A recent study conducted at The University of Pennsylvania points to potential dangers of weight bias internalization. While the results are mixed, there is new evidence to support the association between weight bias internalization and risk for metabolic syndrome.
​
Weight bias includes (WBI) pervasive negative stereotypes and prejudice regarding an individual’s overweight, such as attributions of responsibility and/or incompetence. New research suggests that adults with obesity seeking weight-loss treatment, who scored higher on a WBI scale were more likely to have metabolic syndrome compared to those with lower scores.

Over the years, researchers have proven time after time that beige fat possesses both the qualities of white and brown fat. This “hybrid fat” can not only hoard energy, like white fat, but also burn energy, similar to brown fat.
In 2015, researchers discovered another interesting feature of beige fat: it has the ability to switch between storing and burning energy. Most recently, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco found a way of keeping beige cells in the energy-burning state.
Why does this matter? By preventing beige fat cells from digesting their own mitochondria, researchers actually protected mice against obesity and symptoms of prediabetes. A graduate student who worked on the study, Svetlana Altshuler-Keylin, explains. “We knew that the color of brown and beige fat comes from the amount of pigmented mitochondria they contain, so we wondered whether something was going on with the mitochondria when beige fat turns white.”

When we hear the term Body Mass Index (BMI) it’s often in relation to conditions such as Diabetes or high blood pressure. It’s not very often we hear BMI having anything to do with the brain – that is about to change. Researchers from the University of Cambridge and Yale University have found a new link between high BMI and brain structure.
​
Recently published in the journal Neurobiology of Aging, the team of researchers showed that the brains of overweight people age at a much faster rate than those of their lean counterparts. In fact, researchers were able to show that the brains of obese or overweight individuals appear to age an extra ten years compared to lean people. Through brain scanning technology, the scientists were able to draw conclusions from the decrease in volume of white matter in the overweight or obese groups.

The Joslin Diabetes Center released information from a recent study showing that weight loss and the cardiovascular benefits associated continue for at least five years into the future. This intense life-style intervention program, specifically designed for obese patients with diabetes, is referred to as the Why WAIT (Weight Achievement and Intensive Management) program.

​The study led by Dr. Osama Hamdy followed 129 Why WAIT participants with an average body-mass index (BMI) of 38. After the initial 12 week intervention, participants showed an average loss of body weight of 9.7% (about 24 pounds) and maintained an average loss of 6.4% (about 16 pounds at five years). Dr. Hamdy explains, “This weight loss was very impressive, since we know from previous research that if this population can maintain a 7% weight loss, they show a marked improvement in insulin sensitivity and many other cardiovascular risk factors.”

Despite efforts, childhood obesity in the United States continues to increase at an alarming rate. In fact, researchers from Duke Clinical Research Institute reported that we just saw the biggest increase in severe obesity over the last 30 years.
​
Associate professor and lead author, Asheley Skinner, Ph.D. explains, “Despite some other recent reports, we found no indication of a decline in obesity prevalence in the United States in any group of children aged 2 through 19…” While obesity research is typically ongoing, Skinner most recently analyzed data from the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey, which is a large compilation of health information.

Despite years of extensive research, there is still much we do not understand about obesity. As a follow up to our blog post “Obesity Gene May Hold the Key to Eradicating Obesity,” we’ve been following the research of scientists in Germany that say they’ve discovered a genetic ‘switch’ that could essentially turn obesity on or off.

​The new study is founded on epigenetics research, the way the genes in our body change based on chemical and environmental factors. According to this line of thought, we are born with a set of genes that can be turned off or on, dialed up or down through processes inside the body. This usually explains why identical twins don’t always look identical.

You’ve heard it before, “Late dinners are bad for your health,” but do you actually know why? Recent research has strengthened the link between blood sugar and your internal clock, helping to explain why late dinners are potentially detrimental to your overall health.
A few definitions to consider first:

• Glucose Tolerance: The ability to regulate blood-sugar levels 

• Diabetes: A metabolic disease in which the body’s inability to produce any or enough insulin causes elevation levels of glucose in the blood
  ​
  

In a study led by researchers from Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), 14 healthy individuals were closely monitored with the ultimate goal of explaining why glucose tolerance is lower at dinner than at breakfast. Researchers measured the independent influences that behavioral factors (mealtimes, sleep), the body’s internal clock (circadian rhythm) and misalignment between these two components had on a person’s ability to control blood-sugar levels. To put things in real-world perspective, the team reported its findings with implications for shift workers and for the general public.