Statistics of 2008 from New York’s health department showed that about 40% of city’s children were overweight.

Despite the effort the city government to promote physical activities and nutrition among the children, the obesity rate shows no declining trend. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention record of the national population of overweight children aging 6 to 11 years shows 35.5% rate, which is lower as compared with the city’s rate. Furthermore, about 22% of the overweight children in the city are obese, a rate higher than the national’s 19.6%.

Officials pointed the rate is highest in Corona, Queens having overweight children accounted for 51% of the population. Second highest rate is in Harlem where there are about 49% overweight children. Washington Heights has 47%. Overall, the obesity rate is noticeable with less affluent part of the city.

West 60s near the Hudson River in Manhattan shows the lowest rate with only 12%. Other parts of city having low obesity rate include TriBeCa with 15%, SoHo with 17.7% and East 50s with 18.3%. The wealthiest areas in the city show low obesity rate and healthiest children, an official says.

Relative to the data, areas with most number of fast-food chains show high obesity rate. Parents are not surprised with the data, as their children mostly want to eat on fast-food chains.

Officials claim that the trend, showing steady rate as compared with 2007 records, could be the start of the numbers to go down. The officials will continue the efforts in promoting the health and wellness for the schoolchildren, Cathy Nonas of the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene says.

She says that the government will focus on programs that will promote nutrition and physical exercises on the schoolchildren. She claims that the government is conducting trainings of 3,000 teachers that will provide exercise programs with children on kindergarten up to third grade.

Teenagers who have less than 8 hours of sleep tend to gain weight by consuming additional calories.

According to a study posted in the Sleep journal, with the deficiency of sleep, teenagers are more likely to eat fatty foods and more snacks. A sleep-deprived teen has about 2.2% higher amount of calorie intake than someone who has enough night sleep. This additional calorie intake is responsible for causing obesity and overweight on those teenagers.

Previous studies suggest a link between lack of sleep and obesity in teenagers. However, researchers were not able to state specific reasons for the gaining of weight. This led to Dr. Susan Redline of Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston and a team of researchers in seeking the reason behind the increasing rate of obesity with sleep-deprived adolescents.

Lack of sleep affects the normal metabolism of the body by increasing levels of hormone ghrelin and decreasing levels of hormone leptin. Leptin is a hormone than inhibits the reactions in the brain that may increase craving and appetite. Ghrelin is a hormone in the stomach that is responsible of the level of satiation. Low level of leptin causes more cravings for food and increase appetite, while high level of ghrelin makes a person want to eat more before a person can feel fullness and satiation.

Researchers include 240 teenagers who are between 16 and 19 years old in the study. They request the teens to wear a wrist device that will measure their activities so that researchers can distinguish between their wake-state and sleep-state. By this method, researchers measure the length of sleep of the teenagers. In addition, twice a day, researchers ask questions about the eating pattern and amount of food intake of those teens.

The result shows that teenagers who sleep in less than eight hours consume an average of 1,968 calories per day. Teen who have enough sleep and those with more than eight hours of sleep consume about 1,723 calories every day. Moreover, only about 34% of the participants have enough sleep or more. The results are relative to reasons why there is an increasing trend of obesity, an expert says.

A study in a population in Pennsylvania discovered that lack of sleep causes earlier death among the middle age men.

According to the research, middle age men who often have less than 8 hours of sleep and who are suffering from insomnia have high risk of dying within a 14-year period. However, evidence that relates lack of sleep with earlier death is not significant with middle age women. Insomnia puts an individual at a very high risk of health problems and this requires prompt medical attention, author of the study Edward Bixler says.

Researchers suggest at least 8 to 9 hours of sleep. Resting and sleeping is a recovery mechanism of the body. It is when bodily parts, organs, and tissues cool down, refresh and repair. Some studies suggest sleeping promotes faster cellular regeneration with patients having burns and wounds. Moreover, experts point lack of sleep with many health problems such as cardiovascular disease, hormonal imbalances, and infections due to decrease immunity level.

