Red Wine Antioxidant Might Help Diabetics' Arteries

THURSDAY, May 4, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- The antioxidant resveratrol -- found in red wine, peanuts and berries -- might improve the health of blood vessels in people with type 2 diabetes, a small study suggests.

The study found that resveratrol supplements lessened artery stiffness in some people with type 2 diabetes. Stiffening of the arteries, called arteriosclerosis, raises the risk of heart attack and stroke.

"In treatment with resveratrol among people with diabetes, there was a trend toward improvement in the stiffness. And in people with higher stiffness there was more of a benefit," said lead researcher Dr. Naomi Hamburg. She is chief of the vascular biology section at Boston University School of Medicine.

While the research suggests there might be ways to improve blood vessel abnormalities in people with type 2 diabetes, it's too soon to recommend resveratrol for that purpose, said Hamburg.

"We would need a longer study to look at whether this is going to reduce heart attacks and stroke," she added. "But I think this is evidence to support future research."

For now, Hamburg said, "the overall recommendation is to have a diet that's rich in fruits and vegetables."

As you age, your arteries stiffen, which can lead to an increased risk of heart disease. In people with type 2 diabetes and obesity, this process starts earlier and can have more severe consequences, she said.

The body's largest artery is the aorta, which carries blood from the heart toward the rest of the body. For the study, the researchers measured the aortic thickness of 57 patients with type 2 diabetes (age 56 and obese, on average). The investigators also conducted tests to measure blood-vessel health.

Some patients were given resveratrol supplements, while the others were given a placebo. Overall, the study found a trend toward less aortic stiffness in participants taking resveratrol supplements, but it wasn't statistically significant.

However, in a subset of 23 patients who had an exceptionally stiff aorta at the start of the study, 100-milligram (mg) daily doses of resveratrol for two weeks reduced stiffness nearly 5 percent. That regimen was followed by 300-mg doses over two weeks, which decreased stiffness by 9 percent, the researchers said.

Aortic stiffness increased among those taking a placebo for four weeks, the researchers found.

In animal studies, Hamburg said, resveratrol has been shown to activate a gene (SIRT1) that appears to delay aging and development of several diseases.

To see if the same thing would happen in humans, the same researchers took samples from the blood-vessel linings of seven patients and looked at SIRT1 activity. They found that gene activity increased slightly after resveratrol supplementation.

This doesn't prove that reservatrol activates the longevity gene, only that there was an association. Still, another scientist welcomed the new findings.

"We know that people who drink red wine and __eat nuts live longer, but why?" said Dr. Byron Lee, a professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. "It's exciting to see scientists now starting to unravel this mystery."

This study shows that a natural antioxidant in these foods can reverse age-related changes in the arteries, said Lee, who wasn't involved in the study.

"Impressively, the effect was seen after just a few weeks of treatment. Who knows what more prolonged antioxidant treatment could do to the arteries and other organs," he said.

Many people obtain resveratrol in their daily diet. However, Hamburg pointed out that the doses of resveratrol used in the study were much greater than exists in a glass of red wine, a major dietary source of the antioxidant.

The study was funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and the U.S. National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health.

The results were scheduled for presentation Thursday at a meeting of the American Heart Association, in Minneapolis. The research should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

For more on type 2 diabetes, visit the American Diabetes Association.

SOURCES: Naomi Hamburg, M.D., assistant professor, medicine, chief, vascular biology section, Boston University School of Medicine; Byron Lee, M.D., professor, medicine, and director, electrophysiology laboratories and clinics, University of California, San Francisco; May 4, 2017, presentation, American Heart Association meeting, Minneapolis

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Sugary Drinks More Affordable Across the Globe

THURSDAY, May 4, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Sugar-sweetened beverages have become more affordable worldwide, making the fight against obesity even more difficult, a new study suggests.

Researchers looked at data from 40 high-income and 42 low-income countries. Between 1990 and 2016, sugar-sweetened beverages such as cola became more affordable in 79 of those 82 countries.

Most often, the drinks were easier to afford because prices fell and people earned more money. The actual price of sugar-sweetened drinks went down in 56 of the countries, the study found.

"Overall in the countries we studied, a person in 2016 could buy 71 percent more sugar-sweetened beverages with the same share of their income than they could in 1990," said study co-author Jeffrey Drope, from the American Cancer Society.

"Sugary drinks became even more affordable in developing countries, where 2016's income could buy 89 percent more sugar-sweetened beverages than in 1990. That's essentially half-price," he noted in a cancer society news release.

