Focus: Obesity Channel Featured Experts

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A new study by Dr. James Anderson at the University of Ky finds meal replacements are effective for weight loss.

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The U.S. Food Stamp Program may help contribute to obesity among its users, according to a new nationwide study that followed participants for 14 years. Researchers found that the average user of food stamps had a Body Mass Index (BMI) 1.15 points higher than non-users.

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C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health lists parents' top 10 health concerns for 2009; more adults worry about children's obesity while blacks, Hispanics rank obesity as top child health concern for first time.

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Creating a Second Life avatar, or virtual representation of oneself, that is thin and physically fit may encourage individuals to become healthier and more physically fit in their real lives, according to a study by researchers at RTI International.

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Researchers from the Institute of Prevention Research at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) found in a recent study that overweight youth were twice as likely to have overweight friends.

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A mother's weight and the amount she gains during pregnancy both impact her daughter's risk of obesity decades later, according to a new study by Alison Stuebe, M.D., assistant professor of obstetrics and gynecology at UNC Chapel Hill's School of Medicine. "If we can help women reach a healthy weight before they start a family, we can make a difference for two generations," Stuebe says.

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Patients who have regained weight after gastric bypass surgery now have access to an incisionless procedure that appears highly effective at reversing weight gain, according to data presented at the annual meeting of the American Society of Metabolic and Bariatric Surgeons.

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Penny Gordon-Larsen, Ph.D., an associate professor of nutrition, and Natalie The, a nutrition doctoral student, both with the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, found people face the following risks of becoming obese, compared to people in romantic relationships who are not living together.

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Researchers from the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California (USC) will present new findings and strategies for combating childhood obesity at the 5th Biennial Childhood Obesity Conference being held June 9-12 in Los Angeles.

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A new study challenges the prevailing wisdom that to improve pregnancy outcomes, all women, even those who are obese, should gain weight during pregnancy. The study, the first of its kind, found that obese pregnant women who followed a well-balanced diet and gained little or no weight had maternal-fetal outcomes that were equal to or better than those who gained substantial weight.

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There is more medical evidence that pregnant women should steer clear of advice to "eat for two." Alison Stuebe, M.D., at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Medicine, found that women who consumed extra calories, as well as fried foods and dairy, had excessive gestational weight gain. The good news: there are concrete messages care givers can provide to women to prevent unhealthy weight gain.

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Obesity and gallstones often go hand in hand. But not in mice developed at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Even when these mice eat high-fat diets, they don't become obese, but they do develop gallstones. Researchers say the findings offer clues about genetic factors related to gallstones.

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Weight gain after gastric bypass surgery is not uncommon. Over time, the small stomach pouch created by the surgery stretches out. More calories are consumed and the feeling of fullness after eating disappears. A minimally invasive procedure, called ROSE, is being offered at UC San Diego Medical Center to correct this problem.

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The conversation on weight management isn't taking place between patient and physician. And when it does. many patients don't like what they're hearing. That's according to a recent study at Temple University School of Medicine. Researchers there say many patients feel their physician isn't initiating or addressing at all their weight concerns. And when they do, they say patients aren't doing enough to lose weight.

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Surgeons once recommended weight-loss surgery only for severely obese patients who failed to drop pounds with conventional weight-loss methods, but a review now finds that bariatric surgery helps the moderately obese lose more weight, too.

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Adding to growing evidence that a person's waist size is an important indicator of heart health, a study led by investigators at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) has found that larger waist circumference is associated with increased risk of heart failure in middle-aged and older populations of men and women.

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Carrying extra weight earlier in life increases the risk of developing problems with mobility in old age, even if the weight is eventually lost, according to new research out of the Sticht Center on Aging at Wake Forest University School of Medicine.

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A new study shows both obesity and a large belly appear to increase the risk of developing restless legs syndrome (RLS), a common sleep disorder characterized by an irresistible urge to move your legs. The research is published in the April 7, 2009, print issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

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Obesity is twice as common in young American Indian/Native Alaskan children as it is in white and Asian children, according to new research offering the first nationally representative analysis of obesity prevalence among preschool-aged kids in five major racial/ethnic groups.

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When it comes to weight loss, what you drink may be more important than what you eat, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Researchers examined the relationship between beverage consumption among adults and weight change and found that weight loss was positively associated with a reduction in liquid calorie consumption and liquid calorie intake had a stronger impact on weight than solid calorie intake.

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An ongoing study of pregnant women and their babies has found that rapid weight gain during the first six months of life may place a child at risk for obesity by age 3. Researchers studied 559 children, measuring both weight and body length at birth, 6 months, and 3 years. They found that sudden gains throughout early infancy influenced later obesity more so than weight at birth.

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An FAU professor served as a major investigator in two of the 57 studies just published in a worldwide collaborative analysis of body mass index (BMI) and increased death rates. Charles H. Hennekens, M.D. enrolled and followed nearly 144,000 of the 900,000 individuals studied worldwide.

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Several bursts of exercise that last five minutes or more might be better for preventing childhood obesity than are intermittent physical activity sessions lasting four minutes or less throughout the day.

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A new study has found that a high waist circumference is strongly associated with decreased lung function"”independent of smoking history, sex, body mass index (BMI) and other complicating factors.

