Half of Heart Patients Don't Stick to Their Meds

So when they run into a complication, the rest of us should be off the hook when it comes to paying, right?

Just half of people who are given a prescription to prevent heart disease continue to get their medications refilled over time, according to a new review of several studies. The studies looked at seven medications, including aspirin, blood pressure drugs, and statins, typically intended for life-long use. Data from 20 studies suggested the rate at which people continue taking the drugs ranges from 30% to 80%. Among people who have already had a heart attack, one out of every three fails to continue getting their prescription refilled.

Hey, not our fault.

Hospitalizing Kids for Hypertension: Stop the Trend Now!

Fat kids are more likely to be hypertensive. Fat parents have fat kids. That there is even a "trend," is an embarrassment.

This article highlights an analysis of trends in pediatric hypertension-related hospitalizations (HRHs) from 1997 to 2006 using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project Kids' Inpatient Database, a comprehensive dataset that is sponsored by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and represents all payers in the United States. The data cohorts hospitalized in 1997, 2000, 2003, and 2006 were searched for all discharges for which hypertension was designated as a primary or secondary diagnosis. Factors associated with the odds of this diagnosis were assessed using logistic regression from a candidate group of variables (age, race, sex, insurance status, median income, hospital teaching status, hospital region, and survey year).

Nutritional child abuse strikes again.

Organs Transplanted From Overweight Donors Increase Risks For Recipients

Fatosity so virulent it metastasizes from one person to another.

Obesity is a worldwide health problem. According to estimations from a 2008 World Health Organization (WHO) report, 1.4 billion adults were overweight, including 200 million men and 300 million women classified as obese. A 2010 WHO report also states that over 40 million children under the age of five were overweight. Experts say that the rate of children rates of being overweight and obesity have increased amongst children and now exceed 30% in the U.S. A study published in the August edition of Liver Transplantation has revealed that children who have a liver transplantation are at greater risk of graft loss and death from adult organ donors who are severely obese.

Nutritional child abuse at a distance. Kudos, fatsos.

Doctors Not Being Taught About Benefits Of Exercise

Just as well. Exercise has almost no benefits.

Training does.

The online version of the British Journal of Sports Medicine reports that the curriculum for physical activity in UK medical schools is "sparse or non-existent."

This gap in knowledge means that future doctors will have insufficient knowledge to effectively promote physical activity to their patients, which results in a failure to help combating serious diseases that are linked to insufficient exercise according to the study authors.

It would be a waste anyway since docs are just as out of shape as the rest of the public.

If they do not follow a training program, they have no bona fides to prescribe one for anyone else.

Sexual Dissatisfaction Is Common Among Female Diabetes Patients

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Imagine how unsatisfying it must be for their partners.

A study by UCSF researchers and published in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology reveals that the level of sexual desire and sexual activity is similar in diabetic women and non-diabetic women, even though women suffering from diabetes are more likely to report low overall sexual satisfying action. In the U.S., diabetes is a common, chronic condition that affects 12.6 million people - 10.8% are women aged 20 years or older, according to estimates by the American Diabetes Association. Diabetes can affect a woman's sexual function in various ways, including vascular changes in the urogenital tissues that affect lubrication, and changes in genital arousal response. The researchers state that diabetes medication and other interventions linked to monitoring or treating the disease may also adversely affect sexual function.

Puke, anyone?

Typical one-time partner of a fat woman:



"One-time" since after that he "sees" with what he is dealing.

Test Shows Subconscious 'Stop Signs' Can Help Control Overeating

Won't work.

Once you pop the top of a tube of potato chips, it can be hard to stop munching its contents. But Cornell University researchers may have found a novel way to help: edible serving-size markers that act as subconscious stop signs. As part of an experiment carried out on two groups of college students (98 students total) while they were watching video clips in class, researchers from Cornell's Food and Brand Lab served tubes potato chips, some of which contained chips dyed red. Researchers found that the red chips served as subconscious "stop signs" that curtailed the amount of food consumed.

Just like any other stop sign, the determined, in this case the fat, will ignore it.

Because they will not be satisfied with the so-called portion.

Remember, when an elephant goes on a diet it eats like a horse.

It is just a matter of time before they say, "Neigh."

Why Do Anti-Hunger And Anti-Obesity Initiatives Always Fall Short?

I know.

With widespread hunger continuing to haunt developing nations, and obesity fast becoming a global epidemic, any number of efforts on the parts of governments, scientists, non-profit organizations and the business world have taken aim at these twin nutrition-related crises. But all of these efforts have failed to make a large dent in the problems, and now an unusual international collaboration of researchers is explaining why.

Publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers argue that while hunger and obesity are caused by a perfect storm of multiple factors acting in concert, the efforts to counter them have been narrowly focused and isolated. Overcoming the many barriers to achieving healthy nutrition worldwide, the researchers argue, will instead require an unprecedented level of joint planning and action between academia, government, civil society and industry.

In particular, the authors of the papers in the PNAS special feature propose an ambitious plan to remake the ways food is grown, processed, distributed, sold and consumed. The plan focuses on innovations that simultaneously take into account the needs of farmers, the complexity of nutrition-related human biology and decision-making, and the power of profit incentives in the commercial sector. The result, the researchers say, is "a roadmap for a transdisciplinary science to support change of sufficient scale and scope" to carve out "an alternative path from tradition to industrialization" -- one that "promotes healthy lifestyles and environments rather than undermining them."

Nope.

It is none of this crap.

It is that people are too weenie and soft and incapable of assuming responsibly for themselves and their behavior.

Next!

Increased Risk Of Post-Surgical Infection After Orthopaedic Trauma, Total Joint Replacement In Patients With High Blood Sugar, Obesity

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

This is good news! Another illness/complication of choice for which we do not have to pay.

Two recent studies in the July issues of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) looked at surgical site infections and hyperglycemia, the technical term for high blood glucose, or high blood sugar. According to the first study "Relationship of Hyperglycemia and Surgical-Site Infection in Orthopaedic Surgery," high blood sugar is a concern during the post-traumatic and post-operative period and it may help to preoperatively identify a population of patients with musculoskeletal injuries who are at significant risk for infectious complications.

Nearly, one-third of patients who are admitted to the hospital without a history of diabetes have hyperglycemia, which is associated with a longer hospital stay, higher rates of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and increased mortality.

Hooray!

Diabetic Women More Likely To Experience Sexual Dissatisfaction

So are their partners.

Women with diabetes are just as likely to be interested in, and engage in, sexual activity as non-diabetic women, but they are much more likely to report low overall sexual satisfaction, according to a UCSF study. The researchers also found that diabetic women receiving insulin treatment were at higher risk for the specific complications of lubrication and orgasm. "Diabetes is a recognized risk factor for erectile dysfunction in men, but there have been almost no data to indicate whether it also affects sexual function in women," said senior author Alison J. Huang, MD, MAS, of the UCSF Women's Health Clinical Research Center and an assistant professor in the UCSF Department of Medicine. The study is available online in the journal Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.



Yuck.

In-Utero Exposure to Magnetic Fields Associated With Increased Risk of Obesity in Childhood

This is it!

This is the key to fatosity.

