Selena Bartlett | Group Leader, Addiction & Obesity, Institute of Health & Biomedical Innovation
- Professor Bartlett is a Group Leader of Addiction and Obesity and a Translational Research Institute, The Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
- She is a professor in clinical studies at the Queensland University of Technology.
Podcast
Overview
There are increasing cases of young adults suffering from heart attacks. Obesity is the prime cause of it. Sedentary lifestyle, alcohol and drugs addiction, constant stress are some prime reasons cited for increasing obesity. In today’s episode, we discuss the relationship between addiction and obesity. What causes addiction? Where does this stem from and how it leads to obesity and other health related problems? Tune in now, to learn how you can train your brain to avoid addiction and obesity.
[00:37] – About Selena Bartlett
- Professor Bartlett is a Group Leader of Addiction and Obesity and a Translational Research Institute, The Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
- She is a professor in clinical studies at the Queensland University of Technology.
- Professor Bartlett is a widely published author and commentator on addiction, obesity and smashing the mindset.
[03:04] – Can you explain how addiction and obesity are related?
- The reason I studied addiction and obesity is that they’re the only ways that you can actually study the brain.
- The models to study other illnesses are not available whereas if you look at alcohol addiction or nicotine addiction, you can add drugs to a system and study what’s happening and changing inside the brain.
- My whole work in America was on alcohol addiction and showing the changes in the brain.
- Our lab demonstrated that the nicotine cessation drug could reduce drinking.
- Then, we went on to do clinical trials. During that process we were using sugar as a control in the experiments. We ended up showing that added sugar, which is in every soft drink, changes the neural pathways in the brain in exactly the same way that alcohol and nicotine do.
- That leads to people overeating, and it’s the way people medicate their stress.
[05:03] – What would you say are some of the primary factors that contribute to addiction and obesity?
- The primary factors are early childhood experiences that aren’t good over many generations.
- The addiction in simple words is medication for stress and trauma, but we always focus on the alcohol, smoking, and the drugs, but we don’t focus on the cause.
- That’s another thing that’s changing is our understanding of what drives these things in the first place and that’s called ACES: adverse childhood experiences and how they impact the brain’s architecture that lead to addiction and obesity later in life.
[14:26] – What would you say are some of the most effective strategies for preventing and treating addiction and obesity?
- The first thing is training your brain like a muscle. In terms of really severe addiction obesity, this is a completely different story.
- When you’re talking about people that are really addicted on the street, or you know their whole life is dysfunctional, that’s a completely different question.
- In that situation, that’s at the extreme end and that person will need assistance for detoxification.
- I’m talking about prevention because if you are in the state where you’re getting a diagnosis, that means it’s like treating someone that’s had five heart attacks.
- We want to reduce that, and we want to take that back and show people that we can educate people that we can do things differently. We don’t need to wait until someone has these big diagnoses which are really hard to then look after.
RESOURCES:
You can connect with Selena Bartlett : LinkedIn
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Profile
- Professor Bartlett is a Group Leader of Addiction and Obesity and a Translational Research Institute, The Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.
- She is a professor in clinical studies at the Queensland University of Technology.
- Professor Bartlett is a widely published author and commentator on addiction, obesity and smashing the mindset.
