The IAA One Minute Blog

Forget everything you know about your metabolism. According to a new study, your metabolism is actually its highest when you’re a year old. This completely changes what we know about energy expenditure over a person’s lifespan.

New Findings on Metabolism

Your metabolism gradually declines through your childhood and teen years, until it reaches a consistent level that people maintain throughout adulthood until they reach senior status, researchers report.

For this study, an international team of scientists analyzed the average calories burned by about 6,600 people as they went about their daily lives in 29 countries around the world. The people varied in age from eight days to 95 years.

Most metabolism studies measure how much energy the body uses to perform basic vital functions like breathing, digesting food or pumping blood, but that only accounts for about 50 percent to 70 percent of the calories humans burn daily, the researchers said. These previous studies don’t account for the added energy humans burn simply by being larger as adults than they are as kids.

To account for this, the researchers relied on the “doubly labeled water” method for tracking energy expenditure. People drink water in which the hydrogen and oxygen atoms in the water molecules have been replaced with naturally occurring “heavy” forms. Urine tests then show how quickly they are flushed out, providing an accurate estimate of daily energy expenditure in normal daily life.

Pooling metabolic data from multiple labs into a single database gave researchers a chance to take a broader look at how people burn calories as they age.

It turns out newborns come into the world with a metabolism similar to that of an adult. Soon after birth, metabolism starts to rage as babies begin to grow, tripling their birth weight by age one. After the initial surge of infancy, your metabolism slows by about three percent each year until you reach your 20s, where it levels off into a new normal that will be maintained throughout adulthood.

Even though teenage growth spurts occur, the researchers didn’t see any increase in the daily calorie needs of adolescents after they took body size into account.

Then at the age of 60, your metabolism starts to decline as your organs and cells become less and less active. The slowdown is gradual, only about 0.7 percent a year, but it adds up.

The report was published in the August 13 issue of the journal “Science.”

With this information, future studies should take into account the different rates at which children’s bodies’ burn through food and medicines. This is important in terms of pediatric guidelines and diet recommendations and drug treatments in children and adolescents, because their metabolic setting is so different.

Metabolism and Weight Loss

Metabolism is the process by which your body converts what you eat and drink into energy. Even when your body is at rest, you are still using energy for basic functions such as breathing, circulating blood and repairing cells.

Trying to boost your metabolism probably won’t help you lose weight; focus on reducing calories and increasing activity:

• Choose fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and healthy fats instead of processed foods
• Exercise to help burn calories and build and maintain muscle mass
• Limit added sugars and saturated and trans fats
• Reduce portion sizes

To lose weight, you need to burn more calories than you take in.

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A technique called noninvasive brain stimulation (NIBS) may help smokers cut back, a new research review suggests.

NIBS and Smokers

Nicotine can trigger changes in the brain that make it hard to quit, so researchers have been looking for ways to use NIBS to counter abnormal brain activity caused by nicotine addiction.

In this review, researchers analyzed 12 trials of different NIBS methods on a combined total of 710 people addicted to nicotine.

Several techniques showed promising results, but high frequency repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, or rTMS, of a brain area involved in memory and decision making was associated with the greatest reduction in number of cigarettes smoked per day.

The trial dropout rates among participants undergoing any of the NIBS methods were not significantly different from control groups. That suggests those treatments are well-tolerated, the researchers said.

Nicotine affects the release of neurotransmitters in the brain, increasing brain activity and the release of dopamine. Higher levels of dopamine provide feelings of pleasure for smokers, the authors of the review said.

Long term nicotine exposure causes the brain to produce more receptors to handle the increased brain activity. When a smoker tries to quit and nicotine levels fall, a decrease in activity in the brain’s reward system causes withdrawal symptoms that make it hard to cut back or quit smoking. 

NIBS may boost dopamine release and counterbalance the brain’s reward system, helping smokers deal with cravings and withdrawal symptoms.

The findings were published in the journal “Addiction.”

Your Body and Smoking

Within minutes of smoking your last cigarette your body begins to recover:

1. 20 minutes after quitting: Your heart rate and blood pressure drop.
2. A few days after quitting: The carbon monoxide level in your blood drops to normal.
3. Two weeks to three months after quitting: Your circulation improves and your lung function increases.
4. One to 12 months after quitting: Coughing and shortness of breath decreases. Tiny hair-like structures that move mucus out of the lungs start to regain normal function, increasing their ability to handle mucus, clean the lungs and reduce the risk of infection.
5. Five to 10 years after quitting: Your risk of cancers of the throat, mouth and voice box is cut in half. Your stroke risk decreases.
6. 10 years after quitting: Your risk of lung cancer is about half that of a person who is still smoking. Your risk of cancer of the bladder, esophagus and kidney decreases.
7. 15 years after quitting: Your risk of coronary heart disease is close to that of a non-smoker.

Some other added benefits; food begins to taste better and your sense of smell returns to normal.

What IAA has to Say

Insurance Administrator of America wants you to make healthy lifestyle choices. Even small changes can lead to big improvements! Remember, with IAA one call does it all.

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Two new studies show that hearts from donors who abused drugs can be safely donated.

