Supplementation with the amino acid L-citrulline can reduce the amount of abdominal fat. Molecular researchers at the Universite Paris Descartes will soon publish an article on this in Molecular Nutrition and Food Research. If the French researchers have got the right end of the stick, then L-citrulline may help people with an apple-shaped body to acquire a pear-shaped body.
Belly fat If you tend to put on fat in the abdominal area you're doubly unlucky. Belly fat or, as physiologists prefer to call it, visceral fat, increases the chance of heart attacks and diabetes, and it's a disaster for your figure too: 'apples' are regarded as less attractive than 'pears'.
Whether you're an 'apple' or a 'pear' depends on your hormonal balance, and also your age. The older you are, the more easily you accumulate fat in your abdominal cavity. The French researchers wondered whether L-citrulline could reduce age-associated abdominal fat deposition. Researchers who had given older lab animals L-citrulline had sometimes reported this effect. [J Nutr. 2007 Dec;137(12):2680-5.]
L-Citrulline & Fat The researchers gave young and old rats a hefty dose of L-citrulline daily for three months. At the end of the experimental period the researchers examined samples of visceral fat tissue from the animals, and compared these with tissue from rats of the same age that had not been given L-citrulline.
In the old rats L-citrulline boosted the secretion of free fatty acids [NEFA] and glycerol from the visceral fat cells. That means that the visceral fat cells release their contents more easily into the bloodstream so that the body can burn them.
At the same time L-citrulline reduced the speed with which the visceral fat cells stores nutrients as fat. The amino acid reduced the flux and reduced the effect of the enzyme cytosolic phosphoenolpyruvate carboxykinase or PEPCK-C. This probably happened as a result of L-citrulline sabotaging the functioning of the fat sensor PPAR-gamma in the visceral fat cells.
The inhibition of growth processes in visceral fat cells also took place in the young rats.
Conclusion "This metabolic action of L-citrulline in the young rat could be a mechanism to limit lipid storage and to facilitate fat burning", the researchers write. "In advanced age, fat depots are redistributed, leading to an increased ratio of visceral to subcutaneous fat mass. The L-citrulline-induced reduction of fat deposit in visceral adipose tissue could prevent this increase in ratio of visceral to subcutaneous fat, and hence limit the associated pathological risks (e.g. diabetes, cardiovascular diseases) related to aging."
"In obesity, the rise in adipose tissue mass also affects predominantly visceral fat, and L-citrulline effects in this pathophysiological situation remain an open question."
Source: Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014 Jun 10. doi: 10.1002/mnfr.201400053. [Epub ahead of print].
Can women suffer for “Low T” as men do? This vid covers the issue all women need to know about this “male” hormone!
Study mentioned in this vid:
Low testosterone levels predict all-cause mortality and cardiovascular events in women: a prospective cohort study in German primary care patients
Sievers C. et al
Eur J Endocrinol. 2010 Oct;163(4):699-708.
Abstract
OBJECTIVE:
Although associations between testosterone and cardiovascular (CV) morbidity in women have been proposed, no large prospective study has evaluated potential associations between testosterone and mortality in women. The objective was to determine whether baseline testosterone levels in women are associated with future overall or CV morbidity and mortality.
DESIGN:
Prospective cohort study with a 4.5-year follow-up period.
METHODS:
From a representative sample of German primary care practices, 2914 female patients between 18 and 75 years were analyzed for the main outcome measures: CV risk factors, CV diseases, and all-cause mortality.
RESULTS:
At baseline, the study population was aged 57.96±14.37 years with a mean body mass index of 26.71±5.17 kg/m(2). No predictive value of total testosterone for incident CV risk factors or CV diseases was observed in logistic regressions. Patients with total testosterone levels in the lowest quintile Q1, however, had a higher risk to die of any cause or to develop a CV event within the follow-up period compared to patients in the collapsed quintiles Q2-Q5 in crude and adjusted Cox regression models (all-cause mortality: Q2-Q5 versus Q1: crude hazard ratios (HR) 0.49, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.33-0.74; adjusted HR 0.62, 95% CI 0.42-0.939; CV events: Q2-Q5 versus Q1: crude HR 0.54, 95% CI 0.38-0.77; adjusted HR 0.68, 95% CI 0.48-0.97). Kaplan-Meier curves revealed similar data.
