Obesity Clinical Trials

In this study, we will address cost barriers to participating in summer programs and hypothesize this will lead to marked improvements in children's obesogenic behaviors and a reduction in excessive, unhealthy weight gain over summer. Read Less

The objective of this pilot study is to determine whether obesity and metabolic syndrome are in fact synergistic in relation to airway nitric oxide (NO) biology. To do so, the investigators want to determine how obesity and the metabolic syndrome relate to metabolism in bronchial airway epithelial cells and the nasal epithelium. Read Less

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common complication of obesity and is associated with an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes. The hallmark feature of NAFLD is an increase in intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) content. Data from studies conducted in rodent models suggest increased IHTG content can alter hepatic vagal afferent nerve (HVAN) activity. In rodent models of obesity and NAFLD, HVAN activity is reduced leading to impaired insulin sensitivity and glucose control. The reduction in HVAN activity is likely due to increased hepatic release of GABA, an inhibitory neurotransmitter, attributable to increased expression of GABA-Transaminase (GABA-T). Pharmacological inhibition of GABA-T in obese mice by treatment with vigabatrin, an irreversible inhibitor of GABA-T improves glucose tolerance and reduces hyperinsulinemia, hyperglycemia, and insulin resistance. It is not known if vigabatrin can also improve metabolic function in people. We propose to conduct a 3-week, single-arm trial to assess the effect size of treatment with vigabatrin on the following specific aims with the larger goal of determining whether a large, randomized controlled trial investigating the effect of vigabatrin is warranted. Read Less

A 14-week, randomized, placebo-controlled, double-masked clinical trial in 40 obese patients with poorly controlled asthma. The intervention is Mitoquinol (MitoQ) versus placebo. The primary aim of this pilot study is to determine if MitoQ improves airway reactivity in obese patients with asthma. Read Less

The overarching goal of this proposal is to determine whether DNA methylation of the mitochondrial DNA impairs mitochondrial function in insulin resistant states such as overweight/obesity and type 2 diabetes. Read Less

A retrospective review of body composition changes in patients who participate in a 9-week non-invasive intensive health care provider supervised weight loss program as an overall cohort and in sub-cohorts of interest. Read Less

The IWCR is a global scientific study aimed at better understanding the opportunities and barriers for reducing the prevalence of obesity by collecting information from people who have experience with weight management in their everyday lives. The investigators seek to gather information on a wide range of weight management experiences, ranging from weight loss and weight loss maintenance to weight gain and inability to lose weight. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of mobile health applications in improving health outcomes and type II diabetes outcomes in type 2 diabetics. This study will involve a 6-month long commitment where participants will be expected to weigh themselves every morning, at the same time, and check their blood glucose readings daily before and after meals for at least three meals in the day. Read Less

The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of mobile health applications in improving health outcomes and the subsequent benefit of improving type II diabetes outcomes in a low socioeconomic Hispanic population. This study will involve a 6-month long commitment where participants will be expected to weigh themselves every morning, at the same time, and check their blood glucose readings daily before and after meals for at least three meals in the day. Read Less

The overall objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of a mindfulness-based intervention to prevent weight regain in weight-reduced adults. Read Less

The goal of the trial is to determine the feasibility of implementing a specific nutrition regimen used alone or in combination with a behavioral weight loss (WL) intervention on cognition and cerebral blood flow in older adults at risk of cognitive decline. Read Less

Bariatric surgery is an important treatment option for morbidly obese patients who fail to lose weight through diet and exercise. Despite intervention, 20-50% of patients either fail to lose targeted amounts of weight or regain weight that was lost initially. Attempts at predicting degree of weight loss have had only modest success and none have long term (>2 year) reliability. Moreover, research predicting weight loss beyond the 1st or 2nd year post-surgery and for outcomes other than weight loss including comorbidities common in the bariatric population is lacking. The investigators' pilot data in 45 patients suggest that individual differences on pre-surgical neural activity measured with functional MRI (fMRI) reliably explains 33% of the variance in weight loss up to 1 year post surgery, and over 50% of a multifaceted outcome measure, far outperforming many other indicators. These predictors implicate regions that closely conform to a theoretical model emphasizing both consummatory urges (a "Now" neural circuit) vs. regulation of craving and self-control (a "Later" circuit). The central hypothesis in this study is that individual differences in these neural pathways exert a powerful effect on the ability to sustain weight loss and achieve other key health outcomes. The study will replicate and refine this model over a longer timeframe and assess its predictive utility for key weight-related health outcomes. The investigators propose to replicate the model derived from their fMRI pilot data and secondarily to explore its predictive utility for changes in calorie intake, activity levels, liver fat, hemoglobin A1c, plasma lipids, blood pressure, and fasting glucose in a new, independent cohort of N=150 successively consenting, presurgical sleeve gastrectomy (SG) patients in study years 1-3. The study will follow the pilot cohort for up to 7 years and the new cohort for 3 or more years to determine if predictors replicated in Aim 1 retain their long-term predictive power, particularly when supplemented with non-brain imaging variables and using a larger longitudinal dataset. The study will use imaging and non-imaging data to develop multivariate statistical models incorporating energy balance, fMRI, and laboratory values with the variables described in Aim 1 to help to separate predictors vs. consequences of post-surgical outcomes. To help separate scan-to-scan variability from true post-surgical, trajectory-related brain changes, the study will enroll N=20 obese subjects who will not undergo bariatric surgery, and are individually matched with the above SG subjects. Finally, the study will evaluate whether several related, non-fMRI cognitive tests might potentially act as surrogates in clinical practice. Read Less