Being obese as a teenager may be linked with an increased risk of multiple sclerosis as an adult, researchers say.

A 40-year study of 238,000 women found those who were obese at 18 had twice the risk of developing MS compared to women who were slimmer at that age.

Yet body size during childhood or adulthood was not found to be associated with MS risk, the US researchers report in Neurology.

But an MS charity warned more research was needed to confirm the findings.

Researchers from Harvard School of Public Health used data from nurses taking part in a large study on diet, lifestyle factors and health.

Over the course of the study, 593 women were diagnosed with MS, a condition caused by the loss of nerve fibres and their protective myelin sheath in the brain and spinal cord, which causes neurological damage.

The researchers compared the risk of the disease with body mass index (BMI) – a ratio of weight to height – at age 18.

Participants were also asked to describe their body size using a series of diagrams at the age of five, 10 and 20.

The study showed that those with an “obese” BMI of 30 or larger at age 18 had more than twice the risk of developing MS.

There was also a smaller increased risk in those who were classed as overweight .

The results were the same after accounting for smoking status and physical activity level.

Body shape

When comparing the risk of MS with self-reported body shape, the researchers found no association between childhood obesity and the future chances of developing the disease.

They also found no risk associated with adult obesity.

But women who had a larger body size at 20 years of age also had almost twice the risk of MS compared to women who reported a thinner body size.

Previous research has linked high levels of vitamin D with a reduced risk of MS and the researchers point out that obesity is associated with low vitamin D levels in the body.

The researchers suggest fatty tissue produces substances that affect the immune system, which may also provide a link with the chances of developing MS.

Further research should look at confirming the findings in men and individuals from different ethnic groups as well as comparing with vitamin D levels, they said.

“Our results suggest that weight during adolescence, rather than childhood or adulthood, is critical in determining the risk of MS,” said study author Kassandra Munger, ScD, of Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

“There’s a lot of research supporting the idea that adolescence may be an important time for development of disease, so what we have found is consistent with that.”

She added: “Teaching and practicing obesity prevention from the start – but especially during teenage years – may be an important step in reducing the risk of MS later in life for women.”

Susan Kohlhaas, research communications officer for the MS Society, said: “This study does not account for several other factors that may play a role in causing MS. Based on that, more work is needed.

“As such, it is difficult to determine whether teenage obesity could be a possible factor in causing MS in women.”

We have so many diet regimens that are available in virtually everywhere, and knowing the best among them seems an impossible task, but the solutions lies in doing away with does magazines, gimmicks and the celebrity junks – by following a strictly controlled weight loss diet that are highlighted below:

1. It must be a balanced diet with the presence of all necessary and essential food supplements.
2. The diet arrays must be sufficient enough to enhance diet continuity
3. The diet must not contain any stimulant like coffee or alcohol.
4. The diet must be strictly part of the daily meal
5. It must be an affordable diet, not the expensive food supplements
6. Weight loss diet must also be complemented with an exercise program
7. The weight loss diet must be based solely on foods.

Finally, the best weight loss diet can fail especially if you are not serious about it, because it must not be handled with lazy attitudes. The important measure of this program is continuity and a must change lifestyle.

Did you know that there are more tips to lose weight over at the health and wellness blog, HealthRuns.com? Check out the latest, the truth about six pack abs review to see how you can chisel out sexy looking abs.

The main characteristic of Bulimia is an extreme preoccupation with food and weight, causing out of control eating patterns, including Binge eating.

A deep sense of guilt and shame follows overeating. Bulimia sufferers will then indulge themselves in unhealthy and dangerous compensatory behaviors such as

Self-Induced Vomiting
Misuse of Laxatives
Misuse of Fluid Pills
Misuse of Diet Pills
Misuse of Enemas
Intense periods of Exercise
Strict dieting or fasting

Family members or friends may not notice anything wrong as people with Bulimia are usually within a normal weight range for their age, sex and height, combined with the fact that binge eating followed by compensatory behaviors are normally performed in secrecy, makes Bulimia symptoms very difficult to recognize.

People with Bulimia may also have a distorted body image, even if their body weight is normal.

