Public obsession with obesity may be more dangerous than obesity itself, UCLA author says.

Abigail Saguy, UCLA

Much has been made about who or what is to blame for the “obesity epidemic” and what can or should be done to stem the tide of rising body mass among the U.S. population.

A new book by a UCLA sociologist turns these concerns on their head by asking two questions. First, how and why has fatness been medicalized as “obesity” in the first place? Second, what are the social costs of this particular way of discussing body size?

In “What’s Wrong With Fat?“, to be published Jan. 3 by Oxford University Press, Abigail Saguy argues that “obesity” is far from a neutral scientific fact. Rather, it is a discrete perspective — what sociologists call a “frame” — that draws attention to certain aspects of a situation while obscuring others.

“The very term ‘obesity’ suggests that weighing over a certain amount is pathological,” says Saguy, an associate professor of sociology. “This perspective shuts out other interpretations of fat as, say, potentially healthy, an aspect of beauty, or even as a basis for civil rights claims resulting from discrimination, which has been well documented.”

In discussing blame and responsibility for the so-called obesity epidemic, scientists, journalists and politicians alike tend to focus on individual responsibility, she argues. And in doing so, they gloss over the ways in which body size is tightly controlled by genetic factors and shaped by social factors, such as socioeconomic status and neighborhood limitations, including poor access to healthy food outlets, a high density of fast food restaurants and a lack of open space for exercise.

“What’s Wrong With Fat?” shows how debates over the best way to discuss body size — including as either a health or civil rights problem — do not take place on an even playing field. Saguy contends that powerful interests benefit from drawing attention to the “crisis,” including the International Obesity Task Force (a lobbying group funded by pharmaceutical companies), obesity researchers and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

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UC Berkeley discovery could provide new target for treatments.

Image courtesy of The Sul Lab

A gene that helps the body convert that big plate of holiday cookies you just polished off into fat could provide a new target for potential treatments for fatty liver disease, diabetes and obesity.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, are unlocking the molecular mechanisms of how our body converts dietary carbohydrates into fat, and as part of that research, they found that a gene with the catchy name BAF60c contributes to fatty liver, or steatosis.

In the study, to be published online Dec. 6 in the journal Molecular Cell, the researchers found that mice that have had the BAF60c gene disabled did not convert carbohydrates to fat, despite eating a high-carb diet.

“This work brings us one step forward in understanding fatty liver disease resulting from an excessive consumption of carbohydrates,” said the study’s senior author, Hei Sook Sul, professor at UC Berkeley’s Department of Nutritional Science and Toxicology. “The discovery of this role of BAF60c may eventually lead to the development of treatment for millions of Americans with fatty liver and other related diseases.”

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Leading researchers connect sleep health to the waking life.

The UC San Francisco Center for Obesity, Assessment, Study and Treatment presents one of the first scientific conferences to focus on the interactions between sleep, stress and obesity — our nation’s greatest epidemic and public health challenge. Leading researchers from across the country examine the problem from a variety of interesting angles, including how sleep and stress impact our metabolism and brain function, why adequate sleep and stress reduction may be the 21st century pillars of health — alongside a healthy diet and physical activity — and how sleep and stress may explain disparities in obesity risk.

UCTV programs include:

How is Sleep Related to Obesity? Sleep Epidemiology
First air date: Dec. 3

How is Sleep Related to Obesity? Sleep and Weight Gain
First air date: Dec. 3

Sleep Disturbances, Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes: Interacting Epidemics
First air date: Dec. 10

Obesity and Sleep: The Early Origins of Disease
First air date: Dec. 17

Physical Activity: A Neglected Factor in Associations of Obesity with Short and Long Sleep
First air date: Dec. 24

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Game will encourage children to strengthen avatars by logging miles walked in real world.

Cynthia Carter Ching, UC Davis

Reversing the image of the sedentary game player, a new video game under development by University of California, Davis, researchers will encourage children to strengthen their action-hero characters by logging miles walked and calories burned in the real world.

Researchers in the UC Davis School of Education and Foods for Health Institute are teaming with a professional game designer to create the game, which requires players to enter personal health data and set physical goals. The project is funded with a two-year, $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation aimed at fighting childhood obesity.

