Obesity
Long-term data needed on anti-obesity drugs
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The safety and efficacy over the long term need to be documented for Xenical (known generically as orlistat), Meridia (sibutramine) and Acomplia (rimonabant) before doctors can be certain that the benefits of these anti-obesity drugs outweigh the risks, according to a commentary appearing in The Lancet medical journal.
Orlistat and sibutramine are currently approved for long-term use, while rimonabant is under review by the US Food and Drug Administration.
Orlistat reduces weight by an average of 3 kilograms, whereas sibutramine and rimonabant each reduce weight by 4 kg to 5 kg, on average, Dr. Raj S. Padwal and Dr. Sumit R. Majumdar, from the University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, Canada, note in their article.
Study finds obese patients fair better than lean patients when hospitalized for acute heart failure
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Researchers report that for patients hospitalized with acute heart failure, a higher body mass index (BMI) was associated with a substantially lower in-hospital mortality rate. For every 5-unit increase in body mass, the odds of risk-adjusted mortality fell 10 percent. The finding held when adjusted for age, sex, blood urea nitrogen, blood pressure, and additional prognostic factors.
IMPACT: The finding offers more insight into an observed phenomenon in chronic heart failure called the ‘obesity paradox.’ This is the first study to document that this inverse relationship with BMI holds in the setting of acute hospitalization for heart failure. Further study is required but the finding suggests that nutritional/metabolic support may have therapeutic benefit in specific patients hospitalized with heart failure.
U.S. approves new Pfizer obesity drug for dogs
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U.S. health officials have approved the first obesity drug aimed at treating Americans’ increasingly plump pooches, the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday.
The drug, Pfizer Inc’.s Slentrol, helps decrease appetite and fat absorption to help the roughly 5 percent of U.S. dogs that are obese lose weight, the FDA said. Another 20 percent to 30 percent are overweight, it added.
Obesity a minor player in rising rate of lymphoma
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The increasing number of cases of lymphoma and other cancers of the blood cannot be blamed to any great degree on the increasing number of people who are overweight or obese, Norwegian investigators conclude.
The rate of non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma (NHL), which makes up a major proportion of all lymphomas, has risen during the last three decades in Norway and other parts of the world, Dr. Anders Engeland, from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in Oslo, and colleagues explain in a report in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Exercise, diet reduce fatty liver in obese teens
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Efforts to help obese children become more active and eat better can help reduce the amount of fatty tissue in their livers.
Known medically as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, this condition is becoming increasingly common as the prevalence of obesity increases, Dr. Ana R. Damaso and colleagues from the Federal University of Sao Paulo in Brazil note in their report. There are currently no drugs available to reverse fatty liver disease, which can progress to cirrhosis, even among young patients, the doctors add.
They set out to determine whether a 12-week program including nutrition education and two one-hour exercise sessions per week would have any effect on fatty liver in a group of 73 obese teens.
Battling bacteria in gut may influence weight gain
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Body weight and obesity could be affected not only by what we eat but also by how it is digested in the gut, American scientists said on Wednesday.
They have discovered that levels of two types of good microbes or bacteria in the gut that help to break down foods are different in obese and lean people and mice.
The finding, reported in the science journal Nature, could lead to a better understanding of why some people may be prone to obesity and help find new ways of preventing or treating it.
Dancing on the streets - just what the doctor ordered!
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It seems plans are afoot to provide dance classes on the National Health Service in Britain in an attempt to improve the country’s fitness levels and halt a looming national obesity crisis.
According to reports street-dancing and tango classes are just a few of the ideas being considered for funding by NHS trusts and others include trampolining, boxing, skipping and organised walking classes.
Mindless Eating is a nourishing read
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Mindless Eating may be the most nourishing book you read all year. It is full of tasty morsels dipped in a rich, creamy, sometimes sarcastic sauce of humor, spiced with common sense and reachable goals.
The author of this Bantam Books banquet, Brian Wansink, is director of the Cornell University Food and Brand Laboratory. He also is an eater, he readily admits—of everything from French fries to fine French cuisine. He is as apt to give in to the lures of the palate as the next guy. But unlike the next guy, his years of research at Cornell, and at a similar University of Illinois lab he founded earlier, gave him some clues to ways we can continue to munch and still lose weight.
