Imaging Study Finds Obese Teens Have Disrupted Brain Connections

New research reveals that obese adolescents have disrupted connectivity in the complex regions of the brain involved in regulating appetite, emotions and impulse control, and reward and pleasure in eating.

The study, presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), used advanced imagining technology to discover the disrupted white matter integrity in several regions of the brain.

Obesity is an epidemic in America and across the world. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), obesity has more than quadrupled in adolescents over the past 30 years.

It is estimated that more than one-third of children and adolescents in the U.S. are overweight or obese. Obesity in adolescence is associated with a number of health risks, including cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The study at the University of Sao Paulo in Brazil included 59 obese adolescents between the ages of 11 and 18 and 61 healthy control adolescents matched for gender, age, socio-economical classification and education level.

The adolescents were classified by the World Health Organization criterion for obesity. They had no other known chronic diseases or conditions. The study participants underwent diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) of the brain to evaluate white matter integrity.

DTI is a type of MRI exam that measures functional anisotropy (FA), the microscopic motion, or anisotropy, of water molecules within and surrounding the brain’s white matter fibers. Low FA values indicate greater disruption within the white matter.

“DTI is a relatively new MRI technique not widely used in clinical diagnosis,” said study author Pamela Bertolazzi, a biomedical scientist and Ph.D. student in the neuroimaging laboratory at the University of Sao Paulo.

The results showed loss of white matter integrity in several brain regions in the obese patients. Compared to the healthy controls, the brains of the obese adolescents showed a decrease in FA values in many areas of the brain including several regions involved in appetite regulation, impulse control, emotions and reward and pleasure in eating.

“The data reveal a pattern of involvement among brain regions that are important in the control of appetite and emotions,” Bertolazzi said. “There was no region of higher FA in obese patients compared to the control group,” she added.

The researchers hope that these findings will offer new tools to combat this global public health crisis.

“Childhood obesity has increased 10 to 40 percent in the last 10 years in most countries,” Bertolazzi said.

“If we are able to identify the brain changes associated with obesity, this DTI technique could be used to help prevent obesity and avoid the complications associated with the condition.”

Source: Radiological Society of North America

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RRT to perform holiday farce at Landing Playhouse

RRT to perform holiday farce at Landing Playhouse  News-Press NowFull coverage

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Smart Phone Addiction = Brain Chemistry Imbalance

Researchers have found young people addicted to smartphones and the internet display an imbalance in their brain chemistry. The finding is salient as a recent Pew Research Center study discovered 46 percent of Americans say they could not live without their smartphones.

While this sentiment is clearly hyperbole, more and more people are becoming increasingly dependent on smartphones and other portable electronic devices. Many are concerned that in addition to the obsession with smart devices, the behavior among young people may lead to immediate effects on the brain and the possible long-term consequences of such habits.

In a new study, Hyung Suk Seo, M.D., professor of neuroradiology at Korea University in Seoul, South Korea, and colleagues used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to gain unique insight into the brains of smartphone- and internet-addicted teenagers. MRS is a type of MRI that measures the brain’s chemical composition.

The study involved 19 young people (mean age 15.5, 9 males) diagnosed with internet or smartphone addiction and 19 gender- and age-matched healthy controls.

Twelve of the addicted youth received nine weeks of cognitive behavioral therapy, modified from a cognitive therapy program for gaming addiction, as part of the study.

Researchers used standardized internet and smartphone addiction tests to measure the severity of internet addiction. Questions focused on the extent to which internet and smartphone use affects daily routines, social life, productivity, sleeping patterns and feelings.

“The higher the score, the more severe the addiction,” Dr. Seo said.

Dr. Seo reported that the addicted teenagers had significantly higher scores in depression, anxiety, insomnia severity and impulsivity.

The researchers performed MRS exams on the addicted youth prior to and following behavioral therapy and a single MRS study on the control patients.

The MRS imaging technique was used to measure levels of gamma aminobutyric acid, or GABA, a neurotransmitter in the brain that inhibits or slows down brain signals, and glutamate-glutamine (Glx), a neurotransmitter that causes neurons to become more electrically excited.

Previous studies have found GABA to be involved in vision and motor control and the regulation of various brain functions, including anxiety.

The results of the current study revealed that compared to the healthy controls, the ratio of GABA to Glx was significantly increased in the anterior cingulate cortex of smartphone- and internet-addicted youth prior to therapy.

The investigators discovered the ratios of GABA to creatine and GABA to glutamate were significantly correlated to clinical scales of internet and smartphone addictions, depression and anxiety.

