Podcast appearances and mentions of bruce blumberg

Endocrine disruptors, such as chemicals in plastics, can disrupt the oestrogen receptors in our bodies and affect our health. Not in a good way! We all need to know about this. Your body and endocrine system has already been disrupted through cancer treatment and the menopause. We mustn't overload it even more. Bruce Blumberg, a professor of Developmental and Cell Biology at the University of California, Irvine, discusses the impact of endocrine disruptors on our bodies and the environment. These disruptors can be found in various products which are all around you, including plastic containers, vinyl blinds and floors, and cosmetics. The effects of endocrine disruptors go beyond cancer and can also lead to obesity and infertility. Blumberg provides practical tips for reducing exposure to endocrine disruptors and I am so grateful I get to share this important conversation with you. Episode Highlights:00:00 Intro.06:57 Endocrine disruption and hormone-dependent breast cancer.14:22 Avoid parabens and harmful sunscreen agents, find alternatives.19:42 Endocrine disruptors negatively affect sperm count in men.21:48 Endocrine disruptors may link to human obesity.24:59 Exposing mice to low dose chemical causes obesity.32:10 Hierarchy of what we can eliminate to help ourselves.36:14 Protect your lungs from water mist chemicals.38:37 Whole fresh foods aids weight loss.42:57 Encouraging healthy cooking through enjoyable recipes.Connect with us:For more information and resources visit our website: www.menopauseandcancer.org Or follow us on Instagram @menopause_and_cancerJoin our Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/menopauseandcancerchathub Here are links to Professor Blumbergs's work:https://www.amazon.com/Obesogen-Effect-Exercise-Struggle-Weight/dp/1549168983https://blumberg-lab.bio.uci.edu/There is also a web site for the book:https://theobesogeneffect.com/Mentioned in this episode:https://move-with-menopause-and-cancer.raiselysite.com/

Greg and Matias interview Gurdane Bhutani, an investor at MBX Ventures, to discuss the impact of environmental toxins on health and the field of exposomics.Gurdane is an expert in environmental health, with a background in Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences. He provided insights into the pervasive nature of environmental toxins and their implications for public health. This episode also has a guest appearance from Bruce Blumberg, a Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology at UC Davis.In this episode, we discuss:The widespread presence of environmental toxins and their link to diseases like Parkinson's and autismThe field of exposomics and lifetime environmental exposuresObesogens (chemicals whose exposure makes you fat)Startups building solutions for better diagnostics, green chemistry, and water treatmentPractical lifestyle changes to reduce exposure to harmful chemicals and improve healthCredits:Created by Greg Kubin and Matias SerebrinskyHost: Matias Serebrinsky & Greg KubinProduced by Jonathan A. Davis,  Nico V. Rey & Caitlin NerFind us at businesstrip.fm and psymed.venturesFollow us on Instagram and Twitter!Theme music by Dorian LoveAdditional Music: Distant Daze by Zack Frank and Temperance by Eltham House

About the Guest: Bruce Blumberg, PhD is a Professor of Cell & Developmental Biology at UC-Irvine. HIs lab studies epigenetics, gene x environment interactions, hormones & endocrine disruptors, obesogens & environmental toxins, and more.Episode Summary: Nick and Dr. Blumberg discuss: Embryonic development; hormones and hormone receptors; estrogen & xenoestrogens; environmental toxins, obesogens, pesticides & contaminants; environmental causes of obesity; microplastics; how to avoid toxins in food & drinking water; and more.*This content is never meant to serve as medical advice.Support the showAll episodes (audio & video), show notes, transcripts, and more at the M&M SubstackLearn how to further support the podcast Try Athletic Greens: Comprehensive & convenient daily nutrition. Free 1-year supply of vitamin D with purchase.Try SiPhox Health—Affordable, at-home bloodwork w/ a comprehensive set of key health marker. Use code TRIKOMES for a 10% discount.Try the Lumen device to optimize your metabolism for weight loss or athletic performance. Use code MIND for $50 off.

