Fat Cells Established in Childhood?

Oh noes....

Number of fat cells remains constant in all body types

A new study by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientist Bruce Buchholz – along with colleagues from the Karolinska Institute in Sweden; Humboldt University Berlin, Foundation of Research and Technology in Greece; Karolinska University Hospital; and Stockholm University – applied carbon dating to DNA to discover that the number of fat cells stays constant in adulthood in lean and obese individuals, even after marked weight loss, indicating that the number of fat cells is set during childhood and adolescence.

...

In a study of 687 adults, the researchers found that number of fat cells increases in childhood and adolescence, but levels off and remains constant in adulthood. The group looked at whether the number of fat cells changes under extreme conditions such as drastic weight loss by radical reduction in caloric intake, such as through bariatric surgery.

The treatment resulted in a significant decrease in BMI and fat cell volume; however, it did not reduce the number of fat cells two years after the surgery. Similarly, significant weight gain (15-25 percent) over several months in non-obese adult men resulted in significant increase in body fat volume but no change in number. Subsequent weight loss back to baseline resulted in a decrease in fat cell volume but no change in the number of fat cells.

“If you are overweight and you lose weight, you still have the capacity to store lipids because you still have the same number of fat cells. That may be why it’s so hard to keep the weight off,” Buchholz said.

What's further inspiring to note is that one conclusion is to focus on children and preventing them from becoming fat when they are young. It all sounds very discouraging but I refuse to believe that it's already too late for TB, my kids and me to slim down and be healthy!

Let's All Eat Like Cave Men!

This article comes from the Vital Choices newsletter I get in my email. I thought it was fascinating.

The case for eating like a caveman is based on evidence from modern hunter-gatherers, whose diets resemble those of prehistoric ancestors, and from chemical and physical examination of the remains of prehistoric people and their habitats.



From these studies, it is clear that prehistoric hominids and humans ate diets high in wild game (meat and/or fish) and green plants, with no grains and relatively few seeds or starches (largely from tubers).



Scientists call stone-age eating patterns Paleolithic or hunter-gatherer diets, using the terms almost interchangeably due to the diets’ similarity. ...

Pilot clinical trial affirms healthful impacts of “caveman diet”

Last year, scientists at Sweden’s famed Karolinska Institute placed 20 healthy volunteers on a caveman-like diet for three weeks (Osterdahl M et al. 2007).



Before and after the study period, they measured the participants’ weight, body mass index, blood pressure, and cholesterol profiles.



The volunteers were then given a list of “caveman” foods they could eat, including fresh or frozen fruit, berries or vegetables, lean meat, unsalted fish, canned tomatoes, lemon or lime juice, spices and coffee or tea without milk or sugar.



Banned foods included any dairy, cultivated or processed foods, such as beans, grains, salt, peanuts, milk, cheese, bread, pasta or rice, sausages, alcohol, sugar, and fruit juice. ...

So far it doesn't seem too bad except if I did this I'd have to give up cottage cheese, which I love, and garbanzo beans. No more sandwiches! No bread, no processed cold cuts...hm, maybe not so easy. But the results are cool!

At the end of the study, all of the 14 volunteers who completed the diet successfully lost weight, reduced their blood pressure, and slashed blood levels of a clot-causing agent.


These were the average changes (Osterdahl M et al. 2007):



* Lost five pounds.
* Calorie intake dropped by 36 percent.
* Body mass index (BMI) dropped by 0.8 (Healthy BMIs range between 18.5 and 25).
* Systolic blood pressure fell by 3 mmHg.
* Levels of the clotting agent plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 dropped by 72 percent.

Supposedly we are not different from our Neanderthal ancestors in terms of what we should eat and that's why we are having such problems with obesity. I think I'll read the book mentioned in the full article. Fascinating stuff!

Weight and Inadequate Sleep

As I sit here wrestling with insomnia it occurs to me I'm totally not surprised that there's a link between lack of sleep and being overweight/weight gain. In my case, pain and complications of being overweight prevent me from getting a good night's sleep. By day, I'm more listless and less likely to exercisse than I would be if I had enough sleep (roughly 7 hours). Lately, I've been sleeping 2-4 hours, waking for several and then sleeping again for another 2-3. That's just messed up.

The Everyday Health newsletter had an article about being starved for sleep last month. They cited two studies conducted about weight and lack of sleep.

