Category Archives: obesity

Filed under avocados, diabetes, heart disease, obesity

Tagged as avocados, fatty acids

May 1, 2022 · 11:07 pm

Obesity significantly increased heart failure risk among women with late menopause – AHA

Research Highlights:

While women who enter menopause before age 45 are known to be at higher risk of heart failure, obesity significantly increased heart failure risk among women who experienced late menopause – at age 55 or older, according to a new study.
The findings indicate that maintaining a healthy weight and avoiding abdominal obesity may protect against developing heart failure, especially among women who experience late menopause.

While women who enter menopause before age 45 are known to be at higher risk for heart failure, obesity significantly increased heart failure risk among women who experienced late menopause – at age 55 or older, according to new research published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, an open access, peer-reviewed journal of the American Heart Association.

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Filed under American Heart Association, heart attack, heart failure, obesity

Tagged as heart health, obesity

July 28, 2020 · 12:03 am

Pizza study shows body copes surprisingly well with one-off calorie indulgence

A new study, which involved participants eating pizza well after feeling ‘full’ in order to test what immediate effects this had on the body, finds that our metabolism is surprisingly good at coping with over-indulgence.

Researchers with the Centre for Nutrition, Exercise and Metabolism at the University of Bath compared the effects of normal eating (i.e. ‘eat until you are comfortably full’) with maximal eating (i.e. ‘eat until you cannot manage another bite’).

They found that the young, healthy men (aged 22 – 37) who volunteered for the trial consumed almost twice as much pizza when pushing beyond their usual limits, doubling their calorie intake, yet, remarkably, managed to keep the amount of nutrients in the bloodstream within normal range.

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Filed under calories, cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular risk, diabetes, junk food calories, obesity, pizza

Tagged as calories, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, junk food calories, obesity, pizza

July 14, 2020 · 12:20 am

How Diabetes and Obesity Affect the Brain

With more than 30 million Americans diagnosed with diabetes, and another 87 million diagnosed with obesity, both conditions have become national epidemics.

The two diseases cause a number of complications, including neuropathy, which causes damage to the peripheral nerves. Neuropathy is characterized by numbness or tingling and can sometimes be accompanied by pain.

Brian Callaghan, M.D., the Fovette E. Dush associate professor of neurology, has sounded an alarm through his recent clinical research, which has demonstrated that, in addition to peripheral nerve damage, diabetes and obesity can also cause cognitive dysfunction, effecting thinking, reasoning or memory.

Here, Callaghan discusses his latest work and ways to identify and treat the condition:

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Filed under aging brain, brain, brain function, cognition, cognitive decline, diabetes, mild cognitive impairment, obesity

Tagged as aging brain, brain function, cognition, cognitive decline, cognitive impairment, diabetes, obesity

June 3, 2020 · 12:01 am

What Happens to the Body When we Diet?

The body starts to respond to healthy dietary changes as soon as they are made. This can be advantageous, because a diet can then eventually reduce the risk of obesity, diabetes and heart disease, as well as improve a person’s overall sense of well being.

Control of blood glucose level

Eating carbohydrates increases the blood sugar level, but the extent of this rise depends on a food’s glycemic index. The glycemic index is a ranking system, based on a score of 1 to 100, that determines the effect of a food on blood sugar levels.

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Filed under coffee, diet, diet trends, dieting, heart disease, obesity

Tagged as coffee drinking, diet, diet trends, dieting, heart disease, obesity

May 3, 2020 · 12:08 am

Summary of preliminary data about obesity and severity of COVID-19

It may be that Eat less; move more; live longer which I have been writing about for nearly 10 years here, also has some relevance in the fight against COVID-19 .

In a Nature Reviews Endocrinology “Comment” authors from the German Center for Diabetes Research (DZD), the Boston Children’s Hospital and the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health call for more research about the relationships of obesity, disproportionate fat distribution and impaired metabolic health with the severity of COVID-19.

