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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The high-fat Atkins diet can cause long-term damage to blood vessels, as well as some of the inflammation linked with heart and artery disease, U.S. researchers reported on Tuesday.

"It really is the Atkins diet that is the worst," Dr. Michael Miller, director of preventive cardiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, said in a telephone interview.

"The Atkins diet caused the LDL levels to go up by about 7 percent, whereas in the Ornish and South Beach diets ... they went down 7 to 10 percent."

Low density lipoprotein or LDL is the "bad" cholesterol that clogs blood vessels.

Various researchers have tested the benefits of the popular diets and reached wildly differing conclusions. Miller designed what he said was a unique approach -- to see how people fared once they stopped losing weight on any of the diets.

Studies show that people usually lose weight rapidly on any diet if they follow it properly and the weight loss itself can cause cholesterol to plummet.

"When you lose weight everything looks good but after a while you plateau and you hit a maintenance stage," said Miller, who presented his findings to a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida.dade teng

His team studied 18 people, each of whom completed a full month on each of the three diets. They were carefully monitored to ensure that they did not lose weight.

The Atkins diet was set to deliver 50 percent of calories as fat, the South Beach was 30 percent fat and the Ornish diet, designed by nutritionist Dr. Dean Ornish, was 10 percent fat.

While on each diet the volunteers were tested for levels of blood fats, including cholesterol and markers for inflammation.

The researchers used ultrasound scans to measure the flexibility and dilation of blood vessels and measured proteins in the blood that can indicate inflammation.

"Some markers of inflammation were increased by as much as 30 to 40 percent during the Atkins phase, whereas during the South Beach and Ornish phases, the markers either were stable or went down, some by as much as 15 to 20 percent," Miller said.ibest publications

Most studies have shown that diets that stress vegetables, low-fat sources of protein such as beans and legumes, and whole grains provide the best long-term weight loss. Many low-fat diets allow processed carbohydrates such as white flour, which have also been shown to be unhealthy, experts agree.

"We don't recommend the Atkins diet," Miller said. "Why not start out with a diet that will be healthier for you in the long run after weight loss?"

ORLANDO, Florida (Reuters) - Children who are on the path toward obesity have some worrisome cardiovascular disease risk factors as young as age 7, according to researchers tracking early childhood weight fluctuations.

A key element of the study was the "BMI rebound." After babies are born, many have what is commonly known as baby fat and can appear pudgy. Heading into the toddler period, they become taller and leaner, with their body mass index dropping.

Usually between ages 4 and 7, children start putting on weight in a way that increases their body mass index. The point at which the BMI ceases to drop and starts to rise again is called the BMI rebound, the researchers said.

The study showed that children who reached this BMI rebound early -- starting to put on excess weight soonest -- experienced cardiovascular red flags by age 7.

Those with the earliest age of BMI rebound, starting at age 4, were more likely to have high blood pressure and elevated left ventricular mass, known to be a major risk factor for heart disease in adults, the researchers told a meeting of the American Heart Association in Orlando, Florida.

Girls registered a slightly earlier BMI rebound than boys, leaving them at a bit higher risk because they started gaining weight earlier, they said.

"We're seeing adverse cardiovascular risk factors developing in early childhood," cardiologist Dr. Thomas Kimball, who headed the study, told reporters.

"We have an obesity epidemic in children. One way to look at this is that the obesity epidemic of kids today is going to be the heart disease epidemic 20 years from now."anwei bia

Kimball said previous research showed that the earlier children hit the BMI rebound, the more likely they were to become obese later in life.

Ways to address the problem are well known, Kimball said, including a more healthful diet, more exercise and less sedentary time watching TV or playing video games.

"It's the same old thing. But the frustrating thing about that is getting people to actually practice it," he said. "It's a family phenomenon. It's not just the child's problem. Most of the time, the parents have a weight problem as well. The whole family has to get on board."

CHICAGO - Being 25 pounds overweight doesn't appear to raise your risk of dying from cancer or heart disease, says a new government study that seems to vindicate Grandma's claim that a few extra pounds won't kill you.

The news isn't all good: Overweight people do have a higher chance of dying from diabetes and kidney disease. And people who are obese — generally those more than 30 pounds overweight for their height — have a higher risk of death from a variety of ills, including some cancers and heart disease.

