No, it’s not a magical Frosty the Snowman type thing, but cold weather can make you gain weight. And that weight gain, however small, may creep up on you over the years, putting you at risk for obesity.

There are several different ways that cold weather may contribute to gaining weight, and once these methods are exposed and swimming around in your thoughts, you may avoid them.

For the skinny on weight gain in the winter, read Tom Venuto’s article below. He’s the author of The Body Fat Solution, a book which takes a look at weight gain from many different angles (including emotional or psychological), not just the purely physical take.

After reading, leave a comment if you’re surprised by any of the insights on weight gain in the winter.

Does Cold Weather Make You Store Body Fat?

By Tom Venuto,
Author of The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscle, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight

Do you get fatter in the cold weather? It’s a good question right now, and the answer is yes!

First there’s the psychological explanation: in warm climates, people are wearing less clothes and enjoying the outdoors and people want to look good when they’re exposing more flesh! In the cold, you’re covered up, so there’s less self-consciousness and no public accountability. Therefore, most people tend to stay on a diet more diligently and train harder when summer rolls around.

Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) has been studied at length by psychologists. Often more than just the “winter blues” but an actual type of depression, SAD occurs during the short days and long nights of winter and fall, when there’s less sunlight and colder temperatures. Symptoms include depression, cravings for specific foods, loss of energy, hopelessness and oversleeping. Obviously, these types of symptoms can contribute to weight gain.

Because of their tendency for fall and winter weight gain, many people have suspected that cold temperatures influence weight gain on a metabolic level, not just eating more. Exposure to cold temperatures can cause a shivering thermogenesis which means there’s an increase in metabolism to produce more heat (heat production = calories burned).

However, if you just got the bright idea of turning off the heat in your house, or going for a swim in the cold surf every day to “burn more fat”, I wouldn’t recommend it. Deliberate exposure to the cold, either cold air or cold water doesn’t pan out into real world fat loss results, even though there are actually “fat loss gurus” who recommend it.

Here’s why:

If your body uses some energy for shivering or heat production, it can compensate later for that energy loss by increasing your appetite. Not only that, research at the hyperbaric environmental adaptation program at the Naval Medical Research Institute in Bethesda, Maryland reported that, “The combination of exercise and cold exposure does NOT act to enhance metabolism of fats . . . Cold-induced vasoconstriction of peripheral adipose tissue may account, in part, for the decrease in lipid mobilization.”

It’s just not practical to freeze your butt off in an attempt to speed up your metabolism a tiny little bit, so your fat loss scheme wouldn’t last long if you tried.

A great example of how cold temperatures affect energy balance is in the case of swimming. For years, people thought swimming actually made you fat. There were all kinds of theories, like, “it makes you retain a layer of fat for insulation, like seals.” Actually, the most recent research shows that swimming is a perfectly good fat burning exercise, except for one thing: Swimming, especially in cold water, increases appetite dramatically.

The seasons affect your activity levels too. Pedometer research published in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise uncovered a huge difference in the number of steps taken between the summer and winter:

• 7616 steps per day in summer
• 6293 steps per day in fall
• 5304 steps per day in winter
• 5850 steps in spring

Most people blame winter weight gain on the food, but it’s not just the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s celebration feasts, it’s less winter activity that also contributes to the holiday pounds.

You have to keep up your training and nutrition program in the winter, or else.

Although studies have found that seasonal weight gain is usually very small, it’s the type of slow weight creep that goes unnoticed. Over a period of 10, 15 or 20 years, it’s enough to accumulate into overweight or obesity.

Thus many men and women wake up one morning at age 40 or 45, look in the mirror and ask themselves, “How did I get so heavy?” Answer: just a pound or two a year, after each winter season, left unchecked.

To stay lean all year round, you have to remain alert about increases in your appetite and decreases in your activity. This is a YEAR-ROUND LIFESTYLE! Stay active, stay diligent about nutrition, stay accountable, and if you start to experience weight gain, nip it in the bud — fast!

2010 Tom Venuto, author of The Body Fat Solution: Five Principles for Burning Fat, Building Lean Muscle, Ending Emotional Eating, and Maintaining Your Perfect Weight

Author Bio
Tom Venuto is a fat-loss expert, nutrition researcher, and natural, steroid-free bodybuilder. Since 1989, Venuto has been involved in virtually every aspect of the fitness and weight-loss industry — as a personal trainer, nutrition consultant, motivation coach, fitness model, health club manager, and bestselling author of the popular e-book Burn the Fat, Feed the Muscle, as well as other digital programs such as MP3 teleseminars and weight-loss membership websites. He lives in Hoboken, New Jersey.

Visit the author’s website at: BodyFatSolution.com.

(Image via stock.xchng; Book cover Penguin Group)

Post from: Blisstree

How Cold Weather Affects Your Weight

New research has been unveiled today that shows acupuncture during pregnancy is a promising treatment for depression.

“Depression during pregnancy is an issue of concern because it has negative effects on both the mother and the baby as well as the rest of the family,” said Dr. Schnyer, one of the study authors.

Is depression during pregnancy a common problem?

Around 10% of pregnant women suffer from major depression, and almost 20% have increased symptoms of depression during pregnancy. Even though rates of depression in pregnant women are similar to rates among non-pregnant women the same age and women who’ve just given birth, there are far fewer treatment studies of depression during pregnancy.

