_ ObesityHope for the Overweight & Diabetics By Sondra Forsyth articleResearchers in Germany and at Harvard have succeeded in distinguishing the various types of fat cells in the body on the basis of their surface proteins. This discovery is raising hope for a new method to treat those suffering from obesity and diabetes. The team was headed by Dr. Siegfried Ussar from the Institute for Diabetes and Obesity (IDO) at the Helmholtz Diabetes Center/ Helmholtz Zentrum München, partner of the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), and Professor C. Ronald Kahn from the Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard Medical School.
_ ObesityToward New TX for Obesity & Diabetes By Sondra Forsyth articleResearch done at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center could lead to new therapies to treat obesity and diabetes. The team found that a protein that controls when genes are switched on or off plays a key role in specific areas of the brain to regulate metabolism. The transcription factor involved – spliced X-box binding protein 1 (Xbp1s) – appears to influence the body's sensitivity to insulin and leptin signaling.
_ Estrogen May Affect Male Obesity By Jane Farrell articleAn imbalance of female hormones may contributing to obesity among men in Western nations.In a paper published in the journal PLOS ONE, researchers from the University of Adelaide's School of Medical Sciences, in Australia, said that part of the massive weight gain among men could be linked with exposure to substances containing estrogen."Hormonally driven weight gain occurs more significantly in females than in males, and this is very clear when we look at the rates of obesity in the developing world," said medical student James Grantham, co-author of the study.
_ Healthy Diet & NutritionUpdate on Leptin & Appetite Control By Adprime Admin articleTwenty years ago, scientists found that the hormone leptin regulates metabolism, appetite, and weight through brain cells called neurons. Now Yale School of Medicine researchers have discovered that the hormone also acts on glial cells in the brain cells to control appetite. The study, published in the June st 2014 issue of Nature Neuroscience, could lead to development of treatments for metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes.
_ Challenging the Notion of “Healthy Obesity” By articleBack in October of 2013, the concept of “healthy obesity” made news because of a study published in the journal Diabetologia about overweight people with no metabolic problems. Now a study published on April 30th 2014 in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology challenges that assertion. A release from the publisher explains that obese people who have no signs of cardiovascular disease show a much higher prevalence of early plaque buildup in the arteries compared to healthy normal weight individuals, according to a study.
_ Ground-Breaking “Brown Fat” MRI Scan By articleThe first MRI scan to show “brown fat” in a living adult could prove to be an essential step towards a new wave of therapies to aid the fight against diabetes and obesity. Researchers from Warwick Medical School and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Trust in the UK used a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) based method to identify and confirm the presence of brown adipose tissue in a living adult. The study was published on April 17th 2014 in The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
_ Obesity Can Up Bone and Muscle Loss in Older Women By articleHere’s yet another compelling reason to stick your diet if you’re 50+ and considerably overweight. Florida State University researchers have identified a new syndrome called "osteosarcopenic obesity" that links the deterioration of bone density and muscle mass with obesity.
_ Extra Pounds Even Worse Than We Thought By articleMortality risks of being overweight or obese are underestimated, according to University of Pennsylvania researchers who published their study in the March 2014 issue of the open-access journal Population Health Metrics. A release from the university quotes lead researcher Andrew Stokes as saying, "The scholarly community is divided over a large meta-analysis that found that overweight is the optimal BMI category and that there are no increased risks associated with obese class 1."
The Fat That’s Ruining Your Body from the Inside By articleBy Dr. Victor Marchione Obesity is a topic very much on the radar of health professionals across North American. Combating this grave health condition could mean saving millions of dollars in health care costs, never mind improving the lives of those who find themselves carrying around too many extra pounds.
_ Watch: How Effective is Bariatric Surgery for Weight Loss? By articleHere's another addition to our ThirdAge Video Collection. Press play to start learning!
_ Calling Obesity a “Disease” Undermines Healthy Behaviors By articleThe American Medical Association declared obesity a disease in June 2013 but messages that describe obesity as a disease may undermine healthy behaviors and beliefs among obese people. That’s the finding of a study done at the University of Richmond in Virginia and the University of Minnesotaand published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science.
_ Age-Related Obesity Explained By articleIf you’ve found that you’re packing on more pounds as the years go by even if your calorie intake and activity level remain about the same, you’re not alone. Now research published in the January 2014 issue of The FASEB Journal shows that as we age, the thermogenic, or heat-producing, activity of brown fat is reduced. Brown fat is a "good" fat that helps burn "bad" white belly fat. The researchers also discovered a possible metabolic on/off switch that could reactivate brown fat.