Waist of Death

The body circumference that we always see in front of the mirror, sometimes bug us very much and occupy our minds every single time, especially for females. For women, how large the waist plays a very important aspect as far as the image of a female is concerned. As for the males, how large the waist rings alarm about whether they are at risk in getting cardiovascular diseases as well as obesity.

All this while, large waist circumference has always been associated with inflammation, insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes, abnormal cholesterol levels and heart disease, but a recent study pointed out that, a large waist circumference is now linked to higher risk of death from any cause over a nine-year period.

The study which was conducted by Eric J. Jacobs, Ph.D and his colleagues at the American Cancer Society, found out that after adjusting for body mass index (BMI) and other risk factors, large waist circumference (47 inches or more in men / 42 inches or more in women) increase the risk of dying by two-folds. Especially in women, such large waist circumference causes the most influence and bring major bad aftermaths to them. But the reason why strong association between waist circumference and mortality among women with low BMI is still unclear. More studies and experiments are needed in the future to further prove this point.

Wrong Perception

A study which was published in general media recently has caused some turmoil in medical and nutrition field. The mentioned study was postulating that calcium supplements may increase risk of heart attacks. Such statement does not seems to be coming in congruent with what we are practicing for now. Although GTF Products do not really exist as calcium supplement products, it is more like a product which concerns more on metabolic syndromes, but on the other hand, since it comes in the form of milk (GTF Milk Powder), many users consider that it is one of the many types of calcium supplements.

First thing first, such postulation, although was published in general media, it seems to be flawed. Before we further discuss how such study is not proven right scientifically, let us take a quick view on what the first study has to say about how calcium supplements increase the risk of cardiovascular diseases.

A recent trial found out that calcium supplements may trigger cardiovascular events in healthy older women, such phenomenon caused a group of researchers to conduct a meta-analysis, which is an analysis where it involves re-analysis of certain results from lots of other studies and as if they belonged to one giant study. From the meta-analysis they have conducted, it appeared that people who took calcium supplements have 31 per cents higher in suffering heart diseases compare to those who do not take in any calcium supplements.

Such results might exist, but it does not appear to be accurate and convinced. According to Daniel Fabricant, Ph.D., the vice president of Global Government and Scientific Affairs for the Natural Products Association, he pointed out that such study was not precisely referring that calcium supplements could increase the risk of heart diseases, because there are thousands of studies on calcium, but the authors who conducted the meta-analysis selected only eight to do the meta-analysis, in addition, none of the selected studies had cardiovascular outcomes as the primary end-points. He further encouraged that especially for those populations that are at high risk for fractures to continue their regimens by taking their calcium supplements without distracted by such less than satisfactory study.

Biological Clock & Triglycerides

Previously, an article about circadian rhythm is published in this blog site, and as all of you have been informed if you have read it, circadian cycle is so important for all of us, as it basically determines how our biological system works daily. Hence, following how it goes routinely should be done everyday.

Recently, another published study even strengthens the importance of the rhythm. US researchers have recently discovered that, if the body clock (biological clock) or circadian rhythm is disrupted, it could consequently interfere with a normal 24 hour cycle of high and low triglycerides in a way that leaves them at a high level all the time. If such phenomenon occurs, it generally means that the risk of atherosclerosis and heart diseases would increase.

Dr. Hussain and colleagues conducted the study with two batches of mice, where one of the groups consist of normal mice, where they were active at night, coming out to hunt for food, and sleep during the day time. While the other group, was specially bred so that they were adapted to a broken sleep-wake cycle, where the researchers refer them as the "clock mutants". For the clock mutant group, they had no regular pattern in sleep or wake, they were bred in a way that they eat both during the day as well as during night time.

The result of such study showed that, for the normal mice, the level of triglycerides peaked or even doubled when they were asleep, but comes to a lowest point at night when the mice were most active. In the contrary, researchers observed that the clock mutants had their triglyceride levels varied hardly throughout 24 hours, and what is more, the triglyceride levels stayed relatively high all the time.

A high level of triglycerides could cause major bad aftermaths such as metabolic disorders and obesity. Therefore, folks, you might need to start thinking of when to sleep, when to stay active from now onwards.