In this episode we speak with Dr. Bruce Blumberg about his revolutionary research on chemicals called “obesogens”. His research reveals startling epigenetic effects of exposure to these hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment. These chemicals are found in products widely used by many, every-day, and are found even in the food we eat and the water we drink. LINKS:The Obesogen Effect (Book)Dr. Bruce Blumberg (Bio)*This podcast does not use SEO services and does not want advertising dollars. The podcast is simply created to inform with the wish to create a better world for all. If you would like to donate to this podcast, consider becoming a Wild Roots Patreon.-----"According to the FDA, findings from studies on the prevalence of these chemicals, explain that these chemicals that have been widely used in nonstick cookware, contact paper, food packaging, cleaning products, and other industrial products have leached into our food and water supply, as well as contaminated our livestock and the sewage sludge used for fertilization. This is a serious problem as these “forever chemicals” are linked to liver damage, certain types of cancers, thyroid disease, infertility, high cholesterol, obesity and several other health conditions."

Go to https://drlindseyberkson.com/bigger-belly-fat-smaller-brain-size-shocking-link-mindfulness-15-sophisticated-action-steps/ for an in-depth article on this topic. When it’s fat or real estate, it’s all about location, location, location! Where your fat is located on your body, affects your overall health, your brain structure and function, and even your ability to be mindful… or not.   In this show you learn plenty of facts and fiction about fat cells.   Fat has more functions than we thought. Fat stores excess calories so you can mobilize the fat stores for energy when you need them. Fat releases hormones that control metabolism (metabolism refers to how you burn calories as energy, or store calories as fat). Fat protects organs. Fat acts like Jekyll and Hyde depending on where it lives, what type of fat it is and how many of them are there. Hormone altering chemicals love fat.  Pollutants that mascaraed as hormones, can hide inside fats cells making them act physiologically nasty. Dr. Bruce Blumberg has labeled these endocrine disruptors that especially make for unhealthy fat cells, obesogens. Fat cares about location.   Not all fat is created equal. Where your fat “lives” modifies it’s function. Visceral fat lives inside your gut surrounding your organs. Subcutaneous fat lies under your skin.   Mounting evidence shows that fat lying deep within the abdomen is more perilous than the fat you can pinch with your fingers on your underarm, inner thigh and even on your belly just under your skin. Fat that lives right underneath your skin, that feels relatively soft and that you can pinch between your fingers, is called subcutaneous fat. In a healthy person, you should have a bit of fat under your skin that makes up a bout 90% of your fat stores. The remaining 10% — called visceral or intra-abdominal fat —lies outside of your easy reach, beneath your firm abdominal wall. This fat fills the spaces surrounding abdominal organs like your liver, intestines, spleen and others. Visceral fact can also be found inside your omentum. This is an apron-like flap of tissue that lies under the belly muscles and blankets the intestines. The omentum gets harder and thicker as it fills with fat. As women approach middle years, their proportion of fat to body weight increases often more than this happens in males.  Their belly enlarges. Fat storage starts to thicken the torso, fill up under the armpits, and thicken the waist, especially in the back.     Even if you don't actually gain weight, your waistline can grow by inches as visceral fat pushes out against the abdominal wall.   Fat is biologically active. It releases hormones that affect our health. Subcutaneous fat releases healthy hormones. Subcutaneous fat releases the hormone leptin. When leptin is released in optimal amounts, it acts on the brain to suppress appetite (to help you not over eat) and even helps burn stored fat throughout the body so you don’t get fat. Subcutaneous fat also releases adiponectin. Adiponectin protects the body against diabetes and heart disease by regulating how the body processes fats and sugars. Adiponectin also is a powerful anti-inflammatory molecule, especially protecting the linings of blood vessels. Adiponectin is made a bit by visceral fat, too, as long as there isn’t too much of it. But adiponectin production falls severely as visceral fat volume increases. As people become fatter, they make less adiponectin. This increases their risk of diabetes, heart disease, dementia and the list keeps growing. Visceral fat cells, in comparison, secrete unhealthy molecules and hormones. Visceral produces proteins called cytokines. These can trigger and maintain low-levels of unhealthy inflammation. Excessive inflammation is an independent risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementias and other serious chronic conditions. Visceral fat also produces a precursor to angiotensin, a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict, blood pressure to rise, and increases the risk of stroke. Visceral fat sets the scene for insulin resistance, another risk factor for many diseases as well as symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, out of control hunger and brain fog.     