Body Mass Index (BMI) News and Research

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Body Mass Index (BMI) is a measure that relates body weight to height. BMI is sometimes used to measure total body fat and whether a person is a healthy weight. Excess body fat is linked to an increased risk of some diseases including heart disease and some cancers.

Weight gain in middle-age linked to breast cancer

According to new research women who gain weight throughout adulthood rather than maintaining a stable weight may have an increased risk for breast cancer

23 Oct 2007

Women who gain weight throughout adulthood have a greater breast cancer risk

Women who gain weight throughout adulthood rather than maintaining a stable weight may have an increased risk for breast cancer, according to a report in the October 22 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine.

22 Oct 2007

40 percent of men and 30 percent of women are overweight

A new global study revealed that 40 percent of men and 30 percent of women are overweight, while 24 percent of men and 27 percent of women are obese, researchers reported in Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association.

22 Oct 2007

Scale back on weight obsession, urges obesity expert

"We need to change how we look at obesity, stop obsessing on weight and BMI and, above all, redefine the proper clinical use of weight loss drugs," says noted obesity expert Dr. Jean-Pierre Després, delivering the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Lecture at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2007.

22 Oct 2007

Surgical treatment of morbid obesity increases likelihood of patients returning to work

Obese Medicaid patients who undergo Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery may be more likely to return to work than obese Medicaid patients who do not undergo the surgery, according to a report in the October issue of Archives of Surgery, a theme issue on bariatric surgery.

16 Oct 2007

Obesity strongest risk factor for colorectal cancer in women

Research presented at the 72nd Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Gastroenterology found that obesity, among other important risk factors, was the strongest risk factor for colorectal cancer in women.

16 Oct 2007

Obese people six times more likely to develop oesophageal cancer

Rates of oesophageal cancer have been rising rapidly, and in some countries, they have risen faster than those of every other major cancer, say the authors.

10 Oct 2007

Women with high or increasing blood pressure more likely to develop diabetes

One of the largest studies to investigate the relationship between blood pressure and type 2 diabetes has found that women who have high blood pressure levels are three times more likely to develop diabetes than women with low blood pressure levels.

10 Oct 2007

Programs show short-term benefits in helping children maintain weight loss

Children who lost weight were able to keep it off more effectively by participating in maintenance treatment programs that emphasized behavioral skills or social facilitation, although the effectiveness lessened over time, according to a study in the October 10 issue of JAMA.

10 Oct 2007

Soaring obesity rates in the UK

An analysis conducted out by a cancer charity in Britain has found that the waistlines of both men and women have significantly increased in the last decade.

9 Oct 2007

Losing a little weight might help avoid drugs to reduce hypertension

Researchers in Italy say losing weight can bring down a person's hypertension; they say even a moderate weight loss can lower high blood pressure to within the normal range.

3 Oct 2007

Lower metabolism, eating behavior possibly explain the cause of overweight in narcolepsy

A lower metabolism, as well as slight changes in eating behavior, could explain the positive energy balance leading to being overweight in narcolepsy, according to a study published in the October 1 issue of the journal SLEEP.

2 Oct 2007

High blood pressure may be due to excess weight in half of overweight adults

As many as 50 percent of overweight men and women with high blood pressure may have hypertension as a result of being overweight, researchers reported at the American Heart Association's 61st Annual Fall Conference of the Council for High Blood Pressure Research.

29 Sep 2007

FDA approves new adjustable gastric band for morbid obesity

Ethicon Endo-Surgery, Inc. has announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved for marketing the REALIZE Adjustable Gastric Band, a surgical implant for weight reduction and improvement in obesity-related health conditions, such as type-2 diabetes, in individuals suffering from morbid obesity.

29 Sep 2007

Maternal weight gain appears to favor the birth of boys

A slightly greater number of males than females are born worldwide every year.

25 Sep 2007

Being overweight in old age does not lead to memory problems

While obesity has been shown to contribute to high blood pressure, heart disease and diabetes, being overweight in old age does not lead to memory problems, according to a study published September 19, 2007, in the online edition of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

20 Sep 2007

Soft drinks alone do not affect children's weight

Soft drink consumption has increased in both the USA and the UK over the years and this has often been blamed for a rise in childhood body mass index (BMI).

12 Sep 2007

Teenage girls who are dieting are almost twice as likely to start smoking

Teenage girls who are dieting are almost twice as likely to start smoking regularly as girls who are not dieting, according to a new study of nearly 8,000 adolescents. With boys, cigarette availability rather than the desire to lose weight is a factor in the decision to give smoking a try.

3 Sep 2007

Discovery suggests location of genes for breast density, a strong risk factor for breast cancer

Studying the DNA of 889 people, gene hunters at the Mayo Clinic and H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Centers have identified a region on chromosome 5p that is significantly associated with dense breast tissue, a known risk factor for breast cancer.

2 Sep 2007

Gastric bypass reduces mortality risk in severely obese patients

Severely obese patients who undergo gastric bypass surgery significantly reduce their risk of death from coronary heart disease, diabetes, and cancer, according to research published in the Aug. 23, 2007, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

24 Aug 2007