The findings are important because having too much GABA can result in a number of side effects, including drowsiness and anxiety. Nevertheless, researchers note that more study is needed to understand the clinical implications of the findings.

Dr. Seo believes that increased GABA in the anterior cingulate gyrus in internet and smartphone addiction may be related to the functional loss of integration and regulation of processing in the cognitive and emotional neural network.

Interestingly, cognitive behavioral therapy appears to be able to restore the GABA to Glx ratios in the addicted youth.

“The increased GABA levels and disrupted balance between GABA and glutamate in the anterior cingulate cortex may contribute to our understanding the pathophysiology of and treatment for addictions,” Dr. Seo said.

Source: Radiological Society of North America

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Best of Our Blogs: December 1, 2017

No matter how much you want it, you can’t will someone to say the words you’ve always wanted to hear. Words like:

“It’s okay. You did the best you could.”

“I’m sorry. You deserved better.”

“What do you need from me right now?”

“I love you.”

Instead of putting ourselves in unhealthy situations for the chance that person will utter these words, we can simply and lovingly say it to ourselves.

While you’re busy navigating the season with all its expectations and family gatherings, do yourself a favor and speak those words of compassion and love to yourself. And then read our posts for more tips on self-love and self-care.

Things Abusers and Manipulators Say to Their Victims
(Psychology of Self) – These are the telltale signs you’re being manipulated by a toxic person.

10 Ways To Assess and React To a Selfish Individual
(Caregivers, Family & Friends) – Being around a selfish and/or narcissistic person can leave you feeling depleted. Here’s how to cope.

Go No Contact, Sh*t and Get Off the Pot
(Narcissism Meets Normalcy) – If you’re still spending time with your toxic narcissistic relative, this will wake you up.

Perfectionism: 8 Tools for Parents with Kids Afraid to Fail
(Stress Better) – You’re worried about your child’s fear of failure and anxiety associated with perfectionism. Here’s what you need to do.

Give Yourself the Gift of Self-Care This Holiday Season
(Happily Imperfect) – How do you get through one of the most stressful times of year? These seven tips will help you manage the holiday season.

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Double-up feature: Jewish Film Festival 2017

Double-up feature: Jewish Film Festival 2017  The MancunionFull coverage

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Agony Aunt Claire gives advice on dealing with an office crush

ADVANCED psychotherapist and clinical hypnotherapist CLAIRE GASKIN sees clients in Essex and in London’s Harley Street. She is now bringing her expertise to the problems of our readers as our agony aunt.
If you have a problem you’d like Claire’s advice with, email agonyaunt@nqe.com For more details on Claire’s work, visitbenefittherapy.co.uk/

Dear Claire, I feel really embarrassed about this but there is someone at work who I really like and I think she likes me but I don’t know how to approach it.

We work in the same department and I think we get on well.

We are both single and of a similar age and I really want to ask her out. Do you think it’s a good idea ? Since we work together, if I have read the signs wrong then it will be really awkward.

Could I be imagining she is flirting with me ? The office Christmas do is coming up and I am wondering if I should make a move then but it would be awful to wake up the next day and regret anything.

I feel like a silly teenager and am thinking maybe I should just forget it and try other ways of meeting someone.

Claire says: People mostly regret the opportunities they let pass them by.

Various hormones are released when we are attracted to someone, which can play havoc with our thoughts and feelings.

Rest assured that if we think someone is flirting with us they usually are.

Body language is processed at subconscious levels and, although we might very occasionally pick up the wrong signals, it’s usually a lack of confidence which leads us to doubt our instincts.

A session or two of hypnotherapy can really help to build confidence, if this sounds familiar.

Did you know the office is statistically one of the best places to meet a romantic partner?

I think the Christmas do is a great time to ask your colleague out.

A trip to the cinema is a perfect first date: You learn to feel comfortable in their close company and avoid awkward silences afterwards because you have a shared experience to talk about.

Decide on a movie before the party and then strike up a conversation with your crush.

Say you’re looking forward to seeing this film and invite her along.

If she turns you down you can still hold your head up the next day.

However, there’s every chance she will say yes. I say, go for it!

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Kelly Pegg: I'm focusing on meeting my beautiful little baby boy..

If I wasn’t feeling anxious about the impending birth of my second child I most certainly am now.

After spending two and a half hours at the hospital this week for a crash course in C-sections I can honestly say don’t do it!

Sometimes taking the sensible option and learning about what’s coming is not always the best option.

