(Press-News.org) A paper published today on bmj.com suggests a strong association between population-wide weight change and risk of death from type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Variation in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes across populations can be largely explained by obesity. However, it is unclear as to what extent weight loss would lower cardiovascular disease prevalence.
Whole population trends in food consumption and transportation policies linked to physical activity could reduce the burden of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease at the population level.
Following the Cuban economic crisis of the early 1990s, food and fuel shortages resulted in a decline in dietary energy intake and large increases in physical activity. This resulted in an average population-wide weight loss of 4-5kg (8-11lbs). Rapid declines in death rates from diabetes and coronary heart disease were subsequently observed.
Comparing disease rates over time can demonstrate the power of prevention and help identify key risk factors.
An international team of researchers from Spain, Cuba and the US (led by Dr Franco, associate professor at University of Alcalá) therefore examined the association between population-wide body changes and diabetes incidence (the number of new individuals who contract a disease), prevalence (the total number of cases in a particular period of time) and death rates from type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease, cancer and all-causes in Cuba between 1980 and 2010. Cuba is a country with a long tradition of public health and cardiovascular research which provided the necessary data from national health surveys, cardiovascular studies, primary care chronic disease registries and vital statistics over three decades. The Cuban population is relatively homogeneous and has undergone large social and economic changes directly related to food consumption and physical activity from 1980 through 2010.
Four population-based cross-sectional surveys were used and data were available on height, weight, energy intake, smoking and physical activity. All participants were aged between 15 and 74.
Population-wide changes in energy intake and physical activity were accompanied by large changes in body weight: between 1991 and 1995 there was an average 5kg reduction, whereas between 1995 and 2010 a population-wide weight rebound of 9kg was observed.
Smoking prevalence slowly decreased during the 1980s and 1990s and declined more rapidly in the 2000s. The number of cigarettes consumed per capita decreased during and shortly after the crisis.
Diabetes prevalence surged from 1997 onwards as the population began to gain weight. Diabetes incidence (new cases) decreased during the weight loss period but then increased until it peaked in the weight regain years.
In 1996, five years after the start of the weight loss period, there was an abrupt downward trend in death from diabetes. This lasted six years during which energy intake status gradually recovered and physical activity levels were reduced. In 2002, death rates returned to pre-crisis trends and a dramatic increase in diabetes death was observed.
Regarding CHD and stroke death trends we can see a slow decline from 1980 to 1996 followed by a dramatic decline after the weight loss phase. These descending trends have halted during the weight regain phase.
The researchers conclude that the "Cuban experience in 1980-2010" demonstrates that within a relatively short period, modest weight loss in the whole population can have a profound effect on the overall burden of diabetes and deaths from cardiovascular disease. They say that although findings show that a 5kg population-wide weight loss "would reduce diabetes mortality by half and CHD mortality by a third", these findings are an extrapolation from this one experience – nonetheless they provide a "notable illustration of the potential health benefits of reversing the global obesity epidemic".
In an accompanying editorial, Professor Willett from the Harvard School of Public Health says that Franco and colleagues "add powerful evidence that a reduction in overweight and obesity would have major population-wide benefits". He also says that authors are appropriately cautious in their conclusions and avoid "attributing all the changes in disease rates to changes in weight". He adds that physicians can help promote healthy behaviour by "visibly engaging in healthy behaviour".
Dr Franco summarises the findings in a video. Dr Franco explains how population science can give us the tools to combat diseases such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes and how tackling unhealthy diet and physical inactivity can reduce the disease burden. He also stresses the importance of promoting physical activity, including cycling and walking, as a means of transportation.
INFORMATION: END
A research team from Birkbeck, University of London, Royal Holloway University and Uppsala University in Sweden, have helped explain how ozone causes severe respiratory problems and thousands of cases of premature death each year by attacking the fatty lining of our lungs.
In a study published in Langmuir, the team used neutrons from the Institut Laue-Langevin in Grenoble and the UK's ISIS Neutron Source to observe how even a relatively low dose of ozone attacks lipid molecules that line the lung's surface. The presence of the lipid molecules is crucial for the exchange ...
