Women, more junk in the trunk could mean more fuel in the tank. For a change, a new study has some good news for those sporting a plumper rump. Researchers from Harvard Medical School discovered that hip and booty fat might just protect women against type 2 diabetes. They found that when they took buttocks and hip fat from mice and injected it into other mice, their bodies used the blood regulator insulin and lost weight. In other words, butt fat made it easier for them to use of insulin, which is the main hormone linked to diabetes. “People with the apple shape, where fat is stored around the tummy, can be more prone to type 2 diabetes and heart disease,” FOXNews.com reports. “Those with pear-shaped bodies, where fat is collected in the buttocks, are less likely to have these disorders.” Researcher Dr. Ronald Kahn contends that not all fat is unhealthy. “The surprising thing was that it wasn’t where the fat was located, it was the kind of fat that was the most important variable,” he said. “Even more surprising, it wasn’t that abdominal fat was exerting negative effects, but that subcutaneous fat was producing a good effect. I think it’s an important result because not only does it say that not all fat is bad, but I think it points to a special aspect of fat where we need to do more research.”

Heavy people get heart attacks 12 years sooner. The fatter you are, the more likely you are to have a heart attack earlier in life, a new study shows. “Basically, it is showing that as people got progressively more obese, the rate at which they had heart attacks early went up dramatically,” said Dr. Eric D. Peterson, a professor of medicine at Duke University Medical Center’s Division of Cardiology and a member of the group reporting the findings. Cardiologists at several institutions studied data on more than 111,000 people who had heart attacks, looking specifically at body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity, HealthDay reports. Someone with a BMI of 30 or above is regarded as obese; a person 5 feet, 7 inches tall who weighs 192 pounds has a BMI of 30. The average age of a first heart attack for people with a BMI of 18.5 or under was 74.6 years. For people with a BMI of 40 or over, it was 58.7 years. The age at which a first heart attack occurred went up steadily with increasing BMI – 3.5 years earlier for a BMI of 25 to 30; 6.8 years earlier for a BMI 30 to 35; 9.4 years for a BMI of 35 to 40; and 12 years earlier for a BMI 40 or higher. “The news here is that heart muscle in obese diabetic individuals can be mobilized by eating less,” said Dr. Heinrich Taegtmeyer, professor of medicine in cardiology at the University of Texas Health Sciences Center in Houston and co-author of an accompanying editorial comment.

Vital Signs: The lack of sports in school is showing up in strange ways. Vital Signs has more. 

 Vigorous Exercise helps those with “fat gene.” Physical activity may reduce the risk of obesity in people with a genetic mutation that predisposes them to high body-mass index (BMI), says a U.S. study released Monday. Recent research has shown a link between BMI and variants of the fat mass and obesity associated with the FTO gene, reports HealthDay. The mutations connected with obesity occur are associated with a 3.9-pound increase in body weight, according to background information in the study. While lifestyle factors such as diet and exercise are important factors in weight control, it’s not exactly clear how they interact with genetics. In this study, researchers analyzed DNA samples from 704 healthy Amish adults, average age 43.6, and also conducted a series of physiological tests on the participants, including recording their physical activity over a seven-day period. Those in the “high-activity” group burned about 900 calories (860 for women) more than those in the “low activity” group, the researchers wrote. “High activity” amounted to three to four hours of moderate intensity physical activity such as brisk walking, housecleaning or gardening, the researchers wrote.

Exposure could affect prostate and brain of babies.
Plastic baby bottles cause more concern.  Baby bottles made of a certain plastic are causing “some concern” among government scientists, according to a new report. Human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in many polycarbonate plastics, such as those used to make some plastic water and baby bottles, is a problem because of the effect it could have on the development of the prostate gland, brain and behavior effects in fetuses, infants and children, according to the final report released Monday by the National Toxicology Program. Scientists with the program have concluded that BPA has the potential to cause harm to human reproduction or development. They base their findings primarily on a review of scientific information on BPA. But the scientists warn that the results are not conclusive. “There remains considerable uncertainty whether the changes seen in the animal studies are directly applicable to humans, and whether they would result in clear adverse health effects,” said NTP Associate Director John Bucher, Ph.D. “But we have concluded that the possibility that BPA may affect human development cannot be dismissed.”

