ARE ANTIBIOTICS OBESOGENS? NEW FINDINGS

The fact that over 80% of antibiotics produced in the US is consumed by the animal food industry has been explained away by the need for keeping the meat products safe from contamination by pathogenic bacteria like virulent E.coli, Salmonella and Listeria. However it was later realized that the real purpose of using antibiotics in feed for animals was increasing the weight of the animals before slaughtering which in turn increased the profits of the industry very significantly. Though the meat industry does not admit to this fact, independent studies have confirmed that antibiotics do influence the body mass of the animals in a way not properly understood so far. Of course reducing incidence of contamination is a welcome development though the cost at which this is achieved is some what dubious. If mankind is running out of effective and reliable pool of antibiotics that fight many human diseases, the single most responsible factor is this indiscriminate use (or rather the misuse?) of these life saving drugs for purposes other than saving human lives. Large scale resistance by some of the mutated microorganisms to practically every known antibiotic is an area of intense concern at present.

Why should antibiotics contribute to increased body mass, first observed in laboratory animals a few years ago? Are they really obesogens which interfere with the hormone systems like many endocrine disruptors (ED)? Recent studies connecting antibiotic consumption to body weight increase indicate that they do not work within the body system, their influence being restricted inside the gastro-intestinal tract. It is a common knowledge that most antibiotics knock down intestinal microbial colonies irrespective of whether they are friendly or hostile. One of the earliest empirical observations was that those afflicted by typhoid tend to put on weight after going through the Chloramphenicol antibiotic therapy though the exact cause was not well understood. Also known was the need to replenish the gut microbes through administration of lyophilized cultures of Lactobacilli but the Lactobacilli cultures do not restore fully the profile of microorganisms which were original inhabitants in the gut. Probably this knowledge should have made scientists wiser about likely role of those microbes killed by the antibiotics in body weight increase but not replenished by the standard Lacobacilli therapy.

Now comes the confirmation through recent studies that gut microbes do play a role in fat accumulation in the body though the exact mechanism is yet to be elucidated. Even the identification of these species causing the body to accumulate fat has not been made yet. Only this throws more challenges in elucidating this area further through more detailed and wider studies. Some believe that those microorganisms not killed by the antibiotics become super efficient in extracting calories and converting them into fat. In studies using animals it was found that a gain of 2-4% fat was achieved when they were subjected to administration of low doses of antibiotics for a few weeks. Many farmers do use antibiotics in animals to achieve about 15% body weight on an average. Interestingly the make up of bacteria in animals becoming fatter due to antibiotic consumption resembles that which are present in obese animals, probably lending further weight to the argument that gut microbes are involved in obesity epidemic besides the foods which are rich in sugar and fat.

Against such a background will the world turn its back on reckless use of antibiotics for pecuniary benefits? If this does not happen a tragedy of bigger dimension is waiting to happen. Indirect indication that administration of antibiotics to children during early growth phase could be the real cause of obesity has come out from field studies linking obesity to antibiotic consumption during early childhood. It is alarming to know hear the disturbing possibilities that up to the age of 7 years children could be vulnerable to obesity if frequently treated with antibiotics and the risks are more within the first six months of birth. In a country like the UK it was reported that about 30% of children below the age of 6 months received antibiotic treatment a decade ago. Better sense has prevailed since and physicians seem to be more circumspect in prescribing antibiotics to tender children A consoling factor in this depressing scenario is that adults are not as much in danger as the children are, in getting fatter due to antibiotics.

What are the implications of the above studies on mankind? On one hand here is a situation where the present options vis-a-vis antibiotics are getting more and more limited due to wide scale antibiotic resistance being encountered while no new ones are being developed to counteract more and virulent Frankenstein bugs emerging with each passing day. On top of it wide scale misuse of existing antibiotics, besides not serving the purpose of killing disease causing microbes, tends to make people obese! according to one estimate such antibiotic induced obesity may enlarge the over weight population to the extent of 1.5-2% in the coming years.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

  

THE "DIESEL" DANGER-WHERE IS THE WORLD HEADING FOR?

