AN ALTERNATIVE TO BMI-IS IT RELIABLE?

Body Mass Index or more commonly known by its acronym BMI is considered a sacred cow which no one wants to question. It is supposed to make a value judgment regarding the status of health one enjoys and what dietary modifications are called for in rectifying any abnormalities reflected by the BMI value. Though it was evolved 150 years ago, many suggestions made from time to time were not acceptable to a vast majority of health pundits and medical community. One of the uncertainties about the reliability of BMI is that it does not differentiate between weight caused by fat and muscle with the possibility some normal persons may be bracketed as over weight while some unhealthy persons may be categorized as normal. Also questionable is the arbitrary figures adopted in different countries for classifying people a over weight and obese. Latest suggestion to modify calculation of BMI uses a different equation to factor the height more realistically into the calculation. How far the new formula will yield better and more accurate result remains to be seen. Here is a take on this new development.      

"Any system that tells people whether they are "normal", "underweight", "overweight" or "obese" is bound to be controversial, but one obvious weakness of the BMI is that it doesn't distinguish between fat and muscle.First devised by Adolphe Quetelet more than 150 years ago, BMI is calculated by taking your weight (in kilograms) and dividing it by your height squared (in metres). The body-mass index that you (and the National Health Service) count on to assess obesity is a bizarre measure... As a consequence of this ill-founded definition, millions of short people think they are thinner than they are, and millions of tall people think they are fatter.
    * Prof Trefethen's letter in full (third in list)
    * His explanation of his formula
But mathematician Nick Trefethen, Professor of Numerical Analysis at Oxford University, thinks that the old formula is wrong, as he explained in a letter to the Economist newspaper published earlier this month. He thinks that people have put too much trust in it in part because it looks so precise - like, say, Einstein's famous equation E=MC². "That's an equation of physics and it's really right. The BMI formula looks similar. It seems to have the same character but it doesn't reflect a precise truth about our world, it's an approximation to a very complicated reality," he told the BBC.
With that in mind he has proposed a new formula: 1.3 x weight, divided by height to the power 2.5".

No matter which equation is used human body is so diverse that it will be difficult to classify them based on any single formula. The extent of muscle and fat present in the body is difficult to be assessed and therefore BMI can at best be an approximation of the state of health of a person at any given time. In the case of fat too, quality and the location of this component will decide whether weight contributed by fat is good or bad. Under such an uncertain situation BMI is still a good reckoner or indicator regarding the health status of most people. Those with high BMI can always go for further diagnostic tests to decide whether they are healthy or not.    

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

ANOTHER ATTACK ON OBESITY-WILL IT BEAR FRUIT?

Whether one can call it a miracle finding or just the result of an academic study, recent reports from a group of scientists from Singapore that Myostatin, an integral part of muscle activity, can play a vital role in enabling the body to go for a fat-burning mode of energy generation, will have some far reaching implications. According to this group if Myostatin synthesis can be some what blocked or slowed down, muscle loss encountered during the aging process can be arrested enabling the humans to live longer. Here is the interesting hypotheses being put forward with a promise that further studies in this area can result in development of Myostatin blockers to achieve the desired result.

"Associate Professor Ravi Kambadur and his team from NTU's School of Biological Sciences found that a protein called Myostatin, which controls muscle cell growth, is responsible for initiating muscle loss. When excess levels of Myostatin is bound to a muscle cell, it induces heavy loss of mitochondria (the part of the cell responsible for energy production that keeps a cell alive), which in turn causes the muscle cell to waste or lose muscle tissue (atrophy) due to the 'lack of energy'. Under normal healthy conditions, small loss of Mitochondria is needed for the regeneration of new cells, but when a patient is suffering from chronic diseases or is bedridden (and muscles are not used often), this process is disrupted due to high levels of myostatin which results in increased mitochondrial loss and muscle atrophy. Prof Kambadur said recent studies have shown that extreme muscle wasting can lead to death. "For example, about 30 per cent of cancer patients die not because of cancer, but because of muscle loss also known as cachexia," said Prof Kambadur. "When someone is suffering from a chronic disease and doesn't eat enough, the body starts to generate energy by breaking down muscle proteins and that is the reason we see a lot of muscle wasting under chronic disease conditions," he added. "Over the years, our research has revealed that this type of muscle wasting is initiated by excess levels of myostatin in the body. If we block myostatin from binding to cells, then muscles won't waste away and we can then mitigate the effects of ageing and chronic diseases," he added. Apart from regulating the growth and loss of muscle, myostatin also regulates whether the body will burn fat or carbohydrates during fasting and meal times. Blocking myostatin keeps the body in "fat-burning mode" and promotes muscle growth at the same time - which could potentially make obesity a thing of the past. Because obesity is one of the main causes of the most common form of diabetes, Type 2 diabetes, blocking myostatin could also treat diabetes. In the US, 90 to 95 per cent of diabetes cases are Type 2, as reported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to Singapore's Health Promotion Board, diabetes is among the top ten causes of death locally. In 2010, it was reported by Ministry of Health that 11.3 per cent of the Singaporean adults aged 18 to 69 years are affected by diabetes while 10.8 percent were obese. "In near future, myostatin blockers could increase fat utilisation in the body and give you the benefits of exercise, without actually doing intense physical activity," Prof Kambadur explained."

Obesity control is another area of concern and Myostatin blocking can indeed persuade the body to burn more fat, those struggling to control or lose their body weight will have great hope for overcoming this scourge. Similarly diabetes patients, most of whom are obese or over weight, may also be benefited by possible Myostatin blockers for which search is still on. An uncertainty that can still pre-empt the use of such blockers is whether such a treatment regime can have any deleterious consequences vis-a-vis other metabolic functions of the body. The above studies have given a ray of hope to millions of obese as well as diabetic patients to restore their health through this possible route. Losing weight without undergoing rigorous exercise is also an attractive proposition to many people including sick and convalescing patients. Also the old and aged people will stand to benefit by recourse to possible Myostatin blocker which is supposed to prevent undesirable muscle loss during the aging process cutting short their productive lives.  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com