New research suggests that people who don't get enough sleep tend to weigh more -- and that sleep can affect levels of the appetite-regulating hormones leptin and ghrelin.

"There is a dynamic balance between proper sleep and proper health. Sleep deprivation affects weight and a lot of other things. If you cheat sleep, there are a number of consequences, including affecting your hormones, appetite and mood," said Dr. Patrick Strollo, medical director of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center's Sleep Medicine Center.

The article suggests if you don't get enough sleep, pay attention to your eating habits. If you can't get the sleep you need, go for a short walk rather than snacking on foods. Right...that's if you're not too tired to go for the walk!

Say No To Coffee Mate

Well, someone is always finding out harmful details about tasty products. Now it's Coffee Mate, which is something I enjoy occasionally. I knew it was fattening but I liked to pretend it wasn't so bad. But...here is what I found out:

A serving size is a teaspoon. Who takes a teaspoon of creamer? C'mon, be honest! One teaspoon won't flavor the 20 ounces I drink at one time. There's almost 15 calories and .99 grams of saturated fat in a teaspoon of Coffee Mate. As I say, who uses just a teaspoon? Most of us use more like a tablespoon. It adds up!

Just because it says "fat free" doesn't mean it is.

If a product has less than 0.5 grams of fat per serving – trans fat, saturated fat or total fat – a manufacturer can round the number down to zero. So if an unrounded teaspoon has 0.27 grams of fat and you add a rounded teaspoon to a warm beverage a few times a day ...

That adds up too!

What to do? There's always good old milk and, happily, there's either fat free Land'o'Lakes half'n'half or fat free International Delight dairy creamers. Thank goodness!

The whole article is here.

Exercisiing and the Neighborhood

Should I be surprised that the neighborhood can influence how much exercise you get? Of course not. But here's another article that identifies a problem but hasn't any suggestions for a solution. The problem is too big to be solved. If you live in a neighborhood where you are afraid you might be robbed or killed of course you will be less likely to go for a walk. If you live in a such a neighborhood, you're also very likely to be too poor to afford a gym--otherwise you'd move to a safer place, right? Therefore the obesity level would be higher in poorer, high crime neighborhoods. Amazing, Dr. Watson! The whole article is here.

I would love to be able to walk in my neighborhood. There are no sidewalks but I would be able to walk along the side of the road down to the lake and back. The reason I don't exercise in my neighborhood has more to do with pain than anything else. I'm also afraid I'll fall or faint and not be able to get back up. Still, I need to do something. I can't lose weight anymore just by dieting.

Why am I trying to lose weight when I want the surgery anyway? The less I weigh the better off I'll be!

Not Doing So Well

We've been under a great deal of stress recently and I know I gained weight instead of losing it. :( I have to look around a find a food therapist--one that will help TB and me with our emotional eating.

Weight Watchers had an interesting article about couples and weight gain. It's no surprise to me that couples gain weight together! It's certainly true that TB and I have similar BMIs! On the upside, we are "more likely to achieve better results if they tackle weight loss as a couple." The whole article is here.

I have read several articles now that tell me even drinking diet soda can lead to weight gain. I'm still not sure I agree but I sure can't dispute the fact that I'm gaining. Doubters? Read this article. Now I see some acceptable alternatives to soda and I need to try them:

1. Water--I always used to drink ice water until we moved to NJ. The water around here is full of iron but I guess I can drink bottled.

2. Green tea--I am not a fan of tea but I do like this on occasion. It's full of anti-oxidants too.

3, Sweet stevia--I never heard of this one! Apparently it was banned for a while because the FDA needed to research it. It has no carbs nor calories and seems to help with diabetes and glucose intolerance! Let me go try that one!

4. Diet tonic and lime--I've never tried gin and tonic but this is what it is minus the alcohol. Hmmm....

5. Low sodium vegetable juice--I like V-8!

6. Coffee--without all the yummy creamer I've been drinking! I have to switch back to first 2% and then 1% milk

So...I just have to keep on trying.

Always Hungry

One of my biggest stumbling blocks to eating healthier to lose weight is that I always seem to be hungry after the second dzy on the plan. Some plans say I shouldn't let myself get to the point of feeling hungry; others say I just ought to suck it up and get used to it. To lose weight, we have to suffer the hunger pangs. So when I got my daily Managing Diabetes newsletter I was interested to see an article about constant hunger. The link for the article is here.

