disorders, such as anxiety attacks.

Childhood

The childhood memories of most people bring them closer to becoming sugar dependent. Very few American’s can’t recall a sugary food that wasn’t considered a treat, or became a family tradition. This is the place that forms our lifetime habits.

Today’s children will know what it is like to be hooked on sugar in the morning, sugar in the evening, and sugar all day long.

There is perception that there isn’t enough evidence to prove that a sugar high-sugar additction is real. There are many dimensions to the sugar high-sugar addiction phenomenon that is sweeping the country.

From Wiki Online

“A sugar “high” occurs when your bloodstream is flooded with glucose, usually produced from ingested carbohydrates which can easily be converted into glucose, such as sugars and certain polymers of sugar, such as starches. Your brain is unique in that it requires glucose, and cannot use other forms of energy such as fats or proteins. So when glucose levels are high in your blood, you feel energized and awake. The state of high blood-glucose levels, through a very fundamental signaling system, triggers the release of insulin from cells in your pancreas. Insulin is a directive for your body to store this extra energy as fat once your glycogen reserve has been topped off (so you can make it through the winter and other times when there may be no food). Therefore, your entire body feels active during a sugar high.”

Sugar Rollercoaster

“On the other hand, a sugar “crash” is probably on the way. If a very large amount of easily broken down carbohydrates is ingested, blood-glucose levels rise rapidly and cause a high degree of insulin release. This creates a sugar “rollercoaster” inside your body as glucose levels are brought down precipitously, to the point where you feel fatigued, tired, and…hungry! Eventually, your body can become resistant to insulin, causing chronic high blood-glucose levels. This is known as hyperglycemia, and is the beginning stage of type II diabetes.”

Craving Sugar

There is such a thing as a sugar high. Also, sugar craving seems to be something that occurs in industrialized societies. This is different than just liking the taste of sweet foods one in awhile.

This is part and parcel of the American Standard Diet. An acronym is the (SAD) diet. That may as well stand for the sugar addiction diet, of the salt addiction diet. Both of these hold true, as all food manufacturing companies understand so well.

Sugar Addiction

Is there such a thing as a recovered sugar addict? This is different that a recovering alcoholic or drug user. Most of our current food supply contains sugar or a sugar substitute. Any sugar substitute sets you up to crave more sweets. 

You can keep a sugar addiction by consuming better forms, such as a high fruit diet. That may not cut it for a true sugar addict. It is a fact that many Americans are addicted to this substance. Without being aware of the reasons for their food preferences, such as pancakes, coffee with sugar, sweet cereals, nearly all restaurant foods have some sugar as an ingredient.

The average American consumes 2-3 pounds of sugar a week. This includes all forms from sucrose (table sugar), dextrose (corn sugar) and high-fructose corn syrup. High fructose corn syrup is in many processed foods. These include bread, cereal, mayonnaise, peanut butter, ketchup, spaghetti sauce, and most pre-packaged foods.

Wikipedia on Sugar Addiction

There has been reference to the idea of sugar addiction in the popular literature for a number of years.

In 1998, Kathleen DesMaisons outlined the concept of sugar addiction as a measurable physiological state caused by activation of mu-opioid receptors in the brain. Her work extracted data from studies done showing that sugar acted as an analgesic drug whose effects could be blocked by a morphine blocker.

“Recent behavioral tests in rats further back the idea of an overlap between sweets and drugs. Drug addiction often includes three steps.

A person will increase his intake of the drug, experience withdrawal symptoms when access to the drug is cut off and then face an urge to relapse back into drug use.

Rats on sugar have similar experiences. Researchers withheld food for 12 hours and then gave rats food plus sugar water. This created a cycle of binging where the animals increased their daily sugar intake until it doubled. When researchers either stopped the diet or administered an opioid blocker the rats showed signs common to drug withdrawal, such as teeth-chattering and the shakes.

Early findings also indicate signs of relapse. Rats weaned off sugar repeatedly pressed a lever that previously dispensed the sweet solution.”(Leah Ariniello, Brain Briefings, October 2003)