And, the researchers don't expect this trend to stop. They said the affordability of these products will hinder efforts to combat the global obesity epidemic.

Governments need to raise taxes on sugar-sweetened beverages to reduce consumption, the researchers said.

The study was published May 4 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention encourages you to rethink your drink.

SOURCE: American Cancer Society, news release, May 4, 2017

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Is This Enzyme Making You Fat?

WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers say they've found an enzyme in mice associated with obesity and a loss of exercise capacity in midlife, suggesting that the discovery could eventually lead to new weight-loss medications.

The team at the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) gave one group of mice a drug that inhibits the activity of the enzyme called DNA-PK. Another group of mice wasn't given the drug. Both groups were fed a high-fat diet.

The group that received the inhibitor had 40 percent less weight gain than the other group, according to the study in the journal Cell Metabolism.

The findings challenge current ideas about why people gain weight as they age, the researchers said.

"Our society attributes the weight gain and lack of exercise at midlife [approximately 30-60 years] primarily to poor lifestyle choices and lack of willpower," said study lead author Dr. Jay Chung, head of the institute's Laboratory of Obesity and Aging Research.

The researchers said the average weight gain between age 20 and 50 is about 30 pounds, even though the amount of food a person consumes generally decreases during this time.

Chung and his colleagues looked for biochemical changes in animals during midlife and found that DNA-PK increases in activity with age. Also, the researchers said the enzyme helps the conversion of nutrients to fat.

"This study shows that there is a genetic program driven by an overactive enzyme that promotes weight gain and loss of exercise capacity at midlife," Chung said in a NHLBI news release.

"Our studies indicate that DNA-PK is one of the drivers of the metabolic and fitness decline that occurs during aging, which makes staying lean and physically fit difficult and increases susceptibility to metabolic diseases like diabetes. The identification of this new mechanism is very important for improving public health," he said.

Obesity is linked with a number of chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

"The study opens the door to the development of a new type of weight-loss medication that could work by inhibiting DNA-PK activity," Chung said.

However, it's important to note that research that seems promising in animals doesn't always translate well to humans.

For now, middle-aged people fighting obesity need to focus on calorie reduction and increased exercise, the researchers recommended.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on weight.

SOURCE: U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, news release, May 2, 2017

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Can Dropping Some Weight Save Your Knees?

TUESDAY, May 2, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Knocking off some extra pounds might take a harmful load off your knees, researchers report.

Obese and overweight people who lost 5 percent or more of their weight over four years saw less degeneration of their knee cartilage compared with people whose weight stayed stable.

"Our study shows that a lifestyle intervention such as weight loss can slow the process of knee joint degeneration in patients at risk for and with osteoarthritis," said lead researcher Dr. Alexandra Gersing.

"Therefore, it may slow the worsening of symptoms, such as pain and disability," said Gersing, who's with the University of California, San Francisco's department of radiology and biomedical imaging.

"Osteoarthritis is one of the major causes of disability worldwide," she said.

More than half of U.S. adults age 75 and older have osteoarthritis -- the wear-and-tear form of the joint disease in which cartilage thins and wears away. And more than one-third of Americans over 20 are obese, the study authors noted.

Excess weight puts a strain on the knees that can result in arthritis and, potentially, the need for joint replacement, the authors said.

In addition, overweight people often alter their gait, which can affect the knee joint. They may also have higher blood levels of proteins that cause inflammation in the joints, increasing the risk for osteoarthritis, Gersing said.

For the study, Gersing and her colleagues collected data on 640 obese and overweight people who had mild osteoarthritis or were at risk of it. The patients, average age 69, were part of the Osteoarthritis Initiative, a nationwide U.S. study on the prevention and treatment of knee arthritis.

The participants were put into three groups: those who lost more than 10 percent of their body weight, those who lost 5 to 10 percent of their body weight, and those whose weight remained stable.

Over 48 months, the researchers found that patients with 5 percent weight loss had lower rates of cartilage degeneration than patients whose weight remained stable. Among patients who lost 10 percent of their body weight, cartilage degeneration slowed even more.

Weight loss also slowed degeneration of the menisci, the crescent-shaped cartilage pads that protect and cushion the knee joint, Gersing said.

"Weight loss seems to be protective for the knee joint," she said.

Not everyone agrees the issue is that clear-cut, however.

