Posted on 10/12/2003 8:20:04 AM PDT by carlo3b
Eat some Chocolate Cake and just Relax..!!Maybe not!.. It's A GOOD NEWS, BAD NEWS story...
We always knew this was so, but most of us were at a loss to explain it.. Eating something devilish, like cake or anything sweet, makes us simmer down.
Well, let me try to explain it in words that may assist us all in understanding.. This is with the help of, none other than the prestigious National Academy of Sciences.
THE GOOD NEWS. Those sweet and fatty foods that we often turn to in times of stress might in fact calm nerves, and relieve anxiety. That's the good news in an innovative biological theory of people's responses to stress. (If you are already stresses, you should stop here an get another Hershey's kiss, before proceeding)
The bad news (You knew this was coming so calm down) is that for those with chronic nervousness, and unusual levels of stress, those extra servings of comfort food come with potentially dangerous baggage, extra fat around the waist. SHAAZAM!
If that didn't do it for you .. Chronic stress, brought about by everyday trials and tribulations, is less well understood than are intermittent bouts of extreme, and acute stress. Here is what scientists know, that when a cat is suddenly attacked by a dog or a person prepares to give a speech, the adrenal gland pumps up production of stress hormones, including those known as glucocorticoids. When present at high-enough concentrations, glucocorticoids provide feedback to the stress-response system, eventually shutting it down.
To the researchers, it is still unclear how the stress response is controlled in animals that remain anxious for days at a time. However in the labs of physiologist Mary F. Dallman of the University of California, San Francisco and her colleagues, they aim to close that knowledge gap.
Drawing on their animals studies and experiments, these and other scientists propose that glucocorticoids work differently in the long term than they do in the short term. Meaning, that when chronically present in the brain and body, the hormones maintain the stress response instead of shutting it down. At the same time, they drive animals to seek out pleasurable foods, much the same as we do in our own nest. This directs the added calories to accumulate as abdominal fat,
However, there is a bright light in this process, at least in animal experiments. That unwanted extra fat eventually checks the glucocorticoids' alarmist effects and tells the brain to Whoa!
The results from several laboratory experiments with rodents (isn't this comforting.. get another Hershey's Kiss) support this view, the scientists say. In one set of conclusions, Dallman and her colleagues simulated chronic stress by increasing the brain concentration of a rodent version of the glucocorticoid called cortisol. As cortisol concentration rose, the rats responded by drinking increasingly more sugar water, eating increasingly more lard, and gaining abdominal girth. Ugh!
In an additional experiment, the researchers found that rats (maybe even you, you dainty mouse) with extra padding produce less-than-average concentrations of a brain chemical that triggers early molecular events underlying the stress response. HUH?
"If you put on some extra weight, there seems to be some sort of signal that says things are better," says Norman C. Pecoraro of UC-San Francisco, a coauthor of the paper. While Dallman and her coworkers don't know what signal the abdominal fat sends, they suspect it's involved with the regulation of metabolism.Whatever accounts for the urge to eat a big helping of Lasagna, it's best not to indulge in it every day. The abdominal weight gain that Dallman and her colleagues have linked to glucocorticoid action increases the risk of heart disease and diabetes. {{{{{SHUDDER}}}}} OH! I see... *<@)... I just thought you should know..The model "puts a new and more meaningful slant on what we mean when we talk about 'comfort foods,'" says Bruce S. McEwen of Rockefeller University in New York. "These may actually calm down an important brain system linked to anxiety."
In a fast-paced society where food is easy to get, glucocorticoid action probably causes chronically stressed people to take in extra calories and to gain weight, says McEwen.
"People are somehow stressed, and they are self-medicating because food is available," adds Pecoraro.
"We also eat sugar and fat because they are good tasting and cheap," notes Adam Drewnowski of the University of Washington in Seattle. The stress response isn't the only brain pathway that controls consumption of sweet and high fat foods, he adds.
SOOOO.. put down the Kiss and go kiss someone..