How to tell if you have too much bad visceral fat? If you have a pot belly you most like have excess visceral fat. If you gut protrudes past your breasts. If a woman’s waist is over 35 inches. If a man’s wait is over 40 inches. Your belly/your brain. One study followed 6,500 members of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, a large HMO (health maintenance organization), for an average of 36 years, from the time they were in their 40s until they were in their 70s. They tracked who got dementia, and compared this to their belly fat. Those with the biggest bellies had the higher risk of dementia compared to people with smaller bellies. The link was true even for people with excess belly fat but overall of normal weight. How does belly fat cause brain damage? Leptin: Excess belly fat can cause leptin malfunction. This can cause issues with cognition, memory and hunger control. RBP4: Researchers at Harvard have discovered that, compared with subcutaneous fat, visceral fat secretes larger amounts of retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4). Excesses of this molecule increase insulin resistance. As the volume of visceral fat increases, so do levels of RBP4. This connection is so predictable, researchers are developing a blood test for RBP4 as a way for physicians to accurately measure an individual's amount of visceral fat. Belly fat can be confusing. It can be both visceral and subcutaneous. It’s not easy to know exactly how much of your gut fat is killing your brain and your future. At the moment, the only way to determine which of your belly fat is subcutaneous or visceral, is by CT scan. This is expensive. And creates huge radiation exposure .So the test of RBP4  mentioned above, is promising, but not yet available Did you know there are 3 types of fat cells: white, brown and brite (beige). White fat. This is stored energy. When you cut calories, you tend to loose white fat cells. When you add more exercise expenditure to smaller portions, you tend to loose more white fat cells. Most of visceral fat is white fat cells. Brown fat. Brown fat is now thought to be more like muscle than like white fat. When activated, brown fat burns white fat. Brown adipose tissue contributes to your body’s core temperature maintenance through a process called non-shivering thermogenesis. Lean people have more brown fat and more non-shivering thermogenesis. Children have more brown fat than adults and it helps keep them warm. Cold weather promotes brown fat synthesis. Studies show that in Boston in the wintertime, brown fat is more active, and this stimulates metabolism and burning of calories. Brite (beige fat) is brow fat marbled within white fat. Brite fat regulates energy expenditure and fights against obesity. Interchangeable: White fat can turn beige. Beige fat can revert back to white fat. Conversion factors depend upon how you eat, move and the balance of all your hormone family members. For example, underactive thyroid or testosterone can be tamping down your metabolism and play a role into your types of fat cells. Obesity = occurs when you have more white fat than the other types of fat, from consuming more energy than you use, or having unhealthy hormones and nutrient status (hormone depend on nutrients to keep you health). You can fight obesity = by eating less, moving more, and eating more fishmeals or taking essential fatty acid fish supplements. Why? Fish oil helps you make more brown and brite fat, which ups your ability to burn calories. The “Browning of White Fat” (white fat turning beige). Exercise promotes the release of an exercise hormone called Irisin. In 2012, Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, a cell biologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, dubbed this exercise hormone as "Irisin," after Iris, the Greek messenger goddess. Spiegelman said that exercise “signals” your body to maintain healthier weight. You make the choice to exercise. As you exercise, your activated muscles produce and release irisin. Irisin promotes brown fat cell production within white fat cells. This is browning of white fat, by exercise through the middleman of irisin. More browned white fat means your metabolism increase. You burn more calories. It’s less difficult to maintain a healthier weight. Irisin has multiple benefits. Promotes white fat browning. Triggers neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons), especially within your brain. Increases the expression of BDNF(brain-derived neurotrophic factor). Activates genes involved in learning and memory. Lengthens telomeres (tips of DNA). The longer your telomeres, the more you fight off disease, aging and premature death. In-depth article at Berkson’s Blog:  https://drlindseyberkson.com/bigger-belly-fat-smaller-brain-size-shocking-link-mindfulness-15-sophisticated-action-steps/

