http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. The higher the percentage of people in a city, town or neighborhood with Facebook interests suggesting a healthy, active lifestyle, the lower that area's obesity rate. At the same time, areas with a large percentage of Facebook users with television-related interests tend to have higher rates of obesity. Such are the conclusions of a study by Boston Children's Hospital researchers comparing geotagged Facebook user data with data from national and New York City-focused health surveys. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-facebook-track-obesity.html Overweight and Obesity Wed, 24 Apr 2013 17:00:10 EST news286037672 Researchers from the University of Alberta are leading a charge among Canada's obesity experts and calling on the federal government to ban food and beverage ads that target children. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-food-ads-kids.html Health Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:12:37 EST news283101149 A study from the Regenstrief Institute and the Indiana University Center for Aging Research has found that many older adults are hesitant to halt cancer screenings even when the screenings may no longer be beneficial or may even be potentially harmful. The study is among the first to explore older adults' perceptions of recommendations to halt screenings for breast, prostate, colon and other cancers as they age. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-03-older-adults-views-cancer-screening.html Cancer Mon, 11 Mar 2013 16:00:08 EST news282226391 Arguing that obesity "may be the most difficult and elusive public health problem the United States has ever encountered" and that anti-obesity efforts having made little discernible difference, Daniel Callahan, co-founder and President Emeritus of The Hastings Center, proposes a bold and controversial approach to fighting the epidemic. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-01-bioethics-leader-bold-approach-obesity.html Overweight and Obesity Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:52:42 EST news278081553 Americans get too many calories from soda. But what about alcohol? It turns out adults get almost as many empty calories from booze as from soft drinks, a government study found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-booze-calories-equal-soda-adults.html Health Thu, 15 Nov 2012 05:45:15 EST news272180699 Parents with a higher number of stressors in their lives are more likely to have obese children, according to a new study by pediatric researchers. Furthermore, when parents perceive themselves to be stressed, their children eat fast food more often, compared to children whose parents feel less stressed. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-greater-parental-stress-linked-children.html Pediatrics Mon, 22 Oct 2012 13:08:41 EST news270130095 In this week's BMJ, two experts debate whether celebrity involvement in public health campaigns can deliver long term benefits. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-celebrities-involved-health-campaigns.html Health Tue, 25 Sep 2012 18:30:06 EST news267808018 (Medical Xpress)—With over two thirds of Americans now overweight or obese, public health campaigns have emerged across the country to promote behavior that can help reduce America's waistline. But do the messages communicated by these campaigns help reduce obesity or potentially make the problem worse? http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-obesity-americans-positive-messages-shame.html Overweight and Obesity Wed, 12 Sep 2012 08:39:47 EST news266657981 Despite the increasing awareness of the problem of obesity in the United States, most Americans don't know whether they are gaining or losing weight, according to new research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-americans-gaining-weight.html Overweight and Obesity Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:12:14 EST news263038285 Health advocates need to organize strong public health campaigns to educate the public and policymakers about the dangers of both sugary beverages and the misleading industry corporate social responsibility campaigns that distract from their products' health risks, according to US experts writing in this week's PLoS Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-soda-companies-pr-campaigns-bad.html Health Tue, 19 Jun 2012 17:53:01 EST news259347176 (HealthDay) -- The rate at which Americans are hospitalized for stroke has fallen, according to new government statistics released Wednesday. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-05-hospitalizations-declined.html Cardiology Wed, 09 May 2012 13:20:01 EST news255787180 Brain scans of a small group of people can predict the actions of entire populations, according to a new study by researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Oregon and the University of California at Los Angeles. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-small-neural-focus-groups-anti-smoking.html Psychology & Psychiatry Wed, 25 Apr 2012 10:48:54 EST news254569625