Weight Loss News and Research

Latest Weight Loss News and Research

Dramatic rise in obesity, fatty liver disease increases need for transplants

The dramatic rise in obesity is leading to more fatty liver disease in the United States, increasing the need for more transplants at a time when there already is a severe shortage of donated organs.

11 Nov 2011

School lunches improve health outcomes of children

The federally funded National School Lunch Program (NSLP) provides free and reduced-price meals to more than 31 million children every school day, according to its website.

11 Nov 2011

Drug effectively combats obesity in “couch potato” monkeys” Study

According a new study an experimental anti-cancer drug could help fight obesity. The drug chokes off the blood supply to fat cells and helped obese monkeys slim down in the experiments.

10 Nov 2011

Obese premenopausal women may benefit from dairy food consumption

A recent study accepted for publication in The Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism (JCEM) found that consumption of dairy foods and higher protein resulted in improvements in markers of bone formation and reductions in markers of bone degradation in overweight and obese young women over 16 weeks of diet- and exercise-induced weight loss.

10 Nov 2011

Experimental drug selectively destroys blood supply of fat tissue and decreases body fat

Obese rhesus monkeys lost on average 11 percent of their body weight after four weeks of treatment with an experimental drug that selectively destroys the blood supply of fat tissue, a research team led by scientists at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center reports in Science Translational Medicine.

10 Nov 2011

Human body better at fighting gum disease when fat cells disappear

Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine researchers found the human body is better at fighting gum disease when fat cells, which trigger inflammation, disappear.

10 Nov 2011

CHCs and primary care providers will become America's obesity 'first responders'

Community health centers (CHCs) and primary care providers working in other settings will increasingly become America's obesity "first responders," needed to provide weight-related health services as the nation continues to implement the Affordable Care Act.

9 Nov 2011

Four-year kala azar treatment study launched in India, Bangladesh

"A four-year test of drugs to treat a widespread parasitic disease called kala azar was announced on Monday by the governments of India and Bangladesh, Doctors Without Borders, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative [DNDi] and other groups," the New York Times reports.

9 Nov 2011

Amylin and Lilly terminate exenatide alliance, resolve litigation

Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. and Eli Lilly and Company today announced an agreement to terminate their alliance for exenatide and resolve the outstanding litigation between the companies.

9 Nov 2011

Men and overweight individuals eat faster, consume more

Two new studies by researchers at the University of Rhode Island are providing additional insights into the role that eating rate plays in the amount of food one consumes. The studies found that men eat significantly faster than women, heavier people eat faster than slimmer people, and refined grains are consumed faster than whole grains, among other findings.

9 Nov 2011

FDA accepts Genentech's vismodegib NDA for review

Curis, Inc., a drug development company seeking to develop next generation targeted small molecule drug candidates for cancer treatment, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has accepted and filed for review Genentech's new drug application (NDA) for vismodegib for the treatment of adults with advanced basal cell carcinoma (BCC) for whom surgery is considered inappropriate.

9 Nov 2011

Medics fail to give patients crucial information about link between obesity and cancer

People who work in health care are failing to give patients crucial information about the link between obesity and cancer according to new research presented today at the National Cancer Research Institute Cancer Conference (NCRI) in Liverpool.

8 Nov 2011

Medicare touts progress on closing doughnut hole

Meanwhile, MedPAC makes recommendations for controlling costs for "dual eligibles," and Medicare sees new rules bring costs down for weight loss surgery.

7 Nov 2011

Mediterranean Diet beneficial even without weight loss

The benefits of the Mediterranean Diet go beyond weight loss, even when weight loss isn't achieved. Researchers from St. Vincent's Hospital, Melbourne, studied 12 patients without diabetes who had nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD), and the results of their study demonstrated that liver health was improved even without weight loss.

7 Nov 2011

Largest-ever implementation study on kala-azar in Asia

A comprehensive four-year project including over 10,000 patients in clinical and pharmacovigilance studies for diagnosis and treatment of visceral leishmaniasis (VL, also known as kala-azar) in India and Bangladesh was launched by an international consortium formed last month to support control and elimination strategies in both countries, where the concentration of disease burden is among the world's highest.

7 Nov 2011