The following are more noticeable signs that someone may be suffering from Bulimia

Avoidance of social situations involving food.
Excessive Dieting or overeating
Excessive or fluctuating exercise patterns.
Faintness, dizziness or fatigue.
Fear of becoming overweight.
Regular trips to the bathroom after meals may be to regurgitate the food just eaten?
Depression anxiety
Psychological problems and distress.

Some people exhibit many signs of an Eating Disorder, while others may exhibit only a few.

People with eating disorders may experience a range of physical health complications, including serious heart conditions and kidney failure that may lead to death. The sooner an Eating Disorder is diagnosed and appropriate treatments begun, the better the outcomes are likely to be.

Eating Disorders can be highly complex, requiring a comprehensive treatment strategy that involves psychosocial interventions, nutritional counseling, medical care and monitoring, and perhaps even medication management.  At the time of diagnosis, a doctor will need to determine whether a person health and general well-being are in serious danger and may recommend immediate hospitalization.

The primary aim in the treatment of Bulimia sufferers is to reduce or eliminate binge eating and purging behavior.  To achieve this, a range of treatment options may be required, such as nutritional rehabilitation, psychosocial intervention, and medication management.

In addition, establishing a regular pattern of non-binge meals, and improving eating attitudes, encouraging healthy but not excessive exercise, and resolving other relevant and co-occurring conditions, such as mood and anxiety disorders, are also essential components for the treatment of Bulimia sufferers.

A range of individual psychotherapies, such as cognitive-behavioral or interpersonal psychotherapy, group psychotherapy that uses a cognitive-behavioral approach, and family or marital therapy can also be effective in treating Bulimia.
Frequency
It is estimated that 1.1% to 4.2% of females living in Western Society will suffer from some form of Bulimia in their life-time. Approximately 1/6th of Bulimia sufferers are male.

What causes Eating Disorders?
The causes of Eating Disorders can be highly complex, and include a range of factors, such as
Social / cultural factors
Psychological factors
Biological factors
Family factors
External or precipitating factors

Prevention
It is very difficult to prevent eating disorders however ensuring that your family is emotionally and mentally prepared for the challenges of modern life is a good start towards prevention. You can do this by regularly discussing sensible nutritional habits with your family members and always ensure that they are only exposed to realistic body images.

In this article, both strategies will be explained in as simple and easy way as possible.

All right – that doesn’t sound like much, especially if you’re more than 25 pounds overweight. Fortunately studies have shown, that those people who lose weight gradually – at a rate of 1-2 pounds per week -are far more likely to keep the weight off and maintain a normal weight for a lifetime.

Interesting!! Now the question is “How much exactly is 500 calories? If you’re going to decrease your daily intake by 500 calories, it helps to know what you need to cut out, right?

Here i will explain how easy it is to lose 500 calories a day:

* Use milk instead of cream in your coffee. Savings? 50 calories per cup.

* Skip the butter on your baked potato. Savings? 100 calories

* Drink fruit-flavored water instead of a 16 ounce soda. Savings? 200 calories

* Skip the Big Mac and have a salad instead. A Big Mac weighs in at a whopping 460 calories. A fresh salad with a light dressing? Less than 100! Savings? 360 calories

* Pass by the bag of potato chips. An average snack size bag of chips has over 300 calories. Savings? 300 calories

* Eat your corn on the ear. A 1 cup serving of canned corn has 165 calories. An ear of corn has 85. Savings? 80 calories.

* Switch to low-fat cream cheese on your bagel. Savings? 90 calories per ounce.

* Love those fries and can’t give them up? Swap the skinny fries out for thick steak-cut ones. Thin French fries absorb more oil than the thicker, meatier ones. Savings? 50 calories per 4 ounce serving

Now if you are rather looking at losing weight from an exercise perspective, you can also lose one pound a week by upping your activity level by 500 calories a day. How easy is that to do? Take a look:

* Take a half-hour walk around the park. Aim for a pace that’s a little faster than a stroll, but not fast enough to be breathless. Burn: 160 calories.

* Get out your bike and take a ride. Tackle a few moderate hills and aim for about five miles total. Burn: 250 calories

* Go dancing – and really DANCE. The longer you’re out on the floor instead of at the table drinking up high-calorie drinks, the more you’ll get out of it. Dancing that makes you breathless and warms up your body will net you a nice calorie savings. Burn: 400 calories for one hour

* Swimming is great for you, and a lot of fun, too. The water resistance means you burn more calories, and you avoid the stress impact on joints from aerobics, dancing or walking. Do a few laps at a slow crawl – if you can get up to an hour you’ll be doing great! Burn: 510 calories

* Get out into your garden. An hour of gardening tasks that includes bending and stretching can burn up to as many calories as a brisk walk. Burn: 250 calories.

