Science in the City: The Hamilton Spectator's Steve Buist interviews Arya Sharma

Arya Sharma

John Waye

Mark Loeb

Christine Wilson

Sarah Dickson

Barna Szabados

Arya Sharma

Miroslav Lovric

Science in the CIty
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January 2003-June 2003

Arya Sharma

The following article is reprinted courtesy of the Hamilton Spectator, McMaster University’s partner in the Science in the City Lecture Series.

Muscling in on obesity, the weighty issue of being fat for life

HEALTH FORUM
Steve Buist
The Hamilton Spectator

February 9, 2004

Obesity has grown to become one of Canada's biggest health problems.

More than half of all Canadian adults are now considered overweight and it's a trend that shows no sign of slowing down.

"If anything, it's accelerating," said Dr. Arya Sharma, a McMaster University professor in the department of medicine.

"It's becoming a major issue for the hospitals and the whole medical system, because we have to start treating these patients," added Sharma, who holds a Canada Research Chair in Cardiovascular Obesity Research and Management.

Tomorrow night, Sharma will discuss this weighty issue when he delivers a talk entitled Muscling in on Obesity in The Spectator auditorium.

It's part of the Science in the City lecture series, sponsored jointly by McMaster and The Spectator.

Sharma's research shows that where excess fat is located in the body is more important than the total amount of body fat that exists.

Abdominal fat -- which is more prevalent in men than women -- gives rise to more health problems than lower-body obesity.

The pattern of fat deposition in the hips, buttocks and thighs is more prevalent in women.

But Sharma's latest research also shows that a bigger problem is when fat gets stored directly in the cells of other tissues -- such as muscles, the liver and the pancreas -- that aren't meant to be fat storage sites.

These tissues normally use fat as a fuel source, but they're not meant to harbour fat for storage.

"For some reason, these tissues aren't able to use fat normally," said Sharma.

"The other theory is that it's being stored in these tissues because for some reason these patients aren't able to put this excess fat in their fat tissue," he added. "There's something about their fat tissue that is preventing it from taking up this extra fat."

The amount of fat that's stored in inappropriate tissues can now be measured with either a needle biopsy or magnetic resonance imaging.

The good news is that levels of fat in these other tissues can be influenced by moderate exercise and changes to diet that reduce sugars and simple carbohydrates.

Of course, it's the same lack of enthusiasm for these measures across the country that has led to this predicament in the first place.

"Our lifestyles are becoming more and more sedentary," said Sharma. "There's hardly any physical activity in the workplace and most of us don't do a lot of physical activity around the house."

It's led to a bizarre reversal in lifestyle, where people are now prepared to pay for the ability to exercise.

"You used to get paid for the physical work you did," said Sharma. "Today you can actually pay to be physically active.

"It's something you don't find in rural societies at all. They're so physically active all day that none of them would even dream of going out for a run in the afternoon," he added. "That's not something they need."

The lecture is free of charge and open to the public.

To register for a seat, call 905-525-9140, ext. 24934, or send an e-mail to sciencecity@mcmaster.ca.

Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and the talk begins at 7 p.m.

sbuist@thespec.com 905-526-3226