The first question I have to ask myself is: am I feeling genuinely hungry or do I just want to eat? Hunger is a physiological response and all you want to do is fill that empty stomach. Appetite is different. You just seem to want a specific food--like potato chips, maybe?

How many calories would I need to not feel hungry all the time? The article says:

If you go on a very-low-calorie diet of less than 1,000 calories each day, you will feel very hungry much of the time. It is better for you to eat more calories each day — say 1,200 to 1,500 — for a slower but longer-term weight loss. In the long run, severely restricting calories can backfire, leaving you feeling constantly hungry and constantly wanting to eat. And no matter how much you cut back while you're on the diet, you can't eat so little forever. You'll eventually need to learn to eat at a higher calorie level to maintain your weight.

Well, I don't know about this...when I was on Weight Watchers, I'm assuming I was eating the upper limit of calories 1500-1600 and I still felt hungry! I can only stand feeling hungry for so long before I start raiding the pantry for everything I can find and then I gain it all back! I don't seem to have the will power I did when I was younger.

I should see a nutritionist...

Here I am, like the proverbial bad penny, showing up here again. I'm sticking with blogger this time--it's just easier.

I really enjoy reading my newsletters about diabetes. One offers some delicious recipes and the other very useful information. This article is about insulin resistance:

10 Fascinating Facts about Insulin Resistance
By Amy Tenderich of www.DiabetesMine.com

If you have diabetes, you're surely familiar with the phenomenon of insulin resistance, or the body's reduced ability to respond to the action of the insulin hormone. Insulin resistance is typical of Type 2 diabetes, in which – unlike in Type 1 – the body still produces insulin but is unable to use it effectively. What happens is, your cells fail to break down glucose molecules to generate energy, so your blood glucose (or blood sugar) runs abnormally high.

Having spent the last three years researching a variety of topics around diabetes, I've learned some fascinating facts about insulin resistance, which remind me what a complex system the human body is. For one thing, I've learned that what scientists really know about it seems to fit into a walnut shell. For another thing, it's far more widespread than you might imagine.

Let's have a look at some of these amazing particulars about insulin resistance:

1. Scientists are still not sure what causes insulin resistance, and massive research efforts are underway to determine the cause. Some researchers think a defect in specific genes causes insulin resistance, but little more is currently known.

2. People with insulin resistance often over-produce insulin that their bodies can't use. This causes something called "reactive hypoglycemia" or low blood sugar following meals. In other words, the body "overshoots" its own insulin needs, causing a large spike in insulin, followed by a drop in blood sugar. Over time, these repeated insulin spikes may lead to a decrease in pancreatic reserve, or more insulin resistance, and eventually Type 2 diabetes. Therefore – counterintuitive as it sounds -- hypoglycemia is often an early sign of Type 2 diabetes.

3. Here's one that puzzled me: it's estimated that 20-25% of the healthy population may be insulin resistant, but not all people with insulin resistance develop diabetes. Scientists simply do not yet know why some people with insulin resistance eventually develop diabetes and others do not.

4. What we do know is that insulin resistance is aggravated by physical inactivity and obesity, because too much fat interferes with our muscles' ability to use insulin. Lack of exercise worsens this effect. A recent study showed that even in sedentary people aged 60 and older, adding regular short-term exercise into their routines not only improved insulin resistance, but also significantly enhanced their beta-cell function – which helps the pancreas continue to do its job producing insulin.

5. Ever heard of Syndrome X? This much-hyped combination of physical problems is now more commonly referred to as "Insulin Resistance Syndrome." The reason is that people with insulin resistance and high glucose levels tend to have the following factors in common: excess weight around the waist, high LDL (bad) blood cholesterol levels, low HDL (good) cholesterol levels, high level of triglycerides (yet another fat) levels, and high blood pressure. This can be a deadly combination, leading in particular to heart disease, if not treated aggressively.

6. When it comes to diagnosing insulin resistance, there is no single test that can directly detect it. Instead, a doctor has to look at the full clinical picture, including checks for the above-mentioned indicators of Syndrome X, and several others. Nothing is ever easy with diabetes!

7. There's a link between insulin resistance and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a health problem that can affect a woman's menstrual cycle, ability to have children, hormones, heart, blood vessels, and appearance. Many women who suffer from PCOS have problems using the insulin produced in their bodies. Some researchers conclude it's insulin resistance that causes the PCOS, but others say the cause is unknown. It's estimated that 30-80% of women with PCOS are also insulin resistant. PCOS is the most common cause of infertility, which – in case scientists can eventually prove a cause-effect relationship – would mean that insulin resistance indirectly presents itself as a leading cause for infertility.

