Weight Loss
Insurers recoup obesity surgery cost in 2-4 years
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Insurers recoup the costs of weight-loss surgery within two to four years as obese patients become healthier and have fewer medical problems, researchers said on Wednesday.
The findings show that bariatric surgery, an increasingly popular operation, benefits patients’ health and saves money, according to Pierre-Yves Cremieux of the economic consulting firm Analysis Group and the University of Quebec at Montreal, who led the study.
Bariatric surgery alters the digestive system’s anatomy, reducing the volume of food that can be eaten and digested. The most common form is gastric bypass, which makes the stomach smaller and permits food to bypass part of the small intestine.
How gastric bypass rapidly reverses diabetes symptoms
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A report in the September Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, offers new evidence to explain why those who undergo gastric bypass surgery often show greater control of their diabetes symptoms within days. It also helps to explain why lap-band surgery doesn’t offer the same instant gratification. By studying mice that have undergone both procedures, the researchers show that changes in the intestine are the key.
In addition to removing about two-thirds of the stomach, gastric bypass in effect produces a “double intestine,” said Gilles Mithieux of Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in France. The portion closest to the stomach is taken out of the loop so that it receives no nutrients. The segment normally farther down is then attached directly to the stomach, where it receives all the nutrients coming in.
In both cases, those positional changes ramp up production of blood sugar by the small intestine, Mithieux said. He noted that fasting normally induces blood sugar production by the upper small intestine. By placing the lower small intestine, which doesn’t normally produce much glucose, in close proximity to the stomach, it starts to act more like the upper portion.
Adults who eat eggs for breakfast lose 65 percent more weight
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A study published online today in the International Journal of Obesity shows that eating two eggs for breakfast, as part of a reduced-calorie diet, helps overweight adults lose more weight and feel more energetic than those who eat a bagel breakfast of equal calories. [1] This study supports previous research, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, which showed that people who ate eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied and ate fewer calories at the following meal. [2]
“People have a hard time adhering to diets and our research shows that choosing eggs for breakfast can dramatically improve the success of a weight loss plan,” said Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, Ph.D., lead researcher and associate professor in the laboratory of infection and obesity at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a campus of the Louisiana State University system. “Apparently, the increased satiety and energy due to eggs helps people better comply with a reduced-calorie diet.”
Internet, alcohol and sleep tied to girls’ weight
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Girls and young women who devote much time to the Internet, get too little sleep or regularly drink alcohol are more likely than their peers to put on excess weight, a new study suggests.
The researchers, who followed more than 5,000 girls between 14 and 21 years old for 1 year, found that the more spare time girls spent on the Internet, the more their body mass index (BMI) increased.
Similar patterns were seen when the researchers looked at alcohol consumption and sleep. In the latter case, lack of sleep was linked to greater gains in BMI—a measure of weight in relation to height.
Day care babies gain more weight: study
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Infants cared for by someone other than mom or dad are more apt to be exposed to “unfavorable” feeding practices and to gain more weight during their first year of life, a new study shows, which could contribute to childhood weight problems.
“Parents may want to have enough communication with child care providers about when, what and how to feed their babies during their stay in day care, which is important to avoid potential risk of overfeeding or underfeeding at home,” Dr. Juhee Kim of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Reuters Health.
Kim and co-investigator Dr. Karen E. Peterson of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, analyzed data on child care arrangements, feeding practices, and weight gain collected for 8,150 infants who were 9 months old. More than half of these children received regular child care from someone other than a parent.
Laparoscopic gastric bypass provides better results
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Performing gastric bypass surgery to reduce the weight of morbidly obese patients using a laparoscopic method, rather than the conventional more invasive “open” abdominal method, reduces postoperative complications, the need for a second operation, and shortens hospital stays, new research shows. Nevertheless, laparoscopic gastric bypass is more expensive.
Obesity surgery, also called bariatric surgery, is growing in popularity and more and more of these operations are being done using a laparoscope, note co-authors Dr. Wendy E. Weller, from the University at Albany in New York, and Dr. Carl Rosati, from Albany Medical Center.
This is done by placing one or more small incisions in the abdomen, through which a hollow tube is inserted. This allows very small instruments to be inserted to perform the gastric bypass. The entire procedure is visualized on a screen. In contrast, the more invasive “open” procedure involves making an incision to open the abdomen so the procedure can be performed.
On-the-Job Weight Loss: Worksite Programs Work
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Employer-sponsored programs for weight loss are at least partially effective at helping workers take off extra pounds, according to a new review of recent studies.
“For people who participate in them, worksite-based programs do tend to result in weight loss,” said co-author Michael Benedict, M.D. Intensity matters, he found. “The programs that incorporated face-to-face contact more than once a month appeared to be more effective than other programs.”
Since most employed adults spend nearly one-half of their waking hours at work, such programs could have enormous potential in making a dent in the obesity epidemic, according to Benedict, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of Health, Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Lose weight on the carb-packed “big breakfast” diet
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To lose weight and keep it off, eat a big breakfast packed with carbohydrates and protein, then follow a low-carb, low-calorie diet the rest of the day, a small study suggests.
The “big breakfast” diet works, researchers say, because it controls appetite and satisfies cravings for sweets and starches. It’s also healthier than popular low-carb diets because it allows people to eat more fiber- and vitamin-rich fruit, according to Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, of the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela.