Bixler and a team of researchers at Pennsylvania State University College of Medicine study more than 1,700 participants, men of about 50 years of age and women with an average age of 47 years. The researchers spend 14 years observing the male sample. The observation period for the women sample is shorter, which takes only 10 years. At some time, researchers conduct laboratory examination and observation of the population’s sleep pattern. Researchers make follow up assessment of the population with questionnaires.

At the end of observation period, about 20% of the men died. There is about 5% death incidence in the women population.

To distinguish between insomniacs and good sleepers, researchers label those people claiming insomniacs as those who sleep less than 6 hours. Result of the study shows that about 9% of the men who are good sleepers die after 14 years. The death rate is rather high with men with insomnia as evidenced by deaths of more than half of insomniacs.

Active exercises reduce a person’s risk of obesity brought by collective genetic predisposing factors, Britain research says.

The study suggests that there are genetic factors that contribute to elevating the risk of a person to become overweight and obese. Each factor contributes to further increasing the risks. The more predisposing factors a person have, the higher the person’s obesity risk will get and the higher the chances the person will increase his weight.

According to the study, posted in the Public Library of American Science Medicine journal, with regular physical exercises an individual can control and lower down his genetic risks by up to 40%. The result shows that the physical activities have significantly cut the chance of individuals to gain the extra pounds.

Researchers cover 20,430 men and women aging between 39 and 79 years and residing in Norwich, Britain. They provided the sample with questionnaires regarding amount and degree of physical activities. Furthermore, they observe the population for almost 4 years, collecting data such as weight gain.

Researchers computed the genetic predisposition accumulated rate for each individual.  Each genetic risk factor will add up to the score where 0 being the lowest and 24 as the highest. Researchers discover that the sample population had an average of 12. Most of the participants scores between 10 and 13.

The accumulated genetic risk factors of the population account for about 16% increase of risk. Those people, who had regular exercise of at least one hour per day, had lowered the risk to 10%. Moreover, people with the genetic risk that had sedimentary lifestyle had 1.3 pounds increase in their body mass. Those who are actively participating with physical activities gain an average of 0.8 pounds. It is very evident that the physical exercises help to reduce and slow down weight gain to those people, a researcher explains.

A study that covers participants in a 20-year observation shows that moderate drinkers live longer compared with other people.

According to study posted in Alcoholism: Clinical and Experimental Research journal, a person who consumes about one to two shots of alcohol had less mortality rate than abstainers and heavy drinkers. The U.S. regulators recommend a day consumption of two drinks of alcohol for men and one drink for women. They say that further consumption may lead to health problems and accidents.

On the study that includes 1,824 participants, there are 1,142 men and 682 women between the ages 55 to 65. Besides drinking pattern, researchers also look for factors that may lead to drinking and not drinking, health indicators, and social-behavioral factors.

Upon the 20-year collection of data, researchers discover that mortality rate in people who do not drink alcohol and people who consume lot of alcohol are about 50% higher than those people who drink in moderation. Abstainers have 49% higher mortality risks as compared moderate drinkers. While heavy drinkers have 42% higher risks than moderate drinkers.

Following these data, researchers seek for reasons why these occur on the population. They notice that most of the abstainers were either ex-drinker or people with health problems that prohibits them from consuming alcohol. People in both conditions were already at higher risk as compared with other healthy people.

Doctors advise people who have health conditions to avoid alcohol consumption, as it will cause further damage to their body and sudden death. Previous alcohol drinkers were probably people who had develop complications and alcohol-related problems. They stop drinking as experts suggest it will be detrimental to them.

Even with these factors, moderate drinking still helps in promoting health as evidenced by less mortality rate, Charles Holahan, psychology professor and author of the study says.

Eating margarine containing omega-3 fatty acid did not make any help to prevent risks and complications of heart attack as compared with regular margarine, Dutch researchers say.

Omega-3 fatty acid promotes health of the heart and vascular system by lowering level of serum triglyceride, preventing plaque buildup inside the wall of the blood vessels, and improving blood circulation. Other research suggest that intake of adequate quantity of omega-3 reduces the chance of second attack for those people who had previous heart attack. Other study says that omega-3 reduce the risks of brain attack or stroke to occur.

