Health
Always look on the bright side of life. Thanks to a new study from Concordia University, this catchy refrain offers a prescription for staying healthy during one’s golden years.
Research has shown that lonely older adults are at greater risk of developing health problems but a new study by Carsten Wrosch, a professor in Concordia’s Department of Psychology and member of the Centre for Research in Human Development, offers hope.
In a forthcoming article in Psychosomatic Medicine, Wrosch proves that older adults who approach life with a positive outlook can reverse the negative health issues associated with a lonely life.
“Our aim was to see whether using self-protective strategies, such as thinking positively and avoiding self-blame in the context of common age-related threats could prevent lonely older adults from exhibiting increases in stress hormones and inflammatory biomarkers,” explained Wrosch, who co-authored the article with Concordia’s PhD graduate, Rebecca Rueggeberg, and colleagues Gregory Miller from the University of British Columbia and Thomas McDade from Northwestern University in Illinois.
To test this, the research team followed 122 senior citizens over a six-year period.
They measured self-protective strategies with a questionnaire where participants were asked to rate statements such as, “Even if my health is in very difficult condition, I can find something positive in life,” or “When I find it impossible to overcome a health problem, I try not to blame myself.”
The research team also measured loneliness by asking participants to what extent they felt lonely or isolated during a typical day.
Wrosch and his colleagues also used saliva and blood samples to measure how much cortisol and C-reactive protein (CRP) the participants produced.
These two biological markers were chosen because cortisol is responsible for stress-related changes in the body; and people with elevated CRP are at increased risk of inflammatory illnesses such as diabetes, hypertension and cardiovascular disease.
Their findings showed that, among lonely older adults, the use of positive thinking helped protect against an increase in cortisol secretion.
Four years down the road, further tests showed the participants’ CRP levels had improved. In essence, lonely older adults who reframe problematic health circumstances positively and do not blame themselves for negative health issues can decrease health threats associated with stress and inflammation.
For those older adults who did not report feelings of loneliness, this type of thinking had no effect – supposedly because their social networks may help them deal with age-related problems.
Overall, these findings could contribute to successful aging. “It’s my hope that our research may improve clinical treatment of lonely older adults,” said Wrosch. “Older adults can be taught through counseling or therapy to engage in self-protective thoughts like staying positive when it comes to their own health. That means a better quality of life, both physically and mentally – something we all want at any age.”
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New research from Mount Sinai School of Medicine sheds light on how overeating can cause a malfunction in brain insulin signaling, and lead to obesity and diabetes.
Christoph Buettner, MD, PhD, Associate Professor of Medicine (Endocrinology, Diabetes and Bone Disease) and his research team found that overeating impairs the ability of brain insulin to suppress the breakdown of fat in adipose tissue.
In previous research Dr. Buettner’s team established that brain insulin is what suppresses lipolysis, a process during which triglycerides in fat tissue are broken down and fatty acids are released.
When lipolysis is unrestrained, fatty acid levels are elevated, which can initiate and worsen obesity and type 2 diabetes.
The current study is published online in The Journal of Biological Chemistry. The first study was published in the Feb. 2, 2011, issue of Cell Metabolism.
“We are interested in understanding why people who eat too much eventually develop diabetes. Our recent studies suggest that once you overeat, your brain develops insulin resistance. Since brain insulin controls lipolysis in adipose tissue by reducing sympathetic nervous system outflow to adipose tissue, brain insulin resistance causes increased spillage of fatty acids from adipose tissue into the blood stream,” said Dr. Buettner.
Increased fatty acids induce inflammation and that, in turn, can further worsen insulin resistance, which is the core defect in type 2 diabetes.
Fatty acids also increase glucose production in the liver which raises blood glucose levels, Dr. Buettner explained.
“It’s a vicious cycle and while we knew that this can begin with overeating, this study shows that it is really the brain that is harmed first which then starts the downward spiral.”
In this study, researchers fed rats a high-fat diet comprised of 10 percent lard for three consecutive days.
This increased their daily caloric intake by up to 50 percent compared to the control rats that were fed a regular low fat diet.
The researchers then infused a tiny amount of insulin into the brains of both groups of rats that they had shown in earlier studies to suppress release of glucose from the liver and fatty acids from fat tissue.
They found that overeating impaired the ability of brain insulin to suppress glucose release from the liver and lipolysis in fat tissue. Similarly, short-term overeating in humans is known to produce comparable insulin resistance which could be explained by brain insulin resistance.
“When you overeat, your brain becomes unresponsive to these important clues such as insulin, which puts you on the road to diabetes. We believe that what happens in rats also happens in humans,” said Dr. Buettner.
Dr. Buettner’s team plans to investigate methods of improving brain insulin function that could restrain lipolysis and improve insulin resistance.
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