Year: 2014

By Sharon Begley NEW YORK (Reuters) – If the news last month that the prevalence of obesity among American preschoolers had plunged 43 percent in a decade sounded too good to be true, that's because it probably was, researchers say. First Lady Michelle Obama and others seized on the finding as a sign that efforts to combat the national obesity epidemic were paying off. But as obesity specialists take a closer look at the data, some are questioning the 43 percent claim, suggesting that it may be a statistical fluke and pointing out that similar studies find no such decrease in obesity among preschoolers. In fact, based on the researchers' own data, the obesity rate may have even risen rather than declined.

Healthy monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fats found in foods such as … healthy fats as a regular part of our diet will not make us put on weight.

An experimental drug made from snail venom has shown early signs of promise in numbing pain, raising hopes in the hunt for new, non-addictive medications, researchers said Sunday. The drug, which has not been tested yet on humans, was judged to be about 100 times more potent than morphine or gabapentin, which are currently considered the gold standard for chronic nerve pain. The marine animals can reach out and stab prey, injecting a venom that paralyzes fish long enough for the snail to eat it up. A tiny protein derived from the snail's venom has formed the basis of five new experimental compounds, said lead researcher David Craik of the University of Queensland in Australia.

By Soyoung Kim and Olivia Oran NEW YORK, March 17 (Reuters) – When Barington Capital Group in October reported a stake of more than 2 percent in Darden Restaurants Inc with a vow to shake up the company, another investment firm was caught off guard. A few months prior to that, an activist fund was preparing to go public with proposals to shake up Aeropostale Inc and was amassing a stake, only to learn that Sycamore Partners had taken an 8 percent stake in the teen clothing retailer. The examples show how investors are increasingly bumping into one another in corporate campaigns, as more funds are starting to follow the playbook of aggressive shareholders such as Carl Icahn and Bill Ackman, who use their stock positions to urge companies to sell, break up, buy back shares or oust management. Investors and their lawyers say that it's getting tougher to find easy targets as investors are chasing the same "low-hanging fruit" – companies that have poor corporate governance or performance and are vulnerable to calls for change.

Check in on Sarah Murnaghan nine months after her controversial lung transplant.

Time-pressed fitness fans seeking short, focused workouts are flocking to boutique studios specializing in everything from indoor cycling to boot camp, and the no-frills gyms that burgeoned during the financial recession are still thriving in the recovery. Cedric X. Bryant, chief science officer with the American Council on Exercise, believes fitness has taken a minimalist turn that encourages smaller venues. Nearly one in five Americans is a health club consumer, according to a 2014 report by IHRSA, the International Health and Racquet Club, an industry trade association. While membership has remained more or less steady, IHRSA reports a shift in the past few years from large multipurpose clubs to smaller gyms, boutique or sport-specific studios and fitness-only facilities, many of which are franchised.

By Grace Li HONG KONG (Reuters) – Chinese authorities have suspended operations at a “baby hatch”, where anonymous mothers can safely abandoned new-born babies, in the city of Guangzhou as a surge in the number of infants has overwhelmed the center which only opened in late January. Many Chinese cities have set up baby hatches, which consist of an incubator and a delayed alarm, to protect unwanted newborns in a country where strict family planning laws have been blamed for the high number of baby girls being abandoned. The baby hatch in Guangzhou which opened on January 28 has so far received 262 abandoned babies, 148 boys and 114 girls, according to the city’s Bureau of Civil Affairs. “Due to an increasing number of abandoned babies at the baby hatch, the orphanage’s ability to receive those babies has reached the limit,” said Xu Jiu, director of Guangzhou Social Welfare Institute, at a briefing.

It won’t be nearly as much fun as eating candy bars, but a big study is being launched to see if pills containing the nutrients in dark chocolate can help prevent heart attacks and strokes.