Opioid Crisis and Heart Donations

In the past two decades, the opioid crisis has taken the lives of thousands of Americans-often young, otherwise healthy people.  One result is that a rising percentage of potential donor organs come from people who abused drugs.

For a long time, the question was whether those organs were more likely to fail in the long run.

Research in recent years has been offering reassurance on these issues and experts say the two new studies provide even more reassurance.

New Studies

In one study, researchers looked at long-term survival among U.S. heart transplant patients who’d received an organ from a donor who died of a drug overdose or who had a history of using illegal drugs.

They found no evidence of a poor outlook: roughly 60 percent of transplant recipients were still alive 10 years later, whether the donor had been a drug user or not.

The findings published July 28 in the AHA journal “Circulation: Heart Failure,” are based on nearly 24,000 U.S. adults who had a heart transplant between 2007 and 2017.

Using information from hospital urine tests taken before donors died, the researchers identified illicit drugs the donors used—such as opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine, and alcohol.

Overall, around 90 percent of transplant recipients were alive one year later, regardless of whether the donor had used any drugs. Five year and 10 year survival rates were also similar regardless of the donor’s drug history.

The second study published July 28 in the “Journal of the American Heart Association,” found that the survival rates among heart transplant recipients have been rising in the past 15 years.  On average, Americans who received donor hearts between 2013 and 2017 were 21 percent less likely to die within a year, compared to their counterparts a decade earlier.

Survival rates after heart transplantation vary based on a number of factors. Survival rates continue to improve despite an increase in older and higher risk heart transplant recipients. 

What IAA has to Say

Insurance Administrator of America thinks that it is always important to have the latest health information in your back pocket! Remember, with IAA one call does it all.

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Researchers from around the world published a series of studies on July 21 calling for urgent action to boost physical activity among young people and get them moving more.

Physical Activity in Children and Adolescents

An estimated 80 percent of school age adolescents worldwide do not meet the World Health Organization’s (WHO) physical activity guidelines, according to new research.

Forty percent of adolescents worldwide never walk to school and 25 percent sit for more than three hours per day. Up to 60 percent of adolescents living in Europe spend two or more hours a day watching television and up to 50 percent devoting two hours or more a day to playing video games, the researchers said.

In the United States, physical activity levels among adolescents age 10 to 17 declines with age and remains well below the 60 minutes per day recommended by the WHO for this age group, data showed.

Lack of exercise has been linked to an increased risk of non-communicable diseases such as, heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, and leads to at least $54 billion per year in direct healthcare costs globally.

Exercise Standards

The benefits of exercise include improved heart health, muscle strength, physical function and mental health, the Centers for Disease Control say. How much physical activity your child needs depends upon their age:

• Preschool age children (ages 3 through 5 years): Should be physically active throughout the day for growth and development. Adult caregivers should encourage preschool age children to be active when they play.
• School age children and adolescents (ages 6 through 17 years): 60 minutes a day or more of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity each day, including daily aerobic activity and activities that strengthen  bones (like running or jumping) three days a week, and that build muscle (like climbing or doing pushups) three days a week.

More than 5 million people globally die each year due to lack of physical activity, according to the WHO.    

What IAA has to Say

Insurance Administrator of America knows that parents want their children to be healthy. It might be time to evaluate how much exercise your child is getting on a daily basis. IAA wants you and your family to live the healthiest life possible! 

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Australian researchers say their experimental genetic test for glaucoma can identify 15 times more people at high risk for the disease compared to the current genetic test.

New Genetic Test for Glaucoma

The new test analyzes blood or saliva samples and may be able to identify people at high risk for glaucoma before they suffer irreversible vision loss.

The new study involved more than 2,500 people in Australia with glaucoma and more than 411,000 with or without glaucoma in the United Kingdom.

The study was published online July 15 in “JAMA Ophthalmology.”

Glaucoma Symptoms

Glaucoma is a group of eye conditions that damage the optic nerve. The damage is often caused by abnormally high pressure in your eye. Elevated eye pressure is due to a buildup of fluid that flows throughout the inside of your eye. The internal fluid normally drains out through a tissue called the trabecular meshwork at the angle where the iris and cornea meet.  When fluid is overproduced or the drainage system doesn’t work properly, the fluid can’t flow out at its normal rate and eye pressure increases.

Many forms of glaucoma have no warning signs. The effect is so gradual that you may not notice a change in vision until the condition is at an advanced stage. The signs and symptoms of glaucoma vary depending on the type and stage of your condition:

1. Open-angle glaucoma: The most common form of the disease. Signs and symptoms of this type of glaucoma include:

• Patchy blind spots in your side or central vision, frequently in both eyes
• Tunnel vision in the advanced stages

2. Acute angle-closure glaucoma: Occurs when the iris bulges forward to narrow or block the drainage angle formed by the cornea and iris. Signs and symptoms of this type of glaucoma include: 

• Eye pain
• Eye redness
• Halos around lights
• Nausea and vomiting
• Severe headache

Glaucoma is one of the leading causes of blindness for people over the age of 60. It can occur at any age, but it is more common in older adults.

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