News by Subject Medicine & Health

Less physical activity for infants below one year of age may lead to more fat accumulation which in turn may predispose them to obesity later in life, suggests a study led by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Interoception is the awareness of our physiological states. But precisely how the brain calculates and reacts to this information remains unclear. In a paper published in the journal Neuron, neuroscientists at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) demonstrate how the insular cortex orchestrates the process. The work represents the first steps toward understanding the neural basis of interoception, which could allow researchers to address key questions in eating disorders, obesity, drug addiction, and a host of other diseases.

A study involving tens of thousands of bariatric surgery patients found that gastric bypass patients were significantly more likely than gastric sleeve patients to end up back in the hospital in the years following surgery.

Researchers are developing a new form 'Coolsculpting' technology that can selectively reduce fat almost anywhere in the body using a safe, injectable ice solution or 'slurry.'

Fat cells are filled with droplets coated by molecules that act like hotel doormen: These 'doormen' control cellular access for nutrients as well as for the exit of energy-supplying molecules called lipids. In healthy individuals, outgoing and incoming traffic in fat cells is finely balanced, supplying energy while preventing excessive spread of undesirable fat in the belly.

Post-bariatric hypoglycemia is a profoundly life-altering condition for patients. Having unpredictable hypoglycemia that people can't detect is really an unsafe situation. Researchers at Joslin Diabetes Center and Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences have developed a closed-loop system that automatically provides patients with an appropriate, as-needed dose of liquid glucagon to treat this condition.

1.9 billion people in the world are overweight. Of these, 650 million people are obese, which increases the risk of secondary diseases such as cancer. Professor Martin Klingenspor and his team at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) examine how our fat metabolism affects our health. In cooperation with the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), the team has uncovered a network of genes that could turn energy-storing fat into beneficial calorie-burning fat.

Genetic testing as a determinant of future obesity is not as effective as tracking a patient's BMI over time, a new study finds.

A new Pediatric Obesity study reveals how excess weight at age 3 years was associated with a higher risk of being overweight or obese at age 15 years in a study of adolescents in Japan.