Obesity in Biological News

Research shows rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled

WINSTON-SALEM Rates of severe childhood obesity have tripled in the last 25 years, putting many children at risk for diabetes and heart disease, according to a report in Academic Pediatrics by an obesity expert at Brenner Children's Hospital, part of Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Cente...

Common allergy drug reduces obesity and diabetes in mice

BOSTON, Mass. (July 26, 2009) Crack open the latest medical textbook to the chapter on type 2, or adult-onset, diabetes, and you'll be hard pressed to find the term "immunology" anywhere. This is because metabolic conditions and immunologic conditions are, with a few exceptions, distant cousins. ...

Forsyth scientists suggest linkages between obesity and oral bacterial infection

A scientific team from The Forsyth Institute has discovered new links between certain oral bacteria and obesity. In a recent study, the researchers demonstrated that the salivary bacterial composition of overweight women differs from non-overweight women. This preliminary work may provide clues to...

The battle for CRTC2: How obesity increases the risk for diabetes

La Jolla, CAObesity is probably the most important factor in the development of insulin resistance, but science's understanding of the chain of events is still spotty. Now, researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have filled in the gap and identified the missing link between the t...

New guidelines to fight obesity in pregnancy issued

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. MAY 28, 2009 -- Starting pregnancy at a healthy weight and gaining the right amount during pregnancy is critical to giving a baby a healthy start in life, the March of Dimes said today in response to new guidelines from the Institute of Medicine (IOM). The Institute of Medic...

Drinking 100 percent fruit juice is associated with lower risk of obesity and metabolic syndrome

New Orleans (April 22, 2009) If you enjoy a glass of 100% juice as part of your daily routine, chances are you also have fewer risk factors for several chronic diseases when compared to your non juice-drinking peers. New research presented today at the Experimental Biology (EB) 2009 meeting highl...

Nutrition experts propose new class of low-sugar drinks to help stem obesity and diabetes epidemics

Boston, MA -- Strong evidence developed at Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and elsewhere shows that sugary drinks are an important contributor to the epidemic rise of obesity and type 2 diabetes in the United States. Faced with these growing public health threats, experts from the Departmen...

Exposure to insecticide may play role in obesity epidemic among some women

EAST LANSING, Mich. Prenatal exposure to an insecticide commonly used up until the 1970s may play a role in the obesity epidemic in women, according to a new study involving several Michigan State University researchers. More than 250 mothers who live along and eat fish from Lake Michigan were...

Texas Obesity Research Center at UH assembles researchers to discuss obesity

Researchers from across the country will convene on the University of Houston for a two-day conference to discuss obesity, underlying biological processes, public health issues and intervention strategies. The UH Texas Obesity Research Center (TORC) Conference is planned for April 9 10 at the...

Fighting obesity and illness with a novel approach to nutrition

The syndrome's principal clinical manifestations are abdominal obesity and high levels of a type of blood fat called triglycerides which are a strong predictor for a person's risk for stroke. The potential complications are serious: hardening of the arteries, an increased risk of cardiovascular di...

New infant feeding and obesity research adds insight to ongoing issue

ATLANTA (January 16, 2009) The February edition of the Journal of Nutrition offers new insights into possible associations between infant feeding and health outcomes related to obesity. According to David Barker, M.D., Ph.D., professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Southampton,...

Obesity starts in the head? 6 newly discovered genes for obesity have a neural effect

The international GIANT (Genetic Investigation of Anthropometric Parameters) consortium works on the discovery of obesity genes. So far, the scientists have analyzed two million DNA variations in 15 genome-wide association studies with a total of more than 32,000 participants. The hereby identifie...

Physical activity may not be key to obesity epidemic

MAYWOOD, Ill. -- A recent international study fails to support the common belief that the number of calories burned in physical activity is a key factor in rising rates of obesity. Researchers from Loyola University Health System and other centers compared African American women in metropolitan...

