Skip to main content

Editor’s Choice: World's Digestive Health Day 2021

Recent estimates report that currently 2 billion people worldwide are overweight, 650 million of which obese. At present, excess weight causes more comorbidities and deaths than being underweight.

Each year on 29th May marks the internationally recognised World Digestive Health Day, to provide both a general and clinical views of the role of obesity, for the general public and healthcare professionals.

The Editors of BMC Medicine are delighted to share with you a selection of key papers that highlight some of the best obesity research published in the journal, and also at digestive health themes covered in previous years.

Scales

  2. The mechanisms underlying the obesity-cancer relationship are incompletely understood. This study aimed to characterise metabolic signatures of greater body size and to investigate their association with two o...

    Authors: Nathalie Kliemann, Vivian Viallon, Neil Murphy, Rebecca J. Beeken, Joseph A. Rothwell, Sabina Rinaldi, Nada Assi, Eline H. van Roekel, Julie A. Schmidt, Kristin Benjaminsen Borch, Claudia Agnoli, Ann H. Rosendahl, Hanna Sartor, José María Huerta, Anne Tjønneland, Jytte Halkjær…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:101
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  3. Accumulating evidences have suggested that high body fat percentage (BF%) often occurs in parallel with cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), implying a common etiology between them. However, the shared genetic etio...

    Authors: Zhenhuang Zhuang, Minhao Yao, Jason Y. Y. Wong, Zhonghua Liu and Tao Huang
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:100
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  4. Most studies on secular trends in body mass index (BMI) are cross-sectional and the few longitudinal studies have typically only investigated changes over time in mean BMI trajectories. We aimed to describe ho...

    Authors: T. Norris, M. Hamer, R. Hardy, L. Li, K. K. Ong, G. B. Ploubidis, R. Viner and W. Johnson
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:96
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  5. There is limited prospective evidence on the association between meat consumption and many common, non-cancerous health outcomes. We examined associations of meat intake with risk of 25 common conditions (othe...

    Authors: Keren Papier, Georgina K. Fensom, Anika Knuppel, Paul N. Appleby, Tammy Y. N. Tong, Julie A. Schmidt, Ruth C. Travis, Timothy J. Key and Aurora Perez-Cornago
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:53
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  6. Mounting evidence suggests that maternal diet influences pregnancy and birth outcomes, but its contribution to the global epidemic of childhood obesity has not as yet been definitively characterized. We invest...

    Authors: Ling-Wei Chen, Adrien M. Aubert, Nitin Shivappa, Jonathan Y. Bernard, Sara M. Mensink-Bout, Aisling A. Geraghty, John Mehegan, Matthew Suderman, Kinga Polanska, Wojciech Hanke, Agnieszka Jankowska, Caroline L. Relton, Sarah R. Crozier, Nicholas C. Harvey, Cyrus Cooper, Mark Hanson…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:33
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Medicine 2021 19:68

  7. Serum transferrin levels represent an independent predictor of mortality in patients with liver failure. Hepatocyte nuclear factor 4 alpha (HNF4α) is a master regulator of hepatocyte functions. The aim of this...

    Authors: Nurdan Guldiken, Josepmaria Argemi, Berivan Gurbuz, Stephen R. Atkinson, Martin Oliverius, Petr Fila, Karim Hamesch, Tony Bruns, Joaquín Cabezas, Juan J. Lozano, Jelena Mann, Sheng Cao, Philippe Mathurin, Vijay H. Shah, Christian Trautwein, Mark R. Thursz…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:39
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  8. Characteristics of the built environment, such as neighbourhood fast-food outlet exposure, are increasingly recognised as risk factors for unhealthy diet and obesity. Obesity also has a genetic component, with...

    Authors: Thomas Burgoine, Pablo Monsivais, Stephen J. Sharp, Nita G. Forouhi and Nicholas J. Wareham
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:49
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  10. A high body mass index (BMI) has been associated with increased risk of several cancers; however, whether BMI is related to a larger number of cancers than currently recognized is unclear. Moreover, whether wa...

    Authors: Martina Recalde, Veronica Davila-Batista, Yesika Díaz, Michael Leitzmann, Isabelle Romieu, Heinz Freisling and Talita Duarte-Salles
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:10
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  11. Adiposity is a strong risk factor for cancer incidence and mortality. However, most of the evidence available has focused on body mass index (BMI) as a marker of adiposity. There is limited evidence on relatio...

    Authors: Solange Parra-Soto, Emma S. Cowley, Leandro F. M. Rezende, Catterina Ferreccio, John C. Mathers, Jill P. Pell, Frederick K. Ho and Carlos Celis-Morales
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:7
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  12. The optimal distribution between physical activity (PA) levels and sedentary behaviour (SB) for the greatest benefits for body composition among older adults with overweight/obesity and chronic health conditio...

