Thanks to my friend Yoni, I found out that I have been nominated for the Best Health Blog Category in the Canadian Blog Awards!
There are two rounds to voting: the first round began a couple of days ago and ends Nov. 30th.
The other health blogs nominated include:
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
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Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Alberta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Alberta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Alberta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Should you experience any problem cancelling your subscription to the old site, please do not hesitate to contact me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Dear Readers,
As of Aug 11, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
p.s. if you have already subscribed to the "new blog" and are still receiving this message - please remember to unsubscribe to this message. If you experience any difficulty (or are confused), simply e-mail me at amsharm@ualberta.ca
Dear Readers,
As of today, my blog has moved to my home page - you can read today's post here.
- If you subscribe by email, you will need to update your email subscribtion here!
- If you subscribe by RSS, your feed should redirect automatically.
- Please change your bookmarks (and any web links) to point to drsharma.ca!
- Old posts have already been transfered to the new location and soon the content at this location will no longer be updated.
Looking forward to your continuing interest, comments and support,
AMS
Edmonton, Ablerta
Almost 20 years ago, just out of medical school, I wanted to measure the effect of salt intake on insulin sensitivity in healthy volunteers. I reviewed the literature and soon found an article by Richard Bergman that described a piece of software he had developed for assessing insulin sensitivity (SI) by a computed mathematical analysis of the relation between the change in insulin and glucose clearance after a bolus of iv glucose.
At the time (this was years before e-mail), I called his office at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, and found out that he was on sabbatical in Phoenix. When I finally tracked him down and got him on the phone, I explained who I was and what I wanted and he was most kind and actually sent me his software, which arrived a couple of weeks later in the mail on a 3.5-inch floppy (how did anyone do research before the internet?).
Anyway, this weekend, for the first time, I finally met Richard at the International Chair on Cardiometabolic Risk (ICCR) meeting in Quebec City. Of course he did not remember speaking to me on the phone 20 years ago - but we did laugh about it.
Today, as some of you may know, Richard is the Editor-in-Chief of OBESITY and still extremely active in the field of insulin resistance.
At the Chair symposium, which focussed on various aspects of the endocannabinoid system in obesity and metabolism, Richard introduced the term "Xyndrome", a clever contraction of the terms "metabolic syndrome" and "syndrome X" (both terms are used to describe the cluster of abdominal obesity, hypertension, hypertriglyceridemia, low HDL and elevated glucose associated with insulin resistance).
More interestingly, on Sunday, after the symposium, Richard and I got to play a set of blues at the post-symposium barn party hosted by my good friend Jean-Pierre Despres in his hometown just outside Quebec City. As many of you may know, JP Despres is perhaps the most prominent obesity researcher in Canada (nearly 500 papers at last count), who coined the term "hypertriglyceridemic waist". He is also the Scientific Director of ICCR and Head of the Canadian Obesity Network's Section on Heart Lung and Blood Vessels. More relevant in the context of this post, JP is also a singer and guitarist and recently recorded his first album.
Anyway, I not only finally got to meet Richard Bergman 20 years after speaking to him on the phone but also (even better) got to jam with him for a full set (he really is an awesome blues player!).
Thanks Richard for a great Jam! Thanks JP for bringing us together and making this happen!
AMS
Quebec City, Quebec
Yesterday I spent all day listening to student presentations at the 1st Canadian Obesity Student Meeting in Quebec City.
The topics literally ranged from cell biology to city building. All presentations were by students from across Canada, selected and moderated by students. Because there are so few "old" folks like me in the audience, the students actually have the guts to stand up and ask questions - something they may not do at "regular" conferences.
And the quality of the data (all original) is as good as at any "regular" meeting I've ever been to. This of course is not surprising since it is exactly the same data being presented at other meetings, except that at those meetings it is often the supervisor presenting rather than the young students, who actually did most of the work.
You can sense the excitement and enthusiasm in the room. The nervousness, the pride, the sincerity of the presenters.
For many, it is the first time they expierence themselves as organizers, moderators, chairs, jurors, and even interviewees in front of a camera.
I am not going to mention any of the actual findings - all I will say is that anyone interested in obesity can look forward to a whole slew of great papers coming out of Canada in the near future.
I cannot but feel proud that this meeting would not have happened without the strong partnership between the Canadian Obesity Network and the Merck-Frosst/CIHR Obesity Chair, Laval University.
I am also grateful to all the supervisors and senior researchers for sending their students to this meeting and allowing them to present their data at such a "minor" forum.
I sincerely hope that this will only be the first in a whole series of student meetings and already look forward to the next one.
