Bacteria May Be at Fault in Antipsychotic-Induced Weight Gain

That is the title of the article I am writing about.  Sooner or later they have to find out why we gain weight with medicine and what can be done about it. “The 100 trillion or so bacteria that reside in the human gastrointestinal tract may offer an unexpected benefit—a means of countering weight gain from use of antipsychotics.  A solution to the problem of antipsychotic-provoked weight gain may lie in the bacteria that make their home in the gut, some researchers believe.  Animal research has suggested that bacteria that reside in the gut play a key role in energy regulation and obesity.  A link between obesity and gut bacteria has also been found in humans.  Moreover, John Cryan, Ph.D., chair of anatomy and neuroscience at University College Cork in Cork, Ireland, and his colleagues recently found, in rats, that chronic olanzapine treatment altered the composition of bacteria living in the gut.  Cryan and colleagues thus reasoned that if they were able to find a way of reversing olanzapine-induced weight gain in the animals.  I hope they find out what causes this weight gain and find something that works to reduce it.  I really doubt that I will ever be at the weight I was for thirty years till I stopped smoking and gained all this weight.  It did not happen slowly either I gained pretty fast.

All I really want to lose is my stomach. “First they gave the rats olanzapine and found that it led not only to rapid weight gain and an increase in visceral fat, but to shift in the abundance of the major types of bacteria inhabiting the animals’ guts.  Specifically, it increased the phyla Firmicutes and decreased the phyla Bacteriodetes. This same shift had been found in obese animals and humans in the past.  They gave the rats a cocktail of broad spectrum antibiotics.  They found that the antibiotics not only caused the bacteria in the guts of the rats to shift back toward their original state, but attenuated the rats’ olanzapine-induced weight gain and visceral fat accumulation by some 20 percent.  Thus it looked as if antibiotics might be a way of countering antipsychotic-induced weight gain in humans.  A problem with this strategy, though, is that it could increase antibiotic resistance, which is of broad public-health concern, the researchers pointed out in their report which was published online October 1, 2013, in Translational Psychiatry. We all know that taking antibiotics lowers them working the next time or in the future.  At least they are working on the problem.  Do not know how long it will take to find a cure so people do not gain weight in the future off of antipsychotics.
The article ends with: “Nonetheless, they believe that gut bacteria might constitute a new target for finding a way of countering antipsychotic-induced weight gain in humans.  And as Cryan told Psychiatric News, ‘We are currently investigating whether other strategies for manipulating the gut microbiota may be useful in animal models and then [Tested] in humans.’ Meanwhile, other research groups are using gut bacteria to counter obesity due to causes other than antipsychotics, Cryan noted.  ‘This is a really exciting area, probably the best developed in microbiome research.’” Yes it is exciting that someone is working on this and they are finding out what is causing all this weight gain from antipsychotics.  Now if they can find a way to stop it that does not hurt people with mental illness.

Get Movin’

That is what this article talks about to reduce obesity in the state of Colorado.  This also has to do with recovery from mental illness.  Why because the antipsychotic medicines we take make a lot of us gain weight.   Also as we get older we find it harder to lose that weight.  The article says: “On July 11, LiveWell Colorado (livewellcolorado.org), a nonprofit dedicated to preventing and reducing obesity in the state, launched the Colorado Get Movin’ Challenge, an effort to motivate residents to commit to a month of physical activity.  The free online log encourages participants to do something from a list of hundreds of possible activities, from walking and gardening to more strenuous efforts such as running and rock climbing, for an average of 30 minutes a day for 30 days in August.” Right now I am walking at least six days a week.
When I noticed I was gaining and not losing anymore I started back on the treadmill.  I am on it for thirty minutes.  This last Saturday it said that I had lost 120 calories and on Sunday it said 125 calories.  I do not watch how many calories that I usually eat, although I noticed that if I eat my three meals a day I do not snack as much and I think that is where those extra calories come from.  Geodon that I take is supposed to be weight neutral.  I know I gained all this weight when I was on Moban.  I should have started exercising then. “It never fails to amaze me the physical, mental and emotional change that happens when people take time for themselves to be active on a consistent basis, he says.  But the Get Movin’ Challenge is designed to be just that, a challenge.  If you feel that making time for yourself is challenge enough, then that works just fine.”  Even though on the weekends that I work out on the treadmill I still take my walks. 

