Readers may recall last week’s Hindsight post on our paper in which we described our finding that angiotensin II inhibits the adipogenic differentiation of fat cells, and conversely, blocking the AT 1 receptor resulted in an accelerated differentiation of adipocyte precursor cells.
While many would think that growing more fat cells may be a bad thing, [...]

Given our interest in the renin angiotensin system (RAS) in adipose tissue, in the early 2000s, my lab back in Berlin was studying the effect of how this system affects the growth and differentiation of cultured human fat cells.
Other laboratories had suggested that angiotensin II (Ang II) plays a role in the differentiation of preadipocytes [...]

Yesterday, I posted on the notion that simply removing the cause of weight gain does not directly translate into weight loss.
In fact, I have previously posted on the idea that the first sign of success in weight management is the prevention of further weight gain.
For those of us in clinical practice, this idea raises several [...]

Regular readers are well aware of the increasing evidence that points to a major role for sleep deprivation in the current obesity epidemic. Indeed, one of the most evident societal changes coinciding with the epidemic spread of excess weight is the significant reduction in sleeping hours – in both kids and adults.
Now a study by [...]

In 2001, Mitch Lazar’s group at the University of Pennsylvania reported a new protein secreted from fat cells that they called resistin, because increased levels of this protein apparently induced insulin resistance in mice.
This prompted many laboratories, including mine, to measure resistin and explore its expression in humans.
In a paper we published in OBESITY RESEARCH [...]

Starting each day with a balanced and healthy breakfast is one of the most robust dietary recommendations – especially for anyone trying to better manage their weight.
Interestingly enough, however, starting your day with a breakfast may have other important benefits – perhaps, even reducing your risk for type 2 diabetes.
According to a paper by Rania [...]

Yesterday, I noted that, although in the short term, bariatric surgery may be the preferred treatment for individuals with diabetes, the vast majority of people with this condition will have little hope of ever being handed this ‘parachute’.
For most, medical management of diabetes will be the best they can hope for.
But hope they can – [...]

In 2003, Gordon Smith and Jill Pell from the University of Cambridge, UK, published a thought-provoking paper in the British Medical Journal, on the effectiveness of parachute use to prevent death and major trauma related to gravitational challenge.
Despite an exhaustive search of the medical literature, they were unable to identify any randomised controlled trials of [...]

Diane’s water broke, so she has been in the hospital since Tuesday, and won’t be released until the baby is born. The problem is she’s only 22-weeks into the pregnancy, which is far too early for a safe delivery. At … Continue r…

Tanya has gone to Dnipropetrovs’k for the day, leaving me to putter about the house on my own, which I quite enjoy once in a while.  She is going to get insulin for Roman and to "check out" the flower market conveniently located near the bus depot.

We buy insulin for Roman that is made in Europe.  As Tanya says Insulin made in Ukraine or China (provided free by the health system) is only for

Researcher Michael Snyder watched as his body began to develop diabetes — then used the tools of personal genomics to heal himself.

Regular readers will be aware that there is a rather poor relationship between the total amount of body fat and health, which, indecently, is why I am not a big fan of the term ‘healthy weight’ and why we had to come up with the Edmonton Obesity Staging System.
In fact, we have known for a [...]

For the first time in more than three weeks I can hear the bathroom fan. Since January 25th I’ve been mostly deaf. The kind of deaf where, just to hear the TV, I had to turn the volume past 60. … Continue reading →

For the past ten days I’ve been suffering through an ear infection. Both ears. Until just a few days ago they were both completely closed. For the most part, I’ve been deaf. The only things I’ve heard for the past … Continue rea…

My girlfriend flipped out tonight, she was completely out of control, she threw our baby’s highchair across the kitchen, she was swearing and yelling at her six-year old son, but mostly at me, and accusing me of keeping our two-year … Conti…

Since my first publication in 1987, I have authored or co-authored well over 300 peer-reviewed papers, about half of which are on topics related to obesity. This year, I thought I would dedicate my Saturday posts to reviewing some of these papers and sharing the stories behind them. If nothing else, it may point readers [...]

In my continuing coverage from the World Diabetes Congress, I thought it may be appropriate to share with my readers the Global Diabetes Plan 2011-2012, recently released by the International Diabetes Federation.
The objectives of this ambitious plan are to
1) Improve health outcomes of people with diabetes – early diagnosis, cost effective treatment and self-management education [...]

As regular readers will recall, this week I am attending the World Diabetes Congress – with well over 14,000 attendees, the largest ever world congress on this issue.
For readers, who are not familiar with the International Diabetes Federation (!DF), it may be worth pointing out that the IDF is an umbrella organization of over 200 [...]

This week I am attending the World Congress on Obesity, organized by the International Diabetes Federation.
As one would imagine, the program here is chock-full of talks on obesity – everything from the impact of excess weight on insulin resistance and diabetes risk to basic science talks on energy and appetite regulation.
This morning I will be [...]

Regular readers should by now be quite familiar with the accumulating data suggesting that your risk for future development of obesity, diabetes, and possibly other metabolic diseases, may begin in the womb.
This topic is nicely reviewed in a paper by Marie-Claude Battista and colleagues from the University of Sherbrooke, Quebec, published in Experimental Diabetes Research.
In [...]