Cosmetic surgery deals criticised

Get the malpractice known as bariatric surgery sooner and cheaper before prices go back up!

An example of good will on earth and slice all mankind to pieces.

"Cosmetic surgery clinics are rushing people into major procedures by offering limited time money-off deals, according to consumer magazine Which?

Which? says it has found eight clinics that it claims are breaking industry rules by 'pressure advertising.'"

It is clear that sectors of the sick care industry have you last on their holiday list of "what I care about."

"Which? says choosing to have cosmetic surgery is 'a major and potentially life changing decision' and it is 'highly irresponsible' of clinics to rush people with time-sensitive discounts."

Yep.

"'We really hope that they will stop this pressure advertising which can rush people into surgery and treatments which they probably might not need, and also may cost them thousands of pounds and may end up being a waste of money,' she said."

Don't count on it.

More young diabetics being hospitalized

Mostly the young and fat, you can bet.

"There has been a significant increase in the number of young adults hospitalized with diabetes-related conditions in the United States over the last decade or so, according to a new study.'Studies indicate that the burden of diabetes, type 1 and type 2, is substantial and rising among U.S. children,' Dr. Joyce Lee, of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and colleagues write in the medical journal Diabetes Care..."

Inflation-adjusted annual hospital costs for diabetes increased 130 percent, from $1.05 billion in 1993 to $2.42 billion in 2004."

And now onto the younger and fatter:

"With the rising rate of diabetes among youngsters, the researchers see the number of hospitalizations increasing even more over coming years."

The clear result of child-abusing parents.

Stop nutritional child abuse.

Drug reactions 'kill thousands'

Don't forget to take your fat pills because of the condition you voluntarily put yourself in.

Or get fit.

Your choice.

Kids Of Abused Moms Have Greater Health Needs

We will also pay for the progeny of nutritionally abused kids, too.

"Children whose mothers have a history of abuse by intimate partners have higher health care needs than children whose mothers have no history of abuse, according to a study conducted at Group Health, a Seattle-based health plan.

These needs - expressed in terms of the cost of providing care and use of health services - were higher even if the abuse occurred before the children were born, the research team found...

'Children are the other victims when intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs in the home,' said lead author Frederick P. Rivara, MD, MPH. 'This study shows that children require more health care--especially for mental health--when their mothers are victims of such violence.'"

The rest of us "are the other victims when" nutritional child abuse occurs.

Help save the children today and the rest of us, too.

Menopausal hot flashes worse for heavier women

Run for your lives! Pre-menopausal and as big as Babe the Blue Ox!

"Contrary to expectations, the higher a woman's percentage of body fat at menopause, the more likely she is to experience symptoms such as hot flashes and night sweats, a new study shows."

And a life-saving suggestion:

"Based on the findings, Thurston and her colleagues add, weight loss -- especially loss of fat -- may help women going through menopause..."

Overweight People More Likely to Have Bad Breath

In addition to stinky bodies and a need for special hygiene, there is this.

"Add another health condition to the list of problems being overweight causes – smelly breath...

The data shows overweight patients were more likely to have halitosis..."

Probably the least of fat people's worries, and another one of ours.

Active Computer Games Do Not Replace Playing Real Sports For Energy Expenditure

Say it ain't so, Joe.

"New generation active computer games stimulate greater energy expenditure than sedentary games, but are no substitute for playing real sports, according to a study in this week's Christmas issue of the BMJ."

Too bad the article didn't come out the weeks before Christmas so some people could have saved hundreds on their new video game "exercise" devices.

"Time spent in front of television and computer screens has been linked to physical inactivity and obesity. "

"Linked to physical inactivity"?

Almost by definition, "time spent in front of television and computer screens," is physical inactivity.

"The participants first played on the inactive Project Gotham Racing 3 game (XBOX 360). After a five minute rest, they then played competitive bowling, tennis and boxing matches (Nintendo Wii Sports) for 15 minutes each with a five minute rest between sports. Total playing time for each child was 60 minutes.

Energy expenditure was increased by 60 kcal per hour during active compared with sedentary gaming. "

60 kcal is the same as 60 Calories. This is the equivalent of about 1/3 ounce of food. A meaningless number of Calories burned.

Anyway, exercise, as suggested by the experts, is a pathetically inefficient way to burn Calories.

There are much better ways to shed pounds than exercise.

Diabetics more likely to die after heart attack

Must be all that good cholesterol.

"While the treatment of people with diabetes who suffer a heart attack has improved, along with subsequent survival rates, mortality is still higher than in non-diabetics, a study shows...

They report, in the medical journal Heart, that patients with diabetes have higher short- and long-term mortality rates after heart attack than those without diabetes."

And body fat.

"While underlying co-illnesses in part account for the excess mortality in patients with diabetes..."

You really are eating food to die for.

Is Too Much Good Cholesterol, Bad?

More turmoil. Stick with what works. Fitness.

"...a team doing research on high-density lipoprotein, said having high levels of it in the bloodstream might increase the risk of cardiovascular disease."

High-density lipoprotein is also known as HDL, which is the "good cholesterol." Well, until now that is.

Maybe they need more nitrites.

"That seems to fly in the face of more than 20 years of medical wisdom, which has held generally that HDL helps protect us from heart problems.

Reams of medical advice have been written, diets have been devised, and drugs have been developed around the proposition that high levels of 'good' HDL are desirable, and that levels of "bad" LDL, or low density lipoprotein, should be kept low."

In general, the only ream you can count on from the sick care and diet industries is the one that makes you hurt when you sit.

Perhaps it will do the Prince thing and become the Lipoprotein Formerly Known As Good Cholesterol.

"The University of Kentucky research, reported recently in the American Journal of Physiology, suggests that scientists have more work to do on HDL."

That is an understatement.

And by the way, they have way more work to do on lots of things before they proffer advice.

Education Key to Solving Teen Obesity

Not even close.

"The schools, suggests a recent study conducted in Loudoun, might be the ideal place to start educating both children and their parents about nutrition and exercise."

If they "educate" the kids with what is currently being offered as the way to solve the problem, we will have to uneducate them later and put them on diets.

"Obesity can be caused by genetic mutations and an out-of-kilter metabolism..."

Not even close.

Obesity and overweight are caused by one thing and one thing only - more Calories in than out.

A good place to start educating people is at the level of the media since their misinformation drools down on the rest of us.

Many parents of fat kids in denial, study finds

More child abuse.

"A startling number of parents may be in denial about their youngsters' weight.

A survey found that many Americans whose children are obese do not see them that way.

That is worrisome because obese children run the risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol problems and other ailments more commonly found in adults. And overweight children are likely to grow up to be overweight adults."

For which the rest of us will be expected to pay.

"...Dr. Matthew M. Davis, a University of Michigan professor of pediatrics and internal medicine who led the study, released earlier this month... [said]

"When I see a child that is obese at these younger ages, I take that as a sign of ways nutrition can be improved, a child's activity level can be improved."

This lead researcher is clearly a lawbreaker under CAPTA.

CAPTA is the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, federal legislation for which states get money. Each state receiving these bucks has its own act that mirrors the federal legislation.

If he, any other physician or sick care worker sees a child in peril of "serious physical or emotional harm," it is their responsibility to report it to the authorities.

What we have here is the intersection of parental, governmental and sick care system neglect and abuse that are deadly to our young.

With little effort, you can act to stop it.

Coffee, tea linked to lower risk of kidney cancer

Bull.

"Coffee and tea lovers may have a slightly reduced risk of developing kidney cancer, research hints."

And if you are about to fall for this, see here.

Tea drinking may not curb ovarian cancer risk

Another pillar of voodoo medicine brought down.

"Tea drinking, in general, does not appear to decrease the risk for ovarian cancer, according to combined data from nine studies."

At some point you should really consider what works for your health.

Maintaining a BMI between 18.5 and 24.9 seems to be it.

How you get there is immaterial so far as is currently known.

If you want to do it on the "tea diet," so be it.

But expecting the nutrition superstitions touted by the media and out of control researchers to work is a belief system, not a fact-based system.

Bacon, hot dogs could damage the lungs

More signs of ignorance.

"Men who smoke may be increasing their risk of developing emphysema and chronic bronchitis if they eat lots of cured meat, new research shows.

Cured meats such as sausage, ham, bologna, bacon and hot dogs contain high levels of nitrites, which are added to prevent rancidity and bacterial growth and enhance a meat's pink color.

