EATING BREAKFAST INCREASES BRAIN CHEMICAL INVOLVED IN REGULATING FOOD INTAKE CRAVINGS

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), many teens skip breakfast, which increases their likelihood of overeating and eventual weight gain. Statistics show that the number of adolescents struggling with obesity, which elevates the risk for chronic health problems, has quadrupled in the past three decades. Now, MU researchers have found that eating breakfast, particularly meals rich in protein, increases young adults' levels of a brain chemical associated with feelings of reward, which may reduce food cravings and overeating later in the day. Understanding the brain chemical and its role in food cravings could lead to improvements in obesity prevention and treatment.

"Our research showed that people experience a dramatic decline in cravings for sweet foods when they eat breakfast," said Heather Leidy, an assistant professor of nutrition and exercise physiology. "However, breakfasts that are high in protein also reduced cravings for savory -- or high-fat -- foods. On the other hand, if breakfast is skipped, these cravings continue to rise throughout the day."

Leidy studied the effects of different breakfasts on participants' levels of dopamine, a brain chemical involved in moderating impulses and reward, including food cravings. Dopamine levels were determined by measuring homovanillic acid (HVA), the main dopamine metabolite. Eating initiates a release of dopamine, which stimulates feelings of food reward. The reward response is an important part of eating because it helps to regulate food intake, Leidy said.

"Dopamine levels are blunted in individuals who are overweight or obese, which means that it takes much more stimulation -- or food -- to elicit feelings of reward; we saw similar responses within breakfast-skippers," Leidy said. "To counteract the tendencies to overeat and to prevent weight gain that occurs as a result of overeating, we tried to identify dietary behaviors that provide these feelings of reward while reducing cravings for high-fat foods. Eating breakfast, particularly a breakfast high in protein, seems to do that."

Participants in the study were young women with an average age of 19; however, Leidy said the findings may be generalized to a larger population of adults.

"In the U.S., people are skipping breakfast more frequently, which is associated with food cravings, overeating and obesity," Leidy said. "It used to be that nearly 100 percent of American adults, kids and teens were eating breakfast, but over the last 50 years, we have seen a decrease in eating frequency and an increase in obesity."

Leidy's research was published in the Nutrition Journal.

Six Non Chemical Tips To Manage Chronic Pain

Today's post from huffingtonpost.com is a helpful, if slightly simplistic set of ideas for helping you reduce the discomfort of your neuropathy symptoms without reaching for the medicine bottle. Many people are dismayed by the number of pills they have to take each day just to keep the symptoms under control and are always on the look out for other ideas which may help. Any of the six ideas here may help to reduce your pain and for that reason deserve close attention but there are no guarantees. It may be that a combination of these with your normal medication may provide a better all-round solution than just the meds alone. Worth thinking about.

6 Ways to Manage Chronic Pain
Peter Field Hypno-Psychotherapist Posted: 05/12/2014 

If you live with chronic pain, life might seem unbearable at times.

Unlike acute pain, which is the body's way of telling us that something needs swift attention, chronic pain is ongoing pain that serves no useful purpose.

This pain could be fibromyalgia, back pain, arthritis, chronic headaches, or any pain associated with chronic illness.

Being constantly in pain can affect many areas of life, including work, personal relationships and our psychological state. If you are experiencing chronic pain, finding ways to manage it may be essential to your wellbeing.

Here are a few tips that you may find helpful on your quest to leave your chronic pain behind:

1. Watch your diet: Diet can play a role in controlling chronic pain. It's a good idea to steer clear of foods that can cause inflammation, such as nightshade vegetables (eggplant, tomatoes), dairy, and gluten containing grains (such as wheat). Stay away from processed foods and stick to easy-to-digest natural, whole foods. Try to reduce your meat consumption -- especially red meat -- focusing more on a plant-based diet, which tends to be anti-inflammatory.

2. Stay hydrated: According to the Mayo Clinic, some chronic pain issues are made worse by dehydration. In order to make sure dehydration is not an issue for you, drink lots of water and steer clear of coffee. Alcohol is best reduced or avoided. Stick with beverages that help to hydrate and rehydrate you.

