Sociology of Health

1. Sociology of Health

3. Hypothalamus • Lateral increases hunger Insulin sensitive • Ventromedial: glucose sensitive: decreases hunger: • Orexin secreted increasing hunger • Gherlin: produced by stomach when empty increases hunger, switches when full. • PPY: intestines are full, decreases hunger • Leptin produced by fat cells, decreases hunge and increases activity when the cell maintains its fat level, and metabolism. When fat is lost, leptin production decreases, creating a desire to eat and eat. • It is much harder to lose weight, than to gain it in the first place.

4. Neurobiological Roots • The Hypothalamus: • controls sex drive and turns hunger on and off by monitoring blood sugar (glucose) and cell depletion. • Controls the thyroid whose hormones control metabolism.

5. 1 never to 5 all the time • How often do you eat: • 1. because you want to treat yourself? • 2. as a reward for having done something that you’re proud of or feel good about? • 3. because you like to eat? • 4. because it’s a special or traditional part of some social occasion or celebration? • 5. because you are depressed or sad? • 6. because you deserve it? • 7. because you feel worthless or inadequate? • 8. because you feel good or are in a good mood? • 9. as a way to help you cope? • 10. as a way to comfort yourself? • 11. as a way to avoid thinking about something unpleasant or to distract yourself? • 12. as a way to enjoy a social gathering? • 13 as a way to celebrate a special occasion with friends, family, or a loved one? • 14. to be sociable? • 15. to keep people from asking questions about why you’re not eating? • 16. because someone pressures you to eat? • 17. because you feel like you can’t say “no”? • 18. to join in a festive occasion? • 19. because you don’t want to stand out or be different from others who are eating? • 20. to please your mother or someone else who wants you to eat? • Source:

6. What affects weight • Calories in, activity out • Genetics: range in humans • Set Point? • Industrialization of Food: dense calories hidden in yummy, easy to consume package; • Access to “good” food.(money,location), knowledge of what’s good • Habits and cultural • Sedentary lifestyle (types of people) • Age • Metabolism • Relationship to food: psychological, body image • Restrictive dieting • Advertising • Stress and cortisol • External • Sleep deprivation • The eating “system” • Evolutionary drives.

7. Hunger • Hunger is turned on and off by the hypothalamus. • Brain reads blood-sugar (glucose) and insulin levels, cells losing water or fat, stomach constrictions, taste sensations from taste buds.

8. Set Point • The body is brilliantly designed to handle the intake of food, extract energy and store enough extra for emergencies. • Theory that everyone has a genetically driven set point of body weight that the body tries to achieve. BASIL Metabolic Rate and hunger is altered to achieve the set point.

9. Set Point • We consume about 20 tons of food over 40 years, a .01 ounce increase in daily input would increase weight by 24 lbs. • Given a starvation diet people level off at about ¾ of their weight, the metablolism adjusts. • In reverse, increasing calories about 1000, people fidget more. • Most scientists now believe set point can be adjusted my changing behaviors over time.b` • Ask about the vibrating mouse.

10. The Evolved Brain • Evolved in environment of scarcity not plenty. • Food systems are designed to hold weight not loss weight.

11. Orexin: Hungry Ghrelin: hungry/stomach PPY: satisfied/Digestive tract Leptin: satisfied:,increases metabolism, when it stops, your brain can’t think of anything but food. When fat is lost, leptin is reduced and you feel hungry all the time Insulin: Hungry Glucose: Satisfied Combined energy

12. Some human population have a gene mutation that blocks leptin sites, this has been done to fat mouse. • They are always hungry.

16. Genetic link • Twins raised apart the same weight. • Adopted siblings uncorrelated with adopted family or other siblings, but yes with biological parent • With obese parent: boy 3x, girl 6s likely to be obese • They’ve located a single gene correlated with obesity.

17. Psychological links. • Food companies target children in advertising to get them use to eating bad food. • Once you begin to gain fat, it is extremely difficult to lose it as fat cells fight shrinking by ceasing leptin productions, bombarding the brain with hunger messages.

18. Novel Foods • Many people shy away from foods that are new, probably protective.

19. Starvation • When experimenters put subjects on starvation diets they, • Lost about 35% of weight then leveled off. • Became food obsessed, not even thinking about SEX.

20. Why restrictive dieting can cause obesity • Creates a binging mentality. • Turns down metabolism when a normal diet is restarted • Over 90% of people regain the weight plus more as the body prepares for future “famine”

21. Proper diet • High in complex carbohydrates, non high fat protein fruit and vegtables. • At least 45 minutes of moderate exercise daily. • FOREVER!