The authors raise the point that most of the studies that have reported comorbidities in patients with COVID-19 did not provide data on body weight and height, which are used to estimate adipose tissue mass, by calculating the BMI. In their Comment they also briefly summarize novel research findings, deriving in part from articles which have not yet undergone peer-review, indicating that overweight and, particularly, obesity may associate with a substantial risk of a severe course of COVID-19. Importantly, these studies suggest that this risk is independent of cardiometabolic diseases and other comorbidities.

The authors then discuss possible mechanisms explaining this relationship. Among them respiratory dysfunction in obesity may result in hypoventilation-associated pneumonia and hypoxia-induced cardiac stress. Furthermore, they highlight that not only the calculation of the BMI, but also the measurement of the waist circumference and of glucose and insulin levels, which can be used to determine the presence of prediabetes and insulin resistance, may be important, as these parameters are independent determinants of cardiometabolic diseases, pneumonia and mortality.

Filed under abdominal fat, coronavirus, coronavirus risk, COVID-19, obesity

Tagged as abdominal fat, coronavirus, coronavirus risk, COVID-19, obesity

March 28, 2020 · 12:01 am

Does poor air quality add pounds?

Breathing dirty air takes a heavy toll on gut bacteria, boosting risk of obesity, diabetes, gastrointestinal disorders and other chronic illnesses, new University of Colorado Boulder (CU) research suggests.

The study, published online in the journal Environment International, is the first to link air pollution to changes in the structure and function of the human gut microbiome—the collection of trillions of microorganisms residing within us.

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The gaseous pollutant ozone, which helps make up Denver’s infamous “brown cloud”—is particularly hazardous, the study found, with young adults exposed to higher levels of ozone showing less microbial diversity and more of certain species associated with obesity and disease.

“We know from previous research that air pollutants can have a whole host of adverse health effects,” said senior author Tanya Alderete, an assistant professor of integrative physiology, pointing to studies linking smog with Type 2 diabetes, weight gain and inflammatory bowel diseases. “The takeaway from this paper is that some of those effects might be due to changes in the gut.”

Filed under air pollution, gut microbes, obesity

Tagged as air pollution, diabetes, gut microbes

March 19, 2020 · 12:04 am

BMI – Not the best indicator …

Your Body Mass Index (BMI) can be useful in widely spread studies, but you need to be careful about relying too much on it personally. I posted on it previously and you can read Don’t get hung up on your BMI – Body Mass Index for more info.

conan-the-barbarian-arnold-schwarzenegger-movie-image.jpg

Young Arnold Schwarzenegger as Conan the Barbarian. Six foot two inches tall, 257 pounds, BMI 33. Not what most of us would call obese.

The following is from the Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter:

Having obesity increases risk for cardiovascular disease and other metabolic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, but a normal BMI also does not guarantee good heart health. Here are tips based on what we know to date about metabolic health and weight: Continue reading →

Filed under BMI, body mass index, cardiovascular health, cardiovascular risk, Exercise, exercise benefits, obesity

Tagged as alcohol drinking, BMI, body mass index, cardiovascular diseases, cardiovascular health, Exercise Benefits, obesity, smoking dangers

January 18, 2020 · 3:40 am

America’s most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain – Study

New University of California Riverside research shows soybean oil not only leads to obesity and diabetes, but could also affect neurological conditions like autism, Alzheimer’s disease, anxiety, and depression.

Edible fats and oil consumed in the U.S. Source: USDA

Used for fast food frying, added to packaged foods, and fed to livestock, soybean oil is by far the most widely produced and consumed edible oil in the U.S., according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In all likelihood, it is not healthy for humans.