And just like cigarette smoking and air pollution, nitrites generate molecules known as reactive oxygen and nitrogen species that have been linked to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Dr. Raphaelle Varraso of the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston and colleagues note."

Now see here for the great, healthy effects of nitrites.

Isn't it time you stopped relying on any of this crap and just managed Calories first and superstitions second?

Fit workout neighbor harms exercisers' self esteem

Poor unfit babies.

"Young women who exercise next to a fit-looking peer will spend less time working out and feel worse about their bodies, a new study shows."

And the moronic professional solution?

"He added: 'If you want to maximize how you're feeling about yourself, you might want to move to the areas of the gym where people are less fit.'"

Or, get in better shape.

What a concept!

Built-In Exercise Monitor Predicts Fitness

From the University of Exeter. Is "Exeter" a fancy word for "dumb as a doornail"?

"We all hold the secret to getting fit, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. The research team has shown that we each have a built-in ability to judge how hard our bodies are working, often with remarkable precision."

What is this "secret"?

"A series of studies over the last two years, culminating in three academic papers in the past two months, has shown a consistently close correlation between actual and perceived exertion in people of all levels of fitness. The team has found that an individual's own sense of how hard he or she is working corresponds exactly with actual level of exertion, measured by heart-rate and oxygen uptake."

What a discovery!

Now Google "Borg RPE Scale."

Don't these fools read?

Really, the research bucks are going down the tubes.

The "secret to getting fit" is not listening to any of the experts.

Marathons Cut Risk Of Fatal Vehicle Crashes

Painfully stupid study.

"Organised marathons are not associated with an increased risk of sudden death, despite the media attention they attract. In fact, marathons lower the risk of fatal motor vehicle crashes that might otherwise have taken place if the roads had not been closed, finds a study in the Christmas issue of the British Medical Journal."

This is the equivalent to "Being Female Cuts Risk Of Prostate Cancer."

If there are no cars, there are no accidents. If there is no prostate, no prostate cancer.

Duh.

And this is emblematic of much research, especially in the overweight, obesity, fitness and diet domains.

Data About Zetia Risks Was Not Fully Revealed

It's your old friends at Big Phama again.

"New evidence shows that the drug makers Merck and Schering-Plough have conducted several studies of their popular cholesterol medicine Zetia that raise questions about its risks to the liver, but the companies have never published those results."

These people will kill you.

Let's talk.

There is no doubt that overweight and obesity are choices.

There is no doubt that they are reversible.

There is no doubt that a healthy weight can be achieved without drugs, surgery and other forms of malpractice.

Why expose yourself to the risks of the sick care system for a completely soluble problem?

In 2008, gain control of your weight.

NSAIDs won't protect ultra-marathoners' muscles

Old stuff. A waste of time, effort and resources.

"Taking non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen during endurance events does not help prevent muscle damage or next-day muscle soreness, a study in ultra-marathoners indicates."

Analgesic use for muscle soreness from training or competing has been known to be of questionable effectiveness for years.

FASgen Announces A New Discovery In Obesity Research

Much ado about nothing AND technobabble alerts.

"FASgen is pleased to report the publication of important new research results in the obesity field using FAS89B, one of the Company's proprietary compounds. FASgen is a leader in the field of research into selective inhibition of fatty acid synthase (FASi), and has conducted extensive research in the area of metabolic disease disorders, specifically for the treatment of obesity and fatty liver disease. The Company has a long-standing cooperation with The Johns Hopkins University, and that joint research has produced the new discoveries in the regulation of weight loss by the stimulation of carnitinepalmitoyl-transferase-1 (CPT-1). FAS89B was characterized in vitro as a selective inhibitor of brain CPT-1 and produced in vivo results in mice of decreased feeding for three days and persistent weight loss of six days, with no evidence of conditioned taste aversion. See, "Pharmacological Stimulation of Brain Carnitine-Transerase-1 Decreases Food Intake and Body Weight," Ronnett, et al, Am J Physiol Regul Integr Physiol (December 8, 2007). This new discovery adds another tool for FASgen to use, in addition to FASi and GPATi compounds already in research, in its ongoing program of research into the field of treatment for obesity and fatty liver disease."

This says absolutely nothing.

They are trying to pull a FAS one on you.

Single brain cell's power shown

Creating a new mystery alert!

"There could be enough computing ability in just one brain cell to allow humans and animals to feel, a study suggests...

The Dutch and German study, published in Nature, found that stimulating just one rat neuron could deliver the sensation of touch."

Then why isn't there enough brain power in the entire brain of a fat person to feel when they are getting too fat? Or to give them the sensation of becoming sensible?

Is it:
a. their brain cells are inferior to a rat's
b. the other brain cells get in the way
c. something else
d. all of the above
e. a and b

Now this could become useful research.

"The complexity of the human brain and how it stores countless thoughts, sensations and memories are still not fully understood."

Clearly, this is good reason to let Big Pharma and the sick care industry create and prescribe drugs, especially for fat people since their condition is controllable and reversible sans meds, that work on the brain whose workings they do not understand.

Clearly, this is good reason for fat people to be provided these drugs and at our expense.

Case closed. They seem to have all sides covered.

698-pound man dies after stomach surgery

Caveat eator.

"A man who weighed 698 pounds died Friday of heart failure after undergoing an operation to remove 80 percent of his stomach in a desperate effort to reduce his weight.

Carlos Marroquin, 47, was so heavy at the time of Thursday's operation that hospital workers used a forklift to place him on the operating table, surgeon Isaias Sandigo, who participated in the procedure, told The Associated Press."

A forklift?

What's the big deal?

That's for lightweights.

Daily calcium quota may be too high: study

More evidence that they have no idea what the heck healthy eating is.

"Adults may need half the amount of daily calcium currently recommended, researchers report based on a review of published studies...

This is in contrast to current guidelines that recommend between 1200 to 1500 milligrams calcium per day among older adults, the researcher noted."

If you fall for any of this "healthy" food stuff, please buy my bridge.

BMI Criteria For Obesity Surgery Should Be Lowered, UT Southwestern Researchers Suggest

Downright deadly advice. Happy New Year from the sick care and weight loss industries.

"The study findings show that some morbidly obese patients have better cardiovascular disease risk profiles than those who are less obese. In particular, the researchers found that cardiovascular risk factors can be much worse in many individuals with a BMI as low as 30 than they are for some surgical candidates with higher BMIs.

This suggests that some patients who are obese but not morbidly obese could benefit from bariatric surgery, which can help reduce cardiovascular disease, said Dr. Livingston."

Put them on diets that work instead of subjecting them to your malpractice diets and malpractice surgery and malpractice drugs.

This also suggests that fat person surgery done for potential cardiovascular disease is done needlessly as, 'Our results show that cardiovascular risk factors do not necessarily worsen with increasing obesity,' Dr. Livingston said."

Get rid of this industry.

Updates To Food Guide Pyramid For Older Adults

They needed an update for this? What were they thinking before?

"Tufts University researchers have updated their Food Guide Pyramid for Older Adults to correspond with the USDA food pyramid, now known as MyPyramid. The Tufts version is specifically designed for older adults...The Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults continues to emphasize nutrient-dense food choices and the importance of fluid balance, but has added additional guidance about forms of foods that could best meet the unique needs of older adults and about the importance of regular physical activity."

Here is something really deep to step in:

"'Older adults tend to need fewer calories as they age because they are not as physically active as they once were and their metabolic rates slow down. Nevertheless, their bodies still require the same or higher levels of nutrients for optimal health outcomes..."

Everybody needs fewer Calories when they are "not as physically active as they once were."

This includes college students, fat parents setting fat examples for their fat children, legislators, fat Oprah, thin runway models, Tufts researchers. Everybody includes everybody.

Then the researchers go on to the "optimal health" spiel.

They would not know what is required for "optimal health" if it bit them in their stupid faces.

"Optimal" is a fantasy concept. It is the result of limited and lagging indicators with no proven predictive value or definition that will clearly vary from person to person.

It is bull and a way to con the public into believing the crap spouted by lunatics with a platform.

"The Modified MyPyramid for Older Adults will be published in the January 2008 issue of the Journal of Nutrition."

Another sad part.

They will be killing trees to disseminate this garbage.

Your tax dollars hard at work.

"This study was supported by a grant from the Ross Initiative on Aging at Tufts University and the US Department of Agriculture (USDA)."

Medical Gift Cards Bring Well Wishes

CBS News suffers from the same malady as ABCNews - a fistula between the rectum and the cranium. So does the Consumer Federation of America.