22. Before you “just world” fat people ask yourself • If being fat is a character flaw (eg no will power, lazy) then • If we’re getting fatter, then • We are losing character. • If that doesn’t make sense, then other scientific explanations should be looked at.

23. Fat Facts • Body Mass Index about 30 is associated with: • High blood pressure • Diabetes • Certain cancers • Sleep apnea • Arthritis

24. Correlation Is not causation • Some people with high BMI are fit and have little health effects from weight. • 60% of adults are overweight, 34% obese. • Growing levels of obesity children • Middle age people tend to be overweight more often because their metabolism is slowing down

25. Stress leads to obesity • Stress produces the hormone cortisol which unburned leads to increased heart disease, anxiety and bell fat. • After being stressed, which temporarily reduces appetite, the hunger cycle increases dramatically leading to binging, or eating the refrigerator after school.

26. Cultural changes in U.S. • More sedentary workplaces ( no farming or factory work) • Computers • Television • Industrialized cheap, available food • Successful advertising aimed at children • Society is getting older, therefore fatter as statistical whole. • Obsession with body and self worth • Restrictive dieting

27. Exercise is good for your health, but not the “end all” for weight control

28. Poorer People tend to be fatter, and we’re getting more poor people • Less exercise in high crime neighborhoods • Less access to good food: cheap high calorie food is the norm • More stress=more cortisol=more stored fat • Heavy is hot • Lack of health care • 50% of black and Hispanic women are overweight, men are about the same.

30. Obamacare: A final word. • From a MICROsociological perspective, some will pay for parts they don’t use and that seems unfair. • At a MACROsociological level, society has been trying to figure out a cost effective way to provide universal care since Roosevelt….TEDDY Roosevelt. • All Presidents since have recognized the need for cost effective way to deliver.

31. Republicans have generally advocated a private system, subsidized by government. (even Reagan signed bill making hospitals treat those who are uninsured) • Democrats have generally advocated a universal government run plan. • Obamacare uses the Republican model of private insurance, subsided by taxes.

32. Things you may not want to pay for nor use, but are for the public good. • Streetcars, Metro, Aquatic centers, Dog parkes • National Parks • Seat belts in cars • Sugar farmers subsidies so they don’t have to compete with foreign sources. • Gas exploration • Local Roads and bridges to nowhere • Museums • Food stamps • Social security • The NSA • Drones

34. Scores go from 0 to 36, with zero indication an extremely positive body image. • The authors suggest scores about 14 suggest a need to develop a stronger body image.

35. Facts about Eating Disorders • Body dissatisfaction is soaring, 89% of women and 22% of men think they need to lose weight. • A majority of women would not accept a 10 point rise in IQ if it meant a one size rise in butt size. • 15% of women and 11% of men would sacrifice five years of their life to be their ideal weight. About 25% 3 years.

36. Facts about Eating Disorders • Pregnancy is increasingly becoming associated as an encumbrance to body style, with women not having children to keep their shape. • Teasing has a lasting effect on body image and esteem: belief perseverance.

37. Body Dysmorphic Disorder • A warped perception of what your body looks like. Overly critical, obsessive misperception of your own body. • Separate from other eating disorders in that it can be focus on any body part…nose, butt, eyes, whatever. Thinking that that body part is ruining you. Sometimes leads to multiple plastic surgeries (Michael Jackson)

38. What is your: • Preferred shape (if you’re a guy) • Image of yourself (if you’re a girl) • Idea of what guys like (girls) • Ideal size (girls)

40. Women and Body Image • Given a scale of body image women want to be thinner than they think men like. • Women’s current body assessment is bigger than what they think men want. • Men actually prefer women heavier than what women think.

41. Eating Disorders • Anorexia Nervosa: marked by extremely lower than ideal weight. Over 15% lower. • Bulimia Nervosa: Marked by bingeing and purging. Bulimic are weight is often around normal, making them more difficult to spot. More Bulimics than anorectics.

42. Eating disorders: Anorexia • Anorexics come from homes with high ideals for perfection, parents who are weight obsessed. Mostly a disease of the upper middle class and wealthy white world. Girls tend to be “perfect.” • Control is a big issue with anorexics • Anorexics have massive distortions of perception, they truly belief they are the 500lb woman.

43. Eating Disorders: bulimia • Bulimics come from families with high levels of depression and alcoholism. • Bulimia must have a purging element to technically be bulimia. • Purging can be in the form of laxatives, throwing up, even excessive exercise. • Bulimia is way more common than anorexia. • Bulimics tend to hover around a normal weight.