It certainly is not good for mice. The new study, published this month in the journal Endocrinology, compared mice fed three different diets high in fat: soybean oil, soybean oil modified to be low in linoleic acid, and coconut oil. Continue reading →

Filed under diabetes, obesity, soybean oil

Tagged as diabetes, neurological conditions, obesity, soybean oil

January 1, 2020 · 12:26 am

Deaths in middle-aged adults drive decrease in U.S. life expectancy – Study

Americans in the prime of life, age 25 to 64, are dying at a greater rate than in years past, lowering overall U.S. life expectancy, according to a new study published Nov. 26 in JAMA.

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Life expectancy — the average number of years a newborn can expect to live — increased in the U.S. by almost 10 years between 1959 and 2016, from 69.9 years to 78.9 years. However, it declined for three consecutive years after 2014, driven largely by a higher mortality rate in middle-aged people of all racial groups.

In the NIA-supported study, researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University analyzed data from the National Center for Health Statistics, the U.S. Mortality Database, and CDC Wonder. They found that from 1999 to 2010, the number of deaths per 100,000 people decreased for all age groups. This decline is attributable to reduced death rates from several specific causes, including heart attacks, motor vehicle injuries, HIV infection and cancer.

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Filed under aging, aging myths, longevity, obesity, successful aging

Tagged as aging, aging myths, longevity, obesity, opioids, smoking, successful aging

December 26, 2019 · 5:09 am

Peloton ‘Scandal’ Shows How Mentally Unfit We’ve Become

PA Pundits International

By Armstrong Williams ~

We are fast approaching the end of 2019, and as we close the book on a turbulent decade, nothing summarizes the state of our culture and our unhealthy relationship with contrived outrage quite like the Peloton ad controversy and the wave of hysteria that has followed in its wake.

Those claiming a Peloton ad is sexist are actually doing their cause more harm than good. Pictured: A Peloton stationary bike is displayed Dec. 4 at one of the fitness company’s studios in New York City. (Photo: Scott Heins/ Stringer/Getty Images)

Imagine if we could channel that outrage instead into addressing our nation’s obesity crisis.

If you are not familiar with the ad or simply cannot believe that America—land of the free, home of the brave—is full of adults who are distressed over an exercise bike, a quick Google search will fill you in on the situation.

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Filed under leftist hypocrisy, liberal outrage, obesity

Tagged as health, leftist agenda, leftist hypocrisy, liberal outrage, obesity

November 30, 2019 · 12:09 am

MRI reveals brain damage in obese teens

As if we didn’t have enough to worry about with our penchant for carrying too much weight, researchers using MRI have found signs of damage that may be related to inflammation in the brains of obese adolescents, according to a study being presented next week at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA).

Obesity in young people has become a significant public health problem. In the U.S., the percentage of children and adolescents affected by obesity has more than tripled since the 1970s, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Data from the World Health Organization indicates that the number of overweight or obese infants and young children ages five years or younger increased from 32 million globally in 1990 to 41 million in 2016.

Reduction in fractional anisotropy (FA) in obese patients compared to the control group: At the intersection of the alignment vectors, a large cluster of FA decrease located in the corpus callosum on the left. In red: Reduction of FA in obese patients compared to controls, and FA skeleton (green), superimposed on the mean of FA images in sample. The image is credited to Study author and RSNA.

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Filed under cognition, cognitive decline, inflammation, obesity

Tagged as cognition, cognitive decline, inflammation, obesity in children, overweight and obesity

November 23, 2019 · 12:01 am

Weight-Loss Surgery May Release Toxic Compounds From Fat Into the Bloodstream – Surgery

I’m not a doctor, just a guy who writes a blog on trying to live healthy by getting enough exercise and eating intelligently. So, I find the conclusion of this study to be almost karmic.

Toxic man-made chemicals—such as polychlorinated biphenyls and organochlorine pesticides—that are absorbed into the body and stored in fat may be released into the bloodstream during the rapid fat loss that follows bariatric surgery, according to a study from researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. The finding points to the need for further research to understand the health effects of this potential toxicant exposure.

