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2007-06-21
English Version
The term “adipositas” comes from Latin (adipatum = fat).
In medical German it is the common synonym for too much body fat. In English
the term for this condition is “obesity” (this word also comes from Latin:
obesitas = stoutness, corpulence).
In the latest GSAAM journal (GSAAM =German Society of Anti Aging Medicine
(1)) editor-in -chief - Dr. Kleine-Gunk (9) - is examining a dilemma: the
gap - between knowing much about overweight aetiology on the one hand, and
its therapy on the other. (2)
Says Kleine-Gunk: “On the obesity agenda there is good and bad news.”
First, the good one; it goes like: the state of the art knowledge, in fact,
dramatically “has gained weight” over the last 15 years. In the early 1990s,
body fat was considered simply a “passive” tissue. Nowadays knowledge holds
that fat tissue is an active endocrine “organ” which –among others –
synthesizes its own hormones, and also proteins maintaining inflammatory
processes.
In the same way, expertise on starving and feeding behaviour has much
extended.
The “bad news” says: all this amplified information and knowledge did not
affect obesity treatment at all. Only one single new medication has entered
the market in the last ten years. The name of the cure is Rimonabant – its
trade name is: AcompliaR. In a September 2006 newsletter we have already
presented this new medication (3). Yet lately, some negative reports on the
new drug appeared – and in the United States, it seems not to get approval
by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), quite likely. If so, it will be
taken away from the European market - quite likely, too.
(6, 7, 8)
Now, though, there is still “good news” for the “stouts”: published in the
distinguished journal “Nature” (4) a scientific paper showed that obese mice
can reach the same lifespan as their slim companions – if their food is
enriched with a substance called Resveratrol. Resveratrol (formula: 3, 5,
4`-trihydroystilbene) is an antioxidant which is found in the skin of the
red grape. It induces – among others – an improvement of the insulin
sensitivity and a raise in the number of mitochondria (“cellular power
plants”) - and it simulates the beneficial effects of calorie reduction on
lifespan.
Ingesting Resveratrol does not necessarily requires “having a few glasses
too many” (of red wine) but taking it in form of a tablet – as a supplement.
From now on, will the “heavy weights” stay – as the German magazine “Spiegel” headlined in November 2006 (5) – under the new slogan: “Feasting without getting sick”?
(C) 2007 Prof. Hotze