CONCLUSIONS:
Low baseline testosterone in women is associated with increased all-cause mortality and incident CV events independent of traditional risk factors.
Findings published in the journal Alzheimer's & Dementia indicated that fish oil supplements may conserve brain volume and cognition across the spectrum of normal aging and neurodegeneration.
“This study is the first to report an association between fish oil supplements use and brain structural changes in all three cognitive diagnostic groups; these findings may suggest a potential role for fish oil supplements by reducing neurodegeneration over time,” wrote the researchers. “The neuroprotective activities of n-3 PUFAs may be largely mediated through vascular effects; however, other mechanisms have been proposed, including the activities of neuroprotectin D1 (NPD1), a potent lipid mediator synthesized from DHA during periods of oxidative stress.”
The study analyzed data from 229 cognitively normal individuals, 397 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 193 patients with Alzheimer's disease. While all the groups experienced benefits, the response was not observed for people with the genetic risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD) known as ApoE4. Previous data indicates that carriers of the APOE4 allelic variant (about 25% of whites) are at a several-fold increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease.
Causal?
However, the researchers could not conclude a causal effect of fish oil supplements on cognition and brain atrophy. Despite this, the results “highlight the need for future research on the effects of long-term fish oil supplement use on cognitive aging and dementia prevention in middle-aged and older adults”, they said.
Harry B. Rice, PhD, VP of Regulatory and Scientific Affairs for GOED
Harry Rice, PhD, VP of regulatory and scientific affairs for the Global Organization for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED), agreed with the investigators' conclusion that there is a need for future research on the effects of long-term n-3 LCPUFA use on cognitive aging and dementia prevention.
“What I think is the really important take-away is the need to screen subjects for APOE e4 carrier status,” he added. “People with the APOE e4 allele have an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease. Studies on cognitive aging that don't screen subjects for APOE e4 are destined for failure.”
Study details
Led by Lori Daiello, PharmD, the researchers analyzed data from 819 people across the spectrum of normal aging and neurodegeneration from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI), a large multi-center, NIH-funded study. Of these, 117 reported regular use of fish oil supplements at the start of the study and for the duration of study follow-up.
The researchers compared cognitive functioning and brain atrophy for patients who reported routinely using these supplements to those who were not using fish oil supplements.
Results indicated that, compared to non-users, use of fish oil supplements was associated with better cognitive functioning during the study. However, this association was significant only in those individuals who had a normal baseline cognitive function and in individuals who tested negative for APOE4.
In addition, Dr Daiello and her colleagues observed a clear association between fish oil supplements and brain volume, but this association was only significant for those who were APOE4 negative.
“In the imaging analyses for the entire study population, we found a significant positive association between fish oil supplement use and average brain volumes in two critical areas utilized in memory and thinking (cerebral cortex and hippocampus), as well as smaller brain ventricular volumes compared to non-users at any given time in the study,” said Dr Daiello. “In other words, fish oil use was associated with less brain shrinkage in patients taking these supplements during the ADNI study compared to those who didn't report using them.”