“Gamers project their identities into game play in various ways already, but we are particularly interested in what might happen if the avatar in a game is tied directly to the gamer’s body and his or her actions outside the game,” said Cynthia Carter Ching, a grant recipient and School of Education professor who also is an expert in learning with technology.

Ching and her colleagues, J. Bruce German and Sara Schaefer, both from the UC Davis Foods for Health Institute, and Marta Van Loan, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture Western Human Nutrition Research Center, are teaming up with Play4Change, a nonprofit led by Ariel Hauter that develops serious games for social causes.

The game is scheduled to be in use by health educators in select South Sacramento schools next spring for 11- to 14-year-old students.

The project, “GET-UP: Gaming to Educate Teens about Understanding Personal Health,” will have youth participating in the initial development, testing and launch of the game. They will wear activity-monitor devices that measure such things as steps walked, floors climbed and calories burned. These data, along with diet logs and health and nutrition information they receive prior to play, inform the choices youth make and their rate of progress in their journey through the game.

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Medical school leads funding with $205M.

UC Davis professor Oliver Fiehn, director of the West Coast Metabolomics Center, received $9.3 million as a startup grant from the National Institutes of Health.

Research funding at the University of California, Davis, totaled nearly $750 million during the fiscal year that ended June 30, a record high for the university and an increase of about $65 million from the previous year’s total.

“This record funding for our campus underscores the strength and breadth of research at UC Davis,” said Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi. “But university research is about more than just new ideas. It translates into jobs, economic health and the long-term competitiveness of our state and nation.”

The new total places the campus fourth in the University of California system in external research funding, up from fifth the year before. UC Davis has had the fastest growth of any of the 10 UC campuses in research funding since 1995.

“These figures are incredibly uplifting,” said Harris Lewin, vice chancellor for research at UC Davis. “The UC Davis faculty, rightly, have much to be proud of, and the Office of Research is privileged to be part of that success story.”

Examples of grants awarded to UC Davis faculty in the past year include:

• A $25 million, five-year program to improve food security in the developing world, funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development
• $34 million from the National Institutes of Health to a consortium including UC Davis for development of new mouse models of diseases such as cancer, obesity and diabetes, a key step toward finding better ways to prevent and treat these diseases
• $12 million from a joint program of the National Science Foundation and the Japan Science and Technology Agency to further research into generating biofuels from algae
• $5.6 million from the John Templeton Foundation to study the psychology of gratitude
• $4.8 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to fight child obesity in the Central Valley, and $4 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to establish a Center for Poverty Research
• $580,000 from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to study engagement of students and other audiences with classical music

The record total brings UC Davis three-quarters of the way towards a goal Katehi set in fall 2011 to reach a billion dollars in research funding by 2020. Katehi’s “2020 Initiative” also calls for increased undergraduate enrollment and new faculty hires. The new professors would generate additional research grants and programs that address the world’s most critical issues in food, water, health, society, energy and the environment, as well as providing new opportunities for students to learn.

Much of the funding for basic research at UC Davis supports jobs for professional scientists, technical staff, postdoctoral researchers and graduate students. Research projects may also lead to commercially applicable technologies and startup companies. The UC Davis Office of Research filed 224 new invention disclosures with the U.S. Patents and Trademarks Office in 2011-12, bringing UC Davis’ total portfolio of inventions to 1,190. Since fiscal year 2003-4, 44 startup companies have been formed at UC Davis.

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Optimal care for surgical weight loss confirmed at UC San Diego Health System.

Santiago Horgan, UC San Diego

The Bariatric Metabolic Institute (BMI) at University of California, San Diego Health System has been accredited as a Level 1 facility by the Bariatric Surgery Center Network (BSCN) Accreditation Program of the American College of Surgeons (ACS).  This designation means that the institutional performance of UC San Diego BMI meets the rigorous requirements outlined by the ACS BSCN Accreditation Program.

“This accreditation from the American College of Surgeons affirms our mission of providing safe and effective weight loss surgeries for all patients,” said Santiago Horgan, M.D., director, UC San Diego Bariatric Metabolic Institute and chief of minimally invasive surgery, UC San Diego Health System. “We are dedicated to reversing the obesity epidemic by offering an array of customized surgical procedures that significantly reduce weight and produce less pain and scarring.”