8. ... and men get hammered, too. There's some scientific evidence that men who are insulin resistant also have low levels of testosterone secretion, the most important sex hormone in the male body. Low testosterone can spur decreased sex drive, erectile dysfunction (ED), and lowered sperm count that reduces fertility.

9. Osteoporosis is another potential problem resulting from insulin resistance. As noted, insulin is a "master hormone" that controls many anabolic hormones such as growth hormone, testosterone, and progesterone. Your bones are actually built upon the command of such hormones. When these hormones are reduced, the amount of bone building is reduced, and the amount of calcium excreted is increased. So you end up with brittle bones, susceptible to fracture.

10. Finally, the good news is that you can heal insulin resistance. I don't say "cure" because that concept is quite controversial. Changes in your diet and exercise habits can substantially aid the body's ability to balance insulin levels. This begins with avoiding processed food, sugar cereals, high-sodium snacks and soda, and instead concentrating on lean meats and dairy, high-fiber grains, and vegetables. Regular exercise of 30 minutes or more per day, 3-5 times a week is also beneficial for regulating metabolic function and hormonal balance. Many new drugs are also available to increase insulin sensitivity, including Metformin, Januvia and Byetta. But does bringing your insulin resistance into check mean you have cured it, or "cured your diabetes"? Most doctors would say no. As long as your glucose levels are in good range, and you're living healthy, it depends on your perspective, I suppose.

Amy Tenderich is creator of the popular web log www.diabetesmine.com and co-author of the guidebook, "Know Your Numbers, Outlive Your Diabetes."

I didn't mean to do this but I've learned that copying the entire article--even when I mention the author's name--still violates copyright. I was looking to try and find a direct link to the article and haven't been able to yet. The blog by the author, Diabetes Mine, has so much useful information! That link is here.

Healthy & Unhealthy Carbs

Low carb diets like Atkins or South Beach limit the intake of carbohydrates, encouraging increased portions of protein and fat. Well...we all know what happened to Dr. Atkins, dropping dead of a heart attaack--was it all the animal fat? I'm learning from The Insulin Resistance Diet that it's more a matter of the quality of carbs than it is of strictly limiting their intake.

These carbs will cause those nasty insulin spikes in my blood that lead to higher sugar levels, increased appetite and unwanted weight gain:

Flour
Sugar
Sweetened dairy products
Most snack foods and baked goods
Processed grains, crackers, rice cakes, most breads
Soft drinks
High fructose corn syrup

Note: These are all processed foods! Another thing I learned from the book is that our ancestors didn't have this stuff and so for them, it was better to have spiking insulin levels. Now that most of our foods come from factories and we sit on our butts almost all day, those spikes are very very bad and so is processed food!

All foods have carbs. However, these are the "good" ones:

Whole grains (such as dense whole grain bread, basmati rice, barley and quinoa)
Beans
Nuts
Vegetables and fruits

They're all natural.

And more expensive...but the cost is well worth it!

What Helps Control Insulin Resistance

This seems a no-brainer: nutrition and exercise. I'm learning about what it is and so I figured I'll make note of it, especially since I'm not doing so great in those areas anyway.

The medication I used to take, metformin, tries to work against insulin resistance by limiting the amount of glucose the liver releases. I didn't know that overnight, when I'm sleeping and not eating, my liver seems to think I might starve and releases sugar! I don't need it but my body doesn't realize it. Now the doctor has changed my medication to glucovance. It's got metformin plus another medication in it. Some medications have the sugar released for energy.

There are natural supplements that can help to reduce glucose:

Chromium supposedly stabilizes glucose in the blood and can help curb my cravings for carbs.

People with insulin resistance often don't have enough magnesium and potassium. What do these two minerals do and why are they so important? The book didn't explain.

Something called vanadium acts like insulin. What foods can you eat to get it? I don't know--the book didn't say, not yet anyway.

Garcinia cambogia is another one I've never heard of. Something in it signals the liver to store the glucose there and not as fat.

The book warns that taking too much of the supplements can be toxic. I intend to research more on each of these things but won't take any of them until I talk to the doctor.

