Weighing obesity surgery risks for teens

More on NIH's determination to abuse kids.

I addressed this on April 18.

If you care, tell them how you feel about this violence against and mutilation of kids.

Here's the contact info for these "investigators."

East Carolina University
Gloria Potter
Assistant to Walter J. Pories, MD
East Carolina University
Metabolic Institute
4W-48 Moyer, Blvd
Greenville, NC 27834
Telephone: (252) 744-3290
Fax: (252) 744-1709
E-mail: potterg@ecu.edu

Columbia University
Amna Daud, MD, MPH
Clinical Research Coordinator
Center for Obesity Surgery
Columbia University
161 Fort Washington Ave, Suite 620
New York, NY 10032.
Phone: (212) 342-0085
Fax: (212) 342-1996
E-mail: ad731@columbia.edu

Weill College of Medicine at Cornell University
Laura Young
Research Coordinator
Cornell University
Division of General Surgery
525 E. 68th St. Room A-921
New York, NY 10021
Phone: (212)746-5661
Fax: (212-746-8680
E-mail: lay2003@cornell.edu

Faith Ebel
Research Coordinator
The Weill College of Medicine of Cornell University
525 E. 68th Street at York Avenue
Department Of Surgery
P.O. Box 294
New York City, NY 10021
Telephone: (212) 746-5661
Fax: (212) 746-8680
E-mail: fee2002@med.cornell.edu

Neuropsychiatric Research Institution
Justin Boseck, BA
Clinical Research Assistant
University of North Dakota/Neuropsychiatric Research Institute
700 1st Avenue, P.O. Box 1415
Fargo, ND 58103
Telephone: (701) 365-4947
Fax: (701) 293-3226
E-mail: jboseck@nrifargo.com

Kathy Lancaster
Clinical Research Coordinator
University of North Dakota
Neuropsychiatric Research Institute
700 1st Avenue, PO Box 1415
Fargo, ND 58107
Telephone: (701) 365-4945
Fax: (701) 293-3226
E-mail: klancaster@nrifargo.com

Oregon Health & Science University
Stefanie Greene
Research Coordinator
Oregon Health & Science University
3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Rd BTE 223
Portland, Oregon 97239-3098
Phone: 503-494-1299
E-mail: greenes@ohsu.edu

University of California at Davis
Iselin Austrheim-Smith
Clinical Research Coordinator
University of California at Davis
2221 Stockton Blvd.
Cypress Bldg. 3rd Floor
Sacramento, CA 95817
Telephone: (916) 734-7476
Fax: (916) 734-3951
E-mail: Iselin.austrheim-smith@ucdmc.ucdavis.edu

University of Pittsburgh
William Gourash, MSN, CRNP
Clinical Research Associate
University of Pittsburgh Medical Center
Magee Women's Hospital of UPMC, Suite 5500
300 Halket Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Telephone: (412) 641-3646
Fax: (412) 641-7612
E-mail: gourashwf@upmc.edu

University of Washington
Allison Devlin, M.S.
Project Coordinator
University of Washington
1959 NE Pacific Street, Box 356410 Seattle, WA 98195-6410
Telephone: (206) 616-6148
Fax: (206) 543-8136
E-mail: adevlin@u.washington.edu

Olivia Seibenick, BS
Research Coordinator
University of Washington
1959 NE Pacific Street
Box 356410
Seattle, WA 98195-6410
Telephone: (206) 543-3163
Fax: (206) 543-8136
E-mail: olivia3@u.washington.edu

Study: Fat workers cost employers more

So, what's new about this? Nothing.

"Overweight workers cost their bosses more in injury claims than their lean colleagues, suggests a study that found the heaviest employees had twice the rate of workers' compensation claims as their fit co-workers."

As usual, the obesity experts are using reports like this to line their own pockets:

"Obesity experts said they hope the study will convince employers to invest in programs to help fight obesity."

Despite the fact that their programs do not work.

"Study co-author Dr. Truls Ostbye said the findings should encourage employers to sponsor fitness programs.

''There are many promising programs,'' Ostbye said. ''We'd like to see more research about what is truly effective'"...

