obesity

Spanish women have a higher prevalence of some metabolic risk factors, such as cholesterol and obesity, and are more sedentary than men. Thus, one in two women has high cholesterol and is also sedentary, while four out of ten are obese.

Scientists at the University of Southern California, in the United States, have developed a new way to measure whether a person is overweight without using a scale. It is called the Body Adiposity Index (IAC), and it is based on the height and size of the hip.

According to a new study published in the specialized journal 'Obesity Reviews', overusing heating in the winter could be contributing to the increase in obesity in the United Kingdom, the United States and other developed countries.

The stress of economic insecurity makes people living in countries governed by the so-called "free market" more likely to become obese, according to a British study published in the journal 'Economics and Human Biology'.

An international study reveals that the lowest mortality rates correspond to non-smokers with a body mass index between 20 and 24.9. Details of the analysis are published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Researchers from Johns Hopkins University have successfully tested a treatment in mice that blocks ghrelin, better known as the "hunger hormone," and which, in addition to weight control, may have other metabolic benefits.

Scientists at the University of Cambridge have studied how sibutramine, an anti-obesity drug, works in the brain. And they have shown that it reduces the brain response in two areas of the brain, the hypothalamus and the amygdala, important in the control of appetite and eating behavior. Their findings are published in The Journal of Neuroscience.

What you eat affects not only you, but also your future children. Abusing a high-fat diet by a parent increases the risk of conceiving children prone to diabetes, Australian scientists have just shown.