Understanding "Good" Fat May Help Fight Obesity

A recent understanding of the origins of brown fat cells - the "good" kind of fat that burns energy and keeps us warm - may lead to the discovery of new treatments for obesity. Researchers at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston said they used a single molecular switch to turn immature muscle cells into brown fat cells in the lab. This suggests that brown fat may be more akin to muscle cells than traditional white fat cells. Another team from the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston found a protein important for bone growth helped promote the development of fat tissues in mice. Both teams claim their new findings lend understanding about the origins of brown fat, which releases energy, in contrast to white fat, which only stores energy.

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Obese Women's Newborns Have More Birth Defects

The fetuses of obese women have an increased risk of birth defects such as spina bifida and other neural tube defects, a recent analysis of previous studies showed.

Obesity is at epidemic proportions in the United States and in increasing numbers of countries around the world. Complications from the condition threaten to overwhelm the health-care system. For example, some evidence suggests that pregnant obese women are more prone to give birth to babies with abnormalities, known as congenital anomalies. Such abnormalities contribute significantly to stillbirth, infant death, preterm birth and childhood illnesses.

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Obesity Rates May Be Leveling Off

Here is some remarkable news. We, meaning Americans in general, have finally begun to stop getting fatter. Not that we are any thinner, but at least our national weight expansion has leveled off. This semi-encouraging news comes from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (Read more about Obesity Rates May Be Leveling Off)

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Women Can Quit Smoking While Controlling for Weight Gain

There are many women who hesitate to quit smoking because they fear gaining weight. Nicotine is known to suppress appetite and boost a smoker's metabolism. A new meta-analysis published in the journal, Addiction, shows that women who quit smoking while receiving treatment for weight control are better able to control their weight gain and are more successful at quitting cigarettes. (Read more about Women Can Quit Smoking While Controlling for Weight Gain)

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7 Factors That Make Us Eat More Food

The amount we eat every day is a factor not only of our genetics, the strength of our willpower or our metabolic rate. A lot more is at work, such as:

Time of day. Each of us gets into routines that psychologically "tell" our bodies we need food at the same time each day. "Part of the reason you're hungry at noon is because that's the time you've eaten for the last 100 days," said Randy Seeley, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Cincinnati.

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Expert Commentary: Dr. Elliot Goodman, MD April 22, 2009

The latest study reported at the American Heart Association's Cardiovascular Disease Epidemiology and Prevention annual conference confirms what we are seeing all around us - our children are getting fatter.  The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tells us that 24 percent of American children aged two to five are overweight and an additional 12 percent are obese.  33 percent of children 6 to 11 are overweight, and another 17 percent are obese.

- Expert Commentary: Dr. Elliot Goodman, MD April 22, 2009 video

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More Exercise Induces Women to Eat Treats

Overweight women who engaged in exercise for one to two hours a week lost several pounds over six months without dieting. But paradoxically, those who exercised even more – three hours a week – failed to lose as much as expected.

The researchers, who published their findings in PLoSONE, a Public Library of Science online journal, speculated that the reason for this phenomenon was that the women who exercised the most rewarded themselves with food treats for their “sacrifice.”

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Social Class No Shield Against Smoking's Toxicity

    Smoking erases the health benefits normally conferred by being well-to-do or female, a recent study has found. The findings, which were published online in the British Medical Journal, revealed that even the poorest non-smokers had a lower premature-death rate than smokers of all social classes.
   
     The research was conducted on over 15,000 men and women over a 28-year period. The subjects, who were aged from 45-64 at the beginning of the study, were recruited in western Scotland in 1972-76. Their survival rates were checked at 14 years and 28 years after their enrollment in the investigation. Participants were classified according to whether they were male or female; well-heeled, middle-class or poor; and smokers, never-smokers or ex-smokers.

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Self-Confidence, Motivation Key to Exercising

It's all in the mind. At least that's where it starts in terms of pursuing an exercise regimen, according to a recent study.

The investigation, performed on 5,167 Canadians by a team of researchers led by Sai Yi Pan of the Public Health Agency of Canada, found that self-confidence in participants' ability to exercise and a strong desire to do so were the main factors in whether they actually went ahead with an exercise program. And the main reasons for holding back from exercise were negative psychological factors. (Read more about Self-Confidence, Motivation Key to Exercising)

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Intestinal Chemical May Suppress Appetite and Fight Obesity

A biochemical produced by the small intestine every time we eat a fatty meal and which signals the brain to suppress appetite may be the answer to the obesity epidemic, a recent study suggests.

Researchers at Yale University who investigated the biochemical, known as N- acylphosphatidylethanolamine (NAPE), found that mice and rats injected with it ate less and lost weight. The scientists, who published their work in the journal Cell, theorized that NAPE curbed appetite by suppressing the activity of neurons in a brain region known as the hypothalamus. (Read more about Intestinal Chemical May Suppress Appetite and Fight Obesity)

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