The far-flung empire of obesity research necessarily includes propositions and theories that strike some professionals as unlikely, if not seriously insane. But once a condition is acknowledged to be multifactorial, the gates are open for researchers ... [Continue Reading]
Canada among highest health-care spenders yet ranks near bottom on number of doctors, hospital beds and wait times
Despite spending more on health care than the majority of developed countries with universal coverage, Canada has a relatively short supply of doctors and hospital beds—and the longest wait times, finds a new study released today by the Fraser ... [Continue Reading]
Immune and Metabolic Factors in Adipose Tissue
Diseases associated with increased number and activation of M1 macrophages (left side) and increased number and activation of M2 macrophages (right side). This post consults a number of published articles and lifts pertinent ideas from them without ... [Continue Reading]
Inflammation, Obesity, Immunity, and the Brain
Sometimes discovery involves a long and often painfully exacting process of connecting seemingly disparate bits of information. By 2014, researchers had begun to suspect that shedding extra fat somehow improves brain function. There was evidence that ... [Continue Reading]
Inflammation, Obesity, and Breast Cancer
“Does obesity cause chronic inflammation?” Childhood Obesity News is looking at the idea, but the picture is far from clear. Science is still exploring the relationship between the two. It is pretty clear that obesity is connected with ... [Continue Reading]
Inflammation and Obesity
In the universe of pediatrics, one thing that can be counted on is the regular issuance of warnings about the damage childhood obesity can cause. Sometimes it’s a delayed reaction situation, with trouble insidiously and stealthily building up ... [Continue Reading]
Get On That Treadmill
Every once in a while, Google Alerts spits out a truly un-ignorable headline, and here is the current startling example: “Not exercising enough is worse for you than smoking and diabetes, study suggests.” The reputation of diabetes as a ... [Continue Reading]
More on Pediatric Obesity, Bones, and Joints
Blount’s disease, or Blount disease, or tibia varia, used to be called bowleg deformity, and it results from pressure on the growth plate at the tibia’s proximal end. What would exert abnormal force on a medial tibial growth plate? There ... [Continue Reading]
Bones, Joints, and Pediatric Obesity
We’ve recently discussed Slipped Capital Femoral Epiphysis, or SCFE, which is highly correlated with high Body Mass Index, or BMI. The concept was clearly described by Reuters journalist Lisa Rapaport: Children and teens are considered obese ... [Continue Reading]
Advice about SCFE: Don’t Get It
In the realm of scientific studies, 600,000 is quite a large number for a cohort, or bunch of people with something in common; or as today’s entrepreneurs prefer to call such a group, a demographic. Thanks to Scotland’s routine collection ... [Continue Reading]
Oral curcumin shows no benefit in reducing inflammation following vascular surgery
A study of oral curcumin, the active medicinal ingredient in turmeric, showed no benefit in preventing inflammation and complications in patients undergoing elective surgery for aortic aneurysm repair, according to a large randomized controlled trial ... [Continue Reading]
Some Notes on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
In the area of weight loss for health, two things are clear: Long-term sustainability is the prevention of relapse, and relapse avoidance is long-term viability. Is Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) an answer that stands up to the test? It seems ... [Continue Reading]
The Word of the Day Is “Connect”
“Connect” turns out to be a very important word. Almost everything that we as humans ever want to do requires that something be connected to something else. Connection is a major concept. Remember how many years it took to produce the 5th ... [Continue Reading]
Only Connect!
Connection is a current topic of interest. For HumanistLife.org, Emily Buchanan wrote that “E. M. Forster was uncannily aware of our future dependence on technology.” This is based on, among other things, the crucial line of ... [Continue Reading]
The Run-up to January’s Clinical Trial Launch
When the wearable insulin pump was invented, that advance signified a dramatically improved existence for at least some diabetics. (The devices are expensive.) But when something works, it tends to become more affordable over time. Likewise, the ... [Continue Reading]
Outstanding in Their Field: Suzette Glasner-Edwards, Ph.D.
Childhood Obesity News has looked at numerous aspects of the intersection between technology and therapy. Electronic gadgets like computers and mobile phones, as well as numerous kinds of trackers and monitors, have captured the imagination of the ... [Continue Reading]