Horgan and his team specialize in a multidisciplinary approach to weight loss through both surgical and non-surgical methods. Patients who are eligible for surgery may choose from minimally invasive techniques such as sleeve gastrectomy, sleeve plication, revisional bypass, POSE and gastric banding. Options are also available for adolescents over the age of 14.

In an effort to extend established quality improvement practices to all disciplines of surgical care, the ACS BSCN Accreditation Program provides confirmation that a bariatric surgery center is committed to providing the highest quality care for its bariatric surgery patients.  Accredited bariatric surgery centers provide the hospital resources necessary for optimal care of morbidly obese patients, and the necessary support and resources to address the entire spectrum of care from the pre-hospital phase through treatment and post-operative care.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) has recognized UC San Diego BMI and allows expanded Medicare coverage of bariatric surgery for beneficiaries of all ages who have been diagnosed with other health problems associated with obesity.  Medicare coverage has been limited to procedures performed in facilities certified by the American College of Surgeons or the American Society for Metabolic & Bariatric Surgery.

Each hospital undergoes an on-site verification by experienced bariatric surgeons, who review the center’s structure, process, and quality of data using the current ACS Bariatric Surgery Center Network Accreditation Program Manual as a guideline in conducting the survey.  Because high-quality surgical care requires documentation using reliable measurements of outcomes, accredited bariatric surgery centers are required to report their bariatric surgery outcomes data either to the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) or the College’s BSCN Database, using a Web-based data entry system.

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UCSF study sheds light on fat-burning process that could help in fighting obesity.

Fat cells are shown under a microscope.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco,  have identified the lynchpin that activates brown fat cells, which burn fat molecules instead of storing them, making them the focus of pharmaceutical research aimed at fighting obesity.

The importance of brown fat in burning calories to generate heat in humans — as distinct from other mammals such as mice and bears — has only been appreciated in recent years. In humans, brown fat was until recently thought to be present only in infants. Scientists now know that adult humans possess small but significant deposits of brown fat — to go along with the all-too-obvious white fat that especially plagues the growing ranks of the obese.

Brown fat can be activated by cold temperatures, and other research suggests that other stimuli, such as overeating, might also activate brown fat. Once activated, brown fat cells essentially causes the energy contained within fat molecules to be converted to heat — a process understood as a way for hibernating bears to maintain body temperature and for small mammals with lots of exposed body surfaces to keep warm.

As described in the Oct. 12 issue of the scientific journal Cell, Yuriy Kirichok, Ph.D., associate professor of physiology at UCSF — working with postdoctoral fellow Andriy Federenko and research specialist Polina Lishko, Ph.D., now an assistant professor at UC Berkeley — discovered how a protein triggers the biochemical mechanism responsible for fat burning in the brown fat cell.

The new discovery suggests it may be possible to come up with a molecule that could keep the mechanism in the “on” position, to increase fat burning in the body, said Kirichok, the Jack D. and DeLoris Lange Endowed Chair in Systems Physiology at UCSF.

Whether such a strategy would be practical for weight control, however, is unclear.

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Improving nutrition, physical activity in minority communities is key.

Antronette Yancey, UCLA

Researchers at the UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and UCLA’s Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center have been awarded a $20 million federal grant to further their innovative efforts to curb obesity, a global pandemic that has reached the level of a national crisis in the United States.

The UCLA project, rather than requiring busy, stressed individuals in low-resource neighborhoods to seek out physical activity and nutrient-rich foods, will engage them as “captive” audiences in settings they already frequent — including schools, offices and churches — making healthier options a default that can only be avoided with effort or by “opting out.”

The five-year grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is intended to address health disparities among racial and ethnic groups across the country and is part of the agency’s Racial and Ethnic Approaches to Community Health (REACH) initiative.

The UCLA project will be led by Dr. Antronette Yancey and Roshan Bastani, professors of health policy and management at the Fielding School and co-directors of the school’s UCLA Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Equity. Other faculty members on the team include assistant professor Beth Glenn, professor Annette Maxwell and professor William J. McCarthy, all of the school’s department of health policy and management.