Naturally, people can get omega-3 in fish such as tuna, salmon, mackerel, cod, and catfish. Other sources come from plant such as soybeans, flaxseed, hempseed, butternuts, pecan nuts, hazel nuts, and walnuts.

Researchers point that there are a lot of food and products in the market today that contain omega-3 and claiming these products give as much as the cardiovascular benefit. However, the amount may be insignificant to cause as much effect and benefit to a person’s health, expert says. They explain that for a person to have the health benefit, a person must consume at least one gram of fish oil every day.

The study covers 4,837 participants who previously had the heart attack. The participants were between 60 and 80 years of age. Researchers divided the population into four groups; each will have one of the four preparations of margarine, which are regular margarine, margarine with omega-3 coming from fish, margarine with omega-3 coming from botanical source, and margarine with both the previous sources.

Margarine is given along with a dish or meal. After 3 ½ years of observation, 671 participants died due heart attack or relative heart condition. The incidence rate shows no difference among the four groups.

Researchers conclude that adding omega-3 in diet does not help the patients as much as not having omega-3 at all. Nevertheless, there are limitations on the study, researchers explain. The age bracket used in the study may pose weakness of the study. If the study would be conducted to a younger population, maybe a different result appears.

A recent study describes the rising trend of weight loss surgeries or bariatric surgeries in England.

The study posted in British Medical Journal shows the elevated surgery cases from the year 2000 having only 238 bariatric procedures to 2,543 surgeries in 2007. Researchers say that the exponential rise in trend of bariatric surgeries must be the result of increasing number of obese in the population and the need for such surgery not only for aesthetic purposes but also as measure to prevent disease and illness. Furthermore, they were not sure if this kind of trend would continue for the next years to come.

The researchers cover 6,953 bariatric surgeries performed from April 2000 to March 2008. Patients in the study had gone with one of the three types of bariatric surgeries, which are gastric bypass surgeries, gastric banding procedures, and sleeve gastrectomy operations.

Among the 6,953 patients who had bariatric surgeries, 3191 patients had gastric bypass surgery, 3,649 patients had gastric band surgery, and 113 patients had sleeve gastrectomy surgery. Furthermore, an increase in the usage of laparoscopic procedures is notable from the 66 cases out of 238 patients or 28% in 2008 to 1,894 cases out of 2,543 patients or 74.5% in 2007.

Researchers also included to the study measures of mortality and morbidity of patients after the surgery. The sought for indications of deaths within 30 days after the surgery, deaths within one year after the surgery, sudden hospitalization with 28 days after the surgery, and the length of days of hospitalization. Researchers point that these factors indicate success rate of the previous bariatric surgeries.

According to the result, only 0.3% of the 6,953 patients died within 30 days after surgery. Furthermore, it shows no significant value of deaths that occur within a year after the procedure.  Readmissions of patients within 28 days after the procedure occur only in 8% of the cases. There is an average of 3 days length of hospitalization. Overall, the success rate of the surgeries is high as evidenced by low postoperative mortality and unplanned admission rates and short period of hospitalization.

Experts, considering the elevating rates of obesity in the population, warn the public that surgeries must now always be the single option. People always think that they can eat all they want and get fatter and fatter because the surgical procedure is there as a solution for losing weight. Experts stress that although these surgeries pose high success rate, it does not always guarantee one’s health and life.

Common plastic containers and bottles contribute to elevated levels of testosterone in men, research says.

A large number of consumer products contain a plastic chemical called bisphenol A (BPA). There were issues about the chemical’s possible effect to human. Total exposure with the chemical occurs daily as people use those plastics products such as meal containers and bottled drinks. Many countries banned the use of the chemical manufacturing infant products and feeding items.

The human body excreted byproducts of BPA metabolism through urine. Surveillance studies revealed urine trace of the BPA metabolites in more 90% of the population. The results signified high affected rate in the population thus prompting the development of researches concerning the effects of BFA to human health.

Following previous studies, researchers collected urine samples for the evaluation of BFA amount in the urine. The study collected the samples from 715 adult, between the ages 20 and 74, in Italy. Investigators submitted the collected 24-hour urine samples to liquid chromatography mass spectrometry to find out BPA concentration levels.

