Children and adolescents who are obese or overweight have higher health care utilization and a significantly higher average of health care charges than their healthy-weight peers, according to a report in the January issue of Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.
Scientists have long thought that limiting the calories a person consumes can prevent, or at least slow the progression of certain cancers. But research at UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) using mice suggests that body composition ? whether a person is lean or obese ? actually is key to reducing cancer risks.
A US study of low income families has found that Hispanic children are twice as likely to be obese as white or black children. The study is published in American Journal of Public Health.
The New York City trans fat ban is a step in the right direction, but the regulation that requires some restaurants to display calories as prominently as price is just as important. Also missing in the discussion? Replacing trans fat will saturated fat would be problematic.
A link between obesity and the microbial communities living in our guts is suggested by new research at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. The findings indicate that our gut microbes are biomarkers, mediators and potential therapeutic targets in the war against the worldwide obesity epidemic.
The WIC and Food Stamps programs do not cause obesity, yet those who have uneven access to food are often overweight/obese. With modifications, these federally-funded nutrition programs can not only continue to reduce nutrition-related health disparities but can also help to address obesity.
The first experiment ever to show low-fat diets could help prevent a return of breast cancer now reveals, with longer followup, that the benefit was almost exclusively to women whose tumour growth was not driven by hormones.
Researchers say Americans with high blood pressure are doing a better job of controlling their high blood pressure, hypertension. A new study shows that a third of U.S. adults with high blood pressure had good blood pressure control in 2003-2004. That’s up 8 percent from 1999-2000, the study shows. The study is published in the American Heart Association journal Hypertension.
In a study of more than 36,000 women, researchers observed that smokers can reduce their risk of developing lung cancer by being physically active. However, they strongly caution that any relative benefit is dwarfed by the benefits gained from quitting smoking.
“Low-fat” foods may not help in the fight against obesity. Cornell studies in movie theatres, holiday parties and homes show people eat an average of 28 percent more total calories when they think a food is low-fat. This is worse for obese people, who tend to eat up to 50 percent more.