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TheCarrot.com, the leading provider of life-management tracking and reporting, announced today the introduction of TheCarrot Premium to boost the tracking experience with goal-setting features and enhanced tools to help users achieve optimum health. TheCarrot has also made major updates to its free service.

The Premium programs offer advanced tracking capabilities, goal-setting features, and enhanced analytics to help users lose weight, get fit, and manage hypertension.

Premium program features:
• Dashboards for easy, highly visual access to all user data and tools
• Goal-setting capabilities
• Quick-look graphs & charts for easy visualization of progress toward goals
• Enhanced analytics
• Simple, interactive overviews to see patterns and challenges related to health
• Instant access to more than 30 health and lifestyle Trackers
• iPhone app to record and manage information on the go.

For more information, visit TheCarrot.com.

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According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the rates of obesity in the United States have skyrocketed since the introduction of high fructose corn syrup in 1970. In that time, obesity rates have gone from 15 percent of the U.S. population to roughly one-third.

A new study published in the journal Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior by researchers at Princeton University found that rats with access to high fructose corn syrup gained significantly more weight than those with access to table sugar, even when their overall caloric intake was the same.

One reason for this, according to Roger Deutsch, author of Your Hidden Food Allergies Are Making You Fat and President of Cell Science Systems, Corp. (CSS), is that certain chemicals in the immune system, specifically Interleukin-6 and TNF-alpha, interfere with sugar metabolism. IL-6 is released from T Cells and macrophages to stimulate immune response to trauma, whereas TNF-alpha is used to regulate immune cells.

Another cause of the extreme weight gain associated with high fructose corn syrup, said Deutsch, is the body’s inability to cope with unnaturally proportioned, over processed sugars.

The inability to tolerate foods and environmental factors, also known as sensitivity or intolerance, induces chronic activation of the innate immune system and gives rise to inflammatory processes, which include excess production of reactive oxygen species and the release of preformed and newly synthesized mediators of inflammation.

For more information, visit alcat.com

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A retrospective analysis of 1,234 Americans indicated a substantial underdiagnosis of obesity when Body Mass Index (BMI) was used compared to the Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) scan. This analysis will be released on Friday, April 23, 2010 at the American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists (AACE) 19th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress in Boston.

To date, no large-scale comparison has been made between BMI and DEXA, a direct measure of percentage body fat. A team of physicians and scientists from PATH Foundation NY reviewed the medical records of 1,234 patients from 2003 to 2009 to obtain BMI (from height and weight) and percentage body fat (from Hologic DEXA). Subjects were classified as obese or non-obese based on the American Bariatric Society’s classification of obesity, which is a BMI of 30 or higher and percent body fat of 25 or higher in males and percent body fat of 30 or higher in females.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) traditionally consider an adult with a BMI between 25 and 29.9 as overweight while an adult with a BMI of 30 or higher is considered obese.

Also at the AACE 19th Annual Meeting & Clinical Congress, experts will talk about pediatric transgender issues, appropriate glycemic targets from recent trials and their translation into patient care, as well as the role of continuous glucose monitors in 2010.

For more information, visit aace.com.

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• Ford Motor Company donates $255,000 to fund the completion of Oakwood Healthcare System’s pioneering “Healthy Hearts for Women” research study

• The latest contribution follows the initial donation of $1 million provided earlier by Ford’s philanthropic arm, Ford Motor Company Fund, to initiate the study

• This new contribution from Ford will fund the study through its completion in 2012, when final research results will be made available to the public

Ford Motor Company announced today it is donating an additional $255,000 to fund the completion of a pioneering multi-year Oakwood Healthcare System research study into the prevention of heart disease – a leading cause of death among American women.

Oakwood’s “Healthy Hearts for Women” study was launched in 2005 with an initial donation of $1 million by Ford through its philanthropic arm, Ford Motor Company Fund. Today’s announcement will bring Ford’s total donation to $1.25 million and allow Dearborn, Mich.-based Oakwood Healthcare System to complete the research study by 2012.

The goal of the study is to determine whether a program of personal health coaching, intensive risk factor reduction and behavior modification can lower the risk of heart disease among women while reducing their blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, anxiety, depression, stress, body mass index and weight. Women participating in the program agreed to practice these preventative measures during a five-year span, which promises a strong set of research findings.

The special research initiative includes approximately 400 female participants who are being monitored and counseled during a five-year period with a focus on lifestyle modifications such as eliminating tobacco, dietary changes, weight management, exercise, cholesterol monitoring and blood pressure control. To qualify, each participant had to be considered to be at a moderate to high risk for heart disease.

Women are more likely than men to die within a year of having a heart attack and the disparities between treatments for men and women remain, according to the American Heart Association. Also, nearly 37 percent of all female deaths in America occur from cardiovascular disease, which includes coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke and other cardiovascular diseases.

For more information, visit oakwood.org.

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