Diet, nutrition, diabetes and pulmonary function, yoga and belly fat, ectopic acromegaly and more…

Weekly briefing: articles of interest for people dealing with pituitary and related conditions.

Diet and nutrition. The JAMA recently published the latest in what has been a litany of studies on diet and nutrition.  What’s interesting about this one is that it compares the effect of a healthy low-fat (HLF) diet vs a healthy low-carbohydrate (HLC) diet on weight change at 12 months and aims to find out if these effects related to genotype pattern or insulin secretion. Definitely worth reading   If you want to read different takes on the same article the Business Insider Blog describes it as “A study comparing low-fat and low-carb diets may have revealed the real best diet for your body and brain”.  The New York Times also has an interesting analysis of the same article here “The key to weight loss is diet quality, not quantity, a new study finds”   My two cents: every scientifically based, serious study on diet and nutrition worth attention – give or take some minor differences – says basically the same thing.  Stick to a well-balanced diet with more greens (plant based), less animal protein, watch highly refined carbohydrates, bread, rice, refined flours, processed foods, sugars and bad fats, and to be even more effective add a healthy dose of exercise.  Do that and you’re golden!

 

Diabetes and pulmonary function.  A paper published recently in Endocrine News addresses type 2 diabetes (a common related condition for some pituitary diseases) and pulmonary function. According to the review, type 2 diabetes hinders pulmonary function, and that reduced lung function is negatively associated with fasting plasma glucose, glycated hemoglobin, and diabetes duration and severity. Type 2 diabetes also affects breathing during sleep, so it becomes a risk factor for sleep apnea.  We recently published a podcast and an article with great insights on sleep apnea, its risks, and treatments.

 

Great news for all Yoga practitioners!   A study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine and Sports – ‘Yoga training modulates adipokines in adults with high-normal blood pressure and metabolic syndrome” showed a decrease in waist circumference and a decreasing trend in blood pressure after 1-year yoga. Finally some encouraging news for those of us who have been trying to reduce annoying belly fat.  Read more about belly fat here.  To learn more about adipokines and metabolic disease read this excellent paper from the National Institutes of Health.

 

Ectopic acromegaly.  This is an interesting article from the National Institutes of Health on ectopic acromegaly due to GHRH (growth hormone releasing hormone). The article focuses on cases of acromegaly that develop because of ectopic secretion of growth hormone releasing hormone, or more rarely GH, from a non-pituitary origin. Read more about it here

 

Social media.  The Pew Research Center recently released their social media fact sheet and since a good number of our readers also engage with us through social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, we thought it’d be interesting to share it.  The article describes usage, who uses social media, the popularity of the different platforms, how often we use social media sites, and some very interesting thoughts on misinformation.

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