In-utero exposure to relatively high magnetic field levels was associated with a 69 percent increased risk of being obese or overweight during childhood compared to lower in-utero magnetic field levels, according to a Kaiser Permanente study that appears in the current online version of Nature's Scientific Reports.

Researchers conducted the prospective cohort study, in which participating women in Kaiser Permanente's Northern California region carried a meter measuring magnetic field levels during pregnancy and 733 of their children were followed up to 13 years, to collect clinically recorded information on growth patterns. On average, 33 weight measurements per child were collected.

Researchers noted a dose response relationship with increasing in-utero magnetic field levels being associated with further increased risk of obesity or being overweight. The observed association and supporting evidence provide the first epidemiologic findings that link increasing exposure to environmental magnetic fields, especially in-utero exposure, over the last few decades with the rapid rise in childhood obesity during the corresponding decades, according to the authors.

"Pregnancy is a critical developmental stage that is among the most vulnerable periods to environmental exposures," said De-Kun Li, MD, PhD, a perinatal epidemiologist with the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research in Oakland, Calif., and the lead author of the study. "These findings indicate that electromagnetic fields, from microwave ovens to countless wireless devices, may be contributing to childhood obesity risk. This finding could have implications for possibly reducing childhood obesity and better understanding the obesity epidemic. Like any scientific discoveries, the results need to be replicated by other studies."

How unfortunate for the fat that the magnetic fields are not the ones that attract but make them repellent.

Too bad.

Childhood Obesity Linked To 50% Higher Risk Of Urothelial And Colorectal Cancers In Adulthood

More nutritional child abuse.

Parents are increasingly conscious of the dangers of childhood obesity. There is a growing recognition of health problems associated with extra pounds, including the risk of diabetes, heart disease, and joint and muscle pain.

New research from Tel Aviv University has revealed another significant reason for children to maintain a healthy weight. Dr. Ari Shamiss and Dr. Adi Leiba of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and the Sheba Medical Center and his fellow researchers found that obesity in adolescence, defined as a Body Mass Index (BMI) in the 85th percentile and above, has a direct link to the incidence of urothelial (bladder and urinary tract) and colorectal cancers in adulthood. According to the American Heart Association, one in three children and teenagers are now considered overweight or obese.

Children above the 84th percentile in BMI have a 1.42% greater chance, representing a 50% higher risk, of developing urothelial or colorectal cancers in adulthood compared to those beneath it, explains Dr. Shamiss, whose research has been published in the journals Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention and Obesity.

Hold the parents accountable and save some kids.

Raisins Found To Be As Effective As Sports Chews For Fueling Workouts

Almost certainly true despite the involvement of a trade group.

New research published in the Journal of the International Society of Sports Nutrition suggests that eating raisins may provide the same workout boost as sports chews.

Conducted by researchers at the University of California-Davis, the study evaluated the effects that natural versus commercial carbohydrate supplements have on endurance running performance. Runners depleted their glycogen stores in an 80-minute 75% V02 max run followed by a 5k time trial. Runners completed three randomized trials (raisins, chews and water only) separated by seven days. Findings included:
Those that ingested raisins or sports chews ran their 5k on average one minute faster than those that ingested only water
Eating raisins and sports chews promoted higher carbohydrate oxidation compared to water only
"Raisins are a great alternative to sport chews as they also provide fiber and micronutrients, such as potassium and iron, and they do not have any added sugar, artificial flavor or colors," said James Painter, Ph.D., R.D., and nutrition research advisor for the California Raisin Marketing Board.

When it comes to fueling many physical activities, simple carbs are the way to go.

And raisins are chock-full of sugar.

Two out of Three Very Obese Kids Already Have Heart Disease Risk Factors: High Blood Pressure, Cholesterol, Blood Glucose Evident Even in Under-12s

More early nutritional child abuse.

Two out of three severely obese kids already have at least one risk factor for heart disease, suggests research published online in Archives of Disease in Childhood.

The prevalence and severity of childhood obesity has been rising worldwide, but little research has been carried out on the underlying health problems that children with severe weight problems have, say the authors.

They base their findings on data supplied by pediatricians to the Dutch Paediatric Surveillance Unit between 2005 and 2007.

Fat parents have fat kids.

The fat should not reproduce.

Diabetes: Is It Now a Surgical Disease?

Nope.

Hi. I'm Dr. Henry Black. I'm Clinical Professor of Internal Medicine at the New York University School of Medicine, a member of the Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease at that institution, and former President of the American Society of Hypertension. If I had said 10 years ago that diabetes was going to become a surgical disease, I think I would have been laughed off the stage; yet, increasing evidence shows that this may not be a completely far-out idea. Two very small but important studies were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, one from the Cleveland Clinic[1] and one from Italy.[2] Both of them looked at people with high body mass index (BMI). BMIs were somewhat lower in the Cleveland Clinic study, with an average of about 34; in the Italian study, the average BMI was 45 and the average weight was about 300 lb. The investigators compared intensive medical therapy given by experts with surgical approaches. The Cleveland study looked at sleeve gastrectomies and bypass, and the Italian study compared intensive medical therapy (including exercise, which wasn't specifically done in the Cleveland Clinic study) with ileojejunostomy and bypass.

The results were strikingly similar. These were small studies; there were about 20 patients per group in the Italian study and about 50 per group in the Cleveland Clinic study. They both showed dramatic reductions in weight that were generally seen within 3 months. Patients were followed for 1 year in Cleveland and 2 years in the Italian study, and a significant improvement in all the metabolic parameters that we follow in diabetics -- including lipids, hemoglobin A1c, and even blood pressure -- happened before the weight loss was completely achieved. Patients with jejunostomy and bypass were able to be taken off diabetic medicines and, in some cases, lipid-lowering therapy, something that was never seen in patients who received only medical therapy.

This implies that we have to start thinking about using one of these techniques sooner until we can find a way to deliver behavioral therapy that people will follow.

It is a disease of fat people.

And as to the surgery?

If the fat want to pay for it out of pocket, slice 'em.

Shift work link to 'increased risk of heart problems'

Will the lawsuits end 24/7/365?

Shift workers are slightly more at risk of having a heart attack or stroke than day workers, research suggests.

An analysis of studies involving more than 2m workers in the British Medical Journal said shift work can disrupt the body clock and have an adverse effect on lifestyle.

It has previously been linked to an increased risk of high blood pressure and diabetes.

Limiting night shifts would help workers cope, experts said.

We'll see.

Hunter gatherer clue to obesity

Though the path to the conclusion may be incorrect, the conclusion is not.

The idea that exercise is more important than diet in the fight against obesity has been contradicted by new research.

A study of the Hadza tribe, who still exist as hunter gatherers, suggests the amount of calories we need is a fixed human characteristic.

This suggests Westerners are growing obese through over-eating rather than having inactive lifestyles, say scientists.

Clearly.

See here, here and here.

Is There Such a Thing as Eating Too Many Fruits and Vegetables?

Someone got it right. Amazing. And about time.

It may make you scratch your head, but in fact it is possible to overeat healthy foods, according to Loyola University Health System registered dietitian Brooke Schantz.

"While fruits are nutritious, too much of even a healthy food can lead to weight gain," Schantz said. "The key is to remember to control the portion sizes of the foods you consume."

