April 25, 2022 — Why? This is the basic question that remains unanswered after four decades of rising obesity. Why do we see such a persistent rise in obesity prevalence – all over the world? Broadly, we can lump the suspects into four groups: food, stress, physical environment, and chemicals. Of course, the most common presumption is that it’s […]
May 4, 2021 — Patterns of disparities surround us so completely that we become immune to them. In fact, disparities even extend to the air we breathe. People of color have dirtier air to breathe and that contributes to disparities in health in countless ways. New research offers evidence that air pollution contributes to the risk of childhood obesity. […]
August 23, 2020 — Sage advice from an attorney about making safety claims for any product: safe is a four-letter word. In other words, an absolute assurance of safety is almost always a lie. So the challenge is to figure out if something is safe enough. For example,consider the “everywhere chemical” known as BPA (bisphenol-A). A new study in […]
February 16, 2020 — It’s a disquieting thought. Pollution in our fat is a real, measurable thing. But that’s precisely why it deserves a closer look. Vicente Mustieles and Juan Arrebola explain in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health. Fat tissue is an important endocrine organ. And it’s also the place in our bodies where endocrine disrupting chemicals […]
June 18, 2019 — It’s not part of anyone’s dietary guidelines, but we’re consuming it nonetheless. Plastic is all around us – in the form of microparticles. We drink them, eat them, and breathe them. They’re in our food and our stools. By 2050, the world’s oceans will be filled with more plastic than fish. How Much? A new […]
June 30, 2018 — New research in Lancet Planetary Health finds that air pollution is adding to the global burden of diabetes. In fact, researchers estimate that it contributed to 3.2 million new cases of type 2 diabetes in 2016 alone. Published yesterday, the study suggest that cuts in air pollution might help reverse global trends toward a crushing […]
September 24, 2016 — Another study – this one published in Diabetes – tells us that air pollution might contribute to insulin resistance and ultimately to diabetes. It addresses a genuinely interesting subject for scientific inquiry. But it doesn’t tell us that a healthy diet and exercise is the antidote for the harms that air pollution might cause. Nevertheless, the New York […]
January 20, 2016 — A new study in PLOS ONE adds to the evidence that the endocrine disrupting properties of persistent organic pollution can be a significant factor in the dual epidemic of obesity and diabetes. Jung-Wei Chang and colleagues examined the relationship between abdominal obesity, insulin resistance, and exposure to dioxin. They found a five-fold higher risk of elevated insulin […]
April 16, 2014 — A growing body of evidence links pollution exposure to an elevated risk of obesity. Two recent studies provide both insight into the mechanisms and population-based evidence for the connection. Varying levels of air pollution in 25 districts of northeastern China created a natural experiment for testing the relationship with obesity. Recently in Obesity, Guang-Hui Dong […]