In this show you will learn: Eating less and moving more aren’t working, in 2019, to lose weight. Partially because of obesogens Exactly what these are. How they are contributing to the ever growing obesity epidemic. How chemicals can make our fat cells nasty, unfair and non-responsive to life style changes. How obesogens are “transgenerational” (passed on to your offspring). How weight-inducing chemicals are ubiquitous. That obesogens lurk in food, furniture, plastic products and other surprising places. In his new book, THE OBESOGEN EFFECT, Dr. Bruce Blumberg describes how obesogens work, where they are found, and offers a practical three-step solution for reducing exposures and setting a straight course for better health. Bruce Blumberg, Ph.D.Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology. Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. University of California Irvine.  

Mel welcomes everyone to the podcast and shares her experiences with the Calm App. She also shares Chair Yoga, our featured workout for the month of November. All newsletter subscribers, past and present can receive the free download of a wrist, back and neck stretch that was featured as part of a previous podcast. Current subscribers have received the download link in their most recent newsletters, and new subscribers can sign up from BlindAlive’s main pageThen Mel and Lisa delve into the interesting and unusual subject of ASMR. Two links of interest for learning about ASMR are ASMR University and The ASMR.com .Also mentioned in this podcast are an interview Mel did with the creator of the Sleep with Me Podcast and a binaural recording of a haircut.Mel takes us on a quick but thorough tour of many of the muscles in our bodies.Then, Lisa reviews The Obesogen Effect: Why We Eat Less And Exercise More But Still Struggle To Lose Weight by Bruce Blumberg and Kristin Loberg.Check out our Eyes-Free Fitness iOS App for workouts, podcasts, and our blog. You can comment on our Facebook page, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our informative chat list.

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Bruce Blumberg, PhD, UC Irvine Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology and leader in the field of "obesogens," discusses the role of exposures that disrupt our endocrine systems in the obesity epidemic. Obesogens are a chemicals that can interfere with hormones and can cause weight gain. Series: "UCSF Consortium for Obesity Assessment, Study and Treatment" [Health and Medicine] [Education] [Professional Medical Education] [Show ID: 34085]

Did you know that the development of obesity is dependent upon more than simple caloric balance? Join Food Sleuth Radio host and Registered Dietitian, Melinda Hemmelgarn, for her interview with Bruce Blumberg, Ph.D., Professor of Developmental and Cell Biology at the University of California-Irvine, and author of “The Obesogen Effect: Why We Eat Less and Exercise More but Still Struggle to Lose Weight.” Blumberg explains how modern chemicals can influence how our bodies metabolize calories, and describes how we can reduce our exposure to those chemicals most likely to disrupt our endocrine system.  Dr. Blumberg spoke about “obesogens” at the 36th annual Beyond Pesticide Forum in Irvine, CA, April 2018:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o6iMz_etAOA&index=11&list=PLHS5IfcgFy5f9bQpdlh6131kcu0IADlaW Related website: https://theobesogeneffect.com/

The obesity epidemic has spread throughout much of the world and is one of the leading drivers of impaired health and skyrocketing healthcare costs.  In today’s episode, we are focusing on a neglected aspect of the obesity epidemic – the role played by exposure to toxic chemicals in our food, water, and the environment.  Walking us through the history of this new field of research – investigations on obesogenic chemicals – is one of the leading researchers of the field, Bruce Blumberg.  Bruce is a professor in the Departments of Developmental and Cell Biology, Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Biomedical Engineering at the University of California, Irvine, and he is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.  This episode is also coincident with the publication of Bruce’s new book, The Obesogen Effect.