    Authors: Aina M. Galmes-Panades, Jadwiga Konieczna, Veronica Varela-Mato, Itziar Abete, Nancy Babio, Miquel Fiol, José Antonio de Paz, Rosa Casas, Romina Olbeyra, Miguel Ruiz-Canela, Antoni Palau-Galindo, Olga Castañer, Arturo Martín-García, Ramón Estruch, Josep Vidal, Pilar Buil-Cosiales…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2021 19:3
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  13. Higher adiposity increases the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC), but whether this relationship varies by anatomical sub-site or by sex is unclear. Further, the metabolic alterations mediating the effects of adi...

    Authors: Caroline J. Bull, Joshua A. Bell, Neil Murphy, Eleanor Sanderson, George Davey Smith, Nicholas J. Timpson, Barbara L. Banbury, Demetrius Albanes, Sonja I. Berndt, Stéphane Bézieau, D. Timothy Bishop, Hermann Brenner, Daniel D. Buchanan, Andrea Burnett-Hartman, Graham Casey, Sergi Castellví-Bel…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:396
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  14. Little is known about the inter-relationship among fruit and vegetable intake, gut microbiota and metabolites, and type 2 diabetes (T2D) in human prospective cohort study. The aim of the present study was to i...

    Authors: Zengliang Jiang, Ting-yu Sun, Yan He, Wanglong Gou, Luo-shi-yuan Zuo, Yuanqing Fu, Zelei Miao, Menglei Shuai, Fengzhe Xu, Congmei Xiao, Yuhui Liang, Jiali Wang, Yisong Xu, Li-peng Jing, Wenhua Ling, Hongwei Zhou…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:371
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  15. Patients with coeliac disease (CD) commonly report a variety of adverse symptoms to gluten, but descriptions of the symptomatic response in the literature may have been confounded by the presence of food compo...

    Authors: Jason A. Tye-Din, A. James M. Daveson, Kaela E. Goldstein, Holly L. Hand, Kristin M. Neff, Gautam Goel, Leslie J. Williams, Kenneth E. Truitt and Robert P. Anderson
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:362
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  16. Keratins (Ks) represent tissue-specific proteins. K18 is produced in hepatocytes while K19, the most widely used ductular reaction (DR) marker, is found in cholangiocytes and hepatic progenitor cells. K18-base...

    Authors: Karim Hamesch, Nurdan Guldiken, Mahmoud Aly, Norbert Hüser, Daniel Hartmann, Pierre Rufat, Marianne Ziol, Katharina Remih, Georg Lurje, Bernhard Scheiner, Christian Trautwein, Mattias Mandorfer, Thomas Reiberger, Sebastian Mueller, Tony Bruns, Pierre Nahon…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:336
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  17. Circulating cell-free DNA (cfDNA) methylation has been demonstrated to be a promising approach for non-invasive cancer diagnosis. However, the high cost of whole genome bisulfite sequencing (WGBS) hinders the ...

    Authors: Haikun Zhang, Peiling Dong, Shicheng Guo, Chengcheng Tao, Wei Chen, Wenmin Zhao, Jiakang Wang, Ramsey Cheung, Augusto Villanueva, Jian Fan, Huiguo Ding, Steven J. Schrodi, Dake Zhang and Changqing Zeng
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:200
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  18. Gluten-free diet (GFD) decreases the quality of life of celiac disease (CD) patients, who frequently ask to occasionally ingest gluten-containing food. We evaluated CD patients reporting voluntary and occasion...

    Authors: Luca Elli, Karla Bascuñán, Lorenzo di Lernia, Maria Teresa Bardella, Luisa Doneda, Laura Soldati, Stefania Orlando, Francesca Ferretti, Vincenza Lombardo, Giulio Barigelletti, Alice Scricciolo, Sabrina Fabiano, Maurizio Vecchi and Leda Roncoroni
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2020 18:42
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Medicine 2020 18:70

  19. The introduction of highly effective direct-acting antiviral (DAA) therapy for hepatitis C has led to calls to eliminate it as a public health threat through treatment-as-prevention. Recent studies suggest it ...

    Authors: Nick Scott, David P. Wilson, Alexander J. Thompson, Eleanor Barnes, Manal El-Sayed, Adele Schwartz Benzaken, Heidi E. Drummer and Margaret E. Hellard
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:175
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  20. Celiac disease remains a challenging condition because of a steady increase in knowledge tackling its pathophysiology, diagnosis, management, and possible therapeutic options.

    Authors: Giacomo Caio, Umberto Volta, Anna Sapone, Daniel A. Leffler, Roberto De Giorgio, Carlo Catassi and Alessio Fasano
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:142
    Content type: Review Published on:

  21. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common chronic liver illness with a genetically heterogeneous background that can be accompanied by considerable morbidity and attendant health care costs. The pa...

