They can also be denied if they have "provided material support under duress".

You and Your Gut? What does that have to do with terrorists, green cards, and the UCIS?

has407: I'm afraid that you put your comment on the wrong thread. Sadly, I deleted the post you meant to comment on, so there's nothing left except this one.

Seems those posts somehow got sucked into this thread when the previous post disappeared. So OK, terrorists, green cards, and the UCIS have nothing to do with You, Your Gut, or Alzheimer's. Or do they? Aging bureaucrats may explain the ridiculous rules.

I must be immune, since I've been forgetful for as long as I can remember.

Not that that's saying much, natch.

What about those of us who didn't start their gut until the clock struck 50? Will we be okay until our 80s?

"They ooze noxious chemicals..." Ick. I don't think I'm gonna read any further.

For those who care, this describes the likely mechanism:

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2008/03/visceral-fat.html

Essentially it's this: visceral fat, the fat around the organs that gives you that belly, is very good at producing a number of hormones that lead to insulin resistance. Subcutaneous fat, the fat under the skin, doesn't do that.

Insulin resistance leads to metabolic syndrome, obesity, diabetes, and alzheimer's. You don't want insulin resistance. You want insulin sensitivity, for a lot of reasons.

Read the article, it's fascinating.

"All of you bloggy whippersnappers out there, though, better watch yourselves."

Don't worry about me, my family dies of cancer before they get senile. Now maybe if we could solve that cancer problem....

My understanding is that pretty much everyone gets Alzheimer's if they live long enough.

And as you well know, the health risks from behaviors and environmental factors are cumulative, so there's no free pass after a certain "danger zone" has passed.

While you should be afraid, very afraid, you may take some satisfaction and reassurance from statistics. While your life expectancy will ebb with every passing day, with every passing year, no matter how old you get, chances are that if you are alive today, you will be alive tomorrow.

And as my dear friend Jeanne Calment used to say to me, "I have just one wrinkle--and I'm sitting on it!" (Cackle, cackle, cackle.)

Don't equate a correlation with causation.

Both my grandmothers were slender women with no obvious belly fat--or fat at all, for that matter. And both succumbed to the cruel ravages of Alzheimer's.

Today it is a fat gut, tomorrow it will be something else.

Medical news reporting is only slightly more credible than terror-threat color-coded warning scales.

"Today it is a fat gut, tomorrow it will be something else."

Unlikely.

If you actually read the science, it doesn't say that belly fat causes Alzheimers. It says belly fat increases the risk that you will succumb to Alzheimers.

Driving an automobile increases your risk of dying in a car accident. Most drivers don't die from car accidents. Both are true, and will continue to be true no matter what your grandmothers died of.

The memory is the second thing to go.

HUH??? I've always been relatively slender so how come in my late 50's I can't remember a damn thing anymore?

Like another of the posters, the only two ladies I've known with Alzheimers were remarkably thin all their lives - but perhaps this is not statistically significant. We all know what it takes to be healthy, just hard to keep it up all the time

I've now passed the danger zone so I guess it doesn't matter how many chocolate Easter eggs I eat anymore.

Or so you like to tell yourself. But why wait for the next study, when you can continue to experience a great "Now they tell me..." moment over and over again?

But why wait for the next study, when you can continue to experience a great "Now they tell me..." moment over and over again?

Or, that is, until you're too senile to care anymore...

I find it highly unlikely that a pot belly is the mechanism for dementia, but like one of the people quoted in the story said... it's most likely whatever is causing the pot belly in the first place. Drinking too much and not exercising, anyone?

has407: I'm afraid that you put your comment on the wrong thread. Sadly, I deleted the post you meant to comment on, so there's nothing left except this one.

Posted by: Kevin Drum on March 27, 2008 at 1:09 AM | PERMALINK

Sweet god on a pony! Now the over-active WM moderators are even deleting KEVIN DRUM's comments! Kevin! Stop the madness before all of us disappear!

I find it highly unlikely that a pot belly is the mechanism for dementia, but like one of the people quoted in the story said... it's most likely whatever is causing the pot belly in the first place. Drinking too much and not exercising, anyone?

Or it could have little to do with your drinking and exercize (or actual pot belly) and everything to do with your genetic propensity for developing a pot belly.

Continuing that thought. Do you any twins want to conduct some pot belly / 6-pack ab experiments?

It's not the fat in and of itself, it's the kind of foods and beverages that were consumed over many years to produce that spare tire fat. It's the all the chemicals that have been added to the food from field to table. It's the lack of physical exercise, too. Change diet, work up a sweat, lose fat, gain years of useful mental life.

It's because God is heapin' punishments on guys he don't like, givin' 'em both a pot-belly AND dementia.

Ain't none of y'all never read the Bible?

And the Repugs are taking the news just sitting down. Strange isn't it! Must be the security of non-papered voting machines.

I mean, isn't it interesting that the Repug Party is acting like they don't NEED no stinking voters these days. We know for sure that people who register as Dems are NOT contemplating voting for any Repugs?

