Here’s another reason to fret over a flabby stomach. A new study suggests that adults who aren’t technically overweight but have a lot of fat around their guts run a higher death risk than people who are obese. Conducted by researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., the study looked at people with normal body mass index scores who also fit the definition for “central obesity” — meaning they had a high waist-to-hip ratio. Normal-weight patients with a lot of belly fat, it turned out, had the highest death risks from cardiovascular disease and other causes, according to a […]

Author Jonathon Goldstein once said, “Everyone runs around trying to find a place where they still serve breakfast because eating breakfast, even if it’s 5 o’clock in the afternoon, is a sign that the day has just begun and good things can still happen. Having lunch is like throwing in the towel.” Maybe for many of us breakfast represents that “new day dawning” attitude, but is there really something more to it — physiologically speaking? There’s no doubt that one of the most popular statements ever made in nutrition and medicine is that breakfast is the most important meal of […]

Initial results from a scientific study on water consumption and cellular dehydration conducted at the Murad Research Labs in El Segundo, California, have uncovered surprising results, dramatically challenging and debunking the ages-old notion that everyone should drink “eight glasses of water per day.” In an ongoing effort to gather and analyze data pertaining to healthy living, researchers at the Murad Research Labs, directed by Howard Murad, M.D., FAAD, measured the intracellular water levels of 104 women, revealing that those who regularly drink 7-8 cups of water per day actually have a lower average intracellular water level than those subjects who […]

An article published online ahead of print on June 25, 2012 in the Journal of Women’s Health reports the finding of researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Oregon of increased weight gain in women with vitamin D insufficiency. The study included 4,659 women aged 65 and older enrolled in the Study of Osteoporotic Fractures, a prospective, multicenter study. Serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D levels were assessed upon enrollment and in a subset of participants at follow-up. Seventy-eight percent of the subjects were found to have insufficient levels of the vitamin at 30 nanograms per milliliter or lower. Over the 4.5 […]

Researchers at the University of Iowa have found a positive effect for ursolic acid, found in apple peel, on preventing weight gain in mice. The findings were reported online on June 20, 2012 in the journal PLoS ONE. Associate professor of internal medicine Christopher Adams, MD, PhD and his colleagues fed mice a high fat diet and gave half of the animals ursolic acid for six weeks. Although the mice that received ursolic acid consumed more food than those that did not receive the compound, they gained less weight by the end of the treatment period. They also had greater skeletal […]

The findings of research scheduled for presentation at the 244th American Chemical Society meeting, to be held August 19-23, 2012 in Philadelphia, reveal a protective effect for peaches, plums and nectarines against metabolic syndrome—a cluster of factors that predict obesity-related diabetes and/or cardiovascular disease. “In recent years obesity has become a major concern in society due to the health problems associated to it,” noted Texas AgriLife Research food scientist Dr Luis Cisneros-Zevallos. “In the U.S., statistics show that around 30 percent of the population is overweight or obese, and these cases are increasing every year in alarming numbers.” “The major concern about […]

In an article published online on May 30, 2012 in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers from the University of Minnesota report a protective effect for high vitamin D intake against the development of metabolic syndrome, a cluster of symptoms that may predict

A study reported this week at the American Society of Clinical Oncology’s annual meeting held in Chicago reveals the finding of Mayo Clinic researchers that high doses of American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) help reduce some of the fatigue experienced by up to 90 percent of

The heat and humidity of summer can take its toll on your body and it can also be harmful for your skin if you don’t take the proper precautions. Dr. Tanda Lane, of Lane Dermatology, recently answered some questions for the Ledger-Enquirer on summer skin care. The following interview has been edited for length and clarity. What are the most pervasive effects of the summer heat and humidity on someone’s skin? Excess heat increases sweat production and the humidity hinders its ability to evaporate away from the skin. This means more oil is available to clog pores which can exacerbate […]