Last year saw a steep increase in our appreciation of the trillions of microbes that share our bodies. So, here are our tips for keeping your microbial passengers happy over the holidays in 2018.

Holiday food and gut health This holiday, don't forget your gut microbiome.
Gone are days when we saw the plethora of microorganisms that colonize our bodies as mere hitchhikers. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

Weight cycling is associated with a higher risk of death, according to a new study published in the Endocrine Society's Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism.

Weight cycling, or the constant losing and gaining of weight (usually from diet), leads to adverse health outcomes. By some estimates, 80 percent of people who lose weight will gradually regain it to end up at the same weight or even heavier than they were before they went on a diet. The Endocrine Society's Scientific Statement on the causes of obesity found this was because once an individual loses weight, the body typically reduces the amount of energy expended at rest, during exercise and daily activities while increasing hunger. This combination of lower energy expenditure and hunger creates a "perfect metabolic storm" of conditions for weight gain. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

Medical researchers have found a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity among youth in Grenada compared to US adolescents. The differences may reflect the impact of the westernized diet and lifestyle. The research may lead to a change in worldwide obesity prevention strategy.

A team of LSU Health New Orleans researchers has found a lower prevalence of overweight and obesity among youth in Grenada compared to US adolescents. The differences may reflect the impact of the westernized diet and lifestyle. The research may lead to a change in worldwide obesity prevention strategy. The LSU Health New Orleans team collaborated with researchers at St. George's University, and their results are published in Frontiers in Public Health available online here. CLICK HERE FOR ARTICLE!

A new Respirology review and analysis of published studies reveals a link between fast food consumption and an increased likelihood of having asthma, wheeze, and several other allergic diseases such as pollen fever, eczema, and rhino-conjunctivitis.

The analysis included 16 studies. In terms of different types of fast food consumption, hamburger intake was most prominently associated with allergic diseases in a dose-dependent manner, irrespective of consumers' income. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

SARAH ANNE STEWART WAS a weight-loss "expert." That is, she was good – too good, at times – at losing weight. She'd done it through starvation. She'd done it through purging. She'd done it through excessive exercise, laxative abuse and, of course, she'd done it through dieting.

In between, Stewart – a professional model during her teens and 20s – inevitably gained it back and more, fluctuating 70 pounds for a solid decade. She eventually landed in the ER, where she was told she'd die if she didn't make a change. "My body was shutting down after years of damage," Stewart says. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

As the thought of getting in a bathing suit looms, quick-fix diets can be tempting. A few weeks of restrictive eating and cutting calories and you’ll be to your ideal shape, right? Unfortunately, short-term diets — no matter what kind they are — tend to backfire pretty easily. “The hormonal and neural control of weight loss is incredibly complicated, which is why weight loss can be so easy in theory, and yet so difficult in practice,” explains Dr. Elizabeth Lowden, bariatric endocrinologist at the Northwestern Medicine Metabolic Health and Surgical Weight Loss Center at Delnor Hospital.

“Our brains are incredibly sophisticated when it comes to managing our energy balance, and weight gain tends to be a maladaptive response,” she explains. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!

YOU KNOW PEOPLE LIKE this, or at least you think you do. They gorge on burgers and candy and cake, never seem to move from the couch and yet maintain a perfectly trim figure.But according to diet experts, such a person hasn't discovered some magic spell to avoid weight gain. Weight loss and management – apart from potential biological factors – come down to what people eat and how much activity they include in their daily lives.

"When you observe somebody who doesn't seem to gain weight, they're not defying the laws of thermodynamics, the laws of physics," says U.S. News Best Diets expert panelist Dr. Larry Cheskin, the director of the Johns Hopkins Weight Management Center. What they're doing, in some fashion, is balancing their intake and output, he adds.This phenomenon is very common in young children, Cheskin says. For example, if kids choose to go run around the block, they'll likely come back and eat more than they normally would. But then they won't repeat those same eating habits for the rest of the week. CLICK HERE TO READ ARTICLE!