Tag Archive for 'metabolism'

New book tells how to retrain your brain so that you are healthier and slimmer

Wouldn’t it be great to personalize your diet to take care of specific health problems? Well, you can according to Dr. Eric Braverman. He is the author of the new book, “Younger (Thinner) You Diet” ($25.95, Rodale Press). Eric is the director of the PATH  Medical Center and PATH Foundation (pathmedical.com) and the clinical assistant professor of neurological surgery at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is the author of several books, but is probably most known for his best-selling book, “Younger You”.

Braverman says that you don’t need to count calories or fat grams. Just eat the right foods, supplements, teas and spices and you can grow new brain cells. He says that a certain type of diet can help heart conditions, aging skin, weak muscles or achy joints. According to him, every activity in your body is controlled by electricity that is given off by the brain. These activities include weight loss and disease. There are four brain chemicals that help this electricity get to the body in the correct way. These chemicals are called dopamine, acetylcholine, GABA and serotonin.

Dr. Braverman believes that you can become smarter as you age and that you might one day get younger as you get older. He thinks that the capability exists to feed everyone and to extend lives.

 In his new book, he talks about how to retrain your brain so that your food addictions and cravings will disappear, helping you to stop self-medicating yourself with fattening foods. He says that by switching the foods you eat to ones that heighten the chemistry in the brain, your metabolism is boosted so that you begin to lose weight right away. His book also discusses what foods increase the production of dopamine, which is the chemical in the brain that begins the fat-burning mechanism.

He says that if you follow the book, you should lose weight and drive back the aging process. Dr. Braverman claims that he has helped thousands of patients.

Brown fat may be key element in future obesity treatments

We all know that there is both good and bad cholesterol. Now, it seems, there is good and bad fat as well. Scientists have long believed that this good fat was usually gone or inactive once adulthood is reached.

So what is so special about this fat? Well, it induces the body to burn calories so it can create body heat. This fat is important in infancy, because it helps to keep the newborn warm.

Recently researchers performing three separate studies – from Boston, Finland and the Netherlands – have found that some of the good fat remains in adulthood. This good fat affects metabolism and could possibly help people lose weight in the future.

An endocrinology and metabolism researcher at the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Dr. Francesco Celi, announced that the studies reveal that this certain kind of fat burns substantial amounts of energy. He also said that this fat could be used in a pill that could rev up the fat. 

Dr. Louis Aronne, former president of the Obesity Society and a weight control expert at Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York, proclaimed that the discoveries are the most convincing proof of the function of this fat in regulating body temperature and weight. He said that because the fat seems to be eliminating calories, it could possibly be used for a sort of ‘exercise-in-a-pill’ treatment. He also said that any treatment for obesity that is developed from this special fat could also be a possible treatment for diabetes.

This good fat is brownish in color, while the more prevalent fat is whitish or yellow. The neck and under the collarbone are the areas in which the brown fat is mostly stored. The waistline is the area that the white fat is mostly found. There it stores excess energy and releases chemicals that control metabolism and insulin use.

The existence and occurrences of the brown fat was recorded by the three research groups by looking at tissue samples taken from patients. High-tech imaging was used to reveal how much sugar and calories that the fat burned.

The New England Journal of Medicine published the results of these studies on Thursday, April 9, 2009.