Dear Attila is musing tonight on why people become overweight and proposes two explanations. I agree with her, but want to add a third — sleep deprivation. Luckily, the Los Angeles Times published a story this week explaining, “Lack of sleep contributing to obesity” (boldfacing mine):

“You’re fighting against the tide to lose weight when you’re sleep-deprived,” said Dr. Amy Aronsky, medical director of The Center for Sleep Disorders in Portland, Ore., and a board certified sleep specialist. “Good sleep is as important as a good diet and exercise when it comes to weight loss.”

Where’s the link between sleep and obesity?

Hormones are the likely culprits. Normal adults need seven to nine hours of sleep per night, particularly deep sleep and REM (dream) sleep, Aronsky said. When we don’t get the good quality and proper quantity of sleep, hormone levels are altered, plus we wake up feeling unrested.

Some people are genetically programmed to need just five or six hours of sleep per night to be healthy, but that’s a tiny portion of the population, said sleep expert Dr. Michael Decker, associate professor at Georgia State University and spokesman for the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Children ages 2 to 3 need 10 to 12 hours of sleep per night, while children ages 5 to 10 need 9 1/2 to 11 hours, Decker added.

Studies have shown that when sleep is restricted, the hormone ghrelin increases and the hormone leptin decreases. Ghrelin tells our brain that we’re hungry, while leptin tells it we’ve eaten enough.

Average leptin levels decreased 18 percent when sleep was restricted to four hours per night over two nights, according to a study published in the journal Sleep Medicine by Dr. Eve Van Cauter, Average ghrelin levels increased 28 percent when sleep was restricted.

In other words, when we don’t get enough sleep we feel hungry, even if we’ve eaten enough.

In another Van Cauter study, healthy young volunteers showed signs of prediabetes when they were restricted to four hours of sleep for six nights in a row.

The stress hormone cortisol also surges when we’re sleep-deprived. When that happens, we crave high-fat, high-carbohydrate foods (“comfort foods”) to increase our serotonin levels to calm down, said Dr. Michael Breus, author of “The Sleep Doctor’s Diet Plan.”

Other studies consistently show that adults sleeping fewer than six hours a night increase their likelihood for becoming overweight or obese — even when exercising and eating right, Decker said. Among adults ages 32 to 49, those averaging five hours of sleep were twice as likely to be obese after nine years compared with those averaging seven hours.

The news for kids is just as alarming. A study of 8,234 children (starting at age 38 weeks) found that the odds of being obese by age 7 increased 50 percent for children averaging fewer than 10 1/2 hours of sleep. Another study found that 58 percent of obese kids averaged fewer than eight hours of sleep, while just 11 percent of non-obese kids averaged fewer than eight hours of sleep.

By coincidence, I’ve been MIA this week due to sleep deprivation. To help out a friend, from Sunday night to Tuesday afternoon, I battled with iTunes and an iPad, and just as I was recovering from that, my beloved big grey cat, Beauregard, was sick Friday night and I was up with him into the wee hours. The veterinarian treated his dehydration with IV fluids Saturday morning, and took a blood sample, but we won’t have the results until Tuesday. Beauregard did not perk up from the steroid shot and is still lethargic and not eating or drinking, so my heart is aching at the possibility of losing him.

My own quest to lose weight is going well. It also is becoming more comfortable — I credit a more active application of the principles of ayurveda and some ayurvedic supplements that I began to use in May. And that brings up another element to consider regarding weight control: ayurveda discerns 10 mind-body types, with the three dominated by kapha dosha having the characteristic of putting on weight easily and needing to exercise regularly to maintain a healthy weight.

P.S.

If you have a comment that hasn’t been approved, it’s because I haven’t looked at the comments since last Sunday. The subject of gay equality can attract toxic comments and I need to be well-rested to respond to them courteously.

