LifeCare Chiropractic

The Best Chiropractic Care in Mesa, Arizona

visfatin

The OTHER Organ You May Have That You Don’t Know You Have

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Ask any high school kid to list the organs of the body and you’ll get the typical responses: Heart, liver, brain, kidneys, stomach. Maybe even an adrenal If he or she stayed awake in biology.  But some organ systems are created, not provided in the womb.

Sure, some consider the bacteria in the gut as its own organ system.  After all, it detoxifies, protects from invaders and releases hordes of chemical signals.  Despite the poor overall knowledge of this organ system, it’s not the one I’m talking about here.

This particular organ system is not present in everyone, although, unfortunately, it is present in far too large of a percentage of today’s population.

It produces a very large number of hormones that drive your risk of diabetes, heart health, inflammation and other conditions, all bad.  Worse, the weight of this organ may constitute up to HALF of your body weight.  That’s a big organ.

It’s the (or YOUR, if that’s the case) adipose tissue.  Most notably the gut.

Yes, the gut.  And you just thought it was there to keep you from checking out your toes on a regular basis.

Here’s the current theory.  The fat cells in your gut begin as extra calorie storage locations.  Adipose tissue in other areas of the body, like around the heart and thighs, although have this duty, but it’s the gut we normal point to as the greatest reservoir of extra calories.

That’s fine and dandy for a while.  Or, if you plan on hibernating and need the calories while you sleep through football season, then this is okay as well.

But gather too much extra tissue in that abdominal region and blood flow becomes an issue.  After all, the fat cells need nutrients in and waste products out as well, and if this process becomes congested, your fat cells are going to get a little upset with you.

This kick off the survival mode of your little abdominal buddy, leading to the production of hormones referred to as adipokines with names like visfatin, adiponectin and resistin.

These hormones are bad enough on their own, but there’s another problem brewing.  The adipose tissue contains a large number of stem cells, referred to as hematopoietic cells.  These cells can differentiate into immune cells that can be a major driver in inflammation.

This particular review gets a little more specific, stating that a single gram of adipose tissue can contain up to 5 million stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cells.  About half of these cells (not counting the fat cells themselves) are white blood cells.

If you do the math and the Metric to English measurement conversions, that’s an awful lot of immune cells available to affect the rest of your system.

I’ve become very adept at explaining this concept recently because our office has begun using a laser liposuction device.  Laser, from a musculoskeletal-sprain-strain-pain based standpoint, has been known for decades to lower inflammation and increase blood flow.  Kind of a perfect salve for this inflamed, hypoxic organ too many of us are carrying around our middles.  (You can read more about this laser lipo procedure by on our website by clicking here)

Overall, though, the take home message is that the lump around your middle does not just affect the way you’re going to look in that Speedo, it drives a very dangerous and damaging organ that catapults you towards chronic disease and an early death.

 

Breastfeeding vs Bottle Feeding – New Findings

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There has always been debate on the breastfeeding vs bottle feeding topic.  Clearly, 100 years ago this was not a discussion.  Hence the term “wet nurse.”

Beginning in the 20’s and 30’s, formula feeding became more popular as a result of lowered costs and better production methods.  By the end of WWII, breastfeeding rates were down to 20% and the American public was completely drinking the Kool Aid of formula being even better than breastmilk.  At times, the La Leche League seemed to be the sole voice supporting nursing as a needed benefit to the baby.

Over the years, manufacturers have slowly added things into formula.  DHA, ARA and probiotics have only recently been added based on evidence of their benefit to newborn and infants.  I remember the first time that I came to understand that certain probiotic bacteria end up in breastmilk–I was incredulous, to say the least.  The steps that are required to actively put bacteria from mom’s gut into breastmilk are quite lengthy.  Few things tell me more strongly that Mother Nature wants those bacteria in our system than their presence in breastmilk.

So how many other nutrients are in breastmilk that we have not yet discovered?  Only time will tell, but we do have a new one to add to the list.

Visfatin is a hormone that is produced by fat cells and is believed to play a role in the protection against diabetes, although it’s complete role is not yet fully understood.

This particular study found much higher levels of visfatin in breast milk than is normally found in the bloodstream.  Since visfatin may play a role in diabetes and body weight, the authors suggest that this compound may play a strong role in the development of healthy weight gain in the infant.

Whether or not this plays out, it is yet another example of just how little we know about the human body.  In generally, the more we rely on the way our bodies were designed (i.e. nursing), the less problems we are going to have.  Period.

This is not to point a disparaging fingers at mothers who do not breast feed, but every effort needs to be undertaken to nurse for the first 6 months.  Some women truly have difficulties, but some just choose not to nurse.  This is a decision for the baby, not for you.

If you are a mother who nursed your child, what difficulties did you encounter and how did you overcome them?