Predicting human adiposity – sometimes – with food insecurity: Broaden the model for better accuracy

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah E. Hill ◽  
Randi P. Proffitt Leyva ◽  
Danielle J. DelPriore
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
High Income ◽  
Potential Contribution ◽  
Adult Women ◽  
Insurance Hypothesis ◽  
Target Article

AbstractThe target article explores the role of food insecurity as a contemporary risk factor for human overweight and obesity. The authors provide conditional support for the insurance hypothesis among adult women from high-income countries. We consider the potential contribution of additional factors in producing variation in adiposity patterns between species and across human contexts.

The role of overweight and obesity on severe Covid-19: the evidence and possible mechanisms of action

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Rafael Rangel-Aldao
Keyword(s):  
Mechanical Ventilation ◽  
Risk Factor ◽  
Causal Relationship ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Fat Metabolism ◽  
Mechanisms Of Action ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Relationship Of

This commentary addresses three fundamental questions, 1) How solid is the evidence regarding obesity as a risk factor to Covid-19, in particular to the most serious form of the disease requiring hospitalization and mechanical ventilation? 2) What cellular and/or molecular mechanisms could explain a possible enhancement of the disease by obesity? 3) Given a probable and causal relationship of overweight and obesity with severe Covid-19, the question then arises on whether it may be possible to use as therapy well know drugs that work on fat metabolism?

The life history model of the insurance hypothesis

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bin-Bin Chen
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Life History ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Adult Women ◽  
Adult Men ◽  
Insurance Hypothesis

AbstractNettle et al.’s explanation based on the insurance hypothesis applies only to the association between food insecurity and body weight among adult women, but not to the results about there being no such associations among adult men and children. These results may be best understood when the insurance hypothesis is integrated with the life history model.

scholarly journals Food insecurity as a driver of obesity in humans: The insurance hypothesis

2016 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel Nettle ◽  
Clare Andrews ◽  
Melissa Bateson
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Model ◽  
Food Insecurity ◽  
Human Population ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Positive Association ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Adult Women ◽  
Insurance Hypothesis ◽  
Fat Reserves ◽  
Access To Food

AbstractIntegrative explanations of why obesity is more prevalent in some sectors of the human population than others are lacking. Here, we outline and evaluate one candidate explanation, the insurance hypothesis (IH). The IH is rooted in adaptive evolutionary thinking: The function of storing fat is to provide a buffer against shortfall in the food supply. Thus, individuals should store more fat when they receive cues that access to food is uncertain. Applied to humans, this implies that an important proximate driver of obesity should be food insecurity rather than food abundance per se. We integrate several distinct lines of theory and evidence that bear on this hypothesis. We present a theoretical model that shows it is optimal to store more fat when food access is uncertain, and we review the experimental literature from non-human animals showing that fat reserves increase when access to food is restricted. We provide a meta-analysis of 125 epidemiological studies of the association between perceived food insecurity and high body weight in humans. There is a robust positive association, but it is restricted to adult women in high-income countries. We explore why this could be in light of the IH and our theoretical model. We conclude that although the IH alone cannot explain the distribution of obesity in the human population, it may represent a very important component of a pluralistic explanation. We also discuss insights it may offer into the developmental origins of obesity, dieting-induced weight gain, and anorexia nervosa.

Anti-fat discrimination in marriage more clearly explains the poverty–obesity paradox

2017 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J. Hruschka ◽  
Seung-Yong Han
Keyword(s):  
Marital Status ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
Obesity Paradox ◽  
High Income ◽  
Insurance Hypothesis ◽  
Target Article ◽  
Gender And Age

AbstractThe target article proposes the insurance hypothesis as an explanation for higher levels of obesity among food-insecure women living in high-income countries. An alternative hypothesis based on anti-fat discrimination in marriage can also account for such correlations between poverty and obesity and is more consistent with finer-grained analyses by marital status, gender, and age.

scholarly journals Obesity and pregnancy: cardiovascular and metabolic risks

2019 ◽  
pp. 48-52
Author(s):  
N. G. Veselovskaya ◽  
G. A. Chumakova
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Pregnant Women ◽  
Early Period ◽  
Epidemiological Studies ◽  
Overweight And Obesity ◽  
Childbearing Age ◽  
The Past ◽  
High Prevalence ◽  
Prevalence Of Obesity

In recent years, obesity has become the leader as a cardiovascular risk factor in various clinical groups, including women of childbearing age. According to epidemiological studies over the past 10 years, obesity in pregnant women is recorded in 15-38% of cases. Obesity is a proven risk factor that complicates pregnancy, childbirth and the postpartum period. The presence of obesity in women before childbirth is a risk factor for infertility, miscarriage in the early period and congenital malformations in the fetus. Overweight and obesity in pregnant women lead to an increase in maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Despite the high prevalence of obesity in pregnant women, the mechanisms for the occurrence of complications, methods of correction and prevention have not been studied enough. Considering the unfavorable prognosis in children of obese mothers, studies are needed to assess the role of internal adipose tissue, adipokines in the formation of insulin resistance, endothelial dysfunction. It is also needed to evaluate effect of systemic inflammation in the risk of developing complications in a pregnant woman and child, as well as programs for primary prevention of obesity in childbearing age.

Choosing a Markov blanket

2020 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Parr
Keyword(s):  
Markov Blanket ◽  
Target Article ◽  
The Relationship

Abstract This commentary focuses upon the relationship between two themes in the target article: the ways in which a Markov blanket may be defined and the role of precision and salience in mediating the interactions between what is internal and external to a system. These each rest upon the different perspectives we might take while “choosing” a Markov blanket.

COVID-19 and Comorbidities: is Inflammation the Underlying Condition in Children? A narrative Review

2020 ◽  
Vol 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulia Pinna ◽  
Lavinia Sanfilippo ◽  
Pier Paolo Bassareo ◽  
Vassilios Fanos ◽  
Maria Antonietta Marcialis
Keyword(s):  
Risk Factor ◽  
Severe Form ◽  
Narrative Review ◽  
Underlying Condition ◽  
Pathogenic Mechanisms ◽  
Associated Diseases ◽  
Potential Link

: This paper examines the potential link between COVID-19 and the presence of comorbidities and assesses the role of inflammation in this correlation. In COVID-19 patients, the most frequently associated diseases share a pathogenic inflammatory basis and apparently act as a risk factor in the onset of a more severe form of the disease, particularly in adulthood. However, in children, the understanding of the underlying pathogenic mechanisms is often complicated by the milder symptoms presented. A series of theories have therefore been put forward with a view of providing a better understanding of the role played by inflammation in this dramatic setting. All evidence available to date on this topic is discussed in this review.

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