Plastic baby bottles cause more concern.  Baby bottles made of a certain plastic are causing “some concern” among government scientists, according to a new report. Human exposure to bisphenol A (BPA), a chemical used in many polycarbonate plastics, such as those used to make some plastic water and baby bottles, is a problem because of the effect it could have on the development of the prostate gland, brain and behavior effects in fetuses, infants and children, according to the final report released Monday by the National Toxicology Program. Scientists with the program have concluded that BPA has the potential to cause harm to human reproduction or development. They base their findings primarily on a review of scientific information on BPA. But the scientists warn that the results are not conclusive. “There remains considerable uncertainty whether the changes seen in the animal studies are directly applicable to humans, and whether they would result in clear adverse health effects,” said NTP Associate Director John Bucher, Ph.D. “But we have concluded that the possibility that BPA may affect human development cannot be dismissed.”

Scientists find a protein that produces “good” fat. A study by researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center has shown that a protein known for its role in inducing bone growth can also help promote the development of brown fat, a “good” fat that helps in the expenditure of energy and plays a role in fighting obesity. “Obesity is occurring at epidemic rates in the U.S. and worldwide, and that impacts the risk and prognosis of many diseases,” said Yu-Hua Tseng, Ph.D., an assistant investigator in the Joslin Section on Obesity and Hormone Action and lead author of the paper published in the Aug. 21 issue of Nature. “We hope this study can be translated into applications to help treat or prevent obesity.” Tseng noted that obesity is a major risk factor for type 2 diabetes and is closely linked to metabolic syndrome, a collection of medical problems associated with insulin resistance that can lead to an increased risk of atherosclerosis, the build up of plaque in coronary arteries that leads to heart attack and stroke. In laboratory studies of mouse cells, Tseng and her colleagues identified that a bone-inducing protein called BMP-7 drives precursor cells that give rise to mature brown fat cells. According to Tseng, there are two main types of fat cells in the body – white and brown. “White fat cells are the ‘conventional’ form of fat designed to store energy. By contrast, the main role of brown fat is to burn calories by generating heat. Brown fat cells largely disappear by adulthood in humans, but their precursors still remain in the body,” Tseng explained. In one of the experiments, the mice that developed brown fat tissue gained less weight than those that did not. In another experiment, mice that received injections of progenitor cells – similar to stem cells – that had been pre-treated with BMP-7, also developed additional brown fat tissue. “Diet and exercise are still the best approaches for weight reduction in the general population,” Tseng said. “However, for people who are genetically predisposed to obesity, these approaches may have very little effect.”

Prostate health group to meet next month. The Prostate Health Education Network, Inc., will host its fourth annual “African American Prostate Cancer Disparity Summit” in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 25 to 26, 2008. “Since our very first summit in 2005, this event has proved highly effective in bringing together members of Congress, medical and research specialists, survivors and members of industry to address one of the biggest health crises in Black America,” says Thomas Farrington, the group’s president. African-American men die at a rate of 2.4 times that of all other men from prostate cancer. This is the largest racial disparity for any type of cancer. Because of the overwhelming success of the annual summits on Capitol Hill, the 2008 Summit will be held in conjunction with the U.S. Congressional Black Caucus Annual Legislative Conference. Speakers on Thursday will include Tavis Smiley, U.S. Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.); U.S. Rep Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.); Dr. Edward Benz, president of the American Association of Cancer Institutes; former Major League Baseball star and prostate cancer survivor Ken Griffey, Sr.; and many others. A Friday “Town Hall Meeting” will outline an “action blueprint” to address the prostate cancer crisis in Black America. This blueprint will be presented to the incoming presidential administration in 2009. Panelists will include well-recognized leaders in the war on prostate cancer. The school will work with churches to find out who is pre-diabetic. Mercer University gets $3.1 Million diabetes prevention grant. The National Institutes of Health awarded Dr. John Boltri, a physician at the Mercer University School of Medicine, and his $3.1 million to study a church-based diabetes prevention and education programs. Mercer medical professors will be working with the Medical Center of Central Georgia in a five-year study that will launch in April or May, said Boltri, who conducted earlier research showing that the rate of diabetes was 50 percent higher in Blacks than in Whites. “We’re going into African-American churches and doing screenings for diabetes,” said Boltri, who works as a physician at the Family Health Center in Macon. “We’re looking to see who has pre-diabetes.”

Blacks in the South have higher HIV rates. Blacks in the South have higher HIV and AIDS rates. Why? Read more at BET.com/Body & Soul.