This story, which I covered weeks ago, has been resurrected by CBS as a good thing.

"Gift cards are big this holiday season. Americans are expected to spend over $26 billion on them, according to the National Retail Federation.

And now, there's a new arrival on that landscape, medical gift cards, which Jack Gillis of the Consumer Federation of America says enable someone to help give 'the gift of health.'"

It is apparent that the Consumer Federation of America has no concept of what health looks like.

It is apparent that CBS, as other media players, would rather see you sick than well.

This is a gift of repair, not health.

"One of the things the company (Highmark, Inc.) is capitalizing on is the fact healthcare costs have gone through the roof.'"

Health requires no "healthcare costs." Sickness does.

"Gillis noted that the cards could make a good gift from 40-to 50-year-olds faced with the task of helping their parents without having to be too intrusive and without a handout. 'This is a gift,' he says. 'It could enable someone to be proud.'"

"Proud" to be sick.

"He says it 'enables someone to give a gift to someone he or she loves and help them and be discreet. It's really the first of its kind.'"

Discreet as in when everybody else is opening their gifts, the sick person is - doing what?

"You can buy them in amounts from $25 to $5,000, whether or not the recipient has medical insurance."

This guy Gillis makes stupid look smart.

Clearly, the Consumer Federation of America is not to be trusted.

The real gift of "health" is fitness and supporting those about whom you care to become fit.

Holiday Survival Tips From Dietitians Of Canada

"Holiday survival"? Not. It's more like how the dietitians stole the holidays.

"The holiday season is here, and along with it can come lots of festivities and indulgences. However, there are still ways to enjoy get-togethers and not totally lose track of your healthy living goals."

The real issue is not what you do on the holidays.

It is what you do the rest of the year.

In fact, in the real scheme of things, your several days of holiday feting yearly are a mere fat droplet in the fat bucket.

Focus on what matters most.

Have happy holidays, not necessarily Canadian dietitian holidays.

Holiday Health Check

More party poopers, spouting poop.

"'We know we'll likely consume more because it's almost unavoidable with gatherings and gifts of food. So, we should make a conscious effort to balance this with an extra session at the gym, longer walks, or something else that involves movement.' Patrick also recommends taking time out to relax, alone or with someone else to provide support and encouragement during this tempting, sometimes trying, season."

One day or two is not and has never been the issue.

It is the rest of the year.

Enjoy the holidays to your fullest. After all, they are holidays, right?

Make the rest of the year your committed time to nutritional and physical fitness.

As a Rule of Thumb, if you really want to succeed at your fitness goals, do the exact opposite of what the experts suggest.

Worried About Holiday Weight Gain?

Media moron alert!

Where does ABCNews find them?

"The general belief is that Americans gain between five and nine pounds between Halloween and New Year's Day, but that may be an exaggeration. A study conducted in 2000 by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development and the National Institute of Diabetes suggested that Americans, on average, gain only about one pound during the winter holidays.

But this weight gain accumulates over the years, possibly contributing to the overall weight gain someone experiences in the course of a lifetime."

One pound gained in two months worth of holidays is great. (if you believe them and him)

But to suggest that "this weight gain accumulates over the years, possibly contributing to the overall weight gain someone experiences in the course of a lifetime," is imbecilic.

What is going on the other 10 months? The one pound ain't squat, moron, it's the remainder of the year.

If people only gained the one pound per year from the holidays there is no way that we would be experiencing the epidemic of overweight and obesity that we are.

Certainly this is an impossible statistic for fat kids who have not lived long enough to accumulate their overweight and obesity at one pound per year.

Here is one of this expert's moronic "holiday weight gain" solutions:

"Solution 3: Wii Fit

By now everyone has heard about this integration of video games and workout programs. Many of us have video consoles in our houses because of our children, or maybe we even play them ourselves. Invest in one of the Nintendo Wii Fit workout programs..."

See here and here to get a sense of what your hundreds of dollars buys you fitness-wise.

Then there is this plum:

"None of the above solutions will not work if you don't know why you want to do them."

What does that mean? And these are supposed to be the pros in fitness and communication.

The author of the piece:

"Stefan Aschan is the owner and founder of www.strength123.com, providing nutrition and exercise programs in New York City."

They left out that Stefan is also a moron.

Wii players need to exercise too

Maybe. Maybe not. See below.

Interactive consoles get kids off the couch

Maybe. Maybe not. See above.

Dark chocolate 'not so healthy'

Just when you foolishly thought it was safe.

"For those of you tucking into dark chocolate this Christmas using the excuse it is good for you, think again."

Guess what?

"A top medical journal said any health claims about plain chocolate may be misleading.

Plain chocolate is naturally rich in flavanols, plant chemicals that are believed to protect the heart.

But an editorial in the Lancet points out that many manufacturers remove flavanols because of their bitter taste.

Instead, many products may just be abundant in fat and sugar - both of which are harmful to the heart and arteries, the journal reported...

'The devil in the dark chocolate is the fat, sugar and calories it also contains.'"

It's all about Calories in and Calories out.

Period.

Some Healthy Resolutions Stick

Maybe. But this is certainly not one of them.

"Eighteen months after taking a four week health education course, class participants remained significantly more active taking 800 more steps per day than when they enrolled."

There are about 2000 steps in a mile. From: Work/Life Program for The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.

On average, about 100 Calories are burned per mile traveled on foot.

800 steps is the equivalent of 40 Calories.

Some victory.

"Significantly more active" has been apparently been downgraded.

FDA Investigation Leads To Prison Sentence For Woman Who Claimed To Cure 'Lou Gehrig's Disease'

Now if it would only go after the diet experts and their false claims.

"The U.S. Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) Office of Criminal Investigations announced that a New Jersey woman has been sentenced to 33 months in prison for falsely claiming that she could cure amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly called "'Lou Gehrig's Disease.'"

This seems clearly untrue:

"'The FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations aggressively pursues those that provide false hope to patients by making unproven medical claims to unsuspecting patients - many with serious or life-threatening conditions who are desperate for a medical cure,' said Terry Vermillion, director of FDA's Office of Criminal Investigations."

Maybe it is true if FDA wants to beat its chest taking on a single individual. Big deal.

While millions are hurt by bad diet advice from experts, diet gurus, the sick care industry, talk show hosts, Big Pharma, publishers, the media, etc., the FDA pulverizes this one person.

If they need to go after one person, try Oprah. She has single-handedly cast an Orwellian pall over the weight loss industry.

It is like Animal Farm.

The pig is in charge.

But, in case I am wrong about the veracity of the above quote, give FDA a holler if you tried an expert's weight loss program and failed.

For starters, you can refer them here, here and here.

Here is the FDA's link: http://www.fda.gov

FDA warns of deaths from fentanyl patch

Today the Fentanyl patch, tomorrow the Fatanal patch.

You have to be a friggin' idiot to put yourself voluntarily (through overeating) into a position to get fat person drugs pushed by the sick care industry.

"Improper use of patches that emit the painkiller fentanyl is still killing people, the government said Friday — its second warning in two years about the powerful narcotic."

Unless the Fatanal patch is duck tape covering a fat person's piehole.

That would work, be proper use and without mortal risk.

Doctors advised to defer booster shots of vaccine

More tainted drugs. And fat people voluntarily set themselves up for medicating.

"Doctors should defer giving booster shots of a widely used childhood vaccine in the wake of a voluntary recall last week of 1.2 million doses by Merck & Co Inc, U.S. health authorities said on Wednesday."

For fat people, it is nigh time to rethink your weight loss strategy.

Health care debate shifts to new area: consumption

Some partially rational voices.

Good:

"While presidential candidates natter about health reforms that focus on insuring more Americans, a quiet but potentially very disruptive shift in defining the problem is under way in Washington."

Better:

"The new hypothesis would focus instead on volume. If less were done, cost pressures would ease. Fewer tests and operations would force spending down."

Even better:

"There's little we can do quickly about the demographic pattern, but consumption patterns are more amenable to change. Simply find out what works, Mr. Orszag argues, and make that the norm. Then stop doing all the things that don't work, increase costs and put patients at risk."

Best:

Stop paying for overweight/obesity, as they are not medical conditions, and make the overfat contribute to/pay for their diseases of choice.

Stop those who are preventing the fat from succeeding at weight loss.

Stop the bad weight loss advice.

See here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here, for starters.

Fit and fat, unite to fight.

