There’s No Such Thing As Healthy Obesity, Says Study | TIME.com

There’s No Such Thing As Healthy Obesity, Says Study | TIME.com: There’s a persistent and controversial question dividing researchers: Can you can be very overweight and also very healthy? The research suggesting people can be healthy at any size was intriguing, and we covered it. But the tide (and the research that supports it) is turning, with many researchers saying it’s simply not possible to be fit and obese.

Obesity Epidemic to Blame for Increased Number of Diabetes Cases in U.S.

Obesity Epidemic to Blame for Increased Number of Diabetes Cases in U.S.: "There has been a staggering increase in the prevalence of obesity over the past 30 years in the United States," said researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, Maryland, via dailyrx.com.

Lead study author Elizabeth Selvin, PhD, MPH, of the university, examined diabetic conditions as defined by hemoglobin A1c or HbA1c. This is typically the blood test used to provide information on a patient's average blood sugar levels during the previous three months.

How obesity may raise breast cancer risk | Fox News

How obesity may raise breast cancer risk | Fox News: Women who have a certain genetic marker may be at increased risk for breast cancer, especially if they are overweight or obese, a new study suggests.

In the study, white women with the genetic marker were nearly 70 percent more likely to have breast cancer compared to those without the marker.






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And if women were overweight or obese and had the marker, their risk of breast cancer increased by 210 percent, compared with those who did not have the marker, the study found. The marker is found within a gene called mTOR, according to the study. [6 Foods That May Affect Breast Cancer Risk]

Mediterranean diet more effective than low-fat diet for slowing diabetes progression | Fox News

Mediterranean diet more effective than low-fat diet for slowing diabetes progression | Fox News: "There's been lots of epidemiology suggesting that a Mediterranean diet was beneficial with metabolic syndrome and diabetes," Dr. Leanne Olansky told Reuters Health.

"But this was a randomized controlled trial, so we know it really was the diet causing the results," she said. "This is the kind of evidence that we use to determine if drugs are effective."

"Everybody thinks of fat as being bad, but this shows that it depends on what kind of fat," said Olansky, an endocrinologist at the Cleveland Clinic who was not involved in the new study.

Spouses with low blood sugar get angrier at each other - Daily Dose

Spouses with low blood sugar get angrier at each other - Daily Dose: The study monitored the blood sugars of 107 married couples every evening for 21 days. The individuals were asked to fill out a questionnaire about their satisfaction with their marriage. They also received a voodoo doll of their spouse and 51 pins. The researchers found that people with lowest blood sugar levels inserted twice as many pins into the dolls compared to those with higher blood sugar.

The second half of the experiment turned the spouses against each other in a game. A square turned red on a computer screen and the person who pressed a button in response first won. The winner could make their spouse, who was in a separate room, listen to loud unpleasant sounds through headphones. People with low blood glucose made their spouses listen to the sounds for a longer period than the people who had normal blood glucose levels.

No real progress on child obesity, latest report says

No real progress on child obesity, latest report says: Reports of significant progress against child obesity in the United States have been premature, say the latest researchers to take a look at the data.

Overall child obesity rates are flat, and rates of severe obesity are rising, says a study published Monday by JAMA Pediatrics. And the idea that rates are plunging among preschoolers — heralded in a study and press release from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention just weeks ago — did not stand up when researchers scrutinized a few extra years of data, says lead author Asheley Cockrell Skinner, assistant professor of pediatrics at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine.

U.S. childhood obesity rates have increased since 1999: study | Reuters

U.S. childhood obesity rates have increased since 1999: study | Reuters: The new study, published online in the medical journal JAMA Pediatrics, used the same data source as the CDC, but analyzed obesity rates over a different timeframe. It found increases in obesity for children age 2 to 19, and a marked rise in the percentage who were severely obese.

Asheley Cockrell Skinner of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, who led the new study, said the main message of her analysis is that childhood obesity rates have not improved.

"I don't want a study like the previous one to change the national discourse," she told Reuters Health, referring to the CDC's work.

Childhood Obesity Adds Nearly $20K to Lifetime Medical Costs: Study

Childhood Obesity Adds Nearly $20K to Lifetime Medical Costs: Study: Over a lifetime, direct medical costs for an obese 10-year-old will be nearly $20,000 higher than those of slimmer peers, according to new research.

That translates to a whopping $14 billion in additional direct U.S. medical costs over a lifetime for today's obese 10-year-olds, according to the study.

And, those costs only include direct medical costs, such as medications or medical procedures related to obesity. They don't include indirect costs, such as lost productivity and quality-of-life issues, the researchers said.

Dark chocolate ingredient may prevent obesity, diabetes, study shows | Fox News

Dark chocolate ingredient may prevent obesity, diabetes, study shows | Fox News: Dark chocolate is rich in flavonols, a type of antioxidant shown to improve cardiovascular health by lowering blood pressure and improving blood flow. In order to determine whether flavonols also have a protective effect on weight, researchers placed lab mice on a high-fat diet rich in flavonols.












Their results, published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, demonstrated that a flavonol known as oligomeric procyanidins (PCs) seemed to have the greatest protective effect on health. Mice were able to keep their weight and blood sugar low when consuming a diet rich in PCs, even when the overall content of their diet was high-fat.