Maternal obesity may promote liver cancer
Obesity, which could reach 50% of the population in certain developed countries by 2030, is a major public health concern. It not only affects the health of those who suffer from it, but could also have serious consequences for their offspring. Scientists at the University of Geneva (UNIGE) and the Geneva University Hospitals (HUG) have […]
A non-allergenic wheat protein for growing better cultivated meat
As the world’s population increases, cultivated or lab-grown meat — animal muscle and fat cells grown in laboratory conditions — has emerged as a potential way to satisfy future protein needs. And edible, inexpensive plant proteins could be used to grow these cell cultures. Now, researchers in ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering report that the […]
Two probiotics identified as promising hypertension treatments
An estimated 40% of the global adult population have high blood pressure, or hypertension, which puts people at risk of cardiovascular disease and other dangerous health conditions. Recent studies suggest that probiotics may offer a protective effect, but researchers have a limited understanding of why shaping the gut microbiota can regulate blood pressure. A study […]
Insect protein slows weight gain, boosts health status in obese mice
As the global population grows under a changing climate, the urgency to find sustainable protein sources is greater than ever. Plant-based “meat” and “dairy” products may be popular, but they’re not the only environmentally friendly meat alternatives. A new study in mice from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign suggests replacing traditional protein sources with mealworms […]
Doctors More Neurotic, Less Open Than Patients, Surveys Find
Doctors may be more neurotic than both patients and the general population, according to two nationally representative Australian surveys. When it comes to the “Big Five” personality traits, doctors were also significantly more agreeable, conscientious, and extroverted than both the general population and patients, according to Mehdi Ammi, PhD, health economist of Carleton University, in […]
Heart Failure’s Obesity Paradox Falls Apart on Further Inspection
For the heart failure population, BMI obesity no longer appeared to hold counterintuitive protective effects after comprehensive adjustment for natriuretic peptides and other prognostic variables in a post hoc analysis of PARADIGM. Eliminating this so-called “obesity paradox,” researchers found that study participants with the highest BMIs actually had excess combined heart failure hospitalizations and cardiovascular […]
Can High-Dose Vitamin D Prevent Diabetes?
Daily higher-dose vitamin D supplementation may help stave off diabetes in an at-risk population, researchers reported. In a meta-analysis of three randomized clinical trials, vitamin D reduced the risk for type 2 diabetes by 15% in people with prediabetes (adjusted HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.75-0.96) in a model adjusted for age, gender, body mass index […]
Some guts are better than others at harvesting energy
New research from the University of Copenhagen suggests that a portion of the Danish population has a composition of gut microbes that, on average, extracts more energy from food than do the microbes in the guts of their fellow Danes. The research is a step towards understanding why some people gain more weight than others, […]
Aortic Aneurysm Score Paves the Way for More Targeted Screening
Efforts to screen for ascending aortic enlargement in the general population may be improved using a new prediction model based on common clinical variables easily gathered from medical records, researchers found. The AORTA clinical score was found to correlate with measured ascending aortic diameters in development from a large U.K. Biobank cohort and externally validation […]
Eating late increases hunger, decreases calories burned, and changes fat tissue
Obesity afflicts approximately 42 percent of the U.S. adult population and contributes to the onset of chronic diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and other conditions. While popular healthy diet mantras advise against midnight snacking, few studies have comprehensively investigated the simultaneous effects of late eating on the three main players in body weight regulation and thus […]