Focus: Obesity Channel Featured Experts

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For college students, summer can be the time for a new lesson: how to take charge of their health.

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For decades, American waistlines have been expanding and there is increasing cause for alarm. Researchers make the case that metabolic syndrome is the new “silent killer,” analogous to hypertension in the 1970s. As it turns out, the “love handle” can be fatal.

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5 facts about sleep apnea and its negative effects on your health.

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SLU professor of physical therapy Ethel Frese, DPT, shares many ways daily exercise contributes to good health and quality of life.

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With the holidays right around the corner, families are planning meals and trips to spend time with loved ones. With the food and travel, it is easy for exercise schedules to become disrupted. Steve Ball, associate professor of nutrition and exercise physiology at the University of Missouri, says that to prevent holiday weight gain, people need to focus on consistency and set realistic goals for exercise.

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Dr. Patricia Happel, a family medicine physician who lost more than 100 pounds, shares her story and key components of successful weight loss and healthy living

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An international research team co-led from the University of North Dakota and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) studied the aerobic fitness levels of children and youth across 50 countries. The results were just published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. The U.S. ranked 47 of 50.

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Increasing rates of obese and overweight children in the United States may be contributing to a later onset of puberty in boys, say researchers at the University of Michigan.

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Type 2 diabetes is the silent killer...leading to heart disease and stroke. Some things to look out for and ways to prevent it.

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By as early as 7 years of age, being obese may raise a child’s risk of future heart disease and stroke, even in the absence of other cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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In a new study, the amount of calories selected by parents for their child’s hypothetical meal at McDonald’s restaurants were reduced by an average of 102 calories when the menus clearly showed the calories for each item.

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The prevalence of adults in the U.S. who are obese is still high, with about one-third of adults obese in 2007-2008, although new data suggest that the rate of increase for obesity in the U.S. in recent decades may be slowing, according to a study appearing in the January 20 issue of JAMA. The study is being published early online because of its public health importance.

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Study reveals mechanism that adjusts fat burning.

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A team of scientists at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) and the National Institutes of Health have piloted psychotherapy for the prevention of excessive weight gain in teenage girls deemed ‘at-risk’ for obesity.

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A small study of middle-aged women finds that “guilt-ridden dieters,” impulsive eaters and those too busy to focus on food are the most likely to show signs of obesity.

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A new study reveals the risks of “white-hat bias,” a tendency by obesity researchers to distort information about products such as sugar-sweetened beverages or practices like breastfeeding, regardless of the facts, when the distortions are perceived to serve good ends. The name for the bias is a reference to do-good characters often portrayed in early Hollywood Westerns as cowboys who wore white hats.

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Being tall and overweight, or just being tall, might be a marker in children for an increased risk of being overweight or obese in later years.

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University of Illinois at Chicago researchers report a diet where followers alternate daily between eating normally and fasting, except for a calorie-restricted nutritious lunch, may help obese people lose weight and take a more healthy approach to preparing meals.

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According to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society’s Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM), eating a meal quickly, as compared to slowly, curtails the release of hormones in the gut that induce feelings of being full. The decreased release of these hormones, can often lead to overeating.

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Decreased physical activity may have little to do with the recent spike in obesity rates among U.S. adolescents, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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Contrary to what you might believe, living near a variety of restaurants, convenience stores, supermarkets and even fast food outlets actually lowers your risk for obesity, according to a new study from the University of Utah.

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Doctors have less respect for their obese patients than they do for patients of normal weight, a new study by Johns Hopkins researchers suggests. The findings raise questions about whether negative physician attitudes about obesity could be affecting the long-term health of their heavier patients.

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Researchers at the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Advancement of Healthy Living at The University of Texas School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus found that obesity prevention efforts in the El Paso region were the most effective in Texas in decreasing the prevalence of childhood obesity.

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The Endocrine Society announced today its support for Representative Carolyn McCarthy’s (D-NY) Food Marketing in Schools Assessment Act (H.R 3625). The bill, which was first introduced in July 2007, calls for an in-depth study of the nutritional value of foods and drinks marketed in middle and high schools, as well as the vehicles advertisers use to reach young consumers in our nation’s schools.

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Body mass index (BMI) readings may not be the best gauge of obesity in older adults. Instead, the ratio of waist size to hip size may be a better indicator when it comes to those over 70. Obesity is often associated with premature mortality.

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Adolescent and young children of obese mothers who underwent weight-loss surgery prior to pregnancy have been found to have a lower prevalence of obesity and significantly improved cardio-metabolic markers when compared to siblings born before the same obese mothers had weight-loss surgery.

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UCLA and Pittsburgh researchers found that obese people had 8 percent less brain tissue than people with normal weight, while overweight people had 4 percent less tissue.