Excess Weight in Older Women Linked to Diminished Memory

By Madonna Behen
HealthDay Reporter by Madonna Behen
healthday Reporter Wed Jul 14, 7:08 pm ET  

WEDNESDAY, July 14 (HealthDay News) -- Middle-aged women who are overweight may have yet another motivation to take off those excess pounds: The more a postmenopausal woman weighs, the worse her memory, researchers have found.

What's more, the negative impact on memory was more pronounced in "pear-shaped" women who carry excess weight around their hips, and less of a factor in "apple-shaped" women who carry it around their waists, the study authors noted.

In the new study, researchers found that for every one point increase in a woman's body mass index (BMI), her score on a standard memory test -- though still in the normal range -- dropped by one point. BMI is a measurement that takes into account height and weight.

The study, which was based on data from nearly 9,000 women who were enrolled in the Women's Health Initiative, a large government-sponsored study of postmenopausal women, was released online July 14 in advance of publication in the August print issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.

"This study really underscores the importance of maintaining an ideal body weight," said lead researcher Dr. Diana Kerwin, assistant professor of medicine in the division of geriatrics at Northwestern University's Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. "Even if a woman feels that she's generally healthy because her blood pressure and cholesterol levels are good, what these findings suggest is that she also needs to pay attention to her weight, because it's not only good for her heart, it's also good for her brain."

For the study, Kerwin and her colleagues examined data on 8,745 women between the ages of 65 and 79 who had no signs of dementia or other brain abnormalities. In addition to looking at BMI and waist and hip measurements (to determine body fat distribution), they also reviewed the women's scores on a 100-point cognitive functioning test known as the Modified Mini-Mental Status Examination. Roughly 70 percent of the women were overweight or obese.

After controlling for age, level of education and vascular diseases that have been shown to raise the risk of dementia, such as stroke, the researchers found that the association between obesity and poorer memory and brain function persisted. Kerwin, who conducted the study while a geriatrics researcher at the Medical College of Wisconsin, added that although the women's scores were still in the normal range, the added weight clearly had a detrimental effect.

Kerwin said more studies are needed to confirm and explain the apparent disparity between pear- and apple-shaped women. But one possibility is that the type of fat that's deposited on the hips is more likely to release hormones that are detrimental to brain function, she said. A follow-up study now in the planning stages will involve conducting MRIs of women's bodies, "so we can look at how much abdominal fat they have versus hip fat, and see if there's any difference in their brain functioning," Kerwin explained.

This study expands on several others involving body shape, in which obese apple-shaped women -- but not pear-shaped women -- were found to be at higher risk of diabetes, heart disease and dementia.

"What this study is really telling us is that there's something about obesity that puts you at risk for dementia, and it's independent of other factors such as vascular disease," said Dr. Gary Kennedy, director of geriatric psychiatry at Montefiore Medical Center in New York City.

Kennedy added that he hoped the results would coax more older women to exercise regularly in order to maintain a healthy weight. "This is really a call for women to make an effort to get more active, find an exercise partner, and do something every day," he said.

While trolling around the net I happended on to this new item and decided to share. Enjoy...or not, WINK!

Women, try not to think of this if you lie awake at night: having trouble sleeping means you're likely to gain weight.

As if simply getting older weren't hard enough, new research shows that middle-aged and older women who have trouble falling or staying asleep may pack on more pounds than their well-rested contemporaries.

A number of studies have found that sleep-deprived children and adults are more likely to be overweight than those who usually get a full night's rest. But many of those studies assessed people at one point in time, so it was hard to know which came first, the sleep problems or the excess pounds.

A few studies have followed people over time, but they've disagreed about whether poor sleep is linked to expanding waistlines.

The new findings, reported in the International Journal of Obesity, strengthen the evidence that sleep problems are related to weight gain. In this case, the study design allowed the researchers to show that sleep problems came before substantial weight gain in some participants.

Finnish researchers followed more than 7,300 40- to 60-year-old adults for seven years. They found that women who reported significant sleep problems at the outset generally put on more weight over time than women who slept well.

Roughly one-third of women with frequent sleep problems gained at least 11 pounds, versus about a fifth of women with no sleep difficulties at the outset.

Men were spared, however. Their sleep problems were not related to weight gain.

The link in the women persisted even when the investigators accounted for a number of factors that can affect both sleep quality and weight gain -- including participants' body weight at the study's start, their exercise habits and their general physical and mental health.

While the findings do not prove cause-and-effect, they raise the possibility that improving sleep quality might help stave off excess weight gain, lead researcher Peppi Lyytikainen, of the University of Helsinki, told Reuters Health by e-mail.

