By Kyle J. Norton, Master of Nutrition
Adding one or two portions of chickweed into the daily diet may have a positive and profound effect in inducing weight loss, particularly, in overweight and obese patients, some studies suggested.
Obesity is a medical condition of extreme overweight. The disease is an epidemic in the United States. According to the statistic, over 68% of the US population are overweight and half of these overweight people are obese.
According to epidemiological studies, patients with obesity are at a higher risk for serious diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer.
According to Body Mass Index (BMI), the range of overweight is between 25 and 29.9. If your BMI is 30 or over you are considered obese.
The exact causes of obesity are unknown, however, there are numbers of prevalent risk factors that cause the early onset of the condition including consuming too many calories than the body needs, a sedentary lifestyle, not sleep enough, too much stress that lead to endocrine disruption and medication that cause patients to put on weight..
Genetic mutation inherited from the parents also is one of the major cause of obesity.
Dr. Hélène Choquet, the lead author in the study "Genetics of Obesity: What have we Learned?" In 2001, six genes were linked to monogenic human obesity and no common variants were reproducibly associated with polygenic obesity. By 2008, progress in the field led to the discovery of eight monogenic genes and four polygenic genes (FTO, PCSK1, MC4R, CTNNBL1) from associated studies at the genome-wide level of significance".
In the management of overweight and obese patients, researchers at the Park Nicollet Bariatric Surgery Center suggested, "lifestyle modifications should be recommended for every patient dealing with overweight or obesity" and " No single diet has proven to be superior to others overall in terms of weight loss outcomes. However, a low-carbohydrate (ie, ketogenic) diet has been shown to reduce insulin resistance in patients with diabetes and may be considered for this subgroup of patients".
" Exercise alone has not been shown to produce substantial weight loss, but it is helpful during the weight loss phase to preserve lean muscle mass, and it has a role in weight maintenance. Though sleep deprivation has been implicated in weight gain, the effect of improving sleep quality/duration on reducing excess weight has yet to be studied adequately".
These results indicated, actively engaging in low calory diet without causing nutrient deficiency and physical exercise on a long-term basis, and reducing stress levels may be considered a good management for overweight and obese patients to lose weight.
Chickweed is a cool-season annual plant in the genus S. media, belonging to the family Caryophyllaceae, native to Europe.
The herb has been used in herbal medicine as astringent, carminative, demulcent, diuretic, expectorant, laxative, refrigerant, vulnerary agent and to treat skin conditions, indigestion, eczema, cough, rashes,...
In the finding of a natural ingredient without a side effect in replacement of conventional medicine and surgery in obese patients researchers at the CMR College of Pharmacy, Medchal conducted an evaluation of the effect of chickweed (S. media (MESM)) on food consumption pattern, change in body weight, thermogenesis, lipid metabolism, and histology of fat pad, using progesterone-induced obesity model in female albino mice.
Methanolic and alcoholic extracts of the S. media were used in the experiment. At the final assessment, researchers suggested, application of a methanolic extract of S. media (MESM) demonstrates a significant effect in preventing the increase in body weight, adipose tissue weight and size, and upturned obesity and associated complications, compared to the alcoholic extract.
Further analysis also discovered, the antiobesity activity produced by MESM is attributed to the anorexic property mediated by saponin and flavonoid and partly of by its β-sitosterol content.
Moreover, β-sitosterol, a plant sterol having structural similarity with dietary fat isolated from the methanolic extract of S. media shows a physical competition in the gastrointestinal tract against fat absorption.
Other chemical compounds found in the methanolic extract such as saponin, flavonoids, steroids and triterpenoids, glycosides, and anthocyanidins are also found in aiding the results of weight reduction.
Additionally, the examining of numerous trials conducted by some institutes with an aim to find and develop new anti-obesity drugs through herbal sources with minimizing side effects compared to anti-obesity drugs, researchers at the University of Science and Technology launched an evaluation of the quality control parameters, quantitative phytochemical analysis (total phenolic, total flavonoids and total saponin content), and the anti-obesity effect of lyophilized juice (LJ) of Stellaria media (Linn.) Vill. in vitro and in vivo models.
The anti-obesity effect of LJ was assessed at two doses, 400 mg/kg and 900 mg/kg body weight in mice fed a high-fat diet with or without LJ for 6 weeks.
Application of both doses in tested mice inhibited pancreatic amylase and lipase activity and elevated plasma triacylglycerol level.
At the dose of 900 mg/kg body weight of the mice fed with a high-fat diet, LJ suppressed the increase in body weight, retroperitoneal adipose tissue, liver weights and serum parameters viz., total cholesterol, total triglyceride, LDL-cholesterol level
Dr. Rani N, the lead author at the final report, wrote, "The anti-obesity effects of LJ in high-fat-diet-fed mice may be partly mediated through delaying the intestinal absorption of dietary fat and carbohydrate by inhibiting digestive enzymes".
The findings suggested that chickweed methanolic extract may be considered an adjunct therapy in preventing weight gain in overweight and obese subjects.
Intake of methanolic extract of chickweed (S. media (MESM)) should be taken with extreme care, as acute liver toxicity has been reported in numbers of case
However, further data collection on large example size and multi-centers studies performed with human consumption of chickweed during the course of the disease will be necessary to complete the picture of the wholefood anti-obesity possibilities.
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Author Biography
Kyle J. Norton (Scholar, Master of Nutrition, All right reserved)
Health article writer and researcher; Over 10.000 articles and research papers have been written and published online, including worldwide health, ezine articles, article base, health blogs, self-growth, best before it's news, the karate GB daily, etc.,.
Named TOP 50 MEDICAL ESSAYS FOR ARTISTS & AUTHORS TO READ by Disilgold.com Named 50 of the best health Tweeters Canada - Huffington Post
Nominated for shorty award over last 4 years
Some articles have been used as references in medical research, such as international journal Pharma and Bioscience, ISSN 0975-6299.
References
(1)Antiobesity effect of Stellaria media against drug induced obesity in Swiss albino mice by Chidrawar VR1, Patel KN, Sheth NR, Shiromwar SS, Trivedi P.(
PubMed)
(2) Quality assessment and anti-obesity activity of Stellaria media (Linn.) Vill by Rani N1, Vasudeva N, Sharma SK. (
PubMed)
(3) Genetics of Obesity: What have we Learned? by Hélène Choquet1 and David Meyre. (
PMC)
(4) Obesity: dietary and lifestyle management by Vesely JM1, DeMattia LG. (
PubMed)
