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Pre-pregnancy obesity increases risk for neurocognitive problems in premature babies

The study is published in the current online issue of  The Journal of Pediatrics . "Roughly one-third of women entering pregnancy are either overweight or obese in this country, and that is a cause for concern," said the study's lead author Elizabeth T. Jensen, Ph.D., assistant professor of epidemiology in the division of public health sciences at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center. "There is accumulating medical evidence that there is a relationship between maternal obesity and neurocognitive function in children, and our study adds to this evidence." Jensen and her colleagues conducted the study to assess the association between maternal pre-pregnancy body mass index (BMI) and weight gain during pregnancy and children's later cognitive abilities. The study included 535 children previously enrolled in the NIH-funded, multi-center Extremely Low Gestational Age Newborns study. The research team evaluated the relationship of both pre-pregnancy BMI and...

Obese patients don't need to lose weight before total joint replacement, study finds

"Our data shows it's not necessary to ask patients to lose weight prior to surgery," said Wenjun Li, PhD, associate professor of medicine and lead author on the study. "It's challenging for a patient who is severely overweight and suffering in pain to exercise -- often they just can't do it. Our evidence showed that severe morbidly obese patients can benefit almost equally as normal weight patients in pain relief and gains in physical function." The aim of the study, published July 19 in the  Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery , was to evaluate the extent of pain relief and functional improvement in total joint replacement patients with various levels of obesity. The researchers concluded that while obesity is associated with a greater risk of early complications, obesity in itself should not be a deterrent to undergoing total joint replacement to relieve symptoms. Prior research has documented that obesity is associated with a small, but increased...

Moderate exercise and dieting reduces risk of Cesarean section and diabetes in pregnancy

The study, published in  The BMJ , is the largest research project in the world looking at lifestyle interventions in pregnancy, involving more than 50 researchers from 41 institutions. Its results were recently used by the UK Chief Medical Officers in the Department of Health's infographics on physical activity in pregnancy, which recommended at least 150 minutes of moderate intensity activity every week. Half of all women of childbearing age worldwide are overweight or obese, which puts both mother and offspring at risk in pregnancy and later life. Previous studies have found that diet and physical activity have an overall benefit on limiting weight gain during pregnancy, but findings have varied for their protective effect on maternal and offspring outcomes. Professor Shakila Thangaratinam from QMUL's Barts Research Centre for Women's Health said: "Our findings are important because it is often thought that pregnant women shouldn't exercise because it may ...

Nutrition advice aimed at children also improves parents' diets

"Diets high in unsaturated fat and low in saturated fat have been associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular events and death in adults," said lead author Dr Johanna Jaakkola, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Turku, Finland. "Very little is known about the long-term effects of nutrition advice for children on the diets and health of parents." The longitudinal randomised Special Turku Coronary Risk Factor Intervention Project (STRIP) decreased the saturated fat intake and improved the cardiovascular health of children by recommending foods rich in unsaturated, instead of saturated, fat. The current study examined whether the long-term dietary intervention focused on children was also associated with parental dietary intake and cardiometabolic risk factors over two decades of follow-up. The primary results of the STRIP study have been previously reported.2,3 Briefly, the study included 1 107 infants and their parents who were recruited fro...

Using a pig model to study chronic diseases may help minimize drug failure rate

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AAP counsels pediatricians to deal with clusters of cardiometabolic danger components to assist overweight children Pigs and people have comparable colonic stem cell populations and microbiomes, in line with Jairam Okay.P. Vanamala, who led a analysis effort to higher perceive these similarities. Utilizing a pig mannequin might assist different scientists extra successfully take a look at therapies for colon most cancers, kind 2 diabetes and different persistent ailments. Credit score: Patrick Mansell Scientists could possibly decrease the failure price of medicine for ailments linked to high-calorie diets, comparable to colon most cancers and kind 2 diabetes, in the event that they take a look at therapies utilizing a pig mannequin, in line with a global workforce of researchers. In a research, researchers discovered that pigs, which have intestine bacterial profiles and immune methods just like people, additionally keep two distinct colonic stem cell popu...

Why sugary drinks and protein-rich meals don't go well together

Dr Shanon Casperson, lead author of the study from USDA- Agricultural Research Service Grand Forks Human Nutrition Research Center, USA said: "We found that about a third of the additional calories provided by the sugar-sweetened drinks were not expended, fat metabolism was reduced, and it took less energy to metabolize the meals. This decreased metabolic efficiency may 'prime' the body to store more fat." The researchers found that the inclusion of a sugar-sweetened drink decreased fat oxidation, which kick-starts the breakdown of fat molecules, after a meal by 8%. If a sugar-sweetened drink was consumed with a 15% protein meal, fat oxidation decreased by 7.2g on average. If a sugar-sweetened drink was consumed with a 30% protein meal, fat oxidation decreased by 12.6g on average. While having a sugar-sweetened drink increased the amount of energy used to metabolise the meal, the increased expenditure did not even out the consumption of additional calories from t...

High-fat diet in pregnancy can cause mental health problems in offspring

"Given the high level of dietary fat consumption and maternal obesity in developed nations, these findings have important implications for the mental health of future generations," the researchers report. The research was published in the journal  Frontiers in Endocrinology . The study, led by Elinor Sullivan, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Division of Neuroscience at Oregon National Primate Research Center at OHSU, tested the effect of a maternal high-fat diet on nonhuman primates, tightly controlling their diet in a way that would be impossible in a human population. The study revealed behavioral changes in the offspring associated with impaired development of the central serotonin system in the brain. Further, it showed that introducing a healthy diet to the offspring at an early age failed to reverse the effect. Previous observational studies in people correlated maternal obesity with a range of mental health and neurodevelopmental disorders in children. T...