Did you know that billions of dollars are spent every year caring for obesity and obesity-related health problems? Plus, being obese makes it more likely that you will die at a younger age or suffer from chronic health problems during your life.]]>
People who feel stressed sometimes eat too much and put on weight. Your stress levels may also affect the health of your children.]]>
Most adults need between 7 and 9 hours of sleep every night. If you sleep fewer than 7 hours, you can develop a “sleep debt.” This is a term for the negative health effects you may face by not getting enough sleep. In addition to sleepiness, irritability, and an inability to focus, sleep debt has also been linked to serious health problems like obesity, type 2 diabetes, and heart disease. According to a study recently presented at the annual meeting of the Endocrine Society in San Diego, even a very small sleep debt puts you at a high risk of obesity and insulin resistance. Researchers at the Weill Cornell Medical College in Doha, Qatar looked at the BMI (body mass index), waist size, and insulin sensitivity of 522 people with type 2 diabetes. The subjects were told to keep a record of how long they slept each night, so that the researchers could figure out each person’s sleep debt. At the 12-month follow-up, the scientists found that for each 30 minutes of sleep debt, the subjects had a: 17% higher risk for obesity 39% higher risk for insulin resistance This means that missing just half an hour of sleep each [...]]]>
Obesity is a well known risk factor for heart disease, which in itself is a risk factor for type 2 diabetes. It is also well known that eating healthier and staying active are vital to preventing or delaying the onset of obesity and diabetes. However, a study recently published in the journal?Diabetologia?found that a lack of sleep may also be a big risk factor for obesity and diabetes. Researchers at the University of Chicago Medical Center looked at a group of healthy adult men between the ages of 18 and 30 years. In one-half of the study, the men slept for four nights at eight hours a night, while they only slept for about four hours a night in the other half of the study. When the men only had about four hours of sleep a night, they had higher levels of free fatty acids in their blood than when they had eight hours of sleep. These high levels of free fatty acids stayed high for about five hours in the morning and did not drop until overnight. Researchers say that this increase of free fatty acids in the blood is something that they see often in those at risk [...]]]>
The number of obese children in the United States is growing every day. Obesity puts children at a high risk for diabetes, heart disease, and stroke. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found that over two-thirds of obese children have at least one risk factor for heart disease, such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides (another type of blood fat). A study recently published in?The Journal of Pediatrics?found that a plant-based meal plan may help lower the risk of heart disease in obese children.?Researchers at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio looked at a group of obese children who had high cholesterol levels. The children were asked to follow either a plant-based eating plan or the American Heart Association’s (AHA) plan, which is low in fat, sodium (salt), sugar, red meats, and processed foods. The children on the plant-based meal plan ate plenty of plants and whole grains, no animal products, and limited amounts of avocado and nuts. Both groups had weekly, two-hour long nutrition sessions. At the end of the four-week study, the children in the plant-based group had lower body mass index (BMI) and weight, smaller waist and arm measurements, lower blood pressure, and lower [...]]]>
People who struggle with obesity (BMI over 30) are often told to eat less and get more physical activity to achieve a healthy weight. But according to researchers at the New York Obesity Nutrition Research Center at Columbia University Medical Center, these lifestyle changes do not help 80% to 95% of obese people. They wrote an article for The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology stating that taking in fewer calories tends to make obese people gain even more weight over the long term. For these people, the body tends to do as much as it can to stay the same weight, and lifestyle changes are not enough to stop this process. The researchers wrote that even people who have maintained weight loss after being obese do not have the same biology as people who were never obese. They will always have a higher risk of weight gain than people who are overweight or normal weight. They called this “obesity in remission,” meaning that obesity cannot be cured, but is usually just avoided for a short period of time. There are a few effective options for obese people, however. They are: Weight loss (bariatric) surgery Anti-obesity medicines Intra-abdominal vagal nerve blocking [...]]]>
Obesity rates in America are much higher than they were decades ago. However, a recent study has found that such alarming rates may be leveling off.? By comparing data from 2011 to 2012 with that of 2003 to 2004, it was found that, although there was an increase in obesity in older women, there was no change in youth or adults, and a decrease in obesity rates in very young children. Even though there is a lot more work to be done in getting the United States healthy, these small rays of hope reveal a great chance for a brighter, and lighter, future ahead. For more information, have a look at the full story.]]>