However, having a little extra weight actually seemed to help people survive some illnesses — results that baffled several leading health researchers.

"This is a very puzzling disconnect," said Dr. JoAnn Manson, chief of preventive medicine at Harvard's Brigham and Women's Hospital. "That is a conundrum."

It was the second study by the same government scientists who two years ago first suggested that deaths from being too fat were overstated. The new report further analyzed the same data, this time looking at specific causes of death along with new mortality figures from 2004 for 2.3 million U.S. adults.

"Excess weight does not uniformly increase the risk of mortality from any and every cause, but only from certain causes," said the study's lead author Katherine Flegal, of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The study, which appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, analyzed the body-mass index of people who died from various diseases. In many cases, the risks of death were substantial for obese people — those with a body-mass index, or BMI, of at least 30.

Specifically, obesity raised the risk of death from heart disease, diabetes and kidney disease, and several cancers previously linked with excess weight, including breast, colon and pancreatic cancer. But being merely overweight — having a BMI between 25 and 30 — did not increase the risk of dying from heart disease or any kind of cancer.

Also surprising was that overweight people were up to about 40 percent less likely than normal-weight people to die from several other causes including emphysema, pneumonia, injuries and various infections. The age group that seemed to benefit most from a little extra padding were people aged 25 to 59; older overweight people had reduced risks for these diseases, too.

Why extra fat isn't always deadly and might even help people survive some illnesses is unclear and in fact disputed by many health experts. But University of South Carolina obesity researcher Steven Blair, who says people can be fat and fit, is a believer. He called the report a careful and plausible analysis, and said Americans have been whipped into a "near hysteria" by hype over the nation's obesity epidemic.ruan fu

While the epidemic is real, the number of deaths attributed to it and to being overweight has been exaggerated, Blair said.

People should focus instead on healthful eating and exercise, and stop obsessing about carrying a few extra pounds or becoming supermodel thin, Blair said.

He says his hefty grandmother used to justify her extra padding, saying, '"That way I have protection in case I get sick.' Maybe there is something to that."

A little extra weight might provide "additional nutritional reserves" that could help people battle certain diseases, Flegal said.ji mo

Dr. Robert Eckel, a spokesman for the American Heart Association, argued that the results may be misleading. For example, diabetes and heart disease often occur together and both often afflict overweight people. So when diabetes is listed as a cause of death, heart disease could have contributed, he said.

Eckel also said the study results might reflect aggressive efforts to treat high blood pressure and cholesterol or other conditions that can lead to fatal heart attacks. Those conditions often occur in overweight people and can be costly and debilitating even if they aren't always deadly, he said.

Obesity researcher Barry Popkin of the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, agreed, noting that the study "is about death. This is not about health and sickness."

It doesn't address whether cancer and heart disease occur more often in overweight people — something that has been suggested by other research.

Dr. Michael Thun of the American Cancer Society noted that staying slim tops a recent list of recommendations for preventing cancer in a report from the World Cancer Research Fund and American Institute for Cancer Research. The report was based on a review of more than 7,000 studies.

The CDC report "definitely won't be the last word," Thun said.

Manson, the Harvard researcher, cautioned that extra pounds can lead to obesity so people shouldn't be complacent about being overweight.

Laurie Slocum, who went from a size 20 to a size 12 after joining Weight Watchers two years ago, says the study won't turn her into a slacker. A 47-year-old banker from Durand, Ill., she lost more than 60 pounds and still has a few to go.

Thanks to dieting and exercise, her blood pressure has dropped from "the stroke zone" to normal. She said she feels too good now to use the new findings as an excuse to indulge.

"It's not going to change anything I'm doing," Slocum said. "The number on the scale isn't my goal ... it's a healthy lifestyle."

TUESDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- If you're one of the millions of Americans carrying excess weight, a pair of new studies has good news and bad news for you. It turns out that a little extra weight may not shorten your life but may make it harder to perform everyday activities as you get older.

The first study found that obesity is associated with functional impairments, such as the inability to bend over to pick something up. The second study compared mortality rates in people of all different weights and found that weight affected the most likely causes of death, with underweight people most likely to die of non-cancer, non-cardiovascular causes and obese people most likely to die from cardiovascular disease or obesity-related cancers.