3. Try yoga and meditation: Yoga and meditation can lessen both the physical pain and the stress that chronic pain causes. Stress can lead to muscle spasms, which are common with chronic pain sufferers, so practicing yoga and meditation can train your body and mind, helping them to reduce that stress.

4. Therapeutic approaches: Psychological aspects of chronic pain play an enormous role in its power to incapacitate. There is some evidence that certain types of therapy, such as biofeedback, and guided imagery, can help alleviate chronic pain. Try to see a therapist who specializes in working with patients who have pain issues.

5. Hypnotherapy: Hypnotherapy is another helpful option for chronic pain sufferers, and can be a powerful way of managing pain. Be sure to select a hypnotherapist experienced in pain management. In your hypnotherapy sessions you will learn how to enter the trance state through self-hypnosis. In this state it is possible to change the way your brain perceives pain. Therapy can also help you cope with anxiety, depression and other common mental wellbeing issues that chronic pain sufferers so often have to deal with.

6. See only a specialist: Every case of chronic pain is different and therefore different treatments work for different people. It's important to find a doctor or therapist who specializes in treating pain so you can approach your particular situation from a knowledgeable perspective. It's best to find a specialist who is board certified in pain management.

While managing chronic pain can be challenging and frustrating, it can be done. Be gentle with yourself and be sure to respect your limits. Try these tips and strategies and they may well help you to live more comfortably.

IMPORTANT: This article is not intended to replace medical advice or treatment. Always consult your doctor or medical advisor if you are experiencing pain.

 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peter-field/7-ways-to-manage-chronic-_b_4954712.html

CHEMICAL IN COFFEE MAY HELP PREVENT OBESITY RELATED DISEASE

Researchers at the University of Georgia have discovered that a chemical compound commonly found in coffee may help prevent some of the damaging effects of obesity.

In a paper published recently in Pharmaceutical Research, scientists found that chlorogenic acid, or CGA, significantly reduced insulin resistance and accumulation of fat in the livers of mice who were fed a high-fat diet.

"Previous studies have shown that coffee consumption may lower the risk for chronic diseases like Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease," said Yongjie Ma, a postdoctoral research associate in UGA's College of Pharmacy and lead author of the paper. "Our study expands on this research by looking at the benefits associated with this specific compound, which is found in great abundance in coffee, but also in other fruits and vegetables like apples, pears, tomatoes and blueberries."

During the past 20 years, there has been a dramatic increase in obesity in the United States. More than one-third of U.S. adults and approximately 17 percent of children are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the annual medical cost of obesity is more than $147 billion.

Aside from weight gain, two common side effects of obesity are increased insulin resistance and the accumulation of fat in the liver. Left untreated, these disorders can lead to diabetes and poor liver function.

To test the therapeutic effects of CGA, researchers fed a group of mice a high-fat diet for 15 weeks while also injecting them with a CGA solution twice per week.

They found that CGA was not only effective in preventing weight gain, but it also helped maintain normal blood sugar levels and healthy liver composition.

"CGA is a powerful antioxidant that reduces inflammation," said Ma, who works in the laboratory of professor Dexi Liu in the department of pharmaceutical and biomedical sciences. "A lot of evidence suggests that obesity-related diseases are caused by chronic inflammation, so if we can control that, we can hopefully offset some of the negative effects of excessive weight gain."

But the authors are quick to point out that CGA is not a cure-all. Proper diet and regular exercise are still the best methods to reduce the risks associated with obesity.

The mice in this study received a high dose of CGA, much higher than what a human would absorb through regular coffee consumption or a diet rich in fruits and vegetables.

However, the researchers do believe that CGA may form the foundation of a treatment for those who need extra help. They plan to conduct more research to develop an improved CGA formulation specifically for human consumption.