For more than 20 years, UCLA has been recognized as a leader in promoting health among a diverse array of ethnic groups in a variety of settings, with programs that address critical health issues ranging from obesity and tobacco control to cancer screening and vaccinations. This work is conducted in partnership with several hundred community-based organizations, primarily in the Los Angeles region.

Roshan Bastani, UCLA

The new CDC funding enables the researchers to build on knowledge gained from their prior work and to expand the geographic scope of their efforts. They will concentrate on promoting healthy nutrition and physical activity in 30 to 40 medium- to large-sized cities throughout the U.S. Southeast, Midwest and Southwest, focusing on geographic hubs in those metropolitan areas where ethnic or racial minorities make up the majority of residents.

The program will be disseminated through national networks of community-based organizations, allowing the program to reach large segments of the African American, Asian American/Pacific Islander, Hispanic/Latino and American Indian populations in these urban centers.

The core of the program is Yancey’s “Instant Recess,” which she developed nearly 14 years ago to help prevent obesity and promote health and well-being. “Instant Recess” focuses on integrating short physical-activity breaks into non-discretionary time — during non-P.E. time in school, “paid time” at work and Sunday church services, for example — and establishing policies to ensure that appealing healthy options are accessible whenever food is served at meetings or gatherings, in cafeterias, or in vending machines.

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Sept. 20 conference will address interaction between the three burgeoning health risks.

Lorrene Ritchie, UC Berkeley

If recent news headlines are correct, Americans are sleeping less, getting more overweight and feeling increasingly stressed compared with decades past. One of the first scientific conferences to focus on how the three health risks interact will be held next week at the University of California, Berkeley.

“Never before in the history of humankind have so many people gained so much weight over such a short period of time, implicating a major environmental shift that we are reacting to,” said conference co-chair Lorrene Ritchie, director of research at the UC Berkeley Atkins Center for Weight and Health, who called the trio of risks “our nation’s greatest epidemic and public health challenge.”

“One of our goals,” she said, “is to further understand the impact of the social and personal environment on obesity, and to shed light on the understudied but potentially powerful triggers for overeating and inactivity: sleep and stress.”

The conference, “Sleep, Stress & Obesity: A Weighty Issue,” is the Fifth Annual Obesity Symposium sponsored by the UC Berkeley Atkins Center for Weight and Health; UC San Francisco Center for Obesity Assessment, Study, and Treatment (COAST); and the UC Office of the President. It will be held Sept. 20 from 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at UC Berkeley International House’s Chevron Auditorium. (See map here.)

“Sleep has emerged as a key behavioral risk factor for obesity and the underlying metabolic processes that lead to chronic disease,” said Elissa Epel, director of COAST and a UCSF associate professor of psychiatry. “There is a clear connection between someone’s daily exposure to stressful events, and how much their mind and body respond, and the restfulness of their sleep. It’s a complex story we hope to begin to tackle with this year’s symposium.”

Nearly 100 researchers, policymakers, educators and other participants from around the country are expected to attend to learn about research into how sleep and stress impact our metabolism and brain function, why adequate sleep and stress reduction — alongside a healthy diet and physical activity — may be the 21st century pillars of health, and how sleep and stress may explain disparities in obesity risk.

Giving the keynote talks will be Eve Van Cauter, professor of medicine at the University of Chicago, who will present research on how sleep disturbances may be related to obesity and type 2 diabetes; and Dr. Ronald Dahl, UC Berkeley professor of community health and human development, who will discuss the role of sleep and stress regulation on adolescent brain development.

“We are a sleep-deprived and obese nation, with resistance to changing,” said conference co-chair Aric Prather, a symposium speaker and a newly appointed UCSF assistant professor of psychiatry who recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to study the relationships between sleep, stress and eating.

The general public may register online at http://ucsleep2012.eventbrite.com to attend the conference. The cost is $25, or $10 for students. Credentialed media may attend for free, but must RSVP by Monday (Sept. 17) to Lauren Goldstein at UC Berkeley’s Atkins Center for Weight and Health at lhg@berkeley.edu or (510) 642-8210.

Study investigates relative effects of fructose, glucose.

