Active clinical trials for "Overweight"

The overall goal of the translational research is to evaluate the processes and outcomes of implementing, in a range of public health agencies, an intense, evidence-based behavioral weight loss intervention with demonstrated effectiveness among midlife low-income women. The intervention was originally studied in a single coordinated community health care center/church setting and delivered by research staff. The investigators will evaluate the intervention's translation and test its effectiveness as implemented by existing staff in six public health agencies supported by local community resources.

The investigators will assess the protective and antiinflammatory effects of processed fruit and fruit fibre in overweight subjects with signs of metabolic syndrome. A single-blinded parallel study is conducted to investigate the protective effects of fruit fibre on colonic epithelium. Relevant signalling pathways related to cholesterol metabolism, vascular inflammation, oxidative defence, apoptosis and sterol metabolism will be targeted. Volunteers are randomly assigned one of three groups. They are instructed to follow a polyphenol and pectin restricted diet for six weeks. The last four weeks in this six week period, the restricted diet is supplemented with whole apples (550g/day), apple pomace (22g/day) or nothing. Blood, urine, faecal samples and colon biopsies are collected before and after the four weeks intervention period.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of a summer gardening program on summer weight gain in overweight middle school children.

Background: The investigators know that exercise helps children develop strong bones and muscles and generally stay healthy. What is unclear however, is how much exercise a child needs to lower their risk of developing type 2 diabetes. Objective: The investigators will try to find out whether high-intensity exercise for a short-period of time is better than moderately intense exercise for improving the diabetes risk profile in teens who are at risk for type 2 diabetes. The working hypothesis is that exercise-mediated improvements in insulin sensitivity (a risk factor for diabetes) will be greater following vigorous intermittent physical activity than following low intensity physical activity in overweight adolescents 13-18 yrs at risk for T2DM. Brief Description of Research Project: Teenagers between the ages of 13 and 18 yrs, who are at risk for type 2 diabetes (either by their family history or an abnormal response to sugar) will be randomly assigned to one of two activity groups or a control group. The activity groups will have supervised exercise sessions 3 to 5 days per week for 6 months. One group will do high-intensity exercise, and the other will do lower-intensity exercise. We will measure how sensitive their body is to insulin and the amount of fat in their muscle and liver tissue at the beginning and end of the exercise intervention.

The purpose of Challenge! is to determine if adolescents enrolled in a health promotion/ obesity prevention program will have a healthier BMI-for-age z-score and body composition (body fat %), will consume a healthier diet, and engage in higher levels of physical activity compared to those that did not receive the intervention over time.

This study compared the efficacy at one year of an interdisciplinary approach including individual counseling and group seminars versus group seminars alone to induce weight loss in subjects at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes. This study also compare if a participant's presence in small informative meeting groups as the only form of intervention is sufficient to induce a lifestyle change, thus inducing the weight loss needed for the prevention of the diseases associated with obesity.

The long-term goal of this project is to develop, evaluate, and disseminate to Extension Service families across the state of Colorado, an engaging, interactive, and evidence-based Family Program in order to prevent weight gain in adults and excess weight gain in children. Excess weight gain in children is defined as an increase in body weight beyond the increase in weight associated with normal growth and development. The program will focus on small, easily adopted, sustainable, lifestyle changes. Project Objectives include: Enhancing a Family Program by including food and physical activity environmental assessments, an online social network, and a pre-programmed health-based text messaging system, and by gaining feedback from extension families through a series of 6 focus groups. Conducting a randomized trial to evaluate the impact of the enhanced Family Program on the prevention of weight gain in families with overweight children. The investigators hypothesize that excess weight gain will be prevented in subjects in the intervention group, while those in the control group will gain excess weight. Disseminating the Family Program through USDA Cooperative Extension Services in Colorado and evaluate the usefulness/effectiveness of the program for USDA Extension agents and participating families. The investigators will conduct 4 additional focus groups at the end of this objective to gain feedback on its usefulness in a "real-life" setting. This objective is different from objective 2 in that the investigators are evaluating the program in a real-life setting, using qualitative and self-reported data, rather than conducting a clinical trial. By conducting focus groups with Extension families during both objectives #1 and 3, the Family Program will help to improve knowledge regarding behavioral and environmental factors influencing obesity. After enhancing the Family Program (Objective #1), the investigators will test its effectiveness in a randomized study of 200 families (Objective #2). Finally, after having developed and tested this effective intervention strategy, the investigators will disseminate it through Extension Agents throughout the state to evaluate its usefulness in a "real-life" setting (Objective #3).

The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of acute and short-term intervention with fish oil on inflammatory markers in overweight subjects.

The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a multifactorial intervention with weight reduction, behavioural therapy, and physical exercise on the severity and control of asthma in obese children.

Employees in developed societies are becoming increasingly sedentary at work and at home due to technological advances. Physical inactivity coupled with excess intake of calorie-rich foods are responsible for the epidemic of obesity. In population cohorts, physical inactivity and obesity increase the risk of cardiovascular disease and death. Because of the impact on productivity and health care costs, many businesses and other organizations have initiated "wellness" programs, often with facilities at the work site to encourage exercise. Although these programs have often resulted in improved fitness for participants, weight loss has been more difficult to achieve. In this regard, in our initial study of NIH employees participating in NHLBI's Keep the Beat program--two-thirds of whom were overweight or obese--we found improved exercise fitness after 3 months of participation, with exercise averaging 20 minutes each work day, but no significant weight loss. Associated with greater fitness in our participants was improvement in endothelial function, an important biomarker of cardiovascular risk. Because level of fitness is a strong predictor of cardiovascular (and total) mortality in population studies, some investigators and thought leaders have proposed that it is acceptable to be "fat and fit." We found in our study, however, that exercise alone has little effect on insulin sensitivity and other biomarkers of risk, including C-reactive protein, which could limit further improvement in endothelial function and even greater risk reduction. We propose to test in this protocol whether weight loss through supervised nutritional counseling and daily exercise at worksite facilities confers health benefits beyond those achieved with improved fitness alone, such as improvement in endothelial function, arterial compliance, insulin sensitivity, markers of inflammation in blood and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) structure and function. Because obesity in a sedentary workforce environment is especially prevalent among women, with additional contribution of menopause to obesity, our study will be restricted to overweight and obese women to allow appropriate analysis in a cohort of manageable size for our testing resources. The primary endpoint will be differential improvement in endothelial function, as determined by brachial artery reactivity to shear stress, from baseline to 6 months in participants randomized to exercise coupled with weight-loss intervention versus subjects randomized to exercise alone. Secondary analyses will include comparisons of adiposity, arterial stiffness, insulin sensitivity, HDL subparticles and function, and markers of inflammation and adipokines in blood, with exploratory analyses of minorities and age/hormonal interactions. Demonstration of improved vascular function and other biomarkers of cardiovascular risk with improved fitness combined with weight loss may serve as an incentive for greater participation in organization-initiated wellness programs with emphasis both on exercise and on personalized nutritional counseling.