The Doctor Weighs In

The goal of this Kaiser Permanente Research Program on Genes, Environment and Health is to discover which genes and environmental factors are linked to specific diseases.  According to Dr. David Kessler, dean of the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine and former head of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration:  "This research will benefit people in the future, because it uses what we have learned in the mapping of the human genome and builds on that, so we can better understand the environmental and genetic factors that effect human disease and how diseases can be treated."

This clinical trial is a pilot study to determine the feasibility of doing a larger study to determine whenter a dietary substance, called DHA, is effective in preventing Type 1 diabetes in infants at risk for that condition.

To test the hypothesis that stress is related the deposition of visceral fat, researchers at the University of California San Francisco are recruiting 50 overweight women to participate in a study on the impact of stress relief techniques on body fat, particularly visceral fat. The study is not designed to help the participants lose weight per se, rather it is designed to reduce stress and stress-related eating. Click the link above to learn more.