Dr. Matthew Hepinstall, a New York City orthopedic surgeon, said although it's likely losing weight slows osteoarthritis, it still hasn't been proven.

"Weight loss is considered an important part of osteoarthritis management in patients who are overweight," said Hepinstall, who's with Lenox Hill Hospital's Center for Joint Preservation and Reconstruction.

But, thin patients also experience worsening of arthritis, so losing weight isn't the answer for all patients, he said.

This study should be interpreted with an important caveat, Hepinstall added.

Correlation does not prove causation. Without studies randomly comparing patients with weight loss to those with no weight loss, it's impossible to conclude that weight loss definitely slows progression of arthritis, he said.

"It is possible that progression of knee arthritis caused pain that interfered with weight loss in some patients, while absence of progression allowed greater comfort in other patients, facilitating weight loss," Hepinstall said.

The report was published online May 2 in the journal Radiology.

More information

For more on arthritis of the knee, visit the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons .

SOURCES: Alexandra Gersing, M.D., department of radiology and biomedical imaging, University of California, San Francisco; Matthew Hepinstall, M.D., orthopedic surgeon, Lenox Hill Hospital Center for Joint Preservation and Reconstruction, New York City; May 2, 2017, Radiology, online

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More Active Kids Could Save U.S. Billions in Health Costs: Study

MONDAY, May 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Here's another reason to get your kids up and moving: Just a slight increase in American children's physical activity could save tens of billions of dollars in medical costs and lost wages, new research suggests.

"Physical activity not only makes kids feel better and helps them develop healthy habits, it's also good for the nation's bottom line," said study leader Dr. Bruce Lee.

Lee is executive director of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Global Obesity Prevention Center.

Using federal government data, the researchers created a computer model to determine how changes in physical activity levels among 8- to 11-year-olds could affect them throughout their lifetime. The researchers also evaluated the resulting economic impact.

The investigators said that if all 8- to 11-year-olds did 25 minutes of exercise three times a week, it would prevent $62.3 billion in medical costs and lost wages during their lives. Also, 1.2 million fewer youngsters would be overweight or obese.

Moreover, for every year that children in this age group achieved higher levels of physical activity, an additional $60 billion would be saved, according to the study.

"Our findings show that encouraging exercise and investing in physical activity such as school recess and youth sports leagues when kids are young pays big dividends as they grow up," Lee said.

Obesity is linked to serious health problems such as diabetes and heart disease. The savings in health care spending would more than make up for costs of programs designed to increase activity levels, he said.

"Even modest increases in physical activity could yield billions of dollars in savings," Lee said. These estimates are probably low, he added, noting other benefits of physical activity include improved bone density, improved mood and muscle development.

"As the prevalence of childhood obesity grows, so will the value of increasing physical activity," Lee said.

"We need to be adding physical education programs and not cutting them," he added. "We need to encourage kids to be active, to reduce screen time and get them running around again. It's important for their physical health -- and the nation's financial health."

The study results were published May 1 in the journal Health Affairs.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on children and exercise.

SOURCE: Johns Hopkins University, news release, May 1, 2017

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Could Fasting Every Other Day Help You Lose More Weight?

MONDAY, May 1, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- As much as you might hate the daily restrictions of a conventional diet, a new study shows that fasting one day and eating what you want the next may not be a better way to lose weight.

After one year, researchers found that weight loss on either type of diet was about the same -- 6 percent for those on the alternate-day fasting diet and a little over 5 percent for those on the daily restricted-calorie diet.

"We thought the alternate-day fasting group would do better. It allows people to have a break from dieting every other day, so we thought their adherence would be better," explained lead author Krista Varady.

"But it turns out people in both diets lost the same amount of weight," said Varady. She's an associate professor of kinesiology and nutrition at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

"People in the alternate-day fasting group were eating more than the 500 calories prescribed on the fast day, but a lot less than the calories prescribed on the fast day. That's why they lost the same amount of weight," she explained.

However, "people who stuck to the [alternate-day fasting] diet lost 20 to 50 pounds in a year," Varady added. "It does work for some people."

In the study, Varady's team randomly assigned 100 obese people to an alternate-day fasting diet, a conventional diet (25 percent reduction in calories every day), or no diet at all (the "control" group).

People on the conventional diet were able to stick to their calorie goals better than the alternate-day fasting group, the researchers found.

The dropout rates proved the point: 38 percent of the alternate-day fasting group quit, while only 29 percent of the conventional diet group and 26 percent of the control group tossed in the towel.

