Brain Versus Gut: Our Inborn Food Fight

(PhysOrg.com) -- The relatively larger human brain makes us the most intelligent of the primates. But if we're so smart, how come we've eaten our way into an obesity epidemic? One reason is the relatively smaller human stomach ...

Obese workers cost workplace more than insurance, absenteeism

The cost of obesity among U.S. full-time employees is estimated to be $73.1 billion, according to a new study by a Duke University obesity researcher, published today in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Dragonfly gut infections suggest environmental role in obesity

Obesity and diabetes are not just problems of modern-day humans and their domesticated pets. Insects also are affected by these health conditions, and intestinal infections by protozoans are the cause, according to researchers ...

Obesity: Reviving the promise of leptin

(PhysOrg.com) -- The discovery more than a decade ago of leptin, an appetite-suppressing hormone secreted by fat tissue, generated headlines and great hopes for an effective treatment for obesity. But hopes dimmed when it ...

Key chocolate ingredients could help prevent obesity, diabetes

Improved thinking. Decreased appetite. Lowered blood pressure. The potential health benefits of dark chocolate keep piling up, and scientists are now homing in on what ingredients in chocolate might help prevent obesity, ...

Toward a safe antiobesity drug that could block fat absorption

To help address the global obesity epidemic, scientists are developing a new class of compounds called "micelle sequestrant polymers," or MSPs, that could prevent fat particles from getting absorbed in the body and thus potentially ...

Teachers may be cause of 'obesity penalty' on girls' grades

While obesity is often thought of as a health problem, a new study by a University of Illinois at Chicago sociologist suggests that discrimination by body weight may be the more important factor for obese white female students' ...

Kittens: Their microbiomes are what they eat

For animals as well as people, diet affects what grows in the gut. The gut microbial colonies, also known as the gut microbiome, begin to form at birth. Their composition affects how the immune system develops and is linked ...

page 9 from 12