Obesity can stem from genetics, food and activity, and social and environmental inequities. We also know from past research that brain structure and mental function are linked to being overweight or obese. Now a new study has identified differences in the brain’s neural pathways that help explain differences in obesity among men and women. “In women with obesity, changes in the brain tended to be centered on regions related to emotions, while in men with obesity, the changes tended to be found in regions that play a role in gut sensations, such as how hungry or full a person feels,” according to NBC News. For this study, researchers from the Goodman-Luskin Microbiome Center at UCLA studied brain scans – along with participants’ reports of their behavioral and mental ...
Obesity Care Week 2023 (#OCW2023) is here! From Feb. 27 to March 3, 2023, Obesity Care Week is an annual public awareness effort to end weight bias, as well as raise awareness, educate and advocate for a better world for people living with obesity. Also, World Obesity Day is March 4, 2023. Our Salud America! Latino health equity team at UT Health San Antonio is happy to serve as an OCW2023 Champion to support this awareness week. "Unlike most other diseases, obesity is one that continues to be stigmatized and those impacted struggle to receive any care in many cases, let alone adequate care," said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio and a leading health disparities researcher. "OCW2023 aims to raise awareness, educate, and advocate for ...
The CDC recently revised Body Mass Index (BMI) charts for children to help healthcare providers better track growth in children and identify “severe obesity.” Before the update, BMI charts for children did not go above 37. The revised charts extend to a BMI of 60 to account for the rise of severe obesity in children ages 2-20, according to the CDC. Now clinicians can more easily see whether a child’s BMI falls within the range of underweight, ideal weight, overweight, obese, or severely obese, based on a percentile measured against other children of the same age and gender, according to CNBC and healthline.com. A BMI higher than 95% of kids of the same age and gender is defined as obese. Severe obesity is a BMI 120% higher than the 95th percentile, ...
Obesity Care Week 2022 (#OCW2022) is here! From Feb. 27 to March 5, 2022, Obesity Care Week is an annual public awareness effort to end weight bias, as well as raise awareness, educate and advocate for a better world for people living with obesity. Also, World Obesity Day is March 4, 2022. Our Salud America! Latino health equity team at UT Health San Antonio is happy to serve as an OCW2022 Champion to support this awareness week. "Unlike most other diseases, obesity is one that continues to be stigmatized and those impacted struggle to receive any care in many cases, let alone adequate care," said Dr. Amelie G. Ramirez, director of Salud America! at UT Health San Antonio and a leading health disparities researcher. It’s time to change the way we care for obesity, and OCW2022 ...
One in six U.S. youth have obesity, but the issue is worse among Latinos and other youth of color, according to a new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). More than one in five Latino (21.4%), Black (23.8%), and American Indian/Alaska Native (28.7%) children ages 10-17 have obesity. The reasons? Structural racism and systemic health inequities. Racist policies and discriminatory practices affect our food system, access to healthcare, affordable housing, and critical family supports like childcare, the RWJF report says. Together, the effects of these policies and practices force families into hard choices on how to spend limited resources, especially during COVID-19. “The state of childhood obesity in America is an urgent call to action for leaders at all ...
Obesity is linked to serious health consequences. The 47% of U.S. Latinos who have obesity are at higher risk for high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, and certain cancers. Now we're learning that obesity and heart factors combine to cause cognitive decline in Latinos, according to a recent study in the Journal of Alzheimer's Disease from the University of California San Diego School of Medicine. Researchers studied cognitive exams at two time points — seven years apart —from over 6,000 participants in the Study of Latinos-Investigation of Neurocognitive Aging (SOL-INCA). They also tested participants for obesity cardiometabolic abnormality, which is two or more of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, high triglycerides, and low “good” cholesterol. They found ...
Obesity Care Week 2021 (#OCW2021) is here! From Feb. 28 to March 6, 2021, our Salud America! Latino health equity team at UT Health San Antonio, is happy to be an OCW2021 Champion to support this awareness week. Obesity Care Week is an annual public awareness effort to end weight bias, as well as raise awareness, educate and advocate for a better world for people living with obesity. Salud America! research shows that U.S. Latinos face health inequities in many areas—from poverty and social support to access to affordable housing and transit—that contribute to higher rates of obesity. Latino adults have higher obesity rates than their white peers (47% and 37.9%), as do Latino children (20.7% and 11.7%). This, in turn, leads to disparities in diabetes and risk for COVID-19 and ...
Children of color continue to struggle with obesity. Obesity rate continues to be significantly higher for Latino (20.7%) and black children (22.9%) than for white children (11.7%) ages 10-17, according to the new State of Childhood Obesity report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF). Obesity—and other chronic diseases—are more prevalent among those of color and those in poverty because discriminatory systems have disinvested in healthy policies and basic resources for them. In the midst of the current COVID-19 pandemic, which is worsened by obesity, it is more critical than ever to prioritize children’s health. Latino children and young adults account for over 40% of the COVID-19 deaths among people ages 0-24, according to the CDC. To prioritize children’s ...
While the elderly are highly susceptible to the coronavirus COVID-19, young adults aren't off the hook, either. Almost 40% of U.S. coronavirus patients who were sick enough to need hospitalization were between the ages of 20 to 54, according to recent CDC data. "There seems to be this ethos that the virus is no big deal for young people," said Dr. Mark Pasternack, chief of the pediatric infectious disease unit at Massachusetts General Hospital, told the Newbury Press. "But it is a big deal because some young people are getting very sick and because they are also very serious vectors of disease spread."
Why Obesity and Coronavirus Outbreak is a Concern for Young People in the U.S.? Obesity may be one of the most important predictors of severe coronavirus illness among ...