"We're not suggesting that people start drinking a lot of coffee to protect themselves from an unhealthy lifestyle," said Ma, who is also a member of UGA's Obesity Initiative. "But we do think that we might be able to create a useful therapeutic using CGA that will help those at risk for obesity-related disease as they make positive lifestyle changes."

PREMATURE INFANTS ARE EXPOSED TO UNSAFE LEVELS OF CHEMICAL IN MEDICAL PRODUCTS USED TO DAVE THEIR LIVES

Hospitalized premature infants are exposed to unsafe levels of a chemical found in numerous medical products used to treat them, raising questions about whether critically ill newborns may be adversely affected by equipment designed to help save their lives.

The chemical, di(2-ethylhexyl)phthalate (DEHP), is used to increase flexibility of many plastic devices. These products, made from polyvinyl chloride (PVC), include most intravenous tubing, catheters, endotracheal tubes, and fluid and blood product bags. DEHP doesn't bind chemically to PVC, and is able to leach into fluids and body tissues in contact with it. New Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health research suggests that critically ill preterm infants may be exposed to DEHP at levels approximately 4,000 to 160,000 times higher than those believed to be safe. Infants can receive high exposures to DEHP during weeks to months of treatment in a hospital's neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

The results are reported online Nov. 13 date by the Journal of Perinatology.

"It's remarkable that the care of sick and developmentally vulnerable preterm infants depends on an environment composed almost entirely of plastic," says neonatologist Eric B. Mallow, MD, MPH, a senior research program coordinator at the Bloomberg School and the study's leader. "The role of these synthetic materials in the clinical course of our patients remains almost completely unexplored. PVC is the predominant flexible plastic in most NICUs, and this can result in considerable DEHP exposures during intensive care."

Mallow and co-investigator Mary A. Fox, PhD, MPH, an assistant professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, reviewed and analyzed previously published studies of DEHP and its potential risks. Nearly all public attention to the health effects of phthalates, for both the general population and hospitalized patients, has focused on their role as endocrine disruptors -- substances that can interfere with normal hormone function.

However, the researchers found abundant published evidence that DEHP has a wide range of non-endocrine toxic effects, and they propose that these could affect the short- and long-term health of NICU patients. DEHP has been shown repeatedly in animal studies to increase inflammation, cause liver injury, and interfere with development of lung, brain, and eye. Clinical studies confirm that some of these effects occur in NICU patients as well.

"We were floored by how high the exposures are when you look at all of the devices together," Fox says. "It's a population that we know is vulnerable to begin with. They're struggling to survive. And the concern now is whether this phthalate exposure is actually contributing to their problems when these medical products are supposed to be helping them get better."

Phthalates, including DEHP, are found in a wide range of consumer products, such as food packaging, clothing, upholstery, vinyl flooring, cosmetics, and fragrances. DEHP is the only phthalate approved for medical devices in the U.S., and its use is unregulated. In contrast, DEHP and several other phthalates are limited to trace amounts in children's toys and childcare products.

The new research finds that the total daily exposure for a two-kilogram (four-pound) critically ill infant can reach 16 mg/kg per day. The largest sources are blood products, and endotracheal tubes placed in the airway to deliver breathing support with a ventilator. In analyzing toxic thresholds, the researchers determined that daily DEHP intakes are approximately 4,000 times higher than desired to prevent a type of male reproductive toxicity, and 160,000 times higher than desired to prevent liver injury. They say that a lower DEHP exposure could be one reason why preemies who can be managed without a ventilator seem to have better lung outcomes.

The researchers say that replacing DEHP-containing products in the NICU with existing alternative products that don't contain DEHP would be the most effective initial step in reducing phthalate exposures during critical care. Further reductions could be attained by addressing other sources of phthalates in the NICU, including construction materials (such as vinyl flooring and paints); equipment such as ventilators and incubators; soaps, lotions and other cosmetics used by staff and visitors; and even the soaps, lotions and powders used for baby care.

"We do have to make tradeoffs and we want to save these babies," Fox says. "But can we save them by using alternative products that reduce their exposures to substances that may be harming them? It seems like we could."