Want a bigger paycheck? Your weight may affect this, especially for women. A recent study has detailed that the more a woman weighs, the less she makes. A woman who weighs 25 lbs over the average female weight makes $16,000 less a year. However, the opposite is true for men. Men who typically are 25 lbs over the average male weight earns on average $8,000 more a year than a slender man. Slender men however, make almost $9,000 less a year than the average male co-worker. Slender men have stereotype traits of being sneaky, afraid, nervous, sad and weak.

This is an interesting phenomena that requires further study. However, life longevity and quality of life were not included in this study.

Learn more in this news report from CNN.

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There is a new study indicating that many types of chronic pain can be linked to obesity. People who’s BMI fit within the obesity range of 35+ or greater, suffer a higher incidence of problems relating to pain. The study was published by the American Pain Society.

As obesity rates continue to increase in the US, so are the complaints of pain from patients who seek treatments for it. Doctor’s visits account for a significant percentage of obesity related pain complaints and heal care expenditures. Early estimates for yearly obesity-pain related costs are in excess of approximately $190 billion dollars. This includes medical and lost time in work productivity.

These studies have shown that excessive weight on the body increases pressure on body joints which causes the pain. As a result the most common pain complaints are lower back pain and osteoarthritis.

The research included data that showed that obese people were more likely to report physician-diagnosed lower back pain, tension, migraine headaches, fibromyalgia and abdominal pain. It was determined that there is considerable evidence to support that family history and depression are also linked to obesity and pain. The researchers concluded that behavioral conditions contribute to obesity and pain as well.

A recent study on sleep loss and it’s apparent affects on obesity rates has been shown that it also applies to children as well. With the addition of busy schedules and extracurricular activities can keep a child up longer at night than they should be. Furthermore, portable media technology has also made it more tempting for children to stay awake longer at night while texting in bed with their iPhone, or posting to their Facebook page with their iPad or playing a game on their Nintendo DS while under the bed covers. Such temptations were rarely available to children even a decade ago.

Researchers from the University of Chicago set out to determine a sleep benchmark for a healthy lifestyle. Consequently, they studied 308 children between the ages of four and ten and recorded their BMI’s or Body Mass Indexes over a defined period. They discovered that children who had proper and regular sleep schedules and sleep a determined recommended amount of sleep per night had a lower risk of being obese or having other negative health side affects like the beginning of increased heart disease or diabetes and even cancer.

According to another study, almost one in five children in the United States are obese. This constitutes nearly seventeen percent with almost a third being overweight. Making sure that children get enough sleep at night is important to preventing obesity.

The sleep findings also suggest that there is a critical window, prior to age five years, where nighttime sleep is an important factor to obesity rates when children get older as well.

According to one researcher, Dr. David Gozal, chief physician for the Department of Pediatrics at Comer Children’s Hospital at the University of Chicago recently stated, “Lack of sufficient sleep can have major adverse consequences to the body, such as reduced memory and cognitive performance, lack of attention and focus and in children hyperactivity and ADHD like behaviors. In addition helplessness and depression can develop.”

This research shows that sleep plays a more important role in one’s overall health than people may give it credit for and not just about weight gain either. To remedy this, most sleep experts recommend a regular nightly sleep schedule of eight hours of sleep or more a night with longer periods on the weekends when lost sleep should be made up.

Over the years there have been many drug treatments that have been tested to help people lose weight. Some include reducing a person’s appetite while others held the promise to increase a person’s metabolism. Unfortunately, excessive weight gain and obesity are very difficult to treat being that it’s a critical medical issue and varies from patient to patient. However, mostly because it comes down to lifestyles and rethinking what people put in their mouths to eat.

A recent study published by the Lancet has promising results. It’s centered around the endorphin system. Endorphin’s are the pleasure chemicals that people sense during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of food, love and sex. They act very similar to the way opiates work with their ability to produce analgesia, producing the warm and fuzzy feeling and sense of well-being.

In a sense they are like the bodies natural drug addiction in regulating pain, addictions and the “Runners High.” There have been some animal studies that have determined a correlation between eating behaviors and endorphins.