The 7,332 men and women in the study were first surveyed between 2000 and 2002. Those who said they'd had trouble falling asleep or staying asleep on at least 14 nights in the past month were classified as having "frequent" sleep problems. The study participants also reported their weight and height during the first survey, then again five to seven years later.

At the outset, 20 percent of women had frequent sleep problems. Overall, the study found, those women were more likely to report a "major" weight gain -- 11 pounds or more -- by the study's end compared to women who slept well.

But the 17 percent of men who reported sleep problems were no more likely to gain weight than those who slept without difficulty.

The reason for the disparate findings for men and women is unclear, according to Lyytikainen's team. But it might be related to the fact that the study included a smaller number of men than women -- 1,300 versus more than 5,700 -- which may have made any potential effect among men harder to detect.

This type of study, however -- in which researchers observe people over time -- can't prove cause-and-effect. While the researchers accounted for a number of variables related to sleep and weight -- like self-reported general health and exercise and other lifestyle habits -- they cannot rule out the possibility that factors other than sleep problems account for the higher risk of substantial weight.

Other research does suggest that sleep deprivation may affect the body in ways that contribute to weight gain, Lyytikainen said.

There is evidence, for example, that sleep loss alters people's levels of the appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin -- which could, in theory, spur them to overeat.

It is unknown, however, whether treating insomnia and other sleep disturbances has any added benefit for people's waistlines. SOURCE: http://link.reuters.com/nub45m International Journal of Obesity, online June 8, 2010.

Kennedy News

Dr. Marc Neff Named Medical Director of Kennedy’s Bariatric Surgery Program   (4/2/2010)   Stratford, NJ – Marc A. Neff, MD, FACS, has been named Medical Director of the Kennedy University Hospital Bariatric Surgery Program at Stratford. In this role, Dr. Neff oversees the clinical operations of the program, which recently was accredited by the Bariatric Surgery Center Network (BSCN) Accreditation Program of the American College of Surgeons.    Dr. Neff is a 1996 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.  After completing a five-year General Surgery residency at York Hospital in York, PA, in 2001, he went on to do a two-year Fellowship in Minimally Invasive Surgery at St. Peter's University Hospital in New Brunswick, NJ. There, Dr. Neff trained under recent Past President of the Society of Laparoendoscopic Surgeons, Dr. W. Peter Geis; and recent Past President of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery, Dr. Robert Brolin.    Since Kennedy’s Bariatric Surgery Program was established in January 2007 at its Stratford hospital, more than 200 patients have successfully undergone weight-loss surgery.  Since inception of the program, Kennedy has had a focus on personal interaction with patients.  For more information about Kennedy’s Bariatric Surgery Program, please call 856/346-6470.   More than 17 million people suffer from severe obesity in the United States, and the numbers continue to increase.  Obesity increases the risks of morbidity and mortality because of diseases and conditions commonly associated with it, including Type II diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease, among other health risks.  Currently, weight-loss surgery provides the only effective, lasting relief from severe obesity.

Well I have lost all the weight my VSG alone will allow me to. So if I am ever going to get to the 130 lbs mark or at least the 23 BMI mark, I am going to have to do this the old fashioned way, exercise. There I said it, the dirty word...,exercise, LOL, wink. Did I ever mention I HATE exercise as exercise. I did notice I really like the WII fit but haven't the money to buy it. I can go hiking, camping, walking  around the zoo, but to just exercise I find it so BORING and then my body rebels in pain. But a girl has got to do what a girl has got to do. Wink

Well here it is, 5:50 A.M.  I have been awake now for over an hour. I hate when this happens. I do realize it could be worse, it could have been many hours or even a full day. So I stopped by to update my page.

Life is very different for me now. I have lost 60 pounds (I am a "light weight"). Now at the young age of 52  I get to be mom to my oldest grandson. This started in November 2009. Family issues dictated this so here I am...My mother used to tell me "Its different with grand children" and yes I see she is correct.

Once a mother, always a mother, wink, LOL.  I find I am not as stressed and up tight over matters as much as I once was. Life lessons are put into play now and serve we well I would like to think.

Not to mention the weight loss has helped tremendously. My health is so much better and so is my energy level. Where I would have balked at walking a few blocks, I don't mind now.  I can do it. I don't get out of breath so fast any more. I can walk for a longer time and distance.  This translates to being able to keep up the pace with a 7 year old grandson. 

