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Scientists may have identified a way to naturally regulate blood sugar levels and sugar cravings in a similar fashion to drugs like Ozempic. In mice and humans, the key to unlocking this natural process was found to be a gut microbe and its metabolites – the compounds it produces during digestion. By increasing the abundance of this one gut microbe in diabetic mice, researchers led by a team at Jiangnan University in China showed they can "orchestrate the secretion of glucagon-like peptide-1". Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) is a hormone that is naturally produced by the body and which helps regulate blood...

Researchers have revealed a novel link between body fat (adipose tissue) and anxiety, shedding light on the intricate relationship between metabolism and mental health. The findings are particularly relevant given the rising rates of anxiety and obesity, highlighting the importance of understanding the underlying biological processes. "Understanding the link between adipose tissue and anxiety opens up new avenues for research and potential treatments," says Gregory Steinberg. "Our findings highlight the complex interplay between metabolism and mental health, and we hope this will lead to better outcomes for individuals suffering from anxiety," says Steinberg. The research team discovered that psychological stress,...

At 6-foot-6 and 464 pounds, there’s only one thing standing in the way of Desmond Watson’s NFL dreams. His weight. The Florida defensive tackle might become the heaviest player ever selected in next week’s draft, but he’s doing everything in his power to make sure that’s not the case. “Stopping while driving,” Watson said when asked by Fox Sports about what he’s doing to lose weight. “My biggest thing is keep going, get to where I need to get. There are stores and a lot of temptations. That’s helped me immensely: Don’t go inside the gas station. Pay at the...

He knows how to make a stink. Longtime New York congressman Jerry Nadler has become famous as a champion of progressive policies in the House of Representatives. But among his colleagues in the chamber, he has also earned the dubious distinction of being its smelliest member. "He’s the kind of guy who when he makes his way onto the floor he barrels through everyone, and sometime he doesn’t really need to barrel through because his stench kind of clears the way and it equates to his personality, which is nasty and most people want to keep away from," said Anthony...

If the government wants people to not eat food that makes them fat and unhealthy, why is it paying for it through SNAP, or food stamps, for those with low incomes? It seems like common sense that the government shouldn't subsidize or outright pay for the purchase of sugary soda and candy for those who are enrolled in a nutrition program from what's titled the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. But they are -- subsidize something and get more of it, and sure enough, we are paying for obesity. How many people have thought about this? Health and Human Services Secretary...

A 24-year-old extreme eater, who gained fame on TikTok, died due to complications from obesity, according to a report. Efecan Kultur, 24, well known in his native Turkey for his ‘mukbang’ streams, in which he would gorge on massive amounts of food — died on Mar. 7 after spending three months in the hospital due to obesity-related health problems, according to Turkiye Today, citing a post on TikTok. Amassing both a mammoth weight and following, with millions of views on TikTok, Kultur was forced to stop streaming due to being bed-ridden with health issues, such as bruising and breathing difficulties....

A naturally occurring molecule identified by Stanford Medicine researchers appears similar to semaglutide — also known as Ozempic — in suppressing appetite and reducing body weight. Notably, testing in animals also showed that it worked without some of the drug’s side effects such as nausea, constipation and significant loss of muscle mass. The newly discovered molecule, BRP, acts through a separate but similar metabolic pathway and activates different neurons in the brain — seemingly offering a more targeted approach to body weight reduction. “The receptors targeted by semaglutide are found in the brain but also in the gut, pancreas and...

More than half of adults with excess weight now live in just eight countries, researchers found: China (402 million), India (180 million), the United States (172 million), Brazil (88 million), Russia (71 million), Mexico (58 million), Indonesia (52 million) and Egypt (41 million). The largest number of adults with overweight and obesity in 2050 are expected to be in China (627 million), India (450 million) and the U.S. (214 million), researchers said. But during that period, overweight and obesity in sub-Saharan Africa is forecast to increase by more than 250% to 522 million, driven by population growth.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Deadline: White House,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D) argued that “the prices at the grocery store are going up because democracy is being taken away.” And “The impact on you in terms of your health care, 770,000 people in Illinois will lose health care as a result of what Donald Trump and Elon Musk and the Republican Congress are doing right now, it’s a danger to your way of life, and that’s what people need to understand.” Pritzker said, “When you lose, as is happening in my state –we’re losing our meat and poultry inspectors....

A new study has found that gold nanoparticles may be more effective than a common weight-loss drug in reversing obesity-related health problems, offering new hope for those looking to lose fat. Researchers from Alexandria University, Erbil Polytechnic University, and Pharos University tested tiny gold particles on rats that became obese after being fed a high-fat diet. The gold particles reduced body fat, improved muscle mass, and restored the health of vital organs, showing stronger results than orlistat, a commonly used anti-obesity drug. Obesity rates and current treatment challenges Obesity occurs when excess fat accumulates in the body due to consuming...

