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Obesity, along with the diabetes and heart disease that often accompany it, can quicken the onset of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, according to a series of four recent studies, which also point to the importance of adopting practices aimed at early prevention of brain ills.
   
“This is an important message,” said Ronald C. Petersen, chairman of the Medical and Scientific Advisory Council of the Alzheimer’s Association and director of the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at the Mayo Clinic. He was not involved in the studies, which were published in the journal Neurology. “Development of cognitive decline need not be a passive process. We are not all just sitting here and aging, and sooner or later it’s going to hit us. In fact, there may be some modifiable lifestyle factors that may influence our risk of developing cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease down the road.”

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If patients lose 9 percent of their body weight, a dangerous condition of the liver can be reversed, a recent study has shown.
   
The condition, known as nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH), is characterized by an abnormal, usually obesity-caused buildup of fat in the liver. This produces inflammation, which damages sensitive liver tissue, resulting in the formation of scar tissue, and eventual liver hardening and impairment of the organ’s function.

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Wolfing your food and at the same time eating until you feel full cause a near tripling of the risk of being overweight, according to a recent study from Japan's Osaka University.

The researchers, who published their work in the British Medical Journal, used special questionnaires to analyze the eating habits of 1,122 men and 2,165 women ages 30 to 69. The subjects assessed their speed of eating (very slow, slow, medium, fast, very fast) and reported whether they ate until full. ( Read more about Fast Eating Increases Fatness)

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Diet soda isn't the silver bullet to weight loss its often made out to be. Nor does it prevent weight gain. In fact, drinking diet soda is strongly correlated with overweight and obesity.

Diet soda has 5 calories or fewer per serving, of course, but emerging research seems to suggest that drinking sugary-tasting beverages, even artificially sweetened ones, appears to develop a preference in the human body for a whole range of other sweet things. And when we consume sweeter cereals, snacks, breads and desserts, we tend to consume more calories, and eventually put on pounds. ( Read more about Diet Soda: Doorway to Weight Gain)

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Being conscious of fat and sugar in your diet, and working out at the gym, may seem like the keys to a long and healthy life. But you may easily tire of calorie counting and workouts. It seems the real signs of whether you will be blessed with considerable longevity is if you've adopted certain lifelong healthy lifestyles and attitudes - some of which you can still start. Here are five of them.

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Obesity can lead to foot amputations, warns a podiatry organization in Australia. This is "particularly [true of] those patients who have diabetes, because they can lose feeling in their feet and sustain injuries, which can get infected and sometimes require amputation," said Brenden Brown, vice president of the Australasian Podiatry Council. And, he said, most people are completely unaware of the feet-fat connection.

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Overeating can cause the brain to lose control and cause damage potentially leading to diabetes, heart disease, and other ills - according to new U.S. research. Eating too much appears to make a usually dormant immune system pathway in the brain, sending out immune cells to attack and destroy non-existent invaders. The finding could help explain why obesity causes so many different diseases, and also may offer a way to prevent obesity itself.

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Instead of getting on a fad diet, only to crash and burn a few weeks later, it's best to eat wholesome, natural foods in five or so small meals a day, according to anti-aging expert Dr. Maoshing Ni. Dr. Mao, as the doctor of Chinese medicine and author of the best-selling book Secrets of Longevity is known, says a good weight-loss diet includes lean proteins, such as chicken breast; legumes, such as split peas and lentils; and whole grains, fruits, and vegetables. Fad diets, he says, almost inevitably deny a person some important nutrients, leading to cravings all too often cause the dieter to regain his weight - and perhaps even more. He advocates eating the following as part of a sensible weight-loss program:

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If you have high cholesterol and you're brimming with confidence in synthetic pharmaceuticals, then statin drugs such as Lipitor, Crestor, Zocor and Levitor are for you. If, however, you lean toward medicating your body with natural products, there are a variety of items that have been scientifically proven to lower cholesterol - without the serious side effects of statin drugs that include severe memory loss, muscle cramps, liver toxicity, hair loss, heartburn and nausea.

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Sixty-six percent of Americans are overweight, and 32 percent are obese, so many citizens have now gotten serious about losing weight. But many times a dieter or exerciser can hit a weight-loss plateau that's seemingly impossible to get beyond. Therefore, here follows seven areas to focus on to flank excess weight and, hopefully, lead to big improvements in health.

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