"People know that obesity places them at increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, but I think people don't always think about how the increased weight may affect quality of life and to do the things you want to do," said the author of the first study, Dawn Alley, a Robert Wood Johnson Health and Society Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania.

Knowing the potential effects of overweight and obesity is becoming increasingly important as Americans' waistlines are ever-increasing. According to the statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the incidence of obesity in American adults has risen dramatically from the 1970s, when 15 percent of the population was considered obese. Today, that number has more than doubled to 33 percent.

Being overweight increases your risk of high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, stroke, arthritis and some cancers, according to the CDC.

Many of these conditions can be controlled, at least partially, by medications, and some research has suggested that may be why obese people today may be healthier than they were a generation ago, according to background information in Alley's study. What hasn't been well-assessed up to this point, according to Alley, is what effect overweight and obesity may have on day-to-day living.

Alley and her colleague, Dr. Virginia Chang, compared two sets of data collected for the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES). They looked at data from 1988 to 1994 and compared it to data from 1999 to 2004 on Americans over age 60.

The researchers looked for difficulties in two disability assessments: functional impairment and activities of daily living (ADL). Functional impairments include the inability to bend over to pick something up, walk one-quarter mile, walk up 10 stairs, lift 10 pounds and stand from an armless chair. Activities of daily living are more basic skills, such as the ability to feed and dress yourself.

Functional impairments increased 5.4 percent between the two study periods for obese individuals. During the final study period, obese people had nearly a threefold increased risk of a functional impairment compared to normal-weight peers. That represents a 43 percent increase in the likelihood of being functionally impaired for obese people, versus their counterparts of normal weight, the study said.ya lao

While the odds of having an activities-of-daily-living impairment didn't increase between the study periods, the odds of an obese person experiencing an activities-of-daily-living impairment were double that of a normal-weight person, because people of normal weight saw a decrease in ADL impairments.

"Obese elderly people have a higher risk of being disabled, and the gap is increasing," Alley said. "Obese older persons are experiencing a potentially preventable impairment. This is just one more reason we need to be concerned about obesity."

In the second study, U.S. government experts looked at specific causes of death based on weight. They also used data from NHANES but went back to 1971 and followed up through 2004.

Interestingly, they found that being overweight -- that's a body mass index (BMI, a ratio of weight to height) of 25 to 29.9 -- was not associated with an increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and cancer. But overweight was linked to a decreased risk of death from non-cancer, non-cardiovascular disease causes. Being underweight -- a BMI of 18.5 or less -- was associated with a significantly higher risk of death from non-cancer, non-cardiovascular disease causes, according to the study.

Obesity -- defined as a BMI over 30 -- was associated with increased cardiovascular disease mortality. When the two groups -- overweight and obesity -- were combined, the risk of death from diabetes or kidney disease was higher. And, obesity was associated with an increased risk of death from obesity-related cancers, such as breast cancer.

"The message here is that it's not just that if you're heavier, you're at a higher risk of death from all diseases. It's a little more complex than that," said the study's author, Katherine Flegal, a senior research scientist at the National Center for Health Statistics at the CDC.

More information

For advice on losing weight, visit the U.S. Food and Drug Administration

CHICAGO (Reuters) - All U.S. children should be formally screened for autism twice by the age of 2, the nation's top pediatrician group recommended on Monday.

"If you recognize it earlier, you get them into treatment earlier," said Dr. Scott Myers, a pediatrician who specializes in neurodevelopment and who helped write two clinical reports designed to help pediatricians identify and manage autism.

"Kids who start (treatment) earlier do better in the long run," Myers said in a telephone interview.

The guidelines for the first time call for universal screening of babies at the regular 18- and 24-month check-ups, regardless of whether there are warning signs. They will be published in the journal Pediatrics and on the group's Web site at http://www.aap.org.

No one knows what causes autism, a complex developmental disorder that includes problems with social interaction and communication.

Symptoms range from mild awkwardness to severe disability and mental retardation. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about one in every 150 U.S. children has autism or an autism spectrum disorder, such as Asperger's syndrome.

Delays in communication often are an early warning sign.

