Saturday, June 15, 2013
Thursday, June 13, 2013
Official ENDO 2013 Blogger
Thank you to the Endocrine Society for giving me the opportunity to blog about the upcoming ENDO 2013 conference in San Francisco. I am lucky in that I arrived in San Francisco about 365 days ago to start my fellowship, so I have gathered a lot of experience about the city in preparation for the conference. As a result, I can say 5 things for certain about San Francisco:
1.) Yes, it really is cold even in June, so pack accordingly!
2.) The city is unique and beautiful. I know the conference is going to be great, but be sure to give yourself a little time to explore the area.
3.) Yes, wine country is just up the road.
4.) The Ferry Building at the end of Market Street (moderate walk from Moscone Center) has an amazing Farmer's Market on Saturday.
5.) The hills can be brutal, so bring your walking shoes
On a more serious note, I have been assigned to blog about pediatric endocrinology and "obesity, adipocyte biology, and appetite." I will be writing on these subjects each day and tweeting as well! Be sure to follow me @FightChildDM
See you in San Fran!
1.) Yes, it really is cold even in June, so pack accordingly!
2.) The city is unique and beautiful. I know the conference is going to be great, but be sure to give yourself a little time to explore the area.
3.) Yes, wine country is just up the road.
4.) The Ferry Building at the end of Market Street (moderate walk from Moscone Center) has an amazing Farmer's Market on Saturday.
5.) The hills can be brutal, so bring your walking shoes
On a more serious note, I have been assigned to blog about pediatric endocrinology and "obesity, adipocyte biology, and appetite." I will be writing on these subjects each day and tweeting as well! Be sure to follow me @FightChildDM
See you in San Fran!
Monday, June 10, 2013
Asthma and Metabolic Syndrome?
Happy June to everyone!
There was a recent release of an article in the journal Inflammation that was trying to see if the Metabolic Syndrome was a risk factor for asthma. The term "metabolic syndrome" is thrown around a lot, but it is a clustering of impaired glucose tolerance with obesity, high cholesterol, and hypertension (need 2 of these 3). Scientists have put forth pretty good evidence that obesity is a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation and it would not be surprising that this may in fact play a role in another common inflammatory disease, asthma. The study looked a cohort of post-menopausal women with and without asthma and then looked at various metabolic parameters. Interestingly, they found that those women with asthma had higher indices of insulin resistance, but did not find that link between asthma and obesity. That being said, causation is difficult to prove. They also found higher levels of certain inflammatory cytokines and adipokines in the asthma patients compared to their controls. A problem here is that it may be a bit like the chicken or the egg. Are patients with asthma more sedentary and therefore develop obesity/metabolic syndrome/more inflammation, or is the obesity related inflammation actually causing the asthma? I think those are great questions that warrant future research.
There was a recent release of an article in the journal Inflammation that was trying to see if the Metabolic Syndrome was a risk factor for asthma. The term "metabolic syndrome" is thrown around a lot, but it is a clustering of impaired glucose tolerance with obesity, high cholesterol, and hypertension (need 2 of these 3). Scientists have put forth pretty good evidence that obesity is a state of chronic, low-grade inflammation and it would not be surprising that this may in fact play a role in another common inflammatory disease, asthma. The study looked a cohort of post-menopausal women with and without asthma and then looked at various metabolic parameters. Interestingly, they found that those women with asthma had higher indices of insulin resistance, but did not find that link between asthma and obesity. That being said, causation is difficult to prove. They also found higher levels of certain inflammatory cytokines and adipokines in the asthma patients compared to their controls. A problem here is that it may be a bit like the chicken or the egg. Are patients with asthma more sedentary and therefore develop obesity/metabolic syndrome/more inflammation, or is the obesity related inflammation actually causing the asthma? I think those are great questions that warrant future research.
Friday, May 17, 2013
How best to curb obesity?
Here is a recent post in the New England Journal about the recent soda ban in New York City Ruling. A wonderful view that I personally share. 100% freedom has failed in this circumstance. If we let everyone eat whatever they want, you get the obesity rates that we currently see. We live in the greatest country in the world and we can do better!
http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp1303706?query=endocrinology
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Microbes and Obesity ?!
A truly facininating side to the obesity story is the relationship of gut flora to potential weight gain. Many believe that having an abnormal balance of gut bacteria can contribute to obesity through a multitude of mechanisms. One of the simplest explanations is that gut bacteria allow for more substrates (e.g. glucose or fatty acids) to be absorbed. Here is a summary of a recent study that came out in the JCEM: http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/781943. The question that I always have is, are we looking at the chicken or the egg? Or does being obese eventually change your gut microbes? What we need is a study that can track people closely both before, during, and after developing obesity. Maybe then we can see a significant change in flora that precedes the obesity.
Just my thoughts...
New Era
The new era of this blog has begun! Since I am training to become a physician that specializes in childhood obesity, I will try and share new an exciting news on that front whenever I can. I will kick things off with a bit of good news. Apparently, some rates of childhood obesity are starting to fall, but I don't think that it is time to let our guard down. The fact of the matter is that we have only begin to scrape the surface of the obesity problem from the policy side and sadly there are few option on the "drug side." So, I guess that leaves diet and exercise right?
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Concussions and Head Trauma
Sorry for the absence from the blog world! Clearly, residency has been making it tough to write! Anyway, I have been working in the outpatient world lately and I saw a teenager after being released from the ER after sustaining a head injury. It was a head to head collision in which the child started slurring his words and had neurological signs! No imagining was done and he was sent home after being watched for about 6 hours. I think this management is debatable and could be talked about below.
I think we have all noticed an increase in the amount of press coverage of head trauma over the past few years. I thought about writing this article after seeing the following story: College Athlete Died of Head Trauma, Father SaysWe as pediatricians are much more careful about return to play now and in fact all patients should return to play in a step-wise fashion after first taking a full week off. It is sad to see another person die because of possible mismanagement and/or under appreciation of the severity of head trauma.
I think we have all noticed an increase in the amount of press coverage of head trauma over the past few years. I thought about writing this article after seeing the following story: College Athlete Died of Head Trauma, Father SaysWe as pediatricians are much more careful about return to play now and in fact all patients should return to play in a step-wise fashion after first taking a full week off. It is sad to see another person die because of possible mismanagement and/or under appreciation of the severity of head trauma.
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