Results showed that the participants of the study excreted about 5 micrograms of BFA in their urine. Researchers, using multi-variable models, compared the high concentrations results of BFA with serum hormonal levels. The results showed high serum concentration of testosterone and 17 beta-estradiol. Researchers concluded that the raised levels of BFA have parallel effect with testosterone levels.

Previous studies probe effects of BPA in the human body functions. Researchers established studies that showed effect of the chemical in adding risks for cardiovascular diseases and diabetes. Other studies suggested that BPA causes organ malfunctions such as thyroid deregulation and pancreatic cell secretion problem. Further researches focused on the effect of the chemical with the human hormones such as estrogen and androgen. Finally, experts recognized BFA as “endocrine disruptor” as it causes alterations in human endocrine functions and levels of serum hormone concentration that contribute to risks, development, and progression of a disease.

A new study, presented at the National Meeting of the American Chemical Society in Boston, suggested that drinking water as an effective method of losing weight.

Brenda Davy, PhD, an associate professor of nutrition at Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, stressed that drinking two 8-ounce glasses of water before every meal significantly reduces a person’s body weight. The study focused on 48 participants, men and women between 55 and 75 years of age, and considered overweight or obese.

Researchers controlled the participants with a low-calorie diet with 1,500 calories and 1,200 calories per day for men and women respectively. As part of experimentation, 24 participants underwent drinking of 16 ounces of water, about the amount of small drinking water bottle, before their breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

Researchers assessed the weight of the participants after three months. Those people who initially drank water before meals lost an average weight of 15.5 pounds. However, those people who had only the low calorie diet lost 11 pounds. These results signified how preloading of water before meal greatly affected weight loss.

The researchers further extended the study on a full year observation. They noticed that the effects of drinking water, if continued, further reduced the body weights of the participants by about 1.5 pounds. Meanwhile, the other group who did not use the water regimen gained an average of 2 pounds. Finally, researchers concluded that the habit of drinking water before meal has lasting effects in weight loss.

Davy pointed that they were not so sure about how the water affects weight loss. Nevertheless, she expressed that water intake before meal added a load up in the stomach thus helping it to fill up and this will result in a feeling of fullness and make a person less hungry or have another urge to eat.

Currently, other studies suggested eating foods rich in water contents could be as helpful in weight control. Furthermore, these studies only suggested that adding the calorie-free water on a person’s diet reduced body weight.

A U.S. research agency announced on Friday the innovation of drugs that protected monkeys from the complications of the disease, Ebola.

The team at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, Fort Detrick, Maryland, conducted two trials of the drugs called AVI-6002 and AVI-6003, which experts considered both as antisense phosphorodiamidate morpholino oligomers (PMO), to Ebola infected monkeys. Both results showed that the drugs saved more that 60% of the sample monkeys. On this breakthrough, U.S. government hoped for a new approached to counter the deadly disease.

U.S. Department of Defense agreed with AVI BioPharma in a $291-million-worth contract that authorized the company to develop treatments and drugs for Ebola. Eventually, the pharmaceutical company finished the study of the drugs tested on infected monkeys. They submitted new applications, for the approval of clinical trials of the drug on human subjects, to U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Subsequently, the company claimed consent to proceed. The company can now start the project on testing the effects of drugs on infected people.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever, or simply Ebola, is condition caused by ebola virus. Under the genus ebolavirus, there known five species, such includes Zaire virus, which is the first discovered and the most deadly among the five viruses. In the disease condition, the virus causes disruptions on the epithelial cells of the blood vessels and on the coagulation of the blood. Thus, experts characterized the disease with severe bleeding. Infected patients die of hypovolemic shock, or sudden loss of large amount of blood, due to body’s inability to stop the bleeding process. Other symptoms of the disease include rapid onset of fever, severe headache, body malaise, muscle pain, and pharyngitis, or the inflammation of the pharynx.

Currently, there is no known immunization for Ebola. Fatality of the disease can be as high as 90% of the cases. Nevertheless, there were efforts by the government, to control the spread of the disease. Furthermore, several researches about antisense and its positive effects to counter Ebola perpetuate.