A New York University School of Medicine study claims that Body Mass Index (BMI), the traditional method used to measure obesity, may underestimate the number of Americans who actually qualify as obese. Nirav Shah and Eric Braverman, “Measuring Adiposity in Patients: The Utility of Body Mass Index (BMI), Percent Body Fat, and Leptin,” PLoS One, April 2, 2012. The researchers used BMI and a test called Dual- Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DXA), which provides simultaneous measurements of muscle, bone mass and body fat while measuring levels of leptin, a protein that regulates metabolism, on a cross section of 1,394 patients. According to the study, 48 percent of the women and 25 percent of the men were misclassified as non-obese based on BMI but were considered obese based on DXA testing. The researchers concluded that people who have lost a lot of muscle mass as they age, many of whom are women,…
Category Archives Scientific/Technical Items
Researchers studying 30,000 adult Mayo Clinic employees, retirees and dependents over a seven-year period have concluded that health care costs for the morbidly obese are far higher than those for smokers. James Moriarty, et al., “The Effects of Incremental Costs of Smoking and Obesity on Health Care Costs Among Adults,” Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, March 2012. The study found that health care costs for smokers exceed those for nonsmokers by $1,274 to $1,401 depending on retirement status, i.e., age, and health care costs for the overweight and obese (ranging from simply overweight to morbidly obese II) exceed those for individuals with normal body mass index by $382 to $5,530. The incremental costs are significantly higher at higher weight categories. While controlling for comorbidities, the researchers found lower incremental costs for obesity, but suggested that such controls “may lead to underestimation of the true incremental costs because obesity is…
Researchers from Jackson State University in Mississippi have reportedly developed a rapid test for detecting Salmonella on food that uses popcorn-shaped gold nanoparticles. Presented March 27, 2012, at the 243rd National Meeting and Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the application relies on antibodies attached to gold nanoparticles that then transfer to Salmonella bacteria if present, in the process changing color from pink to blue. “The test for lettuce requires just a tiny sample of lettuce leaf,” explained lead researcher Paresh Ray. “It doesn’t take a trained laboratory technician to perform the test or read the results. If the color changes from pinkish to bluish, that signals the presence of Salmonella. The test is suitable for use in farm fields and in remote areas of the developing world. We believe it may have enormous potential for rapid, on site pathogen detection to avoid the distribution of contaminated foods.” Although they…
A recent meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies has claimed that “higher white rice consumption was associated with a significantly elevated risk of type 2 diabetes.” Emily Hu, et al., “White rice consumption and risk of type 2 diabetes: systemic review,” BMJ, March 2012. Harvard School of Public Health researchers apparently examined four articles with “seven distinct prospective cohort analyses in Asian and Western populations” that included a total of 13,284 incident cases of type 2 diabetes among 352,384 participants. The results purportedly suggested that the correlation “seems to be stronger for Asians than for Western populations,” with each serving per day of white rice “associated with an 11% increase in risk of diabetes in the overall population.” The authors also speculated on potential mechanisms to explain the association, especially among Asian populations where “white rice is consumed as a staple food” and “is the predominant contributor to dietary glycaemic load.” As…
A recent opinion piece published in Nature Reviews Neuroscience has questioned efforts to conceptualize obesity and overeating “as a food addiction accompanied by corresponding brain changes,” in the process raising concerns about the rush to adopt this model as a foundation for clinical and policy recommendations. Hisham Ziauddeen, et al., “Obesity and the brain: how convincing is the addiction model?,” Nature Reviews Neuroscience, April 2012. From the outset, the article distinguishes between two popular views of food addiction, one of which posits that certain foods are addictive and one of which attempts to define food addiction as a “behavioral phenotype” seen in some people with obesity that “resembles drug addiction.” In light of these differing perspectives, the article reviews the “five key pieces of evidence cited in support of addiction model,” that is, (i) “a clinical overlap between obesity (or, more specifically BED [binge-eating disorder]) and drug addiction”; (ii) “evidence of…
