Tag: obesity (Page 5 of 16)

Catch Your ZZZZ’s To Fight Off Fat Genes

May 1, 2012 / Staff

Getting a good night’s sleep may be more than just refreshing.

Obesity genes that respond to lifestyle stimuli when you are fatigued get turned off when you get adequate sleep.

Being well rested helps your efforts to make healthy choices have a real impact on your weight.

“The less you sleep, the more important genetic factors are to how much you weigh,” says lead author Nathaniel F. Watson, M.D., co-director of the University of Washington Medicine Sleep Center, in Seattle. “The longer you sleep, the greater the influence of environmental factors like meal composition and timing.”
Previous research has found that too little sleep is associated with a higher BMI, but many of those studies haven’t been able to entirely rule out the possibility that genes, or complicating factors such as sleep disorders, are partly responsible for the link.

Research, Wellness

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Putting An End To Obesity Trends Needs To Start In Childhood

April 13, 2012 / Staff

Kids are going to have to make serious calorie cuts to avoid obesity as they get older.

If current trends continue, childhood obesity will transition into adult obesity.

In setting the Healthy People 2020 goals, the feds were more pragmatic. They hope to reduce the childhood obesity rate by 10 percent of the 2005-2008 levels, to 14.6 percent of children and teens. Getting there would require kids to cut 23 calories a day, on average. Teens, who are more likely to be obese than young children, would have to cut more.

The good news is that obesity seems to be leveling off but even if the obesity epidemic has peaked, children are heavier than they have ever been in human history.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Research

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Diabetes Is An American Crisis

April 11, 2012 / Staff

Gastric bypass surgery may sound drastic but diabetes has become a serious health issue for millions of Americans.

The health care costs alone pose a threat the system not to mention the toll the disease takes on families and society at large.

Getting this epidemic under control should be a top priority, however, is life threatening surgery the answer?

Doctors, Health Care Policy, Health Insurance, Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

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Obesity In The U.S. Is Worse Than We Thought

April 3, 2012 / Staff

Health officials now believe that we have underestimated the rates in obesity in the U.S.

The BMI (Body Mass Index), commonly used to measure obesity, gives an incomplete picture of a person’s physical condition.

BMI, the researchers say, is an overly simplistic measure that often misrepresents physical fitness and overall health, especially among older women. Nearly 4 in 10 adults whose BMI places them in the overweight category would be considered obese if their body fat percentage were taken into account, according to the study.
“Some people call it the ‘baloney mass index,'” says lead author Eric Braverman, M.D., president of the Path Foundation, a nonprofit organization in New York City dedicated to brain research.
Bodybuilders can be classified as obese based on their BMI, he says, while “a 55-year-old woman who looks great in a dress could have very little muscle and mostly body fat, and a whole lot of health risks because of that — but still have a normal BMI.”

Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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More Reasons To Steer Clear Of BPAs

March 29, 2012 / Staff

BPA has been found to be linked to obesity.

Bisphenol A is toxic and dangerous and so pervasive that it shows up in the urine of 93% of Americans over the age of 6 years.

The ubiquitous abundance of this organic compound is found in everything from the lining of cans to water bottles and a myriad of plastic products used by consumers everyday.

Aside from obesity concerns of BPA contamination include cancers and autoimmune diseases.

“During the development of the fetus, BPA exposure alters the development of stem cells,” vom Saal, a professor at the University of Missouri, said. “Think of it as tripping a switch in the DNA. BPA turns out to be a major factor in the number of fat cells that a person will have later in life.”
Critics label BPA an “endocrine disruptor” that acts like synthetic estrogen and link it to a wide range of ailments, including cancer. But its scientific defenders — as well as regulatory agencies in the United States, Australia, the European Union, Japan, and New Zealand — say there is no evidence that the minuscule exposure that consumers receive poses a health risk.

Although FDA approved the agency now recognizes “reason for concern” for the affects on fetuses and children.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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