nutrition

There are well over 34 million men, women and children in the United States of America that count as being clinically obese or worse, as morbidly obese. Morbid obesity is defined as a medical disease that is related not only to lifestyle and diet, but also to genetics and body makeup as well. Of these people, the majority of them will face a lifetime of other diseases and problems, including cardiovascular diseases and damage, joint pain and trauma, diabetes, cancer and a vast array of others. For these 34 million obese people, weight loss may be the difference between life and death.

In the world of weight loss, there have always been many people who are eager to find a faster and easier fix. Diet and exercise are the first steps that are recommended by doctors, with weight loss pills usually being the next step. However, for many people, these steps may not be enough and they may turn to more serious means of support, such as weight loss surgery. There are several different types of weight loss surgery, with the Roux-en-Y gastric bypass being the most common.

Each year, more than 16 million people die from heart disease, and 40% of all adult deaths are from heart disease. Although women have a tendency to have heart disease later in life than men do, it is more severe and more likely to be fatal, with more women dying from heart disease than breast cancer.

Most of us equate the word diet with calorie reduction. This is understandable, since most diet marketing is relentlessly focused on offering consumers low-calorie options.

Youth, it is said, is wasted on the young. Young people are so busy figuring out their lives that they hardly take the time to enjoy them. Fortunately, with medical research and scientific progress, lifespans have doubled over the last century. We can now start life at fifty and have another go at youth. Health consciousness, appropriate diet and exercise can make the later years of life a pleasant experience. Dietary principles play an especially important role in this regard. Compensating for the physiological changes of aging, they can give us better odds at achieving our genetically determined lifespans.

There are always various myths that surround nutrients and diets, some that have been quickly laid to rest and some that have been a little harder to shake. There are countless studies that are done each with different theories and different models of research. There are countless ways to perform a research study and countless ways to interpret the research findings. You can even skew numbers to fall your way if you so desire, so it is always very important to keep that in mind. Why would research be done to get a particular result? There are many reasons:

Huntington’s disease is a rare, hereditary disorder which results in progressive degeneration of the brain. While it can strike at any age at all, the typical age for onset is between 30 and 50. It is estimated that there are around 30,000 cases in the United States and as many as 150,000 other people may be at a 50% risk of developing the disease. (Source: Sarason and Sarason 2005).