Recent announcement by the World Health Organization that Diesel Exhaust is a confirmed carcinogen only reiterates what has been suspected since long. An inconvenient question that may not have immediate answer is why it took such a long time to make this judgment while countries like the US, the EU, Japan and most developed countries with high automobile density have taken action long ago to curtail emissions by more stringent regulations leading to more and more efficient power trains, emitting less dangerous exhaust smoke. No matter how efficient the engine is there has to be some exhaust fumes and humans may have to live with this bitter reality for ever. Of course there are alternative options like electric cars or hydrogen powered engines with absolutely no emission of chemical gases but on economic consideration these may not become accepted options, at least for the next few years. Nearest to an ideal solution is the hybrid cars able to operate both with gasoline and rechargeable batteries which are becoming popular to some extent these days. If the present dilemma vis-a-vis diesel engine pollution was anticipated in time there could have been more practical solutions like expanding the mass transit systems and improved people moving systems that could have reduced drastically the automobile population. Developing countries like India ignored this problem for so long and this is going to haunt the country for years to come. The current policy of encouraging manufacture of more and more automobiles, in spite of lack of good road infrastructure and acute scarcity of fossil fuel sources to meet the galloping demand, does not seem to be logical or visionary. For example what is logic of pricing diesel significantly less than that of gasoline? Why is that more and more diesel powered cars are encouraged to be manufactured knowing well the hazards of the diesel exhaust? Nothing but lack of vision and insensitivity to the suffering of millions of citizens exposed to the danger.

Finding fault with diesel engine emissions is not a new development. It has been known for quite some time that Disel Particulate Matter, known more commonly as DPM, is a dangerous cocktail of chemicals which are harmful if inhaled from close quarters. DPM is mostly soot or unburned particles of carbon along with gases like carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxide, sulfur dioxide and others in varying concentration. These particles are so small in size, less than 10 microns, that they get through the throat, past the lungs into the deepest part of this organ capable of triggering asthmatic attacks, bronchitis, emphysema, heart disease and cancer. A part of the sooth can be nano sized particles which can penetrate to any part of the body into cells causing unpredictable consequences. Having a rough surface , DPM can attach to themselves different toxic gases carrying them through the cells of the body. The cocktail that is called DPM has cancer causing chemicals like antimony compounds, Beryllium compounds, Chromium compounds, Selenium compounds, Benzene, Pyrenes, Nitrobenzanthrone, , Styrene etc besides many potent Endocrine Disruptors like Phthalates, Phenols etc . Lot of data pertinent to the dangers posed by DPM to workers in mines or operators of diesel railway engines are documented but very little information is available as to the extent of exposure to the city dwellers. Millions of diesel driven trucks, tractors working in agricultural fields, lawn movers and other heavy machinery involved in infrastructure industry all pose risks of unknown magnitude. It is any body's guess as to what long term consequences this situation can cause to those exposed to millions of tons of DPM spewing into the habitat of humans beings, vitiating their living environment.

A pertinent question that rises in this context is whether millions of children being ferried into their schools every day are really in danger because of their exposure to diesel fumes emanating from the vehicles they use. In many developing countries there are no strict compliance vis-a-vis diesel engine performance standards and most of them continue to run for 15-25 years, spewing out the deadly, foggy, dark smoke, affecting people following them. As children are susceptible to chemical pollutants and manifestation of health disorders is faster in them, it is time that these aspects are looked into more critically on a global level. Similarly what is the fate of those who are in employed by the freight carriers, driving diesel trucks and heavy haulage vehicles?. Or for that matter the impact of diesel smoke on the health of urbanites exposed to the bellowing smoke of trucks, passenger cars, three wheelers plying 7x24 incessantly through the narrow roads in thousands of cities and towns in many countries? It is reported that in many hospitals in large metropolitan cities in india, there are special wards equipped with nebulizers for children who suffer regularly from breathing problems and lung related disorders, acquired from their day to day exposure to the automobile exhausts that pollute the environment. Is it not a fact that the proportion of asthma, a lung disorder, is predominant in cities compared to rural areas? Is the world moving towards a regime where lives of people are controlled more and more by the powerful pharmaceutical industry which manufactures medicines to deal with such disorders like asthma generating lucrative business opportunities? 

According to prevalent standards the environment where humans live should not have pollutants like hydrocarbon, carbon monoxide, Nitrogen Oxide, DPM, Sulfur Dioxide, Lead and Volatile Organic Compounds( VOC). According to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) of the US, air quality should ensure that particulate matter (< 10 microns) content does not exceed 150 microgram (mcg) per cubic meter during a 24 hour period while annual average has to be less than 50 mcg during a 24 hours period. The standards become more stringent when the particulate matter size goes down and their concentration in the air should not be more than 65 mcg over a 24 hour period and 15 mcg annually. Standards are also laid down for pollutants like CO, Lead, NO2, O3 and SO2. In India Emission Standards are laid down for CO2, Hydrocarbons, NO2 and Particulate Matters. Why there are different sets of standards for diesel driven cars and trucks is not understandable though it might be due to the technological limitations for improving engine performance in terms of emissions. In many countries equipping the automobiles with catalytic converters which are attached to the exhaust pipe has become mandatory. The Platinum-Palladium-Rhodium catalyst converts unburned hydrocarbon into less harmful gases like CO2.  Increased use of biodiesel fuels incorporating plant oils has enable the industry to reduce sulfur content that contributes most to Laying down standards is one thing but enforcing the same becomes invariably the casualty. According to the present regulations, cars older than 2 years are required to be tested every 6 months for the prescribed emission pre-requisites and those failing them must retune their engines or take action to make necessary repairs to achieve positive results. Due to many practical and logistical limitations, testing has become more an exception than the rule! 

