Obesity News and Research

Latest Obesity News and Research

New CDC report describes COVID-19 in NYC in early spring

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), in its Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR), has published an update on the outbreak in New York City. The report is titled, "COVID-19 Outbreak — New York City, February 29–June 1, 2020".

23 Nov 2020

Leptin plays a strong role in controlling the body weight of children

Young children of African ancestry are more at risk of developing obesity if they possess a genetic variant that reduces their ability to produce the hormone leptin.

23 Nov 2020

Inflammatory factors that aggravate COVID-19 may come from adipose tissue

There is growing evidence that adipose tissue plays a key role in the aggravation of COVID-19. One of the theories under investigation is that fat cells (adipocytes) act as a reservoir for SARS-CoV-2 and increase viral load in obese or overweight individuals.

20 Nov 2020

Assessment tool accurately predicts outcomes for COVID-19 patients

A study published in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine this month reports on an assessment tool developed by Kaiser Permanente researchers and physicians that helps ensure patients get the right care, when they need it, by accurately predicting the probability that patients with COVID-19 symptoms will experience severe disease or even death.

20 Nov 2020

Research reveals T-cell abnormalities in severe COVID-19 cases

There is an idea within the coronavirus research field that there is some kind of T cell abnormality in critically ill COVID-19 patients, but specific details have not yet been clarified.

20 Nov 2020

Furin inhibition may mitigate severe COVID-19, study finds

Dr. Kara Fitzgerald, a researcher at the Institute for Functional Medicine in the United States, has explained the role of furin protease in developing severe COVID-19 illness.

20 Nov 2020

Age is no barrier to losing weight, study shows

Obese patients over the age of 60 can lose an equivalent amount of weight as younger people using only lifestyle changes, according to a new study from the University of Warwick and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust that demonstrates that age is no barrier to losing weight.

20 Nov 2020

$Are bone fractures more common in non-meat eaters?$

Are bone fractures more common in non-meat eaters?

A new study has found that in comparison with people who eat meat, vegans, vegetarians, and pescatarians may be at a higher risk of hip fractures.

20 Nov 2020

Texas Biomed awarded $1 million to evaluate MAb therapeutics for COVID-19

Texas Biomedical Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas, was awarded $1 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to test the efficacy of human monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) for the treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection.

19 Nov 2020

Scientists find significant differences in liver-related mortality rates in the U.S

When they set out to study local levels of death from liver diseases in the U.S., University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and Emory researchers found significant differences in death rates even within the same state, according to a recently published study in Gastroenterology.

19 Nov 2020

Decades of research into racial, ethnic health disparities fail to resolve disproportionate health outcomes

When it comes to understanding why children from non-white race groups have such poor health outcomes compared with their white counterparts, it's time for researchers to look beyond their genes and delve deeper into social factors, according to a commentary published today in the journal Pediatrics.

19 Nov 2020

Predictive model identifies neighborhoods that have greatest risk of COVID-19 infection

To help slow the spread of COVID-19 and save lives, UCLA public health and urban planning experts have developed a predictive model that pinpoints which populations in which neighborhoods of Los Angeles County are most at risk of becoming infected.

19 Nov 2020

Researchers assess consequences of decades of global nutrition transition

Just a handful of rice and beans - a part of our world is starved. Hawaiian Pizza and ice-cream - another part of our world is stuffed, throwing away food every day.

18 Nov 2020

How weather affects SARS-CoV-2 transmission: A US-based case study

How changes in the weather affect severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has been the topic of several studies. The preoccupation of researchers with this aspect of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic follows from observations that the flu virus and other coronaviruses follow seasonal patterns. Understanding how SARS-CoV-2’s transmissibility is affected by seasonal changes can thus help us to develop more informed preventative measures against its spread.

18 Nov 2020

Study highlights the disproportionate burden of COVID-19 among Black, Hispanic patients

Research presented today by UT Southwestern cardiologists at the annual American Heart Association (AHA) Scientific Sessions 2020 showed that Black and Hispanic people were more likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than white patients, and that nonwhite men with cardiovascular disease or risk factors were more likely to die.

18 Nov 2020

New AHA COVID-19 CVD Registry details the disparities in care

A new American Heart Association collaborative model for COVID-19 research, using data from the new AHA COVID-19 Cardiovascular Disease Registry, found Hispanic and Black adults with COVID-19 were far more likely to be hospitalized than their white counterparts, as were people with obesity and COVID-19, according to three late-breaking research studies presented today at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions 2020.

17 Nov 2020