Slide Into Debt Could Bring Wider Waistline

Aug 8, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

Latest Diet & Weight Management News

Slide Into Debt Could Bring Wider Waistline
Ladies’ Night Out a Diet Wrecker
Scientists Find Way to Make ‘Good’ Brown Fat
Slim Risks From Weight Loss Surgery
More Can Be Done to Slow Obesity’s Toll on Health
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FRIDAY, Aug. 7 (HealthDay News) — Obesity rates may increase along with rising financial debt, German researchers suggest.In their study, Eva Munster and her colleagues at the University of Mainz tracked the weight of more than 9,000 people.They found that while 11% of those who were not in debt were classified as obese, a full quarter of those who were in debt met the medical criteria for obesity.Writing in the early online edition of BMC Public Health, the researchers say they took into account the income of the participants, and the link between debt and obesity “was …
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Freshman 15: College Weight Gain Is Real

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD

1 in 4 College Freshmen Gain About 10 Pounds in First Semester

By
Jennifer Warner
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by
Louise Chang, MD

July 28, 2009 — Students headed off to college this fall beware: The infamous freshman 15 is for real.

A new study shows that nearly one in four freshmen gain at least 5% of their body weight, an average of about 10 pounds, during their first semester.
“Almost one quarter of students gained a significant amount of weight during their first semester of college,” researchers Heidi J. Wengreen and Cara Moncur of the department of nutrition and food sciences at Utah State University in Logan write in Nutrition Journal.
“This study provides further evidence that the transition to college life is a critical period of risk for weight gain, and college freshmen are an important target population for obesity prevention strategies.”

College Weight Gain Common

Although other studies have documented the phenomenon of the freshman 15 weight gain, researchers say few have examined the changes …
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Obesity Costs U.S. $147 Billion a Year

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: WebMD

Study: Annual Care Costs $1,429 More for Each Obese American

By
Daniel J. DeNoon
WebMD Health News

Reviewed by
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. …
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Unhooking the Obesity-Diabetes Connection

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

By Amanda Gardner
HealthDay Reporter

Latest Diabetes News

Unhooking the Obesity-Diabetes Connection
Cellular Protein Yields Clues to Diabetes
Cell Discovery May Bring Diabetes Cure
Medtronic Recalls Insulin Infusion Sets
Electronic System Helps Track Diabetes Care
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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 …
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Is Child Obesity Child Abuse?

Jul 28, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: Diet-Blog

Discussion forums and newswires have recently sparked a debate which asks this very question. A South Carolina mother has been charged with criminal neglect after authorities learned of her 14 year old son weighing 555 lbs.

Is deliberately feeding your child in a manner that will eventually cause health deterioration and obesity neglectful? Abusive? Or, is it simply less-than desirable choices and part and parcel of our super-sized society? There are many factors and grey zones in this debate. Let’s discuss!

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Overweight Postmenopausal Women are Low in Vitamin D

Jul 27, 2009 Author: Susan | Filed under: Wellness Resources

Vitamin D is emerging as an important metabolic nutrient, having a definite role in the health of stored fat – although that role has not yet been clearly defined. Nevertheless, a new study using x-ray absorptiometry measurements of total body and regional fat mass in overweight postmenopausal women without osteoporosis found that fat mass significantly increased as vitamin D levels declined.

At this point scientists haven’t figured out if it is the extra fat that is somehow lowering vitamin D or low vitamin D that is setting the stage for easier weight gain. This chicken and egg question for most people is a moot point, since just about everyone who is overweight tends to gain more weight in the winter when the risk for low vitamin D is greatest.

Supplemental vitamin D should be in the range of 1200 IU to 2000 IU for a variety of …
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Obesity Holds Steady for Poor Preschoolers

Jul 25, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

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Obesity and Inactivity Costs California $41 Billion

Jul 25, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: Diet-Blog

He sent the T-1000 to a molten grave, he killed a terrorising predator, he took down the snake cult, and he dealt with having made “Jingle all the Way”.

But, the “Governator” now faces a truly insurmountable foe in the lifestyle of Californians, who are burdening businesses and taxpayers to the tune of $41 Billion.

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Weight-Loss Enzyme Identified

Jul 23, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

Latest Diet & Weight Management News

In New York City, Trans Fat Ban Is Working
Probiotics May Help After Gastric Bypass Surgery
Dietary Oils May Help Some Fight Fat
Blacks Have Highest Obesity Rates in U.S.
Life’s Stress May Lead to Weight Gain
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TUESDAY, July 21 (HealthDay News) — Reducing levels of a brain enzyme may curb appetite and boost energy, thereby helping people to control their weight, says a new study. Prolylcarboxypeptidase (PRCP) regulates the alpha-melanocyte stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH), a body chemical that reduces hunger while revving up the body’s energy levels. If PRCP enzyme is blocked, alpha-MSH levels stay high and keep appetite in check. When researchers at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Conn., blocked PRCP in mice, the rodents lost weight, maintained their energy levels and reduced …
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In New York City, Trans Fat Ban Is Working

Jul 22, 2009 Author: Mary | Filed under: MedicineNet

By Kathleen Doheny
HealthDay Reporter

Latest Diet & Weight Management News

Probiotics May Help After Gastric Bypass Surgery
Dietary Oils May Help Some Fight Fat
Blacks Have Highest Obesity Rates in U.S.
Life’s Stress May Lead to Weight Gain
TV Ads Trigger Mindless Eating
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MONDAY, July 20 (HealthDay News) — When the New York City Health Department mandated that city restaurants change their menus to restrict trans fats, known to be a health hazard, the action was greeted with resistance and grumbling.”There were the usual ‘nanny state’ comments,” said Dr. Lynn Silver, assistant commissioner of the department’s Bureau of Chronic Disease Prevention and Control.Initially, the campaign was voluntary, Silver said. “But after one year, there was no change,” she said, so public health officials decided to make the ban mandatory.In December 2006, the city required that artificial trans fats be phased out of restaurant food, and the mandate was in full effect by November 2008. Silver and colleagues from the city’s Department of Health and Mental Hygiene report on the effort in the July 21 issue of Annals of Internal Medicine.And they deem it a success. Total saturated fat and trans fat in French fries, for instance, decreased by more than 50% in New York City restaurants, according to the report. Overall, the health officials found, the use of trans fats for frying, baking or cooking and in spreads declined from 50% to less …
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