Severely obese fastest-growing US overweight group
People who are 100 pounds (45 kg) or more overweight are the fastest-growing group of overweight people in the United States, researchers reported on Monday.
They found the proportion of the severely obese was 50 percent higher in 2005 than it had been in 2000—a startling rate of growth.
Gay men seen prone to have eating disorders
Gay and bisexual men may be at far higher risk for eating disorders than heterosexual men, while women seem to be equally affected regardless of their sexual orientation, a new study suggests.
Researchers surveyed 516 New York City residents; 126 were straight men and the rest were gay or bisexual men and women. The results showed that more than 15 percent of gay or bisexual men had at some time suffered anorexia, bulimia or binge-eating disorder, or at least certain symptoms of those disorders—a problem known as a “subclinical” eating disorder.
Different Approach Needed to Protect Brains of Premature Babies
A study of how the brain of a premature infant responds to injury has found vulnerabilities similar to those in the mature brain but also identified at least one significant difference, according to neuroscientists and neonatologists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
In an animal model of brain injury, researchers showed for the first time that parts of the developing brain are vulnerable to damage from glutamate, a nervous system messenger compound. Glutamate is already well-known for its links to injury in the mature brain. But scientists also found damage in the developing brain that could not be linked to glutamate, suggesting that different treatments are needed to prevent brain injury in premature infants.
Mediterranean diet may ward off asthma, allergies
A traditional Mediterranean diet rich in fruits, vegetables and nuts during childhood appears to protect against symptoms of asthma and nasal allergies, according to a new study.
“There has been increasing interest in the role of nutrition in the development of asthma, and in the modulating effect of nutrition on environmental exposures,” Dr. Paul Cullinan, of Royal Brompton Hospital and National Heart and Lung Institute, London, UK, and colleagues write in the medical journal Thorax.
