Brain helps to burn body fat

January 17, 2015

Brain burn

Jan 17: Not just doing bench presses and cardio, but your brain’s functioning is what helps your body lose fat and control weight. According to a recent research conducted at Monash University, our brain regulates and helps our body to burn fat. The researchers have explored how two hormones in the brain aid the body to burn fat.

How brain helps in losing weight?

Two hormones released by the brain namely, leptin and insulin jointly work towards converting white fat into brown fat. Leptin is an appetite suppressant produced in fat cells whereas insulin is generated in the pancreas in response to increased glucose levels in the blood. In fact the molecular mechanisms of these two hormones act in conjunction on a group of neurones to help the body burn fat through the nervous system.

According to the lead researcher Professor Tony Tiganis, from the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, the finding of the joint action of these two hormones might help in the burning of the excess fat in the body. Here are few exercises that could help you to boost your brain power.

So should you train your brain to burn more fat?

Going by what the researcher say, fat in the human body of the adults is usually deposited in adipocytes specialized cells that contain white fat. They also added that around the neck and shoulders, there is a second form of fat, which is made of brown adipocytes. These cells can be induced to burn the fat rather than storing it. The scientists revealed that leptin and insulin interact with proopiomelanocortin (POMC) neurons in the brain’s hypothalamus, making them send signals through the nervous system, stimulating the conversion of white fat into brown fat. This results in burning off of the excess fat in the human body.

How does the brain really work while helping to lose weight?

During the research the scientists managed to show that the process gets regulated in these neurons with the help of the enzymes known as phosphatases, which inhibit the actions of each of the hormones. When the levels of these inhibitors were decreased, the browning and burning of fat increased. According to the lead researcher, Tiganis, this important mechanism normally helps to maintain body weight but in the situation of diet-induced fatness this process goes haywire.

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WHO calls for more research on asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19

Agencies

June 11,2020

The World Health Organisation (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that more research needs to be done to better understand the extent to which COVID-19 is being spread by people who don't show symptoms.

"Since early February, we have said that asymptomatic people can transmit COVID-19, but that we need more research to establish the extent of asymptomatic transmission," the WHO chief said at a virtual press conference from Geneva on Wednesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

"That research is ongoing, and we're seeing more and more research being done," he added.

Saying that the world has been achieving a lot in knowing the new virus, the WHO chief told reporters that "there's still a lot we don't

"WHO's advice will continue to evolve as new information becomes available," he said.

Tedros stressed that the most critical way to stop transmission is to find, isolate and test people with symptoms, and trace and quarantine their contacts.

"Many countries have succeeded in suppressing transmission and controlling the virus doing exactly this," Tedros said.

Meanwhile, Michael Ryan, executive director of WHO Health Emergencies Program, said Wednesday that the COVID-19 pandemic is still evolving.

"If we look at the numbers... this pandemic is still evolving. It is growing in many parts of the world," he said. "We have deep concerns that health systems of some countries are struggling, under a huge strain and require our support, our help and our solidarity."

He said "each and every country has a different combination of risks and opportunities, and it's really down to national authorities to carefully consider where they are in the pandemic."

In Europe, the risk issue now are about travels and the opening of the schools, around risk management, mass gathering, surveillance and contact tracing, said the WHO official.

In Southeast Asian countries, where to a great extent transmissions have been under control, governments are more concerned about the re-emergence of clusters, while in South America, the issue of PPE for health workers has not gone away, said Ryan.

As regards Africa, Ryan said the death rates have been very low in the past week, but the health system can be overwhelmed, as it would have to cope with other diseases such as malaria.

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Alzheimer can spread it roots if you lose even one night's sleep!

Agencies

January 12,2020

Washington D.C., Jan 12: Disruption in one night's sleep can lead to getting Alzheimer's disease, a recent study has stated.

The interruption in the sound sleep for a single night aggravates the level of tau protein in any young male's body, thus gives rise to the chances of developing the disease.

According to CNN, the report was published on Wednesday in neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

"Our study focuses on the fact that even in young, healthy individuals, missing one night of sleep increases the level of tau in blood suggesting that over time, such sleep deprivation could possibly have detrimental effects," says study author Dr Jonathan Cedernaes, a neurologist at Uppsala University in Sweden.

As defined by the Alzheimer's Association, tau is the name of a protein that helps in stabilizing the internal structure of the brain's nerve cells. An abnormal build-up of tau protein in the body can end up in causing interior cells to fall apart and eventually developing Alzheimer's.

"When you get more of that deep sleep and you get the REM sleep in the normal amounts, that improves clearance of abnormal proteins which we think is good," said Mayo Clinic neurologist Dr Donn Dexter, not the study author but a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology.

Earlier studies have also shown that getting deprived of sleep can allow higher tau development and accumulation. Thus that poor sleep can hasten the development of cognitive issues.

Researchers caution that the study is small and inconclusive, and acknowledged they were not able to determine what the increased levels might mean.

"This study raises more questions than answers," agreed Dexter on a concluding note, sharing, "What this is telling us is that we have to dig more deeply. Despite something we do for a third of our lives, we know so little about sleep and we're learning every day, particularly when it comes to sleep and dementia."

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