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Overweight & Obesity news

Overweight & Obesity

Key enzyme controls both weight gain and cholesterol levels in animal models

Obesity is a global epidemic and a major cause of morbidity and mortality because it increases the risk for comorbidities, including heart disease and fatty liver disease (MASLD). Rates of these disorders have risen as the ...

Medications

Novo Nordisk says US approves first GLP-1 pill for weight loss

Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk announced Monday the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had approved its popular GLP-1 anti-obesity drug Wegovy to be administered in pill form for weight loss.

Overweight & Obesity

Ret finger protein: A hidden molecular switch that fuels obesity

Obesity is one of the greatest burdens of global public health. One major factor that drives obesity is excessive fat accumulation. Despite decades of research, the biological processes that trigger this abnormal fat accumulation ...

Overweight & Obesity

States retreat from covering drugs for weight loss

Some states are rethinking their coverage of GLP-1 drugs for weight loss as budgets tighten and Medicaid programs brace for the cuts included in President Donald Trump's broad tax and spending law.

Psychology & Psychiatry

One short quiz could help people stick to their weight loss plans

A new study, published in JMIR Formative Research, has found that people who answered a brief quiz to determine their "eating profile" were more likely to stick with their program and stay committed to their weight loss goals ...

Overweight & Obesity

COVID-19 pandemic linked to increases in childhood obesity

The COVID-19 pandemic not only disrupted children's education, recreation, and social lives, but it also increased the prevalence of obesity in the U.S. pediatric population by roughly 1 million youngsters, according to a ...

Alzheimer's disease & dementia

Blood test shows obesity speeds Alzheimer's development

Researchers have conducted the first study evaluating the impact of obesity on Alzheimer's disease blood biomarkers (BBMs). BBM values increased up to 95% faster in individuals with obesity than in non-obese individuals, ...

Overweight & Obesity

WHO backs GLP-1 treatments to tackle obesity epidemic

A range of blockbuster weight-loss and diabetes drugs could help shift the trajectory of the global obesity epidemic, which affects over one billion people worldwide, the World Health Organization said Monday.

Medications

WHO recommends Ozempic-style weight loss drugs for obesity

Obesity affects more than 1 billion people worldwide and is recognized by the World Health Organization as a chronic, relapsing disease associated with substantial morbidity, mortality, and economic burden.

Surgery

Beyond weight loss: Bariatric surgery may reduce cancer risk

When you think about obesity, you may not connect it to cancer. However, researchers long have suspected a link between certain cancers and weight. Among those are endometrial, ovarian, colon, liver, pancreatic and postmenopausal ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Is emotional eating sabotaging your weight-loss efforts?

You know losing that extra weight would be good for your health. Your health care team talked with you about how obesity increases your risk of other health issues, such as heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure and ...

Obstetrics & gynaecology

Smoking during pregnancy may raise odds of overweight children

New research has turned up another reason for women to avoid smoking during pregnancy. A recent study published in the journal Gut Microbes has found an association between mothers smoking during pregnancy and a higher risk ...

Overweight & Obesity

BRD7 research points to alternative insulin signaling pathway

Bromodomain-containing protein 7 (BRD7) was initially identified as a tumor suppressor, but further research has shown it has a broader role in other cellular processes, including the remodeling of chromosomes and cell cycle ...

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 ...

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

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 ...