Obese

So, what's it worth to lace up those sneakers and break a sweat for about 30 minutes a day? About 3.5 extra years of life, on average - and about 4.2 additional years for those willing to step up the intensity or put in closer to an hour a day of brisk walking or its equivalent, according to a new study. Even for the severely obese - those with a body mass index above 35 - exercising for about 2.5 hours a week at moderate intensity or for 75 minutes at vigorous levels puts average life expectancy a notch above that of a normal-weight person who is sedentary, the research shows.

The proportion of American adolescents who exercise regularly, eat a healthy diet and are free of risk factors for future heart disease is "alarmingly low," says a major new survey of teen health. The comprehensive five-year assessment of teens' health status warns that the "disconcertingly high" rate of poor health habits among the nation's youth "may contribute to unacceptably high rates of adult-onset cardiovascular disease" as this cohort matures into adulthood. The new survey , published Monday in the American Heart Assn.'s journal Circulation, culled data on teens from a yearly gauge of the nation's health called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES)

Coca-Cola is making major promises to fight obesity - ceasing advertisements directed at kids, slapping calorie counts on all its packaging - as the soda giant stares down a rising tide of concern over sugar-stuffed beverages. On Wednesday, as part of an initiative it's calling Coming Together, the Atlanta company made a series of pledges that also involved offering low- or no-calorie drinks globally and backing of physical activity programs. Coca-Cola said its new rules, announced in part to commemorate the brand's 127 th anniversary, will apply in more than 200 countries where it does business.

We've all heard that the overuse of antibiotics is making them less effective and fueling the rise of dangerous drug-resistant bacteria. But did you know it may also be fueling the rise of obesity, diabetes, allergies and asthma? So says Dr. Martin Blaser , microbiologist and infectious disease specialist at New York University Langone Medical Center who studies the myriad bacteria that live on and in our bodies. He explains his theory in a commentary published in Thursday's edition of the journal Nature.

Is severe childhood obesity a life-threatening form of abuse that justifies removing a child from his or her parents? Doctors, lawyers and child welfare experts have grappled with this question in recent years, and the debate was renewed this summer by a high-profile commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Assn. Dr. David Ludwig, director of the obesity program at Children's Hospital Boston, and Lindsey Murtagh, a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health, argued that when children are near death due to morbid obesity, state intervention should be considered.

Exercise relieved symptoms of arthritis in obese mice, even though they lost no weight from their efforts, a study finds. Excessive weight has long been considered one of the culprits of osteoarthritis, since it puts additional strain on joints. While exercise has been shown in some studies to ease arthritis symptoms, others have found that for overweight and obese people, a fitness regimen can exacerbate the condition. This study, published online Tuesday in the journal Arthritis & Rheumatism , found that although weight may heighten the risk of osteoarthritis, regular exercise could diminish joint problems by slowing its progression.

For the second time in a month, the Food and Drug Administration has approved a prescription weight-loss medication for the nation's 78 million obese adults after maintaining for years that the measly benefits of the pills did not outweigh their significant costs. Qsymia, a combination of two drugs already approved to treat other conditions, "provides another option for the chronic weight management of Americans" who are obese or who are overweight and suffer a related condition such as Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure or worrisome cholesterol readings, said Dr. Janet Woodcock, the FDA's chief of drug evaluation, on Tuesday.

They cuddle and purr. And they shed. They wag their tails and fetch your slippers. And they shed. They never talk back and they never hold a grudge. And they shed. There are obvious pluses and minuses to living with pets, not only with respect to your happiness and housekeeping, but also with respect to your health. Here's a sampling of some of what scientists know about how pets can affect your physiological and psychological well-being - the good, bad and downright gruesome. THE GOOD Health: An Australian survey found that dog and cat owners were in better health than people with neither (health was measured either by how often people went to the doctor or by how much medication they took)

Some encouraging news on the childhood obesity front: Obesity levels among kindergartners through eighth-graders in New York City have gone down, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. The decline, says the report, is to date the largest drop on record in a large U.S. city in this population, and it may be due to a comprehensive intervention that included the tried-and-true recipe of better food and more physical activity. The CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report released today finds that, from 2006 and 2007 to 2010 and 2011, obesity prevalence in kindergartners through eighth-graders in city public elementary and middle schools declined 5.5%, from 21.9% to 20.7%.

First they were oddities imported for zoos. Then they became the chinchillas of the '80s, a supposed way for breeders to get rich quick. Hundreds were bought to breed novelty pets, some selling at five-digit prices. Thousands were sold, many to people amused by the idea of taking a miniature pig, its pot belly nearly dragging the ground, for a walk through the neighborhood. But these are the '90s, and the gag has worn thin.