Schantz reported that overeating healthy foods is easy to do, but the same rules apply to healthy food as junk food. Weight fluctuates based on a basic concept -- energy in versus energy out. If your total caloric intake is higher than the energy you burn off in a day, you will gain weight. If it is lower, you will lose weight.

"I have had many patients tell me that they don't know why they are not losing weight," Schantz said. "Then they report that they eat fruit all day long. They are almost always shocked when I advise them to watch the quantity of food they eat even if it is healthy."

Because it is all about Calories in vs. Calories out.

New Drug Could Help Maintain Long-Term Weight Loss

But it won't.

A new drug could aid in losing weight and keeping it off. The drug, described in the journal Cell Metabolism on July 26, increases sensitivity to the hormone leptin, a natural appetite suppressant found in the body. Although so far the new drug has only been tested on mice, the findings have implications for the development of new treatments for obesity in humans.

"By sensitizing the body to naturally occurring leptin, the new drug could not only promote weight loss, but also help maintain it," says senior study author George Kunos of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. "This finding bodes well for the development of a new class of compounds for the treatment of obesity and its metabolic consequences."

Although leptin is an appetite suppressant, leptin supplements alone have not been effective at reducing body weight in humans.

The only thing that will maintain long-term weight loss is eating the same number of Calories that are burned.

We see how well relying on drugs has worked heretofore.

As in, it has not worked.

And don't fool yourself into believing that this drug will do the job any better.

Global Action Must Be Taken To Stop Physical Inactivity

MUST!

The fifth and final paper in The Lancet Series on physical inactivity explained that because of the global reach, high prevalence, and colossal harms of inactivity, it should be considered pandemic.

Harold W. Kohl, III, leading author and from the University of Texas Health School of Public Health, said:

"The role of physical inactivity continues to be undervalued despite evidence of its protective effects being available for more than 60 years and the evident cost burden posed by present levels of physical inactivity globally."

He added how worse it is that people's response to physical inactivity has been unfocused, incomplete, and unquestionably understaffed and underfunded. Other risk factors for non-communicable diseases are taken more seriously, are paid much more attention to, and receive much more funding. The effect of this tardiness, he said, has been putting physical activity in reverse gear compared with population trends and improvements in alcohol and tobacco control and diet.

Unfortunately, in both developed and developing countries, national programs to help people change their current lifestyles into more energetic ones meeting the recommended activity levels, is still very limited. Even though almost 3 quarters of World Heath Organization (WHO) member states have plans to improve physical activity, just 55% of those plans are effective and 42% are funded and effective.

Kohl and colleagues explained in order to address physical inactivity as a real public health concern, a lot of work still needs to be done. "Substantial improvements in the infrastructure of planning and policy, leadership and advocacy, workforce training and surveillance must be realized."

F**k you.

With certainty, physical activity is the most inefficient way to control weight.

And if people wanted to engage in more activity, there are always ways to do it without the rest of us underwriting shiny objects that the fat won't use anyway.

These folks are dangerous morons and should be prevented from polluting the broadcast media with their detritus.

To Understand Childhood Obesity, Researchers Look to Inactive, Fat Rats

A waste. Look to the parents.

Childhood obesity has nearly tripled in the past three decades, and by 2009, 17 percent of those 2-19 years of age were classified as obese. If actions against childhood obesity do not take place it is likely that today's children could be the first generation in over a century to experience a decline in life expectancy due to the epidemic of childhood obesity which leads to complications in later life. While little is known about how inactivity and obesity lead to undesirable side effects such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers, scientists at the University of Missouri in Columbia have reviewed dozens of studies that look at childhood obesity using new animal models. The scientists suggest that the models could be key to better understanding the condition and its complex relationship to certain diseases.

The article appears in the online edition of the American Journal of Physiology -- Regulatory, Integrative, and Comparative Physiology, published by the American Physiological Society.

The real rats in this case.

Study Identifies Receptor's Role in Regulating Obesity, Type 2 Diabetes

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

There is only one receptor that regulates obesity and Type 2 diabetes. This ain't it.

A recent study led by Boston University School of Medicine (BUSM) demonstrates that the A2b-type adenosine receptor, A2bAR, plays a significant role in the regulation of high fat, high cholesterol diet-induced symptoms of type 2 diabetes. The findings, which are published online in PLoS ONE, also identify A2bAR as a potential target for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.

The real receptor is called the "mouth."

It receives Calories.

Regulate that and you have regulated obesity and Type 2 diabetes.

There is no other receptor.

Asking Your Children What Their Superheroes Would Eat Primes Them To Make Healthier Fast Food Choices

What could go wrong?

Popeye inspired a generation of growing Baby Boomers to eat its spinach. Today, role models such as Batman can prompt children to develop their own healthy eating habits, a recent Cornell University study finds.

"Fast food patronage is a frequent reality for many children and their parents. Simply instructing a parent to order healthier food for a child is neither empowering for a child nor easy for a parent," said Brian Wansink, Cornell professor of marketing, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab and study co-author. "Advising parents to ask their child, 'What would Batman eat?' might be a realistic step to take in what could be a healthier fast-food world."

The findings appear in the paper, "What would Batman eat? Priming children to make healthier fast food choices," which is published in the journal Pediatric Obesity. Wansink, along with post-doctoral researcher Mitsuru Shimizu and visiting graduate student Guido Camps of Utrecht University in the Netherlands, conducted a study in which 22 children, ages 6 to 12, at a summer camp were asked if they wanted apple fries or French fries during several consecutive Wednesday lunches.

Apparently nothing as these folks prove:

Almonds a Healthy Snack Substitute for Dieters

Con artists.

Substituting almonds for less healthy foods could help dieters stick to a calorie-controlled diet, and lower their cholesterol at the same time, researchers say.

"Nuts, and in this case almonds, shouldn't be on the 'do not eat' list, they can be effectively incorporated in a weight loss plan, with the caveat that they have to be portion controlled," said Dr. Gary Foster, who led the study at Temple University in Philadelphia.

Substitute anything "more healthy" for something "less healthy" and what do you get?

(Remember that there are no healthy foods. There is only eating healthily.)

Still, this is a set-up.

Also, note the "portion controlled" part.

That will make just about anything you eat, "healthy."

High Blood Sugar, Obesity Increase Risk for Surgical Site Infection

How fat are you?

You're so fat that your body can't heal.

Two recent studies in the July issues of the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery (JBJS) looked at surgical site infections and hyperglycemia, the technical term for high blood glucose, or high blood sugar.

According to the first study "Relationship of Hyperglycemia and Surgical-Site Infection in Orthopaedic Surgery," high blood sugar is a concern during the post-traumatic and post-operative period and it may help to preoperatively identify a population of patients with musculoskeletal injuries who are at significant risk for infectious complications.

Nearly, one-third of patients who are admitted to the hospital without a history of diabetes have hyperglycemia, which is associated with a longer hospital stay, higher rates of admission to the intensive care unit (ICU), and increased mortality...

