2002 Public Health Symposium

Concurrent Sessions: Health Outcomes Related to Obesity

Moderator and Panelist: David H. Garabrant, MD, MPH
Professor, Environmental Health Sciences;
Associate Professor, Emergency Medicine

Panelists:

Alan Tsai, PhD
Associate Professor, Human Nutrition, Environmental Health Sciences
Peter Mancuso, PhD
Assistant Professor, Environmental Health Sciences

Current knowledge indicates that there are many health risks related to obesity. Obesity is causally associated with cardiovascular diseases, adult onset diabetes mellitus, disorders of lipid metabolism, cancer, and inflammatory disorders including asthma, osteoarthritis, and arterial thrombosis. Physiologically, there are key relationships between energy balance, body weight, and serum lipids, which affect the development of a number of these chronic diseases. There is also exciting new evidence of an emerging knowledge role for the hormone leptin as a mediator of inflammatory diseases associated with obesity.

Objectives

Identify major health conditions causally associated with obesity
Identify the relationship between energy balance, body weight and serum lipid levels
Gain recognition of the emerging role for leptin in obesity related inflammatory diseases

Participant Profiles

Peter Mancuso, PhD, is Assistant Professor in Environmental Health Sciences. He holds degrees in food science (BS, Purdue University), nutrition, and physiology (MS and PhD, University of Tennessee). He worked in the food industry prior to pursuing doctoral studies. Dr. Mancuso completed his postdoctoral training at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Pulmonary Cell and Molecular Biology, following which he joined the University of Michigan School of Public Health faculty in 2000. His research interests focus on the role of leptin in the host defense mechanisms against bacterial pneumonia, on arachidnoic acid metabolism in alveolar macrophages and neutrophils, and on leukotrienes as mediators of pathologic states of inflammation such as asthma. He is also interested in the effects of airborne particulates on pulmonary inflammation and immune function.

Alan C Tsai, PhD is Associate Professor in Environmental Health Sciences. He holds degrees in animal science (BS), National Chung-Hsing University, Taiwan) and in nutrition (MS and PhD, Washington State University). His research interests include studies of the role of antioxidant nutrients, vitamin E, ascorbate and carotenoids in the prevention of low-density lipoprotein (LDL) oxidation and LDL glycosylation. Dr. Tsai is also interested in the roles of factors such as ethanol consumption, cigarette smoking, physical exercise, and dietary intake of PUFA and antioxidant nutrients in LDL-oxidation. His other interests include the effects of socioeconomic and lifestyle changes on nutritional status and health parameters in the Taiwanese population.

David H Garabrant, MD, MPH, is Professor in Environmental Health Sciences and Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine. He holds degrees in chemical engineering (BS, Tufts University), medicine (MD, Tufts University), physiology and public health (MS, MPH, Harvard University). He joined the faulty of the University of Michigan School of Public health in 1988. His research interests include occupational and environmental epidemiology related to long term health effects of chemical exposures. Dr. Garabrant's current research focuses on risks of cognitive and peripheral nervous system dysfunction related to chlorpyrifos exposure (an organophosphate pesticide), organochlorine insecticides and risks of pancreas cancer, and mortality studies in the automobile industry. He has also conducted research into the risk of colon cancer in relation to physical inactivity.