A UCL-led study of over 12,000 young children in the UK has revealed that 11-year-olds who had TVs in their bedroom at age 7 had a significantly higher body mass (BMI) and fat mass (FMI) and were more likely to be overweight compared to children who did not have a bedroom TV.
Girls who had a TV in their bedroom at age 7 were at an approximately 30% higher risk of being overweight at age 11 compared to children who did not have a TV in their bedroom, and for boys the risk was increased by about 20%.
The study, published in the International Journal of Obesity, took a range of other obesity-linked factors into consideration, such as household income, mothers' education, breastfeeding duration, physical activity and irregular bedtimes. Mothers' BMI was also taken into account to represent the overall food environment in the household as well as potential genetic influences. In addition, children's BMI at age 3 was included to minimise the possibility of reverse causation - the possibility that being overweight in the first place leads to spending more time in front of a screen.
Dr Anja Heilmann (UCL Institute of Epidemiology & Health Care) said, "Childhood obesity in the UK is a major public health problem. In England, about one third of all 11 year olds are overweight and one in five are obese. Our study shows that there is a clear link between having a TV in the bedroom as a young child and being overweight a few years later.
"We found that having a TV in the child's bedroom was an independent risk factor for being overweight and increased body fatness in this nationally representative sample of UK children. Childhood obesity prevention strategies should consider TVs in children's bedrooms as a risk factor for obesity."
The research, which used data from the Millennium Cohort Study (MCS), found that over half of the 12 556 children sampled had a TV in their bedroom at age 7. This finding is well in line with other recent UK reports on children's media use, which also suggest that children increasingly use portable devices such as tablets and laptops in their bedrooms.
The number of hours spent watching TV or DVDs was associated with increased body fatness among girls only, indicating a dose-response relationship where the more TV the girls watched, the more likely they were to be overweight. Part of the reason for this gender difference could be that already at this young age, girls are far less physically active than boys, as suggested by previous studies.
"The causes of overweight and obesity are complex and multiple. Screen time is part of the bigger picture and further research is needed among older children and adolescents, as the use of screen-based media including computers, mobile phones and tablets increases with age." added Dr Heilmann.
Article: Longitudinal associations between television in the bedroom and body fatness in a UK cohort study, A Heilmann, P Rouxel, E Fitzsimons, Y Kelly and R Watt, International Journal of Obesity, doi: 10.1038/ijo.2017.129, published 1 June 2017.
A small study by researchers at the National Institutes of Health suggests that mutations in the gene CABLES1 may lead to Cushing syndrome, a rare disorder in which the body overproduces the stress hormone cortisol. The study appears online in Endocrine-Related Cancer.
The excess cortisol found in Cushing syndrome can result from certain steroid medications or from tumors of the pituitary or adrenal glands. Symptoms of the disease include obesity, muscle weakness, fatigue, high blood pressure, high blood sugar, depression and anxiety.
Researchers at NIH's Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), in collaboration with researchers at other institutions in the United States, France and Canada, scanned tumor and cell tissue from 146 children with pituitary tumors evaluated for Cushing syndrome at the NIH Clinical Center. Researchers also scanned the genes of tumors from some of the children. Investigators in France scanned the genes of an additional 35 adult patients with Cushing syndrome and pituitary tumors.
The research team found that four of the patients have mutant forms of CABLES1 that do not respond to cortisol. This is significant because, when functioning normally, the CABLES1 protein, expressed by the CABLES1 gene, slows the division and growth of pituitary cells that produce the hormone adrenocorticotropin (ACTH). In turn, ACTH stimulates the adrenal gland to produce cortisol, which then acts on the pituitary gland to halt the growth of ACTH-producing cells, effectively suppressing any tumor development. Because cortisol does not affect the four mutant forms of CABLES1 discovered by the researchers, these genes leave production of ACTH-releasing cells unchecked.
"The mutations we identified impair the tumor suppressor function in the pituitary gland," said the study's senior author Constantine A. Stratakis, M.D., director of the NICHD Division of Intramural Research. "This discovery could lead to the development of treatment strategies that simulate the function of the CABLES1 protein and prevent recurrence of pituitary tumors in people with Cushing syndrome."
The study authors noted that the CABLES1 mutants were found in a small proportion of patients and that other genes have been implicated in pituitary tumor formation. They added that more studies are needed to fully understand how CABLES1 suppresses tumor formation in the pituitary gland.
Article: Loss-of-function mutations in the CABLES1 gene are a novel cause of Cushing's disease, Constantine A. Stratakis et al., Endocrine-Related Cancer, doi: 10.1530/ERC-17-0131, published 22 May 2017.
Hi friends! I hope you all had a great week! It’s been a pretty hectic and stressful time over here while setting up the house. We are now on a first name basis with every employee at the local hardware store. It seems like every time we accomplish something we think of five new things we need to do. And today I almost died when Daniel poured an entire cooler of dry ice into our sink thinking it was regular ice. We were terrified the sink or pipes were going to crack from the cold but it looks like we lucked out on that one. But aside from the challenging moments and the paint that has now ruined all my clothes, home ownership has been so fun and exciting. And things are shaping up nicely. We are still sitting on lawn chairs (waiting on a furniture delivery that keeps being delayed), but at least they’re in newly painted rooms!
In between the cleaning, painting, and trips to Home Depot, I found some links I’d like to share:
Since we haven’t unpacked our dishes while we wait for our cabinets to be painted we have been using the grill to cook. Here are Alton Brown’s favorite grillable fruits. I have tried grilled pineapple but would love to try to grilled grapefruit with sprinkled sugar and salt!
Daniel wears a fitness tracker smart watch because he loves data. Here’s an article about a Stanford study that determined fitness trackers aren’t very reliable when it comes to calories burned.
Here is a mystery fish that appears to walk along the sea floor. The diver who discovered it said It was “bizarre and pretty … I thought that this could please the Internet.” (Silly man, nothing pleases the internet!)
I told Daniel it was national donut day and he sent me this link about “the donut dilemma.” It is about how eating a donut makes little sense if you evaluate the situation rationally from a behavioral economic perspective. (He explained it to me as I enjoyed my free Dunkin’ Donut)
The cure for celiac disease used to be a high calorie diet with at least 7 bananas per day. “It is incredible what the mothers and fathers did, going down to the docks to meet the ships and buy multiple bananas hanging on branches.”
Here is a fun article from 538 about the national spelling bee. You can test your spelling ability.