She told the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco that she’s successfully used this diet in her patients for more than 15 years.
Weight Gain Within the Normal Range Increases Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease
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Healthy individuals who gain weight, even to a weight still considered normal, are at risk for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a study appearing in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The study suggests that CKD should be added to the list of conditions that are associated with weight gain, including diabetes and hypertension.
Research has shown that obesity is linked to an increased risk of CKD, but no studies have looked at the effects of weight gain within the “normal” range of an individual’s body mass index. To investigate, Drs. Seungho Ryu and Yoosoo Chang of the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, Korea, and their colleagues conducted a prospective study of individuals who were of a healthy weight and had no known risk factors for chronic kidney disease.
In Korea, all workers participate in either annual or biennial health exams, as required by Korea’s Industrial Safety and Health Law. As a result, the investigators had access to clinical data from thousands of individuals. For this study, they included 8,792 healthy men who participated in the health exams in 2002.
Weight loss can spur bone loss, even with exercise
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Obese older adults who shed pounds also tend to lose bone mass, even if they exercise regularly, a new study suggests.
It’s known that weight loss, in young and old alike, can be accompanied by a dip in bone density, but researchers have hoped that this could be prevented with exercise, which generally helps build bone mass.
In the new study, however, obese older adults who lost weight through diet and exercise showed a decline in bone mass at the hip—despite a supervised regimen of aerobic and strengthening exercises.
Minimally Invasive Weight-Loss Surgery Improves Health of Morbidly Obese Teens
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Teenagers’ obesity-related medical complications improve just six months after laparoscopic gastric banding surgery, according to outcomes data presented this week. The preliminary results by physician-scientists from Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and Columbia University Medical Center were presented on June 17 at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The study reports that the small group of extremely obese teenagers who received the minimally invasive surgery, also called the Lap-Band procedure, as part of a clinical trial lost an average of 20 pounds after six months and had significant improvements in abdominal fat, triglyceride measurements (levels of fat in the blood) and blood sugar levels as measured by hemoglobin A1c—all risk factors for diabetes and heart disease. The patients’ liver function and a measure of immune response also improved, according to the abstract.
“Extremely obese teenagers have obesity-related health problems, particularly diabetes and increased cardiovascular risk. Laparoscopic gastric banding, which has been shown to be a safe and effective way to lose weight, now offers the possibility of reducing obesity’s medical complications,” says lead author Dr. Ilene Fennoy, a pediatric endocrinologist at Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital of NewYork-Presbyterian and clinical professor of pediatrics at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Boosting the flavor of food may aid in weight loss
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People who are overweight may be able to shed pounds by sprinkling special seasonings and sweeteners on the food they eat. These “tastants” stimulate the sense of smell and taste, making people feel fuller faster and helping them to eat less, a study found.
“This approach uses natural physiology to help people lose weight, which is different than other approaches,” Dr. Alan Hirsch explained. “We know that diets don’t work because people do not have the will power to succeed. Instead of looking at the front end - how people eat - we looked at the back end, how can people feel full faster?”
As founder and neurologic director of the Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Hirsch observed that after people lost their sense of smell and taste from head trauma, they would gain 10 or 20 pounds.
Red Wine’s Resveratrol May Help Battle Obesity
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Resveratrol, a compound present in grapes and red wine, reduces the number of fat cells and may one day be used to treat or prevent obesity, according to a new study. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Past research found that resveratrol protected laboratory mice that were fed a high-calorie diet from the health problems of obesity, by mimicking the effects of calorie restriction. Researchers at the University of Ulm in Germany wanted to know if resveratrol could mimic the effects of calorie restriction in human fat cells by changing their size or function. The German team used a strain of human fat cell precursors, called preadipocytes. In the body, these cells develop into mature fat cells, according to the study’s lead author, Pamela Fischer-Posovszky, PhD, a pediatric endocrinology research fellow in the university’s Diabetes and Obesity Unit.
In the cell-based study, they found that resveratrol inhibited the pre-fat cells from increasing and prevented them from converting into mature fat cells.
Moderate Fitness Lowers Risk of Death for Normal Weight or Obese Men with Type 2 Diabetes
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Being even moderately physically fit lowers a diabetic man’s risk of death, regardless of his weight, according to a new study. Results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
The study found that for men with type 2 diabetes, moderate fitness levels reduced the risk of dying of any cause during an average follow-up period of seven years by 40 to 50 percent, even if they were overweight or obese.
“Death rates were the highest for those who were low fit in all weight categories,” said Roshney Jacob-Issac, MD, an endocrinology fellow at George Washington University Hospital and the Veterans Affairs (VA) Medical Center in Washington, D.C. She presented the study results.
Overweight Does Not Decrease Sperm Production
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Overweight men are not more likely to be infertile, as past research has shown to be true in obese women, according to a new study. The results will be presented at The Endocrine Society’s 90th Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
Findings of the study, performed in New York in nearly 300 very overweight men, were unexpected, said coauthor Nanette Santoro, MD, an Albert Einstein College of Medicine obstetrician-gynecologist who is trained in reproductive endocrinology.
“We see pretty significant deficits in fertility in women due to obesity, so we thought we’d see an effect in men,” Santoro said. “But that wasn’t the case.”
