JUAREZ, Mexico – A 450-kilogram (990-pound), bedridden man who had appealed on Mexican television for help tackling his weight problem died Tuesday of heart failure, his family said.
Emergency officials had to knock down Jose Luis Garza’s bedroom wall and put him in the back of a friend’s pickup truck to take him to a hospital as he fought for his life. The 47-year-old was pronounced dead on arrival.
Garza followed in the footsteps of the world’s fattest man, fellow Mexican Manuel Uribe of Monterrey, by taking his weight problem public. Garza lived about an hour away from Uribe in the northern town of Juarez.
Incoming search terms:
- jose luis garza
- half ton man
- Mexican Manuel Uribe
- pleading
- world's fattest man manuel uribe garza
SEOUL (Reuters) – South Korea plans to help obese children pay for health club membership and other activities that can help them lose weight, an official said on Wednesday.
Health ministry official Chun Myung-sook said the rate of childhood obesity had tripled over the past three years due to a changing diet higher in fatty foods and a more sedentary lifestyle.
Medical marijuana, a description of the illegal drug also known as “pot” that popped into general awareness around the same time that the almost everyone in the US became aware of the AIDS epidemic. Marijuana was advocated as valuable in treating severe weight loss associated with AIDS, and for relieving the nausea and vomiting which accompanied chemotherapy in most cancer patients.
In mid February of this year (2008) the American College of Physicians (ACP), the second largest doctors group in the United States, released a statement urging that the use of marijuana by patients with certain diseases be reconsidered by the U.S. Government.
MEXICO CITY – Abraham Leon was getting a checkup when he found out he had high blood pressure and was at risk of developing diabetes.
On the spot, the 5-foot-6-inch, 240-pound lab researcher joined “Vamos Por Un Million de Kilos” (Let’s Lose a Million Kilos), a national campaign to get Mexicans to collectively trim about 2 million pounds.
The project is one of several new efforts to fight obesity in Mexico, which is on track to catch up with the United States within a decade as one of the world’s fattest countries, according to the Mexican government. Nearly half of Mexico’s 110 million people are overweight, and the number of fat children has climbed 8 percent a year over the last decade.
It’s often considered a last resort for the severely overweight and obese, but gastric bypass surgery can be a lifesaver for one group of overweight patients: those with diabetes. Several recent studies have reported that the surgery not only reduces patients’ risk of death – particularly from obesity-related diseases, including diabetes and coronary artery disease – but that in some patients with diabetes the surgery is practically a cure, resulting in normalization of blood sugar, often within days. That’s part of the reason that gastric bypass is now the most commonly performed weight-loss surgery in the U.S., with nearly 140,000 procedures done each year.
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Being obese may dim a man’s chances of becoming a father, even if he is otherwise healthy, a new study suggests.
Researchers found that among 87 healthy men ages 19 to 48, those who were obese were less likely to have ever fathered a child. More importantly, they showed hormonal differences that point to a reduced reproductive capacity, the researchers report in the journal Fertility and Sterility.
Compared with their thinner counterparts, obese men had lower levels of testosterone in their blood, as well as lower levels of luteinizing hormone (LH) and follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH) — both essential to reproduction.
Many researchers now believe that the genetic mutation called the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene is no longer wholly responsible for weight problems. A person’s level of exercise can influence the impact of the genetic predisposition to being overweight, a new study from the University of Maryland suggests.
An active lifestyle may help people combat obesity, the study found. For the study, researchers measured the amount of physical activity volunteers carried out with a device called “accelerometer” and found that being genetically predisposed to obesity “had no effect on those with above average physical activity scores.” Researchers concluded that the gene variants which have been linked to obesity are associated with a 20 percent risk of obesity.
Many researchers now believe that the genetic mutation called the fat mass and obesity associated (FTO) gene is no longer wholly responsible for weight problems. A person’s level of exercise can influence the impact of the genetic predisposition to being overweight, a new study from the University of Maryland suggests.
An active lifestyle may help people combat obesity, the study found. For the study, researchers measured the amount of physical activity volunteers carried out with a device called “accelerometer” and found that being genetically predisposed to obesity “had no effect on those with above average physical activity scores.” Researchers concluded that the gene variants which have been linked to obesity are associated with a 20 percent risk of obesity.
Although most people realize when they’ve had enough and should stop eating, it’s still often difficult to maintain portion control.
The Cleveland Clinic offers these suggestions to help prevent overeating:
- Use a smaller dish, so that it looks like your plate is more full.
- Serve up an appropriate portion, and don’t tempt yourself with seconds.
- Put away leftovers quickly after dinner, and store them in portion-controlled containers. Freeze whatever you don’t want right away.
- Never eat right out of the bag, box or takeout container.
- Put bowls or platters of food away or out of sight during dinner.
Scientists believe about 30 percent of white people of European ancestry have this variant, including the Amish, and that may partly explain why so many people are overweight.
But fighting that fat factor may be easier in the Amish community’s 19th century rural lifestyle. They don’t use cars or modern appliances. Many of the men are farmers and carpenters, and the women, who are homemakers, often care for several children.
The researchers found that Amish people with the genetic variant were no more likely to be overweight than those who had the regular version of the gene — as long as they got three to four hours of moderate activity every day. That included things like brisk walking, housecleaning and gardening.