Key to 'curing' obesity may lie in worms that destroy their own fat: McGill researchers

This release is available in French . A previously unknown mutation discovered in a common roundworm holds the promise of new treatments for obesity in humans, McGill University researchers say. Their study was published Dec. 3 in the journal Nature , and was funded by the Canadian Cance...

Children's National convenes first childhood obesity symposium

WASHINGTON, DCOn Tuesday, November 25, 2008, the Obesity Institute at Children's National Medical Center gathered experts from many disciplines to share ideas, failures and successes, and the future promise of prevention and intervention strategies to fight childhood obesity, both in the Distric...

Adiponectin is a metabolic link between obesity and bone mineral density

Researchers at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, Canada, have discovered that adiponectin, a protein secreted from adipocytes, is a metabolic link that can explain, in part, the known positive relationship between obesity and both bone mineral density and reduced susceptibil...

15-state Southern obesity summit to focus on deadly epidemic

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. With Thanksgiving and end-of-the-year holidays coming soon, many Americans will eat, drink and get heavier. It is a challenging season for those working to control and reverse our nation's obesity epidemic. Luckily this is an opportune time to remind everyone of the problem an...

A new weapon in the fight against obesity and diabetes

This press release is available in French . A study appearing November 5 in the journal Cell Metabolism demonstrates that a synthetic new chemical entity protects against diet-induced obesity, improves glucose tolerance and insulin sensitivity and enhances exercise endurance by enhancing ...

'Color My Pyramid' nutrition education program battles obesity in DC schools

FAIRFAX, Va. An online game might be the secret weapon for winning the war against childhood obesity. Researchers at George Mason University have designed and tested a nutrition education program called "Color My Pyramid" to teach students how to evaluate their dietary intake and activity level. ...

Scientists discover why a mother's high-fat diet contributes to obesity in her children

New research published online in The FASEB Journal ( http://www.fasebj.org ) suggests that pregnant women should think twice about high-fat foods. In a study from the University of Cincinnati and the Medical College of Georgia, scientists found that female mice fed high fat diets were more likel...

2 years old -- a childhood obesity tipping point?

Over the last decade, childhood obesity has grown into an epidemic, reflected in soaring rates of type 2 diabetes and recommendations that pediatricians check toddlers for elevated cholesterol. What hasn't been as clear is how early to intervene. A study presented at a pediatric research pro...

Body image program reduces onset of obesity and eating disorders

In their research on eating disorders, Oregon Research Institute (ORI) scientists help young women reduce the influence of the thin ideal, which is described as associating success and happiness with being thin. ORI scientist Eric Stice, Ph.D. and his colleagues have found that their obesity p...

Queen's study connects obesity with nervous system

KINGSTON, ON A discovery by Queens biologists and their students sheds new light on the genetic roots of obesity a condition that is increasing dramatically in North America and has been linked to heart disease, diabetes and some forms of cancer. The new findings may also help to unlock the m...

Mom's obesity during conception phase may set the stage for offspring's obesity risk

BETHESDA, MD -- The number of overweight and obese Americans continues to grow rapidly. Today, 50 percent of adults are overweight and up to 20 percent are obese. While the number of overweight/obese children is at an all time high, the steady increase of overweight infants -- individuals under 11...

Human hormone blocker found to help prevent obesity and diabetes: study

BETHESDA, MD - A new study finds that a chemical found in the body is capable of promoting weight loss, improving insulin resistance and reversing diabetes in an animal model. The hormone is gastric inhibitory polypeptide (GIP) receptor blockade. Background GIP is a peptide hormone that is...

Overeating and obesity triggered by lack of BDNF

BOSTON (December 27, 2007) According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, close to one-third of the population in the United States is obese and another third is overweight. Excessive weight gain is elicited by alterations in energy balance, the finely modulated equilibrium between c...

