Obesity

Growing numbers of obese people are opting for weight-loss surgery - once a risky last-resort procedure for the very fat - and new research suggests it is saving lives. Two studies being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine show that patients who choose surgery to drop their extra pounds can restore some of the life expectancy that obesity shortens. One of the studies, on American patients, shows that seven years after their gastric bypass operations, death from diabetes decreased 92 percent, from cancer 60 percent and from coronary artery disease 56 percent.

In a few days, Congress will return to reauthorize the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or SCHIP. The program will pay for expanded coverage for children through an increase in cigarette taxes. The logic is to raise revenue while discouraging a behavior harmful to child health. Instead of a cigarette tax, however, Congress should address the health problem that research indicates is the greatest crisis facing America's young people by taxing junk food instead. The new epidemic facing American children is obesity.

Fat cats are more common than you think. Husky huskies are, too. Researchers say that about a quarter of all household pets are overweight and that the animal epidemic follows the obesity increase found in humans nationwide. Obesity rates for humans rose in 31 states last year, according to a recently released study by the nonprofit Trust for America's Health. And some scientists say things are no better for your pet. "There's common agreement that obesity in pets is more of a problem than ever," said Donald C. Beitz, a professor of nutritional biochemistry at Iowa State University and chairman of a former subcommittee on dog and cat nutrition for the National Academies' National Research Council.

American youths are so out of shape and childhood obesity has reached such alarming proportions that almost anything schools can do to encourage more physical fitness is welcome. So an effort by Maryland's General Assembly to require more school time for physical education deserves consideration - though it's too bad it takes a state law to get schoolchildren hopping, jumping and running around. In fact, good physical health, which is a product of exercise, contributes to academic performance.

RECENTLY we learned the latest bad news about the girth of America, complete with more warnings that the "epidemic" of corpulence is killing us.The experts keep saying that being overweight increases the risks of diabetes, heart disease, hypertension and cancer, yet Americans keep larding it on. Obesity - being extremely overweight - soared nearly 50 percent during the 1990s to 18 percent of the adult population, according to federal data featured in...

Parked in front of their television sets, millions of American children are getting fatter and priming themselves for a sedentary, obese adulthood.Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center who combed through a federal health survey found that the fattest children were the ones who watched the most television. It was impossible to conclude that TV watching caused obesity -- but doctors involved in the study strongly suspected this was so."It's a very sedentary habit where kids are not burning calories," said Dr. Ross E. Andersen, an obesity specialist at Bayview.

Setting straight the public record on Lockheed MartinI am writing to correct factual errors and distortions presented in the article "From warfare to welfare" in the Perspective section March 22 that The Sun picked up from The Nation magazine.The article is devoid of any attempt to be balanced or fair in its coverage. The authors interviewed several Lockheed Martin executives, but never asked them to respond to accusations or allegations made by union representatives or advocacy groups consistently opposed to privatization and featured prominently in the story.

In tall, stainless-steel vats that look as if they belong in a microbrewery, Amgen Inc. of Thousand Oaks, Calif., is brewing up what could be a new anti-obesity drug - a naturally occurring human protein being tested in patients.At a plant in Nutley, N.J., Hoffmann-La Roche hopes to begin mass-producing a new diet pill called Xenical, the first chemical of a class that blocks the uptake of fats from the digestive system.On the heels of discovering several natural chemicals that make rats and mice ravenously hungry, several companies are moving quickly to develop drugs that suppress appetite, block digestion of fat or increase the rate at which the body burns calories.

Imagine two pieces of warm cinnamon toast smeared with butter, washed down with chocolate milk. At lunch, a turkey sandwich with mayo on white bread, with a fruit cup and Coke. For an afternoon snack, ice cream with Reese's Pieces, then a fried-chicken leg, french fries and a Diet Coke for dinner. Polish it off with a vanilla/chocolate ice cream cup.That's 24 hours in the food life of one Baltimore Girl Scout, one of about 300 local Boy and Girl Scouts surveyed by researchers. The verdict: More than half of them got too many of their daily calories from fat.Released yesterday at the American Heart Association meeting in Dallas, the study also found that 10 percent of the children exceeded the daily recommended level of cholesterol.

Predictions that a new prescription weight-loss pill will attract millions of frustrated dieters have some doctors worrying about a potential side effect that is worse than fat -- a deadly lung disease called primary pulmonary hypertension.Lung specialists concede they have not proved that the drug, to be sold as Redux, triggers the disease. Even if the link is proved, the risk may be very small for the individual patient taking the medication.But they said the affliction is so serious that the drug should be prescribed only for the truly obese -- and even then, with extreme caution.