A second study featured in the July 18 issue of JBJS, found that diabetes and morbid obesity increased the risk of infection following hip and knee replacement. Authors of "Obesity, Diabetes, and Preoperative Hyperglycemia as Predictors of Periprosthetic Joint Infection" analyzed 7,181 hip and knee replacements and found that 52 post-operative joint infections occurred within the first year, and that the infection rate increased from a .37 percent in patients with a normal body index to 4.66 percent in the morbidly obese group. Normal BMI was defined as a body mass index (BMI) of less than 25, while morbid obesity was defined as more than 40. (BMI is a calculation that is determined using height and weight).

Diabetes more than doubled the risk of a post-operative joint infection independent of obesity. The infection rate was the highest in morbidly obese, diabetic patients.

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

Kudos, fatsos.

Flavor Perception Is Influenced By Fat In Food

So what?

Fat in foods has a direct impact on taste perception by activating certain regions of the brain that control taste, aroma, and 'reward', say researchers.

The study, conducted by The University of Nottingham and the multinational food company Unilever, is published in the Springer journal Chemosensory Perception.

The three year study found that fats in food can reduce activity in these regions of the brain, thus influencing how flavors are perceived.

The findings could help the food industry develop healthier, less fatty food products without adversely affecting their overall taste or enjoyment.

There are no "healthy foods."

There is only eating healthily.

And there are plenty of "healthy foods" out there.

And people still overconsume Calories.

Meaningless, old, unsurprising data.

Restaurant Meals a Bit Healthier After Menu Law

But does it make a difference?

Chain restaurants in the Seattle area seem to have made small changes for the better since a 2009 law forced them to put nutrition information on their menus, a new study finds.

Eighteen months after the law went into effect in King County, Washington, calorie counts were a bit lower, the study found. Sit-down chain restaurants did better than fast-food joints: their entrees were an average of 73 calories lighter, versus a small, 19-calorie reduction at fast-food places.

There were also some improvements in sodium and saturated fat content.

Whether the changes happened because of the label law is not clear. "We can't say the menu labeling was the cause, because we could only look at restaurants in our jurisdiction," said lead researcher Dr. Barbara Bruemmer, of the University of Washington in Seattle.

It's possible that there's been an overall trend for chain restaurants to make their offerings a bit healthier, Dr. Bruemmer noted in an interview.

Premature back patting.

Jerks.

Liraglutide Results in Decreased BMI and Waist Circumference

So do fewer Calories in than out.

A decrease in waist circumference in patients with type 2 diabetes treated with liraglutide correlates with positive alterations in inflammatory markers, according to data presented here at the 3rd International Congress on Abdominal Obesity (ICAO).

Fewer Calories are cheaper and without side effects, e.g., drug interactions.

Fighting Obesity With Thermal Imaging

Good idea.

Scientists at The University of Nottingham believe they've found a way of fighting obesity - with a pioneering technique which uses thermal imaging. This heat-seeking technology is being used to trace our reserves of brown fat - the body's 'good fat' - which plays a key role in how quickly our body can burn calories as energy.

Burn baby, burn.

Physical Activity Levels May Increase Due To Mobile Phone Technology

Guess so.

The fourth paper in The Lancet Series on physical activity reported on a new simulation model that explains how information and communication technologies, particularly mobile phones, could be a powerful way to encourage millions of people worldwide to become more physically active.

Not really.

A load of crap from The Lancet.

Idiots.

Polypill for Primary Prevention: Largest-Yet Reductions in BP, Cholesterol in Small UK Trial

The polypill, as in roly-poly, is more for the fat than the intended-sized.

Results of the first trial to look at the effects of a polypill given to people solely on the basis of age for the primary prevention of CVD have shown the largest reductions in blood pressure and cholesterol levels of any polypill study to date.

On average, participants--who were aged >50--experienced a 12% reduction in BP and 39% fall in LDL cholesterol during the 12-week study, achieving levels typical of people aged 20, says lead author Dr David S Wald (Wolfson Institute of Preventive Medicine, London, UK), who together with colleagues, report the findings in PLoS One. "The health implications of our results are large. If people took the polypill long term from age 50, an estimated 28% would avoid or delay a heart attack or stroke during their lifetime and gain, on average, 11 years of life free of cardiovascular events," he told heartwire .

How about fewer Calories in than out for primary prevention?

'Lack of evidence' that popular sports products work

Really?

Consumers could be wasting their money on sports drinks, protein shakes and high-end trainers, according to a new joint investigation by BBC Panorama and the British Medical Journal.

The investigation into the performance-enhancing claims of some popular sports products found "a striking lack of evidence" to back them up.

A team at Oxford University examined 431 claims in 104 sport product adverts and found a "worrying" lack of high-quality research, calling for better studies to help inform consumers.

Dr Carl Heneghan of the Oxford University Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine led the independent research into the claims made by the makers of sports drinks, protein shakes and trainers.

In the case of Lucozade Sport, the UK's best-selling sports drink, their advert says it is "an isotonic performance fuel to take you faster, stronger, for longer".

'Minuscule effect'
Dr Heneghan and his team asked manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) for details of the science behind their claims and were given what he said scientists call a "data dump" - 40 years' worth of Lucozade sports research which included 176 studies.

Dr Heneghan said the mountain of data included 101 trials that the Oxford team were able to examine before concluding: "In this case, the quality of the evidence is poor, the size of the effect is often minuscule and it certainly doesn't apply to the population at large who are buying these products.

"Basically, when you look at the evidence in the general population, it does not say that exercise is improved [or that] performance is improved by carbohydrate drinks."

Duh.

Caveat emptor.

Reflexology Proves Beneficial For Non-Cardiology Patients

Crap.

In a study examining the effects of reflexology in healthy patients and patients with heart disease, researchers have found that applying pressure to the upper the heart reflex point on the left foot had an effect on the hearts of healthy patients but not on those with cardiac disease.

The study, conducted by researchers at the University of Stirling, found that massage to the heart reflex point had a small effect on heart function in healthy patients but not in the hearts of cardiology patients. In addition, they found that when pressure was applied to areas of the feet not related to the heart there was not change in heart function.

According to reflexologists, each part of the hands and feet are connected with specific organs in the body. Applying pressure with specific thumb, finger, and hand techniques to specific organ reflex points is believed to increased blood flow to the organ.

In this study, the team focused on the upper left ball of the sole which is said to 'map' to the heart and compared this area to other areas of both feet.

Jenny Jones, Ph.D., from the School of Nursing, Midwifery & Health, explained:

"Reflexology is unique because it makes quite specific claims that it increases blood flow and this is something you can scientifically test. In our experiment with healthy people there was an inexplicable change in the heart function which occurred only when the heart reflex point area was massaged. We have no idea what caused this change se we have applied for funding to investigate this further."

Jones continued:

"Cardiology patients have problems with coronary blood flow so we wanted to find out if there was any impact on their heart function whilst receiving reflexology too. Interestingly, there was no effect on the hearts of cardiology patients; however all the patients found the treatment to be really relaxing, so it seems to be a safe and useful relaxation tool for cardiac patients to use.

We want to investigate further why the hearts of cardiology patients are not affected in the same way as the healthy volunteers, with medication being a possible cause. We also want to research and better understand why this one area of the foot - the upper left ball of the sole - had an effect on the heart."

