Obese people do not walk on their hands.

e will surely get to this amazing title soon....read on for a fascinating discovery again involving iPPS and OA and a most unlikely link between Obesity and OA of a particular joint....


PART 1 - PRE INTRO

I always was under the impression that if you are overweight then that leads simply to extra load on your joints and you would have a higher prevalence of eventually developing OA.True. There are multiple studies indicating your chances are higher as finally OA is predominately a 'wear and tear phenomena'. No surprises here, right? Wrong.

Again, as has happened on a few occasions I will break this up into two parts as again I find myself uncovering a lot of material. My intention is not to unleash loads of data and info unnecessarily on you. I give you a sample of research I came across and attempt to express it simplistically. Those that want to delve further, do follow the reference links (at end of Part 2), there is some amazing material out there and you and I know there will be more to come as PAR progresses along this interesting journey.

Tonight we will cover a surprise...a most peculiar link. Not only that but yes, there is a MOZZ Bonus © tonight. It is a bonus example of tonight's topic utilising a most practical example. I'm sure not a lot of you would know this and those few that did attend the AGM last year may have forgotten the details.


INTRODUCTION

For tonight's Mozz story we must firstly travel to the Tecumseh Community in Michigan.¹ Who? What? and Why?

Yes Paradigmers this is the first link in our journey of where we are going tonight. The researchers involved with this study conducted a longitudinal study that began in 1962 with a baseline of examinations conducted on some decent numbers of people, namely 1,276 participants in the Tecumseh community in Michigan.

They checked the obesity at baseline and then in 1985 a re-examination of the cohort was conducted. What did they find?


THE SURPRISING LINK

As I said in the intro, the more overweight one is, the increased load on your weight bearing joints.As a result of the study in 1985, the researchers actually found a surprising link...

"Greater baseline relative weight was also associated with greater subsequent severity of osteoarthritis of the hands." ²

If you are obese, there is a higher chance of you developing OA......in the HANDS!?


Err... HELLO MOZZ - Hands aren't weight bearing?! I think you have made an error in this post?

How is this possible?For that we need to do further research.Like a true James Bond Film (yes I'm a fan) our next stop from Michigan is Catalonia, Spain....I hope to help Pool_Emperor build a small but endearing sandstone club here along the mariner, I'm looking for land/sites soon once PAR Shares go past $120. Don't laugh...we think this is impossible but they said that about Berkshire Hathaway in the 70's...it's now more than $319,000 a share USD.


_{Like any good Bond Film we move from country to country hot on the pursuit of our mission.}


Now talk about comprehensive numbers...these researchers in Spain took some 5.5 million subjects covering >80% of the population and then filtered out to only include those greater than 40 years of age as of Jan 1 2006 and had recorded BMI's in the database AND had no OA....on Dec 31^st 2010 they were followed up and their diagnosis of knee, hip or hand OA was recorded.

Results?

Mate they took some 1.7 million participants so this is a massive number , no little sample sizes here. What did they find?

Let me quote:

"Compared to subjects with normal weight, being overweight or obese increased the risk of OA at all 3 joint sites, especially at the knee." ³




_{The lovely Catalonia...it's on my to do list... will need to brush up on my Spanish, Hola!}



Ok so it's absolutely no surprise that if you are overweight then it stands to reason that your weight bearing joints such as the knee will be subject to load and thus OA incidence will be higher on average. But how does this play out ona non load bearing joint such as Hand OA? In theory whether you are obese or not should play no part on the incidence of Hand OA, right?. WRONG

What? No way!

So what I am saying to you, is that there IS a connection between being overweight and Hand OA.

Mr Mozz...can I have more evidence? But from a different source? I want to verify this somewhat hard to believe statements you are coming with.Your wish is my request.How about this for a quote :

"Excess of fat has long been recognized as an important risk factor for the development and progression of OA. The quite new interest in the metabolic role of fat excess in OA is boosted by the observation that fat excess is also a risk factor for developing OA in non-weight-bearing joints, such as those in the hand."⁵



I have one more article for you from the Netherlands, my next stop, this study from the Netherlands that makes a link between visceral fat and hand OA:

"Assessment of the abdominal distribution of adipose tissue showed an association between VAT and hand OA in men, suggesting involvement of visceral fat in hand OA."⁶


Indeed this role of visceral fat, fat that is stored around important organs such as liver, pancreas intestines and can have a detrimental inflammatory response needs to be investigated. The clue here is INFLAMMATION and we know now what great drug may one day be used to tackle it.



_{Visceral fat....a growing problem...}


This is probably an opportune time to remind you of two very pertinent facts before I give you evidence of what I am saying:


FACT TIME

FACT 1 - HOW MANY PEOPLE IN USA ARE OBESE?

Yes you are absolutely correct, how could we not do a famous Mozz Quiz ©:

A) 1 million?


B) 3 Million


C) 14 Million people?


D) More than A plus C



Mozz Quizzes usually mean it's a fair bit more than all of those answers...what was your actual guess?





Can you believe it is 70 MILLION!?

That's almost three times our entire Aussie Population?
Surprised? What then is your guess for the numbers of people that are overweight and obese??



The numbers are an incredulous 160 million.⁷



FACT 2 - WHICH IS THE JOINT THAT HAS RECORDED THE SINGLE BEST RATES OF EFFICACY FROM iPPS SO FAR??



Joints of the hand.





_{Joint of the hand...yep, these beauties are the max. recipient of the wonderful action of iPPS.}


In Part 2 we will start off with a graphical example of some evidence in terms of Hand OA and the effect of iPPS.I'll also deliver on the promised practical example via a Mozz Story which I'm sure most of you will appreciate and enjoy as it further adds to the magical iPPS story.