Women With Osteoporosis, Previous Vertebral Fracture Have Increased Long-Term Risk For New Fracture

Fitness is a good way to prevent osteoporosis and the fractures subsequent to osteoporosis and the disabilities subsequent to the fractures.

"Over a 15 year period, women with low bone mineral density and a previous vertebral fracture had an increased risk of a new vertebral fracture compared to women with normal bone mineral density and no previous fracture..."

Give fitness a shot.

Elderly Adhere To Exercise Program, Improve Physical Function

Who could have predicted this without funding yet another study?

"Elderly adults at risk for physical disabilities are able to adhere to a regular program of moderate exercise for one year, a recent study of 213 men and women suggests...the authors observed that improvement in physical function was related to the participants' ability to adhere to the physical activity regimen."

Money well spent.

Not.

Mediterranean Diet Also Beneficial in US Populations

Hey, everybody! (fat people, too) Start smoking!

"The largest study to evaluate the Mediterranean diet and mortality in a US population has found that adherence to such a diet reduces deaths..

The researchers found that the diet appears to be particularly beneficial among smokers but that it was not really helpful among obese subjects who had never smoked."

Interesting diet.

Do any diet you want, preferably one without smoking. Just watch your Calories.

Walking packs huge health punch, study confirms

Insane.

"A brisk 30-minute walk 6 days a week is enough to trim waistlines and cut the risk of metabolic syndrome -- an increasingly common condition that is linked to obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, a new study indicates. 'Our study shows that you'll benefit even if you don't make any dietary changes,' study leader Johanna L. Johnson, a clinical researcher at Duke University Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina, said in a statement."

It shows nothing of the sort.

In fact, walking for weight loss will only work not "even if you don't make any dietary changes," but ONLY "if you don't make any dietary changes."

Except Calorie intake reduction, which if you were able to do this, you would not need to spend 3 hours per week walking.

Exercise is and remains a terribly inefficient way to lose weight.

Plus, their data is clearly suspect.

"... the inactive control group gained an average of about one pound and a half-inch around the waist. 'That may not sound like much, but that's just 6 months. Over a decade, that's an additional 20 pounds and 10 inches at the belt line,' noted Duke cardiologist Dr. William E. Kraus, the study's principal investigator."

Do you really believe that your usual and customary fat person will add a full 1/2 inch to his or her waist by gaining merely one pound?

"'The results of our study,' he added, 'underscore what we have known for a long time.'"

Yeah. That researchers in the overweight/obesity game are full of it.

Lack of sleep linked to obesity risk

This says it all:

"It's not clear if the sleep loss was actually a cause of the weight problems in these study patients."

Only eating more Calories than you burn leads to overweight/obesity.

How much or how little sleep you get makes no difference in the absence of more Calories in than out.

Period.

Slimming Surgery Increases Fivefold In Five Years, And Is Lowering Mortality

It is not "slimming surgery." It is malpractice.

"The worldwide obesity epidemic has increased the number of bariatric (slimming) surgical procedures more than fivefold within five years in most developed countries..."

Untrue.

It is not "the worldwide obesity epidemic has increased the number of bariatric (slimming) surgical procedures more than fivefold."

It is the willingness of corrupt sick care systems and practitioners to victimize patients and the rest of society with their deceptive, costly and harmful interventions.

"They conclude: 'In summary, there is good evidence to show that bariatric surgery is more effective than non-surgical approaches in the therapy of morbid obesity.'"

That makes sense since "non-surgical approaches" are intended to fail by design. See here, here, here and here.

Fundamental Discovery By Einstein Researchers Reveals How Fat Is Stored In Cells

These folks are no Einsteins.

"In discovering the genes responsible for storing fat in cells, scientists at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University have answered one of biology's most fundamental questions."

Trash.

Fat is stored in cells when you eat more Calories than you burn.

That is the sum total of the news you can use.

The rest is a ruse.

"Their findings, which appear in the December 17 to 21 "Early Edition" online issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, could lead to new strategies for treating obesity and the diseases associated with it. "

More crap.

The old strategy, which is the only worthwhile and safe strategy, is to eat fewer Calories than you burn.

This strategy is the hook used by the opportunistic to get more money for their research.

Report sees 7.6 million global 2007 cancer deaths

As you sow, so shall you reap (grimly).

"Cancer's burden is on the rise in developing countries as deaths from infectious diseases and child mortality fall and more people live longer, American Cancer Society epidemiologist Ahmedin Jemal said in a telephone interview. Cancer is more common as people get older, Jemal noted.

Cancer also is increasing in developing countries as people embrace habits linked to cancer such as smoking and fattier diets, Jemal said."

Bon appetit.

First Transgenic Kids With The Human Lactoferrin Gene

Watch your newborns suck on mouse teats. Now that's entertainment!

"Human beings consume lactoferrin with breast milk since the very birth. Lactoferrin protects the baby from bacteria and viruses until the infant's own immunological protection mechanism is formed. Since not all mothers have milk nowadays, human lactoferrin addition into the artificial feeding mixtures will assist in health care of new-born children...

Unfortunately, a woman's organism produces only 4-5 grams of lactoferrin per liter of milk, besides, donor milk can be infected by HIV or other dangerous viruses...

The idea of getting lactoferrin from the milk of transgenic animals awoke our interest about ten years ago. We started our experiments with genetic construction, made great progress, after which we received transgenic mice. As a result of lengthy and laborious efforts with more than 5,000 transgenic mice, it was ascertained that the transgene was inherited by posterity, and the lactoferrin concentration is several times higher than that in the feminine breast milk. The 'record-holder' mice produced up to 40 grams of human lactoferrin per liter of their milk..."

If their research is as good as the English of their press release, what is there to worry about?

Good suck, er, luck.

U.S. panel says cold medicines work

Hey fat people, do you really think that you want their surgeries and drugs when the experts cannot even agree on the simple stuff?

"Over-the-counter cold medicines made with phenylephrine appear effective for relieving nasal congestion, a U.S. advisory panel said on Friday...

The panel ruled after hearing from researchers who said there was no evidence that 10 milligrams of phenylephrine provided any benefit."

Get fit. And keep yourselves safe.

Short Sleep Times In Patients With Chronic Medical Diagnoses Are Associated With An Increased Risk Of Obesity - JCSM

Now I wonder how the he American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) could possibly benefit from this research. Hmm...

"A study published in the December 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) demonstrates an association between short sleep times and obesity in patients with chronic medical problems...

According to the results, subjects with short sleep times (less than seven hours) had a significantly increased likelihood of obesity defined by a body mass index greater than 30 kg/meters2 when compared to the reference group of eight to nine hours. There was a U-shaped relationship between obesity and sleep time in women indicating that women who had both short and long sleep times were more likely to be obese. This relationship was not present in men. Other factors predicting obesity in these clinic patients included young age (18 to 49 years), not smoking, drinking alcohol, hypertension, diabetes, and sleep apnea."

Interestingly, there was apparently no relationship between being fat and consuming too many Calories.

Some scientists, eh?

"'Our study demonstrates that short sleep times have an association with obesity in adults with chronic medical problems and that chronic disease and attendant therapies and/or changes in physical activities do not obscure this relationship,' said Kenneth Nugent, MD, of Texas Tech University, lead author of the study. 'This study suggests that adults should sleep eight to nine hours per night to maintain optimal weight. Whether or not manipulating sleep time in adults will prevent additional weight gain or facilitate weight loss is unclear. This question will require therapeutic trials in which sleep hygiene is addressed during weight loss studies.'"

Their study demonstrates that they are morons.

Nothing more, nothing less.

Give them more money for research if you are one, too.

Count me out.

Transtheoretical Model Published In The JCSM May Help To Identify OSA Patients' Level Of Intention To Exercise

Technobabble alert! Words, like "transtheoretical," are used to con you.

"Research has shown a strong relationship between weight and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Your neck gets thicker as you gain weight. This increases the level of fat in the back of the throat, making your airway more likely to be blocked. Because exercise reduces body weight, it has been suggested as a potential intervention for mild to moderate OSA. In an effort to answer the question as to how ready OSA patients are to engage in exercise, a study published in the December 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine (JCSM) features the Stages of Change, a construct of the Transtheoretical Model (TTM) of behavior change."

"Exercise" is a clear way to fail at reducing body weight.

"According to Dr. Smith, standard medical approaches to managing OSA, such as continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), can be effective for patients with moderate to severe disease. However, for patients with mild sleep apnea, for those who have trouble using CPAP, or for those who would like to take charge of their own health, increasing exercise and reducing body mass may be one practical route, added Dr. Smith."