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Scientists at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine have discovered a gene that when mutated causes obesity by dampening the body's ability to burn energy while leaving appetite unaffected.

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Mice whose fat cells were allowed to grow larger than fat cells in normal mice developed "healthy" obesity when fed a high-fat diet, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center found in a new study.

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Two studies found that obesity and sleep disordered breathing are independently linked to insulin resistance and liver disease"” and that either alone is a cause for concern, but together, they equal a one-two hit to some of the most important metabolic pathways in the body. A third study found that OSA is linked to a sedentary lifestyle, also independent of obesity.

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In small towns in the Midwestern United States, people who eat out often at buffets and cafeterias and who perceive their community to be unpleasant for physical activity are more likely to be obese.

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Researchers at Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have found that overactivity of a brain enzyme may play a role in preventing weight gain and obesity.

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Over the past two decades, the number of adults consuming sugar-sweetened beverages such as soft drinks, fruit drinks and punches has increased dramatically, according to a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

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New research connected obesity in older men and women to such environmental factors as residential turnover, immigrant concentration and the levels of affluence and education in the neighborhood where these men and women lived.

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In addition to its strong associations with hypertension, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes, pediatric obesity may induce alterations in thyroid function and structure, according to a new study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM).

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Once hailed as a miracle weight-loss drug, Fen-phen was removed from the market more than a decade ago for inducing life-threatening side effects, including heart valve lesions. Scientists at UT Southwestern Medical Center are trying to understand how Fen-phen behaves in the brain in order to develop safer anti-obesity drugs with fewer side effects.

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A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill suggests that cell phone text messaging could be used to reduce children's chances of becoming overweight or obese later in life, by helping them monitor and modify their own behaviors now.

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A new study in the November issue of the journal Appetite finds that obese women display significantly weaker impulse control than normal-weight women, but between obese and normal-weight men, the impulsivity levels are nearly the same. The study was conducted by researchers in the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Department of Psychology.

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According to new research from the Monell Center, the degree of change in blood triglyceride levels following a fatty meal may indicate susceptibility to diet-induced obesity. The findings open doors to new methods of identifying people, including children, who are at risk for becoming obese.

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Using brain imaging and chocolate milkshakes, scientists have found that women with weakened "reward circuitry" in their brains are at increased risk of weight gain over time and potential obesity. The risk increases even more for women who also have a gene associated with compromised dopamine signaling in the brain.

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It has already been proven that obesity is influenced by genetics, and colon cancer is influenced by genetics. A new JAMA study is the first to make a three-way scientific link between genetic variation, obesity and colon cancer risk. The discovery holds promise for improved testing and sharpens cancer prevention, said a researcher at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB).

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Immature, or "baby," fat cells lurk in the walls of the blood vessels that nourish fatty tissue, just waiting for excess calories to help them grow into the adult monsters responsible for packing on the extra pounds, researchers at UT Southwestern Medical Center have found in mice.

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Johns Hopkins scientists report success in significantly suppressing levels of the "hunger hormone" ghrelin in pigs using a minimally invasive means of chemically vaporizing the main vessel carrying blood to the top section, or fundus, of the stomach. An estimated 90 percent of the body's ghrelin originates in the fundus, which can't make the hormone without a good blood supply.

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A program to reduce weight and improve health risk factors in obese employees produces a short-term return on investment (ROI) of $1.17 per dollar spent, reports a study in the September Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, official publication of the American College of Occupational and Environmental Medicine (ACOEM).

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Bullying is a major concern among parents with overweight and obese children, and these parents are much more likely than parents with healthy weight children to rate bullying as a top health issue for kids, according to the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital National Poll on Children's Health.

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When it comes to risk for a heart attack, having excess fat around the heart may be worse than having a high body mass index or a thick waist, according to researchers from Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center and colleagues reporting in the August issue of the journal Obesity.

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The age of your neighborhood may influence your risk of obesity, according to a new study from the University of Utah. The study, to be published in the September issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, found that residents were at less risk of being obese or overweight if they lived in older, more walkable neighborhoods.

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Most adults in the U.S. will be overweight or obese by 2030, with related health care spending projected to be as much as $956.9 billion, according to researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

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Saturday can be the worst enemy for our waistlines, according to researchers at the School of Medicine. They found that study subjects on strict diet and exercise programs tend to lose weight more slowly than expected because they eat more on weekends than during the week.

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A new implantable medical device, developed in collaboration with Mayo Clinic researchers, shows promise as a reversible and less extreme alternative to existing bariatric surgeries, according to findings published in the current issue of the journal Surgery.

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Like the United States, Canada is experiencing an obesity epidemic. A new study finds that heavier Canadian women are less likely to undergo cervical cancer screening than their normal-weight peers are, despite having a health system that offers universal access.

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Even with shorter life expectancies, the lifetime medical costs for obese individuals are greater than costs for non-obese individuals, but those costs are unlikely to spur obesity prevention efforts, according to a new study published by researchers at RTI International and Merck & Co.

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There was no significant increase in the prevalence of obese children and teens in the U.S. between 1999 and 2006, in contrast to the increase that had been reported in prior years, according to a study in the May 28 issue of JAMA.