Obesity News and Research

Latest Obesity News and Research

Obesity gene mutation identified in mice

A new study has found why a mutation in a particular gene can lead to obesity. Mouse experiments suggested the body's message to “stop eating” was blocked if the animals had the mutation. The study, published in Nature Medicine, said the brain's response to appetite hormones was being disrupted.

20 Mar 2012

PROLOR commences hGH-CTP Phase II trial in children with GHD

PROLOR Biotech, Inc., a company developing next generation biobetter therapeutic proteins, today announced initiation of a Phase II clinical trial of its long-acting CTP-modified version of human growth hormone (hGH-CTP) in children with growth hormone deficiency.

20 Mar 2012

Hedgehog and mTOR pathway are active in esophageal cancer

Identification of a non-traditional pathway for spiriting a cancer-promoting protein into the cell nucleus points to a possible combination therapy for esophageal cancer and indicates a mechanism of resistance for new drugs that attack the Hedgehog pathway.

20 Mar 2012

Circadian rhythms control production of metabolites

By analyzing the hundreds of metabolic products present in the liver, researchers with the UC Irvine Center for Epigenetics & Metabolism have discovered that circadian rhythms - our own body clock - greatly control the production of such key building blocks as amino acids, carbohydrates and lipids.

20 Mar 2012

Health must be taken into account in climate change mitigation strategies

Health must be taken into account in climate change mitigation strategies. It is not widely appreciated that there are many benefits to health that are likely to accrue from a low carbon economy, say experts in a special supplement published on bmj.com today.

20 Mar 2012

Highmark Healthy High 5 initiative benefits Pennsylvania children

The Highmark Foundation today announced that Highmark Healthy High 5, a five-year $100 million initiative, successfully influenced change regarding children's health issues in the 49-county region Highmark serves across Pennsylvania.

19 Mar 2012

NIH awards Avaxia $1.5M Phase II SBIR grant to develop antibody therapeutic for IBD

Avaxia Biologics, Inc., a privately-held biotech company using its proprietary platform technology to develop orally-active antibody therapeutics for the treatment of gastrointestinal diseases, is proud to announce that it has received a second round of funding from the National Institutes of Health for its work in inflammatory bowel disease.

19 Mar 2012

Software tool accurately estimates risk of heart disease

University of Granada researchers have developed a software tool that makes an accurate estimation of the risk that a person has to suffer a heart disease. In addition, this software tool allows the performance of massive risk estimations, i.e. it helps estimating the risk that a specific population group has of suffering a heart condition. The researchers employed a sample including 3 000 patients.

19 Mar 2012

New software tool can accurately estimate risk of heart disease

19 Mar 2012

EU-funded 'afresh'-project looks at food and physical activity

Food and physical activity are looked at together in the EU-funded "afresh"-project. Eight regional clusters - strong in food and/or health - currently are setting up their joint future agenda aiming at the prevention of diet-and activity related deseases like obesity, diabetes, cardiovasculaire deseases, osteoporose, etc.

19 Mar 2012

Study reveals how Bdnf gene mutation contributes to severe obesity

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center have revealed how a mutation in a single gene is responsible for the inability of neurons to effectively pass along appetite suppressing signals from the body to the right place in the brain. What results is obesity caused by a voracious appetite.

19 Mar 2012

Sexually rejected male fruit flies binge on alcohol more than sexually satisfied peers: Study

Male fruit flies whose sexual advances are rejected by females, turn to alcohol finds a new study. Scientists at the University of California, San Francisco discovered that rejected male flies have a tiny molecule in their brain that pushes them to drink far more than their sexually satisfied counterparts. The levels of the molecule, neuropeptide F, were higher in sexually satisfied males than in those who got no sex, leading scientists to speculate that their work could shed light on brain mechanisms behind human addiction. A similar human molecule - neuropeptide Y - may also link social triggers to behaviors such as heavy drinking and drug abuse, according to the study published in Science journal.

18 Mar 2012

SBMT announces 2012 recipients of Pioneers in Medicine, Technology and Healthcare Policy Awards

Today, the Society for Brain Mapping & Therapeutics announced the 2012 recipients of the organization's prestigious Pioneers in Medicine, Technology, and Healthcare Policy Awards.

17 Mar 2012

Obesity appears to increase risk of mortality tied to sleeping pills

Obesity appears to significantly increase the risk of death tied to sleeping pills, nearly doubling the rate of mortality even among those prescribed 18 or fewer pills in a year, researchers reported Friday.

17 Mar 2012

Food-insecure mothers more likely to develop obesity

Mothers who financially struggle to provide food for their families tend to put themselves at risk for obesity while trying to feed their children, according to Penn State sociologists.

16 Mar 2012

Neuropeptide F in the fly's brain governs behavior linked with addiction

Sexually deprived male fruit flies exhibit a pattern of behavior that seems ripped from the pages of a sad-sack Raymond Carver story: when female fruit flies reject their sexual advances, the males are driven to excessive alcohol consumption, drinking far more than comparable, sexually satisfied male flies.

16 Mar 2012

Deadly link between higher BMI and colorectal cancer

The American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) and the Campaign to End Obesity (CEO) are joining forces to highlight the potentially deadly link between higher Body Mass Index (BMI) and colorectal cancer.

16 Mar 2012

Sleep less, eat more – Recipe for weight gain

Scientists at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., studied a group of 17 healthy volunteers between the ages 18 and 40 for a week in their homes, monitoring how much each of the typically slept and ate.

15 Mar 2012

Lose weight to help your child lose weight

A study by researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and The University of Minnesota indicates that a parent's weight change is a key contributor to the success of a child's weight loss in family-based treatment of childhood obesity. The results were published today in the advanced online edition of the journal Obesity.

15 Mar 2012

Scientists report about a brain circuit that mediates loss of appetite

The meal is pushed way, untouched. Loss of appetite can be a fleeting queasiness or continue to the point of emaciation. While it's felt in the gut, more is going on inside the head. New findings are emerging about brain and body messaging pathways that lead to loss of appetite, and the systems in place to avoid starvation.

15 Mar 2012