Professor Steve Leslie, a cardiologist from the Cardiac Unit at Raigmore Hospital, said:

"Most patients responded well to conventional medicine but for some patients symptoms of cardiac disease persist despite best medical treatments. For these patients we wished to test if reflexology was safe. The results of this study, demonstrated that reflexology did not affect cardiac function, heart rate or blood pressure and therefore it would appear safe for patients, even those with significant cardiac disease to undergo reflexology. Whether reflexology can improve cardiac symptoms requires further research."


According to Jones, the complementary therapies market in the UK is huge and shows that there is a great deal of public interest in the topic.

Jones explained: "There are limitations of what we can do with clinical medicine but there has not been much scientific research available on complementary therapies such as reflexology to help people decide if they work or not.

However, if people are choosing to pay to have these complementary therapy treatments to treat symptoms when we have a health care service which is free, you need to ask what it is that these therapies offer that is missing in conventional healthcare."

Validating the stupid.

New Measure For Obesity: A Body Shape Index Strongly Correlated To Premature Death

Nice shape.

Researchers have developed a new metric to measure obesity, called A Body Shape Index, or ABSI, that combines the existing metrics of Body Mass Index (BMI) and waist circumference and shows a better correlation with death rate than do either of these individual measures.

If it fits, wear it.

Bariatric Surgery: No Link to Reduced Healthcare Costs

Makes sense.

Bariatric surgery was not associated with lowered healthcare costs 3 years after the procedure in a population of older, mostly male patients, according to results from a study published in the July 16 issue of the Archives of Surgery.

The new results run counter to prior observational studies in which researchers saw a substantial drop in healthcare costs after bariatric surgery in primarily young, white, female patients.

As bariatric surgery has grown in popularity, the patient population has become more diverse. More nonwhite, male, and older patients, with more obesity-related comorbidities, are opting for these procedures. However, little is known about the effects bariatric surgery might have on future healthcare expenditures.

Therefore, Matthew L. Maciejewski, PhD, from the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, Durham Veterans Administration Medical Center, North Carolina, and colleagues conducted a retrospective cohort study that compared healthcare expenditures of 847 veterans 3 years pre- and postsurgery to expenditures among 847 propensity-matched veterans who did not have the surgery. Characteristics for matching included age, sex, race, marital status, and body mass index. All participants were from the same dozen Veterans Administration medical centers and were evaluated from 2000 to December 2006.

Healthcare costs included costs associated with the procedure and peaked for the surgical group around the time of the surgery. The investigators found that expenditures among the treated patients were $4397 higher in the first 6 months after surgery compared with the untreated group. However, the costs were similar between the 2 groups from 31 to 36 months after surgery. The researchers thus disproved their hypothesis that 3 years later the cohort that underwent surgery would have lower expenditures than the matched control patients.

The investigators attribute the lack of predicted savings to examining a different population than previous observational studies. The cohort of the current study was largely male and had more severe health problems than the previous studies, which included younger, mostly female patients.

No savings.

No payment from the public coffers.

Why Do Some People Exercise And Others Don't?

Because some are big, fat, lazy, disgusting tubs of lard, i.e., it is a choice?

The question of why certain people are more physically active than others is examined by an international research team in the second paper in The Lancet Series on physical activity.

The researchers say more studies need to be done in low and middle income countries where 80% of non-communicable diseases exist; because even though they have made substantial profess in the past two decades, the research has been focusing on individual level factors (sex, age, socioeconomic status) in high-income countries alone.

Adrian Bauman, from the University of Syndey said:

"Targeting factors known to cause inactivity is key to improving and designing effective interventions to increase activity levels. However, most studies of physical activity have assessed correlates (factors associated with activity) in small, non-representative samples rather than providing longitudinal evidence that could identify factors with a stronger causal relationship."


A small amount of consistent correlates appearing to have an impact on whether people are physically active or not was identified in the review. These include health status, adults' intention to exercise, being young, male, or wealthy, self-efficacy (having the confidence that they have the ability to exercise), previous experiences being physical active at all ages, and family and social support during adolescent years.

Despite all the excuses, it is a choice.

Period.

End.

Inspiring Children To Appreciate Vegetables

Are the uninspiring to appreciate them, too?

Two new studies presented at the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior's (SNEB) annual conference may make it easier for moms to get their kids to eat - and enjoy - vegetables. Both studies were conducted by SNEB president Brian Wansink, PhD, the John Dyson Professor of Consumer Behavior at Cornell University, and funded by Birds Eye, the country's leading vegetable brand that recently launched a three-year campaign to inspire kids to eat more veggies.

With nine out of 10 American children and teens not meeting daily vegetable recommendations, Birds Eye has a sustained commitment to help reverse this decline. That includes funding research to help moms find new strategies to raise veggie-loving kids, and being the first company to engage kids to be part of the solution.

Birds Eye understands how vegetables make the meal and wants to help moms get even their pickiest eaters excited about vegetables. By working with Nickelodeon, the number-one entertainment brand for kids, and iCarly's Jennette McCurdy, Birds Eye is empowering kids' culinary creativity and encouraging them to share their veggie inspiration with other kids in a new initiative called "iCarly iCook with Birds Eye."

Birds Eye?

In a pig's eye.

Trans Fat Ban Has Led To Healthier Fast Food Meals In NYC

BFD.

The ban that New York City authorities introduced in 2006 to restrict use of trans fats in fast-food restaurants has led to residents eating healthier fast food meals that are substantially and significantly lower in trans fats. Also, those meals have not increased their saturated fat content to compensate.

But are PEOPLE healthier for it?

That remains unknown.

In an accompanying editorial, Alice Lichtenstein, a nutrition specialist at Tufts University, writes:

"The regulation may serve as a model for future successful public health initiatives."

Seems a bit premature to pat your own back.

How Exercise Improves Heart Function In Diabetics: Study

Type 2 diabetes is fat person diabetes.

A detailed study of heart muscle function in mice has uncovered evidence to explain why exercise is beneficial for heart function in type 2 diabetes. The research team, led by scientists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, found that greater amounts of fatty acids used by the heart during stressful conditions like exercise can counteract the detrimental effects of excess glucose and improve the diabetic heart's pumping ability in several ways. The findings also shed light on the complex chain of events that lead to diabetic cardiomyopathy, a form of heart failure that is a life-threatening complication of type 2 diabetes.

The study, described in an article published online on July 17, 2012 in the journal Diabetes, was conducted in a mouse model of type 2 diabetes, and focused on the exchange of energy within heart muscle cells. The researchers looked at the impact of glucose and fatty acids, which are different types of "fuel" that provide energy to the cells - and how those affect heart muscle function.

"Our work offers a new view of the role of fatty acids in diabetic hearts under stress, and suggests potential new therapies to improve heart function," says Miguel Aon, Ph.D., assistant professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and a senior author of the study article. "It has been commonly assumed that fatty acids were detrimental to heart muscle function, but our study showed the opposite to be true in the diabetic heart."

Really.

Who cares to know why?

The fat are not going to engage in physical activity anyway. (Training, that is. Exercise is useless or worse.)

Anything else is letting them off the hook at our expense.

If they want to live, and believe the conventional wisdom, then they will move.

If not, and the conventional wisdom is correct, good riddance.