Not in a million years.

Dad's parenting style tied to child's weight

Okay. So now what?

"Preschool age children may be more likely to have a higher body mass index -- an indicator of being overweight or obese -- when their fathers are either permissive or disengaged as parents, study findings suggest."

Now the "helpful" part.

"Summing up, the researchers remind parents that warm, firm, and authoritative parenting is known to be associated with the best child outcomes."

Whatever that means.

Useless.

Democratic Presidential Candidates Agree on Expansion of Health Insurance During Last Debate in Iowa

A confederacy of dunces. Powerful dunces. Dunces who will kill us as they drive us broke.

"Six Democratic presidential candidates on Thursday during a debate in Johnston, Iowa, sponsored by the Des Moines Register and Iowa Public Television discussed health care and other issues, the New York Times reports (Healy/Zeleny, New York Times, 12/14). According to the Washington Post, the candidates "found general agreement by promising" that they would expand health insurance to all U.S. residents (Kornblut/Balz, Washington Post, 12/14)."

This is the one thing that should not be done, unless coverage is limited which I have yet to hear is in the offing.

What must occur is the opposite.

More funding of sick care will never improve health. They are two separate concepts.

What will work is more responsibility placed on individuals to improve their own health so the sick care industry can be more effective.

"Former Sen. John Edwards (N.C.) said that previous efforts to expand health insurance to all residents have failed because 'we have a small group of entrenched interests, corporate powers, corporate greed, the wealthiest people in America, who are controlling what's happening in the democracy.' Edwards added, "And we have to take it back" (Beaumont, Des Moines Register, 12/14)."

Indeed we do.

They are called politicians. (This is a non-partisan post. It is just that the article was about Democrats. There is no implication here that they have a stranglehold on stupid.)

Fight back before they kill us all.

Health Care Costs Will 'Consume' U.S. Economy, CBO Director Says

Be fat. Be proud. Be American. Be broke.

"Estimated increases in U.S. health care spending in future decades will place the federal budget on an "unsustainable path," which might "seriously harm the economy" without significant reductions in spending or increases in revenue, according to a report released on Thursday by the Congressional Budget Office, CongressDaily reports. According to the report, Medicare and Medicaid spending will increase by an estimated 500% growth over the next 75 years (Kreisher, CongressDaily, 12/13)."

Stop wasting resources on the irresponsible.

Get involved now before it is too late.

Weight Loss Surgery Up Fivefold And Saving Lives Say Scientists

Giving malpractice a voice, and disguising it to sound friendly. Clearly, shame is not in the repertoire of the sick care industry's consciousness.

"According to the American Society for Bariatric Surgery (ASBS), the number of Americans having weight loss surgery has increased from around 16,000 in the early 1990s to more than 103,000 in 2003."

Don't fall for the scam. You do not have to. See here, here, here, here and here.

Budgeting Calories Might Help Take Off Unwanted Pounds

The suggestions of an idiot.

"If most of us could budget our calories like we budget our money, we would have a much better chance of staying in good shape."

Here's how we budget our money:

"The average American household with at least one credit card has nearly $9,200 in credit card debt, according to CardWeb.com, and the average interest rate runs in the mid- to high teens at any given time." (here is another point of view)

Apparently we do "budget our calories like we budget our money."

If you really want to understand the costs of overeating and why diet advice, diet books, diet programs, diet foods and diet products will make you poor, see here.

"'The vast majority of us have a New Year's resolution of losing weight, but few of us stick to any diet plan past the month of January,' Brewton said. 'This is a refreshing new way to look at eating healthy and staying healthy in the new year.'"

Few stick to diet plans for these reasons, see here and here.

Brewton's way is not "refreshing."

It is idiotic.

Obesity Epidemic Needs A Social Approach Urge Scientists

Battle royale of the excusinators!

In this corner, the social excusinators. In the others, the genetic, hormonal, cultural, infectious, etc., excusinators.

And while they battle it out, the public loses.

"Friel and colleagues discuss a range of political, economic and social pressures, including commerce, trade, living and working conditions, that differ among countries and affect people's behaviour, their weight, and ultimately, their health, in different ways. They consider, for instance, the impact of food subsidies, advertising, urban planning, social structure, and employment.

They suggest that food subsidies have distorted food supplies so that the less healthy foods, for instance those high in saturated fats, are favoured over healthier options, and global companies have flooded the market with cheap, energy dense food, devoid of nutritional value. Supermarket bulk purchasing and supersized portions are now the norm, replacing the habit of making smaller purchases that used to take place at family run stores."

Of course, they talk about everything except the real reason, too many Calories in than out, and the culpability of the true offenders:

Governments
Government Agencies
Researchers (like these)
Dietitians
Trainers
Nutritionists
The Media
Diet Experts
Diet Gurus
Big Pharma
Oprah, Barbara Walters and other media giants (literally and figuratively)
The Sick Care Industry (docs, medical centers, etc.)
The Fat People Rescue Industry
Fat People, themselves

They also repeat the banal canard of "healthy" foods:

"In both high income and the "transitioning countries", wrote the authors, energy density and fat intake have gone up, and although on average food prices have gone down, in the richer countries the healthier foods generally cost more than the less healthy ones."

These, as well as most of the other fat researchers can be easily cured of their own overweight/obesity by giving themselves an enema.

The weight they will lose will put their BMIs well below 18.5.

Can junk food ever really be good for you?

More of the con is on.

"At a time when Americans are struggling with obesity and not eating enough vegetables, some major food marketers claim they have an answer. Keen to tap into consumer interest in healthier fare, companies are rolling out snacks sprinkled with what they say are real servings of fruits and veggies.

But nutrition experts say you shouldn't be fooled by their better-for-you promises."

Forget the experts. They will kill you faster than the food.

Just remember it is all about Calories in and Calories out.

Then you will have a chance of succeeding. See here, here, here and here.

NIH Advisory Panel on Incontinence Cites Need for Weight Loss and Exercise

The blind got lucky for a while there. They were spared the sight of Oprahs with poor dentition.

Alas, their luck has run out.

Now they have to smell them.

"Along with the aging of the Baby Boomers will be an increase in the prevalence of fecal and urinary incontinence, but weight loss and exercise can help reverse the conditions, found a panel of NIH advisers.

Fecal and urinary incontinence affect more than one-fourth of all Americans during their lives, said the 15-member independent advisory panel, chaired by C. Seth Landefeld, M.D., of the University of California at San Francisco, after a three-day State-of-the-Science conference."

They're everywhere! They're everywhere!

"The panel estimated that 10% of community-dwelling adults have both conditions. But among nursing home residents with chronic diseases the prevalence is probably closer to 40%."

So get fit, so you don't smell like sh*t. (Note that fat people need special tools and methods to clean themselves. Sorta like the elephants at the zoo or Oprah.)

Call for rethink in obesity fight

First, it is not "rethink." It is start thinking.

Second, their rethink will also fail with certainty.

True:

"Obesity cannot be tackled by just encouraging healthier eating and more exercise, health experts say."

False:

"The experts, led by a London-based academic, say governments should adopt more sophisticated approaches.

Work conditions, food subsidies, town planning and advert restrictions are all key, the experts wrote in the British Medical Journal."

Clever. Since people cannot do simple, let's recommend "sophisticated."

Too bad that the experts are too stupid to even know what sophisticated even looks like.

What will work is allowing people the opportunity to live with the consequences of their actions.

And giving them the true way to lose weight successfully without killing them in the process. See here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Anything else is doomed to fail.

By the way, look at this:

"The findings mirror the conclusions of the recent government-backed Foresight report in the UK, which said societal issues were also to blame for rising obesity levels.

These experts, led by a University College London academic, agreed, saying tackling obesity was far more complex than just encouraging healthy eating and more exercise."

Notice not a peep about genetics, hormones, bacteria, viruses, etc.

Are these experts now saying that none of that stuff is real? If not, then how will their silly plan work anyway if they do not confront their other poltergeists?

Put the kibosh on the efforts to harm the fit in order to further entitle the fat and help all of us, fat and fit, fight the powers that are misleading us to failure, illness, suffering and national bankruptcy. (See here, here and here.)

Yoga alone likely not enough to keep heart healthy

Clearly true. Clearly predictable if you know squat about fitness. Clearly a squandering of resources.

"Yoga...probably won't give you the workout you need to keep your cardiovascular system in shape, a new study shows."

"Probably"?

It is a certainty.

