Last update:

Overweight & Obesity news

Genetics

Researchers identify causal genetic variant linked to common childhood obesity

Researchers from Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) have identified a causal genetic variant strongly associated with childhood obesity. The study provides new insight into the importance of the hypothalamus of the ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Does obesity really increase your risk of dementia?

Many dementia charities advise people to maintain a healthy weight to reduce their risk of dementia. But some studies have suggested that obesity might actually protect against dementia. What does the science say?

Overweight & Obesity

New regulator of eating behavior identified

The rapidly escalating prevalence of overweight and obesity poses a significant medical challenge worldwide. In addition to people's changing lifestyles, genetic factors also play a key role in the development of obesity.

Overweight & Obesity

New drug candidate reverses obesity in mice

Researchers at Karolinska Institutet may have found a new way to treat obesity and related disorders by targeting the cells' mitochondria. A study published in Nature Metabolism shows that a specific class of drugs that block ...

Overweight & Obesity

Rio de Janeiro tests new recipe against childhood obesity

Chicken with potatoes, carrot-and-cabbage salad: it looks like a detox meal, but it's the menu at a school cafeteria in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, which is seeking new ways to fight childhood obesity.

Overweight & Obesity

Researchers from Denmark and Germany find brown fat's 'off-switch'

Brown fat, also known as brown adipose tissue (BAT), is a type of fat in our bodies that's different from the white fat around our belly and thighs that we are more familiar with. Brown fat has a special job—it helps to ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Intriguing food reflex discovered with a smartphone

Psychologist Hilmar Zech found that overweight people are actually more attracted to food pictures after eating than before. He did so using an old research method that he revamped for use on smartphones. Zech will defend ...

Overweight & Obesity

Abdominal obesity might predict risk of fecal incontinence

Fecal incontinence (FI), or involuntary loss of bowel control, significantly impacts quality of life and mental health for millions of adults in the U.S. Obesity is thought to affect bowel function, but the relationship between ...

Neuroscience

Study reveals how obesity could accelerate aging in the brain

A new study conducted in mice traces how obesity and a high-fat diet may accelerate aging in the blood vessels that supply blood to the brain. The work is being presented this week at the American Physiology Summit, the flagship ...

Cardiology

Study suggests high blood pressure could begin in childhood

Children and teenagers living with overweight or obesity are more likely to have high blood pressure as adults (aged 50–64 years), suggesting the processes behind the condition could begin as early as childhood, suggests ...