"The Earth Path" by Starhawk

"Phantom Parks: The Struggle to Save Canada's National Parks" by Rick Searle

Interesting Links:
Utne Reader
David Suzuki Foundation
New Scientist
Discover Magazine
The Medical Post Online
Ad Busters!
New Internationalist
Mother Jones.com
Salon.com
NOVA On-line
The Book of Zines
Killing the Buddha
London Review of Books
American Council on Exercise
Runner's World
The Great Illusion


Recent reads:
"A Deepness in the Sky" by Vernor Vinge

"Celtic Folklore Cooking" by Joanne Asala

"Power Spellcraft for Life" by Arin Murphy-Hiscock

"Reinventing Medicine" by Larry Dossey

"Wicca: A Year and a Day" by Timothy Roderick

"The Science of the Craft" by William H Keith

"50 Years of Wicca" by Frederic Lamond

"The Magical Life" by Vivianne Crowley

"Which Witch is Which?" by Patricia Telesco

"Perdido Street Station" by China Mieville

"Cyberhenge: Modern Pagans on the Internet" by Douglas E. Cowan

"An Ye Harm None: Magical Morality and Modern Ethics" by Shelley Rabinovitch

"Crystal Ball" by Sibyll Fergusen, revised and expanded by Witch Bree

"Gaia Eros: Reconnecting to the Magic and Sprit of Nature" by Jesse Wolf Hardin

"A Century of Spells" by Draja Mickaharic

"Evolutionary Witchcraft" by T. Thorn Coyle

"Witching Culture: Folklore and Neo-Paganism in America" by Sabina Magliocco

"Kundalini for Beginners" by Ravindra Kumar

"Ka: Stories of the Mind and Gods of India" by Roberto Calasso

"Magical Tattwa Cards" by Dr. John Mumford

"WitchCraft Today (Expanded edition)" by Gerald B. Gardner

"Self-Initiation for the Solitary Witch" by Shanddaramon

"The Second Circle: Tools for the Advancing Pagan" by Vanecia Rauls

"Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard" by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

"Black Magick Woman: The Sinister Side of the Song of Solomon" by Janet Tyson

"Everyday Moon Magic" by Dorothy Morrisson

"Advanced Witchcraft" by Edain McCoy"

"Handfasting and Wedding Rituals" by Raven Kaldera and Tannin Schwartzstein

"Joing Hearts and Hands: Interfaith, Intercultural Wedding Celebrations" by Rev Susanna Stefanachi Macomb

"Handfasted and Heartjoined" by Lady Maeve Rhea

"Handfasting: A practical Guide" bu Mary Neasham

" Goddess in the Grass: Sperpentine Mythology and the great Goddess" by Linda Fourbister

"Theories of the Chakras: Bridges to Higher Conciousness" by Hiroshi Motoyama

"The Knife Thrower" by Steven Millhauser

"Schizophrenia: A Very Short Introduction" by Christopher Finn and Eve Johnstone

"Schizophrenia: The Facts" by Ming T. Tsuang and Stephen V. Faraone

"A Community of Witches" by Helen Berger and Colleagues

"American Gods" by Neil Gaiman"

"Scherzo" by Jim Williams"

"Goddess in the Grass: Serpentine Mythology and the Great Goddess" by Linda Fourbister

"The Forest of Souls" by Rachel Pollack

"Wiccan Roots" by Philip Heselton

"A User's Guide to the Brain" by John J Ratey, MD

"A Goddess Arrives" by Gerald Gardner

"A Community of Witches" by Helen Berger

"Nature Spirits" Selected lectures by Rudolf Steiner

"Fatal Majesty" by Reay Tannahill

"Myths to Live By" by Joseph Campbell

"The Secret Life of Germs" by Philip M Tierno Jr, PhD

"Adam, Eve, and the Serpent" by Elaine Pagels

"Whiteout: Melt" by Greg Rucka illustrated by Steve Lieber

"Whiteout" by Greg Rucka illustrated by Steve Lieber

"Queen and Country-Operation: Crystal Ball" by Greg Rucka illustrated by Leandro Fernandez

"Tunnel in the Sky" by Robert Heinlein

"The Sex Chronicles" by Zane

"The Black Man's Guide to Good Health" by Reed, Schulman and Shucker

"The Withdrawing Room" by Charlotte MacLoed

"Queen and Country-Operation: Morningstar" by Greg Rucka illustrated by Brian Hurtt

"The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2000" edited by David Quammen

"The Bourne Identity" by Robert Ludlum

"Gerald Gardner: Witch" by J.L. Bracelin

"Queen and Country-Operation: Broken Ground" by Greg Rucka illustrated by Steve Rolston

"The Ferryman Will Be There" by Rosemary Aubert

"Philosophy of Wicca" by Amber Laine Fisher

"Wilderness Tips" by Margaret Atwood

"Origins of Modern Witchcraft" by Anne Moura

Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Born to Binge

Many people would like to find the gene or disease-cause of being fat. It is sometimes so much more palatable to blame a medical condition rather than an individual's eating habits or will power when it comes to packing on the pounds. Well, it seems science may have actually found an undelying physiological cause that really might play a part in human obesity, and specifically binge eating.

A team of researchers led by Stephen O'Rahilly at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research in Britain has found that a significant proportion of people who became obese early in life had a mutation in a gene (MC4R) that ultimately tells us when to stop eating. Children whose MC4R receptors didn't function at all, chose to eat threetimes as much breakfast as people with a normal copy of the gene. Children with partially functioning receptors fell somewhere in between. (NEJM;348:1085)

Another study highlighting this gene found that all 24 severely obese people with MC4R mutations participating in the study were regular binge eaters, while only 14% of the obese people without the mutation ate in this way. (NEJM;348:1096)

The MC4R gene codes for the melanocortin 4 receptor found in the hypothalamus. This receptor picks up signals from leptin, a hormone that tells the body when to stop eating. In a propely functioning system, appetite-supression signals are relayed by the MC4R receptors by the hypothalamus to parts of the brain that control appetite. Without the proper relay, the person just keeps eating.

Leptin, some of you might recall, was the darling of obesity research about a decade ago when researchers discovered that mice who did not produce leptin quickly became obese. Leptin is a hormone secreted by fat cells, and the prevailing thought at the time was that obese people simply don't produce enough leptin and somehow this lead to faulty weight/eating control. Much research time and business dollars were poured into elucidating the role leptin played in obesity, and the possibilty of manufacturing and distributing a magic leptin 'bullet' to the world's obese. The bubble burst however (and many well known pharmaceutical and biotech ginats lost millions of dollars) when it became clear that leptin wasn't the mystical solution, and in fact obese people had considerably higher than average levels of leptin circulatin in their blood. We now know that leptin not only controls food intake but also many other aspects of physiology that are affected by energy balance, such as reproduction and growth. We also know that obese people respond poorly to leptin, suggesting a condition of leptin resistance among these individuals in a way similar to insulin resistance. (Obesity seems to through a whole whack of hormonal signals into disarray.)

All this to say that while the discovery of MC4R looks promising on the surface, nothing in nature and phsyiology is a simple as we would like it to be. Gene-therapy might be possible to help people carrying mutations in the MC4R gene, or give rise to specific treatments and eating plans, but it then again in may not. And the fact of the matter is, on many levels we are already well-equipped to deal with the obesity epidemic. It's quite obvious: Eat less, exercise more. But in a society where food is cheap and plentiful, exercise is optional, and we expect a quick-fix for everything, perhaps the obvious is not what many of us are willing to invest in.

Amanda 11:41 AM
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