Be Sickle Smart program hits major cities.

The Be Sickle Smart program is on the road, and likely will be in a city near you. “American Idol” season two Winner Ruben Studdard hosted the Be Sickle Smart Education Day in Jacksonville, Fla., last Saturday to raise awareness of the risk of iron overload, a serious condition that affects people living with sickle-cell disease. Transfusional iron overload is a serious condition that can arise from having 10 or more blood transfusions over one’s lifetime (which is common among people who suffer from sickle-cell disease). If left untreated, iron overload can lead to serious health problems, including liver and heart damage, to name a few. The nationwide Be Sickle Smart campaign is a community-based health education effort leveraging advocacy groups, churches, local media and community leaders to raise awareness of sickle-cell disease and iron overload. The program will continue in Birmingham on Sept. 13 and Chicago on Sept. 18, with other stops planned later for Atlanta, Los Angeles, St. Louis and Philadelphia. More than 70,000 people in America have sickle-cell disease. One in 12 African Americans carries the trait for sickle-cell disease. For more information, go to Ask About Iron.com.

Is L.A. driving the trans fat bandwagon off a cliff?
Vital Signs: Cities and states are helping you cut the fat from your diets. Cities like Los Angeles are going as far as to stop fast food restaurants from opening in poor communities to lessen the number of unhealthy restaurants there. But do we really need that kind of help in the fat fight, or is the city going too far? Vital Signs has more.

“Happy Meals” are pretty sad. Most fast food for children is unhealthy, loaded with too many calories and too much fat and salt, says a report by the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Officials from the restaurant industry, however, disagree, saying that menus have improved nutritionally in recent years, giving diners a choice of healthier options. Want to see how your favorite fast food joint compares? Go to Vital Signs.

One in three uninsured workers is seriously sick. One out of every three working-age, uninsured Americans suffers from a chronic illness and isn’t getting the medical care they need, a new report shows. Although the study didn’t specifically look at the health consequences of lack of insurance and lack of access to medical care, it’s reasonable to assume that these factors would lead to various medical complications, said the authors of a study published in the Aug. 5 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. “This is something that is very true in my clinical experience,” Dr. Andrew Wilper, instructor in medicine at the University of Washington in Seattle, told HealDay. “The uninsured can’t get in to see the doctor, they miss medications, their blood pressure is out of control and, really, you see devastating consequences.” Wilper was a fellow in general internal medicine at Harvard Medical School while conducting the study. Another expert agreed that a lack of insurance along with chronic illness can be a potentially lethal combination. “These people are going to end up with complications of their illnesses prematurely. They will be disabled early. They will probably die younger. It is a major public health disaster,” said Dr. Oliver Fein, president-elect of Physicians for a National Health Program and professor of clinical medicine and public health at Weill Cornell Medical College of Cornell University in New York City. “Long term, there will be expensive admissions to hospitals, usually through the emergency department, due to diabetes out of control and congestive heart failure because of hypertension.” About 47 million Americans in 2007 were uninsured, up from 31 million in 1987, according to government figures. Using data from interviews with almost 12,500 people aged 18 to 64 who had participated in the National Health and Nutritional Examination Survey (NHANES), the authors conclude that an estimated 11.4 million working-age Americans with at least one of seven chronic medical conditions do not have health insurance. This included 16.1 percent of the 7.8 million people with cardiovascular disease, 15.5 percent of the 38.2 million people with hypertension and 16.6 percent of the 8.5 million people with diabetes. Other conditions examined were asthma, high cholesterol, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or a previous diagnosis of cancer. “We found some pretty striking differences when we compared uninsured individuals with one of these seven conditions with insured individuals with one of the conditions,” Wilper said. About 26 percent of uninsured people reported no standard site of care, versus only 6.2 percent of those who had insurance. More than 22 percent of uninsured individuals reported no visits to a health professional in the past year compared to 6.2 percent of insured people, and 7.1 percent of uninsured people with a chronic condition reported that the emergency room was their standard site of medical care, versus 1.1 percent of those carrying insurance.