What Are The Best Ways To Promote Exercise Around The World?

Why bother? Exercise is useless or worse. Training is what matters.

A range of successful and effective interventions from around the world were recognized in the third paper in The Lancet Series that can be used to encourage people to be physically active and improve their exercise opportunities.

Gregory Heath, lead author of the study and from the University of Tennessee, said:

"Because even moderate physical activity such as walking and cycling can have substantial health benefits, understanding strategies that can increase these behaviors in different regions and cultures has become a public health priority."

The researchers evaluated 100 reviews published between 2001 and 2011 of clinical and community-based physical interventions. They then discovered a number of effective ways for promoting exercise in people of different age groups, social groups, and countries worldwide through:

Behavioral and social initiatives
Modifications to environmental design and transport policies
Communication and information strategies
Successful examples of encouraging people to be physically active include promoting exercise and community events through mass media campaigns and decision prompts to help inspire people, like using the stairs instead of an elevator.

Walking clubs and buddy systems are also valuable social support networks. Free exercise classes in public areas, like parks, are very important because they target populations who are less likely to manage the suggested amount of exercise, including older adults, women, and those on lower incomes.

According to Heath and his colleagues, creating environments suitable for walking and biking, like bike lanes, can be very beneficial. If people improve their access to sports and other outdoor activities, help shape policies for neighborhood design, increase the amount of green in their yard, and/or improve public transportation, they will see an improvement in their physical activity levels.

Research has shown that USA, Australia, England, Canada, Belgium, and Germany can increase their activity levels by 50% from street-level strategies (improving lighting and aesthetics).

The hogwash of progressive medicine.

Does Weight Loss Surgery Reduce Long-Term Health Costs? Seems Not

Another reason why the rest of us should not pay for this IMHO malpractice.

Weight loss surgery does not reduce long-term health costs - at least among older men, says a new study published in Archives of Surgery. Although bariatric surgery is the most effective way to induce weight loss in individuals who are severely obese, the related health care expenditure trends have not been thoroughly investigated, say the researchers.

If fatsos want the procedure, let them pay for it themselves.

Same for the costs of treating fatosity medically.

Most Adults And Teens Not Exercising And At High Risk Of Disease

A non-issue. Exercise will not help. Training will.

Not complying with physical activity recommendations is leaving around a third of adults (approx.1.5 billion people) and 4 out of 5 adolescents at a 20-30% greater risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some types of cancer, Brazilian researchers have found.

To learn why and how to train, go here.

Explosive Leg Strength And Waist Size In Kids Predicted By Hours Watching TV

Exploding leg.

Researchers at the University of Montreal and Saint Justine Mother and Child University Hospital conducted a world-first study and found that every hour a two to four year old child watches television contributes to his or her waist circumference by the end of 4th grade and his or her skill in sports.

Lead author Dr. Caroline Fitzpatrick and senior author Dr. Linda Pagani published their study in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.

Pagani explained:

"We already knew that there is an association between preschool television exposure and the body fat of 4th grade children, but this is the first study to describe more precisely what the association represents. Parents were asked about their child's TV habits. Trained examiners took waist measurements and administered the standing long jump test to measure child muscular fitness. We found, for example, that each weekly hour of TV at 29 months of age corresponds to a decrease of about a third of a centimeter in the distance a child is able to jump."

So?

TV habits 'can predict kids' waist size and fitness'

So what?

Children who increase the number of hours of weekly television they watch between the ages of two and four years old risk larger waistlines by age 10.

A Canadian study found that every extra weekly hour watched could add half a millimetre to their waist circumference and reduce muscle fitness.

There are 25.4 millimeters to an inch.

Experts say children should not watch more than two hours of TV a day.

Researchers found that the average amount of television watched by the children at the start of the study was 8.8 hours a week.

This increased on average by six hours over the next two years to reach 14.8 hours a week by the age of four-and-a-half.

Fifteen per cent of the children in the study were watching more than 18 hours per week by that age, according to their parents.

The study said the effect of 18 hours of television at 4.5 years of age would by the age of 10 result in an extra 7.6mm of waist because of the child's TV habit.

So, we are taking about 1/4 of an inch here.

De minimis, at most.

Crazy.

Qsymia Offers 'Really Effective' Weight Loss

We will see.

Qsymia®, formerly knowm as Qnexa, (Vivus Inc, California), is the newest weapon in the battle against obesity, and it genuinely fits the criteria for a successful obesity drug as defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH).[1] It is the only medication on the market capable of reliably achieving a clinically significant weight loss.

In the face of a global obesity crisis, Qsymia has a potentially immense market. Nevertheless, the manufacturer faced a tough battle to finally convince the US regulating authorities to approve it. Set against the backdrop of sibutramine and rimonabant, 2 weight-loss drugs that were withdrawn over serious safety concerns that came to light only during postmarketing surveillance, Qsymia probably will be released as a Schedule IV controlled substance.

Qsymia is a formulation of 2 off-patent drugs already on the market: immediate-release phentermine and controlled-release topiramate. Phentermine is an amphetamine-like compound, currently licensed as a short-term weight loss agent due to its central appetite-inhibiting effects. Topiramate is an anticonvulsant, licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration in 2006 and in Europe in 2009, with well-described weight-loss effects whose mode of action remains unclear but may be due to increased taste aversion.

During phase 2-3 development, Qsymia was tested on over 2000 obese and overweight patients.[2-4] Participants treated with a middle dosage level reportedly lost over 10% of total body weight at baseline. Most of this weight loss occurred within the first 6 months of treatment and was followed by subsequent weight stabilization. After the first year, significant and dose-related improvements in blood pressure, glycemic indices, and lipids were shown. However, it will be difficult to position this agent as a primary treatment for any of these other conditions, as its positive effects appear to be driven by the weight loss it produces rather than any additional effect on these metabolic parameters.

Qsymia is recommended alongside lifestyle intervention for obese persons (BMI > 30) and for overweight persons (BMI > 27) with associated comorbidities, such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension. It will be offered in capsule form in 3 strengths: phentermine-IR/topiramate-CR 3.75/23 mg, 7.5/46 mg, and 15/92 mg. All of these doses are 2- to 4-fold lower than those approved for either drug when used as monotherapies.

If the fat could do "lifestyle intervention" they would not "need" the pill.

I bet on failure, overall.

Qsymia, Qsymiass.

Obesity Leads To More Doctor Visits Than Smoking

A lotta good that does.

Statistics show that today, almost one in four Canadians is obese. A deadly trend that has been on the rise for the last thirty years, obesity is associated with diabetes, heart disease and cancer. But is the obesity epidemic putting more pressure on an already strained Canadian health care system?

James McIntosh, a professor in the Department of Economics at Concordia University, is the first to look at the impact of obesity on the number of doctor visits nation-wide.

According to his research, obese individuals visit the doctor more frequently than regular smokers who are at a healthy weight.

"The fact that obesity is more serious than smoking helps people understand the gravity of the problem because they already have some kind of intuitive understanding of how bad smoking is," says McIntosh.

To calculate what would happen if obesity were eliminated entirely, McIntosh used a model created from data that included information from over 60,000 Canadians from the 2010 Community Health Survey. He found that if obesity were not a factor, doctor visits would decrease by 10 percent.

