Obesity

In some adults, the white fat cells that we all stockpile so readily are supplemented by a very different form of fat -- brown fat cells, which can offer the neat trick of burning energy rather than storing it. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center, which last year led the way in demonstrating an active role for brown fat in adults, now have identified progenitor cells in mouse white fat tissue and skeletal muscle that can be transformed into brown fat cells.

In addition to fast food, desk jobs, and inertia, there is one more thing to blame for unwanted pounds-our genome, which has apparently not caught up with the fact that we no longer live in the Stone Age.

If you're looking to lose weight, it's okay to think about eating your favorite candy bar. In fact, go ahead and imagine devouring every last bite -- all in the name of your diet. A new study by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University, published in Science, shows that when you imagine eating a certain food, it reduces your actual consumption of that food. This landmark discovery changes the decades-old assumption that thinking about something desirable increases cravings for it and its consumption.

Researchers at the Faculty of Life Sciences (LIFE), University of Copenhagen, can now unveil the results of the world's largest diet study: If you want to lose weight, you should maintain a diet that is high in proteins with more lean meat, low-fat dairy products and beans and fewer finely refined starch calories such as white bread and white rice. With this diet, most people can also eat until they are full without counting calories and without gaining weight.

With all the attention focused on the twin epidemics of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, few people are aware of another closely related condition that is rapidly becoming another major epidemic. According to the American Liver Association, fatty liver disease – marked by the abnormal accumulation of fat in the liver – currently affects as many as one in five Americans.

Dealing with extended family, increased commitments and even celebratory occasions can cause a compulsive overeater to gain too much weight during the holiday season. "Many of us deal with depression, disappointment, loneliness and unfulfilled expectations during the holiday season," said Stefanie C. Barthmare, a psychotherapist with the Methodist Weight Management Center in Houston.

Researchers at Harvard University say America's obesity epidemic won't plateau until at least 42 percent of adults are obese, an estimate derived by applying mathematical modeling to 40 years of Framingham Heart Study data.

Statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) rank mortality related to chronic liver disease and cirrhosis as the 12th most common cause of death in adults in the U.S. Using a modified definition that includes diseases such as viral hepatitis, liver cancer and obesity-related fatty liver disease (liver diseases), Mayo Clinic-led researchers have found that liver-related mortality is as high as fourth for some age groups, and eighth overall.

Different formulations of red yeast rice, a supplement marketed as a way to improve cholesterol levels, appear widely inconsistent in the amounts of active ingredients they contain, according to a report in the Oct. 25 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine, one of the JAMA/Archives journals. In addition, one in three of 12 products studied had detectable levels of a potentially toxic compound.

The blood vessels of obese children have stiffness normally seen in much older adults with cardiovascular disease, Dr. Kevin Harris told the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress 2010, co-hosted by the Canadian Cardiovascular Society and the Heart and Stroke Foundation. The clock is ticking and the shape of the 13 year-old-heart is changing -- for the worse.

People who consume several servings of whole grains per day while limiting daily intake of refined grains appear to have less of a type of fat tissue thought to play a key role in triggering cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes, a new study suggests.

Researchers at the University of Palermo in Italy provide the evidence that a higher visceral adiposity index score -- a new index of adipose dysfunction -- has a direct correlation with viral load and is independently associated with both steatosis and necroinflammatory activity in patients with genotype 1 chronic hepatitis C (G1 CHC).