Weight Loss
Weight loss surgery reduces heart disease risk
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Substantial weight loss after gastric bypass surgery is associated with a reduced risk of coronary heart disease (CHD), according to a report in the American Journal of Cardiology.
“Weight loss should stabilize the CHD process and reduce heart attacks and other events,” Dr. Peter A. McCullough told Reuters Health. “Obese patients with CHD—which is virtually all patients with this problem—should consider weight loss to reduce their chances of another CHD event.”
Calcium lowers cardiovascular risk in people on a weight loss program
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Universite Laval Faculty of Medicine researchers have discovered that taking calcium and vitamin D supplements while on a weight loss program lowers the risk of cardiovascular disease. Researchers Genevieve C Major, Francine Alarie, Jean Dore, Sakouna Phouttama, and Angelo Tremblay published the details of their findings in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The scientists enrolled 63 women with a body mass index over 30 on a 15-week low-calorie diet. At the start of the experiment, the women’s daily calcium intake was 700 mg on average, well below the 1,000 mg recommendation. “This is nothing exceptional,” points out Dr. Angelo Tremblay, who led the study. “More than 50% of women don’t get the daily recommended dose.”
‘Normal-weight obese’ syndrome may up heart risks
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People who are normal-weight but carry a good deal of body fat may be at increased risk of heart disease and stroke, a small study suggests.
Most people have by now heard of body mass index (BMI), a measure used to classify people as normal-weight, overweight or obese based on their weight and height.
However, there are people who are technically normal-weight based on their BMI yet have a substantial amount of excess fat, and some researchers say this is its own type of “syndrome.”
Major Link in Brain-Obesity Puzzle Found
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A single protein in brain cells may act as a linchpin in the body’s weight-regulating system, playing a key role in the flurry of signals that govern fat storage, sugar use, energy balance and weight, University of Michigan Medical School researchers report.
And although it’s far too early to say how this protein could be useful in new strategies to fight the world’s epidemic of obesity, the finding gives scientists an important system to target in future research and the development of anti-obesity medications.
In the February issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, U-M researcher Liangyou Rui, Ph.D. and his team report their findings on a protein called SH2B1, and specifically on its activity in brain cells.
Exercise helps stoke fat-burning fires
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It may be easier for active people to stay slim after a few days of eating too much fat, a new study shows.
Given that eating lots of fat over short stretches likely leads to accumulation of excess body fat over time, Dr. Kent C. Hansen of the University of Wisconsin in Madison and his colleagues write, regular exercise may help people maintain a healthy weight even if they do indulge occasionally.
While the body can adjust fairly rapidly to excess carbohydrate intake by boosting the rate at which it burns calories from carbs, it takes several days to adjust in a similar way to an increase in fat intake, Hansen and his team note in the January issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. However, there is evidence that exercise can help the body adapt more quickly, they add.
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.
Novo says study shows Levemir reduces body weight
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Denmark’s Novo Nordisk, the world’s biggest maker of insulin, said on Tuesday a new study showed its long-acting insulin Levemir reduces body weight and improves blood glucose levels in type 2 diabetes patients.
The new data, a subanalysis of 2,377 patients from a larger multinational study, indicated that individuals taking Levemir lost 0.7 kilograms after 14 weeks, compared to a baseline.
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.
Jury out on weight loss effects of dance game
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A dance video game can help overweight kids burn calories and get their hearts pumping faster, but it’s not clear that this sort of workout is enough to help them lose weight and become more fit.
The popular video game, Dance Dance Revolution, consists of a game pad with sensor arrows, which the player child stands on while the screen gives instructions on where to step, in rhythm with the music.
Dr. V. B. Unnithan of Liverpool Hope University in Liverpool, UK and colleagues set out to determine whether playing the dance video game would be beneficial to obese and normal-weight children, especially given that heaver and less-fit kids expend more energy when they do weight-bearing exercise than their normal weight, more active peers.