Doctor visits may further decrease when one takes into account the many visits to the doctor for problems related to type 2 diabetes, a disease is related directly to obesity.

It's also possible that obesity is the cause of even more doctor visits than estimated by McIntosh's model because the national survey does not include information about weight history. Someone who has developed obesity recently may not yet be experiencing the full effect of complications such as diabetes and the accompanying need for more medical care.

If they really wanted to cut down on visits to the doc, all that is needed is for the fatso to pay for it.

Watch the number of visits plummet.

Watching Television Gives Children Larger Waistline

It appears as if there are lies, damned lies and research.

An increasing number of parents today are using the television as an 'electronic babysitter', according to evidence. Some parents tell their children that watching too much TV will make their eyes go square and, although this is not true, evidence is emerging that watching too much TV as a child could mean they end up with a larger waistline.

A new study, featured in BioMed Central's open access journal International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, has discovered that children's muscular fitness decreases the more hours young children spend in front of the television and that their waist lines become larger as they approach their teens, which can have potential health consequences in their adulthood.

In the absence of too many Calories, no amount of TV watching will add a single ounce to the body.

Or a millimeter to a waistline.

It is not TV.

It is the Calories, stupid.

Obesity surgery 'seeing 1,000 patients in 18 months'

The Obesity Olympics.

A leading surgeon operating on obese patients says he has seen young people so overweight during his career that they have not left home in eight years.

Jonathan Barry's team at Morriston Hospital in Swansea has had 1,000 referrals in 18 months.

Dealing with obesity is costing the NHS in Wales an estimated £73m a year.

Plaid Cymru AM Lindsay Whittle claimed some parents were "killing their own children with kindness" by not tackling their intake of food.

It is not kindness.

Even if you win the gold medal for obesity.

Physical Inactivity May Cause As Many Deaths As Smoking

The issue is not the number of deaths. The issue is the cost to the rest of us of prolonging the lives of these folks.

People failing to exercise may be responsible for as many global deaths as smoking, according to a new study. Individuals not spending at least 150 minutes a week doing moderate exercise (walking for 30 minutes 5 times a week), is causing from approximately 6% to 10% of deaths in four serious non-communicable diseases: coronary heart disease (CHD), type 2 diabetes, and colon and breast cancer worldwide.

In 2008, this lack of exercise was responsible for the deaths of 5.3 million of the 57 million lives that were taken that year globally. This information was revealed in a report in The Lancet, which explained how physical inactivity is much like tobacco smoking or obesity, causing disease and shortening people's lives.

Death is not a choice.

How one gets there, is.

Physical inactivity is a choice.

Food Journal Is Key for Weight Loss in Women

This is it. Really.

This is the key.

Dietary self-monitoring, preparing meals at home, and eating meals at regular intervals may improve 12-month weight loss among postmenopausal overweight-to-obese women, according to a dietary weight loss intervention study published online July 13 in the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

"When it comes to weight loss, evidence from randomized, controlled trials comparing different diets finds that restricting total calories is more important than diet composition such as low-fat versus low-carbohydrate," senior author Anne McTiernan, MD, PhD, director of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center's Prevention Center in Seattle, Washington, said in a news release. "Therefore, the specific aim of our study was to identify behaviors that supported the global goal of calorie reduction."

Oh, so the Calories are the key, eh?

Warning over 'low prescribing' for elderly

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm).

More elderly patients should be prescribed drugs to tackle high blood pressure and cholesterol, experts say.

Oxford and Birmingham university researchers said older patients were "largely ignored" after looking at prescribing for nearly 37,000 people.

They found for blood pressure-lowering drugs prescribing dropped after the age of 85, while for treatment for high cholesterol the fall started at 75.

Anabolics can help.

To find out more, go here and here.

Obesity May Affect Response To Breast Cancer Treatment

Still sad that I care more about the breasts of fat woman than they do.

Experts have been questioning if hormone-suppressing drugs is the best treatment for obese women because they still have higher levels of estrogen than normal weight women even after treatment. The Institute of Cancer Research in London and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, conducted a study and found that hormone-suppressing drugs did greatly decrease estrogen levels in obese women, however those levels still more than doubled a normal weight woman's level.

Oh, well.

Junk Food Commercials Increase Food 'Wanting'

And car commercials increase auto "wanting."

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, sought to investigate personality traits that make some people more vulnerable to over-eating and weight gain.

Obesity rates have been partly attributed to the easy access of cheap, high calorie food. However, many individuals exposed to the same food lie well within the healthy weight range. In her study, Dr. Natalie Loxton proposed reward sensitivity as a key trait predisposing some individuals to be highly attracted to cues linked with appetitive food - such as a television commercial marketing junk food.

"We tested whether reward-sensitive individuals would experience greater pleasure and urge to eat after watching TV commercials featuring junk food, compared with those featuring healthy food or no food", Dr. Loxton said.

This independent study comprised of 75 men and women who watched a 30 minute film embedded with junk food, healthy food, or no food featured in the commercials. Participants rated the pleasantness of food images and their desire to eat after watching the films.

"As hypothesised, reward sensitivity was associated with an increase in urge to eat in the junk food condition. There was no association in the healthy food condition and a reduced desire to eat in the no food condition," she said.

Dr. Loxton also discovered that reward sensitivity was associated with greater liking of junk food images, but only for women. There was no effect of reward sensitivity on liking of healthy food or non-food images.

Moron researchers.

Hedonic Effects Of Food Can Be Offset By Subtle Goal Reminders

Whadda bunch of s**t.

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, introduces novel cost-effective strategies to facilitate healthy eating among weight-conscious consumers. A number of experiments, by Esther Papies and colleagues of Utrecht University, The Netherlands, now suggest that simply adding words related to health and weight on posters, restaurant menu's, or recipe cards can stimulate healthy food choices among dieters and overweight individuals, in a variety of real-life settings.

Affecting the choices of these individuals is especially relevant since their eating behavior is heavily influenced by attractive food temptations which abound in our daily lives. The current living environment in most Western societies makes weight control a difficult enterprise for health-conscious individuals. Numerous studies have now revealed that conscious intentions for healthy eating and dieting are not sufficient for healthy eating pattern - rather, consumers are heavily influenced by their eating habits, and by food temptations in their environment. Furthermore, people struggling with their weight are especially susceptible to the effects of such easily available food temptations. Chronic dieters and overweight people show strong hedonic responses to tasty, high-calorie food cues in both behavioral and neuro-imaging studies, and easily overeat when they are around attractive food. Thus, it is especially important to bolster these individuals against these detrimental effects of our "obesity promoting environment".

Previous research by Papies and colleagues has shown that priming methods can help dieters eat fewer high-calorie tasty snacks. In a field experiment, customers of a local butcher store were observed on days when a poster announcing a dieting recipe had been mounted on the door, and on other days when the poster was not present. When the diet recipe reminded dieters of their health goal, they ate less of the bite-size meat snacks the store offered than on other days. Customers who were not concerned with controlling their weight were not affected. Thus, goal priming is an effective strategy to help weight-concerned individuals translate their intentions into behavior, especially when faced with temptation .