The guidelines urge pediatricians to watch for subtle signs, such as a lack of babbling, late smiling and failure to make eye contact. Picking up on these cues could lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment.

"Young children and infants between 9 and 12 months should turn and respond when their name is called," said Myers, of Janet Weis Children's Hospital/Geisinger Medical Center in Danville, Pennsylvania.

"If you say look at something across the room and you point, they ought to follow that with their eyes," he said.

Warnings signs needing immediate evaluation include: no babbling or pointing or other gestures by 12 months, no single words by 16 months, no two-word phrases by 24 months and regression or loss of language or social skills at any age.

If autism is suspected, the guidelines urge parents not to wait for a specialist to confirm the diagnosis before seeking treatment for the specific symptoms.

"You can begin with therapy geared toward the impairments that are there," Myers said. cue mai cuff fine cufflink wall cut sho dart mall deck ego dess do diamaond buy gidi shopping record well

The reports also review educational therapies and advises that children be engaged in intensive intervention of at least 25 hours per week, 12 months a year, with a low student-to-teacher ratio. Parents should be included in this treatment.

Pediatricians treating patients with autism should make themselves aware of various alternative therapies and to help parents make treatment decisions based on scientific evidence.

But the report suggests doctors should maintain open communication, even when families are pursuing unproven alternative treatments.

While the guidelines stress early intervention, Myers said many children benefit from therapy even if their autism was not detected until later.

"In the milder forms, it may not be possible to diagnose early," Myers said. "It is not hopeless by any means if it is diagnosed later but there does seem to be an advantage to getting intervention going as early as we can."

FRIDAY, Oct. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Three months of daily, vigorous exercise can improve overweight kids' thinking, U.S. researchers report.

All the children learned about healthy nutrition and the benefits of physical activity. In addition, a third of the children exercised 20 minutes a day, and another third exercised for 40 minutes. During the exercise sessions, the children played running games and used hula hoops and jump ropes to get their heart rates to 79 percent of maximum -- considered a vigorous workout.

"Aerobic exercise training showed dose-response benefits on executive function (decision-making) and possibly math achievement, in overweight children," the researchers wrote in an abstract presented this week at The Obesity Society's annual scientific meeting in New Orleans. "Regular exercise may be a simple, important method of enhancing children's cognitive and academic development. These results may persuade educators to implement vigorous physical activity curricula during a childhood obesity epidemic," the researchers concluded.

"Is exercise a magic wand that turns them into lean, healthy kids? No. They are still overweight but less so, with less fat, a healthier metabolism and an improved ability to handle life," lead investigator Dr. Catherine Davis, a clinical health psychologist at the Medical College of Georgia, in Augusta, said in a prepared statement.trade bass mal bath plaza batman happy bats automobilia auto commodity glass

"We hope these findings will help persuade policymakers, schools and communities that time spent being physically active enhances, rather than detracts from learning," Davis said.

CHICAGO (AFP) - The appetite-curbing hormone leptin influences brain circuits that tell us when we are hungry and when we are full, according to a study released Monday that could help in the fight against obesity.

"Ultimately, that may help identify new targets for the treatment of obesity and related metabolic disorders," said Edythe London, a professor of psychiatry at UCLA's Semel Institute.

The team studied the brain activity in three morbidly obese people as they were presented with visual food cues using brain scanning technology known as functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI.

The three volunteers were all members of a Turkish family who were overweight because of an extremely rare genetic mutation which resulted in them being deficient in leptin -- a signaling molecule produced by fat cells.

To see how leptin affected their relationship with food, the trio were shown images of food when they were supplemented with the hormone and again when they were not.

The cues included images of high-calorie food such as fried chicken, pizza and cheeseburgers, low-calorie food such as strawberries and salad, and neutral images such as brick walls.

Leptin treatment reduced feelings of hunger stimulated by the images. Artificial supplementation of leptin was also associated with reduced activity in brain regions associated with hunger, and increased activity in regions previously linked with feeling full or satisfied.backpacks backpack bags bag balls ball bangle bangle purchasing barrel  shopping baske

In clinical trials, leptin supplements have produced moderate weight loss in some obese patients, supposedly by inhibiting hunger and promote feelings of being full. But other research suggests it does not help people with normal leptin levels shed the extra pounds.

The study appears in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

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