"But there isn't enough good information about employer-sponsored programs that work, said John Cawley, an expert in the economics of obesity at Cornell University. Employers don't know whether paying for nutrition counseling, obesity surgery or anti-obesity drugs through health insurance makes economic sense, he said."

Hey, Ostbye, wake up! What is "truly effective" is fewer Calories in than out.

In fact, it is the only thing that is effective. Nothing else matters.

Especially the advice of these dangerous experts.

The Cardio-Free Diet

The Fact-Free Diet.

One thing is for sure, when you ignore facts, many possibilities appear to open.

Jim Karas, is a Chicago-based person who has been hawking diet advice, and products you can buy from him, for a while. His only credentials appear to be "an ABC News correspondent, celebrity trainer and fitness expert."

The "fitness expert" part is from ABC News which does not say how he developed his expertise.

He also claims, without support, that he is an expert:

"For more than 20 years as a weight loss and fitness professional, I have been working with clients one-on-one and have been leading, teaching, and training a team of the best and the brightest physical trainers in New York and Chicago. We've been in the field, identifying cutting edge research, testing it, and then bringing the best of the best information and instruction to our clients."

To be more accurate, he appears to be a slow-learner:

"After 20 years of experience, I am convinced that cardio kills."

Slow-learning is not atypical of a moron.

His new thing is this Cardio-Free Diet that took him two decades to come up with.

"Exercise physiologist Richard Weil is not convinced. 'I'm flabbergasted, I'm astonished at what I'm reading. I genuinely believe he's deluding people and he's leading them to believe information that is really not factual. I believe that the book is dangerous.'"

I don't know Weil or if he knows anything else, but on this matter he appears right on.

Karas says, "It (cardio) kills your weight loss plan, your joints, your internal organs and immune system, your body composition..."

Weil says:

"That it kills your weight-loss plan is just completely contradictory to the evidence. The evidence shows that people who keep their weight off are doing 30 minutes of walking or whatever it might be. Some are doing strength training, but the majority are not," says Weil. "There's data to show that exercise improves joint strength. And people with arthritis have fewer symptoms and things like that. Your internal organs? Which internal organ is upset by exercising?"

According to "Dr. Jennifer Mieres, a cardiologist and American Heart Association spokesperson... " "...the evidence is overwhelming...You need to do some cardio workout to change your cardiac profile to make it better, to prevent death from heart disease and stroke."

If you have been following this blog or have visited my websites, then you know I am not a cheerleader for the experts.

But even the experts can get it right occasionally.

In this case, Karas the self-proclaimed expert is wrong. The others are right.

For more nonsense, check out Karas's useless exercise routine. It is a waste.

Do yourself a favor and skip the Cardio-Free Diet.

Dieting usually fails in the long run, study finds

Another round of this nonsense; however, another expert speaks.

The article is a rehash of the flawed UCLA study mentioned on 4-14 ("Dieters put on weight in the long run: study").

This time, though, Yale's diet uber-moron, David Katz, chimes in:

“'If dieting worked, there would be a bunch of skinny people walking around,' said obesity researcher Dr. David Katz, head of Yale University’s Prevention Research Center..."

It is the experts' diet advice that does not work. Do not follow their flawed approach. It is deadly.

Scientists want to put hormones in baby food 'to beat obesity'

Insane approach alert!

Remember the people who cannot cure toenail fungus?

Well, now they want to lace baby food with hormones:

"FEEDING babies a special infant formula containing hunger-suppressing hormones could stop them getting fat later in life, researchers believe.

Scientists are currently studying the prospect of adding leptin to baby and children's foods as part of the solution to obesity."

Time to cut-off their money before it it too late.

Baby Boomers Appear to Be Less Healthy Than Parents

Multiple problems here. Some of them may even be real. Here are two likely ones.

BTW, remember: "Fitness is the only REAL preventive medicine"^tm

1. Overweight/Obesity

"Boomers are healthier in some important ways -- they are much less likely to smoke, for example -- but large surveys are consistently finding that they tend to describe themselves as less hale and hearty than their forebears did at the same age. They are more likely to report difficulty climbing stairs, getting up from a chair and doing other routine activities, as well as more chronic problems such as high cholesterol, blood pressure and diabetes...