It's hard for people to stick to 500 calories in one day, Varady explained. "Certain people are suited to this type of diet. If someone were to pick this diet for themselves, they probably would do better," she said.

The fasting diet appeared to be safe, she added. On fast days, people were encouraged to __eat a lot of protein, because protein makes you feel full, she said.

In terms of weight loss, all calories are the same, but not all calories are healthy ones, Varady said. On days people could __eat anything, some ate bags of chips and still lost weight, she noted.

"If you are reducing your food intake, you are going to lose weight, but in terms of health benefits, people should try to eat less processed foods and more fruits and vegetables," Varady said.

Some people really love this lifestyle and have been on the fasting diet for years, but it's not for everyone, Varady said. "People should find what works for them," she added.

The report was published online May 1 in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine.

One specialist isn't convinced that a long-term fasting diet is healthy.

"There are some experts who suggest that intermittent fasting may help with weight control, but for markers for heart disease and diabetes management, the jury is still out -- especially on how healthy and sustainable this approach is," said Samantha Heller. She is a senior clinical nutritionist at New York University Medical Center.

Fasting on alternate days feels punitive to many, and may exacerbate an already difficult and complex relationship someone has with food, Heller explained.

In addition, the body does not know that restricting food is a choice and views severe calorie restriction as a crisis, Heller said.

"Intermittent fasting does not teach strategies for making healthy choices and managing life's ups and downs," she added.

"A lifestyle overhaul -- one that a person can maintain for long term that provides a healthy, balanced diet as well as pleasurable foods -- is what I would like to see people embrace," Heller said. "These kinds of changes take time, motivation and ongoing support."

More information

For more on weight control, visit the U.S. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases.

SOURCES: Krista Varady, Ph.D., associate professor, kinesiology and nutrition, University of Illinois, Chicago; Samantha Heller, M.S., R.D., senior clinical nutritionist, New York University Medical Center, New York City; May 1, 2017, JAMA Internal Medicine, online

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Cooking at Home Means Eating Better, Spending Less

SUNDAY, April 30, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Your best bet for healthy eating is having plenty of home-cooked meals, a new study states.

Researchers asked more than 400 Seattle-area adults about what they cooked and ate for a week. They were graded using the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Healthy Eating Index (HEI).

HEI scores range from 0 to 100. The higher the score, the better the diet. A score over 81 indicates a good diet; 51 to 80 means improvement is needed; and 50 or less is poor.

Households that had home-cooked meals three times a week had an average score of about 67, while cooking at home six times a week bumped up the average to about 74.

The results suggest that regular home-cooked meals -- which tend to be lower in calories, sugar and fat -- give you a better diet at a lower cost.

The Oregon State University study was published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

"Higher HEI scores are generally associated with higher socioeconomic status, education and income. By contrast, cooking dinner at home depends more on the number of children at home. The study showed no association between income or education and eating at home or eating out," study author Arpita Tiwari, a health systems researcher, said in a university news release.

"Traditionally better socioeconomic status -- more money -- means healthier people. That's the trend. This research goes against that; it shows a resilience to that trend. It's not spending more but how you spend that's important," Tiwari concluded.

Eight out of 10 Americans fail to meet at least some federal dietary guidelines, and about half the money spent to __eat is for food not cooked at home, the study pointed out.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on healthy eating.

SOURCE: Oregon State University, news release

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Who You Are May Affect Your Diet More Than Where You Shop

FRIDAY, April 28, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- A new study challenges the view that building supermarkets in so-called "food deserts" will help more Americans __eat healthier.

Food deserts are places -- often in poor, urban neighborhoods or rural areas -- without easy access to stores stocked with fresh fruit, vegetables and other healthy foods.

Rand Corporation researchers surveyed nearly 1,400 households in two low-income, mostly black Pittsburgh neighborhoods long regarded as food deserts.

The survey found that people who were younger, male, not college-educated and who often shopped at convenience and neighborhood stores consumed more sugar-sweetened drinks, optional fats such as butter, and added sugars. The same was true for people receiving government food assistance.

Older, college-educated men ate more fruits and vegetables, the survey found.

These social and demographic factors were nearly twice as important than where people shopped in predicting whether they ate healthy or unhealthy foods, according to the study.

"Our findings suggest that interventions that focus on modifying the food retail environment by opening more stores that sell healthy food will have relatively little impact on reducing consumption of unhealthy food," lead author Christine Vaughan said in a Rand news release. Vaughan is a behavioral scientist at the nonprofit research organization.