* Play a game of tennis. Hook up with a friend for a weekly tennis game and you’ll be amazed at the difference. One hour of vigorous tennis is one of the best calorie burners around. Burn: 800 calories

It is very important to keep in mind that all exercise/calorie numbers are based on a woman weighing 130 pounds. Good news is if you weigh more, you’ll burn more. Do you want to know an added bonus to burning calories through exercise? TIP: When you exercise, you build muscle by converting it from fat. And your body uses more energy to maintain and feed muscle than it does fat. So, this is more good news.

For best results, mix and match food savings along with exercises that burn calories. Do keep in mind that eating less than 1000 calories a day for more than a few days will convince your body that it is starving and thus will slow down your metabolism. Keep calorie ranges reasonable, and consult a doctor if you want a quicker, more drastic weight loss.

For example, a few days back i wrote an article on this blog which can be read here   http://thehealthinfo.info/few-diet-rules-meant-to-be-broken. In that article, 9 food rules were mentioned which can be ignored (not dangerous to health). The first point mentioned was that it is not neccassary that one will gain weight if in a habit of eating more at night because it is the total number of calories consumed in 24 hours that matters rather than just eating more at dinner. But the most recent data contradicts it.

It has now been published and available on BBC health news site that it does really matter if one eats more at night time regardless of total calories consumed throughout the day.

The article says that, Late-night snackers are more likely to gain weight, research suggests.

A team from Northwestern University, Illinois, found that when you eat, not just how you eat, could make a big difference.

Scientists found that when mice ate at unusual hours, they put on twice as much weight, despite exercising and eating as much as others.

The study, in the journal Obesity, is said to be the first to show directly that there is a “wrong” time to eat.

Recent studies have suggested that circadian rhythms, the body’s internal clock, have a role in how our bodies use up energy. However, this had been difficult to definitively pin down.

Deanna Arble, lead author of the study, said: “One of our research interests is shift workers, who tend to be overweight.

“This got us thinking that eating at the wrong time of day might be contributing to weight gain.”

The experiment looked at two groups of mice over a six-week period. Both groups were fed a high-fat diet, but at different times of the mice “waking cycle”.

One group of mice ate at times when they would normally be asleep. They put on twice as much weight.

This was despite them doing the same level of activity, and eating the same amount of food, as the other mice.

Groundbreaking

The findings may have implications for people worried about their weight.

“How or why a person gains weight is very complicated, but it is clearly not just calories in and calories out,” said Fred Turek, from the Northwestern’s Center for Sleep and Circadian Biology, where the research took place.

“Better timing of meals could be a critical element in slowing the ever-increasing incidence of obesity.”

Tam Fry, from the National Obesity Forum, agreed. He said: “It is groundbreaking. It really gets you thinking why this has not been done before.

“It could be very dramatic if it affects whether you are going to get fat or not.”

At this stage, the results could still be interpreted as controversial when applied to humans.

The scientists now hope they can find out more about how the process works. It is thought that sleep, hormones and body temperature all play a part in how we gain weight.

This aricle can be found at  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8234386.stm

Weight loss

Loosing weight is a tough result to obtain regardless of original weight or level of physical fitness. There are many different ways to lose weight, some more unhealthy than others, but the ones that work are most times the most complicated to pull off.

Some people may recommend eating less to lose weight, and in some cases eating less is a key component of losing weight, but in most cases, eating is a necessity if one wishes to lower their own weight. Without food and the calories they supply, your body has no energy to burn and in turn will turn your existing fat as well as muscle into energy. In order to lose weight you must make a commitment, a commitment that must not be broken if you desire results.

Do starve yourself during your diet plan, but just be sure that you have set reasonable limits for yourself that you are ready to commit to. If you are on a strict diet, a “cheat” meal here and there will go a long way to keeping you happy.

To be successful in achieving your goal of weight loss: set multiple, smaller, more easily attainable goals for yourself. These will keep you self motivated and more likely to obtaining your overall goal of a happier and healthier life.