BMI criteria for obesity surgery should be lowered, UT Southwestern researcher suggests

DALLAS Dec. 18, 2007 UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have found that the existing body mass index criteria for obesity surgery often excludes a group of obese patients at risk of cardiovascular disease. The study, appearing in the December issue of the journal Surgery for Obesity...

Childhood obesity indicates greater risk of school absenteeism, Penn study reveals

In the first study of how weight may affect school attendance, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania and Temple University have found that overweight children are at greater risk of school absenteeism than their normal-weight peers. The study of more than a thousand 4th, 5th and 6th grade...

Researchers engineer metabolic pathway in mice to prevent diet-induced obesity

In recent years, obesity has taken on epidemic proportions in developed nations, contributing significantly to major medical problems, early death and rising health care costs. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates, at least a quarter of all American adults and more tha...

Researcher garners major award from NIH for further exploration into the mechanisms of obesity

ATLANTA Timothy J. Bartness, Regents' Professor of Biology at Georgia State University, has received a multi-million dollar award from the National Institutes of Health to further research into the biological mechanisms of obesity. The prestigious Method to Extend Research in Time (MERIT) awar...

Study finds link between individual stress and adolescent obesity

AMES, Iowa -- Stress may indeed be a direct contributor to childhood obesity. That's according to a new Iowa State University study finding that increased levels of stress in adolescents are associated with a greater likelihood of them being overweight or obese. The study of 1,011 adolescents (...

Cold and brown fat raise the prospect of a new method of treating obesity

Sven Enerbck, Professor at the Institute of Biomedicine at the Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Gothenburg, Sweden, is one of the scientists who published their results in The New England Journal of Medicine this week. Studies carried out by Enerbck and others show that adults use brown fat to...

Findings show insulin -- not genes -- linked to obesity

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - Researchers have uncovered new evidence suggesting factors other than genes could cause obesity, finding that genetically identical cells store widely differing amounts of fat depending on subtle variations in how cells process insulin. Learning the precise mechanism resp...

Differences in neighborhood food environment may contribute to disparities in obesity

March 19, 2009 Researchers at Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health examined the association of neighborhood food environments and "walkability" with body mass index (BMI) and obesity in New York City and found that a higher density of BMI-healthy food outlets is associated with a l...

Control of blood vessels a possible weapon against obesity

[PRESS RELEASE, 7 January 2009] Mice exposed to low temperatures develop more blood vessels in their adipose tissue and metabolise body fat more quickly, according to a new study from Karolinska Institutet. Scientists now hope to learn how to control blood vessel development in humans in order to ...

Persistent pollutant may promote obesity

Tributyltin, a ubiquitous pollutant that has a potent effect on gene activity, could be promoting obesity, according to an article in the December issue of BioScience . The chemical is used in antifouling paints for boats, as a wood and textile preservative, and as a pesticide on high-value food ...

UNC study: Text messaging may help children fight off obesity

CHAPEL HILL Many children love sending and receiving text messages through their cell phones sometimes to the great annoyance of their parents. But now a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests this technology could be used to reduce children's chances of becom...

Scientists from Granada find a potential treatment to prevent diabetes and obesity

This press release is available in French and Spanish . A molecule called interleukin-6 has opened new doors for the creation of new drugs against obesity and diabetes. These are the conclusions of an international project which has had the participation of researchers from Vitagenes , a...

Making metabolism more inefficient can reduce obesity

In a discovery that counters prevailing thought, a study in mice has found that inactivating a pair of key genes involved in "fat-burning" can actually increase energy expenditure and help lower diet-induced obesity. These unusual findings, appearing this week in the JBC, might lead to some new ...

UNC researchers find MSG use linked to obesity

CHAPEL HILL People who use monosodium glutamate, or MSG, as a flavor enhancer in their food are more likely than people who don't use it to be overweight or obese even though they have the same amount of physical activity and total calorie intake, according to a University of North Carolina at Ch...