"Instead, strategies designed to modify the choices people make about food stand a better chance of reducing consumption of unhealthy foods," she added.

Proven strategies include imposing taxes on sugary beverages and limiting displays of unhealthy foods in all types of stores, the study authors said.

The researchers also audited 24 food stores in the neighborhoods they studied and 14 others where residents said they did major food shopping. Nearly all stores -- from convenience marts to warehouse stores and supermarkets -- emphasized unhealthy food over healthier choices, the findings showed.

Most unhealthy were convenience stores, neighborhood shops and dollar stores, the study found. Moderately unhealthy stores included discount grocers, supercenters and wholesale clubs. Healthy stores included full-service supermarkets, specialty grocers, and fruit and vegetable shops.

However, even the healthiest stores had prominent displays of unhealthy foods, the investigators found.

Study co-author Tamara Dubowitz, a Rand senior policy researcher, concluded that "this work suggests we need to do more than just trying to eliminate food deserts. We need strategies that can encourage healthy eating and discourage unhealthy eating."

The report was published online April 25 in the journal Preventive Medicine.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on healthy eating.

SOURCES: Rand Corporation, news release, April 25, 2017

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Type 2 Diabetes May Be Bad for Brain Health

THURSDAY, April 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Previous research has linked type 2 diabetes and memory loss. Now, new research may be closing in on some of the reasons why.

The study found that people with type 2 diabetes -- particularly those who are overweight or obese -- have thinner gray matter in several areas of the brain.

These brain regions are related to memory, executive function, movement generation and visual information processing, said the study's senior author, Dr. In Kyoon Lyoo. He's director of the Ewha University Brain Institute in Seoul, South Korea.

"Obesity leads to increased risk of type 2 diabetes, metabolic dysfunction and is also associated with brain alterations independently," Lyoo said. "We aimed to investigate whether overweight/obesity influenced brain structure and cognitive function in individuals with early stage of type 2 diabetes."

The study included: 50 overweight or obese people with type 2 diabetes; 50 normal-weight people with type 2 diabetes, and 50 normal-weight people without diabetes.

The Korean study volunteers were between 30 and 60 years old. Those with diabetes had it for five years or less, and they were attempting lifestyle modifications and/or taking oral medication to lower blood sugar levels. No one was taking insulin.

The normal-weight group with type 2 diabetes had slightly better blood sugar control -- a hemoglobin A1C level of 7 percent. The overweight folks with type 2 diabetes had hemoglobin A1C levels of 7.3 percent.

Hemoglobin A1C is a two- to three- month estimate of average blood sugar levels. The American Diabetes Association generally recommends an A1C of 7 percent or less.

All study participants underwent MRI brain scans and tests to measure memory and thinking skills.

"Cortical thickness was decreased in several regions of the diabetic brains. Further thinning of the temporal lobes found in overweight/obese individuals with type 2 diabetes suggests that these regions are specifically vulnerable to combined effects of obesity and type 2 diabetes," Lyoo said.

He said this study alone cannot tease out whether the effect is from excess weight or diabetes or both. But the study did find that the longer someone had diabetes, the more likely they were to have brain changes.

Lyoo said factors such as insulin resistance, inflammation and poor blood sugar management might bring about the changes.

Memory and thinking skills were decreased in people with diabetes -- regardless of weight -- compared to the normal-weight people without type 2 diabetes, the study found.

Because the study only included an Asian population, Lyoo said it isn't clear if these effects would apply to other populations, such as Americans. He also said it isn't known if these effects occur in people with type 1 diabetes, the less common form of diabetes.

Dr. Sami Saba is an attending physician in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York City.

"The regions most affected were the temporal lobes, which are also most prominently affected in people with Alzheimer's," he said of the research.

"While this was not proven on this study, it does suggest that those with diabetes who are also overweight are at higher risk for developing Alzheimer's-type cognitive impairment than those with diabetes who are not overweight," Saba said.

But, he also noted that a major limitation of this study was the lack of overweight/obese people without diabetes to serve as a comparison group.

The take-home message, said Saba, is that weight control is an "important factor in preserving brain health in these patients." He said it's one more reason to work to prevent weight gain.

Lyoo said good blood-sugar management would probably help slow down or prevent these diabetes- or obesity-related brain changes.