Today’s Empowering Neurologist interview is with Dr. Bruce Blumberg, author of the new book, The Obesogen Effect.    Being overweight is not just the result of diet or not enough exercise. According to leading-edge science, there are silent saboteurs in our daily lives that contribute significantly to our obesity epidemic: obesogens. These weight-inducing offenders, most of which are chemicals, disrupt our hormonal systems, alter how we create and store fat, and change how we respond to dietary choices. Because they are largely unregulated, obesogens lurk all around us: in food, furniture, plastic products such as water bottles and food storage containers. Research has even shown that the effects of some obesogens can be passed on to future generations by irreversibly interfering with the expression of our genes. The good news is we can protect ourselves by becoming more informed consumers.

Get some critical insights from university professors Bruce Blumberg of UC Irvine & NonToxic Irvine and Dr. Rattan Lal of OSU. With Bruce Blumberg learn how you can protect yourself and your loved ones while keeping a keen eye out for distractions and misinformation. With Dr. Lal, get introduced to the numbers and science behind carbon sequestration the soils, and how exactly we can accomplish a real draw down.

When it’s fat or real estate, it’s all about location, location, location! Where your fat is located on your body, affects your overall health, your brain structure and function, and even your ability to be mindful… or not. In this show you learn plenty of facts and fiction about fat cells. Fat has more functions than we thought. Fat stores excess calories so you can mobilize the fat stores for energy when you need them. Fat releases hormones that control metabolism (metabolism refers to how you burn calories as energy, or store calories as fat). Fat protects organs. Fat acts like Jekyll and Hyde depending on where it lives, what type of fat it is and how many of them are there. Hormone altering chemicals love fat.  Pollutants that mascaraed as hormones, can hide inside fats cells making them act physiologically nasty. Dr. Bruce Blumberg has labeled these endocrine disruptors that especially make for unhealthy fat cells, obesogens. Fat cares about location. Not all fat is created equal. Where your fat “lives” modifies it’s function. Visceral fat lives inside your gut surrounding your organs. Subcutaneous fat lies under your skin. Mounting evidence shows that fat lying deep within the abdomen is more perilous than the fat you can pinch with your fingers on your underarm, inner thigh and even on your belly just under your skin. Fat that lives right underneath your skin, that feels relatively soft and that you can pinch between your fingers, is called subcutaneous fat. In a healthy person, you should have a bit of fat under your skin that makes up a bout 90% of your fat stores. The remaining 10% — called visceral or intra-abdominal fat —lies outside of your easy reach, beneath your firm abdominal wall. This fat fills the spaces surrounding abdominal organs like your liver, intestines, spleen and others. Visceral fact can also be found inside your omentum. This is an apron-like flap of tissue that lies under the belly muscles and blankets the intestines. The omentum gets harder and thicker as it fills with fat. As women approach middle years, their proportion of fat to body weight increases often more than this happens in males.  Their belly enlarges. Fat storage starts to thicken the torso, fill up under the armpits, and thicken the waist, especially in the back.   Even if you don't actually gain weight, your waistline can grow by inches as visceral fat pushes out against the abdominal wall. Fat is biologically active. It releases hormones that affect our health. Subcutaneous fat releases healthy hormones. Subcutaneous fat releases the hormone leptin. When leptin is released in optimal amounts, it acts on the brain to suppress appetite (to help you not over eat) and even helps burn stored fat throughout the body so you don’t get fat. Subcutaneous fat also releases adiponectin. Adiponectin protects the body against diabetes and heart disease by regulating how the body processes fats and sugars. Adiponectin also is a powerful anti-inflammatory molecule, especially protecting the linings of blood vessels. Adiponectin is made a bit by visceral fat, too, as long as there isn’t too much of it. But adiponectin production falls severely as visceral fat volume increases. As people become fatter, they make less adiponectin. This increases their risk of diabetes, heart disease, dementia and the list keeps growing. Visceral fat cells, in comparison, secrete unhealthy molecules and hormones. Visceral produces proteins called cytokines. These can trigger and maintain low-levels of unhealthy inflammation. Excessive inflammation is an independent risk factor for heart disease, type 2 diabetes, dementias and other serious chronic conditions. Visceral fat also produces a precursor to angiotensin, a