BU Researchers Identify Specific Causes of Brown Fat Cell “Whitening” » Public Relations | Blog Archive | Boston University

Overeating can cause metabolically active brown fat cells to become inactive...

BU Researchers Identify Specific Causes of Brown Fat Cell “Whitening” » Public Relations | Blog Archive | Boston University

Study: Coffee Cuts Cancer Risk | The Scientist Magazine®

"study participants who reported drinking one to three cups of coffee per day had a 29 percent drop in HCC risk; those who drank four or more cups saw their risk of developing HCC drop by 42 percent."

“Now we can add HCC to the list of medical ailments, such as Parkinson’s disease, type 2 diabetes, and stroke, that may be prevented by coffee intake,” Setiawan said in a statement.

Study: Coffee Cuts Cancer Risk | The Scientist Magazine®

Daily serving of beans, peas, chickpeas or lentils can significantly reduce bad cholesterol

Nutrition is just so simple...eat your beans!

Our Stories - Newsroom - Who We Are - St. Michael's

Does a junk food diet make you lazy? UCLA psychology study offers answer / UCLA Newsroom

 "Our data suggest that diet-induced obesity is a cause, rather than an effect, of laziness. Either the highly processed diet causes fatigue or the diet causes obesity, which causes fatigue."

Does a junk food diet make you lazy? UCLA psychology study offers answer / UCLA Newsroom

Over a Lifetime, Childhood Obesity Costs $19,000 Per Child

“Reducing childhood obesity is a public health priority that has substantial health and economic benefits,” said lead author Eric Andrew Finkelstein, Ph.D., M.H.A. “These estimates provide the financial consequences of inaction and the potential medical savings from obesity prevention efforts that successfully reduce or delay obesity onset.”

Over a Lifetime, Childhood Obesity Costs $19,000 Per Child

Increased time on Facebook could lead women to negative body images

"for women who want to lose weight, more time on Facebook led to more attention being paid to physical appearance. This included attention to one's body and clothing."

Increased time on Facebook could lead women to negative body images

Who Is at Risk for Overweight and Obesity? - NHLBI, NIH

• In women, overweight and obesity are highest among non-Hispanic Black women (about 82 percent), compared with about 76 percent for Hispanic women and 64 percent for non-Hispanic White women.
• In men, overweight and obesity are highest among Hispanic men (about 82 percent), compared with about 74 percent for non-Hispanic White men and about 70 percent for non-Hispanic Black men.

Who Is at Risk for Overweight and Obesity? - NHLBI, NIH

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Overweight and Obesity? - NHLBI, NIH

• Clothes feeling tight and needing a larger size.
• The scale showing that you've gained weight.
• Having extra fat around the waist.
• A higher than normal body mass index and waist circumference. (For more information, go to "How Are Overweight and Obesity Diagnosed?")

What Are the Signs and Symptoms of Overweight and Obesity? - NHLBI, NIH

Are chromium supplements helpful in lowering blood sugar levels?

"chromium supplements are not effective at lowering fasting blood sugar in healthy individuals, or diabetics."

Are chromium supplements helpful in lowering blood sugar levels?

Green is good

Fried green tomatoes anyone?  Okay, well not fried, the tomatidine found in green tomatoes may be come a superfood for genetically engineered foods...

Green is good

Leisure-time physical activity from mid- to late life, body mass index, and risk of dementia

" physically active, or becoming more active, after midlife may also contribute to lowering dementia risk, especially in people who are overweight or obese at midlife."

Leisure-time physical activity from mid- to late life, body mass index, and risk of dementia

Patients Can Now Choose Not to Know Their Own DNA Secrets - Scientific American

How about addressing the obvious--Obesity, poor nutrition, lack of exercise--Exposing "genetic clues" might offer an incorrect cause for a preventable excuse?

"When doctors test for one reason, clues to an entirely different disease may emerge. Sometimes those genetic clues provide an early warning that will save a life, but they can also be wrong, leading to unnecessary stress and risky treatments."

Patients Can Now Choose Not to Know Their Own DNA Secrets - Scientific American

Out of Sync | The Scientist Magazine®

" it’s not just disrupted sleep that can lead to these myriad physiological symptoms; it’s also the altered patterns of food consumption that go along with keeping such strange hours."

"But humans, particularly those in developed countries with abundant artificial light, late-night TV, and 24-hour diners, have been putting themselves through an inadvertent experiment over the last few decades. No longer does daylight dictate the times when we eat. “That is the cycle that has gone wrong in the last 50 years,” says Panda.

With caution and caveats, one could speculate that this is, in part, why obesity and metabolic disorders have escalated to epidemic levels, particularly when mistimed eating is coupled with a high-fat, high-carbohydrate diet. It stands to reason that our metabolic functions, as controlled by the circadian clock, evolved to cycle in harmony with the Earth’s daily rhythms, to optimize processes such as energy use and storage. In doing so, we became adapted to eat during the daytime, and maladapted for eating at night. Opposing these rhythms, as many of us now do, may challenge our bodies’ normal cycles and set us up for disease. “Like many evolutionary arguments, it’s hard to prove,” says Lazar. “But otherwise it’s hard to imagine why else we would need things so tightly linked to the Earth’s rotation.”

Out of Sync | The Scientist Magazine®

Study Further Illuminates Heart-Healthy Benefits of Mediterranean Diet

"An important finding of this study is that it indicates that the Mediterranean diet as a whole, and not just a few specific ingredients, is likely responsible for the beneficial health outcomes among the healthy population and should be encouraged as part of healthy eating habits," said Dr. Bonaccio. 

Study Further Illuminates Heart-Healthy Benefits of Mediterranean Diet

Smoking may dull obese women's ability to taste fat and sugar | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

 "Our findings suggest that having this intense craving but not perceiving fat and sweetness in food may lead these women to eat more. Since smoking and obesity are risk factors for cardiovascular and metabolic diseases, the additional burden of craving more fats and sugars, while not fully tasting them, could be detrimental to health."

Smoking may dull obese women's ability to taste fat and sugar | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

Probiotics may be able to help you keep slim

"One possible mechanism of action for satiating probiotics is that they may cause a release of satiety inducing hormones from the gut. We are studying this directly in surviving segments of the small intestine from pigs which resemble humans very much in this respect," Holst explains.

Probiotics may be able to help you keep slim

Eyes in the cereal aisle – How Cap’n Crunch’s gaze is influencing your purchasing | Media Relations Office

“By studying more than 80 breakfast spokes-characters, we found that kids’ cereals are positioned at the same height as kids ­– about 23 inches off of the floor and adult’s cereals are positioned at about 48 inches off of the floor.”

Eyes in the cereal aisle – How Cap’n Crunch’s gaze is influencing your purchasing | Media Relations Office

Positive, negative thinkers' brains revealed

“The worriers actually showed a paradoxical backfiring effect in their brains when asked to decrease their negative emotions,” Moser said. “This suggests they have a really hard time putting a positive spin on difficult situations and actually make their negative emotions worse even when they are asked to think positively.” - See more at: http://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2014/positive-negative-thinkers-brains-revealed/#sthash.9PzonrPc.dpuf

Positive, negative thinkers' brains revealed

Too many diet drinks may spell heart trouble for older women

This is significant~"those who consumed two or more a day were 30 percent more likely to suffer a cardiovascular event and 50 percent more likely to die from related disease."

This includes diet sodas and diet fruit drinks.
Too many diet drinks may spell heart trouble for older women

Anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills linked to risk of death

Find alternatives to pills--exercise, nutrition, hot teas, meditation, etc.

Anti-anxiety drugs and sleeping pills linked to risk of death