According to a new Danish study, obesity isn't as bad for health as it used to be. More exactly, the BMI associated with the lowest mortality risk seems to be higher than it was 40 years ago. But given some of the problems associated with using BMI to estimate obesity, we're not so sure that these results apply to everyone.
obesity
We've all heard the nonsense that artificial sweeteners are bad for you — they cause cancer and a variety of other diseases, according to some scare mongers. The latest scary story is a link between moms' drinking artificially sweetened beverages during pregnancy, and obesity in their offspring one year later.
Participants in the "Biggest Loser" reality TV contest are able to shed massive amounts of weigh — frequently, 100 pounds or more. But followup studies indicate that maintaining that sizeable loss isn't a piece of cake, because often the body's metabolism fights back.
It's well accepted that being obese, or even overweight, isn't good for you. But some data suggests that these states might actually be healthy — a situation known as the obesity paradox. A new study suggests that this apparent contradiction is tied to the metric used to decide who's fat and who isn't — the BMI.
Online weight-loss programs are convenient — you can access them from home whenever it suits you. But how good are they? It's hard to tell sometimes just from looking at the site. A new study suggests that consumers and their healthcare providers take a close look before advising or using many of these sites.
Obesity is without question a complex medical condition, but our knowledge as to effective treatment is in its infancy. As such, the "obesity penalty" unquestionably fails the reality test, as Dr. David Seres of Columbia University explains.
A Nebraska-based study of changes in the prevalence of arthritis and related conditions found large increases during the period of 2007-2012. One possible reason for this situation is the ongoing, widespread prevalence of obesity in the state.
It's easy to be led astray by trusting to logic when evaluating health advice. But sometimes logic is borne out by science, as in the case of a recent study of prevention of knee arthritis by weight loss in overweight and obese women.
Can people be motivated to change their behavior to improve their health? Encouraging weight loss by financially rewarding individuals isn't particularly effective. But a new study suggests that using a "stick," with fines that penalize inactivity, just might be more effective than a dangling the money "carrot."
If someone has been obese for many years, would undergoing bariatric surgery still be helpful, allowing them to live longer? A recent study shows that while middle-aged patients benefitted, "bypass surgery is protective against mortality even for older patients."
Although obesity is linked to a myriad of negative health effects, there are some obese people who still seem to escape these impacts. But a new study from South Korea suggests that there may be hidden health impacts even in these people with so-called "healthy obesity."
Although we know that obesity is associated with an increased risk of numerous ills, it hasn't been clear that it's also linked to an increased risk of death. A new study suggests that the way the BMI data has been examined may account for that dissonance, and that body weight history may also weigh in on mortality risk.