OK, I’m pretty sure I came across the following Keyboard Cat cover act by actor Ron Livingston at icanhascheezburger.com, and I will take you on the journey through YouTube that it sparked:

This led to a reporter who swallowed a fly — I don’t know why he swallowed the fly — but hijinks ensued because you can take the boy out of the ghetto, but apparently you can’t take the ghetto out of the boy*:

Naturally Keyboard Cat had to be summoned to play his bitch punkass off:

And THEN came the parody because very few people have the kind of money it takes to keep comedy gold this pure off of YouTube:

*Racism hypervigilance alert: This is a parody of the old expression, which applies to men of all ages and races, “You can take the boy out of the farm but you can’t get the farm out of the boy.”

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Puss in boots … with bonus mariachi cat:

This ABC News story describes a population boom of abandoned and feral cats in Miami. I expect the man they show trapping cats is taking them to be euthanized and they didn’t have the guts to say so. It is a pity that the woman they interviewed who is feeding homeless cats near her condo has not done any research online to check out the best way to help abandoned and feral cats.

One situation in which cats are most commonly abandoned is when most of their kitten cuteness has worn off and they hit sexual maturity — and their keepers suddenly have no use for them and discard them instead of neutering or spaying them. Another is when people move and cannot find a home that will accept their cat, or they cannot afford to take the cat.

Abandoned tame cats who are sexually intact breed and their kittens become feral because they are not socialized to people.

(Our Beauregard and his brother, Remington, were feral kittens. I got their mother, Spats, spayed. Ivan and his girlfriend, our dear late Sophia, were abandoned together when they hit sexual maturity.)

Alley Cat Allies teaches people how to trap, neuter and return cats that cannot be socialized enough to live in a home with people. They also teach people how to manage colonies of cats to keep them healthy. Ironically, in areas where cats are commonly abandoned, such as places with lots of condos, apartments and townhouses, keeping a managed colony of cats who have been spayed or neutered and given basic vaccinations ensures the neighborhood does not get overrun with cats — they drive away rivals.

Rejoice! Keyboard Cat is risen — well, there’s a new orange tabby of Buddha-like serenity playing keyboards and drum and even tossing in some wicked dance moves. Brenna Ehrlich of Mashable has the story.

The dear, departed Fatso, the original Keyboard Cat, is famous for the “Play him off, Keyboard Cat” YouTube videos adapted from his virtuoso performance for performers that out-stayed their welcome. Here is Fatso’s original performance that turned him into Keyboard Cat:

Sophia, 10/27/2009

My late life partner Margaret and I were living in a high-rise condo in Silver Spring in September 2000 when Sophia and her boyfriend, Ivan, came up to me in the parking lot. “Nice lady,” Ivan said, “we have just been abandoned and do not know what to do. Will you help us?”

I promised to give them a home, but they were gone when I came back with cat carriers and food. My neighbors and I were not able to capture them and their kittens until the week after Christmas. We found a home for the kittens that had arrived by then, and I kept Sophia and Ivan because their months outside had de-tamed them so much that they were too shy to be adoptable. Since they adored each other and did not bother my other cats, I welcomed them.

On Sunday evening the day after CPAC, I saw my dear kitty, Sophia, stretched full length on the back of the sofa. Her breathing was very labored. And I knew my dear kitty was dying.

I tried for hours to catch Sophia and failed, even after she ran into my bedroom for the night. I was passing out from sleep deprivation from attending CPAC, so I stroked her and prayed she would last the night. She did and in the morning I was able to pop her into a cat carrier. Our regular veterinarian couldn’t work her in, so I took her to one of our local animal ERs. The X-ray showed advanced heart failure. Death was very near. I blessed Sophia and explained to her what was happening and that she would be going to God. I put the “Hallelujah Chorus” on my cell phone’s speakers, so she would feel like she was being sung into heaven by angels. And I held her and comforted her as she died.

For those of you who feel inspired to do so, if you are willing to express your condolences with a donation (see the coffee cup illustration or the PayPal button), it would be extremely welcome, most consoling and VERY helpful.

