Obesity Costs U.S. $147 Billion a Year
Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD
Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News
Louise Chang, MD
July 27, 2009 – Obesity costs the U.S. health care system up to $147 billion a year: An extra $1,429 per year for each obese person.
It’s not obesity itself that costs so much. It’s the bad health that comes with it, says a new study.
“The medical costs attributable to obesity are almost entirely a result of costs generated from treating the diseases obesity promotes,” lead study author Eric A. Finkelstein, PhD, director of North Carolina’s RTI Public Health Economics Program, says in a news release.
Those diseases include heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, and stroke.
If nobody in the U.S. were obese, we’d spend 9% less on health care. But more than a third of us are obese — and another third of us are overweight.
That’s a scary statistic. …
Read the whole story on WebMD.
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Unhooking the Obesity-Diabetes Connection
Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNetBy Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter
Latest Diabetes News
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SUNDAY, July 26 (HealthDay News) — Scientists may be closer to solving a medical mystery with huge implications for personal and public health: Why obese people are prone to developing type 2 diabetes.A series of studies appearing online July 26 in Nature Medicine suggest that inflammation within the fat tissues of heavy individuals could trigger the blood sugar disease. What’s more, each of the four completely independent studies, from two continents and three countries, showed that interfering with these immune-cell processes actually reversed diabetes in mice. The long-term implications of the findings are enticing: perhaps one day a cure for type 2 diabetes, a condition that now plagues more than 23 million people in the United States alone. “This group of papers suggests that cellular immunity may regulate inflammation in fat,” said Dr. Vivian Fonseca, professor of medicine at Texas A&M Health Science Center College …
Read the whole story on Medicine Net.
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Young Black, Hispanic Women Tend to Develop ‘Love Handles’
Jul 23, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet
Latest Womens Health News
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TUESDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) — Black and Hispanic women in their 20s tend to accumulate more fat in their midsection than their male and older counterparts, possibly putting them at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes, new research suggests.The study, by researchers at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, N.C., found black and Hispanic young adults tended to pack on both visceral adipose tissue (VAT), the fat found in the abdominal cavity around internal organs, and subcutaneous abdominal tissue (SAT), the visible, pinchable fat known as “love …
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Butyric Acid Improves Fat-Burning Metabolism
Jul 18, 2009 Author: Susan | Filed under: Wellness Resources
Feeding mice butyric acid improved their ability to burn fat on a high fat diet. The butyric acid improved their muscle function, health of brown adipose tissue, and various gene signals involved with fatty acid metabolism. Butyric acid also prevented insulin resistance from happening in these over-fed mice.
This study was published in Diabetes, the journal of the American Diabetes Association. It is both humorous and informative. Humorous because there is no mention of the primary food in the American diet that contains butyric acid, i.e., butter. Informative because it lends more information to an ever-growing body of information that is telling us that your gut is intimately associated with your metabolism.
Butyric acid is made in large amounts in your lower colon when friendly flora (acidophilus) ferment fiber and produce …
Read the whole story on Wellness Resources.
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Dietary Oils May Help Some Fight Fat
Jul 18, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNetBy Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter
Latest Diet & Weight Management News
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THURSDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) — For certain people, dietary oil supplements could help ward off unwanted fat, according to a new study. Obese older women with type 2 diabetes who added safflower oil or conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) supplements to their diet either decreased their body mass index or boosted their muscle mass, researchers found.”I don’t think it’s a magic bullet, but I think it could have enhancing effects,” said the study’s lead author, Martha A. Belury, the Carol S. Kennedy professor of human nutrition at Ohio State University in Columbus. The study appeared online in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Belury, who received no funding from the supplement industry, compared the effects of the two oils in 55 obese, postmenopausal women with type 2 diabetes. Their average age was 60. Each woman tried both oils, one at a time, during two 16-week periods separated by a four-week period when they took neither oil. Participants took eight dietary oil capsules a day, two at each meal and another two at night, for a total of eight grams of added …
Read the whole story on Medicine Net.
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Whey Protein Enhances Fat Metabolism
Jul 17, 2009 Author: Susan | Filed under: Wellness Resources
A new study shows that whey protein, compared to fish, casein, and gluten proteins had a far superior ability to help reduce the amount of fat in the blood following a high fat meal.
The study was carried out in type II diabetic patients. It is now clearly understood that elevated triglycerides (what I call fat blobs) in the circulation following a meal is not only a sign of serious leptin resistance – it is a primary risk factor for impending cardiovascular disease.
The fact that whey protein can help clear such fat blobs out of the circulation means that it can offer cardiovascular protection to individuals with type II diabetes. It also means it is good for anyone trying to lose weight and is looking for a metabolically superior form of protein.
Read the whole story on Wellness Resources.
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Study Links a Protein With Diabetes Risk
Jul 17, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet
Latest Diabetes News
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Connection Seen Between Adiponectin and Risk of Developing Type 2 DiabetesBy
Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News
Reviewed By
Louise Chang, MD
July 7, 2009 — Higher levels of a protein made by fat cells is linked to a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
A new review of research shows people with higher levels of the protein adiponectin consistently have a lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Adiponectin is a protein produced by fat cells that has anti-inflammatory properties. It also makes the body more sensitive to insulin. Reduced insulin sensitivity is a key factor …
Read the whole story on Medicine Net.
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Health Tip: Understanding Pre-Diabetes
Jul 17, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet
Latest Diabetes News
- Medtronic Recalls Insulin Infusion Sets
- Electronic System Helps Track Diabetes Care
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- Study Links a Protein With Diabetes Risk
- Health Tip: Understanding Pre-Diabetes
- Want More News? Sign Up for MedicineNet Newsletters!
(HealthDay News) — Before some people develop full-blown diabetes, their blood sugar is above normal, but not high enough to qualify for a diagnosis of diabetes.This condition is called pre-diabetes, the American Diabetes Association says.Normally, a person’s blood sugar (glucose) is 100 mg/dl or below. When it rises to between 100 mg/dl and 125 mg/dl, a person has pre-diabetes. Once a blood test determines that blood sugar is 126 mg/dl or higher, diabetes is diagnosed, the ADA says.If you have pre-diabetes, you should discuss with your doctor making lifestyle changes including modest weight …
Read the whole story on Medicine Net.
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The Truth About Fat
Jul 17, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD
Kathleen Doheny
WebMD Feature
Louise Chang, MD
For most of us, body fat has a bad reputation. From the dimply stuff that plagues women’s thighs to the beer bellies that can pop out in middle-aged men, fat is typically something we agonize over, scorn, and try to exercise away.
But for scientists, fat is intriguing — and becoming more so every day. “Fat is one of the most fascinating organs out there,” says Aaron Cypess, MD, PhD, an instructor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a research associate at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. “We are only now beginning to understand fat.”
“Fat has more functions in the body than we thought,” agrees Rachel Whitmer, PhD, research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., who has studied the links between fat and brain health.
To get the skinny on fat, WebMD asked four experts on fat — who, not surprisingly, prefer …
Read the whole story on WebMD.
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Food Allergies: Types, Triggers, and Eating-Out Tips
Jul 17, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD
Kathleen M. Zelman, MPH, RD, LD
WebMD Feature
Louise Chang, MD
An estimated 12 million Americans suffer from food allergies. Dairy and wheat are just a few of the foods that can cause reactions and allergies in adults and children.
Food allergies and reactions can be confusing. Often, it’s not easy to figure out which foods contain ingredients that may trigger a reaction. Further, many people who think they are allergic to a food may actually be confusing a food reaction for an allergy — and may not need to eliminate certain foods.
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