(July 17, 2008 CDC Press Release) — The proportion of U.S. adults who self report they are obese increased nearly 2 percent between 2005 and 2007, according to a report in today’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). An estimated 25.6 percent of U.S. adults reported being obese in 2007 compared to 23.9 percent in 2005, an increase of 1.7 percent. The report also finds that none of the 50 states or the District of Columbia has achieved the Healthy People 2010 goal to reduce obesity prevalence to 15 percent or less.

In three states – Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee – the prevalence of self-reported obesity among adults age 18 or older was above 30 percent. Colorado had the lowest obesity prevalence at 18.7 percent. Obesity is defined as a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or above. BMI is calculated using height and weight. For example, a 5-foot, 9-inch adult who weighs 203 pounds would have a BMI of 30, thus putting this person into the obese category.

The data were derived from CDC’s Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, a state-based telephone survey that collects information from adults aged 18 years and older. For this survey more than 350,000 adults are interviewed each year, making BRFSS the largest telephone health survey in the world. BMI was calculated based on this self-reported information.

“The epidemic of adult obesity continues to rise in the United States indicating that we need to step up our efforts at the national, state and local levels,” said Dr. William Dietz, director of CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity, and Obesity. “We need to encourage people to eat more fruits and vegetables, engage in more physical activity and reduce the consumption of high calorie foods and sugar sweetened beverages in order to maintain a healthy weight.”

The study found that obesity is more prominent in the South, where 27 percent of respondents were classified as obese. The percentage of obese adults was 25.3 in the Midwest, 23.3 percent in the Northeast, and 22.1 percent in the West.

By age, the prevalence of obesity ranged from 19.1 percent for men and women aged 19-29 years to 31.7 and 30.2 percent, respectively, for men and women aged 50-59 years.

“Obesity is a major risk factor for a number of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease and stroke. These diseases can be very costly for states and the country as a whole,” said Deb Galuska, associate director for science for CDC’s Division of Nutrition, Physical Activity and Obesity.

For more information on obesity trends, including an animated map, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa/obesity/trend/maps

To learn more about CDC’s efforts in the fight against obesity or for more information about nutrition, physical activity, and maintaining a healthy weight, visit http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpa.

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Would you be willing to step forward and eat a chocolate bar at day for science?

I love science. It’s great to learn how things interact with each other and the cause and effect basis of the world around and within us. With that said, I found the headlines and lead-off sentences of this article very interesting.

Scientists at the University of East Anglia in the U.K. are conducting a research study to look at the effects of bio flavinoids in chocolates on post-menopausal women with diabetes. The study is looking for 150 women to volunteer for the tough task of having to eat chocolate every day while having their cardiac status evaluated over the course of a year.

The team their is wondering whether some chocolates, richer in bio-flavinoids, are more effective than others in helping maintain good cardiac health as we grow older. Post menopausal women have a greater risk of cardiac death than pre-menopausal women. When you add in the effects of those women who also develop Type II diabetes and you increase their risk factors again.

This study hopes to determine if enriched chocolates would be a good way to get elderly persons with decreased appetites to consume necessary nutrients to assist in health maintenance.

This article made a bit of a news splash recently and as a nurse, you may get questions from patients about eating chocolate for health. They are looking for a excuse to go ahead and eat that Hershey bar despite their diabetes.

Chances are that they are not managing their disease very well anyway, but it makes a good excuse for you to start with some re-education about their disease. Perhaps you can refer them to a community education program for diabetics. That’s one of the things that articles and headlines like this one are good for. They give us a doorway into learning and assessing our patients, especially those who are at risk for increased mortality rates from preventable causes.

A report in the journal Diabetes Care looks at the effects of caffeine consumption on patients with diabetes.  I found the article on this here.

It looks at more evidence on just how powerful a drug caffeine can be.  Researchers tested a small group of people over 72 hours with a continuous blood sugar monitoring device implanted subcutaneously.

After giving the subjects a dose of caffeine equal to four cups of coffee, they watched blood sugar levels throughout the day.  An average increase in blood sugar of 8 percent was noted with peak increases noted just after meals.

Authors caution that they have no explanation for how caffeine directly affects blood sugar but wonder if it may have something to do with increased adrenaline release or perhaps a chemical inhibitory effect on glucose uptake by the body’s cells.

A recent report has listed the increase in Diabetes among the elderly as a pending economic disaster on the nation’s (and world’s IMHO) health care systems.  The report cites the increase by 25% of the number of elderly Americans diagnosed with diabetes in the last ten years.

The cited study in the article concludes that the numbers represent a significant risk of overpowering the health U.S. health care system with the costs of treating and caring for the associated problems of diabetes.

Cardio Vascular Disease, Stroke, Hypertension, Infection, Blindness, Kidney Failure, and general disability all will have a significant impact on the resources available in the near future, according to the researchers.

They argue that:

“Given these possibilities, primary prevention programs must be put in place before the diabetes of advancing age becomes a reality.”

As medical professionals on the front lines of that prevention initiative, I urge you all to beef up your awareness of this issue and include prevention and treatment tips in your patient contacts over the coming years in an effort to help keep the numbers of future diabetics down.