Childhood neglect, abuse linked to adult obesity Childhood neglect and abuse can leave mental and physical scars, but a new study in the journal Obesity suggests there may also be a correlation between abuse and obesity. Researchers looked at court records of 410 children up to age 11 from 1967 to 1971 in a Midwest county who had court-substantiated cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect. They were matched with 303 children of similar ages, sex, race and ethnicity and social class who had no abuse or neglect.

An overweight woman who has weight-loss surgery before becoming pregnant might help break the cycle of obesity in her family, according to a new study. Researchers found that children born to women who had weight-loss surgery before pregnancy have improved heart health and a lower risk of obesity compared with siblings who were born before the mother had surgery. The study was published recently in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism. Previous research shows a woman's weight and tendency to develop diabetes and heart disease can influence the long-term health of her fetus, predisposing the child to metabolic problems related to obesity.

The Ravens begin training camp when rookies, quarterbacks and selected veterans report to McDaniel College on July 27. To help you prepare, each Sunday we'll update you about the team. This week we tell you about a study on obesity involving NFL players, led by the Ravens' team doctor. Next Sunday, we examine rule changes involving the special teams. Are you ready for some football?

Weight CDC data show more than one in four Americans obese Americans, who have been getting fatter for decades, reached an unwelcome milestone in a report released last week: More than one in four of us are obese. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the number of adults who say they are obese increased between 2005 and 2007 - to 25.6 percent in 2007 from 23.9 percent in 2005. That doesn't include people who are overweight. A different CDC survey - a gold-standard project in which researchers weigh and measure survey respondents - put the adult obesity rate at 33 percent for adult men and 35 percent for adult women in 2005 and 2006.

Zachary Aaronson scoured the nearly dozen photo albums in the home library, searching for the one pre-weight-loss picture that underscored what it's like to go from about 360 pounds more than a year ago to his current weight of 179. The 6-foot, 3-inch 18-year-old from Baltimore held up snapshots of himself as a youngster, wearing shirts that couldn't be buttoned over his protruding stomach and waistline. He wore colorful T-shirts underneath so the undersized garment wouldn't stand out. "It gets much worse," he says.

Keith Miller leads what doctors call a healthy, active lifestyle. The suburban Baltimore teenager has always loved sports and plays soccer competitively. He avoids eating pizza and junk food. But despite all that, Miller had cholesterol levels nearly five times his average peer and underwent a double bypass surgery to repair his heart two years ago when he was 15. Though open-heart surgery remains unusual in young patients, medical experts fear that cholesterol levels are rising at an alarming rate.

In addition to all the reasons that being overweight is not good for you, there is evidence that it prevents you from sleeping well. Even worse, researchers warn of a vicious cycle of eating more when you are sleep-deprived. If more motivation were needed to make that New Year's resolution to shed those extra pounds, the prospect of not sleeping and gaining more weight should do it. The dangers of obesity are well known and can't be emphasized enough. There's the increased risk of diabetes, hypertension and heart problems that can lead to a poor quality of life and, at worst, a reduced life span.

It's never a bad idea to check out what's going on in California. Whether it's a new plastic surgery procedure or a prohibition on smoking in restaurants, if they're doing it in Los Angeles or San Francisco, chances are good that a few years later, they'll be doing it here. So soft-drink lovers should note the latest foray into well-intentioned social engineering by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom. The city by the bay made headlines this year when it moved to ban plastic shopping bags and also banished bottled water from City Hall vending machines.

For years, experts have warned that obesity increases the risk of diabetes, hypertension and heart attack. Now, there's more bad news: Being fat makes it harder to sleep, and sleep deprivation can increase your craving for food. Recent studies at the Johns Hopkins University and elsewhere show that those who sleep poorly are more likely to have weight problems than sound sleepers, that high-fat diets can alter sleep cycles and that hormones controlling our appetites can rise and fall with the quality of our shut-eye.

Jeff Braun lets out a long, deep breath as he drops a massive barbell to the weight room floor. The Winters Mill offensive lineman is dripping sweat and approaching exhaustion as he finishes a typical weightlifting routine. Football season is over, but the hard work is just beginning for the 6-foot-5, 320-pound senior. Braun has accepted a full football scholarship to West Virginia and realizes he will need to train harder and get stronger to compete on the Division I level. Along with the weight training, he'll have to eat more to maintain the enormous size that college coaches crave on the offensive line.