Lars Berglund, UC Davis

Prolonged fructose consumption may contribute to the development of metabolic syndrome, a combination of medical disorders that, when occurring together, increases the risk of developing cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

The findings, just published online in the journal Nutrition & Metabolism, are derived from a UC Davis study that investigated the relative effects of fructose or glucose consumption on 32 older, overweight or obese men and women who consumed glucose- or fructose-sweetened beverages, which provided 25 percent of their energy requirements for 10 weeks.

Consumption of fructose, but not glucose, impacted various parameters associated with metabolic syndrome, including increased circulating concentrations of uric acid, which is known to be higher in people with metabolic syndrome, increased GGT activity, which is an indicator of liver dysfunction, and production of a type of protein known as RBP-4, associated with increased insulin resistance. No previous studies have investigated the effects of glucose or fructose consumption on circulating levels of RBP-4.

The study design involved three phases, including a two-week inpatient baseline period, an eight-week outpatient intervention period, and a two-week inpatient intervention period.

During baseline, subjects resided in the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center’s Clinical Research Center (CCRC) for two weeks before beginning the outpatient intervention, consuming either fructose- or glucose-sweetened beverages. They returned to the CCRC for the final two weeks of intervention.

Fasting and 24-hour blood collections were performed at baseline and following 10 weeks of intervention for measurement of plasma concentrations of uric acid, RBP-4 and liver enzyme activities.

The study’s first results, published in 2009, showed that visceral adipose volume (fat inside the abdominal cavity) was significantly increased only in subjects consuming fructose, along with increases in several circulating lipids and a decrease in insulin sensitivity, although both groups exhibited similar weight gain.

Senior author Peter Havel, a UC Davis professor with joint appointments in the Department of Molecular Biosciences in the School of Veterinary Medicine and the Department of Nutrition, is currently the principal investigator for a follow-up study comparing impacts of glucose, fructose and high-fructose corn syrup in younger patients. His colleague and collaborator, Kimber Stanhope, directed and coordinated the clinical research study.

Glucose and fructose are both simple sugars, and equal parts of each is the recipe for table sugar (sucrose). The pure glucose and fructose that were used to sweeten the beverages in this study are not found in nature. Most fruits and honey contain comparable amounts of glucose, fructose and sucrose. Grains such as wheat, oats, corn and barley contain large amounts of glucose (and negligible amounts of fructose), but the glucose is packaged as long chains that are called starch or complex carbohydrate.

Co-author Lars Berglund, director of the UC Davis Clinical and Translational Science Center, points out that fruit juices typically feature more concentrated forms of these sugars, while fruits and vegetable contain fiber and other beneficial components.

“It’s healthier to eat apples than to drink apple juice,” said Berglund.

Other authors include former graduate students Chad Cox, James Graham, Bonnie Hatcher, Steven Griffen and John McGahan, all of UC Davis; Jean Marc Schwarz of Touro University, Vallejo, Calif.; Andrew Bremer of Vanderbilt University, Nashville; and Nancy Keim of UC Davis and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Davis.

This research was supported with funding from National Institutes of Health (RO1 HL-075675), the NIH’s National Center for Research Resources (UL1 RR024146), and the NIH Roadmap for Medical Research. Havel’s laboratory receives support from the NIH (HL-091333, DK-097307, and DK-095980) and a Multicampus Award (#142691) from the University of California, Office of the President, and Keim’s research is supported by intramural U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service (ARS) Current Research Information System (CRIS) grant 5306-51530-016-00D.

In UCTV series, UCSF Mini Medical School explores advances in primary care.

Ideal primary care is comprehensive, continuous, accessible and patient-centered with a focus on wellness that uses the best medical evidence for prevention and treatment of common clinical conditions. But great primary care also requires well-informed, motivated patients who can work with physicians and other health professionals to make the best personal medical decisions. In this UCTV series from UC San Francisco Osher Mini Medical School, faculty in primary care internal medicine present the latest information on a wide variety of common clinical dilemmas so that patients may be able to actively dialogue with their physicians and take steps to improve their health.

Programs include:

Controversies in Cancer Screening
First air date: Aug. 13

Obesity in America: Diet, Drugs or Surgery?
First air date: Aug. 20

Osteoporosis: Update on Diagnosis and Treatment
First air date: Aug. 27

Updates in the Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease
First air date: Sept. 3

Immunizations for Adults and Adolescents
First air date: Sept. 10

The ABC and D’s of Vitamin Supplements and Health
First air date: Sept. 17

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Severe obesity does increase mortality, but only with diabetes or hypertension.

