Obesity

At 5 feet, 2 inches, Carolyn Curiel walks tall and dresses "artfully." For the 42-year-old senior speech writer and special assistant to President Clinton, "it's all part of the package." Her clothes--sleek, understated designer suits, jackets and blouses--hover in the 16 to 20 size range. That she can find pieces with the tailored fit and styling details of the latest ready-to-wear is nothing short of a minor miracle for a boomer-age woman who grew up having to improvise a wardrobe.

Scientists say they have identified a key chemical player in the brain's control of eating, a finding that could lead to an obesity drug. The long-sought protein lets a natural substance called neuropeptide Y, or NPY, tell the brain that it's time to eat. Scientists have known that NPY must bind to a particular protein structure on brain cells to deliver its time-to-eat message, and they have been trying to find this so-called feeding receptor for at least five years.

He was a heart attack waiting to happen, a mountain of man wearing a cloak of fat to hide the wounded psyche of the lonely child he used to be. Six years ago, Ken Hitchcock, coach of the Kamloops Blazers, a junior team in Canada's Western Hockey League, weighed 476 pounds and was a slave to his body. While rival coaches planned their power-play strategy, he worked on entering arenas when he couldn't squeeze through the turnstiles.

British scientists have identified a protein in the brain that may be the most powerful appetite suppressor known. The substance, called glucagon-like peptide-1, or GLP-1, causes rats to eat up to 95% less food by making them feel full. Scientists might need only two years or so to develop a pill for human testing as a way to fight obesity, said Dr. Stephen Bloom of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London.

New dietary guidelines issued Tuesday by the federal government recommend for the first time that adult Americans maintain a single "healthy" weight range over the years, eliminating allowances for weight gain as they age. The guidelines also place more emphasis on physical exercise, urging at least a 30-minute moderate workout daily, and continue to stress the consumption of less fat and more grains, fruits and vegetables.

A natural protein that some hoped would be a "magic bullet" for weight control may have a dark and dangerous side: New research links it to diabetes. The protein, called leptin, received a flurry of publicity last year when studies showed that it caused extremely obese mice to lose up to 30% of their weight. The mice also exercised more and ate less. Some researchers raced to develop leptin or related proteins for use in humans.

Don't add another half-hour to your Stairmaster time just yet. Health-conscious Southern Californians buzzed about Wednesday, trying to calculate their "body mass index," after a federal researcher was quoted Tuesday as reporting that overweight Americans are now in the majority. However, the researcher's colleagues at the National Center for Health Statistics sheepishly backed away from the data that jarred so many pudgy Americans out of their recliners.

Don't add another half-hour to your Stairmaster time just yet. Health-conscious Southern Californians buzzed about Wednesday, trying to calculate their "body mass index," after a federal researcher was quoted Tuesday as reporting that overweight Americans are now in the majority. However, the researcher's colleagues at the National Center for Health Statistics sheepishly backed away from the data that jarred so many pudgy Americans out of their recliners.

For the first time, overweight people outnumber normal-size people in the United States, according to the latest government statistics, released Tuesday. The reasons are not entirely clear. Katherine Flegal of the National Center for Health Statistics in Hyattsville, Md., who outlined the data, said many small reductions in physical activity might be to blame.