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4A Daily News – Tuesday, October 15, 2013 Vitality health & fitness Are chemicals making you gain weight By David Epstein ProPublica Everyone knows Americans are fat and getting fatter, and everyone thinks they know why: more eating and less moving. But the "big two" factors may not be the whole story. Consider this: Animals have been getting fatter too. The National Pet Obesity Survey recently reported that more than 50 percent of cats and dogs — that's more than 80 million pets — are overweight or obese. Pets have gotten so plump that there's now a National Pet Obesity Awareness Day. (It was Wednesday.) Lap dogs and comatose cats aren't alone in the fat animal kingdom. Animals in strictly controlled research laboratories that have enforced the same diet and lifestyle for decades are also ballooning. In 2010, an international team of scientists published findings that two dozen animal populations — all cared for by or living near humans — had been rapidly fattening in recent decades. "Canaries in the Coal Mine," they titled the paper, and the "canaries" most closely genetically related to humans — chimps — showed the most troubling trend. Between 1985 and 2005, the male and female chimps studied experienced 33.2 and 37.2 percent weight gains, respectively. Their odds of obesity increased more than 10-fold. To be sure, some of the chimp obesity crisis may be caused by the big two. According to Joseph Kemnitz, director of the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center, animal welfare laws passed in recent decades have led caretakers to strive to make animals happier, often employing a method known to any parent of a toddler: plying them with sugary food. "All animals love to eat, and you can make them happy by giving them food," Kemnitz said. "We have to be careful how much of that kind of enrichment we give them. They might be happier, but not healthier." And because they don't have to forage for the food, non-human primates get less exercise. Orangutans, who Kemnitz says are rather indolent even in their native habitats in Borneo and Sumatra, have in captivity developed the physique of spreading batter. Still, in "Canaries in the Coal Mine," the scientists write that, more recently, the chimps stud- Hospice Offers Help for Coping with the Holidays Mercy Medical Center Redding's Hospice Program will host its annual "Coping with the Holidays" grief workshop 6.30-8:30 p.m. Oct. 29 at the Mercy Oaks Campus, 100 Mercy Oaks Drive, Redding, next to Simpson University off Highway 299, between Churn Creek and Old Oregon Trail. The public is invited to attend this free event. Mercy Hospice Chaplains Ray Hemenway and Tom Miller will facilitate the workshop. Participants will receive resources and information. While free, space is limited and advance registration is recommended by calling Emily Sawyer at 530 2454070. Natural mosquito repellents could compete with DEET Getty Images Everyone knows Americans are fat and getting fatter, and everyone thinks they know why: more eating and less moving. But the "big two" factors may not be the whole story. ied were "living in highly controlled environments with nearly constant living conditions and diets," so their continued fattening in stable circumstances was a surprise. The same goes for lab rats, which have been living and eating the same way for thirty years. The potential causes of animal obesity are legion: ranging from increased rates of certain infections to stress from captivity. Antibiotics might increase obesity by killing off beneficial bacteria. "Some bacteria in our intestines are associated with weight gain," Kemnitz said. "Others might provide a protective effect." But feral rats studied around Baltimore have gotten fatter, and they don't suffer the stress of captivity, nor have they received antibiotics. Increasingly, scientists are turning their attention toward factors that humans and the wild and captive animals that live around them have in common: air, soil, and water, and the hormone-altering chemicals that pollute them. Hormones are the body's chemical messengers, released by a particular gland or organ but capable of affecting cells all over the body. While hormones such as testosterone and estrogen help make men masculine and women feminine, they and other hormones are involved in a vast array of functions. Altering or impeding hormones can cause systemic effects, such as weight gain. More than a decade ago, Paula Baille-Hamilton, a visiting fellow at Stirling University in Scotland who studies toxicology and human metabolism, started perusing scientific literature for chemicals that might pro- LASSEN MEDICAL FLU SHOT CLINICS mote obesity. She turned up so many papers containing evidence of chemical-induced obesity in animals (often, she says, passed off by study authors as a fluke in their work) that it took her three years to organize evidence for the aptly titled 2002 review paper: "Chemical Toxins: A Hypothesis to Explain the Global Obesity Epidemic." "I found evidence of chemicals that affect every aspect of our metabolism," BailleHamilton said. Carbamates, which are used in insecticides and fungicides, can suppress the level of physical activity in mice. Phthalates are used to give flexibility to plastics and are found in a wide array of scented products, from perfume to shampoo. In people, they alter metabolism and have been found in higher concentrations in heavier men and women. In men, phthalates interfere with the normal action of testosterone, an important hormone formaintaining healthy body composition. Phthalate exposure in males has been associated with a suite of traits symptomatic of low testosterone, from lower sperm count to greater heft. (Interference with testosterone may also explain why baby boys of mothers with higher phthalate levels have shorter anogenital distances, that is, the distance between the rectum and the scrotum. Call it what you want, fellas, but if you have a ruler handy and find that your AGD is shorter than two inches, you probably have a smaller penis volume and a markedly higher risk of infertility.) Baille-Hamilton's work highlights evidence that weight gain can be influenced by endocrine Red Bluff Businessman's Bible Study (RBBBS) Join us!! disruptors, chemicals that mimic and can interfere with the natural hormone system. A