The Insulin Resistance Diet

I started reading the book again and this time I thought I'd take notes on what I learn...maybe I'll remember? Who knows! Anyway, I think I'll read it more slowly this time and maybe the concepts will stick this time!

Things I've learned so far:

1. Insulin regulates my blood sugar but it also stores fat. If my insulin level spikes to bring down levels of sugar, it'll store more fat. If I can keep my insulin levels from shooting up, I won't store so much fat and I could lose weight! The fatter I am, the more insulin resistant I become, meaning that my cells won't take incoming glucose--which means they become stored as fat!

2. Insulin resistance used to be known as "Syndrome X". Researchers knew in the late 1980s that a cluster of dangerous health conditions existed in some individuals but they didn't know what was causing it. More recently, they found that insulin resistance is the culprit in metabolic syndrome--cardiac artery disease, hypertension, type II diabetes, obesity and stroke are all health problems stemming from it. Scary!

3. I have high blood pressure and even though I'm taking medication for it, damage is still occurring. Scarier!

4. Skin tags can be an indication you're developing type II diabetes--I sure wish I'd known that!

5. What makes insulin resistance worse? Caffeine and stress cause insulin levels to rise. Guilty guilty guilty! I drink lots of coffee and am under a great deal of stress. Am I doomed? I hope not!

Depression

What a vicious cycle! In my father's family, almost every one of my aunts, uncles and cousins have a mood disorder or alcoholism. My mother seems to be the only one of her siblings afflicted with any kind of emotional problem. She was definitely depressed when I was growing up and now that both my daughters have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder I wouldn't be a bit surprised if there wasn't some of that going on too. I just remember being afraid of her rages. My own battles with depression and anxiety started when I was in my teens.

I wish I knew more about my grandparents' (both sides) generation and back. Were other members of the family depressed? I don't think I'll be able to find out because mood disorders were (are?) so stigmatized. It was a shameful thing to have to see a shrink, something the family was embarrassed to admit and often they'd refuse to get any help for themselves or their loved ones. And being depressed--well, aren't you supposed to just "snap out of it"?

What I do know is that one grandfather was a heavy drinker and the other suffered from rages and terrorized his whole family. Both grandmothers, being women, had to tolerate a lot of crap--that's just the way it was. After the raging grandfather died, my grandmother wrote in her diary that she was finally free. I read her diary after her death and felt so sad...and had a bit more understanding and compassion for my mother.

I read an online article that said:

Physical factors such as genes, hormones, and brain function aren’t the only contributors to depression; life events also play a role. Profound early losses, such as the death of a parent or the withdrawal of a loved one’s affection, may resonate throughout life, eventually expressing themselves as depression. When an individual is unaware of the wellspring of his or her illness, he or she can’t easily move past the depression.

The italics are mine. My grandfather, in a rage, would knock my mother's head against a wall. He'd go after my grandmother or one of my uncles. Also, my mother and her sister were placed in a school for the deaf in the city. They were separated from their families for months at a time. My mother had rages and periods of depression when I was little. Sometimes she was physically abusive and sometimes she'd try to kill herself. I didn't feel her love. In fact, she told me she'd never wanted to have children and that my father forced her. That sure affected me!

What might have happened to my daughters? I made sure I was affectionate with them and supportive and told them I loved them. Even from early childhood, Heidi had mood swings and depression--that biological gene? The girls were 12 and 9 when their dad died and so I think if anything triggered a spiral downward it would be that. What is more traumatic to a kid than arguing with your father one night and waking up the next morning to find out he'd died while you were sleeping, before you could say I didn't mean it, I love you?

So...do I have a depression gene that was dormant until it was triggered by a traumatic event in my teen years and did I pass it on to my girls?

Can you tell I have guilt issues as well?

If that wasn't enough, there is this, from another article:

Parental stress or bullying by peers can make it even tougher for overweight or obese children to get healthy, a U.S. study finds.

"If a parent is distressed, that seems to impact a child's symptoms of depression, which then impacts quality of life. It's the same with peer victimization. It impacts depression, which then impacts quality of life. And it seems to affect not just the emotional aspect of quality of life, but also their health status," lead author David Janicke, assistant professor of clinical and health psychology in the University of Florida College of Public Health and Health Professions, in Gainesville, said in a prepared statement.