protein that causes blood vessels to constrict, blood pressure to rise, and increases the risk of stroke. Visceral fat sets the scene for insulin resistance, another risk factor for many diseases as well as symptoms like fatigue, insomnia, out of control hunger and brain fog. How to tell if you have too much bad visceral fat? If you have a pot belly you most like have excess visceral fat. If you gut protrudes past your breasts. If a woman’s waist is over 35 inches. If a man’s waist is over 40 inches. Your belly/your brain. One study followed 6,500 members of Kaiser Permanente of Northern California, a large HMO (health maintenance organization), for an average of 36 years, from the time they were in their 40s until they were in their 70s. They tracked who got dementia, and compared this to their belly fat. Those with the biggest bellies had the higher risk of dementia compared to people with smaller bellies. The link was true even for people with excess belly fat but overall of normal weight. How does belly fat cause brain damage? Leptin: Excess belly fat can cause leptin malfunction. This can cause issues with cognition, memory and hunger control. RBP4: Researchers at Harvard have discovered that, compared with subcutaneous fat, visceral fat secretes larger amounts of retinol-binding protein 4 (RBP4). Excesses of this molecule increase insulin resistance. As the volume of visceral fat increases, so do levels of RBP4. This connection is so predictable, researchers are developing a blood test for RBP4 as a way for physicians to accurately measure an individual's amount of visceral fat. Belly fat can be confusing. It can be both visceral and subcutaneous. It’s not easy to know exactly how much of your gut fat is killing your brain and your future. At the moment, the only way to determine which of your belly fat is subcutaneous or visceral, is by CT scan. This is expensive. And creates huge radiation exposure .So the test of RBP4  mentioned above, is promising, but not yet available Did you know there are 3 types of fat cells: white, brown and brite (beige). White fat. This is stored energy. When you cut calories, you tend to loose white fat cells. When you add more exercise expenditure to smaller portions, you tend to loose more white fat cells. Most of visceral fat is white fat cells. Brown fat. Brown fat is now thought to be more like muscle than like white fat. When activated, brown fat burns white fat. Brown adipose tissue contributes to your body’s core temperature maintenance through a process called non-shivering thermogenesis. Lean people have more brown fat and more non-shivering thermogenesis. Children have more brown fat than adults and it helps keep them warm. Cold weather promotes brown fat synthesis. Studies show that in Boston in the wintertime, brown fat is more active, and this stimulates metabolism and burning of calories. Brite (beige fat) is brow fat marbled within white fat. Brite fat regulates energy expenditure and fights against obesity. Interchangeable: White fat can turn beige. Beige fat can revert back to white fat. Conversion factors depend upon how you eat, move and the balance of all your hormone family members. For example, underactive thyroid or testosterone can be tamping down your metabolism and play a role into your types of fat cells. Obesity = occurs when you have more white fat than the other types of fat, from consuming more energy than you use, or having unhealthy hormones and nutrient status (hormone depend on nutrients to keep you health). You can fight obesity = by eating less, moving more, and eating more fishmeals or taking essential fatty acid fish supplements. Why? Fish oil helps you make more brown and brite fat, which ups your ability to burn calories. The “Browning of White Fat” (white fat turning beige). Exercise promotes the release of an exercise hormone called Irisin. In 2012, Bruce Spiegelman, PhD, a cell biologist at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, dubbed this exercise hormone as "Irisin," after Iris, the Greek messenger goddess. Spiegelman said that exercise “signals” your body to maintain healthier weight. You make the choice to exercise. As you exercise, your activated muscles produce and release irisin. Irisin promotes brown fat cell production within white fat cells. This is browning of white fat, by exercise through the middleman of irisin. More browned white fat means your metabolism increase. You burn more calories. It’s less difficult to maintain a healthier weight. Irisin has multiple benefits. Promotes white fat browning. Triggers neurogenesis (the growth of new neurons), especially within your brain. Increases the expression of BDNF(brain-derived neurotrophic factor). Activates genes involved in learning and memory. Lengthens telomeres (tips of DNA). The longer your telomeres, the more you fight off disease, aging and premature death. In-depth article at Berkson’s Blog: https://drlindseyberkson.com/bigger-belly-fat-smaller-brain-size-shocking-link-mindfulness-15-sophisticated-action-steps/ 

