Obesity

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News • Abdominal fat

For women with kidney cancer, belly fat matters

Belly fat affects the odds of women surviving kidney cancer but not men, according to a new study by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Half of female kidney cancer patients with substantial abdominal fat at the time of diagnosis died within 3 1/2 years, while more than half of women with little belly fat were still alive 10 years later, the researchers found.…

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News • A disconcerting trend

Obesity is shifting cancer to young adults

A Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine researcher has compiled evidence from more than 100 publications to show how obesity increases risk of 13 different cancers in young adults. The meta-analysis describes how obesity has shifted certain cancers to younger age groups, and intensified cellular mechanisms promoting the diseases. Cancer typically associated with older adults over 50…

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News • Is the "American Dream" slipping away?

Drugs, alcohol and suicides contributing to alarming drop in US life expectancy

Drugs, alcohol and suicides are contributing to an alarming drop in US life expectancy, particularly among middle-aged white Americans and those living in rural communities, warn experts in The BMJ. They argue that the ideal of the “American Dream” is increasingly out of reach as social mobility declines, and fewer children face a better future than their parents.

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News • Broken immune clock

Why shift work might be to blame for obesity and diabetes

About 15 million Americans don’t have a typical nine-to-five workday, and many of these—nurses, firefighters and flight attendants, among many other professions—may see their schedule change drastically one week to the next. As a result, these shift workers’ biological clocks, which keep track of the time of day, cannot keep accurate time, potentially making the negative effects of a high…

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News • Not so sweet after all

Could sugar be responsible for the obesity and diabetes epidemics?

The idea that sugar could be a fundamental cause of the global obesity and diabetes epidemics, with deleterious effects on the human body that go beyond just empty calories, should be considered seriously again, argues journalist and author Gary Taubes in The BMJ. In the midst of such a huge public health crisis, Taubes says “we must do more to discourage consumption while we improve our…

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News • Getting in shape

Want to lose weight? Try moving near a gym

People living within a kilometre of physical activity facilities, such as gyms, swimming pools and playing fields, have smaller waist circumferences, lower BMI and lower body fat percentages than people who have no nearby exercise facilities, according to an observational study published in The Lancet Public Health. Living further away from a fast food outlet was also weakly associated with a…

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News • Phosphatidic acid phosphatase

A fat-regulating enzyme could hold the key to obesity and diseases

It had already been known that the enzyme known as phosphatidic acid phosphatase plays a crucial role in regulating the amount of fat in the human body. Controlling it is therefore of interest in the fight against obesity. But scientists at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have now found that getting rid of the enzyme entirely can increase the risk of cancer, inflammation and other ills.

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News • RKI national statistics

Health-related behaviour in Europe – How well is Germany doing?

The population in Germany is more physically active than the European average. Regarding smoking, the data for Germany are quite close to the European average. However, the country does not do so well in other areas of health-related behaviour: Germany has the third lowest level of fruit consumption and the proportion of heavy episodic drinkers is above average.

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Article • Spanish expert separates fables from facts

Seasonal over-indulgence

In the early months of a New Year many of us are tightening our belts after Christmas gastronomic indulgences. However, the belt may not be as long as it used to be and the gym treadmill may be the only answer.

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Article • MRI

New technology adapts automatically to individual characteristics

Just in time for the ECR, Siemens Healthineers is coming up with an innovation. Magnetom Vida, the new high-end 3 Tesla MRI scanner with BioMatrix technology from Siemens Healthineers, was launched to the public at University Hospital Tübingen yesterday, where the first system is installed. The new BioMatrix technology adapts automatically to individual anatomical and physiological…

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News • Warning

Obesity needs urgent action

The leading organisation responsible for research into obesity in Europe has warned that unless something is quickly done to tackle the region’s rising obesity epidemic, it is going to have a devastating effect on healthcare costs and productivity.

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Article • Obesity

Bariatric arterial embolisation

Radiology is going beyond assessing body fat, bringing a notable contribution in weight loss therapy. Clifford Weiss from Johns Hopkins University is one of the pioneers of a new procedure, bariatric arterial embolisation, details of which he will unveil at the ECR 2016.

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News • Obesity

'Nurture' more important than 'nature' for overweight children

Parents’ lifestyles, rather than their genes, are primarily responsible for their children being overweight according to research by the Centre for Economic Performance, based at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Researchers compared the weight of biological and adopted children to that of their parents to determine whether children inherit their weight problems or…

News • Research

Obesity is Not a Disability

Sermo, the social network for doctors, announced the results of a poll of 2,238 doctors on the contentious issue of whether obese individuals should be considered disabled. An overwhelming majority of doctors, 88 percent, disagreed with a new ruling from the European Union under which employers will be required to protect obese workers and provide them with special parking spaces, larger seats…

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The 129th Congress of the German Society of Surgery

Meeting with EH editor Brigitte Dinkloh, Congress Secretary Professor Alexis Ulrich MD (left), Assistant Medical Director at the Clinic for General, Visceral and Transplant Surgery at the University of Heidelberg, outlined the scientific programme, discussed some impressive advances in surgical procedures, and explained why the gathering bears the slogan Surgery in Partnership.

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Weight and height

In many hospitals medical specialists from different fields work closely together. To give them access to centrally held information and patient data collected from admittance to discharge, hospitals increasingly use IT solutions such as the electronic patient’s record (EPR). Such installations demand an extensive data security policy and implementation plan.

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Surgery proves successful for Type 2 diabetes remission

Obesity is physically debilitating – and costly for healthcare. Losing excess weight has positive effects on the entire metabolism and improves life expectancy. However, for patients who cannot lose their morbid, excess weight through diet, today’s surgical interventions can help towards permanent weight loss – and reduction in insulin dependency for diabetics.

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Precision scales save lives

There are times when the timely detection of a patient’s weight change could save a life. Regular weight checks can reveal an unexplained loss of fluids due to diarrhoea, vomiting and third-degree burns in time to prevent complications.

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Trail blazing bariatric surgery devices

Major advances in Natural Orifice Transluminal Endoscopic Surgery (NOTES) lead to a tremendous interest in new surgical endoscopes. The advantages of minimally invasive surgery via natural body orifices, such as the mouth, are obvious: less post-operative pain, a minor infection rate, minor incisional hernia, shorter hospitalisation and, finally, better cosmetic results. Karoline Laarmann reports

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The 16th IFSO World Congress

September saw the international crème de la crème of bariatric surgery descend on Hamburg for the 16th World Congress of the International Federation for the Surgery of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders (IFSO 2011). Among their discussions: new minimally invasive procedures, the importance of aftercare and the lack of recognition of the importance of surgical treatment of the severely obese in…

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