That is very distressing! I do feel guilty because my older two kids are very obese and Kristin is about 40-50 lbs overweight. Okay, it happened mostly after my first husband died and it was true that I was so flattened by grief that I didn't make sure they were eating the right things or exercising. By the time I "woke up" we'd gained about 300 pounds between the 4 of us.

What is there left to do? I know from my own experience as a heavy adolescent that nagging and ridicule doesn't work. I know the motivation to get healthy has to come from within. But as a mother, it's hard sometimes to think about their futures if they don't lose weight and exercise. They'll end up like me--with health problems and in pain. I don't want that for them. I can offer healthy foods here and not buy junk which is what I do. They've seen me struggling with weight issues all their lives and I haven't been the best role model when they were growing up.

And guess what? Even though weight is a problem on both sides of my family I wouldn't doubt it if my struggles didn't stem from my mom's inability to respond to me when I was little.

A vicious cycle indeed!

This is one I have to show my kids...

In this house, we all love to drink soda--diet soda because we are diabetics and overweight. Water is much better for us and we know it but sometimes we just want something that has more taste to it. My two older kids are basically addicted to diet soda and so is TB. I think we could easily go through $50 of soda in a week, diet Pepsi, Coke Zero and Diet Coke. The thing is, it's probably hurting us! After reading this, I must try my hardest to have a diet soda only with a meal, say dinner.

Study: Soda, even diet, can up heart risk
BOSTON (UPI) -- Drinking one or more soft drinks a day -- even diet -- may increase the risk of developing metabolic risk factors for heart disease, says a U.S. study.

"We were struck by the fact that it didn't matter whether it was a diet or regular soda that participants consumed, the association with increased risk was present," senior author Dr. Ramachandran Vasan, of the Framingham Heart Study and Boston University School of Medicine, said in a statement.

"In those who drink one or more soft drinks daily, there was an association of an increased risk of developing the metabolic syndrome."

Metabolic syndrome is a cluster of cardiovascular disease and diabetes risk factors including excess waist circumference, high blood pressure, elevated triglycerides, low levels of high-density lipoprotein "good" cholesterol and high-fasting glucose levels. Three or more of the risk factors increases a person's risk of developing diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

Individuals consuming one or more soft drinks a day had a 48 percent increased prevalence of the metabolic syndrome compared to those consuming less than one soft drink daily, according to the study published in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.




Copyright 2007 by United Press International

Fat Cell Protein, Diabetes & Obesity

Another example of body chemistry working against us:

Obesity, diabetes tied to fat cell protein
CLEVELAND (UPI) -- U.S. scientists suggest a protein involved in the transfer of fat in the blood may influence how fat cells store fat linked to obesity and diabetes.

The study, published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry, looked at how the protein -- called cholesterol ester transfer protein, or CETP -- is involved in the cellular storage and regulation of cholesterol and other fats.

Richard E. Morton and Lahoucine Izem of the Cleveland Clinic say CETP may be essential for lipid metabolism and storage in fat cells and that fat tissue is not only an energy storage tissue but also a major endocrine organ.

"CETP is known to shuttle different types of fat between lipoproteins -- combinations of fat and protein that transport fats in the blood," Morton said in a statement. "In this study, we show that CETP also shuttles fats inside fat cells between two separate areas and that fat cells with reduced levels of CETP are unable to process fats normally."

CETP deficiency disrupts storage of important fats in fat cells, which can lead to insulin resistance -- a major contributor to diabetes -- and the abnormal release of cytokines, proteins that stimulate the immune system, according to Morton. "This unexpected contribution of CETP provides a new understanding of how our body stores and regulates fats and of conditions such as obesity and diabetes," said Morton.




Copyright 2007 by United Press International

The first step to solving a problem is always understanding it...so I hope that now scientists are working on a way to fix CETP deficiency.

How Sleep Affects Your Weight

This is from Dr. Weil's newsletter:

Research suggests that appetite-regulating hormones are affected by sleep and that sleep deprivation could lead to weight gain. In two studies, people who slept five hours or less per night had higher levels of ghrelin - a hormone that stimulates hunger - and lower levels of the appetite-suppressing hormone leptin than those who slept eight hours per night. So make sure getting adequate sleep is near the top of your optimum health checklist!

Yeesh! I have interrupted sleep due to insomnia--have trouble falling asleep and then I get up early to get Tomas off to school. So if I take a nap later and I have a total of 7 hours, does that help? Or do I need to get 8 hours uninterrupted? Have to check this out...