More Americans are going deaf
One of three U.S. adults already suffers from some degree of hearing loss, experts said on Monday. The use of personal stereos and an aging population may create a hearing impairment epidemic, a new study shows. A team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore estimated that 55 million Americans have hearing loss in one or both ears, with men, Whites and the least-educated most affected, the researchers said. One out of six – or 29 million adults – has some trouble discerning speech, more than previous estimates, they reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine. “The prevalence of hearing loss in the United States is predicted to rise significantly because of an aging population and the growing use of personal listening devices. Indeed, there is concern that we may be facing an epidemic of hearing impairment,” Dr. Yuri Agrawal of the Baltimore hospital wrote. It is normal for people to ignore or disavow hearing loss, the researchers said, leading to difficulty communicating that can result in productivity problems at work, depression, and less access to health care that ultimately raises the risk of sickness and death. Hearing loss affected 8.5 percent of those in their 20s and 17 percent of people in their 30s. Exposure to workplace noise, firearms and loud music were all risk factors.

You need 55 minutes a day to lose weight permanently
Obese and overweight women need to cut calories and exercise 275 minutes a week more than their baseline physical activity – or at least 55 minutes a day, five days a week to lose weight and keep it off , a new study says. The research was led by John M. Jakicic, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues. They tracked 201 overweight and obese women over a two-year period; 170 women completed the study. At the start, all of the participants were sedentary. They were randomly assigned to one of four groups based on how much and how intensely they exercised and how many calories they burned. The participants were told to eat or drink no more than 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day. Researchers tracked them by talking to them on the phone and having face-to-face talks. Participants were encouraged to spread the exercise out over five days during a week, done in at least 10-minute chunks. The women were given treadmills to use at home and taught to monitor their own heart rates. At the end of the two-year study, women who had lost 10 percent or more of their initial body weight reported that they had done more physical activity, compared with those who did not lose as much weight. After six months, women in all four groups had lost an average of 8 percent to 10 percent of their initial body weight. But the hard part was keeping that weight off. Most of them regained the weight. Nearly 25 percent of the participants managed to keep 10 percent or more of their original body weight off over the two years. Those women exercised about 275 minutes a week more over their baseline activity levels.

Will Michelle Obama’s image help young Black girls?
Vital Signs: She’s been called unamerican, an “angry Black woman,” the “b” word and worse. But is the criticism of Michelle Obama, whose worked to soften her image, hurt or help how young girls see themselves and what they can accomplish? Read more at Vital Signs.

One in four American adults is obese

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The South tips the scales again as the nation’s fattest region, according to a new government survey. More than 30 percent of adults in Mississippi, Alabama and Tennessee are considered obese. Partly to blame, experts say, is, you guessed it, that good old home cooking. That’s right, bad eating habits – in addition to poverty and demographic groups with a propensity to be overweight – contribute largely to the South’s status. Colorado was the least obese state, with about 19 percent of its residents being chronically overweight, a random telephone survey done last year by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveals. The 2007 findings are similar to results from the same survey conducted the three previous years. Mississippi has had the highest obesity rate every year since 2004. But Alabama, Tennessee, West Virginia and Louisiana have also clustered near the top of the list, often so close that the difference between their rates and Mississippi’s may not be statistically significant. The South also has had high death rates from heart disease and stroke, health risks that have been linked to obesity, some experts noted. The CDC study only surveyed adults, but results for kids are similar, said Dr. Miriam Vos a pediatrics professor at Atlanta’s Emory School of Medicine. In all, though, 45 U.S. states lost ground in an ongoing push to reduce obesity to 15 percent of the population by 2010, according to the CDC. The number of adults who say they’re obese jumped 2 percent between 2005 and 2007. That means one in every four adults in the United States is now obese (25.6 percent in 2007 vs. 23.9 percent in 2005). And that doesn’t include people who are merely overweight. “We need to step up our efforts at the national, state and local levels,” says Dr. William Dietz, director of the CDC’s division of nutrition, physical activity, and obesityTomatoes are O.K. to eat again
It’s OK to eat all kinds of tomatoes again, the U.S. government declared Thursday — lifting its salmonella warning on the summer favorites amid signs that the record outbreak, while not over, may finally be slowing. Hot peppers still get a caution: The people most at risk of salmonella — including the elderly and people with weak immune systems — should avoid fresh jalapenos and serranos, and any dishes that may contain them, such as fresh salsa, federal health officials advised. Investigators still don’t know what caused the salmonella outbreak, which now has sickened 1,220 people in 42 states — the earliest falling ill on April 10 and the latest so far on July 4. The investigation continues into the ingredients found in salsa, but officials now think that if tomatoes were the source of the sickness, any that were tainted have been removed from the marketplace by now.