For the study, published online November 5 in Obesity, the researchers examined 26 people undergoing bariatric weight-loss surgery, and found evidence of post-surgery rises in the bloodstream levels of environmental toxicants that are known to be stored long term in fat, including PCBs, organochlorine pesticides, and PCB-like polybrominated diphenyl ethers. The study also revealed that participants born before 1976—when most of these chemical compounds were still widely used—tended to have much higher bloodstream levels of the chemicals, compared to younger participants.

“The fact that this increasingly popular type of surgery may be causing these compounds to be released into the bloodstream really challenges us to understand the potential health consequences,” says study senior author John Groopman, PhD, the Edyth H. Schoenrich Professor in Preventive Medicine at the Bloomberg School.

About 16 million people in the U.S. are morbidly obese, defined as having a body mass index (BMI) of 35 kg/m². Their extreme overweight condition confers a relatively high risk of type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and many cancers. For almost three decades, the U.S. National Institutes of Health has recommended weight-loss surgeries called bariatric surgeries—including stomach stapling and gastric bypass procedures—for people who are morbidly obese and have serious obesity-related conditions such as diabetes, as well as for anyone with a BMI over 40. More than 200,000 bariatric surgeries are now performed in the country every year. Continue reading →

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Filed under bariatric surgery, belly fat, central obesity, obesity

Tagged as bariatric surgery, belly fat, central obesity, obesity

September 23, 2019 · 9:18 pm

Current obesity epidemic may be result of childhood sugar intake decades ago

Bad habits have long tails it seems.

Current obesity rates in adults in the United States could be the result of dietary changes that took place decades ago, according to a new study published by researchers at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville.

“While most public health studies focus on current behaviors and diets, we took a novel approach and looked at how the diets we consumed in our childhood affect obesity levels now that we are adults,” said Alex Bentley, head of UT’s Department of Anthropology and lead researcher of the study, which was published in Economics and Human Biology.

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Consumption of excess sugar, particularly in sugar-sweetened beverages, is a known contributor to both childhood and adult obesity. Many population health studies have identified sugar as a major factor in the obesity epidemic. One problem with this theory, however, has been that sugar consumption in the US began to decline in the late 1990s while obesity rates continued to rise well into the 2010s.

That increase shows in the numbers: By 2016, nearly 40 percent of all adults in the US–a little over 93 million people–were affected by obesity. In Tennessee alone, the adult obesity rate more than tripled, from about 11 percent in 1990 to almost 35 percent in 2016. By 2017, however, obesity in Tennessee had fallen 2 percent from the previous year.

If high-sugar diets in childhood have long-lasting effects, the changes we see now in adult obesity rates may have started with diets decades ago, when those adults were children.

Filed under childhood obesity, obesity, sugar, sugar addiction, sugary soda, Uncategorized

Tagged as childhood obesity, obesity, sugar, sugary drinks, sugary soda

September 16, 2019 · 12:06 am

Obesity linked to a nearly 6-fold increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes, with genetics and lifestyle also raising risk

Eat less; move more; live longer wins the day. Eating less and moving more also help to fight against type 2 diabetes it seems.

Genetic predisposition, obesity, and unfavorable lifestyle have an important role in the development of type 2 diabetes, an increasingly common disorder that contributes majorly to the global burden of disease. According to the International Diabetes Federation, approximately 425 million adults (20-79 years) were living with diabetes in 2017; by 2045 this is expected rise above 600 million.

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The current strategy to prevent T2D is underlined by the maintenance of normal body weight and the promotion of a healthy lifestyle. Lifestyle interventions designed for weight loss have been shown to delay the onset of T2D among high-risk subjects. However, the effects of lifestyle factors and obesity on T2D risk may vary between individuals depending on genetic variation. Thus, it is important to understand the interplay between genetic predisposition, obesity, and unfavorable lifestyle in the development of T2D. In this new research, the authors aimed to study whether the genetic risk for T2D is accentuated by obesity and unfavorable lifestyle.