In a new study from Northwestern University, researchers found that middle-aged people who are obese, or even simply overweight, may face more health problems down the road.
The study is published in JAMA Network Open and was conducted by Dr. Sadiya Khan et al.
The team followed nearly 30,000 men and women in the Chicago area for over 40 years and found that the more people weighed around age 40, the greater their odds of chronic health conditions after age 65.
Severe obesity could cut people’s lives short by five years.
Class III obesity refers to a body mass index (BMI) of 40 or more. These patients are at least 100 pounds overweight, and often have conditions like high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes.
In the study, the team found that while class III obesity in middle age might be the biggest health threat, it is not the only one.
They found middle-aged people who were overweight fared a little worse in older age than those who were normal-weight, and those with mild obesity did a little worse still.
The finding underscores the potential benefits of healthy lifestyle changes for people with the common middle-age spread.
Recent studies have found that obesity, heart disease, and diabetes may be transmissible between people, and that a cancer drug could fight obesity. Other researchers showed that weight loss dieting sometimes may cause obesity.
One study from Yale University and published in Nature Metabolism found that a ketogenic diet only produces health benefits in the short term, but negative effects after about a week.
A keto diet usually provides 99% of calories from fat and protein and only 1% from carbohydrates.
The results suggest that the keto diet might, over limited time periods, improve human health by lowering diabetes risk and inflammation.
But if the high-fat, low-carb diet is eaten beyond one week, more fat will be consumed, which can lead to diabetes and obesity.
In the study, the researchers found that the positive and negative effects of the diet both relate to immune cells called gamma delta T-cells, tissue-protective cells that lower diabetes risk and inflammation.
According to the team, a keto diet tricks the body into burning fat.
When the body’s glucose level goes down due to the diet’s low carbohydrate content, the body acts as if it is in a starvation state—although it is not—and begins burning fats instead of carbohydrates.
This process in turn yields chemicals called ketone bodies as an alternative source of fuel. When the body burns ketone bodies, tissue-protective gamma delta T-cells expand throughout the body.
This reduces diabetes risk and inflammation and improves the body’s metabolism.
The team found after a week on the keto diet, he says, there was a reduction in blood sugar levels and inflammation.
But when the body is in this “starving-not-starving” mode, fat storage is also happening simultaneously with fat breakdown.
Consuming the high-fat, low-carb diet beyond one week could cause more fat than they can burn and develop diabetes and obesity.
They say long-term clinical studies need to validate the anecdotal claims of keto’s health benefits.
Another study from the University of Western Ontario and published in the Journal of Lipid Research found that the equivalent of just two and a half glasses of orange juice a day could reverse obesity and reduce the risk of heart disease and diabetes.
They attribute the benefits to nobiletin, a molecule found in sweet oranges and tangerines.
Obesity and its resulting metabolic syndromes are a huge burden to the health care system, and scientists have very few interventions that have been shown to work effectively.
In the study, the team showed a high-fat, high-cholesterol diet combined with nobiletin could lead to reduced insulin resistance and blood fats.
They also found nobelitin starts to regress plaque build-up in the arteries, known as atherosclerosis.
The researchers hypothesized the molecule was likely acting on the pathway that regulates how fat is handled in the body.
Called AMP Kinase, this regulator ‘turns on’ the machinery in the body that burns fats to create energy, and it also blocks the manufacture of fats.
The team says while the mystery remains, this recent result is still clinically important because it shows that nobiletin won’t interfere with other drugs that act on the AMP Kinase system.
The current therapeutics for diabetes like metformin, for example, work through this pathway.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies about common painkillers that may harm your heart, kidneys, sleep and bodyweight, and findings of the secret behind maintaining a healthy weight loss.
For more information about weight loss, please see recent studies about drug that can boost weight loss in people with type 2 diabetes, and results showing two common eating habits can make you gain too much weight.
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