cool health life 28

Body fat is a known risk factor for postmenopausal breast cancer but whether there is an increased risk from fat specifically accumulated around the stomach is unclear. In recent years, belly fat has been reported to raise the risk of several conditions including cardiovascular disease, type-2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. Increased levels of several blood markers, including sex hormones, testosterone and oestrogen, the "fullness hormone," leptin, and inflammatory f actors, are associated with breast cancer risk. Some research has suggested that these markers are mainly produced in fat localised to the belly while other work has shown that weight loss is associated with changes in blood levels of breast cancer markers. Taken together these findings seem to suggest that body fat could have an important effect on breast cancer markers. In this study, carried out by researchers at the University Medical Center Utrecht in the Netherlands, 243 overweight, postmenopausal wo...

Following the approval of the laparoscopic gastric band to treat morbid obesity by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2001, as many as 96,000 devices have been placed annually. When the gastric band malfunctions (e.g., the band erodes into the stomach or slips down and causes obstruction) or the patient has not achieved the expected weight loss, a reoperation is indicated to replace or remove the band. There appears to be limited population-level data about the safety and costs of the device despite the continued use of it to treat morbid obesity. Andrew M. Ibrahim, M.D., M.Sc., of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues conducted a study that included 25,042 Medicare beneficiaries who underwent gastric band placement between 2006 and 2013 and identified patients who underwent reoperations, which included device removal, device replacement, or revision to a different bariatric procedure (e.g., a gastric bypass or sleeve gastrectomy). The researchers found tha...