More waste from stupidity.

This is a gross embarrassment.

Don't fall into the trap. Get fit. What works is known and will not change as the foundational principles are immutable. See here, here, here, and here.

No Extra Benefit Found from Surgery for Chronic Knee Pain

Listen up fat people. Think more than twice about the malpractice known as bariatric surgery.

Here is another proven useless surgery that is far less invasive.

"For relief of chronic patellofemoral pain syndrome, eight weeks of home exercise was just as effective as arthroscopic surgery plus the exercise, researchers found in a randomized trial here."

More invasive surgeries have more complications.

And if you think that this knee surgery will help with your painful, overloaded joints, also, think again.

Like treating overfatness, surgery is not the answer.

Get fit. Get better.

U.S. cholesterol average is ideal at 199

A Pyrrhic victory.

"Americans may be too fat, but at least their cholesterol is low. For the first time in nearly 50 years, the average cholesterol level for U.S. adults is in the ideal range, the government reported Wednesday."

How do we do it?

"The growing use of cholesterol-lowering pills in middle-aged and older people is believed to be a key reason for the improvement, experts said. When the survey began in 1960, the average cholesterol was at 222.

While Americans have gotten much heavier since then, they've been able to lower their cholesterol with powerful drugs that carry few if any side effects. High cholesterol can clog arteries and lead to heart disease."

How did we do it?

"Doctors' groups have increasingly recommended more aggressive use of these drugs in patients seen to be at risk from heart disease. And screening has become common — two-thirds of men and three-fourths of women had been screened for high cholesterol in the previous five years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The result? Cholesterol medications are the top-selling class of U.S. drugs, and sales have grown steadily from about $13 billion in 2002 to nearly $22 billion in 2006, according to IMS Health, a Connecticut-based consulting company that monitors pharmaceutical sales.

'There's been an explosion in the use of these medications, and appropriately so in the majority of cases,' said Dr. Elizabeth Jackson, a preventive cardiologist at the University of Michigan Medical Center."

An "explosion" two-fer! Ka-boom and Ka-ching!

The reality without drugs?

"'If you take away the people on medication, I don't think there's been as much of a meaningful improvement as we would like,' he said."

Congrats to us! We know how to win.

Drugs.

Another Study Finds Heart Risks in a Diabetes Drug

Oops redux.

And you fat Type 2-ers, you expect the drugs to save you.

Expect again.

"An independent analysis of thousands of older people with diabetes found that those treated with the widely used drug Avandia had significantly elevated risks of heart attack and death.

The finding, published on Tuesday in The Journal of the American Medical Association, could rekindle the debate about whether Avandia, a controversial treatment for Type 2 diabetes, should remain on the market. Earlier studies drew similar links between Avandia and cardiac risks.

The new study concludes that Avandia users had a 60 percent increased risk of heart failure, a 40 percent increased risk of heart attacks and a 30 percent increased risk of death compared with patients taking other oral diabetes medicines.

'Our study suggests that at least in this high-risk population, the harms of the drug may outweigh the benefits,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Lorraine L. Lipscombe of the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences in Toronto, an independent nonprofit group that evaluates treatments."

R.I.P. Or get fit.

Gaps remain in women's knowledge of cancer

Sad as it may be, it is nothing compared to the gaps that remain in the experts' knowledge of fitness.

FDA weighs over-counter cholesterol drug

Statins! Get your statins!

"Merck says selling a low dose of this long-used medication on drugstore shelves, next to the aspirin, could get millions of people at moderate risk of heart disease important treatment that they otherwise may miss."

It may also be placed close to the candy bars, chips, etc.

There is one advantage to this scheme.

If it becomes an out-of-pocket expense for fat folk who have been bleeding the rest of us poor with their fat people diet drug habits, then it is arguably worth it. (advantage lost, FDA rejected OTC status for this drug)

Still, the better approach is to get fit.

In fact, why don't all of you unfit and overweight folk take a moratorium from supporting the people at Merck who want to see you and keep you sick and visit here, here, here, here, here, and here where I want to see you well.

"Health is a function of participation. Participation is a function of fitness." (tm)

Obesity hurts a woman's chances of conception

So does ugly. Frequently the two track each other. Funny how that works.

"Obesity decreases the chances that a woman will get pregnant, and the more obese she is, the worse her prospects of conception, Dutch researchers said on Tuesday...

However, the researchers did not track the timing and frequency of sexual intercourse, which may have affected the results. Some studies have shown that obesity is linked with less frequent sex and reduced sexual desire."

"Reduced sexual desire"? Now how is that possible?

We need an answer. Now. Who are you going to call? Stedman.

The following is clearly mistaken and clearly self-serving:

"The researchers said the finding should be tested in further studies, especially given the rising rates of obesity.

'Owing to the fact that more women of child bearing age are becoming overweight and obese, this is a worrying finding,' they wrote."

It would be even more worrisome if they had more children since they would be almost certainly condemned to nutritional child abuse.

But when you are a fatness researcher you need to call for more research no matter who is hurt so long as you can make your money.

More activity linked with less body fat in girls

Duh.

Probably:

"Middle school girls who are more physically active have a lower percentage of body fat than their counterparts with lower activity levels, according to new study findings."

Probably not:

"'An additional 11 minutes of brisk walking or similar activity as girls age from the sixth to eighth grade appears to attenuate increased body fat,' lead author Dr. June Stevens told Reuters Health."

Obesity 'raises gum disease risk'

Enough with the inconveniences of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, hypertension and cancer. This should awaken the fat giant within and without.

Now things are getting serious.

We are talking periodontal disease!

"The rise in obesity may be going hand-in-hand with increases in severe gum disease, US research suggests."

Let us plead with the government to rescue fat people by adding dental coverage to their entitlements.

The thought of a bovine person is bad enough.

But the mental image of edentulous Oprah-like entities will send men, women and children screaming into the night.

God save us.

More Plant Based and Less Dairy Foods for American WIC National Nutrition Program

Neutral news, good news and bad news.

Neutral news:

"The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) said last week it is going to increase the amount of plant based (whole grains, vegetables, and fruit) foods and decrease the amount of dairy foods (milk, eggs, and cheese) in the country's Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC), following the recommendations of the Institute of Medicine and bringing it in line with current federal dietary guidelines."

This, of course, does nothing substantial. WICcans can still buy high fat dairy and other high fat, high Calorie products. (The IOM is worse than useless when it comes to nutrition, overweight and obesity.)

Good news:

"More than 8 million Americans receive services from the WIC every month, including 4 million children, 2 million infants, and nearly 2 million women."

At least some attempt is being made to control how our tax dollars are being spent.

It's about time.

"The new provision, the first major change since the inception of the WIC more than 30 years ago, must be in place across the board by August 2009, said the USDA."

And WIC is supposed to cover some fat people.

Bad news:

WIC still wrongly assumes overweight to be a "medically-based risk" and that "failure to meet the dietary guidelines" is a problem.

Too bad. More good could have come from this.

Cancer Risks From Eating Red And Processed Meat

Playing both sides against the middle - Pigs vs. Cows.

"New findings provide evidence that people who eat a lot of red and processed meats have greater risk of developing bowel and lung cancer than people who eat small quantities."

Maybe. Maybe not.

"The researchers allowed for factors such as smoking that might have affected cancer incidence, but it remains possible that other life-style factors may have had an influence."

Now for the fun part - the cows vs. pigs cage match.

"The study's definitions of red meat and processed meat overlapped; bacon and ham, for example, were included in both categories. Thus, exactly which type of meat causes which type of cancer remains unclear."

Are you ready to rumble?

Products with good bacteria get popular

Moron madness.

"Bugs in baby food? Microbes in your milkshake? Relax, this is not the latest tainted food scare — it's a growing trend in foods designed to boost health, not make you sick.

These products contain probiotics, or "friendly" bacteria similar to those found in the human digestive system."

Want to eat "bacteria similar to those found in the human digestive system"?

It is cheaper to eat your own crap than buy theirs.

And you can eat the SAME, not similar, "bacteria...to those found in the human digestive system."

Why settle for ersatz when you can have the real thing?

How good are these products?

"In the meantime, the market is ahead of the science. It's all part of a burgeoning effort to capitalize on an obsession with health foods. Probiotics are already popular in Europe, Asia and South America."

"...the market is ahead of the science." This means there is no proof.

"And there are 'prebiotics,' too, which contain fiber and other nutrients that feed probiotic bacteria."

And other bacteria, too.