variety of flame retardants have been implicated in endocrine disruption, and one chemical originally developed as a flame retardant — brominated vegetable oil, or BVO — is banned in Europe and Japan but is prevalent in citrusy soft drinks in the U.S. Earlier this year, Gatorade ditched BVO, but it's still in Mountain Dew and other drinks made by Gatorade's parent company, PepsiCo. (Many doctors would argue that for weight gain, the sugar in those drinks is the primary concern.) PepsiCo did not respond to a request for comment, but shortly after the Gatorade decision was made a company spokeswoman said it was because "some consumers have a negative perception of BVO in Gatorade." And then there are the newly found zombie chemicals, which share a nasty habit — rising from the dead at night — with their eponymous horror flick villains. The anabolic steroid trenbolone acetate is used as a growth promoter in cattle in the U.S., and its endocrine disrupting metabolites — which wind up in agricultural run-off water — were thought to degrade quickly upon exposure to sunlight. Until last month, when researchers published results in Science showing that the metabolites reconstitute themselves in the dark. Says Emily Dhurandhar, an obesity researcher at the University of Alabama-Birmingham: "Obesity really is more complex than couch potatoes and gluttons." PHYSICIAN REFERRAL A FREE SERVICE PROVIDED FOR YOUR CONVENIENCE Inaugural Meeting: Red Bluff Location Learn how to Operate and Grow your Business using Christian Principles Learn to be a More Effective Christian and Businessman Network with other Christian Businessmen Non-Denominational 1-888-628-1948 Monday, October 21, 2013 7:15 - 8:00 a.m. No Cost www.redbluff.mercy.org FREE Coffee will be served. October 26th • 9am-1pm 331 Elm Street, Red Bluff RSVP 530-736-6775 November 9th • 9am-1pm 2450 Sister Mary Columba Drive Red Bluff, Ca 96080 527-0414 Lassenmedical.com www.redbluff.mercy.org redbluff.mercy.org Community Diabetes Support Group Monday 10/7 6:30 pm-8:30 pm Columba Room, Coyne Center 530.527.5290 Community Basic Life Support and CPR www.redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Tuesday 10/8 6 pm-10 pm Columba Room, Coyne Center 6:30 pm-8:30 pm www.redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Columba Room, Coyne Center 9 am-3 pm Main Hallway of Hospital Water Birth Class Wednesday 10/9 Alegria Shoe Sale Wednesday 10/9 Weekend Child Birth Class Friday–Saturday www.lassenmedial.com 10/18-19 530.736.1326 5 pm-10 pm, 8 am-4 pm www.redbluff.mercy.org/classes_and_events Columba Room, Coyne Center 6 pm-8 pm Imaging Center Breast Assured Wednesday 10/23 www.redbluff.mercy.org 888.628.1948 By Staff, AFP Researchers said Oct. 9 they had discovered four natural mosquito repellents to succeed DEET, a compound whose origins go back to World War II. DEET -- the abbreviation for N,N-diethyl-meta-toluamide -- was introduced by the U.S. Army in 1946 after troops deployed in the Pacific theatre fell sick from malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases. It remains the primary insect repellent in use today, but has many limitations. It has to be applied frequently and is expensive, which rules it out for combatting disease in regions where malaria is endemic. It also dissolves types of plastic, synthetic fabrics and painted surfaces. More worryingly, there is some evidence that flies and mosquitoes are developing resistance to it, and that the chemical disrupts an important enzyme in the mammalian nervous system called acetylcholinesterase. In experiments that combined entomology and datacrunching computing, scientists at the University of California at Riverside uncovered four alternatives that may send DEET into retirement after 67 years. "The candidates contain chemicals that do not dissolve plastic, are affordable and smell mildly like grapes, with three considered safe in human foods," says their study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. "Our findings pave the way to discover new generations of repellents that will help fight deadly insect-borne diseases worldwide." The scientists' first step was to understand how mosquitoes sense DEET and become repelled by it. For this, they turned to a cousin of the mosquito called the fruit fly, or Drosophila melanogaster, one of the most closely-studied lab creatures of all. The answer, they found, lies in a receptor called Ir40a, found in nerve-system cells in a pit-like structure in the fruit fly's antenna. The next step was to look for an odour molecule that would fit and activate the receptor, rather like a key turns a lock. It also had to be a natural substance, found in fruits, plants or animals. Screening exercise The data pool proved to be a mini-ocean, comprising nearly half a million potential compounds. This was whittled down to nearly 200. Of these, 10 compounds seemed the most promising and were put to the test on fruit flies. Of the 10, eight turned out to be good repellents on fruit flies. Four of them were then tested on mosquitoes, all of which worked. The good news is that out of the four, three have already been approved as food flavours or fragrances by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Called methyl N,N-dimethyl anthranilate, ethyl anthranilate and butyl anthranilate, they can be applied to bed nets, clothes and curtains to ward off insects, say the scientists. The secret behind the breakthrough was to locate the Ir40a receptor and develop an algorithm to screen potential chemicals, said Anandasankar Ray, an associate professor of entomology. Ir40a, according to the probe, is highly conserved, a scientific term meaning that it shows little signs of evolutionary change. That, too, is good news. One of the problems for drug designers is when they face a moving target -- a mutational shift in DNA that means the treatment becomes less effective. The receptor is also common across many flies and other insects that are a pest for humans and plants. "Our findings could lead to a new generation of cheap, affordable repellents that could protect humans, animals and, in the future, our crops," said Ray. A Retirement Community for the Active Senior Citizens EQUAL HOUSING OPPORTUNITY Tehama Estates provides the best living environment available to active seniors in Red Bluff, CA. 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