Anthony Jerant, UC Davis

An evaluation of national data by UC Davis researchers has found that extra weight is not necessarily linked with a higher risk of death.

When compared to those with normal weight, people who were overweight or obese had no increased risk of death during a follow-up period of six years. People who were severely obese did have a higher risk, but only if they also had diabetes or hypertension.

The findings, which appear in the July-August issue of the Journal of American Board of Family Medicine, call into question previous studies — using data collected when obesity was less common — linking higher short-term mortality with any amount of extra weight.

“There is currently a widespread belief that any degree of overweight or obesity increases the risk of death, however our findings suggest this may not be the case,” said Anthony Jerant, professor of family and community medicine and lead author of the study. “In the six-year timeframe of our evaluation, we found that only severe obesity was associated with an increased risk of death, due to co-occurring diabetes and hypertension.”

Based on the study, Jerant recommends that doctors’ conversations with patients who are overweight or obese, but not severely obese, focus on the known negative effects of these conditions on mental and physical functioning, rather than on an increased short-term risk of death.

By contrast, Jerant added that it is important for doctors to talk with severely obese patients who also have diabetes or hypertension about their increased short-term mortality risk and treatment, including weight loss.

“Our results do not mean that being overweight or obese is not a threat to individual or public health,” said Jerant. “These conditions can have a significant impact on quality of life, and for this reason alone weight loss may be advisable.”

In conducting the study, Jerant used nationwide data from 2000 to 2005 of nearly 51,000 adults aged 18 to 90 years who participated in the Medical Expenditure Panel Surveys on health-care utilization and costs. The surveys include information on health conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

Body mass index (BMI), or weight adjusted for height, was calculated for each respondent. The study categorized people as underweight (BMI < 20), normal weight (BMI 20 to < 25), overweight (BMI 25 to < 30), obese (BMI 30 to 35) or severely obese (BMI > 35).

Mortality was assessed using the National Death Index. Of the 50,994 people included in the UC Davis analysis, just over 3 percent (1,683) died during the six years of follow-up.

The investigators found that severely obese people were 1.26 times more likely to die during follow-up than people in the normal weight group. However, if people with diabetes or hypertension were eliminated from the data, those who were overweight, obese or even severely obese had similar or even lower death rates than people of normal weight. Consistent with a number of prior studies, underweight people were nearly twice as likely to die than people with normal weight, regardless of whether diabetes or hypertension was present.

The prevalence of overweight and obesity has increased dramatically in recent decades. An estimated one-third of all U.S. adults over age 20 are obese and another one-third are overweight. In addition to diabetes and hypertension, health problems associated with these conditions include heart disease, osteoarthritis and sleep apnea.

The relationship between weight and mortality is a controversial topic in public health. Although studies based on data collected 30 years ago showed that mortality risk rose as weight increased, analyses of more recently collected data, including the current one, call this assumption into question.

“Our findings indicate that the risk of having an above-normal BMI may be lower than in the past,” said Jerant. “While this study cannot explain the reasons, it is possible that as overweight and obesity have become more common, physicians have become more aware of associated health issues like high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar, and are more aggressive about early detection and treatment of these conditions.”

Jerant said that the six-year period of his investigation limits the ability to make assumptions about the link between unhealthy weight and the risk of death over a longer timeframe.

“We hope our findings will trigger studies that re-examine the relationship of being overweight or obese with long-term mortality,” said Jerant.

The study co-author was Peter Franks, professor in the UC Davis Department of Family and Community Medicine. Franks and Jerant used public access data in conducting the study, which involved no external funding.

A copy of “Body mass index, diabetes, hypertension and short-term mortality: A population-based observational study 2000-2006″ is available at www.jabfm.org/content/current.

The UC Davis Department of Family and Community Medicine provides comprehensive, compassionate and personal care for patients within the context of family and community. The team integrates a humanistic approach to treating the “whole person” with evidence-based care. Special areas of research are health-behavior change, physician-patient communication, chronic-illness care, women’s health issues and reducing racial and ethnic health disparities. For more information, visit www.ucdmc.ucdavis.edu/famcommed.