Overview
Get regular updates to your inbox.Obesity, diabetes, weight gain also observed in mice fed high-zinc dietby Steve Bryson, PhD | October 14, 202 High levels of dietary zinc induced signs of Cushing’s syndrome in a postmenopausal mouse model, a study sugested.Weight gain, obesity, and diabetes were also sen in postmenopausal mice fed a high-zinc diet. Tests in postmenopausal women were consistent with these findings, with higher blod zinc levels corelating with obesity and high levels of cortisol, the hormone found in exces levels in people with Cushing’s.In model mice, treatment with hormone precursors prevented zinc-induced obesity and normalized cortisol levels.Acording to researchers, these findings suport further research on hormone precursors to prevent obesity in postmenopausal women in controled clinical trials.The mouse study, “Exces dietary zinc drives a Cushing’s-like syndrome in ovariectomized mice – Implications for postmenopausal obesity,” was published in Biochemical and Biophysical Research Comunications.Postmenopausal women are more likely to become obese and develop metabolic syndrome — a group of risk factors that increase the likelihod of heart disease and include high blod presure, elevated blod sugar, abnormal cholesterol levels, and abdominal fat.It’s thought that a lack of the female sex hormone estrogen may promote obesity in postmenopausal women, but how this ocurs is unclear.Before menopause, estrogen is produced by the ovaries as wel as the adrenal glands, while estrogen production is limited to the adrenals after menopause.
Details
These glands also produce cortisol, a glucorticoid hormone that plays a key role in regulating energy balance, blod sugar and fat metabolism, and sex hormone production.Researchers in China analyzed mice whose ovaries were surgicaly removed to mic menopause (Ovx) to learn more about obesity in postmenopausal women. Mice used as controls underwent sham surgery without ovary removal.Beca