WEDNESDAY, Nov. 12 (HealthDay News) -- Whether you're shaped like an apple or a pear, if you're overweight, you have a higher risk of dying than someone of normal weight, a new European study says.

But, those who tend to collect their weight around the middle -- apple-shaped -- face an even higher risk of death than those whose excess weight tends to settle in their hips and thighs -- pear-shaped.

"We found that a large waist circumference is related to a higher risk of death even for individuals who have the same BMI [body mass index, a ratio of weight to height]," said the study's lead author, Dr. Tobias Pischon, of the German Institute of Human Nutrition. "Therefore, you could say that adipose [fat] accumulation in the abdominal region is even more detrimental than just having an elevated BMI level," he added.

Previous research had linked abdominal fat with a higher risk of chronic diseases. But past research generally hadn't assessed the risk of death in those who were overweight and those who were overweight with more abdominal fat, according to background information in the study.

The new research, published in the Nov. 13 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, included almost 360,000 people from nine European countries who were part of the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

In addition to weight information and whether or not the study participants had died, the researchers also adjusted the data for education level, smoking status, alcohol consumption, physical activity and height.

During a follow-up period of almost 10 years, slightly less than 15,000 people enrolled in the study had died.

Those with the lowest risk of death were men with a BMI of 25.3 and women with a BMI of 24.3. A body mass index between 25 and 29.9 is considered overweight, and a BMI over 30 is considered obese, according to the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Men with a BMI between 30 and 35 had a 24 percent increased risk of death compared to normal weight men. And women with a BMI between 30 and 35 had a 17 percent increased risk of death compared to their slimmer counterparts, Pischon said.

When the researchers factored in abdominal fat, they found that men with the largest waist circumference had more than double the risk of death, and women with the largest waist circumference increased their risk of death by 78 percent.

"Having a large waist circumference is related to a higher risk of death. This is even true for people who -- in terms of BMI -- would be considered as being normal weight," Pischon said.

Dr. Marc Siegel, an internist at New York University Langone Medical Center in New York City, said, "Fat is a problem. Obesity of all kinds correlates with heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and more. But, abdominal fat is a more rudimentary indicator of risk.

"The bottom line is, if you want to live a long and healthy life, eat right, exercise and reduce stress. Fat is bad for you, period," Siegel added.

More information

To learn more about the health risks of too much weight, visit the Weight-control Information Network.

FRIDAY, Oct. 17 (HealthDay News) -- The accumulation of fat in the liver caused by chronic alcohol consumption might be prevented by consuming the red wine ingredient resveratrol, a new study in mice suggests.

Reducing fat in the liver can help stave off liver diseases such as cirrhosis and fibrosis, researchers note.

Previous studies have suggested that resveratrol -- a substance found in grapes, peanuts, berries and red wine -- may have anti-cancer and anti-inflammatory properties, as well as cardiovascular benefits. However, these findings have not been conclusive in humans.

The study, by researchers at the University of South Florida Health Sciences Center in Tampa, concluded that resveratrol cut down on the amount of fat produced in the livers of mice given alcohol and, simultaneously, increased the breakdown of fat in the liver.

The research was published in the American Journal of Physiology -- Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology.

The study adds to previous research that suggested alcohol shuts off two molecules -- AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and sirtuin 1 (SIRT1) -- that are key to initiating the breakdown of fats in the liver. Resveratrol, however, appears to do the opposite, switching on the molecules and helping to clear out fat. This stops fat from accumulating in the mouse liver by both reducing the production of fat and burning off the fat that is there.

Surprisingly, alcohol with resveratrol appears to enhance the positive effects of resveratrol alone, according to study senior author Min You.

"Our study suggests that resveratrol may serve as a promising agent for preventing or treating human alcoholic fatty liver disease," the authors concluded.

More information

There's more on fatty liver disease at the British Liver Trust  .

FRIDAY, Sept. 26 (HealthDay News) -- Babies who start eating fish before the age of 9 months have a lower risk of developing eczema, new research shows.

The study, reported in a recent issue of the Archives of Disease in Childhood also found that one in five infants suffer from the skin condition in western Sweden.

