Friday, April 16, 2010

New Study on Women and Fat

A new study by neuroscientist Mark Allen and colleagues at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah shows that regular weight women who looked at fat images and probably pictured themselves as fat have a spike in brain activity in the same area that anorexic women have when they picture themselves overweight. This may be due to anxiety stemming from society pressure and media images to be thin. Men do not have a similar spike in brain images, except for male body builders, who had similar activity as bulimic women. The spike of activity was in the brain region known as the medial prefrontal cortex, thought to be involved in self-reflection and evaluation of self-worth.

New studies would need to include overweight people. They may see a spike when seeing thin images or asked to picture themselves thin.


To read more, see http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/allwomenworryaboutgettingfatstudysuggests

Disclaimer: None of the above information can be taken as a substitute for advice from a medical professional such as a physician.

My third book, Pocket Guide to Fitness, is available on www.louizapatsis.com, http://www.authorhouse.com, www.bn.com and http://www.amazon.com. If you look up my name on those Web sites, you will find my other books The Boy in a Wheelchair and Life, Work and Play: Poems and Short Stories.

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