Video Game Tax to Fight Obesity

A New Mexico legislator has proposed a new tax on video games and televisions to try to fund a fight against childhood obesity. The bill, called “Leave No Child Inside,” would levy a 1 percent tax on some home-recreation devices and use the money to fund outdoor programs for children. It is estimated that twenty five percent of New Mexico’s children are overweight or obese.

Elementary Schools Weighing Students

In Georgia, a new state law is requiring schools to weigh students twice each year, track their body mass index, and post the information on their websites in an effort to try to get a control over childhood obesity. Some people feel that this is an invasion of the children’s privacy and could be traumatic for the kids.

Mississippi Restaurants Banning Fat People

The Mississippi legislature is seriously considering a bill that would ban restaurants from serving food to very overweight people. The law would revoke the license of any restaurant that continues to serve the people. The state currently has a 30 percent obesity rate and they think that they could reduce that by not serving people that are very overweight.

Study Shows that Alcohol Increases Risk of Cancer

A recent study has show that alcohol can increase the chances of getting breast cancer in women. Studies have shown a link between drinking alcohol and breast cancer but they have yet to determine if certain types of alcohol is more dangerous than others.

The study analyzed the drinking habits of 70,033 women and asked them various questions during health exams between the years 1978 and 1985. By the year 2004, 2,829 of those women had been diagnosed with breast cancer. The study found that women who had one or two drinks a day increased their risk by 10 percent and women who had more than three drinks a day increased their risk by 30 percent.

Experts think that alcohol raises hormone levels in the blood to levels that could cause cancer. Doctors say that other factors, such as genetics, obesity, and age are more important factors that can raise the risk of breast cancer.

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It is reported that when human stem cells are exposed to a common virus they turn into fat cells. The cells didn't just change, but they stored fat too. It proves that some cases of obesity could be caused more than just a big appetite and not enough physical activity.

For several years, researchers looked for a link between obesity and the adenovirus-36. They found that a higher percentage of fat people were infected with the virus than non fat people. When they exposed animals to the virus, the animals fattened up. The found a gene in the virus that caused animal to get obese. The also took fat tissue from people who had liposuction and removed adult stem cells from the tissue and exposed the cells to the virus in the lab. More than half of the stem cells turned into fat cells.

If there is a vial cause to obesity, a vaccine could be created within the next 5 to 10 years to prevent the virus from making some people fat.