Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - August 23, 2006, Winnipeg, Manitoba A12 health Winnipeg free press wednesday August 23, 2006 immunity study City dwellers less obese than Rural Folk statistics breakthrough announced Ottawa ? there a a new report Manitoba a office of Rural and North indicating adults who live in cities Ern health is not surprised by the in the Battle against aids Are less Likely to be obese than those findings. He said they fit with what living in outlying areas. He sees in his practise. As for the statistics Canada says it found that Overall 20 per cent of residents aged 18 or older who lived in Large centres were obese in 2004, compared with 29 per cent of those who lived out Side a metropolitan area. And As the size of the City increased the likelihood of being obese fell. Winnipeg adults had an obesity rate roughly on Par with Canada with 25.2 per cent bulging. Winnipeg Schil Dren however had a significantly higher number than the National average with 32.1 per cent. Manitoba in general tips the Scales with 28 per cent of adults being obese ? the National average is 23 per cent. Winnipeg a Martin Shumka a per Sonal Trainer who grew up 30 kilo metres East of Dauphin in Gilbert Plains said exercise is not part of Rural ideology. Exercise facilities Are rare and peo ple Don to think of going to them when they can he said. He suggests the reason is that people living on farms perform Many labour intensive chores during the Day and consider that their exercise. Due to this facet of Rural life he was surprised to hear the results of the study. But or. Don Klassen director of causes he can Only speculate it May be a Lack of exercise facilities or lower income people live in Rural areas and they be been shown to eat higher fat foods since they Are cheaper. He said he a read similar studies that have shown the same results the statistics Canada report shows. In areas with a population of at least two million such As Toronto Montreal and Vancouver 17 per cent of adults were obese the study found. The comparable figure for areas with a population of 100,000 to two million was 24 per cent and in Urban centres with populations of 10,000 to 100,000, 30 per cent of adults were found to be obese. The study found that the National average for obesity among adults was 23 per cent. However while there was a relationship Between excess weight and Urban Rural residence among adults the same was not True for children statistics Canada says. Nationally the proportion of two to 17-year-Olds who were overweight or obese was comparable in cities and Rural areas. ? up / staff by Charlie Fidelman m ont real ? a Montreal immunology team has announced a breakthrough Dis covery of a key component that a baffled scientists in the fight against the aids epidemic Why is the immune sys tem not Able to get rid of his infected cells the answer said University of Mon Treal Lead investigator Rafick Pierre Sekaly is that the body a cd8 to cells the killer cells of viral infections become exhausted and quit functioning in his patients. We have discovered the mechanism that the virus is exploiting to undermine the immune system and makes it completely dysfunctional Sekaly said. Most important we have shown that this can be reversed. We can Correct his defect and this for us gives us great Hope because a lot of other strategies have always the finding Means doctors might one Day be Able to manipulate a patients immune system into switching Back on to fight his cancer and infectious Dis eases. Virologist Mark Wainberg director of the Mcgill aids Centre at Montreal a jewish general Hospital who was not involved in the study called the break through much broader than his. Its not just relevant to his but to immunodeficiency in other disease states Wainberg said. Sekaly steam which published its finding in the journal nature Medicine is heartened that two other teams led by Bruce Walker of Harvard medical school and Richard Koup at National institutes of health simultaneously reproduced similar results. All of us came to the same conclusion. Its a rare occurrence for three teams said Sekaly who worked with a group at the Royal Victoria Hospital led by Mcgill University health Centre his aids expert Jean Pierre route. First evidence for us its the first evidence that the his default can be reversed in the lab oratory route said. The Harvard Nih and Montreal teams reported that blocking a molecule called pd1 programmed death-1 restored the function of the to cells. While this worked against a chronic infection in mice its More than just another Complex animal Model route added. This blockade of an overwork ing Gene leads to the clearance of the infection he said. Pd1 inhibits the function of the to cells Sekaly explained. We be shown that you can reverse the course of infection by waking up the immune system he said. A lot of other strategies have failed but now we can restore the function of cd8 cells and therefore the immune but tinkering with the immune sys tem to switch it Back on is risky because it could trigger autoimmune disease. The danger is that you could have a real overdrive Sekaly said comment ing on a botched London England trial of a drug to stimulate the immune sys tem in March six healthy Volunteer men landed in intensive care suffering from severe respiratory distress he said. The Montreal team is involved in discussions to turn the research findings into treatment. Sekaly has sent his infected blood samples to Meda Rex a California drug company for antibody testing. Human safety and Efficacy trials Are to follow clinical trials in monkeys which Are planned during the next nine months he added. That a the next step said Anthony Fauci director of the National Institute for allergy and infectious diseases in the United states. ? can West news service ;