While cautioning that the data are just starting to emerge, researchers say the findings track with several unhealthy trends, notably the obesity epidemic. Two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those extra pounds make joints wear out more quickly, boost cholesterol and blood pressure, and raise the risk of a host of debilitating health problems. And despite all those gym memberships, baby boomers tend to be less physically active than their parents and grandparents, their daily routines often dominated by desk jobs and the drive to and from work."

I already told the world how to fix this one, why expert diet advice is misdirected and must continue to fail, how the experts are killing us and our children and how to save yourself and your family while others follow the Pied Pipers of Poundage.

If you need help and are interested in living a life of greater participation, go to www.FitnessMed.com

If you want to save your kids, go to www.FitToParent.com

If you want to be fooled into sickness and death by flabicide, stick with the advice of the diet experts, e.g., diet gurus, medical doctors, medical centers, osteopaths, chiropractors, the government, psychologists, pharmaceutical companies, dietitians, trainers, nutritionists, Oprah, etc.

2. Stress

"In fact, boomers tend to report more stress than earlier generations -- from their jobs, their commutes, taking care of their parents and their kids -- all of which can take a physical toll, which is compounded by having less support from extended families and communities, experts say."

Part of the propaganda is that stress is bad.

This is another lie likely designed to make you think you are sick so you will buy products.

Stress is the stuff of growth and change. In fact, where there is no stress, there is no progress.

Stress is good. At worst, stress is neutral. It is possible that the problem lies in one's relationship to stress.

If you repeat it is bad, then it becomes bad.

If you believe the marketers, you fall prey to what they repeat in order to make you sick and separate you from your money.

I don't mean to get all Buddhist on you, but if you recognize that stress is neutral to good, your relationship to it may improve. (FYI, I am not Buddhist.)

Give it a shot instead of seeing a doctor for a shot.

"Glycemic load" of diet has no effect on weight loss

An almost lucid moment in diet research.

"Focusing on calories is something we need more of..."

Not quite lucid since only morons need research confirmation of Calories In, Calories Out.

And only morons believe in something different from Calories In, Calories Out.

NIH Launches Study to Assess Bariatric Surgery in Adolescents

CHILD ABUSE alert!

Government funded and sanctioned child abuse by the NIH.

They lie simply to make get research dollars for their careers:

"'The reasons for weight gain are complex and multifactorial, influenced by genetics, environment, eating and physical activity habits, and society. The information gathered from Teen-LABS will help determine if adolescence is the best time to intervene with this surgical therapy,' says Thomas Inge, M.D., Ph.D., chair, Teen-LABS and principal investigator for the center at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center."

Only one thing and one thing only leads to overweight/obesity - too many Calories in, not enough out.

Need proof? Here is their own admission.

"'They will still need to eat less food and exercise more,' says Mary Horlick, M.D., project scientist for Teen-LABS and director of the Pediatric Clinical Obesity Program of the Division of Digestive Diseases and Nutrition, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the sponsor of Teen-LABS at NIH."

Though participants have to pay for the surgery, the gov't still shells out your tax bucks.

"Teen-LABS will not pay for the costs of bariatric surgery or patient care."

But,

"Over the next five years, researchers will enroll 200 adolescents who are scheduled for bariatric surgery and compare their data to 200 adults who had bariatric surgery after being obese since their teen years. The researchers will collect information on the pre-operative and two year post-operative status of the participants, including measures of body composition, body fat, cardiovascular risks, sleep apnea episodes, diabetes indicators, depressive symptoms, quality of life, eating habits, and nutritional status. The investigators will also store serum, plasma, urine and genetic samples for future studies."

"LABS is funded at $3,000,000 per year for five years. There are also opportunities for investigators to apply for additional funding for ancillary studies through a request for applications (RFA). Information on the ancillary studies RFA can be found at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/rfa-files/RFA-DK-03-022.html" (from: http://www.edc.pitt.edu/labs/Public/aboutus.html)

Why are they doing this, supposedly?

