It has long been know that cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in the developed world. Since 1948 with the groundbreaking study of the population of Framingham, Massachusetts, the risk factors of hypertension, elevated cholesterol and stress were identified.
A recent study, the Interheart study (http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/489738) took the study of risk factors to an international level, including lower and middle income countries. Nine common factors were determined to contribute to heart disease; increased ApoB/apoA1 ratio, smoking, diabetes, hypertension, abdominal obesity, psychological factors, daily consumption of vegetables and fruit, exercise and alcohol intake.
So what’s the difference between obesity and abdominal obesity?
Abdominal obesity is defined as the accumulation of abdominal fat resulting in an increased waist size. For men it is defined as having a waist of more than 40 inches, 35 inches for women.
There you have it. Two diagnostic tests are required to determine your cardiovascular risk. One is a blood test that requires a blood specimen. The other involves a tape measure. Simply take the tape measure, wrap it around your waist at belly button limit and see what your risk factor is. Both are necessary, and will affect the other.
Showing posts with label diabetes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label diabetes. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Adiponectin- Unlikely hero in the body
Adiponectin- Hormone responsible for putting out small fires.
The body is constantly under attack from the abuse of living. Internally there are all these injuries occurring at the molecular level, causing damage that spreads like wildfire until it is out of control. Metabolic syndrome is an example of this. What is it? This is a term used to describe a group of conditions that put patients at higher risk of developing type two diabetes and/or heart disease. Patients having three or more of the following are considered to have Metabolic Syndrome:
- High fasting glucose (greater than 5.6 mmol/L)
- High Blood Pressure (130/85 of higher)
- High Triglyceride (> 1.7 mmol/L)
- Decreased HDL (<1.0 in men, <1.3 in women) (A trick to remember which cholesterol is which is that HDL is the Healthy one, LDL is the Lousy one )
- Abdominal obesity or too much fat around the waist (>102 cm (40 inches) for men, >88 cm (35 inches) for women)
There is some debate on what causes Metabolic Syndrome. Is it due to increased insulin resistance, genetics, old age or life style? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a diligent fulltime fighter in the human body that went around putting out the little brush fires these conditions caused before they became five alarm threats to our health?
Researchers have discovered a hormone that does this and it is from an unlikely source.
After studying the cells found in adipose (fatty) tissue called adipocytes, it was discovered that forty percent of the expressed genes were unknown or novel genes, even the gene that was most abundant and specific for an adipocyte. Further research identified a protein produced by adipocytes termed adiponectin.
Logic would determine that the more adipose tissue you have the more adipocytes present would result in increased levels of adiponectin, correct?
Wrong. To everyone’s surprise the higher the body mass index (BMI) the lower the adiponectin levels. Healthy patients with low levels of body fat had higher levels of adiponectin. Patients with Metabolic Syndrome and diabetes also had low levels of adiponectin.
So what does adiponectin exactly do?
It can help prevent atherosclerosis in blood vessels. Atherosclerosis is damage to cell walls caused by accumulation of fatty materials, such as LDL cholesterol and white blood cells called monocytes. Adiponectin has been found to prevent this kind of cell wall damage by having inhibitory affect against molecules that cause LDL and monocytes from sticking to vessel walls. This protein once secreted by adipocytes enters into the blood stream and looking for damaged cells lining vessel walls to repair, putting out small fires before they burn out of control.
The bad news is that measurement of adiponectin is not routinely done in the medical lab... yet. But when it does, it will help determine which patients will be at risk of developing Metabolic Syndrome. A good article to read about this can be found at :
http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/24/1/29
Thank you for taking the time to read my posting. I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
Regards,
Mark Hawkins
The body is constantly under attack from the abuse of living. Internally there are all these injuries occurring at the molecular level, causing damage that spreads like wildfire until it is out of control. Metabolic syndrome is an example of this. What is it? This is a term used to describe a group of conditions that put patients at higher risk of developing type two diabetes and/or heart disease. Patients having three or more of the following are considered to have Metabolic Syndrome:
- High fasting glucose (greater than 5.6 mmol/L)
- High Blood Pressure (130/85 of higher)
- High Triglyceride (> 1.7 mmol/L)
- Decreased HDL (<1.0 in men, <1.3 in women) (A trick to remember which cholesterol is which is that HDL is the Healthy one, LDL is the Lousy one )
- Abdominal obesity or too much fat around the waist (>102 cm (40 inches) for men, >88 cm (35 inches) for women)
There is some debate on what causes Metabolic Syndrome. Is it due to increased insulin resistance, genetics, old age or life style? Wouldn’t it be nice if there was a diligent fulltime fighter in the human body that went around putting out the little brush fires these conditions caused before they became five alarm threats to our health?
Researchers have discovered a hormone that does this and it is from an unlikely source.
After studying the cells found in adipose (fatty) tissue called adipocytes, it was discovered that forty percent of the expressed genes were unknown or novel genes, even the gene that was most abundant and specific for an adipocyte. Further research identified a protein produced by adipocytes termed adiponectin.
Logic would determine that the more adipose tissue you have the more adipocytes present would result in increased levels of adiponectin, correct?
Wrong. To everyone’s surprise the higher the body mass index (BMI) the lower the adiponectin levels. Healthy patients with low levels of body fat had higher levels of adiponectin. Patients with Metabolic Syndrome and diabetes also had low levels of adiponectin.
So what does adiponectin exactly do?
It can help prevent atherosclerosis in blood vessels. Atherosclerosis is damage to cell walls caused by accumulation of fatty materials, such as LDL cholesterol and white blood cells called monocytes. Adiponectin has been found to prevent this kind of cell wall damage by having inhibitory affect against molecules that cause LDL and monocytes from sticking to vessel walls. This protein once secreted by adipocytes enters into the blood stream and looking for damaged cells lining vessel walls to repair, putting out small fires before they burn out of control.
The bad news is that measurement of adiponectin is not routinely done in the medical lab... yet. But when it does, it will help determine which patients will be at risk of developing Metabolic Syndrome. A good article to read about this can be found at :
http://atvb.ahajournals.org/cgi/reprint/24/1/29
Thank you for taking the time to read my posting. I look forward to your thoughts and comments.
Regards,
Mark Hawkins
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