All those images of beautiful-looking people on social media can deflate a young person's self-image, but there may be an easy fix: limiting time spent on TikTok, Instagram and the like.

A new Canadian study finds that teens and young adults who already had symptoms of anxiety or depression and who cut their social media usage by about 50% experienced a significant improvement in how they...

A new study links obesity with 21 Alzheimer's disease-related genes.

This may help explain why Alzheimer's is often more frequent among adults who experienced obesity in midlife, according to researchers at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

To

Parents are role models who can teach their kids about healthy food and exercise habits in childhood to help avoid future health problems.

“Children who are overweight are more likely to develop diabetes, experience feelings of isolation and struggle with self-esteem,” said Dr. Asma Khan, a pedia...

More than a decade ago, the Obama administration passed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 as a way to counter the toll the obesity epidemic was taking on children's health.

The goal was to markedly improve the nutritional value of federal food programs that regularly put free and/or low-cost breakfasts, lunches and snacks on the plates of nearly 30 million American students.

Type 1 diabetes has long been considered a thin person's disease, but a new study challenges that notion.

About 62% of adults with type 1 diabetes were overweight or obese, the researchers found. That compared to 64% of those without diabetes and 86% of those with type 2 diabetes.

For the study, the researchers used data on more than 128,000 people from the U.S. National Health Int...

Often, patients with nonalcoholic fatty liver disease are advised to lose weight, but that can be hard to do and takes precious time.

Now, researchers report they have found another strategy can help lower liver fat in people with this condition, which affects nearly 30% of the global population.

Exercise of about 150 minutes each week at a moderate intensity — the exact re...

People who get COVID-19 are at risk for long-term health consequences, but a healthy lifestyle may protect against long COVID, a new study suggests.

Women who maintained six healthy habits -- a healthy weight, didn't smoke, exercised regularly, slept and ate well, and drank alcohol in moderation -- cut their risk of long COVID by about 50%, compared with women without those healthy habits...

American schoolchildren could be getting school lunches that have less sugar and salt in the future, thanks to new nutrition standards announced by the U.S. Department of Agriculture on Friday.

These are the first school lunch program updates since 2012, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

What's diffe...

Dave Conway had a heart attack in 2018. He was only 30.

The Clintonville, Ohio, resident had been experiencing fatigue and shortness of breath, finally going to the emergency room with what he thought was pneumonia. Instead, he learned he'd had a “widowmaker” heart attack and a 100% blockage in a major artery.

“I thought people who had heart attacks or heart disease were older...

It's clear that staying active is key to being healthy, and fitness trackers and smartwatches have become popular tools for tracking activity.

But just how many steps does someone need to take to lose weight?

That's not such a simple a question.

While evidence is limited on exactly how many steps a day it takes to lose weight, experts say to get about 150 to 300 minutes of m...

It may be that as many as 13% of older adults are addicted to highly processed comfort foods, a new survey finds.

Craving cookies, chips, packaged snacks and soda was seen in adults aged 50 to 80, according to new data from the National Poll on Healthy Aging, from the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation.

Women had higher numbers of addiction to thes...

It's well known that obesity fuels an increase in a person's risk for other chronic health conditions.

Now, a new study shows that weight-loss surgery could set that person's health, and longevity, on a different path.

Utah researchers who followed patients for up to 40 years after they had one of four types of weight-loss (bariatric) surgery found they had significant reduc...

Any 'middle-age spread' of excess weight around your tummy could raise your risk of becoming frail decades later, a new study suggests.

Obese folks who've packed on pounds around their waist are more likely to develop symptoms of frailty, including exhaustion, weak grip strength, slow walking speed and reduced physical activity levels, researchers say.

Those symptoms can make a per...

Vitamin D is widely promoted for better health, but if you're overweight, you might not reap the benefits.

In a new study, researchers found a 30% to 40% reduction in cancer, cancer deaths and autoimmune diseases among people with a lower body mass index (BMI) who took vitamin D supplements,...

A Texas-based education initiative has found that enrolling children in poor communities in gardening and cooking classes may help boost their long-term health.

Called “Texas Sprouts," the program covered one full academic year and exposed elementary school children in 16 low-income schools access to outdoor gardening instruction, nutrition information and cooking lessons. Parents were ...

Do your liver a favor and steer clear of fast food, new research urges.

People with obesity or diabetes who consumed 20% or more of their daily calories from fast food had severely elevated levels of fat in their liver compared to those who ate less fast food or none.

Even the general U.S. population had moderate increases in liver fat when fast food made up one-fifth or more of the...

A leading pediatricians' group has issued new guidelines on treating obesity in children and teens that, for the first time, call for early, aggressive intervention that can include weight-loss drugs and surgery.

“There is no evidence that ‘watchful waiting' or delayed treatment is appropriate for children with obesity,” Dr.