The American Academy of Pediatrics issued a recommendation in 2000 for children at risk for eczema that parents hold off on various foods until they were older, including eliminating fish until they turned 3, said Dr. Sandra McMahan, an assistant professor of internal medicine with the Texas A&M Health Science Center College of Medicine and an allergist/immunologist at Scott & White.

In 2008, the academy reversed many of those recommendations, saying that children as young as 4 months to 6 months could have various foods, including fish, as there was no convincing evidence of harm.

Now it appears fish might actually make a positive difference.

"There has been a been a fear of early fish introduction, especially in infants with a family history of allergic disease," said study author Dr. Bernt Alm, a pediatrician with The Queen Silvia Children's Hospital, University of Gothenburg in Gothenburg, Sweden. "We have been afraid that this could lead to eczema and other allergic diseases. With this new knowledge, it is possible to relieve the parents from the burden of this fear," Alm said.

The proportion of allergic disease, including atopic eczema, has increased dramatically in developed countries in recent years. Although heredity is a strong factor in the development of such conditions, environmental and dietary factors also play a role.

These findings line up with previous research showing that mothers who fill up on apples and fish during pregnancy might protect their children from developing asthma and allergic diseases.

The authors of this study relied on medical records, as well as questionnaires filled out by parents when their children were 6 months of age and 1 year. All children were born in western Sweden in 2003.

By 12 months of age, almost 21 percent of infants had eczema or had experienced it previously. The average age of onset was 4 months.

The strongest risk factor was a family history, particularly children of mothers and siblings who had had eczema.

Infants who started eating fish before 9 months of age, however, were 25 percent less likely to be affected. Children who lived in a household with a bird were also less likely to develop eczema, possibly because birds are usually kept inside, exposing children continuously to endotoxin, toxins found inside pathogens.

The type of fish consumed had no effect on the risk of developing eczema, suggesting that omega-3 fatty acids, as had been proposed earlier, had nothing to do with the benefit.

Breast-feeding, the age at which dairy products were included in the diet, and having a furry pet were neutral in their effect.

Gerber doesn't produce any fish preparations, so Alm suggested that fish be slowly introduced together with other solids, preferably in puree form at about 5 months to 6 months of age.

McMahan sees many ethnic parents, such as the Vietnamese, give fish early in a mush or stew to their children.

Given that both U.S. and European recommendations on the subject have recently been revised, added McMahan, "this gives researchers a really good opportunity to start following this and see if makes a difference or not."

More information

The Nemours Foundation   has more on eczema in children.

TUESDAY, Sept. 16 (HealthDay News) -- Major lifestyle changes can help improve levels of an enzyme called telomerase that controls cell aging, say California researchers.

Telomerase repairs and lengthens telomeres, which are DNA-protein complexes at the end of chromosomes that directly affect how quickly cells age. As telomeres become shorter and their structural integrity weakens, cells age and die more quickly, according to background information in a University of California, Irvine, new release. Shortening of telomeres is emerging as a marker of disease risk and premature death in many types of cancer, including prostate, lung, breast and colorectal cancers.

In this study, Dr. Dean Ornish, a professor of medicine at the Preventive Medicine Research Institute in Sausalito, Calif., and his colleagues at the University of California, San Francisco, asked 30 men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer to make significant lifestyle changes.

The changes included eating a diet with only 10 percent of calories from fat, low in refined sugars, and rich in whole foods, fruit and vegetables. They supplemented their diet with vitamins and fish oil and did moderate aerobic exercise, stress management, relaxation techniques, and breathing exercises.

The men's telomerase levels were measured at the start of the study and again at three months. At that time, the researchers found a 29 percent increase in telomerase levels and a decrease in "bad" (LDL) cholesterol.

The findings were published online and will appear in the November print issue of The Lancet Oncology.

"To our knowledge, we have reported here the first longitudinal study showing that comprehensive lifestyle changes -- or any intervention -- are significantly associated with increases in cellular telomerase activity levels and telomere maintenance capacity in immune system cells," the study authors wrote.

"The implications of this study are not limited to men with prostate cancer. Comprehensive lifestyle changes may cause improvements in telomerase and telomeres that may be beneficial to the general population as well," Ornish said in the news release.

More information

The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about how common behaviors affect your health  .