Association between weight gain, obesity and sleep duration

I suppose we have all heard lot of the saying that sleep duration strongly affects our weight and health. And according to a study, both short and long sleep hours are indicators to predict an increased risk for future health (Science Daily, 2008), and there are a lot of controversies out there nowadays regarding this topic. Therefore, in order to explore it further, I will be gladly introducing the research study called association between weight gain, obesity and sleep duration on a large-scale 3-year cohort study, done by St. Luke’s International Hospital in Tokyo.   

So basically, Kobayashi D., Takahashi O., Deshpande G., Shimbo T.& Fukui T. (2011) performed this retrospective study that surveyed 21,469 healthy individuals who were 20 years or older who had annual health checkups at St. Luke’s between 2005 and 2008. And the purpose of attracting all these apparently healthy citizens was to promote early detection of any chronic diseases (Kobayashi D. et al, 2011). Also, questionnaire about their average of sleeping time per night were filled out. In addition, statistical measures were used in conducting the research. For instance, the responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics like mean and standard deviation. As well as regression analysis which was used to explore the relationship between sleep duration, age, gender, past medical history, and level of physical activity (Kobayashi D. et al, 2011).

The study had found that those who slept for 7 hours are less likely to come obese than those who slept for 5 hours or less. And to contrast, individuals who slept more than 8 hours had no huge difference comparing to the 7-hour-sleepers in terms of their body mass index, but have a tendency to become obese in the future (Kobayashi D. et al, 2011). The result was interesting because it was not like the longer we sleep, the less likely we will be obese, but instead, more than 8 hours of sleep will contribute to increasing chances of weight gain or new-onset obesity.

As for the conclusion, the findings of this research study suggest that the optimal sleep hour for a healthy weight is around 7 hours per day. Additionally, sleeping less than 5 hours results in both weight gain and increasing potential risk of obesity for both males and females (Kobayashi D. et al, 2011). However, this study may be biased in the sense that the data collected is only from people who are healthy and coming to annual check-ups with this specific hospital. Thus, this sample does not represent the overall population. Other limitations might be that the questionnaires used did not incorporate information on quality or satisfaction of sleep. Also, it is a retrospective research, which means that larger sample size and perspective method will be needed to support the results.

I guess after knowing this fact, I will stick with sleeping 7 hours every day. Will you?

References:
Kobayashi D., Takahashi O., Deshpande G., Shimbo T.& Fukui T.(2011). Association between weight gain, obesity and sleep duration: a large-scale 3-year cohort study. Sleep and Breathing. 1-5 

Science Daily, 2008. Short, Long Sleep Duration Is Associated With Future Weight Gain In Adults. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/04/080401081932.htm

Is BMI Appropriate for Assessing Health?

When it comes down to the topic of contemporary health, controversies arise continuously and many of them never settle. Thus, it is our responsibility to pick a side that makes more sense and look for appropriate evidence to support it. And most importantly, stay with that side of the argument. Today, I came across an interesting controversy in the field of healthy weight, which is also the title of this blog: Is BMI appropriate for assessing health? Just a brief explanation to those of you who do not know, BMI is the Body Mass Index that is used to calculate the ratio of our weight and squared height, in kilograms and meters respectively.

One side of the controversy is that the BMI is the appropriate measure because it is what our Canadian health system uses for determining whether we are at health risk or not. In addition, it is an inexpensive and easy method of classifying the weight groups and identifying our weight status. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011) And the following image is about the division of BMIs:

The other side of the argument is that BMI does not take into consideration of the body composition, and it also has several limitations. First of all, for muscular adults, they tend to have a BMI in the overweight range and over look the health risks due to the large amount of muscle tissue they have. Secondly, young adults who have not achieved their full growth and those who naturally have a very lean body may not be as dangerous as the BMI indicates. Last but not the least, seniors over the age of 65 needs special attention because the normal range for them could differ from younger adults. (Health Canada, 2005)

As for my opinion, I agree with the second idea, where BMI is not too appropriate in accessing health. As for me, I have a BMI of 19.5 where as you can see, according to the chart above, I fall under the normal category. However, BMI was introduced in the early 19th century by Lambert Quetelet, who was a mathematician, not a physician. He produced this formula to get quick measures to assist the government in allocating resources. (NPR, 2009) Personally, I am more concerned about my abdominal fat, and also fat stored at other parts of my body. Therefore, I would like to know more about my body composition instead of just knowing that I am normal comparing to the overall population, and having no consideration of any health risk I might experience. It is researched by scientists at the Mayo Clinic (as cited in Rachel B., 2011) that after comparing thousands of BMIs, it is found out that more than half of the people with normal BMIs actually had the same risks of chronic illness as those who had high BMIs due to high body fat percentage, which has another interesting name, "skinny fat".