A study has claimed that trans fat consumption among healthy postmenopausal women is associated with an increased risk for ischemic stroke, although extended aspirin use seemed to mitigate that risk. Sirin Yaemsiri, et al., “Trans Fat, Aspirin, and Ischemic Stroke in Postmenopausal Women,” Annals of Neurology, March 2012. Researchers relied on data from 87,025 women ages 50 to 70 years who were enrolled in the Women’s Health Initiative Observational Study, identifying 1,049 cases of ischemic stroke during the 663,041 person years of follow-up. The results evidently suggested that “women in the highest quintile of trans fat intake had a 39 percent greater incidence of ischemic stroke than women in the lowest quintile.” Moreover, this risk was apparently amplified among the group of non-aspirin users, where those in the top quintile of trans fat intake had a 66 percent higher incidence of ischemic stroke than those in the lowest quintile. Among aspirin…
A study based on 42,883 men enrolled in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study has allegedly determined that those who drank one 12 ounce sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) per day increased their coronary heart disease (CHD) risk by 20 percent over those who did not drink any SSBs. Lawrence de Koning, et al., “Sweetened Beverage Consumption, Incident Coronary Heart Disease and Biomarkers of Risk in Men,” Circulation, March 2012. Led by Harvard School of Public Health researchers Lawrence de Koning and Frank Hu, the study, which reported 3,683 CHD cases over 22 years of follow-up, concluded that participants “in the top quartile of sugar-sweetened beverage intake had a 20 percent higher relative risk of CHD than those in the bottom quartile” while also exhibiting “some adverse changes in lipids, inflammatory factors, and leptin.” “This study adds to the growing evidence that sugary beverages are detrimental to cardiovascular health. Certainly, it provides strong justification for…
A recent Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) study has claimed that daily meat consumption is associated with an increased risk of mortality from cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and other causes. An Pan, et al., “Red Meat Consumption and Mortality,” Archives of Internal Medicine, March 2012. Relying on data from 37,698 men in the Health Professionals Follow-up Study and 83,644 women in the Nurses’ Health Study, researchers assessed participant diets using questionnaires administered every four years. The results reportedly suggested that consuming one three-ounce serving of unprocessed red meat each day “was associated with a 13% increased risk of mortality,” while one daily serving of processed red meat such as bacon, sausage or salami “was associated with a 20% increased risk.” According to a March 12, 2012, HSPH press release, the findings accounted for “chronic disease risk factors such as age, body mass index, physical activity, family history of heart…
A meta-analysis of recent scientific literature has questioned data alleging a link between synthetic food colors approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Joel Nigg, et al., “Meta-Analysis of Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder or Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Symptoms, Restriction Diet, and Synthetic Food Color Additives,” Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, January 2012. Researchers evidently assessed 24 articles on synthetic food colors and 10 additional studies on dietary restriction, but ultimately found that several effects observed for food color additives were subject to publication bias or other flaws. In particular, the study authors noted that, while a restriction diet appears “to benefit some children with ADHD,” reports based on information from parents or teachers/observers were not wholly reliable or consistent even “after quality of measure was taken into account.” The analysis also revealed that “nearly all studies examined combinations of colors, with too little consistency…
A recent study has allegedly backed previous research suggesting that higher exposures to bisphenol A (BPA) may elevate the risk for coronary artery disease (CAD). David Melzer, et al., “Urinary Bisphenol A: A Concentration and Risk of Future Coronary Artery Disease in Apparently healthy Men and Women,” Circulation, February 2012. Relying on data from the European Prospective Investigation of Cancer—Norfolk, .K., researchers evidently compared the urinary BPA concentrations of 758 “initially healthy” participants who later developed CAD, with the BPA measures of 851 participants who did not develop cardiovascular disease. Their findings apparently suggested that respondents with the highest urinary BPA concentrations at the outset were more likely to develop CAD over a 10-year follow-up period, with each 4.56 nanogram per milliliter (ng/Ml) increase in urinary BPA concentration associated with a 13 percent rise in CAD risk. According to the study, these results parallel the “cross-sectional findings in the more…