Dr. William Cefalu is the chief scientific, medical and mission officer for the American Diabetes Association.

"The presence of overweight and obesity has been shown in other studies to be associated with early structural changes in the brain, and may contribute to cognitive issues," he said.

But, he said that diabetes may also play a role. Both Lyoo and Cefalu said that more research is needed to figure out which factor is at the root of these changes.

The study was released April 27 in the journal Diabetologia.

More information

Learn more about managing newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes from the American Diabetes Association.

SOURCES: In Kyoon Lyoo, M.D., Ph.D., director, Ewha University Brain Institute, Seoul, South Korea; Sami Saba, M.D., attending physician in neuromuscular medicine and electromyography, department of neurology, Lenox Hill Hospital, New York City; William Cefalu, M.D., chief scientific, medical and mission officer, American Diabetes Association; April 27, 2017, Diabetologia

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No Excuses: Exercise Can Overcome the 'Obesity Gene'

THURSDAY, April 27, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Even if obesity is "in your genes," regular exercise can help keep extra pounds at bay, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that when people carried a particular gene variant that raises obesity risk, regular exercise seemed to reduce the effects of their DNA -- by about one-third.

The gene in question is known as FTO. Studies show that people with a particular variant of the gene have a heightened risk of obesity.

But the gene's effects are not huge, or written in stone. Research has found that people who carry two copies of the FTO variant (one inherited from each parent) weigh about 6.5 pounds more than non-carriers, on average.

The new findings underscore one way to counter the gene's impact: Exercise.

"There are genes that appear to directly impact weight, but the effects are small," said lead researcher Mariaelisa Graff, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "You still have a lot of choice over your behavior."

The study results are not exactly surprising, according to Dr. Timothy Church, an obesity researcher who was not involved in the work.

"This shows, once again, that genes are not your destiny," said Church. He is a professor of preventative medicine at Louisiana State University's Pennington Biomedical Research Center.

Church said regular exercise is particularly key in preventing excess weight gain in the first place -- and in keeping the pounds off after someone loses weight.

Exercise is less effective in helping obese people shed weight, Church said. Diet changes are the critical step there.

But the bottom line is that exercise matters, regardless of your genes, according to Dr. Chip Lavie, of the John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, in New Orleans.

Lavie, who was not involved in the study, pointed to findings from his own research.

"[We] have published data that suggests the main cause of increasing obesity over the past five decades is the dramatic decline in physical activity," he said.

Gym memberships aside, Americans these days are less active at work, at home (through housework) and during leisure time, according to Lavie.

And the benefits of exercise go beyond weight control, he stressed. Physical activity boosts people's fitness levels -- which, Lavie said, is critical in preventing heart disease and living a longer, healthier life.

The new findings are based on over 200,000 adults, mostly of European descent, who'd taken part in previous health studies.

Graff and her colleagues analyzed information on their weight and exercise habits, and looked at how those factors "interacted" with 2.5 million gene variants.

FTO is the gene that is most strongly linked to obesity, Graff said.

And overall, her team found, active people who carried the obesity-linked FTO variant appeared more resistant to its effects than sedentary people.

On average, exercise weakened the variant's effects by about 30 percent, the researchers reported in the April 27 issue of PLOS Genetics.

There were some hints that exercise also affected some other weight-related genes. But the only clear relationship was with the FTO variant, according to Graff.

That, she noted, could be related to the broad way the study looked at exercise. The 23 percent of people who were least active were considered "inactive," while everyone else was deemed "active."

Church said he thinks research into the genetics of body weight will increasingly become useful.

If certain gene variants affect people's response to a low-carb diet or aerobic exercise, for example, that could help in "tailoring" weight-loss plans, he suggested.

"The science is rapidly evolving," Church said, "and there's still a lot to learn. But I think that's the direction this is going."

More information

The U.S. National Institutes of Health has more on weight management.

SOURCES: Mariaelisa Graff, Ph.D., research assistant professor, epidemiology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Timothy Church, M.D., Ph.D., M.P.H., professor, preventative medicine, Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge; Chip Lavie, M.D., medical director, cardiac rehabilitation and prevention, and director, exercise laboratories, John Ochsner Heart and Vascular Institute, New Orleans; April 27, 2017, PLOS Genetics, online

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Obesity Quadruples Kids' Type 2 Diabetes Risk: Study

TUESDAY, April 25, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Close to 13 million American children and teens are obese, and new research shows they may be four times more likely than kids with a healthy weight to develop type 2 diabetes by age 25.