"So far this year, more than 150 probiotic and prebiotic commercial food products have been introduced in the U.S., compared with about 100 last year and just 40 in 2005, said Tom Vierhile of Datamonitor, a market research firm.

'It is definitely a growing trend,' Vierhile said."

So are overweight, obesity and stupid.

Then there is the testimonial of a moron "professional."

"Holly Maloney, a nutrition instructor at Chicago's Kendall College, eats new probiotic nutrition bars that claim to help digestion and the immune system. She's also a longtime fan of yogurt and kefir, a probiotic-containing fermented milk drink.

'It just makes me feel good,' Maloney, 32, said of the products. 'If I have a few days where I don't have it, I don't feel right.'"

There's "proof" for you.

Maybe if Holly were a fan of self-mutilation and had a nipple ring, she would not "feel right" if it were removed. She is clearly an actively involved participant in self-stupefication.

"Even without all the answers from science, probiotics are a multibillion-dollar global industry. In the United States alone, retail sales of probiotic-containing foods and supplements totaled an estimated at $764 million in 2005 and are projected to reach $1 billion in 2010, according to market research firm BCC Research."

Remember that 98% of the population is stupider than the top 2%.

P.T. Barnum would be proud every minute. (possibly others would be proud)

Study: Monthly fasting may help heart

This one is so stupid, even the researchers agree.

"Mormons have less heart disease — something doctors have long chalked up to their religion's ban on smoking. New research suggests that another of their "clean living" habits also may be helping their hearts: fasting for one day each month.

A study in Utah, where the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is based, found that people who skipped meals once a month were about 40 percent less likely to be diagnosed with clogged arteries than those who did not regularly fast.

People did not have to "get religion" to benefit: non-Mormons who regularly took breaks from food also were less likely to have clogged arteries, scientists found.

They concede that their study is far from proof that periodic fasting is good for anyone, but said the benefit they observed poses a theory that deserves further testing.

'It might suggest these are people who just control eating habits better,' and that this discipline extends to other areas of their lives that improves their health..."

Duh.

High blood pressure ups risk of mental decline

A chicken or egg situation for fat people.

"People with a history of hypertension (high blood pressure) appear to be at increased risk of developing mild cognitive impairment, a condition that involves difficulties with thinking and learning, investigators at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons report."

Fat people have an increased incidence of hypertension.

Fat happens over time, it is not a sudden development.

It is clear that fat people have a real cognitive impairment.

They either do not notice they are blimpifying or they are too stupid to stop.

Maybe once there, at fat and hypertensive, they get even stupider.

"Preventing and treating hypertension may have an important impact in lowering the risk of cognitive impairment," the investigators conclude.

A great way to inspire preventive behavior and get them "thinking and learning" is to cut off the flow of money spent on rescuing fat people from themselves while harming the rest of us.

Computer phone calls get people exercising

Useless.

"Telephone calls, whether from a person or a computer, may help motivate couch potatoes to get some exercise, new research suggests.

In a study of sedentary adults age 55 and up, researchers found that those who received periodic advice and encouragement over the phone were able to boost their exercise levels over one year. And it didn't matter whether the advice came from a human or a computer. >

The findings suggest that automated phone systems could offer a cost-efficient way to reach the legions of inactive Americans, according to the researchers."

Exercise is inefficient, almost universally ineffective and even in the context of this study there are no data to suggest that it made any difference in fitness. (See here, here and here.)

Also:

"After one year, men and women in the automated-phone group were averaging 157 minutes of exercise per week; those who spoke with a real person were getting an average of 178 minutes. Going into the study, the goal had been to get people exercising for 150 minutes per week -- or 30 minutes per day, five days per week."

Sez who? There was no veracity check apparently. Only the word of the participants.

Good physical functioning tied to lower stroke risk

It's true: "Fitness is the only REAL preventive medicine." (tm)

"Middle-aged and older adults who manage to stay agile may be less likely to suffer a stroke than their less-nimble peers, researchers reported Monday.

In a study of more than 13,000 men and women, British researchers found that those who reported good physical functioning at the study's start -- having little problem climbing stairs or carrying groceries, for instance -- were less likely to have a stroke over the next seven years."

Get fit. (See here, here, here, and here)

Osteoporosis 'link to depression'

Another everything causes something article.

"Depression may increase the risk of the bone disorder osteoporosis in premenopausal women, a study suggests.

A US study found 17% of depressed women but just 2% of those not depressed, had thinner bone in a part of the hip."

But one thing does not cause osteoporosis, depression, overweight, obesity, overfatness, etc.

Plus, it leads to all things good or better:

Fitness.

Overweight asthmatics have more hospital admissions

Paying for fat people's diseases of choice is enough to take the breaths away from fit people.

"Excess pounds may increase the likelihood of being hospitalized for a severe asthma attack, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among more than 400 patients who were seen in the emergency department for an asthma attack, those who were overweight or obese tended to have longer emergency department stays and were more likely to be admitted to the hospital."

If fat asthmatics got fit we and they would be better off.

Stop underwriting irresponsible behavior.

Weight gain hurts breast cancer survival

There are better ways to lose weight than mastectomy.

"Breast cancer patients might have a powerful incentive to avoid gaining weight: better odds of surviving the disease. New research suggests that for every 11 pounds a woman gains after being diagnosed with breast cancer, the chances of it proving fatal go up 14 percent.

The study is by no means definitive, but gives the strongest evidence yet that controlling weight — a good idea anytime in life — may be especially important after breast cancer...

'It's a large study, it was a very well-conducted study at several centers in the United States' by well-known researchers on this topic, said Joanne Dorgan, a breast cancer scientist at Fox Chase Cancer Center in Philadelphia."

Do yourself a favor.

It is bad enough having breast cancer.

Why compound matters?

And if you are unwilling to do it for yourself, think of your family.

But don't fall for the exercise excuse. It is a con.

"Doctors have long known that women who are overweight when they are diagnosed with breast cancer have poorer prospects.

'They're more likely to relapse and to die of their cancer than women who are thinner,' Dorgan said.

Previous research found that women who exercised after being diagnosed with breast cancer cut their chance of dying by as much as one-half, depending on how much exercise they did.

However, it is very common for women to gain weight after being diagnosed with breast cancer. One reason may be that chemotherapy can leave them tired and ill so they don't feel like exercising, Dorgan said."

It is always more efficient to control weight by Calories in than Calories out.

Your life is worth more than a lame, and deadly, excuse.

Body image concerns increasing among teen boys

Good news with a typical moron spin.

"It's not just teenage girls who worry about their body image and weight. A new study suggests that teenage boys are also increasingly worried about how they look and how much they weigh and many are practicing weight control measures, putting them at increased risk for eating disorders."

As if being a fat pig teen boy (or girl) is not already evidence of an "eating disorder."

"Teen boys similarly showed an increasing trend in their use of exercise for weight control over the 10-year period. Hispanic boys were the most likely to practice weight control, followed by black, then white boys.

The results, the researchers say, add to the growing evidence that boys and men, regardless of ethnicity, are at risk for developing harmful weight control behaviors."

"Practicing weight control" is a harmful behavior according to these morons.

It is clearly past the time for jettisoning this type of stupidity.

"Future studies need to investigate possible explanations for the different weight control practices among different ethnic groups of teenagers, as well as the increasing trend of weight control practices among male adolescents, the investigators conclude."

And past time to shut-off the research dollars spigot.

States Beginning to Experience Tighter Fiscal Conditions According to Latest Report

Keep eating your way to our national and your local sick care bankruptcy.

"Although states experienced stable finances in 2007, overall revenue growth has slowed and tighter fiscal conditions are expected in 2008, according to the National Governors Association (NGA) and the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO)...

States’ single largest expenditure for fiscal 2007 was health care, which accounts for nearly one-third of total state spending. Medicaid alone comprises about 22 percent of total state spending, and with a projected spending growth rate of 8 percent annually for the next decade, the program will continue to strain state budgets."

Demand a stop to the craziness.

Rx for Health Care: Pain

It is entirely possible that, unlike the rest of the sick care industry observers, this guy is not insane.

Unfortunately, his "fixes" are off-target. Perhaps he will smarten up.

For sane fixes, see here.

"We need to have a candid debate about health care in 2008, but the odds are against it. The fact that covering the 47 million uninsured already looms as the centerpiece of this debate is a warning sign that it won't be serious. We're told that the uninsured are our biggest health-care problem, but they aren't. Runaway health spending is. Although politicians pay lip service to that, what they really enjoy is increasing spending...