They "...hope to learn whether or not bariatric surgery is suitable for teens and if it will help them remain at a healthy weight over the long-term."

When they (correctly or incorrectly) find that it does, you can bet that there will be calls to subsidize costs.

At just under $31K a pop for the surgery's hospital charges alone and the number of fat kids growing, this solution is crazy expensive and abusive.

Better to find avenues that are cheaper and without mayhem. Then again, how will the researchers profit from that?

Stop the program. Stop paying for fat care. Stop entitlements for the calorically rich. Save the money. Stop the mutilation of kids.

People With Gene Variant May Weigh More

Then again, they may not.

"But British scientists discovered that people who carry two copies of a variation of the FTO gene weighed, on average, 7 pounds more than people who lack it."

Oh my God! A whole 7 pounds! Sounds like the cause of an epidemic, right?

Of course, the other extra pounds, like almost 25 on overage, have yet to be explained.

Forget this nonsense.

Remember, the same people who cannot cure toenail fungus, the common cold and baldness are hard at work finding ways to get paid to mess with your genetics.

Make this a mantra to avoid them turning you into some transmogrified human-thing so you can weigh 7 pounds less.

Number of morbidly obese growing rapidly

So?

"'The proportion of people at the high end of the weight scale continues to increase at a brisk rate despite increased public attention on the risks of obesity and the increased use of drastic weight loss strategies such as bariatric surgery,' said Roland Sturm, an economist at Rand Corporation, a nonprofit research institute.

'The explosion in the use of bariatric (weight-loss) surgery has made no noticeable dent in the trend of morbid obesity,' Sturm added in a statement."

These are compelling reasons to stop offering flawed interventions like bad weight loss advice and unindicated procedures like almost all baritric surgeries.

The numbers will then decrease naturally.

Obese in Rio de Janeiro treated like horses

No they are not.

MSNBC is just spouting trash to inflame you.

The people are apparently receiving the best treatment available given their extreme size.

"'When people weigh more than the standard equipment can support they have to be directed to the Jockey Club, which is the only place in Rio where they have the appropriate equipment,' a spokeswoman for the Rio state health secretariat said on Wednesday."

But the feelings of some fat folk are hurt.

"Rosimere Lima da Silva, head of the Group for Salvaging Self-Esteem and Citizenship of the Obese (Graco), said many patients feel embarrassed to go there."

They should be more embarrassed for making themselves get so big.

"'The obese patients already suffer from a lot of prejudice and having to be treated where animals are is not helping their self-esteem. Many simply refuse to go,' she said."

Perhaps if Rosimere put less food down her throat and put the saved money into a fund to buy the equipment that ONLY she and her fellow fat people need, there would be no issue.

Or ask MSNBC for the money.

Dieters put on weight in the long run: study

One bad and one good research conclusion alert!

Here is the good conclusion: Medicare should not fund dieting.

Here is the flawed part:

Flawed study. Flawed conclusion. Flawed investigators.

The study is formally entitled "Medicare's Search for Effective Obesity Treatments."

A diet is a way of eating where one consumes fewer Calories than are burned.

It is a physical IMPOSSIBILITY for a diet not to work. As long as a person burns more Calories than he or she consumes, there will be weight loss. There is no choice. One must lose weight. This is because of the Law of Thermodynamics.

Diets fail because they are unsustainable since their APPROACH is faulty. This makes the dieting programs of the experts IMPOSSIBLE.

This poorly concluded study is of the same fabric as a study where there is testing of cars in this manner:

To determine whether a car works, all study participants are instructed to start the car by inserting the key into the ashtray, turn it and step on the accelerator to give it gas.

No car turned on. Therefore no car worked.

The flaw here is in the instructions. No currently available car will work by inserting the key into the ashtray.

The flaw in diet studies, or at least one insurmountable flaw, is that the instructions are wrong.

These researchers neglected to consider this. Though they did mention "severe" Caloric restriction, they neglected to evaluate this as a cause of diet failure.

Do not believe this group of experts. They are as ignorant as the rest.