Nothing natural about DMAA Research Supplement:

Wednesday, July 25, some manufacturers HealthDay News)-sports supplements are falsely claiming that a compound known as DMAA is a natural material extracted from geraniums, the researchers say.

Instead, research shows that artificial, consisting of the DMAA is four compounds called stereoisomers.

DMAA (1,3-dimethylamylamine) is an invigorating sports nutrition supplements number found. The investigators analyzed eight different from plants growing in a variety of essential geranium areas, none of the traces of the DMAA. In addition, the chemical make-up of the so-called natural plant derived DMAA was identical to that of synthetic DMAA responsibility.

The researchers concluded DMAA found in supplements may not have a plant geranium.

"The FDA should regulate or forbid other products of significant amounts of synthetic compounds for pharmacological research," said author Daniel Armstrong, University of Texas at Arlington, the journal news release. "In addition, this information should be clearly labeled, including potential side effects, and their effects so that consumers can make an informed choice decision."

Recently published research, analysis, drug tests.

DMAA is the question of safety in recent years. In 2011, following the deaths of two soldiers who were United States heart attacks during training exercises and removed was the Department of Defense, DMAA United States supplements that contain DMAA its stores on military bases.

-Mary Elizabeth Dallas copyright © HealthDay 2012. All rights reserved. Source: Wiley-Blackwell, press release, July 2012

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Heavier Friends Might Widen Your Waistline: Study

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THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- Worried about the battle of the bulge? Your circle of friends might be key to your weight gain, a new study suggests.

The research, conducted among high school students, found that teens were more likely to pile on the pounds if they hung out with people who were already heavier than they were. The opposite was true for students whose friends were thinner, however.

The researchers say the findings might help experts combat obesity, at least among teenagers.

"These results can help us develop better interventions to prevent obesity. We should not be treating adolescents in isolation," study author David Shoham, an assistant professor in the department of preventive medicine and epidemiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine, said in a Loyola news release.

In conducting the observational study, the researchers were trying to figure out if obesity clusters in groups of friends due to social influences (when friends influence one another) or if people simply seek out the friendship of people who are most similar to themselves, including weight status.

To answer this question, the researchers examined information previously collected from students at two large high schools over the course of two school years. One school, known as Jefferson High, was located in a rural area and had a mostly white student population. The second school, called Sunshine High, was located in a city and had a more racial and ethnically diverse student body.

The researchers applied a statistical technique to analyze survey responses from more than 600 students from Jefferson High and 1,151 students from Sunshine High. The teens were asked about their weight, friends, sports and the amount of time they spent in front of the TV or computer or playing video games. The researchers also calculated the students' body mass index (a measure of height and weight).

The way that students initially chose their friends did play a role in how obesity clustered within social groupings. The researchers pointed out, however, that even after taking this finding into account there was still a significant link between obesity and a student's circle of friends, suggesting that friend-to-friend influences might also be key.

For example, a Jefferson High student with thin friends had a 40 percent chance of losing weight and a 27 percent chance of gaining weight. On the other hand, the researchers found a student who was close to being overweight and had obese friends had only a 15 percent chance of losing weight but a 56 percent chance of gaining more weight.

The bottom line: A person's social networks must be taken into consideration when developing strategies to prevent or treat obesity among teenagers, the researchers said.

Shoham's team said the study was limited by its reliance on self-reported data and the inability to directly test how friendships are formed and maintained. They added that the study's data were also collected more than a decade ago -- before the advent of Facebook and the sharp rise in rates of childhood obesity.

Since it is observational in nature, the study can only show an association between friends and weight gain; it cannot prove a cause-and-effect relationship. And, "of course, no one study should ever be taken as conclusive and our future work will attempt to address many of these limitations," Shoham said.

The study was published recently in the journal PLoS ONE.

-- Mary Elizabeth Dallas Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Loyola University, news release, July 9, 2012

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'Beige' Fat Joins Brown Fat as Potential Weight-Loss Target

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THURSDAY, July 12 (HealthDay News) -- First there was research into calorie-burning "brown" fat, and now scientists say they've spotted a new type of "beige" fat in adults that might also prove useful in the fight against obesity.

The study is published in the July 12 issue of the journal Cell.

"We've identified a third type of fat cell," Bruce Spiegelman, of Harvard Medical School, said in a journal new release. "There's white [and] brown, and now there is this third type that is present in most or all human beings."

It was once believed that only babies have brown fat, which helps keep them warm. Previous research suggested, however, that adults also have some brown fat. This study found that the brown fat found in adults isn't the same as brown fat in babies.

Brown fat in babies arises from muscle, but brown fat in adults is actually "beige" fat that occurs from the "browning" of white fat, the Harvard researchers explained.

In the study, Spiegelman's team cloned beige fat cells from mice and found that they lie genetically somewhere between white and brown fat. Normally, these beige fat cells are like white fat cells in that they have low levels of uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1), an important ingredient for burning energy and generating heat.

The beige fat cells, however, also have a "remarkable" ability to boost their UCP1 expression to the point that they can burn energy to the same degree as brown fat, the researchers said.

Spiegelman and his team also found that the energy-burning ability of beige fat cells is turned on by a hormone called irisin, which is released from muscle while exercising. It might be possible to treat overweight and obese people with irisin in order to boost the calorie-burning ability of their beige fat cells, Spiegelman speculated.

-- Robert Preidt Copyright © 2012 HealthDay. All rights reserved. SOURCE: Cell, news release, July 12, 2012

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