Source: Alzheimer's & Dementia Published online ahead of print, doi: 10.1016/j.jalz.2014.02.005 “Association of fish oil supplement use with preservation of brain volume and cognitive function” Authors: L.A. Daiello, A. Gongvatana, S. Dunsiger, R.A. Cohen, B.R. Ott, and the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
If you have been searching for the fountain of youth, I have some good news: it's been found! No, it's not hidden in some Florida swamp, it's actually somewhere between the dumbbells and the pull-up bar. Nope, I'm not kidding: The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) has published some exciting new research that suggests older adults with more muscle mass are less likely to die prematurely than those with less muscle.3
These findings add to a growing pile of evidence that overall body composition is a better predictor of all-cause mortality than overall weight or body mass index (BMI).3 So what does this mean for my fellow meatheads? Muscle mass seems to be an important predictor of life expectancy, and maintaining lean muscle mass well beyond middle age can increase your life span!3
A MASSIVE STUDY Total body mass includes both fat and muscle. Each of these tissue types has a different effect on the metabolism, so researchers at UCLA tested the hypothesis that greater muscle mass—and the metabolic stimulus it provides—is associated with a lower mortality rate in older adults.1
Study subjects were measured using bioelectrical impedance. Because muscle and fat have different water content, electrical currents flow through them at different rates. Bioelectrical impedance is the measure of how much fat or muscle mass a person has based on the speed of those electrical currents.
Based on the results, researchers calculated each subject's muscle mass relative to his or her height. This value is called a muscle mass index, defined as muscle mass divided by height squared. In 1988-1994, 3,659 people—males over 55 and females over 65—were surveyed for their muscle mass index. In 2004, researchers determined how many individuals had died from natural causes and correlated it with their muscle mass index.3
The results were clear: People with more muscle mass were less likely to die of natural causes. Total mortality was significantly lower in the 25 percent of individuals with the greatest muscle mass index compared to the 25 percent of individuals with the lowest.1
The findings of this study are significant because they reveal a glaring issue in how the medical community measures health and longevity: BMI.
THE BMI LIE Traditional criteria for obesity and obesity-associated health risks are calculated using the body mass index (BMI). These guidelines are faulty and wildly inaccurate. BMI is calculated from a person's height and weight, defined as mass in kilograms divided by height in meters squared. In no way does BMI calculate a person's body fat directly.2
Imagine a man who is 5-foot-9 and weighs 260 pounds. At that height and weight, the man would have a BMI greater than 40, placing him in the third and most severe tier of obesity. What the BMI doesn't tell you is that this man could be a professional bodybuilder on stage at the Olympia. He has low body fat and has a lean mass percentage bigger than you or I could even imagine. This BMI error doesn't occur only in professional bodybuilders . Well-muscled people are often given higher BMIs and the subsequent "medical" diagnosis of being overweight or obese.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and health care organizations use BMI to assess individuals because it is inexpensive and easy to calculate,2 not because it is the most effective method to predict true body composition or health risks. Diagnosing a person as obese or overweight should come from the percentage of fat mass and muscle mass a person has. It's a much more accurate and effective way to measure health risk.
WHAT IT ALL MEANS FOR YOU This study demonstrates the importance of muscle mass in overall life expectancy and highlights the necessity to look beyond total body mass when assessing health.1 "In other words, the greater your muscle mass, the lower your risk of death," says Dr. Arun Karlamangla, the study's co-author. "Thus, rather than worrying about weight or body mass index, we should be trying to maximize and maintain muscle mass."3
Building muscle mass is important in decreasing metabolic health risks.3 Therefore, adding some muscle and increasing your BMI by increasing your overall body weight could actually improve your health and decrease your risk of premature death.
Considering the support of these findings, measurements of muscle mass relative to body height should be added to criteria health care professionals use to diagnose and treat patients.3 Dr. Preethi Srikanthan, lead researcher in the study, says, "So many studies on the mortality impact of obesity focus on BMI. Our study indicates that clinicians need to be focusing on ways to improve body composition, rather than on BMI alone."3
The next time you step on the scale and worry about what the resulting number means to your health, think about the composition of your overall weight. If you don't already know it, get your body fat percentage tested by a qualified trainer and, most importantly, start building more muscle!
REFERENCES American Journal of Medicine, The. Muscle Mass Index As a Predictor of Longevity in Older Adults. Volume 127, Issue 6, Pages 547–553, June 2014
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity, National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. About BMI for Adults. 9/13/2011. Web. Acessed 5/29/2014
Rivero, Enrique. Older adults: Build muscle and you'll live longer. UCLA Health Systems. 3/13/2014. Web. Accessed 5/29/2014