Picture a hot stuffy room full of heavily pregnant women with their partners all hoping to be told the same thing – “It will be ok”. Then picture a rather unsympathetic midwife talking in medical terms, passing all sorts of objects around from a pair of surgical stockings to an actual catheter.

Just when I thought it couldn’t get any worse she offered us all a look at “the massive needle” (her actual words), which would be used to inject us for the epidural, and what a surprise not one of us took her up on her offer. For some of the women in this class they had opted for surgery because they were too anxious to have a natural birth.

There were endless questions from “who watches my baby when I go to the loo?” to “Do we provide nappies or do you?”

Then there was a woman who had such a bad experience with her first baby she couldn’t help but tell the whole room, I mean who doesn’t love a horror story about giving birth? I left feeling scared, anxious and spent the whole drive home chewing my husband’s ear off about how I can’t go through with it.

This was met with the sensible and let’s face it the only advice Chris could give :“You have no choice, he has to come out, it won’t be that bad.”

I’m opting for a C-section after having an emergency one with my daughter. It was a good experience, calm and straightforward but I struggled with the recovery afterwards. So this time super organised Kelly decided to be well informed, knowledge is power after all, or so I thought.

I can honestly say I knew little of what went on when I had Ava-Lilly and hand on heart I wished I’d left it that way. A few months before her birth we paid to do a natal hypnotherapy course and it was the best thing we ever did.

The lady who ran it taught us how all the medical equipment and fancy terms are irrelevant. By the end of the course we had all built mind blockers so what ever happened on the big day we would be able to stay calm and not let the ‘medical’ side of it take over. It worked for me 100 per cent and I so wish that this time I’d enrolled on the course again.

It should absolutely be made available to every pregnant woman out there as it really can work wonders, let’s face it if it can keep me calm then it can keep anyone calm!

The NHS is wonderful, don’t get me wrong, but when it comes to giving help and advice on birthing issues it seems like matters concerning mental and physical health are low on the agenda.

There’s only so much talk about cleaning wounds and changing bandages that can help anyone.

I really felt for some of those women in the class, the look of fear in their faces was still there afterwards which of course it shouldn’t have been. Everyone should have felt more relaxed and at ease with what was coming but I felt we all left a little more petrified than we were at the start.

If you’re reading this and you’re a mum you may have a great birthing experience or sadly you may have not. What unites us all is that we aren’t just baby machines; we are so much more than that, our physical and mental state matter to us and that’s perfectly ok. I’m going to wipe the images of needles and catheter bags out of mind thank you very much and try to just focus on meeting my beautiful little boy.

I’ll also be dreaming of all the food I’ve not been allowed to eat, ooh Brie cheese and how good that Christmas morning sherry is going to taste.

Tough time for TV’s Davina

I feel so sad hearing the news that TV presenter Davina McCall and her husband of 17 years have separated.

At 50 years old with three children Davina has been very honest in the past about how hard she has worked on her marriage.

She’s spoken about having couples therapy because of that “one argument” they just couldn’t get over (we’ve all been there) to using various tactics including an egg timer to help quell heated rows.

I applaud her for being real and so open, let’s face it we all have to work hard on our long term relationships and nothing is easy all of the time.

Davina has called her husband Mathew the ‘love of her life’ and I bet that is still how she feels.

Sometimes we change and evolve but alone so we start to become a different person and naturally that is going to change those relationships closest to you.

I always call my husband the love of my life and he says the same about me however there are no guarantees in life, all we can ever do is try our best.

Real relationships take hard work and dare I say it a lot of luck but sometimes after trying everything you have to accept there is no more you can do.

With Christmas just around the corner it will be a tough time for Davina and her family.

She’s one brave lady taking a step away from something so important but that isn’t working for her anymore.

All eyes on fairytale couple

So the news everyone is talking about is Prince Harry’s engagement to the gorgeous actress Meghan Markle.

The world is gripped by what lies ahead, what will Meghan wear on her big day? Will she get on with the Duchess of Cambridge? When will she and Harry have children? If I were Meghan I’d be running as fast as I could in the opposite direction. I’ve never seen the appeal of becoming a princess, and especially after what happened to Diana, I couldn’t think of anything worse. The media being on you 24/7 and giving up what you effectively are to become someone who shakes hands and waves a lot. No thank you, I would hate it if it were my daughter marrying into a royal family. I hope Meghan knows what she’s getting herself into, I very much doubt life will become any easier once she signs up to being Prince Harry’s wife. If it’s genuine love then good for them and I hope the fairytale that they are both clearly experiencing stays that way.

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