Indeed it can.. there are a milieu of choices available on the market today, and all have one thing or another that ranks them above or different from their competitors.. Check this out, it should help..if not ping me!
http://www.weight-loss-i.com/artificial-sweeteners.htm
I don't miss the part of my belly that has gone away! :-)
Yeah, that's the problem with coffee - without the sugar it taste like - YUCK! - coffee.
Not yet but I have a sample that was sent to me by some who thought that I might like it.. I'll get back to you .. thanks
I am praying you fall into a wood chipper.
That is the story that spreads the rumors that plague some wonderful breakthroughs in our lives.. You have to know that with every product on this earth, there are people that will drop on the spot if that passes their lips. The extensive trial period before acceptance as an eatable or medicinal product on the FDA list, exposes what % of folks that will have a negative reaction.. Thus the Trial Lawyers' BMW, and Children College Fund.
FDA approval is no guarantee that you are not one of those minuscule numbers that will be DOA if you partake.. Life is full of such trials and tribulations. I will say with a great deal of confidence that you will in fact DIE someday, just use prudence between today and that faithful day!
Prudence is also in the eye of the beholder, and everyone has an opinion, so read as much as possible and then flip a coin..
Oh, in answer to your reasonable question.. How dangerous is sucralose? I haven't got a clue! {{{HUG}}} :o)
'Tummy pacemaker' may suppress appetiteExcerpted.. finish this piece at: http://www.cnn.com/2003/HEALTH/diet.fitness/10/13/tummy.pacemaker.ap/index.html
FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (AP) --A kind of pacemaker for the tummy, an implanted electrical device that fools the body into feeling full, appears to be an effective alternative to radical digestive surgery for helping obese people shed large amounts of weight.
If it proves out in larger studies, the experimental device could offer a new way to help very large people slim down when they cannot lose weight on diets or with appetite-suppressing drugs. Researchers Sunday presented preliminary data on the usefulness of the approach, which has already been tested on 450 people to show its safety.
Surgical techniques that shrink the stomach and reroute the digestive tract are the only highly reliable way to make obese people lose weight. However, this is major surgery that carries significant risk, including a 1 percent chance of death, and researchers are searching for ways to do the job more safely.
The new device is called an implantable gastric stimulator and is similar to a cardiac pacemaker. But instead of stimulating the heart, this one is attached to the wall of the stomach and is intended to reduce feelings of hunger.
The researchers implanted the devices in 30 obese women and men whose average weight was 242 pounds (109 kilograms). Their average body mass index, or BMI, was 42. The healthy cutoff for the height-to-weight ratio is 25; 30 is considered obese.
After a year with the implant, two-thirds of the volunteers had lost weight. The average was an 18 percent drop in their excess weight.
"The results are promising, although we still have a long way to go," said Dr. Scott Shikora. "I believe in my heart this is a very exciting breakthrough in our field."
Shikora, head of bariatric surgery at Tufts-New England Medical Center in Boston, presented the study in Fort Lauderdale at the annual scientific meeting of the American Association for the Study of Obesity. It was financed by the device's developer, Transneuronix Inc. of Mt. Arlington, New Jersey.
'I just eat different now'
The system uses an electrical pulse generator, a little larger than a silver dollar coin, that is placed under the skin in the abdomen and connected to the stomach with two wires. Implanting it takes less than an hour and is done as an outpatient laproscopic procedure."These early findings are exciting," said Dr. Samuel Klein of Washington University, the obesity association's president. "This is a potential new approach for the management of obesity that is separate from drugs or surgery."
The device is already on the market in Europe but is still several years away from Food and Drug Administration approval in the United States. Steven Adler, Transneuronix's executive vice president, said the company hopes in a few months to begin a study on 120 patients that will take two years to complete.
After installing the pacemaker, doctors crank up the power until patients feel unpleasant symptoms, such as nausea or cramps, then turn it down a bit until all sensation disappears.
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