Health care use is higher in adult asthmatic patients when compared with non-asthmatic patients, and inactivity and obesity are contributing to this increase, according to a report published this month in Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology, the scientific journal of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI).

Shilpa Dogra, MSc, of the Lifespan Health and Performance Laboratory at York University in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, and colleagues, also found that overnight hospital stays were more common in inactive asthmatic patients regardless of body mass index (BMI), whereas both BMI and physical activity were important determinants of physician consultations.

Eateries are fighting shrinking wallets by shrinking their burgers, burritos and doughnuts.

Mini foods are a way for consumers to still get a taste of those foods "without feeling too economically guilty," said Richard George, professor of food marketing at St. Joseph's University in Philadelphia.

Or too nutritionally guilty.

Rising rates of obesity are increasingly tough on Americans’ overloaded backs, a new patient survey finds.

"People are coming in not by dozens but in droves because of obesity and their back pain," Dr. Tom Faciszewski, an orthopedic surgeon at the Marshfield Clinic in Wisconsin, said in a prepared statement.

Earlier this year, experts at the North American Spine Society (NASS) conducted a national survey of U.S. spine care professionals and found the number of obese patients being treated for spine-related disorders has increased 67 percent over the past five years.

Ask readers of this newspaper if they're getting adequate sleep, and many would probably say "Ha!"

Twenty percent of Americans sleep less than six hours a night, and nearly one-third have lost sleep worrying about financial concerns, according to the National Sleep Foundation, which recommends that adults get seven to nine hours. "Our society thinks sleep is for slackers," says Darrel Drobnich, the organization's chief program officer.

A significantly greater proportion of patients with type 2 diabetes with mixed dyslipidemia treated with a combination of fenofibric acid and rosuvastatin achieved American Diabetes Association (ADA) target lipid levels compared to those taking rosuvastatin alone, reports Robert S. Rosenson, MD, State University of New York, Brooklyn, NY (pictured left). "Because diabetes is a risk factor for heart disease, it is particularly important that patients with diabetes and mixed dyslipidemia manage all three key lipid parameters," he says.

New research by scientists in the United States has found despite the overall declining rates of colorectal cancer among adults younger than age 50 years the rates are increasing.

An analysis of colorectal cancer trends by researchers at the American Cancer Society for the period between 1992 and 2005 has revealed that among young adults aged 20 to 49, incidence rates of the cancer increased 1.5% per year in men and 1.6% per year in women.

Not getting enough sleep and sleeping too much are both risk factors for developing diabetes, according to research presented at a sleep conference in Seattle.

The researchers, from State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, said that the diabetes risk is slightly higher in people who sleep too much - described as more than eight hours a night.

Obesity, a public health epidemic is growing at an alarming rate not only in developed countries but in developing nations as well. Given the growing unmet demand and patients clamoring for a quick remedy, a weight-loss drug with a high benefit to risk ratio can be expected to achieve a blockbuster status. However, a really effective and safe weight-loss therapy is long overdue.