I feel that should help me lose more even more.  As I said people with mental illness have a tendency to put on more weight with antipsychotics and they also get diabetes more.  That is something I want to stay away from.  That is one reason I started back on the treadmill.  Also finding a time in the early morning when no one else is on it in my building.  Right now my goal is to get back to where I was a couple of months ago.  Then I will set my goal for losing even more.  I live in a good neighborhood where you can walk to stores and other things so that helps.  If recovery is what you want then you should also exercise so you can live longer to enjoy life.  People with mental illness die 15 to 20 years younger than the rest of the population.

Why Are People With Schizophrenia Receiving Worse Health Care?

That is the title of this article.  Last week I did an article about health and came across this article and thought it would fit together. ”Physicians, health thyself.  May24th is Schizophrenia Awareness Day in Canada—and the month of May is Mental Health month—but a disturbing study just presented at the American Psychiatric Association (APA) meeting in San Francisco demonstrates just how prejudiced many health providers are towards those with serious mental illnesses.”  People with mental illness die earlier than the rest of the population and receive inadequate health care to because of the prejudice.

The article goes on to say it is not stigma: “We use the word stigma, but I would use a different word—prejudice,’ he said at a press conference. In our society, we don’t allow prejudice anymore based on a variety of factors, but we still, to whatever degree, tolerate prejudice when it comes to people with psychiatric conditions, and that has to change.   Dr Borenstein was referring to the results of a study presented at the APA by Dr. Dinesh Mittal, a psychiatrist at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System and associate professor at the University of Arkansas, in Little Rock, and his colleagues.” If professionals cannot act professional and treat all like they deserve to be treated in the right way.
What they did was make up a fictional person up with schizophrenia and without schizophrenia and with problems of hypertension, obesity, insomnia, and chronic back pain and had him return for a follow up visit seeking stronger medication for pain. “Overall, the health care professionals anticipated less adherence to medications in those with schizophrenia even though adherence rates between those with and without mental illness are similar.  Those with schizophrenia were less likely to be referred to weight management programs than those without. The researchers pointed out that weight management programs are as successful with those with schizophrenia as those without. Again, those with schizophrenia were less likely to be referred to sleep clinics but pain clinic referrals were equal.”  As I have said in earlier posts it is hard to lose weight but it can be done.  I am going slowly on losing mine.  Although sometimes of the year I lose and others I do not and do not know why.
Why is this so wrong?  The article says: “Those with schizophrenia were seen by the health professionals to have lower social functioning and lower competence to make treatment and financial decisions.  The researchers expected that the mental health professionals would do better than the primary care workers but that was not the case.  Both the psychiatrists and the primary care nurses had the lowest expectation that the schizophrenia patient would be able to understand educational material.” It is wrong we cannot all be lucky to know what to do when things are not going right such as our health.  I can understand that not all with a mental illness will have the knowledge or know where to get the knowledge to figure what to do when something goes wrong with our bodies.  Or for that matter the money to buy the books to figure what disease you have and what to do about it.
“Dr. Borenstein stated: On average, people with severe psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia end up dying at a significantly earlier age than other people due to medical problems. So it’s very important—and that’s why this study is an important study—that we make sure that people with psychiatric conditions like schizophrenia receive the best possible medical care along with their psychiatric treatment.”  Those doctors and such should treat everyone equal and help all that come to them to have the finest of care.  I as I have said I work on my health because I want to be around to be there for my youngest grandson who is only four years old right now.  I have had a doctor tell me I do not know what you are doing but keep on doing it.