Some women are also reluctant to take anti-depressants during pregnancy, so alternatives like acupuncture may be welcome. Study participants included 150 pregnant women who met the DSM-IV criteria for Major Depressive Disorder. The women in the study didn’t know if they were receiving acupuncture designed for depression or if they received control acupuncture (not specific for depression). One group received massage instead.

The women in the study who received the acupuncture specific for depression experienced a significantly greater decrease in severity of depression compared to the control groups. Fewer women in the massage group reported side effects, yet those side effects reported by some of the participants in the acupuncture groups were mild and passed quickly.

Study results were presented today at the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine’s (SMFM) annual meeting in Chicago.

If you’re concerned about depression during pregnancy, please speak with your doctor. Pregnant women should exercise caution with acupuncture during pregnancy, using only certified and experienced acupuncturists.

(Image via stock.xchng)

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Acupuncture During Pregnancy for Depression

If you’re gaining weight, but haven’t changed your eating habits and you’re still exercising, the cause may be something your doctor hasn’t checked.

Some women may go years before being diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS), a metabolic disorder that may lead to infertility. Around 5 million US women are affected by PCOS.

Andrea Dunaif, MD, of Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, said that some women will go to as many as four doctors before being diagnosed. She notes that women may be told that there’s nothing wrong with them or that they’re fat. Symptoms of PCOS, caused by excess levels of male hormones, may include irregular periods and excess hair on the face, chest or back.

Dunaif was recently awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to continue her research into the genetic causes of PCOS. She’s currently recruiting women with PCOS and their daughters, brothers and fathers for participation in her studies. For more info, call 800-847-6060 or visit the PCOS page at Northwestern University.

PCOS is a complex genetic disease with risks that last throughout a woman’s life. Risks associated with PCOS include obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, endometrial cancer and heart disease. According to Dunaif,
brothers and fathers of women with PCOS have a greater prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome.

While PCOS gets its name from small ovarian cysts, not all women with PCOS have these cysts. Dunaif said she’d like to rename PCOS “Syndrome XX” to get it into the spotlight.

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Unlocking Mysteries of PCOS

Excessive Internet use has been associated with depression, but it’s a chicken and egg question. Do depressed people use the Internet too much, or do people become depressed from excessive Internet use?

“What is clear, is that for a small subset of people, excessive use of the Internet could be a warning signal for depressive tendencies,” said Dr. Catriona Morrison from the University of Leeds.

Morrison is the lead author of a new study examining the link between Internet usage, depression and addiction. It’s the first large-scale study of Western young people to take up the subject. Researchers found that people who spend excessive amounts of time surfing the net are more likely to exhibit depressive symptoms.

Most people using the Internet aren’t addicted, so don’t worry too much! Only 1.2% or 18 people in the study were found to be addicted to the Internet. However, that percentage is enough to raise brows regarding mental health issues relating to overuse of the Internet. When Internet usage regularly takes the place of real, in-person interaction, that’s a cause for concern.

Morrison noted that the research findings reinforce previous public speculation that overusing social networking sites and chat rooms in a manner that replaces normal social function could be associated with disorders like depression and addiction.

In the study, younger people were more likely to be addicted than middle-aged Internet users. The average age of the addicted group was 21. Study participants included 1,319 people aged 16-51. Study findings will be published next week in the journal Psychopathology.

Do you think you know an Internet addict?

(Image via stock.xchng)

Post from: Blisstree

Too Much Internet Linked with Depression

During American Heart Month, treat your heart right by taking care of your gums. At the end of January, I reminded you about Wear Red Day (Feb. 5) and all the widely discussed risk factors for heart disease. However, another risk factor may be lurking inside your mouth. The good news is that it can be taken care of.

A large number of Americans have some form of gum (periodontal) disease. If it isn’t treated, it may possibly lead to heart disease. Researchers believe that if you have periodontal disease, you may be twice as likely to suffer from coronary artery disease compared to people without periodontal disease. Managing gum disease may help reduce the risk for heart disease.

New guidelines, part of a consensus paper published in the American Journal of Cardiology and the Journal of Periodontology, encourage cardiologists to perform oral health exams. Periodontists are also encouraged to ask about patient heart health and family history of heart disease.

“There’s no longer any question about the strong relationship between the two diseases, and patients with one condition should be checked immediately for the other,” says Dr. Edgard El Chaar, DDS, MS, a periodontist based in New York City. Dr. Chaar specializes in the prevention and treatment of gum disease, and he’s an advocate for educating patients about the perio-cardio connection and the new treatment guidelines.

It’s not known exactly how gum disease can lead to heart disease, but researchers have a couple of theories. Inflammation from gum disease increases plaque build-up and may contribute to swelling of arteries. Also, bacteria in the mouth can enter into the blood stream, attach to fatty plaques in the heart blood vessels, possibly paving the way for a heart attack after clot formation. Read more at perio.org.

Dr. Chaar says that heart disease isn’t the only area of concern when it comes to your gums. He notes that researchers have linked gum disease with respiratory conditions, premature births and diabetes from bacteria traveling throughout the body.

If you have symptoms of gum disease (bleeding, tender or receding gums or persistent bad breath), Dr. Chaar encourages you to not only consult a periodontist, but also consider discussing your symptoms with a primary care physician.

(Image via Dr. Chaar)

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Gum Disease Bad for Heart