Obesity News and Research

Latest Obesity News and Research

Medicaid budget challenges continue to plague states, threaten safety net

States across the country continue to face challenges related to their Medicaid budgets and their abilities to provide care to a growing population of poor and disabled people.

15 Dec 2010

Study links large waistline to increased risk of heart problems and type 2 diabetes

Researchers at Eastern Virginia Medical School’s Strelitz Diabetes Center and the school’s department of physiological sciences have published research showing a strong link between a large waistline and increased risk of Type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.

14 Dec 2010

Poverty and obesity links

According to U.S. government researchers in a new report, women who are poor are much more likely to be obese but men are not. They revealed this Tuesday that where income does not greatly affect whether a man is obese, education affects both sexes. The team at the National Center for Health Statistics writes, “Among men, obesity prevalence is generally similar at all income levels, with a tendency to be slightly higher at higher income levels.”

14 Dec 2010

Health report card for NSW

The latest report on NSW health shows that it is better than most in heart disease and cancer statistics. However 60% of the state are overweight or obese says the report and 70% of the NSW adults say they have been diagnosed with long-term illnesses.

14 Dec 2010

60% of Americans concerned about negative health impact of beverages

A recent BeveragePulse.com study by Concept Catalysts and iModerate Research Technologies, found that 60% of Americans are concerned about the negative health impact of the beverages they drink and the majority of them will be drinking healthier beverages in the next 12 months. The study also shows that health concerns are the primary driver of recent changes in what consumers buy and drink and will remain the main driver of change for some time to come. Currently, 74% of Americans do not think that beverage companies are concerned about their health.

14 Dec 2010

VIVUS submits briefing document to FDA in effort to secure regulatory approval for QNEXA

VIVUS, Inc. today announced that the company, as part of its continuing effort to secure regulatory approval for QNEXA® in the U.S., submitted a briefing document to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) designed to address items in the FDA's Complete Response Letter (CRL), issued on October 28, 2010. The company also announced that the Endocrine and Metabolic Division of the FDA has granted VIVUS a meeting in the second half of January 2011 to discuss the content of the proposed resubmission.

14 Dec 2010

We live longer, but not healthier

Increased life expectancy in the United States has not been accompanied by more years of perfect health, reveals new research published in the December issue of the Journal of Gerontology.

14 Dec 2010

Pelosi releases statement on Obama's signing of Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act

Speaker Nancy Pelosi released the following statement today after she attended a ceremony this morning where President Obama signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. This bipartisan legislation will improve the quality of meals students eat at school, increase the number of healthy meals available to needy children, and provide the first real boost in the federal reimbursement rate for school lunches in more than 30 years.

14 Dec 2010

Early school entry lowers risk of obesity among adolescent girls

Effective strategies to fight the epidemic of childhood and adolescent obesity — one-third of kids under 20 weigh more than they should — have been elusive. A new study suggests a simple step that might help cut the problem down to size: start school sooner.

14 Dec 2010

FDA to review Lantheus' DEFINITY sNDA for use in stress echocardiography

Lantheus Medical Imaging, Inc., a worldwide leader in diagnostic medical imaging, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted for review the company's supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for DEFINITY® (Perflutren Lipid Microsphere) Injectable Suspension for use in stress echocardiography.

14 Dec 2010

Soda taxes – would they do any good?

According to new research from Duke-National University of Singapore (NUS) Graduate Medical School imposing higher taxes on sodas and other sweetened drinks would lead to only minimal weight loss among most people and would have no effect on weight among consumers in the highest and lowest income groups.

13 Dec 2010

Fat or obese – What’s in a name?

The question of whether the term ‘fat’ is more appropriate than ‘obese’ was raised in an Australian study that confirmed the former is the “lesser of two evils”. The study from University of NSW study which looked at public perceptions surrounding these words has found that, while both are unwelcome, obese was viewed more negatively.

13 Dec 2010

New positive data on Generex Oral-lyn published in Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism

Generex Biotechnology Corporation announced today that the peer-reviewed scientific journal Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism has published new positive data in respect of Generex Oral-lyn™, the Company's proprietary buccal insulin spray product.

13 Dec 2010

Researchers conduct trial to study obesity-related respiratory limitations on weight loss

Tamara Ritchie lost 25 pounds in 12 weeks without breaking a sweat. She was just following doctors' orders.

13 Dec 2010

Research programs embody the promise of anti-aging medicine.

Sometimes the value of research lies as much in exposing false remedies as in discovering true breakthroughs. Scientists at the country's first school of gerontology and in laboratories around the University of Southern California do both, mindful of their responsibility to a society focused on healthful aging.

13 Dec 2010

Gift cards from fast food joints cause outrage among health experts

As Australia battles with the obesity epidemic, fast food outlet KFC has raised eyebrows from health quarters by offering Christmas gift cards worth up to $500. A survey of fast-food outlets in Hobart’s CBD yesterday revealed gift vouchers were available at McDonald’s, KFC and Subway.

12 Dec 2010

OpEds: Palin on the Ryan Roadmap, Seniors and primary care docs, Arizona transplant controversy

[The president's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform's report] implicitly endorses the use of 'death panel'-like rationing by way of the new Independent Payments Advisory Board—making bureaucrats, not medical professionals, the ultimate arbiters of what types of treatment will (and especially will not) be reimbursed under Medicare.

10 Dec 2010

Depression treatment may help obese women to lose weight

The new study, which appears in the November/December issue of the journal General Hospital Psychiatry, cites past surveys that show having a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more — classified as obese — increases a person's risk of depression by 50 percent to 150 percent.

10 Dec 2010

Obesity is associated with worse outcomes in patients with ER-positive/HER2-negative disease

Obesity was associated with worse overall and disease-free survival in women with operable breast cancer treated with adjuvant chemotherapy, but for the first time, researchers observed this finding in only a specific subset of patients - those with estrogen receptor (ER)-positive/HER2-negative disease.

10 Dec 2010

PharmaDirections congratulates Orexigen on FDA Advisory approval for Contrave

PharmaDirections congratulates Orexigen Therapeutics on achieving FDA Advisory Board approval for their anti-obesity drug Contrave™. PharmaDirections is proud to have been Orexigen's pharmaceutical development partner and to have developed and produced the first Contrave™ product to undergo full clinical development.

10 Dec 2010