Obesity News and Research

Latest Obesity News and Research

Weight gain during menopause

Weight and appetite experts from around the world met at a conference in Bangkok earlier this year to discuss sex differences in obesity.

24 Nov 2008

Telephone counseling may be as effective as face-to-face counseling in weight loss maintenance

Face-to-face and telephone follow-up sessions appear to be more effective in the maintenance of weight loss for women from rural communities compared with weight loss education alone, according to a report in the November 24 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

24 Nov 2008

A potential new procedure for treating obesity

Lining the upper portion of the small intestine with an impermeable sleeve led to both weight loss and restoration of normal glucose metabolism in an animal model of obesity-induced diabetes.

24 Nov 2008

Obama's team presented with policy recommendations designed to combat obesity epidemic

President-elect Barack Obama's Health and Human Services Transition Team was presented with a series of nearly 50 legal and policy recommendations designed to combat the nation's obesity epidemic.

24 Nov 2008

Understanding lipid storage

Magazine articles describing ways to burn fat, lose weight, etc. are omnipresent in Western culture, but science's understanding of the way fat is stored in the cells of the human body is rather slimmer.

24 Nov 2008

Heart patients are often not treated in accordance with guidelines

Many patients with cardiovascular disease are not given adequate drug therapy.

21 Nov 2008

FDA approves tapentadol immediate-release tablets for pain in adults

Millions of Americans with moderate to severe acute pain and their health-care providers will soon have a new treatment option.

21 Nov 2008

Non-pharmacologic interventions for the control of osteoporosis and obesity

The Department of Biomedical Engineering at Stony Brook University received a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to investigate the biologic and physical mechanisms of very low-magnitude mechanical signals and how they strengthen bone and muscle.

20 Nov 2008

Self-weighing and weight control behaviors among adolescents with a history of overweight

Overweight teens who weigh themselves at least once a week are more likely to engage in other healthy weight control measures than teens who step on the scale less frequently, according to a new small study.

20 Nov 2008

Banning fast food ads on TV would reverse childhood obesity trends

A ban on fast food advertisements in the United States could reduce the number of overweight children by as much as 18 percent, according to a new study being published this month in the Journal of Law and Economics.

19 Nov 2008

Metabolex announces positive results from phase 2 trial of MBX-8025

The Phase 2 study was a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of MBX-8025, both alone and in combination with atorvastatin (marketed as Lipitor(R)), over an 8-week treatment period.

19 Nov 2008

Risk of maternal and newborn complications may be lower after bariatric surgery

A review of previously published studies suggests that rates of adverse outcomes for mothers or pregnant women and newborn babies, such as gestational diabetes and low birth weight, may be lower after bariatric surgery compared with pregnant women who are obese, according to an article in the November 19 issue of JAMA.

18 Nov 2008

Reduced-calories and exercise can modify a postmenopausal woman's risk of breast cancer

Scientists at the University of Texas at Austin have identified pathways by which a reduced-calorie diet and exercise can modify a postmenopausal woman's risk of breast cancer.

18 Nov 2008

Antibiotics can cause pervasive, persistant changes to microbiota in human gut

Using a novel technique developed by Mitchell Sogin of the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) to identify different types of bacteria, scientists have completed the most precise survey to date of how microbial communities in the human gut respond to antibiotic treatment.

18 Nov 2008

Why HIV treatment makes people more susceptible to metabolic complications

Clinicians have known for some time that people treated for HIV also become much more susceptible to diabetes and heart disease.

17 Nov 2008

Exercise after bariatric surgery can yield better postoperative outcomes

A new study by researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine suggests increased physical activity after bariatric surgery can yield better postoperative outcomes.

17 Nov 2008

Variations within three genes associated with lipid peroxidation could increase kidney cancer risk

A team of international scientists has identified three genes associated with the body's processing of fats that may increase susceptibility to kidney cancer.

17 Nov 2008

Behavioral risk factors influence cancer risk among the elderly

Behavioral risk factors have a significant effect on cancer risk in the U.S. elderly population, according to research presented at the American Association for Cancer Research's Seventh Annual International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research.

17 Nov 2008

Smoking linked to two forms of esophageal cancer and stomach cancer

Researchers who have been following the health of more than 120,000 residents of the Netherlands for more than two decades have found that smoking is associated with two forms of esophageal cancer as well as a form of stomach cancer, and that drinking alcohol is strongly linked to one form of esophageal cancer.

17 Nov 2008

Discovery of new mechanism that regulates formation of blood vessels

Researchers in one of the external groups of the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciencia (IGC), in Portugal, have discovered a novel mechanism which regulates the process whereby new blood vessels are formed and wounds heal, including chronic wounds, such as those found in diabetic patients and those suffering from morbid obesity.

17 Nov 2008