Metabolic Syndrome Predicts Progressive Kidney Disease in African-Americans
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For African-Americans with high blood pressure, the combination of risk factors known as metabolic syndrome brings an increased risk of worsening kidney disease, reports a paper being presented at the American Society of Nephrology’s 39th Annual Meeting and Scientific Exposition in San Diego.
“Our study shows a 38 percent increased risk of progressive chronic kidney disease in hypertensive African-Americans classified as having the metabolic syndrome,” comments Dr. J. P. Lea of Emory University, lead author of the new study. “This has important public health implications, as treatments are available to reduce the severity of the metabolic syndrome and may have an impact on reducing the rate of progressive kidney disease.”
Link Between Obesity and Inflammation Could Lead to New Therapies
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Research conducted at the Methodist DeBakey Heart Center in Houston identifies a molecular link between obesity and inflammation that could lead to new therapies to prevent diabetes and heart disease.
Research presented this week at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions shows that a high fat diet draws inflammatory cells into fat tissue, which prevents the tissue from storing the fats we eat. When the tissue can not store these fats, they end up in the liver and muscle, which in turn causes diabetes and heart disease.
CHEST 2006 Abstract Briefs: Obesity
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Asthma May Be Overdiagnosed in Obese Patients
(Monday, October 23, 2006, 4:30 PM EST)
A new study reveals that, despite lack of evidence, obese patients are often diagnosed with asthma. Researchers at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center in New Jersey studied 20 patients, all of whom had a diagnosis of asthma, but none of whom exhibited any spirometric evidence of airway obstruction. The body mass index (BMI) was calculated, and bronchoprovocations tests were performed. In all, 90 percent of patients had an above-normal BMI. Of that, 61 percent were nonreactive to methacholine, suggesting an overdiagnosis of asthma in obese patients. Researchers suggest bronchoprovocation testing should be considered in such patients.
Inadequate sleep may be a factor in child obesity
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Not getting enough shut-eye each night may play a role in youngsters becoming overweight, partly by disrupting normal metabolism, a doctor from the University of Bristol, UK, contends in a report released today.
Although there is a “strong genetic contribution to obesity,” the current epidemic of obesity has been driven largely by environmental factors—an unhealthy diet and a lack of physical activity—Dr. Shahrad Taheri points out in the Archives of Disease in Childhood.
Moreover, there is an emerging body of research that suggests that sleep may impact energy balance and that short sleep duration may lead to metabolic changes that could help fuel the development of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Breast reconstruction not as safe for obese women
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Women who are significantly obese are much more likely to experience complications from breast reconstruction surgery following mastectomy compared with normal weight and overweight women, research indicates.
“Obese women need to understand that they are going to have more complications from breast reconstruction surgery,” Dr. Elisabeth K. Beahm told Reuters Health. “There may be instances where they should delay breast reconstruction until they have lost some weight to a more acceptable body mass index (BMI)—not that they have to become thin, but until they get into a safer weight category,” she said.
Anti-obesity compound found in brown seaweed
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Studies in animals suggest that brown seaweed, also known as wakame—commonly used to flavor Asian soups and salads, contains a compound that promotes weight loss. The compound, called fucoxanthin, also has anti-diabetes effects.
At the 232nd American Chemical Society National Meeting in San Francisco today, Dr. Kazuo Miyashita from Hokkaido University reported seeing significant reductions in fat tissue in rats and obese mice fed the edible seaweed carotenoid fucoxanthin.
“The mechanism for this effect is a new one,” Dr. Miyashita points out in a statement, explaining that fucoxanthin induces expression of the fat-burning protein UCP1 that accumulates in fat tissue around the internal organs. Mice fed fucoxanthin showed clear signs of UCP1 expression in fat tissue, whereas mice fed a control diet showed little expression of this protein.
Exploitative Internet marketing fuels child obesity
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Self-regulation in food and beverage marketing is being exploited and is failing to curb childhood obesity, research by a global obesity taskforce presented on Tuesday has found.
The International Obesity Taskforce said some Internet sites that attracted children with advertising games were being used to bypass stricter advertising standards in traditional media, the 10th International Congress on Obesity in Sydney heard.
The taskforce found that 85 percent of businesses advertising to children on television also had interactive Web sites for them. It said 12.2 million children had visited commercial Web sites promoting food and beverages over a three-month monitoring period in 2005.