One of the unknown factors that makes diesel engine emission more dangerous is what role some of the constituents in it play in spreading obesity which is an epidemic in countries like the US with very high automobile density. There are no scientific studies which have established any linkage between obesity and automobile exhausts but recent reports coming from credible scientific institutions linking endocrine disruptors (ED) with increased fat synthesis in the body need to be taken seriously. It is all the more disturbing when one realizes that ED at ppb levels can be active in derailing the functions of those hormones controlling many growth functions including lipogenesis. The deadly effect of DPM on lungs and bladder is indeed alarming but its influence on human body development also must be explored more seriously. The existence of obesogens which act at ppb levels is relatively a new development and as there are many chemical contaminants in foods consumed daily which have potential obesogen action, implicating DPM from fossil fuel driven automobiles may vitiate the programs targeted at bringing out people from the clutches of weight related disorders. Current philosophy of reducing calories and fat intake to achieve weight control can be seriously compromised if non-food factors like EDCs are also found to be contributing to this malaise.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

DESPERATE SITUATION-DRASTIC REMEDY

A recent report implicates food contaminants as one of the causes of uncontrolled weight gain and these include thousands of chemicals used in foods during processing for achieving different functional features and these include growth hormones, antibiotics and migratory chemicals from plastic packing materials. This is contrary to the common wisdom that is prevalent currently blaming over consumption of high calorie foods much beyond the normal needs of the body. These unnatural substances introduced into the food under one or the other justification are collectively being classified under "obesogens" and they are capable of causing heart disease, diabetes and high cholesterol that can lead to further complications with aging.

If this is true, exercising control over eating may not be sufficient to deal with the problem. Though statistics about "fat" population in India cannot be reliable in the absence of any organized survey by government agencies, it is guesstimated that it could be around 1% working out to a staggering number of 11 millions. Percentage-wise Americans score over Indians in this regard as 3% of males and 7% of females are reported to be obese with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of more than 40. Being thin is often taken as healthy or slim to distinguish from being fat and many thin looking people could be afflicted with the so called "normal weight obesity"(NWO) which is difficult to be noticed under normal health check up regime.

There is a mistaken impression that BMI is the most reliable indicator of a healthy body and those with BMI less than 25 live blissfully thinking that they are immune to disorders commonly associated with over weight. Those with low BMI can have high visceral fat content or the so called 'internal' fat surrounding the internal organs which can be equally dangerous if not treated in time. How ever no reliable information is available regarding the number of people affected by NWO. This probably explains increasing number of patients looking normal, undergoing cardiac by-pass surgery these days because of arterial blocks, caused by high triglycerides and cholesterol. Most commonly adopted procedure to treat over weight problem is controlled dieting, physical exercise and resorting to drug therapy. In a freak finding, scientists from Germany have recently reported that fat people can lose their body weight significantly by spending some time in mountainous places, much above sea level because of the rarefied air that enhances metabolism and reduces appetite.

Dieting itself is under a cloud because of the potential for dieters becoming compulsive over eaters after denying food for themselves for some time, probably due to changes in brain activity involving the hormone norepinephrine. Such considerations compel people to go for Bariatric surgery which is emerging as a drastic remedy to overcome obesity in people desperately trying to shed their weights after failing to do so through conventional weight reduction programs. Such procedures are carried out mainly to reduce the size of the stomach or removal of a part of the stomach or resecting and re-routing the small intestine, all aimed at cutting down on food intake in one sitting. Lap-Band system and Intragastric balloon inserted into the stomach and inflated after wards can also reduce stomach volume. 5-9 BMI reduction is possible through these surgical techniques. It is unbelievable that more than 1.5 lakh people undergo such surgeries in the US with about 0.2% mortality. What is causing concern is that that many of those undergoing the surgery develop complications such as vomiting,diarrhea, dysphagia, reflux, leaking at the surgical connection between stomach and intestine and abdominal hernia.

It is a Hobson's choice for many obese people between living under great risk of dying due to diseases like CVD, diabetes, and serious disorders early in life and going for intervention surgery with reasonable assurance of a normal life though it involves hospitalization and unpredictable after effects.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com