OK, here’s the scoop on the number one video in the list of the “30 Most Important Cats of 2009″ (scroll down to the post below this one): his name is Fatso, the video was made 20 years ago and Fatso is now in heaven. (Pause to say a prayer for his soul and wipe away a tear.) However, he has become quite the YouTube celebrity for mash-ups, frequently to play someone off, as in, play while someone leaves the stage. The video explains how Fatso was able to play, and I hope this post will inspire more kitty music videos and mash-ups:

Here’s the Keyboard Cat/Hall and Oates mash-up:

Have you seen this cat? Because it is AWESOME.

I saw this linked at Ace of Spades HQ and loved it — if you check out the link, my personal favorites are the musical cats, #8 and #1, and I’d love to hear about your nominees. The direct link is here.

I’m sorry for the light posting this week — I am taking an online course that I need to finish by Jan. 8.

This means that I am too pre-occupied to point out that I was calling for Michael Steele’s resignation last summer, when I thought he was too incompetent to chair the RNC. Now I’m wondering whose side he’s on — he seems determined to seize defeat from the jaws of victory in November. Is he that incompetent naturally or does the RNC have a walking, talking concern troll at its helm? He’s got to go, five-point obedience tests/loyalty oaths and all. See Ace, especially the comments, for the well-reasoned shellacking. Steele’s remark that I find the most outrageous is that he is not familiar with Republican candidates, which tells me he has no idea that that’s the essence of his job. Obama is no genius but at least HE is smart enough to cover his ass by recruiting other people to do his work for him so he can take the credit. Steele isn’t even smart enough to do that.

Also, if Steele is planning to use the “five conservative ideals” he describes in his book to purge new fiscal conservatives and new Republicans like me, I have news: I refuse to be purged and I am busy recruiting more people like me!

P.S.

Has this blog been slow to load for you? It has for me tonight and my ISP couldn’t give me an immediate answer on why, but their engineers are looking into it.

P.P.S.

The Weblog Awards people say they can’t afford the bandwidth for the voting so they won’t be doing the awards this year. I found several new blogs I enjoy last year from this contest, so I’m sorry it won’t be introducing me to more this year. However, I am grateful to my kind readers for nominating me in various categories.

Beauregard in the catnip, Aug. 11, 2009.

I am practicing compressing photos in iPhoto for publication on the Web. I took photos and promised to publish them here when I attended the July 4 Tea Party in Bel Air (Maryland), the Sen. Benjamin Cardin “healthcare reform” town hall in Towson, the healthcare reform protest at Congressman Frank Kratovil’s office in Bel Air, the 9/12 Tea Party March on Washington and the 10/11 gay and lesbian March for Equality in D.C.

However, I don’t have photo editing software on my PC and had to get everything moved over to my father’s iMac and figure out iPhoto because compressing the photos one at a time on Picnik was excruciatingly tedious and time-consuming. It turns out to be a breeze in iPhoto, as you would expect from Apple.

(I am a Mac bigot from Nov. 1984 and my first computer was the 512K “Fat” Macintosh, but I was dragged into the PC world in 1997, kicking and screaming, when I became a Realtor. I quit real estate in 2004, but I haven’t really used a Macintosh since Mac OS 9, so I have a lot to master on Dad’s new computer. It is a pleasure to have the option of both the PC and the Mac — I suppose it is the one area of my life where I don’t think it’s better to, ahem, pick a team.)

Oh, and yes, now that I know how to compress photos for Web publication quickly, I probably will post the photos from the events above, plus some stuff I wanted to write about my garden, my favorite local farm produce stand, escaping getting blown up by the Black Panthers by 10 minutes in 1970 (for real) and more. Oooh, oooh! and just you wait until I figure out iMovie and how to add subtitles to the Hitler Downfall YouTube clip! Big fun is coming!

God I love blogging!