    Authors: Bahram Namjou, Todd Lingren, Yongbo Huang, Sreeja Parameswaran, Beth L. Cobb, Ian B. Stanaway, John J. Connolly, Frank D. Mentch, Barbara Benoit, Xinnan Niu, Wei-Qi Wei, Robert J. Carroll, Jennifer A. Pacheco, Isaac T. W. Harley, Senad Divanovic, David S. Carrell…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:135
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  23. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a common condition that progresses in some patients to steatohepatitis (NASH), cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). Here we used healthcare records of 18 m...

    Authors: Myriam Alexander, A. Katrina Loomis, Johan van der Lei, Talita Duarte-Salles, Daniel Prieto-Alhambra, David Ansell, Alessandro Pasqua, Francesco Lapi, Peter Rijnbeek, Mees Mosseveld, Dawn M. Waterworth, Stuart Kendrick, Naveed Sattar and William Alazawi
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2019 17:95
    Content type: Research article Published on:

    The Commentary to this article has been published in BMC Medicine 2019 17:123

  25. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) has emerged as a common cause of liver-related morbidity and mortality. Tackling this condition at a societal level will require a clear understanding of the burden of...

    Authors: Arun J. Sanyal
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2018 16:148
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

    The original article was published in BMC Medicine 2018 16:130

  26. In real-world clinical practice, the acceptance of anticoagulation therapy in the management of portal vein thrombosis (PVT) in patients with cirrhosis is limited by the fear of an increased bleeding risk. Add...

    Authors: Xingshun Qi, Xiaozhong Guo, Eric M. Yoshida, Nahum Méndez-Sánchez, Valerio De Stefano, Frank Tacke, Andrea Mancuso, Yasuhiko Sugawara, Sien-Sing Yang, Rolf Teschke, Ankur Arora and Dominique-Charles Valla
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2018 16:83
    Content type: Minireview Published on:

  27. One-third of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients show no response to infliximab (IFX) induction therapy, and approximately half of patients responding become unresponsive over time. Thus, identification ...

    Authors: Jacob Tveiten Bjerrum, Casper Steenholdt, Mark Ainsworth, Ole Haagen Nielsen, Michelle AC Reed, Karen Atkins, Ulrich Leonhard Günther, Fuhua Hao and Yulan Wang
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:184
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  28. Leakage of bacterial products across the gut barrier may play a role in liver diseases which often precede the development of liver cancer. However, human studies, particularly from prospective settings, are l...

    Authors: Veronika Fedirko, Hao Quang Tran, Andrew T. Gewirtz, Magdalena Stepien, Antonia Trichopoulou, Krasimira Aleksandrova, Anja Olsen, Anne Tjønneland, Kim Overvad, Franck Carbonnel, Marie-Christine Boutron-Ruault, Gianluca Severi, Tilman Kühn, Rudolf Kaaks, Heiner Boeing, Christina Bamia…
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:72
    Content type: Research article Published on:

  29. Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is a global public health issue. Although the disease cannot be cured effectively, disease management has been improved over the past decade. The introduction of poten...

    Authors: Tai-Chung Tseng and Jia-Horng Kao
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:53
    Content type: Minireview Published on:

  31. Non-alcoholic fatty liver disease has emerged a major challenge because of it prevalence, difficulties in diagnosis, complex pathogenesis, and lack of approved therapies. As the burden of hepatitis C abates ov...

    Authors: Brent A. Neuschwander-Tetri
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:45
    Content type: Minireview Published on:

  32. Proton pump inhibitor (PPI) therapy is commonly used outside of Food and Drug Administration indication for a broad range of conditions such as extra-esophageal reflux and PPI-responsive esophageal eosinophili...

    Authors: Rena Yadlapati and Peter J. Kahrilas
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2017 15:36
    Content type: Commentary Published on:

    The original article was published in BMC Medicine 2016 14:179

  33. The introduction of proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) into clinical practice has revolutionized the management of acid-related diseases. Studies in primary care and emergency settings suggest that PPIs are frequen...

    Authors: Carmelo Scarpignato, Luigi Gatta, Angelo Zullo and Corrado Blandizzi
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2016 14:179
    Content type: Guideline Published on:

  34. Faecal microbiota transplantation (FMT) is an effective treatment for recurrent Clostridium difficile infection (rCDI). It restores the disrupted intestinal microbiota and subsequently suppresses C. difficile. Th...

    Authors: Jonna Jalanka, Eero Mattila, Hanne Jouhten, Jorn Hartman, Willem M. de Vos, Perttu Arkkila and Reetta Satokari
    Citation: BMC Medicine 2016 14:155
    Content type: Research article Published on: