Posts tagged with 'weight'
Recent research: three depression papers that get me thinking
16th April 2009
Looking back over relevant research papers that caught my attention last month, some stand out for me more than the others. Here are three on depression that stood out and got me thinking. The Fergusson et al paper looks at links between alcohol abuse and major depression. There has been …
Preventing cancer through life style choices
12th April 2009
In 2001 the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR) WCRF/AICR set themselves the task of systematically assessing all good research on diet, physical activity and cancer and publishing a report that would be the largest study of its kind with conclusions that would …
Recent research: five papers on overweight - mortality, cardiovascular risk, diets, and schools
9th April 2009
Here are five papers mostly looking at aspects of overweight. The first, published recently in the Lancet, is a huge study on the effects of body-mass index (BMI) on subsequent mortality in nearly 900,000 adults. It shows progressive excess mortality above the BMI range 22.5-25 kg/m2. (To calculate your BMI …
Recent research: three papers on vitamin D, two on weight loss & one on IBS
2nd January 2009
Here's a gutsy, nutritional, low sunlight kind of blog post to suit our post-holiday season. First the gutsy bit. Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) - with its characteristic symptoms of abdominal pain, altered bowel habit, and possibly bloating - is very common, affecting about 15% of the population. Ford et al …
Recent research: prevention & treatment of overweight with changed eating behaviours, energy density & breastfeeding
26th December 2008
Here are six studies on eating and weight. The first, by Maruyama and colleagues, demonstrates a strong association between both "eating until full" and "eating quickly" and the chances of being overweight. The linked BMJ editorial by Denney-Wilson & Campbell discusses these findings further, including suggesting that "Clinicians should encourage …
Recent research: exercise, diet, and smoking
4th September 2008
There are a series of interesting recent research studies here highlighting the drastic reduction in physical exercise taken by young people as they move into their teenage years, the fascinating protective association between muscular strength and mortality in men even allowing for cardiorespiratory fitness and other potentially confounding factors, the …
A successful community approach to tackling increasing overweight in children
10th August 2008
The 8th August edition of the BMJ (Moynihan 2008) reports "The small town of Colac in rural Australia is attracting national and international attention for its approach to fighting childhood obesity, and reducing health inequalities." The news item goes on to say "Two hours west of Melbourne, with 11,000 inhabitants, …
Recent research: adolescent depression, overweight, antidepressants in pregnancy, and recovery from stroke
2nd July 2008
Norquist, G., T. G. McGuire, et al. (2008). "Cost-Effectiveness of Depression Treatment for Adolescents." Am J Psychiatry 165(5): 549-552. [Free Full Text] Thoughtful (and freely accessible full text) editorial discussing the cost-effectiveness of pharmacological and psychological treatments for adolescents suffering from depression. Unfortunately different research studies suggest different conclusions, and …
Healthy and unhealthy behaviours can be 'infectious'
15th June 2008
There was an interesting study of over 12,000 people published in the New England Journal of Medicine recently (Christakis and Fowler, 2008) looking at the way that stopping smoking seems to help those around us stop smoking as well. So if I stop, the chances of my spouse smoking decrease …
Eat 5 to 9 portions of fruit & veg daily
10th February 2008
There's a helpful editorial in last month's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (AJCN) - "Fruit and vegetables: think variety, go ahead, eat!" As with many journals, one doesn't have to pay anything to look at the full text of AJCN editorials. It's a good read. It comments on a paper …