So, I believe that we should not be lulled into a false sense of security although our BMI falls in the normal range. Instead, we need to take into account of other measures as well.  For instance, the waist circumference, it is an indicator of abdominal fat (Health Canada, 2005) and the body composition test that gives us the accurate fat percentage so we can assess our health better and maintain a healthy weight as we move on.

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011, September 13). About BMI for Adults. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/assessing/bmi/adult_bmi/index.html

Health Canada (2005, August 10). Canadian Guidelines for Body Weight Classification in Adults. Retrieved from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fn-an/nutrition/weights-poids/guide-ld-adult/qa-qr-pub-eng.php#1

NPR (2009, July 4). Top 10 Reasons Why the BMI is Bogus Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106268439

Rachel B (2010, March 29). Mayo Clinic Study Reveals Many Thin People Are Actually Obese. Retrieved from http://voices.yahoo.com/mayo-clinic-study-reveals-many-thin-5720710.html?cat=5

Are We Cautious Enough?

Nowadays, the most of us see the internet as the easiest way to obtain health related information we acquire. But did any of us realize how reliable are the information that we access online? Aren’t we overwhelmed with misleading messages?

Therefore today, I will be showing you an example of a website that lacks credibility so that you will be able to identify them along the road. One of the sites I have found is called How to Lose Weight Fast. This webpage is basically promoting the diet program instead of really teaching the readers how to reach and maintain a healthy weight. As you can see from the first screen shot, what comes into our sight at first is the strong persuasion in joining the diet program. I have used circles to emphasize the most eye-catching details that are obviously directing us towards the program. And this is a potential bias that makes it less credible even if the rest of the website makes complete sense. They are not focusing on gaining financially by increasing the stream clicks of the useful information they provide, but rather on the number of people who have been attracted to the diet program.

As we scroll down the page, it starts to talk about three principals that enhance fast weight loss. Under the first principal, it says that we should completely stop ourselves from eating any junk food. However, this is not exactly right because healthy eating is all about balance, we can get ourselves off healthy alarms once in a while as long as we eat healthy 80-90% of the time. Even though we let ourselves consume food that are high in fat, carbohydrates, and calories, we can balance them out with eating other healthier food and a moderate amount of physical activities. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2011) This is rather recommended because we are likely to keep it up and incorporate it into our lifestyle instead of just losing weight in the short term. 

To read further, it encourages us to keep exercise for 30 minutes every day. However, everyone has busy schedules and this may become a stressor and cause distress. Instead of going to the gym, we can try simpler ways to be physically active. For instance, we can take the stairs instead of the elevator; take a walk once a day; walk to nearby places rather than driving there; spend less time in front of televisions and computers. (Health Canada, 2011)

Moreover, this article does not have any references provided; nor is the author of the passage mentioned anywhere on the website, which once again lowers the credibility of the site.

Hopefully after this demonstration, you can now filter through the information and make better informed decisions. Well, having spent enough time at the desk writing my blog, I'd better off for a walk to keep myself in shape. Cheers.

References:

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2011, August 17). Healthy Weight- it’s not a diet, it’s a lifestyle. Retrieved from http://www.cdc.gov/healthyweight/healthy_eating/

Health Canada (2011, March 07). Physical Activity, What Can You Do. Retrieved from http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/hl-vs/physactiv/index-eng.php

Do you see your passion in mine?

Hola! My name is Janet, welcome to my blog! From now on I will be your tour guide to take you on this exciting journey discovering the world of healthy living! Even thought this is designed for an assignment for Kinesiology 140 class at Simon Fraser University, I have always had a passion in looking for ways to live out a healthy lifestyle and maintain a healthy weight.


A little side story that explains the reason for my enthusiasm for this topic is that in the line of my father’s family, most of my family members are overweight. I am lucky enough that I had a healthy weight for all past years, but recently I have noticed that my appetite is increasing substantially and my weight is growing in an uncontrollable fast pace. This is when I finally decided that I need to learn more about healthy living and pull myself back in shape again and maintain it afterwards.


I cannot wait to get this running because there is just so much to discover about this topic, and I am looking forward to learn along with you. Do you know that having a healthy weight not only gives us good-looking appearance which I believe most of us want, but it also gains us confidence to make us feel good about ourselves? And of course, importantly it lowers our risks from getting certain chronic diseases like cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease. It is researched that overweight women are three times likely to experience a heart attack than those who have a healthy weight. (Public Health Agency of Canada, 2011) If you are concerned about your living style, desperate about having a healthy weight or just want to get to know more about health, this is the right place for you to be. :)

I am hoping by updating these blog posts, they can become your and my own reflection in our daily life in terms of self-assessment of how “healthy” we are and increase self- awareness of our bad habits. I will have to end it here today,stay tuned!

Reference:

Public Health Agency of Canada. (2011, January 21). Healthy living can prevent disease. Retrieved from http://www.phac-aspc.gc.ca/cd-mc/healthy_living-vie_saine-eng.php