Active clinical trials for "Overweight"

Nephrolithiasis is a disease that strikes roughly 10% of the Italian population and its incidence in industrialized countries is on the increase. The most common form of the disease (80%) is Idiopathic Calcium Nephrolithiasis (ICN) with calcium-oxalate (CaOx) and/or calcium-phosphate (CaP) stones. The etiopathogenesis involves both genetic and acquired factors, the interplay of which leads to urinary biochemical anomalies at the root of stone formation. The elements and urinary compounds involved are known as "urinary stone risk factors". The risk factors for CaOx stones consist of low urine volume, hypercalciuria, hyperoxaluria, hyperuricosuria, hypocitraturia and hypomagnesuria. In the case of CaP stones, the hyperphosphaturia and pH parameters are of particular importance; a pH>7 promotes the formation of stones prevalently composed of phosphates, while a pH of between 6 and 7, associated with a volume <1l/day, can raise CaP supersaturation to a dangerously high level and lead to the formation of mixed CaOx and CaP stones. For uric acid stones, the elements involved are hyperuricosuria and pH<5.5. In general, the most prevalent alteration in ICN is hypercalciuria (50%). Hypertension and obesity are also social diseases with important epidemiological similarities to nephrolithiasis. These affinities have led to the search for a common pathogenic moment. As far as hypertension is concerned, various studies have demonstrated high calciuria in hypertensives with a linear relationship between 24-h calciuria and arterial blood pressure. The incidence of stone disease is greater in hypertensives than in normotensives and, by the same token, the incidence of hypertension is greater in stone formers than in non stone formers, but it is not clear whether nephrolithiasis is a risk factor for hypertension or vice versa. Moreover, a linear relationship exists between calciuria and natriuria, where the calcium is the dependent variable, with a much steeper slope of the straight line in stone formers and hypertensives compared to controls. It has, in fact, been demonstrated that to reduce calcium, it is more efficacious to reduce sodium intake as opposed to calcium intake. Finally, BMI and body weight are independently associated with an increase in stone risk even though, due to a number of bias (limited weight categories, low number of obese persons in the study populations, no control group, no recording of food intake) the studies published failed to be conclusive. In the final analysis, stone disease, arterial hypertension and excess weight/obesity prove to be closely interconnected and it is possible to intervene with targeted diets aimed at reducing the risk of illness and death from these diseases. Among such dietary approaches, the reduction of sodium chloride in food, increased hydration and an increased intake of foods with an alkaline potential seem to play an important role. For many years now, the investigators research unit has been involved in projects, partially financed by the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MIUR), geared towards studying the effects induced by dietary changes in patients with calcium stone disease. The aim of the present project is to analyse in depth the relationship between stone disease, hypertension, body weight and water and salt intake both in the general population of the area of Parma (where historically and by gastronomic tradition, the usual diet tends to have a high salt content) and in a selected population of stone formers and hypertensives not under treatment. A representative sample of the population of the area of Parma will be studied, divided on the basis of weight category, in order to assess water and salt intake and relationships with the presence of hypertension, and a sample of normal and hypertensive stone formers randomized to receive for one year either water therapy+low salt diet or water therapy alone.

Increased access to highly reinforcing sedentary behaviors in the home such as TV and computers are associated with overweight in youth. Reducing these behaviors reduces overweight and prevents increases in overweight in youth who are at risk, likely by increasing physical activity and/or reducing energy intake. Reducing access to highly reinforcing sedentary activities frees-up time and youth must choose to reallocate their time between engaging in other, less reinforcing sedentary activities or physical activity. Neighborhood environments that provide easy access to reinforcing physical activities such as those at parks may result in greater increases in physical activity when access to highly reinforcing home sedentary behaviors is reduced. The investigators have found in 3 data sets of youth ranging in age from 4 to 16 years that the proportion of park and recreation area to residential area within ½ mile of the child's home parcel (park and recreation index) independently predicted the physical activity of youth. The investigators also found that increases in physical activity when access to sedentary behaviors were reduced for 3 weeks was related to park area within ½ mile of the child's home. The aim of this study is to decrease access to home sedentary behaviors for 4 months and determine if changes in physical activity habits are related to access to parks and recreation areas in the neighborhood environment. The investigators propose to study 128 sedentary overweight male and female 12-14 year-old youth recruited from parcels within Erie County, New York that have a high or low park and recreation index. Groups will be matched on racial/ethnic distribution and socioeconomic status. Subjects living at low and high park access parcels will then be equally randomized to groups that reduce targeted sedentary behavior (TV, computer use) time by 50% using TV Allowance devices placed on each TV/monitor in the home or a control group that has the same experimental experiences including TV Allowance devices placed on each TV/monitor, but programmed to not limit access to targeted sedentary behavior. Subjects will wear both accelerometers and wrist-watch-type global positioning systems to determine changes in the duration and intensity of physical activity in various parcel types, including parks. The investigators hypothesize differential responses in physical activity and the utilization of parks for physical activity. The group of youth that live at parcels with high access to parks and that incur a 50% reduction in sedentary behavior will have greater increases in physical activity, number of visits to parks and will accrue greater physical activity at parks than youth in the other 3 treatment groups. The investigators hypothesize that the alterations in physical activity will be mediated by parent modeling of physical activity and individual differences in the motivation to be physically active. The investigators hypothesize that there will be a main effect of reduction in access to sedentary behaviors on energy and fat intake and percent overweight.

