Posts Tagged ‘observational research’

A new study in JAMA yesterday gave us a smug feeling about our coffee habit. Researchers found that drinking two to three cups of caffeinated coffee daily has an association with an 18% lower risk of dementia and a 15% lower risk of subjective cognitive. But decaffeinated coffee had no such association. This does not […]

Observational studies have suggested for some time that obesity might raise the risk of dementia for a person with obesity. But observational studies have limitations. They can suggest a hypothesis. Not prove causality. So the news of evidence from a Mendelian randomization study that obesity can cause vascular dementia is important. Methods and Findings This […]

It is no secret that alcohol use disorder is a risk after metabolic and bariatric surgery. The risk rises as time passes after surgery, with one study finding three percent of patients followed for a median of six years having one alcohol use disorder diagnosis in their medical records. Another study found that three years […]

If you want a younger, healthier brain, exercise that increases your muscle mass can help, says Gretchen Reynolds in the Washington Post: “More muscle mass was linked to younger brains in new research, suggesting resistance training can support long-term brain health.” She goes on to say: “If you need another reason to visit the gym […]

The International Journal of Obesity has published a map for future directions in weight bias research. The quality and global diversity of thinking that went into the summit which produced this roadmap is exceptional. The source of this thinking was the International Weight Bias Summit last year in Montreal at Concordia University. Support for the […]

“Supportive human relationships, particularly high-quality marital bonds, may regulate obesity risk through oxytocin-mediated alterations in brain and gut pathways.” This is the bottom line on a fascinating exploration of the biological relationship between emotionally supportive marriages and obesity published this week in Gut Microbes. This finding is not entirely a surprise. Nor is it the […]

Novo Nordisk made a bold gamble on oral semaglutide for delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Yesterday, as can happen with bold gambles, it did not pay off. A daily 14 mg oral dose of semaglutide was no better than placebo for preventing disease progression as measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating – Sum of […]

A new study suggests that, however painful it might be, a root canal might serve to improve a person’s metabolic health. The study appears in the Journal of Translational Medicine, authored by Yuchen Zhang and colleagues from King’s College London and the University of Helsinki. It is observational and thus cannot establish cause and effect […]

An important new study in Nature Medicine yesterday gave us a unique view of food noise at a source deep within the brain. Researchers implanted electrodes in the nucleus accumbens of a single subject to monitor brain activity in that region of the brain. The subject had a history of severe obesity and distressing preoccupation […]

Very often, news reports about obesity rates have more puffery than substance to offer. However, a report this week from Gallup deserves your attention. It tells us that a steady decline in self-reported obesity rates appears to be a genuine trend and that an association with use of GLP-1s may explain it. In fact, for […]