AMS
Quebec City, Quebec
Last night I presented a talk on Developing Research Careers in Obesity to the over 150 attendees of the 1st National Obesity Student, Meeting held at Laval University, Quebec. This meeting is co-organized by the CIHR/Merck-Frosst Chair for Obesity at Laval University, Ste.-Foy, Quebec and the Canadian Obesity Network. The students who come from universities across Canada are currently working on their Masters or PhDs in areas ranging from cell biology to city building.
The meeting is not only intended for students but is also entirely organized by CON students and new professionals (CON-SNPs): they chose the abstracts, chair the sessions, decide on the awards and everything else that goes into running a meeting.
Not only is this an opportunity for the next generation of obesity researchers in Canada to present their data but also an opportunity for them to gain first-hand experience in chairing and moderating sessions and interacting with their peers.
As I emphasized in my talk, developing a career in any field not only depends on doing good original work but also often depends on who you know and (sometimes more importantly) who knows you. The student meeting provides ample opportunity for students to practice their social skills in getting to know their peers but also to build relationships that will serve them in the future.
Needless to say, the senior faculty present at this event are happy to take a back seat and watch the future generation of Canadian obesity researchers and practitioners take the stage and run this event.
I, for my part, am happy to be part of this and to meet all these young attendees and watch them do their thing.
By the looks of it, obesity research in Canada is alive and kicking.
AMS,
Quebec City, Quebec
I am not a runner - I prefer walking. So yesterday, I participated in the 5 K walk at this year's Little Big Run.
The hardest part was getting up at 6.30 on a Sunday to actually get to the start. In fact, I had to first ride 7 K on my bike to get to the "run" and of course I rode my bike back after that (more on the bike stuff in tomorrow's post).
The Little Big Run was founded by The University of Alberta, Capital Health and the City of Edmonton and the idea is to get people moving. This year, there was even a 1 K walk, especially for those folks for whom even that is a challenge - some of my patients actually did this one - pretty much a "miracle" for some.
Of course there were all the usual "fitness types" out on the course, but more importantly, I was happy to see how many "normal" folks showed up, kids, walkers, pets and all. I am sure, for some, this was the first time they'd ever actually walked downtown.
Congrats everyone for showing up! Thanks to the organizers for pulling this off! Thanks to all the sponsors for their great support!
AMS
Edmonton, Alberta
Last night, the Canadian Obesity Network once again hosted a "Meet the Canadians" reception at the European Congress of Obesity in Geneva.
Once again, attendance was surprisingly enthusiastic.
As pointed out by Francois Laberge, Counseller and Consul, Canadian Embassy, Berne, Canada stands in high regard both as a destination for trainees but also for highly-qualified immigrants seeking to work in research and health care.
I was personally most happy to see so many Canadian and International CON members at the reception, including several CON Students and New Professionals.
No question, there is a growing and well respected Obesity research community in Canada that is making its mark at international meetings like ECO.
CON certainly does its part to help shine the spotlight on obesity research and expertise from Canada.
AMS
Geneva, Switzerland
This week I am at the 16th European Congress on Obesity in Geneva, Switzerland.
I have been attending ECO for the last 10 years or so and there is no question that over this time, ECO has matured into a pretty serious affair - complete with satellite meetings, treatment workshops, and young investigator events.
I am particularly proud of the fact that once again (as last year in Budapest), the Canadian Obesity Network is hosting a "Meet the Canadians" reception. This event gives the ECO attendees a chance to meet and mingle with the many Canadians who attend ECO.
My own active part at this meeting kicks off with a plenary lecture with the catchy title "A Physician's Guide to Waist Management". This talk is part of a precongress satellite symposium called "Adipose-Muscle Crosstalks in the Pathogenesis of Metabolic Syndrome" hosted by the Swiss Association for the Study of Obesity.
Other presenters include "old" friends like Abdul Dulloo (Switzerland), Hans Hauner (Germany), Gema Fruhbeck (Spain), Max Lafontan (France), Steve Smith (USA) and others.
Lots at this symposium (and congress) on adipose tissue and adipokines and how these affect metabolism and vascular function - definitely a hot topic!
Looks like an exciting week in Geneva,
AMS
Geneva, Switzerland
Nothing on obesity today (actually moving house, so not a lot of time this week).
But here's a link to a fascinating series of pictures for anyone with an interest in human anatomy.
Remember, all of this is normally hidden under a layer of subcutaneous fat (you can still see it in some of the preparations).
None of the dramatics of von Hagen's Bodyworlds.
Just true to life - and humbling,
AMS
Edmonton, Alberta
p.s. Hat Tip to Michael Dwyer of CIHR for suggesting this site
