** Latest News ** - The Office of Minority Health

The following represents the content we have available in this category:


	Exercise Benefits Overweight Children A study out of the Medical College of Georgia found that overweight children who exercise daily boosted self esteem and reduced depressive symptoms.
	NIH Partners with Subway NIH launched their official partnership with Subway to tackle the issue of obesity under the WE CAN program.
	B-12 May Impact Neural Tube Defects A study out of Trinity College Dublin found that a woman’s lack of the vitamin B-12, around the time of conception may contribute to the development of neural tube defects in their child.
	Weight Loss Obtainable for Obese Adults A study in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine and funded by NIH, shows that diets low in calories with heart-friendly foods lead to sustained weight loss in overweight and obese adults.
	Parents are Key Factor in Obesity Researchers out of UCLA have found that a strong link to teens and obesity is the amount and types of food they consume because they follow their parents’ eating habits.
	Black Raspberries Help Fight Cancer Researchers from Ohio State University have pinpointed the component in raspberries that inhibited the growth of cancer cells in rats with esophageal cancer. The article appears in the journal of Cancer Prevention Research.
	Diabetes linked to Language Delays in Children According to an article in Pediatrics, children of women with pregnancy-related diabetes are twice as likely to experience language development problems.
	Obesity modifies Thyroid Function and Structure A new study has found that obesity in children contributes to the altering of the thyroid, which secretes hormones that power a person’s metabolism. This has caused scientists to speculate if obesity alters the thyroid, leading to a prolonged experience with obesity versus the thyroid leading to obesity.
	Body Shape not Best Predictor of Problems Washington University scientists in Saint Louis have found that it’s not the body shape that determines if a person is at increased risk for heart disease, but how much fat is stored in the liver. Too much fat is known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and can lead to cirrhosis of the liver in extreme cases or metabolic problems. The study is published in the online addition of obesity.
	Body Shape not Best Predictor of Problems Washington University scientists in Saint Louis have found that it’s not the body shape that determines if a person is at increased risk for heart disease, but how much fat is stored in the liver. Too much fat is known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease and can lead to cirrhosis of the liver in extreme cases or metabolic problems. The study is published in the online addition of obesity.
	Sleep Linked to Weight A study out of the University of Montreal finds that 26 percent of children who did not get enough sleep—at least 10 hours—were overweight by age 6. Some of the causes for fewer hours of sleep were episodes of bed-wetting, nightmares and teeth-grinding.
	Obese Women More Impulsive A study out of the University of Alabama at Birmingham found that obese women were more impulsive than obese men and men and women with healthy weights.
	Drug Use Increases among Young A study out of Saint Louis University finds that children, ages 10 to 14, have more than doubled their use of drugs for obesity-related diseases.
	Blood Test may Predict Obesity A study in the International Journal of Obesity finds that a simple blood test may be all that’s needed to determine if a person is likely to become obese. Researchers state that an increase in triglyceride levels after fatty meals may be one indicator of increased risk.
	Extra Pregnancy Weight Raises Risks Women who gained 40 pounds or more during their pregnancy are more likely to have a heavy baby, according to an article published in the November issue of Obstetrics & Gynecology. Heavy babies can lead to complications during the birth and the likelihood of obesity later in the child’s life.
	Diseases may Delay Diagnosis In the online issue of Neurology, researchers from the University of Manitoba found that people with diagnosed health problems, such as diabetes, high cholesterol and blood pressure and obesity, experienced delays in receiving a multiple sclerosis diagnosis.
	Lack of Exercise quickly Seen A new study out of the University of Missouri finds that the negative effects of skipping exercise are seen in a short timeframe, particularly when it comes to fatty liver disease.
	New NIH Curriculum NIH announced that it will launch its ‘Diabetes Education in Tribal Schools’ curriculum Wednesday, Nov. 12 in D.C. The goal of this K-12 curriculum is to inspire young people to take up careers in health and science and educate them about preventing or delaying diabetes onset in their communities.
	Retaining Health and Weight In the FASEB Journal, researchers are attempting to use a drug to keep obese people healthy by avoiding common obesity-related problems.
	Breastfeeding and Obesity Link Temple researchers conducted a study to find out how breastfeed is linked to lower obesity rates in children. They found that children who are breastfed were able to tell when they were full, while children who were bottle fed were less likely to know they were full and had a higher BMI rate.
	Primed for Alzheimer’s Researchers from the Université Laval have found that the mice that were fed diets high in animal fat and low levels of Omega 3 had neurological markers for Alzheimer’s disease.
	Low-Carb Diets alter Liver Fuction A study appearing in the November issue of Hepatology has found that if a person is on a low-carbohydrate diet, the liver will rely on other substances to produce glucose at an increased rate.
	Bred for Obesity Researchers have tested which factors determine fetal overgrowth and whether or not a child will have a greater chance of being obese based on a pregnant mother’s food consumption.
	Fructose Linked to Weight Gain Consuming foods with high levels of fructose can lead to leptin resistance, according to a study out of the University of Florida’s College of Medicine in Gainesville. Leptin is the hormone the body uses to regulate food consumption with energy usage. Researchers found that the resistance to leptin developed silently; there were not any noticeable indicators of resistance, making people with high-fat, high-calorie diets more susceptible to weight gain.
	Chronic Obesity going Undiagnosed A study appearing in the Journal of Pain looks at why blacks are not diagnosed with chronic obesity as often as others and are less likely to have their BMI assessed, even though obesity has been linked to several other chronic diseases that could lead to the deterioration of health over time.
	Naturally Curbing Hunger Pangs A study out of the University of California-Irvine has found that fatty foods high in unsaturated fat naturally contain oleic acid. This fatty acid is converted to OEA in the small intestine before traveling to nerve endings in the brain to tell the body it is full. Researchers found that the more they increased OEA levels, the more hunger and blood cholesterol decreased. Oleic acid can be found in avocados, olive oil and nuts.
	High-Risk Habits Linked to Lack of Awareness [PDF, 17KB] In a study published in the August 2008 issue of The Journal of Urology, researchers at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health found that the more men participated in unhealthy habits like smoking, the less they were aware of the Prostate Specific Antigen or the importance of having a PSA test.
	Combating Childhood Obesity A report issued during the third week of August draws attention to the fact that obesity rates in adults have risen in every state except for Colorado, leaving rates above 20 percent in the 49 states. Oregon State University Researcher Stewart Trost views obesity as a problem that begins during childhood and encourages 60 minutes of daily activity for young people.
	Obesity increases chances of disability In the August 2008 edition of the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, researchers from the Peninsula Medical School in England published their findings that show a strong link between obesity later in life and a greater likelihood of decreased mobility and disability than a link between obesity later in life and early death.
	Appetite Controllers May Wane with Age Researchers from Monash University in Australia believe they have found that the brain cells that trigger a person to stop eating are attacked by free radicals and over time can lead to overeating and increased weight gain.

You will need Adobe Acrobat® Reader™ to view PDF files located on this site. If you do not already have Adobe Acrobat® Reader™, you can download here for free.