Earning a Patch for Weightloss :: Dieting Health Essays

Earning a Patch for Weightloss While surfing the net in search of weight loss aids, one may soon come to the dermalife homepage. Here, along with various products for acne, bust firmness, and fat burning, the web site introduces the "NEW Derma Lifepatch" for losing weight. The active ingredient in this patch is taken from a brown alga called fucus vesiculosus or bladder wrack. The main ingredient used from fucus vesiculosus is iodine which stimulates the thyroid gland to speed up metabolism. In this essay, I would like to examine the value of this substance in terms of weight loss as well as possible health risks that may be associated with it. Much of the information contained herein is taken form studies on fucus vesiculosus and the thyroid gland and not on the Derma Patch specifically. A Little Background on Metabolism: "Human energy expenditure can be understood by a division into three components: basal or resting metabolic rate (RMR), the thermic effect of food (TEF), and the thermic effect of activity (TEA). The stoichiometric relationships between oxygen consumption and the heat release that occurs with biologic substrate oxidations are similar to those seen in chemical combustion. As a result, the rate of energy expenditure and substrate oxidation can be determined by measuring heat losses (direct calorimetry) or by measuring oxygen consumption and carbon dioxide production." RMR defines that energy which is needed for the basic maintenance of the body. The TEF is defined as the elevation of metabolic rate occurring after food ingestion. It includes the cost of the absorption, metabolism, and storage of the food within the body. The TEA is the energy expended with activity and exercise. When most people speak of raising their metabolism (as in trying to lose weight) and throughout the r emainder of this essay, we are mostly speaking of increasing the activity of TEA (Pi-Sunyer, 1). Thyroid Manipulation and Weight Loss: The thyroid gland plays an important role in regulating the body's metabolism (Thyroid Fed. Int'l, 1998). The body's metabolic rate is directly linked to the amount of activity of the thyroid. If the thyroid gland hormone is enhanced by medication, the obvious result is that metabolism is increased. Thus, the body is able to burn more calories quicker and less are deposited as fat.