(HealthDay News) -- Obese women report that several mental barriers keep them from exercising to lose weight, according to a new study.

Researchers from the Center for Obesity Research and Education and the department of kinesiology at Temple University looked at data collected from 278 women who were enrolled in a year-long physical activity encouragement study.

The women completed a questionnaire when the study began and during three- and 12-month follow-up assessments. The questionnaire dealt with mental barriers to exercise, including:

* Feeling self-conscious.

(HealthDay News) -- Researchers have uncovered a genetic link between obesity and the risk for colon cancer. The discovery could lead to greater accuracy in predicting who is at risk for the disease, experts say.

Research has suggested that colon cancer risk rises with increasing weight, but this finding points to a genetic reason for the link.

(HealthDay News) -- Drugs used to treat obesity may be effective against a wide range of viral infections such as the flu, hepatitis, and even HIV, say researchers from the University of Rochester Medical Center and Princeton University.

In cellular metabolism, glucose can be converted into fatty acids -- a process known as fatty acid biosynthesis. Fatty acid biosynthesis is not essential in humans, but many viruses use these fatty acids to build their viral envelopes, or outer coatings, which help the viruses penetrate and infect human cells.

MEXICO CITY - Abraham Leon was getting a checkup when he found out he had high blood pressure and was at risk of developing diabetes.

On the spot, the 5-foot-6-inch, 240-pound lab researcher joined "Vamos Por Un Million de Kilos" (Let's Lose a Million Kilos), a national campaign to get Mexicans to collectively trim about 2 million pounds.

Read full story

FRIDAY, Sept. 5 (HealthDay News) -- New research shows that obese people who have asthma are nearly five times more likely to be hospitalized for the problem and to have lower quality of life and worse control of the disease than those with asthma who are normal weight.

Researchers from Kaiser Permanente, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School evaluated 1,113 adults with asthma, all members of Kaiser, in Oregon, Washington or Colorado.

WEDNESDAY, Aug. 27 (HealthDay News) -- Fat cells in obese people are "sick" compared to those in lean people, a new study shows.

Published in the September issue of Diabetes, a group of researchers from the Temple University School of Medicine analyzed fat samples from the upper thighs of six lean and six obese people.

They found significant differences in the fat cells of the obese participants compared with the lean participants.

CHICAGO - A new TV commercial shows kids eating hot dogs in a school cafeteria and one little boy's haunting lament: "I was dumbfounded when the doctor told me I have late-stage colon cancer."

It's a startling revelation in an ad that vilifies one of America's most beloved, if maligned, foods, while stoking fears about a dreaded disease.

Read full story

TUESDAY, Aug. 19 (HealthDay News) -- The obesity epidemic in America has gotten worse -- not better -- in the last year, despite public service campaigns warning about the health risks posed by carrying too much weight, a new report found.

Adult obesity rates increased in 37 states, while there were no decreases in any states, according to the annual report released Tuesday by the nonprofit Trust for America's Health and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

FRIDAY, Aug. 15 (HealthDay News) -- Statins reduce the perils facing obese people after they have the bypass surgery that restores blood flow to an endangered heart, a study finds.

The study was done to help settle a running controversy about the ill effects of obesity in such cases, said Dr. Christina C. Wee, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, co-director of research in the division of general medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital and lead author of a report in the Aug. 19 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

By Jeffrey Perkel
HealthDay Reporter

SUNDAY, Aug. 10 (HealthDay News) -- Researchers have developed a strain of mice resistant to diet-induced obesity.

The findings could one day lead to possible drug treatments for obesity in people. They also shed light on the brain circuitry that controls energy homeostasis -- the balance between how much energy (i.e., food) an animal takes in and how quickly it burns that energy.