Next-generation obesity drugs will work differently from Ozempic and Wegovy — aiming to deliver greater weight loss with fewer side effects. For Kristian Cook, every pizza box he opened was another door closed on the path to overcoming obesity. “I had massive cravings for pizza,” he says. “That was my biggest downfall.” At 114 kilograms and juggling a daily regimen of medications for high cholesterol, hypertension and gout, the New Zealander resolved to take action. In late 2022, at the age of 46, Cook joined a clinical trial that set out to test a combination of the weight-loss drug semaglutide...

A new study uncovers a novel mechanism through which brown fat is transformed into heat, offering protection against obesity-related diseases. Obesity affects 650 million people worldwide and significantly contributes to the development of cardiometabolic diseases and increases the risk of cancer. Guadalupe Sabio, head of the Organ Crosstalk in Metabolic Diseases Group at the National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO), and Cintia Folgueira, from CNIO and the National Centre for Cardiovascular Research (CNIC), have identified a key mechanism by which the body burns brown fat and converts it into heat. This process helps protect against obesity and related metabolic disorders. Their...

When food delivery “superapps” started operations in Indonesia, users started putting on weight – and that’s not an entirely bad thing. So argue the authors of a University of Bonn Center for Development Research paper [PDF] published this month. Titled “Impact of Super Apps on the Nutrition Transition in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Evidence from Indonesia”, the paper considers health data from Indonesia covering the years 2015 to 2018 – a time that coincides with widespread the widespread adoption of “superapps” Grab and Gojek. The authors found that the debut of food delivery apps saw an increase in body mass...

Research published in the last week revealed that for the first time in more than a decade, obesity rates among US adults fell slightly last year, decreasing from 46% in 2022 to 45.6% in 2023. While we might need a few more years of data to conclusively tie these results to the rise of semaglutide drugs like Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic, it feels impossible to ignore the timing, with Novo’s sales booming in recent years and hitting a record ~$10 billion in its latest quarter.Sales of these GLP-1 treatments — drugs that mimic the effects of blood-sugar-regulating hormone GLP-1, a feature...

Stuff like this is why the American people have absolutely no faith in their institutions. I can see why Make America Healthy Again was such a popular movement. The U.S. health plan before RFK: Step 1: Feed Americans unhealthy food with questionable ingredients. Step 2: Encourage sloth and gluttony on a popular level. Step 3: Big Pharma creates a "cure" for obesity. Step 4: Taxpayers money goes to pay for this miracle cure. Step 5: Big pharma profits. Do I have that right? Am I overreacting to this? The same folks in the Biden administration who are calling RFK Jr....

Medications for type 2 diabetes and obesity known as GLP-1 receptor agonists may lower the risk of acute pancreatitis recurrence in people with obesity and those with type 2 diabetes, according to a study. Doctors have been cautious about prescribing these medications in patients with a history of pancreatitis due to the potential risk of worsening the condition, said Mahmoud Nassar, M.D., Ph.D. Acute pancreatitis is a sudden inflammation of the pancreas. The researchers used data from a database called TriNetX, which contains information from about 127 million patients across 15 countries, mainly from the United States. They identified 638,501...

"We find that there is a peptide hormone in the gut called GLP1 that increases the secretion of insulin only when the blood glucose is high. This effectively eliminates the risk of hypoglycemic shock. Another advantage is that GLP1 administration has been found to stimulate weight-loss. The hormone offers the promise of revolutionising the treatment of Type II diabetes and reduce obesity," he said.

A few years ago, West Virginia, which has the highest obesity rate in the nation, quietly began a small and unusual pilot program that would touch hundreds of lives: It started covering obesity drugs for state employees—even as many other insurers balked at what they considered expensive “vanity” drugs. The program was, by health measures, a success. Patients shed as much as 120 pounds, their cholesterol dropped, their prediabetes faded, and they cut down on blood-pressure meds. As word began to spread, more patients wanted to join. A school nurse told me her weight loss inspired at least six other...

The United States is set to fall in worldwide life expectancy ranking by mid-century, with widespread obesity adversely affecting people’s health, according to a recent study.The peer-reviewed study, published in The Lancet on Dec. 7, forecasted the life expectancy for Americans between 2022 and 2050 after taking into account the effect of more than 350 diseases and injuries.Study authors said overall life expectancy is projected to increase from 78.3 years in 2022 to 79.9 years in 2035, and to 80.4 years in 2050. The study said the increase “is forecasted to be modest compared with that in other countries around...

Scientists have discovered a key biological reason why obesity increases the risk of type 2 diabetes, and it boils down to size—specifically the size of fat cells. While researchers have known that obesity disrupts the body's ability to make new fat cells, they haven't been able to pin down why. The findings shed new light on this link, establishing for the first time that obesity limits the body's ability to produce crucial cellular building blocks called ribosomal factors. Without sufficient ribosomal factors, fat stem cells lack the machinery to differentiate to produce functioning fat cells. Instead, energy gets trapped and...