WASHINGTON, D.C. — April 9, 2013 — The nanoparticle drug BIND-014 is effective against multiple solid tumors, according to results generated by the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) and Scottsdale Healthcare, and presented today at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2013.
Data for the study was generated at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials, a partnership of TGen and Scottsdale Healthcare.
Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, TGen Physician-In-Chief and Chief Scientific Officer of Scottsdale Healthcare's Clinical Research ...
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — April 9, 2013 — The safety and preliminary efficacy of a new class of tumor fighting drugs were reported today by Scottsdale Healthcare's Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
Early results from the phase I, first in-human study of an RNA interface (RNAi) drug were announced during the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2013, April 6-10, in Washington, D.C. The drug, TKM-080301 (also known as TKM-PLK1) is being developed by Tekmira Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
The ...
Scientists at The University of Manchester have found evidence of the genetic basis of the evolutionary arms-race between parasitoids and their aphid hosts.
The researchers studied the reaction of aphids when a parasitic wasp with genetic variation laid eggs in them. They found that different genotypes of the wasp affected where the aphids went to die, including whether they left the plant host entirely. The team also found an example of the emergence of a shared phenotype that was partly wasp and partly aphid.
Dr Mouhammad Shadi Khudr, a visiting scientist at the Faculty ...
Some of the largest female birds in the world were almost twice as big as their male mates. Research carried out by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) shows that this amazing size difference in giant moa was not due to any specific environmental factors, but evolved simply as a result of scaling-up of smaller differences in male and female body size shown by their smaller-bodied ancestors.
The paper is published today (10th April) in Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In an environment lacking large mammals, New Zealand's giant moa (Dinornis) evolved to be one ...
Geckos are known for their sticky adhesive toes that allow them to stick to, climb on, and run along surfaces in any orientation--even upside down! But until recently, it was not well understood how geckos kept their sticking ability even on wet surfaces, as are common in the tropical regions in which most geckos live. A 2012 study in which geckos slipped on wet glass perplexed scientists trying to unlock the key to gecko adhesion in climates with plentiful rain and moisture.
A study supported by the National Science Foundation and published in the Proceedings of the ...
There is no single sexy chin.
That's the conclusion of a new Dartmouth College global study of male and female preferences for facial characteristics of the opposite sex. The results, which contradict the notion that human beauty is universal, are published in the journal PLOS ONE.
The researchers studied chin shapes among 180 male and female skeletons in nine areas in Australia, Africa, Asia, and Europe to test the universal facial attractiveness hypothesis. The hypothesis proposes that some facial features are universally preferred by the opposite sex because they ...
New Rochelle, NY, April 9, 2013—One of the main obstacles that stands in the way of using human hematopoietic stem cells (hHSCs) to treat a variety of diseases is the difficulty growing them in culture—they quickly die or differentiate into other cell types. A series of experiments that demonstrate the successful use of fat cells as part of a feeder layer to support prolonged growth of hHSCs in culture is reported in an article in BioResearch Open Access, a bimonthly peer-reviewed open access journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available on the ...
Scientists from UCLA's Fielding School of Public Health led by Julia Heck, an assistant researcher in the school's epidemiology department and a member of UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, have found a possible link between exposure to traffic-related air pollution and several childhood cancers.
The results of their study — the first to examine air pollution from traffic and a number of rarer childhood cancers — were presented on April 9 in an abstract at the annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research in Washington, D.C.
For the study, ...
ANN ARBOR—In a development that could make the advanced form of secure communications known as quantum cryptography more practical, University of Michigan researchers have demonstrated a simpler, more efficient single-photon emitter that can be made using traditional semiconductor processing techniques.
Single-photon emitters release one particle of light, or photon, at a time, as opposed to devices like lasers that release a stream of them. Single-photon emitters are essential for quantum cryptography, which keeps secrets safe by taking advantage of the so-called observer ...