When I decided to have my VSG WLS all I wanted to do was lose the weight so I could see my grandson son graduate High School. Never in my wildest dreams did I think God was preparing me for this adventure in mid life parenting. LOL.

Funny how things happen. Even my primary doctor form the Veterans Clinic mentioned this. How my weight loss and God got me ready for this.

To all you new mom's who  could not conceive until recently,  I kind of understand your elation. I love having my grandson with me.  At age 7 they are still spontaneous enough to just shout out from the living room while playing the Play Station...."Nanna I love you"...made my whole day. 

Thank you God for giving Dr. Neff the skills to do this surgery for myself and others.

Wow has it been a long times since I have been here. I think of all you on a daily basics. I miss all of you. So much has happened in the last few months. I am still maintaing my weight loss. I pretty much have stopped and just bounce around 3 or 4 pounds up and down. I am told this is normal. I am still off my BP meds. My A1C Diabetic test is well with in normal range but my Doctor will not take me off my meds (which are the lowest dose by the way) as I "am too borderline". I can live with this. Most of the "meds" I take now are vitamin supplements I needed prior to VSG surgery anyway. The only RX meds I take now are for my low thyroid (very low dose now), my Diabetic meds (low dose) and my depression meds.

On a personal note my life has been quite busy. I ended up moving from my adult disabled apartment complex because I have temporary guardianship of my oldest grandson. I am unsure of how long this will last but we were in violation of our lease at the old complex because of having him with us. As it was for adult seniors and adult disabled only. We found a O.K. 2 bedroom house apartment not far from his school and as it ended up his next door neighbor is in his class. Now if all the family drama would just calm down, wink wink......

As of 10-27-09 I will be 1 year out from my VSG and I have not doubted my decision at all. Ya sure there was "ouch it hurts, why did I do this again" which lasted about 2 minutes as I quickly reminded myself why I chose to have surgery. To be healthy, to live long enough to at least see my grand children graduate High School. Well I can honestly say its been an eventful year on many levels. I have dropped from a size 18/20 in pants to a size 14 or medium! I am completely ecstatic. I still have a hard time realizing  this is my clothing size. I have gone from a weight of 220 lbs all time high the day I walked into my surgeons office to 149 as of today! I am off all my blood pressure meds. That happened  about 4 months if that long after surgery. I am almost off my diabetic meds. My family doctor wants to see how the holidays will go. My last A1C blood test (used to check a 3 month  average of my blood sugar) was 5.5! I need to be under 6! My cholesterol has dropped from 285 to 88! If it stays stable I will be off it soon also I hope. I do have to admit that a part of me is afraid that the 'numbers" are so good because I am taking the medication. It's like a part of me still is afraid to dream or realize that I can and have really done all this. To add to all the events of the last year, I have gained a new grand daughter who will be 1 year old just prior to Christmas. Finally a girl after 2 grandsons, wink, LOL! I have recently moved form a cramped 1 bedroom to a 2 bedroom so now all the office stuff has its own space. Also a tense event this last year has been a illness for my hubby. Its been 2 rounds of IV antibiotics and 2 hospital stays all since April. Not to mention all the doctors and testing he has has to undergo. Yes I have to admit it was stressful on me and at times I did do stress eating and fall back into some old bad eating habits. But I quickly remind myself to get back on track and it has helped. Coming here to read the boards is very helpful for me. I know I will be understood. That alone has be a great help also. In the last year I have made new friends and have seen my local support group evolve into a great new support system. Full of newsletters, happenings and so much more. We are even on Facebook now. OMG! 1 year ago I could not imagine any of this. 1 year ago I would never have read an issue of Prevention magazine or Web MD. Now its such a regular common part of my life. Life is good. Wink.

Limited Willpower Can Affect Your Workout

Study Shows Self-Control Comes in Limited Doses By Salynn Boyles
WebMD Health News Reviewed by Louise Chang, MD  

 

Sept. 25, 2009 -- You want to exercise. You know you should be exercising more. But even though you up wake every morning committed to hitting the gym or taking a long walk after work, your resolve is gone by the end of a long day.

Sound familiar?

For some lucky people, exercise is second nature. For the rest of us it takes willpower.

Now new research suggests that one big reason people fail to follow through on their exercise plans is that they have used up their willpower on other tasks.

The study examined the theory that people have limited stores of self-control, or willpower, in any given day.

Just like the money in your wallet, the theory goes, willpower is a finite resource that can't be used on one thing if it is already spent on another.