Why isn't there more talk about how McCain is turly un-electable because he has tried so hard to align himself with everything tht is Bush-a-fied, as unpopluar as Bush is, as if the only vote that matters is the Bush/Cheney neo-con vote, and NOT what a majority of conservative voters want?

This is why you don't let the media tell you otherwise, try to twist BS out this coming election, Repug are nowhere and it's going to stay that way because Repugs don't have enough voters, simple as that. This is where we keep the corporate owned press from telling lies and twisting and stealing another election. It's a war out there and you have fight the lies all the way to the Whitehouse.

What about people who in their forties were extremely fat-headed? Like people who voted for Bush twice, are they more likely to develop anorexia?

I find it highly unlikely that a pot belly is the mechanism for dementia, but like one of the people quoted in the story said...

That's because most people think of fat as some inert, dead storage area for triglycerides. But fat, especially visceral fat around the belly, is a powerful producer of hormones. And visceral fat produces a set of hormones that are particularly effective at increasing visceral fat, and decreasing insulin sensitivity for all the other cells in the body.

So belly fat is initially a result, probably of impaired carbohydrate metabolism, but becomes a cause, and works very hard to make sure you can't get rid of it by making sure that the glucose you create gets stored in its cells.

If I have a bit of a belly, and I smoke, I come out even.
Right??

I find it highly unlikely that a pot belly is the mechanism for dementia, but like one of the people quoted in the story said... it's most likely whatever is causing the pot belly in the first place. Drinking too much and not exercising, anyone?

Well, but does that explain why apple-shaped (belly fat) people succumb more than pear-shaped (hip fat) people? Apples have been associated with heart disease, for example, at a higher rate than pears. Since I haven't clicked the link, my yap-flapping on this is completely pointless.

'What about people who in their forties were extremely fat-headed? Like people who voted for Bush twice, are they more likely to develop anorexia?'
Posted by: chance

I'd say they already have Alzheimer's. They didn't remember that they'd voted for him the first time.

One thing that struck me in the report was the way that the Alzheimer's risk ran pretty much independently of BMI - i.e. belly fat was dangerous even if your overall BMI was close to normal. Yet another reason for not paying much attention to BMI.

This very well could be a spurious correlation. People who keep themselves slim are in better health in general and do more to themselves mentally active.

Swan: Ain't none of y'all never read the Bible?

Only the dirty parts. We're Democrats.

Yogurt is a big part of my diet.

Only the dirty parts. We're Democrats.

Right, only the parts about love your neighbor, etc., that the other side never reads.

You know why Republicans think the way they do?

Because they're so stupid and consequently hate reading so much, that when they read the Bible they always read the front of it-- all the "And then God smited the whole nation of the Hamonites" stuff-- and then quite before they get to where Jesus said anything.

Charles,

Essentially it's this: visceral fat, the fat around the organs that gives you that belly, is very good at producing a number of hormones that lead to insulin resistance. Subcutaneous fat, the fat under the skin, doesn't do that.

Well that's the good news. My bad news is that "I can pinch an inch" of the fat outside my belly muscles. So i have a paunch and I'm able to remember that too. Great.

good thing i'm past my forties.... :)

More "now they tell us" health news…

In my local newspaper yesterday there was an article about how smoking as few as 100 cigarettes (just five packs), then stopping, can cause horrible deaths from emphysema and cancers of the head, neck, throat, lungs and bladder decades later.

I have never smoked, but I have certainly been exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke.

In my local newspaper yesterday there was an article about how smoking as few as 100 cigarettes (just five packs), then stopping, can cause horrible deaths from emphysema and cancers of the head, neck, throat, lungs and bladder decades later.

Good god! You should totally cancel your subscription.

emmarose,

I also have never smoked but have been exposed to a lot of second-hand smoke. I'm hoping genetics plays a part in resisting lung cancer because my Mother still has no lung cancer even after smoking about 200,000 cigarettes, maybe more. She hasn't stopped yet.

Smoking is a very stupid addiction. Harder to kick than heroin and none of the pleasure. Smelly, too.

Lucky for me...in my line of work...dementia is a good thing!

More people who live in America die in car accidents than people who live in any other country.

Living in America causes automobiles to kill people.

I think it's called the ipso facto arguement.

Smoking is a very stupid addiction. Harder to kick than heroin…

Tripp, my mother smoked, too,---for over 60 years. She tried to stop, but couldn’t. She fell and broke her hip at age 78 and died 10 days later. She didn’t die of cancer, but had really poor health and heart problems at the end, due to her years of smoking.

I sat next to her at the dinner table as a kid and got more than my share of second-hand smoke, before anyone knew what that meant. Some people hate the smell of smoke. But, for me, it brings back memories…

Yogurt is a big part of my diet.

it's counterintuitive because yogurt has a somewhat high fat content, but it really does bust the gut very effectively. i like greek yogurt with a little fruit and date spread...

If every health alert over the past sixty years turned out to be accurate, I would have been dead at the age of five.