Dr. Bruce Blumberg discusses the harmful effects of environmental toxins on our health and how they are a contributing factor to the growing obesity epidemic. Dr. Blumberg takes an in-depth look at BPA, obesogens, endocrine disruptors, and more.

 We swim in a sea of chemicals. Some of them are harming our environment, some are harming us. In part two of Steve Scher's conversation with scientist Bruce Blumberg, we hear more about the science of hormone disrupting chemicals, what action the regulatory agencies are taking and whether an approach called green chemistry could keep suspect chemicals from ever entering the environment. Professor Bruce Blumberg spoke at the University of Washington in May 2015, part of the Weight and Wellness series at the UW.Find more interviews on iTunes and Stitcher and at here too.Support for At Length with Steve Scher comes from the University of Washington Alumni Association. and the UW Graduate School.

Steve Scher talks with Professor Bruce Blumberg about obesogens, hormone disrupting chemicals that seem to change human metabolism.   We eat too much.  We eat too much processed foods high in calories. We don’t exercise enough. It is being called an obesity epidemic, and it is putting more and more people at risk for heart disease, diabetes, cancer and other conditions at ever greater numbers around the world. But something more than our own actions seems to be at work resetting our bodies systems that regulate weight gain and loss.Bruce Blumberg, a developmental biologist and a molecular endocrinologist, coined the term 'obesogens' in 2006 after he discovered that exposing pregnant mice to a chemical compound call Tributyltin made their offspring heavier than those not exposed-- even when they are on a normal diet. His lab is at the University of California, Irvine.Scientists now know that fat tissue acts as an endocrine organ, releasing hormones related to appetite and metabolism. A rising number of manufactured chemicals bind to the same receptors as the hormones and either prevent proper actions by hormones or activate them in the wrong place and the wrong time. These Chemical “obesogens” may alter human metabolism and predispose some people to gain weight.  Studies show that obesity is strongly linked to exposures to risk factors, such as hormone distrupting chemicals, during fetal and infant development. Blumberg found that exposure to tributyltin predisposes lab animals to make more and bigger fat cells.  The insidious thing, Blumberg says is that animals exposed in utero to TBT are permanently affected  Professor Bruce Blumberg spoke at the University of Washington in May 2015, part of the Weight and Wellness series at the UW. Find more interviews on iTunes and Stitcher and at here too. Support for At Length with Steve Scher comes from the University of Washington Alumni Association. and the UW Graduate School.

Human beings, as a species, are putting on weight. Obesity rates are rising in rich and poor countries alike for a variety of reasons, from changing dietary habits and activity levels to exposure to artificial nighttime light. Mounting evidence from over the past decade suggests that certain chemicals may be playing a role as well. For some people, so-called obesogens may be altering their metabolism and fat cell development, making it harder to maintain a healthy weight. In this podcast, host Ashley Ahearn talks with Bruce Blumberg about the state of our understanding of obesogens. Visit the podcast webpage to download the full transcript of this podcast.