"When you use self-control for other things -- like meeting a deadline at work or resisting the temptation to eat a doughnut -- you deplete your pool of self-control," exercise scientist Kathleen Martin Ginis, PhD, of McMaster University tells WebMD. "We wanted to see how that impacted exercise."

Ginis and colleague Steven R. Bray, PhD, designed a laboratory experiment to do just that and recruited 61 university students who were not regular exercisers to take part.

The students were initially asked to work out on lab-based exercise machines. Half the participants were then asked to perform a task, known as the Stroop test, designed to deplete their willpower stores.

The test involved showing the students the words for colors printed in a different color. For example, the word red might be printed in green ink and so on.

The students were told to say the color they saw, and resist the temptation to say the color they were reading.

"It sounds pretty innocuous, but it definitely takes self-control to ignore the written word," Martin Ginis says.

The students were then subjected to a second round of exercise, and, as the researchers had suspected, those whose willpower had been challenged did not work out with the same intensity as those who had not taken the test.

The willpower-challenged students also worked out less over the next eight weeks.

The study was published this week in the journal Psychology and Health.

No Excuse to Stay on the Couch

So is there little hope for people who need willpower to exercise, but never seem to have enough?

Not at all, Martin Ginis says.

"The good news is self-control is like a muscle, and the more it is flexed the bigger it gets," she says. "The more you challenge yourself by doing things like resisting that chocolate cake or resisting the urge to hit the snooze button in the morning the more you build self-control."

Boston psychologist Eric Endlich, PhD, who specializes in motivating patients to diet and exercise, tells WebMD that having a plan for exercise can make all the difference.

Strategies recommended by Endlich and Martin Ginis include:

• Schedule exercise. Plan your exercise, including trips to the gym and the classes you want to take, ahead of time and have everything ready to go to avoid that 20-minute search for your running shoes. "If you've planned what you are doing and have everything ready, you avoid the big debate with yourself about whether you will do it or not," Endlich says. 
• Get a trainer or an exercise buddy. Being accountable to someone else is a great motivator. 
• Get it over with. If you know you can't make yourself exercise after an exhausting day, do it first thing in the morning. 
• Get in a good mood. Studies suggest that people can muster more self-control when they are in a good mood, Martin Ginis says. So listening to music that makes you happy or watching something funny online could be just the motivator you need.

Wow! has this even been the summer from hell for my poor hubby! Ever since April he has had one health problem after the other. More correctly, the same ones just lingering for a verity of reasons. What has this got to do with O. H. and me you are thinking to yourself....well it has been a test of resolve to my new self and my commitment to my new self. I have to say looking back over all I have not done too badly. Ya there have been times when I not have eaten as I know I should have (stress eating and old habit's are never far away it seems, wink) But the great thing is that I have not gained weight nor have I lost weight.

This brings me to another point. I have a feeling I have lost all the weight I am going to lose. Well unless I become a "gym rat". It should be noted that exercise and me are not the best of friends. I am right were my surgeon said I would be. Don't get me wrong I am very grateful for my journey and my new life, my new me. But the vain and greedy side of me wishes I could still look life I did when I weighted 130 and was 21. Ha Ha, I know its possible with plastic surgery but I don't see it happening considering the cost and my type of health insurance. But I can dream, right, wink....

I will post new updated pis of me soon. I am working on it. Just trying to get hubby squared away and I can then address this issue. Will update everyone soon.

Per Web MD

A former FDA commissioner explains why people overeat -- and how to end poor eating habits.

By Elizabeth Lee
WebMD Feature Reviewed by Brunilda Nazario, MD  

 

Does the ice cream in the freezer keep calling your name? Can't resist a jumbo bucket of popcorn at the movies?

Powerful forces you don't recognize may be driving you to overeat, according to a new book by former FDA Commissioner David Kessler, MD. The culprits: fat, salt, sugar, and brain chemistry.

Kessler stops short of calling Americans' love for sugary, fatty foods a " food addiction." But he believes there are similarities between why some people abuse drugs and why some of us can't resist every last deep-fried chip on a heaped plate of cheese-smothered nachos.

Knowing what's driving our overeating behavior is the first step to changing it, he says.

"For some, it's alcohol," Kessler tells WebMD. "For some, it's drugs. For some, it's gambling. For many of us, it's food."

Kessler, a Harvard-trained pediatrician and medical school professor at the University of California, San Francisco, started researching what would become The End of Overeating after watching an overweight woman talk about obsessive eating habits on The Oprah Winfrey Show. It sounded familiar. Kessler's own weight has zoomed up and down over the years, leaving him with suits of every size.