Between 2002 and 2005, there were 3,600 cases a year of type 2 diabetes among U.S. kids and teens, according to the Endocrine Society's Endocrine Facts and Figures report. A large study of British children produced similar results, the researchers noted.

"As the prevalence of obesity and being overweight has rapidly risen, an increasing number of children and young adults have been diagnosed with diabetes in the United Kingdom since the early 1990s," said study co-author Ali Abbasi, a research fellow at King's College London.

For the study, published April 25 in the Journal of the Endocrine Society, the researchers reviewed health records of 375 general practices in the United Kingdom.

The team compared the diabetes status and body mass index (BMI) of about 370,000 children between the ages of 2 and 15. BMI is a measure used to determine if someone is a healthy weight for their height.

The study found that 654 youngsters were diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and 1,319 with type 1 diabetes between 1994 and 2013. Nearly half of those with type 2 diabetes were obese. There was no link, however, between obesity and rates of type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune disease, researchers noted.

"Diabetes imposes a heavy burden on society because the condition is common and costly to treat," Abbasi said in an Endocrine Society news release. "Estimates indicate one in 11 adults has type 2 diabetes, or about 415 million people worldwide. Given that diabetes and obesity are preventable from early life, our findings and other research will hopefully motivate the public and policymakers to invest and engage in diabetes prevention efforts."

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention provides more on childhood obesity.

SOURCE: The Endocrine Society, news release, April 25, 2017

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Are You Raising an 'Emotional Eater'?

TUESDAY, April 25, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Soothing your kids with food may stop the tears in the short-term. But researchers warn it can lead to unhealthy eating patterns long-term.

Parents who are "emotional feeders" can encourage "emotional eating" -- a habit linked to weight gain and eating disorders, the Norwegian-British study found.

"There is now even stronger evidence that parental feeding styles have a major influence on children's dietary habits and how children relate to foods and beverages when it comes to addressing their own emotions," said one expert, Rafael Perez-Escamilla. He's a professor of epidemiology and public health at Yale University's School of Public Health.

"Emotional feeding" is "what parents do when they provide foods or beverages to their children to calm them down, such as when a child is having a tantrum," added Perez-Escamilla, who wasn't involved with the study.

Relying on junk food, desserts and sugary foods for comfort can lead to overeating, and later problems such as bulimia and binge-eating, said study lead author Silje Steinsbekk and colleagues.

"You don't feel like having a carrot if you're sad," said Steinsbekk, an associate professor of psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim.

For the new study, the researchers looked at the feeding and eating habits of more than 800 children in Norway, starting at age 4. They checked in on the kids at ages 6, 8 and 10.

About two-thirds of the children at all those ages showed signs of eating to make themselves feel better, judging by questionnaires answered by their parents.

Kids offered food for comfort at ages 4 and 6 displayed more emotional eating at ages 8 and 10, the study found.

Also, the researchers also found signs that kids who felt more easily comforted by food were fed more by parents for that purpose.

"Emotional feeding increases emotional eating and vice versa," Steinsbekk said.

The researchers spotted another trend: Children who became angry or upset more easily at age 4 were more likely to __eat to feel better and to be fed by parents for that purpose.

"This makes total sense as parents get very stressed out when their children are having a fit or crying non-stop," said Perez-Escamilla.

But there are better ways of dealing with discomfort, said Melissa Cunningham Kay, a research assistant with the University of North Carolina's Gillings School of Global Public Health.

"Feeling sad or angry are normal emotions. Rather than using food as a distraction from them, children should be taught to tolerate them and find other ways to cope," said Kay, who was not part of the study.

"Sometimes that may involve positive discipline and a few tears or even a full-on tantrum," said Kay. "Parents should not fear this. It is a normal and a necessary part of development."

Perez-Escamilla said parents should soothe upset kids by understanding and responding to their problems -- say, a wet diaper -- instead of offering food as a first response, he said.

He praised the new research, noting that the eating habits of kids and their parents are closely intertwined.

"Young children develop their eating habits by observing how their caregivers eat," he said. "If they see their caregivers drinking soda and eating junk food and desserts when the caregiver is stressed or upset, then that's what the children will do when they are experiencing similar emotions."

"Emotional eating should be avoided at all costs," he added.

Study lead author Steinsbekk added: "There's no reason to worry if you have a chocolate to feel better now and then. The problem is if this is your typical way of handling negative emotions."

