Obesity

Over the past 20 years, obesity has reached epidemic proportions and become a serious public health issue in this country in adults as well as children, who have a 70 percent chance of becoming overweight adults.

• Overweight and obese adults, children and teens are significantly at risk for Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, heart disease, stroke, gall stones, breathing and sleep disorders, orthopedic difficulties, and serious emotional problems stemming from social discrimination.
• Almost 24 percent of children ages two-to-19 are obese.
• Eight out of 10 individuals over age 25 are overweight.
• In 2009, only Colorado and Washington, DC had a prevalence of obesity under 20 percent.
• Obesity is often linked to poor nutrition and lack of exercise. All these are continually being shown to have important negative consequences

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

At NYU Winthrop Hospital, basic scientists and clinicians are collaborating to investigate mechanisms responsible for the development of cardiovascular complications in a wide range of conditions, including obesity. Examining the regulation of certain signaling proteins in obesity, they are using a variety of biochemical methodologies, including molecular biology, array technology, tissue culture, histopathology and transgenic animals in their research. Current studies include: links between obesity and diabetes, intrauterine growth restriction and the propensity toward obesity, alterations in cytokine and gene expression in obesity, obesity and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and animal models of obesity and bone loss. We are collaborating with other NYC area academic medical centers to design and implement school-based lifestyle improvement programs for children and teens.

WUH Researchers’ Study:

• Effects of fitness/education in an ethnically diverse student-aged and adolescent student populations in New York.
• The pathophysiology of renal disease in obese individuals
• The regulation of adipose tissue in obese individuals with and without diabetes
• Effects of dietary restriction weight loss on bone density in obese subjects and rodent model.
• Effects of Vitamin D supplementation requirements in obese subjects
• The metabolism in medication changes with medical weight loss.
• Rodent models to evaluate effects of dietary restrictions on bone and mineral metabolism