"For much of my life, sugar, fat, and salt held remarkable sway over my behavior," he writes.

And so the man who tackled tobacco companies while leading the FDA started researching why he couldn't turn down a chocolate chip cookie. He pored over studies on taste preferences, eating habits, and brain activity, conducted studies, and talked to food industry insiders, scientists, and people who struggled with overeating.

His theory: "Hyperpalatable" foods -- those loaded with fat, sugar, and salt -- stimulate the senses and provide a reward that leads many people to eat more to repeat the experience.

"I think the evidence is emerging, and the body of evidence is pretty significant," Kessler says.

He calls it conditioned hypereating, and here's how he says it works. When someone consumes a sugary, fatty food they enjoy, it stimulates endorphins, chemicals in the brain that signal a pleasurable experience. Those chemicals stimulate us to eat more of that type of food -- and also calm us down and make us feel good.

The brain also releases dopamine, which motivates us to pursue more of that food. And cues steer us back to it, too: the sight of the food, a road lined with familiar restaurants, perhaps a vending machine that sells a favorite candy bar. The food becomes a habit. We don't realize why we're eating it and why we can't control our appetite for it.

Once the food becomes a habit, it may not offer the same satisfaction. We look for foods higher in fat and sugar to bring back the thrill.

Kessler points to these factors as the cause of a dramatic spike in the number of overweight Americans in the past three decades.

Alternate Views on Overeating

Adam Drewnowski, director of the Center for Public Health and Nutrition at the University of Washington, isn't convinced.

"Yes, we like it, yes, we eat it, maybe our brains light up in response to it," Drewnowski says. "Are we addicted? No. Do we have to make it the mainstay of our diet? No."

Drewnowski, who is studying connections between poverty and obesity, contends other factors are making Americans fatter. His most recent study, published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Dietetic Association, examined the eating habits of 164 adults in Seattle. People with higher education and incomes were most likely to eat a lower-calorie, more nutritious diet, and to buy more costly food, according to the study.

"People who are obese are the ones who have no money, no education, eat cheap sugar and fat, and live in neighborhoods where cheap sugar and fat are the only things available," Drewnowski says. "We say they should choose better. But in our society, they have no choice."

Kessler allows that his theory of how biology drives overeating doesn't apply to everyone. He estimates that 70 million Americans are susceptible. Others, he says, don't respond to food stimuli in the same way, something that scientists haven't been able to explain.

Nora Volkow, director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health, sees similarities between situations that trigger drug abusers and those that make some people automatically order popcorn when they see a movie.

"It's the same biological mechanism," says Volkow, who studies dopamine connections to drug abuse and obesity.

The institute is studying brain chemistry to develop strategies to help people control those urges to overeat.

"People need to learn to handle their eating behaviors better," Volkow says. "Be aware of your conditioned responses. You can avoid that activity."

Taking Control of Your Eating Habits

Kessler believes conditioned hypereaters can take back control. He also calls for the food industry to take another look at how it makes and markets products that he believes manipulate eating behavior.

"It's become pretty egregious across the board," he says. "You look at most appetizers and main dishes at where America eats, and they're just layered and loaded with fat and sugar and salt. And it's not obvious."

An industry spokesman contends that Kessler's book doesn't reflect efforts to provide more nutritious food.

"He's got it backwards when it comes to the food industry's role," says Brian Kennedy, director of communications for the Grocery Manufacturers Association, a trade group for food and beverage companies. "We have heard our consumers and policy makers loud and clear, and are providing consumers with more products and healthier choices than ever before."

Kennedy points to other factors that cause people to become overweight, including lack of exercise.

The last time Kessler took on an industry, as FDA commissioner, he fought unsuccessfully to give the agency the power to regulate tobacco and was involved in efforts to secure a hefty settlement from tobacco companies to recover public health costs. With food, he wants to raise awareness of the cues that set many people into a hard-to-break cycle of overeating.

Instead of simply going on a diet, conditioned hypereaters need to change the way they approach food, he says.

Here are some of his tips:

• Structure your eating -- knowing when and how you're going to eat. That plan helps you avoid the situations or foods that trigger overeating and establishes new eating patterns to replace destructive ones.
• Set rules, such as not eating between meals. If you know you're not going to eat something, he says, your brain won't be as stimulated to steer you to that food.
• Change the way you think about food. Instead of looking at a huge plate of french fries and thinking about how good it will make you feel, he advises saying that it's twice as much food as you need, and will make you feel bad. "Once you know you're being stimulated and bombarded," Kessler says, "you can take steps to protect yourself."