The same goes for dealing with kids, he said. "Parents are not supposed to be perfect, but good enough. Randomly using food to soothe your child is no big deal as long as you usually rely on other strategies," he said.

The study authors cautioned that their review relied on questionnaires answered by parents, not direct observation by the scientists. And they noted that it took place in Norway with a population that's well-educated and not very diverse, so the findings may not apply elsewhere.

The study appears April 25 in the journal Child Development.

More information

For more about children's nutrition, see nutrition.gov.

SOURCES: Rafael Perez-Escamilla, Ph.D., professor, epidemiology and public health and director, Office of Public Health Practice, Yale School of Public Health, New Haven, Conn.; Silje Steinsbekk, Ph.D., associate professor, Department of Psychology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway; Melissa Cunningham Kay, research assistant, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; April 25, 2017, Child Development

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The Top 5 Conditions That Shorten Americans' Lives -- And Are Preventable

MONDAY, April 24, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- More bad news for plus-sized Americans: Obesity is the leading cause of preventable life-years lost in the nation, a new study finds.

Obesity steals more years than diabetes, tobacco, high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- the other top preventable health problems that cut Americans' lives short, according to researchers who analyzed 2014 data.

"Modifiable behavioral risk factors pose a substantial mortality burden in the U.S.," said study lead author Glen Taksler, an internal medicine researcher at the Cleveland Clinic.

"These preliminary results continue to highlight the importance of weight loss, diabetes management and healthy eating in the U.S. population," Taksler said in a clinic news release.

Obesity was linked with as much as 47 percent more life-years lost than tobacco, his team said.

Tobacco, meanwhile, had the same effect on life span as high blood pressure, the researchers found.

The researchers noted that three of the top five causes of life-years lost -- diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol -- can be treated. And helping patients understand treatment methods, options and approaches can have a significant effect, the study authors said.

The findings also emphasize the importance of preventive care, and why it should be a priority for physicians, Taksler's team said.

However, the researchers acknowledged that some people's situations may be different than those of the general population. For example, for someone with obesity and alcoholism, drinking may be a more important risk factor than obesity, even though obesity is more significant in the general population.

"The reality is, while we may know the proximate cause of a patient's death -- for example, breast cancer or heart attack -- we don't always know the contributing factor(s), such as tobacco use, obesity, alcohol and family history," Taksler said. "For each major cause of death, we identified a root cause to understand whether there was a way a person could have lived longer."

The findings were scheduled for presentation Saturday at the annual meeting of the Society of General Internal Medicine, in Washington, D.C. Research presented at meetings should be considered preliminary until published in a peer-reviewed medical journal.

More information

The U.S. National Library of Medicine offers healthy living resources.

SOURCE: Cleveland Clinic, news release, April 22, 2017

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Exercise Benefits Aging Hearts, Even Those of the Obese

MONDAY, April 24, 2017 (HealthDay News) -- Exercise can reduce the risk of heart damage in middle-aged adults and seniors -- even in those who are obese, according to a new study.

"The protective association of physical activity against [heart] damage may have implications for heart failure risk reduction, particularly among the high-risk group of individuals with excess weight," study lead author Dr. Roberta Florido said in an American College of Cardiology news release.

Florido is a cardiology fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.

"Promoting physical activity," she added, "may be a particularly important strategy for heart failure risk reductions among high risk groups such as those with obesity."

To gauge the influence of physical activity on heart health, the researchers looked at the experience of more than 9,400 people between 45 and 64 years of age.

The participants were grouped according to how much exercise they got. Current guidelines recommend at least 75 minutes a week of vigorous activity, or 150 or more minutes of moderate to vigorous activity.

A lower level of activity, called "intermediate," was defined as up to 74 minutes a week of vigorous activity or up to 149 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity.

According to the researchers, those who did no exercise were 39 percent more likely to have heart damage than those who followed the guidelines.

Those who followed intermediate level routines had 34 percent more heart damage than their fully active peers.

The researchers found indications that obese individuals who engaged in "recommended" levels of activity had lower blood levels of troponin -- a key indicator of heart damage -- compared with those who did no exercise at all.

Florido and her colleagues described their findings in the April 24 issue of JACC: Heart Failure.

An accompanying editorial urged heart specialists to promote healthy habits rather than simply treat heart problems once they develop.

More information

There's more on exercise and heart health at the American Heart Association.

SOURCE: American College of Cardiology, news release, April 24, 2017

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