Obesity

It’s well accepted that reduced physical activity and fast food are linked to obesity. But the evidence that these are the main causes of obesity is largely circumstantial. To stimulate debate, experts suggest 10 other possible causes of obesity, outlined in the International Journal of Obesity.

1. Sleep debt. Getting too little sleep can increase body weight. Today, many get less shut-eye than ever.
2. Pollution. Hormones control body weight. And many of today’s pollutants affect our hormones.
3. Air conditioning. You have to burn calories if your environment is too hot or too cold for comfort. But more people than ever live and work in temperature-controlled homes and offices.
4. Decreased smoking. Smoking reduces weight. People smoke much less than they used to (But that is a good thing to do).
5. Medicine. Many different drugs including contraceptives, steroid hormones, diabetes drugs, some antidepressants, and blood pressure drugs can cause weight gain. Use of these drugs is on the upswing.
6. Population age, ethnicity. Middle-aged people and Hispanic-Americans tend to be more obese than young European-Americans. Americans are getting older and more Hispanic.
7. Older moms. There’s some evidence that the older a woman is when she gives birth, the higher her child’s risk of obesity. Women are giving birth at older and older ages.
8. Ancestors’ environment. Some influences may go back two generations. Environmental changes that made a grandparent obese may “through a fetally driven positive feedback loop” visit obesity on the grandchildren.
9. Obesity linked to fertility. There’s some evidence obese people are more fertile than lean ones (Other than Obese ladies suffering from Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome). If obesity has a genetic component, the percentage of obese people in the population should increase.
10. Unions of obese spouses. Obese women tend to marry obese men, and if obesity has a genetic component, there will be still more obese people in the next generation.

These other contributing factors deserve more attention and study. Even more explanations include: a fat-inducing virus; increases in childhood depression; less consumption of dairy products; and hormones used in agriculture. What do you think can be attributed to the epidemic?

Dieting

Obesity is a physical state that refers to excessive body fat. Chances are you have experienced the frustrations of dieting at least once in your life, if you have problems with your weight. Close to a hundred million Americans go on a weight loss diet in any given year and up to ninety-five percent of them regain the weight they lose within five years. Worse, a third will gain back more weight than they lost, in danger of “yo-yoing” from one popular diet to another. The conventional approach to weight problems, focusing on fad weight loss diets or weight loss drugs, may leave you with just as much weight and the additional burden of ill health.

Today, an estimated sixty-five percent of all American adults are obese or overweight. Our culture obsesses about staying thin even as we grow fatter, but this isn’t about appearances. Obesity is known to be a precursor to many debilitating health conditions such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension, osteoarthritis, and gallbladder disease. Obesity contributes to as many as 375,000 deaths every year. In addition, the public health costs for obesity are staggering. According to researchers at Harvard University, obesity is a factor in 19% of all cases of heart disease with annual health costs estimated at 30 billion dollars; it’s also a factor in 57% of diabetes cases, with health costs of $9 billion per year.

Set Realistic Goals:

No doubt you have fallen for one or more of the weight loss diet schemes over the years, promising quick and painless weight loss. Many of these quick weight loss diet programs undermine your health, cause physical discomfort, flatulence, and ultimately lead to disappointment when you start regaining weight, shortly after losing it. Fad or quick weight loss diet programs generally overstress one type of food. They contravene the fundamental principle of good nutrition – to remain healthy one must consume a balanced diet, which includes a variety of foods. Safe, healthy, and permanent weight reduction is what’s truly lost among the thousands of popular diet schemes.

Some of the weight loss diet schemes reign supreme briefly, only to fade out. While some wane from popularity due to being unproductive or unsafe, some simply lose the public’s curiosity. Examples of such fad diets include the South Beach Diet, Atkins diet, the Grapefruit diet, Cabbage Soup diet, the Rotation diet, Beverly Hills diet, Breatharian, Ornish Plan – the list goes on and on. These fad diets advocate a specific technique (such as eliminating a certain food, or eating only certain combinations of foods) in conjunction with the basic idea that the body makes up the difference in energy by breaking down and utilizing some part of itself, essentially converting matter into energy. This self-cannibalism, or catabolism as it is referred, typically starts with breakdown of stored body fat.

This must not be practiced at any cost.