The study encompassed over 1,700 adults who were labeled clinically obese and were randomized to be treated either with a placebo or a combination of drugs called naltrexone – which is an endorphin blocker and buproprion – which is used in the treatment of nicotine addictions. The primary goal of the study was to see if people could lose up to 5% of their body fat over the period of a year.

The test results were staggering. In the placebo group they had a 16% success rate, whereas in the drug treatment group there was over a 40% success rate.

The results of this study are promising, as there is potential for improvement through refined treatments. However, there were minor after effects though, with some reporting minor stomach upset, dizziness and dry mouth. Unfortunately, there is no further data beyond the one year study. Weight loss is a life long process to achieve optimal health.

Over the past decade more and more people in the United States are becoming classified as obese. Factors that contribute to this are sedentary lifestyles, a tendency to eat less healthy foods, and increased portions when eating.

Its a national health epidemic that is only increasing, as statistics have shown. Most analysts feel that the nation is not equipped to handle the financial burden of obese related diseases in relation to the rate of its increase.

Learn more about this problem in this video from CNN.

The orangutang, born in captivity, was often fed treats to appease the primate when it was not happy. Consequently, the orangutang became morbidly obese. Drastic measures were taken to ensure a complete behavioral change in an attempt for the orangutang to lose weight.

This is a clear example of the natural proclivity in humans to appease attitudes through treats. The same results can be seen in children who have become obese at an early age when parents reward good behavior with sweets.

Learn more in this video.

Medical scientists have differentiated multiple kinds of fat which release hormone cytokines. These cytokines can cause inflammation in the body which can affect a woman’s memory. The accumulation of thigh fat has a high concentration of cytokines and may also contribute to the formation of plaque in the blood stream, which restricts blood flow to the brain, and be linked to Alzheimer’s disease.

The BMI continues to be the primary testing standard in most health agencies because it’s inexpensive and easy to do.

A recent study published by the Journal Pediatrics, suggests that a relatively easy and understandable measurement could be used in place of the BMI which uses the neck circumference as a determinate for total body fat.

More often than naught, a wide neck is often related with obesity type conditions like diabetes, sleep apnea and hypertension. It has also been studied for potential obesity related problems like heart disease as well.

The primary issue of the BMI method of testing for body fat is that it doesn’t properly measure the central fat. However, using the BMI method is a good start and then utilizing other methods to either backup or question it’s findings.

In a race to develop drug therapy treatments, several pharmaceutical companies are close to releasing versions of their weight loss pills for obese patients with diabetes. Orexigen Therapeutics Inc the makers of Contrave, Vivis Inc. the makers of Qnexa and Arena Pharmaceuticals Inc. the makers of Lorcaserin, are all attempting to bring new obesity drug treatments to the market with a FDA regulatory decision expected in the fall of 2010 on the feasibility of approval.

Initial studies have proven to be promising with patients losing as much as 5% of their body fat during the initial studies. Besides losing weight, patients also received the benefit of reducing their blood glucose levels as compared to placebo test groups.

These initial findings show the potential for drug therapy on obese patients to help control their weight as well as their blood sugar levels.

The study is in direct contradiction of the idea that in Europe, poverty results in starving people. This is in direct contrast to some African countries where the least expensive foods are also the least nourishing, lacking proper calorie intake – resulting in starvation. However, in Europe and other western cultures, the least expensive foods are also the most calorie dense so the impoverished are more at risk to becoming obese.

Healthier food, by contrast, are more expensive, and during the current global recession many of the poor have been forced to eating processed starches like pasta and rice as a common everyday staple – which once consumed is converted to sugar. A continual diet of starch causes the body to store fat and increases the desire to eat as well – perpetuating the rise in obesity.

The food choice of the poor, out of necessity, has also been responsible for an increase in Type 2 related diabetes. With the continual global increase in health care costs and a projected increase in obesity related illnesses, society needs to wake up and pay attention to this fact and look for alternatives ways to properly feed the poor or pay heavily later to treat the affects of obesity as it relates to their diets.