Getting obese patients to lose weight is tricky to begin with, but doctors may have a bigger battle than they thought: many clinically obese men and women think they’re already at a healthy weight.
Obesity
Could Late-Night Exposure to Light Be Making You Fat?
If you stay up late watching TV or bathed in the glow of a computer screen, you probably aren’t doing your waistline any favors. A new study finds that exposure to light at night may contribute to weight gain, independent of diet …
Study: Obese Workers Cost Employers $73 Billion Per Year
Obesity is expensive — for the person living with it, for the health-care system and now, according to a study in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, for employers. The U.S. economy suffers a $73.1 billion …
More Obesity Fallout: Nearly 50 Million Americans with Arthritis
More than one-fifth of American adults — that’s 49.9 million people — are clinically diagnosed with arthritis and, of those, 20 million say they are physically limited by the condition, according to new government figures. …
Study: Want to Drop a Few Pounds? Lie in Bed
Next time your alarm clock sounds, you can hit the snooze button in good conscience: sleeping in may help you lose fat.
Family MattersObesity
Do Parents Discriminate Against Their Own Chubby Children?
It’s no secret that overweight kids are typically not the most popular kids on the block. Nor is it news that kids can be mean, forming groups of “haves” and “have-nots,” gossiping, ostracizing their chunky classmates.
For Women Who Want to Stay Slim, a Heavy Roommate Might Help
The myth of the dreaded “freshman 15,” it seems, is greatly exaggerated. That’s the average amount of weight that college freshmen supposedly gain after moving into dorms where beer and pizza are more plentiful than fresh …
Is There Still Hope for the Weight Loss Drug Qnexa?
Back in July, an FDA advisory panel voted not to recommend obesity drug Qnexa for government approval because of concerns about cardiovascular risks, memory loss and suicidal thoughts in people taking it, and potential harm to …
Can Catching a Cold Make You Fat?
Catching a cold is almost a rite of passage for the chilly winter months when people and viruses are often in close quarters. And that’s especially true among children, who aren’t stingy about what they share among friends …
Why White Girls Are Getting More Weight Loss Surgery
Researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the rate of weight loss surgery in the U.S., including lap band and gastric bypass, went up by 700% between 2005 and 2007. But we already knew that the …
Study: Imbalanced Metabolism Linked to Childhood Asthma
Doctors have long suspected a link between obesity and asthma, but it may be an underlying cause of obesity — poor metabolism due to inactivity or an unhealthy diet — that is actually related to the respiratory condition. New …
Study: Can We Tell Our Genes to Make Us Fat?
The fight against obesity has engaged many fields of medicine: genetics to predict it; nutrition to prevent it; surgery to manage it; and endocrinology to deal with one of its biggest side effects, diabetes.
New Fat Fighting Machines: Real, FDA Approved
Two new machines that either freeze or deflate fat cells, helping to assist weight loss and even change a person’s overall shape, may be on the market soon. According to the FDA, they are not a gimmick.