It's understandable because expanding benefits is so much more politically rewarding than trying to control them...

People need to see and feel health costs."

Yeah. If they can feel through all that flab.

Calcium a Dud for Averting Hip Fracture

Another sacred cow-lcium bites the dust?

"Neither calcium from food nor from supplements prevented hip fractures in men and women, and supplements may even increase the fracture risk, investigators found."

Better reconsider how much we really know about "healthy" food, supplements, etc.

Try real fitness instead. (See here, here, here, here, here, and here)

Fighting Diseases Of Aging By Wasting Energy

Global warming, the salvation of the fat.

"By making the skeletal muscles of mice use energy less efficiently, researchers report in the December issue of Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, that they have delayed the animals' deaths and their development of age-related diseases, including vascular disease, obesity, and one form of cancer. Those health benefits, driven by an increased metabolic rate, appear to come without any direct influence on the aging process itself, according to the researchers...

'When you make the mitochondria inefficient, the muscles burn more calories,' a metabolic increase that could be at least a partial substitute for exercise, said Clay Semenkovich of Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. 'There are a couple of ways to treat obesity and related diseases,' he continued. 'You can eat less, but that's unpopular, or you could eat what you want as these animals did and introduce an altered physiology. It's a fundamentally different way of addressing the problem.'"

Global warming will cause areas that are now dry to become under water.

Water will offer resistance to movement.

This will burn more Calories. In effect, making muscles less efficient.

Problem remains getting fat people to move.

The researchers did not address this.

"Given the difficulty of validating strategies to increase life span in humans and the possible dissociation between aging and age-related diseases, the researchers said, identifying a simple intervention affecting several age-related diseases is an attractive approach to decreasing the morbidity of growing old. They suspected that treatments designed to alter the efficiency of mitochondrial respiration might be one way to accomplish this."

"Simple intervention"?

They just have not researched it well enough to understand how it will harm you.

And it will.

The simplest and most effective interventions:

Lose weight
Stop paying to rescue fat people

Guaranteed results.

Chronic Disease Interventions Work And Are Cost Effective

Cost effective for Big Pharma and the sick care industry.

"Low income, developing, and developed countries have shown that chronic disease interventions, such as...multidrug regimens for high-risk cardiovascular disease patients are cost effective and should be increased, according to Dr Thomas Gaziano, Brigham & Women's Hospital, Harvard Program for Health Division Science, Boston, MA, USA, and team, authors of the second paper in The Lancet's Chronic Diseases Series."

You decide.

One In Ten Suffers Medical Error, UK

And there is much more malpractice here in the USA than gets reported.

So, fat people, with your diseases of choice, think twice before you look to sick care for your salvation.

Of course, if you were capable of thinking twice before doing something, you might have thought twice before overfilling your mouths and bellies.

Myth of Vitamin E Benefits Perpetuated in Peer-Reviewed Journals

An homage to Sonny and Cher's , "And the Beat Goes On"

"Do you ever wonder
That to win, somebody's got to lose...

And the myth goes on...
And the myth goes on you'd better believe it
Still moving strong on and on"

You lose.

Here's the truth about your myth and how it is perpetuated by "cutting edge" ignoramuses:

"Although randomized clinical trials have discredited any purported cardiovascular benefits of vitamin E, peer-reviewed medical journals keep citing old disproved epidemiologic findings, found researchers here...

They said the same pattern -- citing observational findings from epidemiologic studies that have been solidly countered by randomized trials -- also continued for studies of beta-carotene and estrogen.

This trend wastes time, effort, and money and can 'also perpetuate a literature of false impressions that can affect future scientific efforts by providing a misleading starting base,' said Dr. Ioannidis and colleagues. They did not cite the offending journals by name."

Who you gonna believe?

Try here, here, here, here, here, and here.

How long has this been going on?

Years.

"Two articles touting the benefits of vitamin E were published in 1993, but the HOPE trial, which was published in 2000, found that vitamin E did not reduce the risk of cardiovascular events...

Clinical trials published in 1994 and 1996 found no evidence that beta-carotene supplements prevent cancer, but 10 of 16 articles published in 2006 cited a 1981 review of epidemiology research, which suggested the antioxidant may help reduce the risk of developing the disease."

Just like with weight loss, you've been duped. See here and here.

Here's another homage.

To Gene Chandler's "Duke of Earl."

"Duped, Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped
Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped
Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped
Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped

Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped
Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped
Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped
Duped, Duped, You’ve been duped"

Overweight kids prone to heart disease later on

More real child abuse.

"As a child's weight increases, so does their risk of having heart disease as an adult, according to a report in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Stop Nutritional Child Abuse.

Stop killing the children.

Go here (the Fit To Parent (tm) Program) and here.

Sharp increases in child obesity foreseen: studies

The future of child abuse is here now.

STOP Nutritional Child Abuse.

Waistline Growth On High-carb Diets Linked To Liver Gene

Behind the times - they forgot to read the latest research.

"Experts have been warning for years that foods loaded with high-fructose corn syrup and other processed carbohydrates are making us fatter. Now, a University of Wisconsin-Madison study has uncovered the genetic basis for why this is so."

They discovered the gene that does nothing related to high-carb waistline growth, possibly.

But they will try to invade your genetics to fix the non-problem:

"Blocking SCD's action in the liver could therefore offer another means to help people lose weight, Ntambi says, especially since obese people appear to have higher levels of the enzyme than do thin people."

Who to believe?

None of them, if you are smart.

Besides nothing will increase the size of your waistline, nutritionally speaking, without more Calories in than out.

Encouraging Baby To Like Fruits And Veggies

Early child abuse alert!

"According to new research from the Monell Center, if you're breast feeding, you can provide baby with a good start by eating them yourself...

'Vegetable and fruit consumption is linked to lower risks of obesity and certain cancers,' says senior author Julie A. Mennella, PhD. 'The best predictor of how much fruits and vegetables children eat is whether they like the tastes of these foods. If we can get babies to learn to like these tastes, we can get them off to an early start of healthy eating.'"

I smell lawsuits coming.

Moms who do not eat adequate fruits and vegetables (to be determined with further research) while nursing clearly have condemned their offspring to suffering from overweight, obesity and cancer.

There is a business opportunity here for wet nurses who only eat "healthy" foods.

Tits for Tots, Inc. Let's incorporate.

Perhaps we can get surrogate breasts from abroad. (I know what you are thinking. Wet nurse breasts can only come from a broad. Not necessarily true. See below.)

Slogans?

"Healthy Tits for Healthy Tots" (tm)
"Why Do You Think We Call Them Grapefruits?" (tm)
"You Are What You Suck" (tm)
"We Don't Call Them Melons For Nothing" (tm)

And the fathers who are complicit in this heinous crime are the accomplices. After all, they should have influenced the mothers to eat their fruits and vegetables.

And if the mothers did not listen? Dads, document your attempts so you have an alibi. And prepare to explain why you did not breastfeed.

Glucose Affects Our Ability To Resist Temptation

More silliness.

"New research from a lab at Florida State University reveals that self-control takes fuel - literally...

The sugar group performed better..."

Here is the bottom line: candy bars for self-control to prevent people from overeating candy bars.

Or...

"The results as reported in the December issue of Current Directions in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggest the possibility of psychological interventions for helping people achieve greater self-control."

Therapy, e.g., drugs.

Difficult Choice: Low-Calorie Or Low Prices?

More useless research.

"High-calorie foods provide the most calories at the least cost, the researchers found in a survey of more than 370 food items at three Seattle-area supermarket chains. The lowest calorie-dense foods include fresh fruit and vegetables, while foods highest in calories include candy, pastries and other baked goods and snacks."

Small homes in the boonies can still provide good shelter, even if they are not mansions.

It is almost never a choice between cost and low Calories or eating healthily.

More excuses for irresponsible behaviors.

Obesity behind over half UK maternal birth deaths

The dangers of an obese behind.

"More than half of British mothers who died during child birth were overweight, a report found on Tuesday...

In its annual report, 'Saving Mothers' Lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer,' it found that of the almost 300 women who died during childbirth between 2003 and 2005 from pregnancy-related conditions, more than half were obese. The deaths left 520 children motherless, it added.

Obese pregnant women are more at risk of dying, suffering heart disease, miscarriage, diabetes, infections and blood clots...

About 40 percent of deaths were preventable, it added."

Get Fit to Parent (tm) before you parent.

Do it for your self, your kids and your family.