Channel: General Health
Now Playing: Pig Power
Related Articles
- What Is Heart Failure?
- Slideshow: Foods to Save Your Heart
- WebMD Heart Disease Community
- Heart Attack Directory
- Transcript
You are in the WebMD Content Archive for WebMD Video.
WebMD archives all video content after 48 months to ensure our readers can easily find the most timely content.
To locate the most current information on this topic, please use our search box
Reviewed By: Andrew Seibert,
SOURCES: 2007 Medical Reference from Medstar Television. Mike Sturek, Ph.D., Physiologist, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN., Rebecca Krisher, Ph.D., Reproductive Physiologist, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN.
© 1999-2011 Medstar Television
Meet Brad - a wild hog with a very human condition – obesity - the result of a 'piggish' lifestyle.
They're relatively healthy if they're on a lean diet and remain active. But if they take the couch potato sort of angle and eat too much food and don't do any exercise then they really display a gross propensity to obesity.
Sound familiar? Purdue researchers say the physiology of these ossabaw (AH-sah-baw) hogs is so human-like, they make ideal study subjects for human diseases.
Our main emphasis really is what happens with the metabolic syndrome and diabetes and how does that actually elicit excess coronary artery disease.
Pigs with clogged arteries receive the same life-saving therapies used on people.
We can do pig angioplasty. We can implant stents in these, coronary stents in these animals.
Like people, sedentary hogs who pig out have an increased risk of insulin resistance, high blood pressure and excess belly fat.
We also have seen that their ovaries, in some cases, do become cystic, that they are heavier on average, they're longer on average.
Characteristics of polycystic ovary syndrome - a common cause of infertility in women. If the hogs prove to develop the disease, it could lead to a first-ever cure for PCOS.
There is no other good PCOS model and that's one reason why the Ossabaw pigs are so important.
And perhaps human's new best friend. For WebMD, I'm Damon Meharg.
Back Pain Test
Exercise for Better Sex
Vinegar for Diabetes
Drink Your Way To Weight Loss
Pre-Diabetes
Gallbladder Basics
Weight Loss Secret Weapon
IBS Trigger Foods
Does Porn Hurt a Relationship?
Male Orgasms: How They Change
Cholesterol-Busting Exercise
What's Your Sleep Personality?
Herpes Vaccine Study
Truth about Passing Gas
Are You Using a Condom Correctly?
Snoring Cure
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Diarrhea Causes and Treatments
Acupuncture for Back Pain
Common Constipation Treatments
Dirty Truth About Hand Washing
4-D Ultrasound
ED Exercise
Sex Advice for Single Women
Cholesterol Guidelines
Diagnosing Yeast Infections
Truth About Coffee
Healing Heel Pain
Snacks for Diabetics
Best Butt Exercises
To perform a video search, please enter a term in the search box located to the right of the video player above.
Not Available.
©2005-2012 WebMD, LLC. All rights reserved.
WebMD does not provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. See additional information.