The purpose of this study is to conduct a randomised controlled trial to assess the sustained effects on weight, selected risk factors and sense of well-being of offering individualized weight management advice in the primary care setting to patients who wish to lose weight; and to identify the key factors influencing the success of the intervention.

Obesity is associated with a variety of co-morbidities. Children with obesity are more likely to have risk factors associated with cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and CVD risk markers (e.g. hypertension, elevated serum cholesterol, and type 2 diabetes mellitus), but also with organ specific pathologies such as a non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD). A recent meta-analysis has shown that the prevalence of NAFLD in obese pediatric populations is approximately 35%, compared to approximately 8% in general pediatric population, making it a very important health threat in these populations. Successful pharmacological interventions to treat or prevent NASH are not yet available and so far only weight loss has clear benefits. However, it is well known that sustained weight-loss is difficult to achieve on the longer-term. The investigators recently demonstrated in mice that plant sterol and stanol ester consumption inhibited the development of liver inflammation. Moreover, Javanmardi et al. recently demonstrated in a population of adult NAFLD patients, that plasma concentrations of Alanine Transaminase (ALT) were reduced after daily plant sterol consumption (1.6 g/d) for 6 weeks. In this study, the investigators propose to evaluate the effect of consuming soft chews enriched with plant stanol esters (3 grams/day) on ALT concentrations in children with overweight or (morbid) obesity who are at risk of developing NAFLD, in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double blinded study with an intervention period and follow-up period of 6 months. 52 overweight and obese children with elevated ALT concentrations (>39 U/L for boys and >33 U/L for girls) will be included. All children will be randomly allocated to consume control or plant stanol ester enriched soft chews on a daily basis for a period of 6 months. After 12 months there will be an additional blood sample to evaluate whether the 6 months intervention is still effective.

This study is a randomized clinical trial to test the effect of a type of non-invasive brain stimulation on the response to a behavioral intervention designed to enhance cognitive control over food cravings in obese and overweight women. The brain stimulation is called transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS). All eligible participants will engage in a behavioral intervention known to enhance control over food cravings and will be randomly assigned to receive either tDCS or sham stimulation to the prefrontal cortex of the brain.

A randomized controlled trial to test the effectiveness of an online weight control program, called en_línea, comparing with a standard group therapy and a control group

This human dietary intervention study with a cross-over design aims to compare the effects of two isocaloric diets - early time-restricted feeding (TRF) vs. late TRF - on glycemic control and lipid metabolism in overweight and obese women.

Low- grade inflammation is a pathological feature of a wide range of chronic conditions, including the metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) and the accelerated reduction in bone density. Previous research shows that diets rich in fruits and vegetables can reduce chronic inflammation. To date there is no data on multiyear clinical interventions assessing the effect of plant-based dietary supplements on low-grade inflammation, cardiovascular disease prevention and indicators of biological aging, including individuals' cognitive function. In this study, the investigators are thus exploring whether separate ingestions of two plant-based nutritional products over 2 years, are able to modulate low-grade inflammation, parameters of CVD prevention, circulating micronutrients, upper respiratory tract- and gastro-intestinal symptoms, quality of life, indicators of biological aging, and cognitive function in overweight seniors.

The purpose of this study was to determine whether metformin combined with exenatide once weekly (EQW) is more effective than metformin alone in the treatment of overweight/obese women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS). Background therapies were Diane-35 or/and progesterone capsule. 80 participants were randomized to use either metformin or metformin+EQW for 12 weeks. Greater changes in body weight were anticipated in patients treated with EQW+metformin than metformin alone in those treated with metformin.

Lifestyle intervention is the most important management of non-alcoholic fatty liver diseases (NAFLD) patients. Weight reductions of 5-10% can improve non-alcoholic steatosis and fibrosis. However, the options for treatment in the clinics are limited. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the effectiveness of different lifestyle intervention strategies in NAFLD patients.