Obesity News and Research

Latest Obesity News and Research

Physical and mental health improves on moving to lower-poverty neighborhood

Moving from a high-poverty to lower-poverty neighborhood spurs long-term gains in the physical and mental health of low-income adults, as well as a substantial increase in their happiness, despite not improving economic self-sufficiency, according to a new study published in the Sept. 20 issue of Science by researchers at the University of Chicago and partners at other institutions.

21 Sep 2012

Obese, but metabolically healthy

A person can be obese and metabolically healthy at the same time, which means that this person will have the same mortality risk for heart disease or cancer that people of normal weight.

21 Sep 2012

First Edition: September 21, 2012

Today's headlines include reports about recent polling results indicating that, despite GOP presidential hopeful Mitt Romney's efforts to frame the Medicare debate, President Barack Obama still has the advantage on this issue.

21 Sep 2012

Location of fat determines diabetes risk in obesity

New tools are needed to discriminate risk for prediabetes and diabetes among obese individuals, suggest findings from a US study.

21 Sep 2012

Cancer fears allayed for shingles patients

Herpes zoster infection, or shingles, is not associated with cancer, show results from a study published in the Canadian Journal of Medicine

21 Sep 2012

Children with mild to moderate kidney disease have carotid atherosclerosis

A federally funded study led by researchers at Johns Hopkins Children's Center has found that children with mild to moderate kidney disease have abnormally thick neck arteries, a condition known as carotid atherosclerosis, usually seen in older adults with a long history of elevated cholesterol and untreated hypertension.

21 Sep 2012

Glucocorticoids can thwart androgen receptor activity and regulate fat storage

In the body's ongoing effort to maintain a healthy weight, an arsenal of cellular proteins called androgen receptors is critical for blocking fat accumulation. Now researchers reporting in the September issue of the Cell Press Journal Chemistry & Biology have discovered that naturally occurring steroids called glucocorticoids can thwart the receptors' activity, ultimately encouraging fat buildup.

21 Sep 2012

Itrim programme effectively reduces weight among obese people

Anyone who wants to lose weight has a wide variety of diets to choose from, but knowledge of what works is often poor. Researchers at Karolinska Institutet and Uppsala University have now evaluated a Swedish commercial weight loss programme called Itrim, and found it to be effective. After one year, participants had lost 11 kg on average.

21 Sep 2012

Researchers use nanoparticles to deliver drugs to mitochondria within cells

Nanoparticles have shown great promise in the targeted delivery of drugs to cells, but researchers at the University of Georgia have refined the drug delivery process further by using nanoparticles to deliver drugs to a specific organelle within cells.

21 Sep 2012

MiR-34a plays a key role in obesity

Scientists have identified a key molecular player in a chain of events in the body that can lead to fatty liver disease, Type II diabetes and other metabolic abnormalities associated with obesity. By blocking this molecule, the researchers were able to reverse some of the pathology it caused in obese mice.

21 Sep 2012

High uric acid precursor of obesity, metabolic syndrome

The relationship between uric acid and early cardiometabolic risk may precede obesity and the metabolic syndrome, show study findings.

20 Sep 2012

Bisphenol A may contribute to childhood obesity

Research published in JAMA demonstrates strong evidence of a link between childhood obesity and bisphenol A exposure.

20 Sep 2012

Stress may play a major role in obesity epidemic and contribute to racial disparities

Could the impact of chronic stress explain why American black girls are more likely to be overweight than white girls? According to Dr. Tomiyama of the University of California, Los Angeles in the U.S., and her colleagues, higher levels of stress over 10 years predict greater increases in body weight over time in both black and white girls.

20 Sep 2012

Views on obesity: Difficulty changing eating habits; Huge changes in the food marketplace

The New York Times and the Journal of the American Medical Association offer opinions on the U.S. battle against obesity.

20 Sep 2012

Report: Obesity rates will continue to grow, causing increases in health care costs, disease incidence

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Trust for America's Health concluded that, based on current trends, most Americans could be obese by 2030.

20 Sep 2012

Hip implants are more likely to fail in obese people due to thigh size

University of Iowa researchers have determined that thigh size in obese people is a reason their hip implants are more likely to fail.

20 Sep 2012

Therapeutic video games can show health-related benefits

Can video games help patients with cancer, diabetes, asthma, depression, autism and Parkinson's disease? A new publication by researchers from the University of Utah, appearing in the Sept 19 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, indicates video games can be therapeutic and are already beginning to show health-related benefits.

20 Sep 2012

New 24/7 Cardiologist program now available at ProMedica Toledo Hospital

ProMedica Toledo Hospital is the only hospital in northwest Ohio with a cardiologist on duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to treat patients who may be experiencing a heart attack.

20 Sep 2012

Obese adults with excess visceral fat, biomarkers of insulin resistance more likely to develop diabetes

Obese adults with excess visceral fat (fat located inside the abdominal cavity, around the body's internal organs) and biomarkers of insulin resistance had an associated increased risk for the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus, while obese individuals with higher amounts of total body fat and subcutaneous fat (underneath the skin) did not have this increased risk, according to a study in the September 19 issue of JAMA, and theme issue on obesity.

20 Sep 2012

Study examines association of Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery with weight loss, diabetes mellitus

Severely obese patients who had Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery had significant weight loss that was sustained for an average of 6 years after the surgery and also experienced frequent remission and lower incidence of diabetes, hypertension, and abnormal cholesterol levels, compared to participants who did not have the surgery, according to a study in the September 19 issue of JAMA, and theme issue on obesity.

20 Sep 2012