Results tagged “research” from Weight Loss & Nutrition News

Obese couples have a more difficult time conceiving a baby than couples of normal weight, according to a study published on Tuesday identifying another consequence of putting on too much weight.

Researchers tracked nearly 48,000 Danish couples between 1996 and 2002, including about 7,600 couples with both the man and woman either overweight or obese according to standards set by the World Health Organization.

They measured how long it took couples to conceive a baby once they began unprotected sex in a bid to have a child.

A single protein in brain cells may act as a linchpin in the body's weight-regulating system, playing a key role in the flurry of signals that govern fat storage, sugar use, energy balance and weight, University of Michigan Medical School researchers report.

And although it's far too early to say how this protein could be useful in new strategies to fight the world?s epidemic of obesity, the finding gives scientists an important system to target in future research and the development of anti-obesity medications.

In the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, U-M researcher Liangyou Rui, Ph.D. and his team report their findings on a protein called SH2B1, and specifically on its activity in brain cells.

Washington - Can a gene from an orange cauliflower found three decades ago be the key to making food crops more nutritious?

Quite possibly, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist Li Li. She's using cauliflower to identify genes and define molecular mechanisms that regulate nutrients in plant-based foods.

Li, a molecular biologist at the ARS U.S. Plant, Soil and Nutrition Laboratory (PSNL) in Ithaca, N.Y., is making significant headway using this gene--dubbed "Or" for the color orange--to induce high levels of beta-carotene in food crops. She and colleagues at Cornell University isolated the gene last year.

Wow, what a research. How useful and encouraging. Your fat belly is caused by bacterias. Not by your bad eating habits, your lazy lifestyle and  barrels of coke that you drink every year. Blame someone else, not yourself.

WASHINGTON - The size of your gut may be partly shaped by which microbes call it home, according to new research linking obesity to types of digestive bacteria.

Both obese mice — and people — had more of one type of bacteria and less of another kind, according to two studies published Thursday in the journal Nature.

A “microbial component” appears to contribute to obesity, said study lead author Jeffrey Gordon, director of Washington University’s Center for Genome Sciences.

`If your New Year's resolution is to lose weight, drinking water may be an easy and healthy way to start,` said Children's Hospital Oakland Research Institute scientist Jodi Stookey in a statement released Thursday.

While studying the impact of water consumption on weight loss, researchers in Oakland discovered drinking at least four glasses of water each day in place of sugary beverages can help dieters lose additional weight, the institute reported.

According to the study, 70 percent of the 240 over-weight women studied frequently drank at least one sugary beverage each day before following popular diet plans. At the end of the yearlong study, researchers found that women who drank water instead of sugary drinks lost three additional pounds on average.

"This study may help explain the link between dietary fat consumption and inflammation and could be one of the critical links between metabolism and immune responses," says senior author Professor Charles Mackay, Director of Sydney's Garvan Institute's Immunology Program.

Our intake of fats (fatty acids) has changed dramatically over the last thirty years. At the same time there has been an increase in inflammatory diseases in the western world - especially asthma, atherosclerosis, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. "We have shown that a subset of white blood cells, called dendritic cells, which initiate immune responses, rely on the fatty acid binding molecule aP2 for their function. It is possible that different fatty acids or their total levels will affect aP2 function in dendritic cells, and hence affect immune responses," explains Mackay.

Considering all the past concern about possible health risks from drinking coffee, newer reports of coffee’s possible protective effects may leave many people confused.

Overall, recent studies suggest that coffee (regular and decaffeinated) may offer a variety of health benefits against diseases such as cancer and diabetes. However, coffee may not deserve a place in the same category with other healthful foods like vegetables, fruits and whole grains.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AFX) - Nestle AG announced a five-year research agreement between the Nestle Research Center (NRC) and the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology EPFL, aiming to investigate the relationship between nutrition and the brain.

Under the agreement, Nestle will contribute 5 mln sfr per year to research at EPFL's Brain Mind Institute, where two Nestle Chairs will be established. The research will extend from studying the role nutrition plays in children's brain development to identifying ways of slowing down brain decline in older age and preventing diseases such as Alzheimer's, the food company said.

The agreement will also include research into taste perception and flavour enhancement, it added.

source AFX News 

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Heavier patients with clogged heart arteries have lower death rates in the short term than their leaner counterparts because they get more aggressive treatment, a study said on Wednesday.

This so-called obesity paradox could occur because overweight patients were younger and doctors might be more willing to perform invasive treatments on them, said the study's author, Benjamin Steinberg, a visiting medical student at Johns Hopkins University.

The analysis of 130,139 patients found that heavier patients did better because doctors were more likely to follow standard treatment guidelines, including performing surgeries like angioplasty, which may improve their outcomes.

The best economic investment a nation can make is to invest in the health of its citizens, a European Commission report concludes.

Most studies of the link between health and wealth look at poor countries, note World Health Organization economist Marc Suhrcke and colleagues. Yet rich nations owe much of their wealth to previous health gains.

"For example, about 30% of economic growth in the United Kingdom between 1790 and 1980 has been estimated to be attributed to better health and dietary intake," Suhrcke and colleagues write in the journal BMJ. "Better health meant that British workers increased their ability to convert energy into productive work by over 50% during this period."

In a survey of 3,500 people, a University of Connecticut team discerned that 34 percent of Americans trying to lose weight are using supplements – an encouraging indicator for the dietary supplement industry.

The survey, funded by pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline, was conducted nationwide from November 2005 to January 2006. Nearly half of the respondents, or 1,444 people, said they had made a serious attempt to lose weight at some point in time for at least three days. Of these, approximately one third said they used supplements while only 15 percent used prescription drugs.

The results are encouraging for nutraceutical manufacturers: use of dietary supplements and herbal products came in third place, behind self-directed exercise and dieting, with 90 percent and 72 percent respectively.