Madness.

Should We Sleep More to Lose Weight?

No.

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB) suggests that sleep behavior affects body weight control and that sleep loss has ramifications not only for how many calories we consume but also for how much energy we burn off.

In recent years an increasing number of epidemiological studies have found a relationship between how long we sleep for and obesity as well as type 2 diabetes, suggesting that insufficient sleep increases the risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes.

Only eating fewer Calories than are burned works.

Nothing else matters.

Vitamin D Test Accuracy Called into Question

Which, better yet, calls the whole cure du jour stuff into question.

Two widely used tests to determine vitamin D status produced results that exceeded the allowable limits for error in at least 40% of cases, according to a study reported here.

Using liquid chromatography/mass spectrometry (LC/MS) as the standard, variance by the Abbott Architect and Siemens Centaur-2 tests ranged from -60% to +80%. The maximum allowable error for test results is ±25%, Earle Holmes, PhD, said at ENDO 2012.

Errors with both tests tended to be on the side of overestimating the frequency of vitamin D deficiency, he added.

Yep.

More Sleep To Keep Us Lighter

More BS to give us excuses.

Research to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior (SSIB), the foremost society for research into all aspects of eating and drinking behavior, suggests that sleep behavior affects body weight control and that sleep loss has ramifications not only for how many calories we consume but also for how much energy we burn off.

In recent years an increasing number of epidemiological studies have found a relationship between how long we sleep for and obesity as well as type 2 diabetes, suggesting that insufficient sleep increases the risk of gaining weight and developing diabetes.

Work carried out by researchers from the German Universities Tubingen and Lubeck and Uppsala University in Sweden has investigated the effect of short term sleep deprivation on hunger as well as on physical activity and energy used by the body. Physical activity was measured by special devices worn on the wrist that detect acceleration. Energy used by the body was assessed by indirect calorimetry, a method which estimates how much heat is produced by a person as they use oxygen.

Sleep deprivation increased how hungry participants felt and also raised the amount of the "hunger hormone" ghrelin detected in their blood. In fact, the shorter the amount of sleep a person had experienced the hungrier they were. After just one night of disrupted sleep volunteers moved around less although this was not surprising considering they also felt more tired. In addition, staying awake for one complete night reduced the amount of energy used by the body when resting. This research tells us when we are sleep deprived we are likely to eat more calories because we are hungrier. This alone might cause us to gain weight over time. However sleep loss also means we burn off fewer calories which adds to the risk of gaining weight.

Any society that calls itself "foremost" is not.

To wit, this crap research.

Obese Kids as Bright as Thinner Peers

According to the article, No They're Not.

"Based on a simple correlation between children's obesity as measured by their fat mass and their exam results, we found that heavier children did do slightly worse in school," Dr Scholder points out. "But, when we used children's genetic markers to account for potentially other factors, we found no evidence that obesity causally affects exam results. So, we conclude that obesity is not a major factor affecting children's educational outcomes."

"Clearly there are reasons why there are differences in educational outcomes, but our research shows that obesity is not one of them," Dr Scholder argues"

"..do sllightly worse," "not a major factor," and "differences in educational outcomes."

Sounds an awful lot like fat kids are stupider, just like the researchers.

Besides, being fat is evidence of stupidity, certainly parental and possibly the kid, depending on age.

Weight Loss Ups Testosterone

Not news, but correct.

The prevalence of hypogonadism decreased by almost 50% in overweight men who lost weight by means of lifestyle changes, investigators reported here.

Men who increased physical activity and modified their diet had a hypogonadism prevalence of 11% after 1 year, as compared with 20% at baseline, Andrew A. Dwyer, MD, reported at ENDO 2012.

To learn more, go here and here.

Can Artificial Sweeteners Aid Weight Loss? Yes, But Don't Compensate!

Duh.

Artificial sweeteners, also known as non-nutritive sweeteners, may help people reach their body weight goal, and also maintain a healthy body weight, researchers reported in two journals, Circulation and Diabetes Care. However, users have to make sure they do not "compensate" by eating high-calorie foods. An example of "compensating" might be ordering a diet coke and also a large slice of chocolate cake.

Duh.

Newborns Delivered To Obese Mothers May Have Lower Levels Of Iron

More early nutritional child abuse.

A growing number of studies imply that children born to obese mothers face health problems stemming from the womb.

New research from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and The Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center suggests that low iron status is among these health problems, according to an analysis of maternal hepcidin, a hormone that is key in keeping iron levels balanced.

The study enrolled 15 obese pregnant women with body mass index (BMI) greater than 30 and 15 healthy weight pregnant women with BMIs between 20 and 25 as a control group. Maternal blood draws took place during the second trimester of pregnancy and newborn iron status was measured in cord blood.

The researchers found that being born to an obese mother with elevated hepcidin levels was associated with lower iron status at birth. Obese adults are known to produce higher levels of hepcidin compared to healthy weight adults and the researchers suggest that overproduction of the hormone interferes with the transfer of iron from mother to infant. The results were recently published online by the Journal of Perinatology.

Stop the abuse.

Testosterone Tx Helps Obese Men Trim Waistline

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm).

Obese hypogonadal men lost an average of 36 pounds during long-term testosterone replacement therapy (TRT), results of a prospective cohort study showed.

The men also shed 3.5 inches from their waistline as they lost fat mass and added lean body mass to their body composition. Overall, 95% of the 255 men lost weight during TRT for as long as 5 years, and 97% had reduction in waist circumference.

Learn more here and here.

Can spending less time sitting down add years to life?

They don't know. Why ask?

Limiting the time we spend sitting to just three hours a day could add an extra two years to our life expectancy, scientists calculate.

Similarly, if we cut daily TV viewing down to two hours we could add on 1.4 years, they say in a report for the online journal BMJ Open.

But experts say the US estimates, which are based on five separate population studies, are too unreliable to predict personal risk.

Plus the targets are unfeasible.

Well, that was helpful.

More crap research.

Cutting Up Your Food May Help You Lose Weight

Wanna bet?

If you're looking to cut calories, you might start by cutting your food into smaller pieces. So suggests a study reported Tuesday in Zurich, Switzerland, at the international conference for the Society for the Study of Ingestive Behavior.

Arizona State University researchers gave 301 hungry college students either a whole bagel or the same bagel cut into four separate pieces. Twenty minutes later, both groups of students were treated to a free lunch.

What the researchers found was that the college students in both groups ended up eating roughly the same amount of each bagel; however the students that ate the bagel cut in four pieces ate roughly 25 percent less of their free lunch than the students who ate the uncut bagel.

The phenomenon appeared to hold true in animals as well. As part of the same study, the researchers also found that when hungry rats were given a choice to look for food either as a single large pellet or 30 small pellets, the rats ran faster and more frequently to the small pellets.

To lose weight, cut Calories.

Obesity Linked to Circle of Friends

Which is why parents should not let their kids have fat friends.

A Loyola study of high school students provides new evidence that a person's circle of friends may influence his or her weight.

Students were more likely to gain weight if they had friends who were heavier than they were. Conversely, students were more likely to get trimmer -- or gain weight at a slower pace -- if their friends were leaner than they were.

Results of the study by David Shoham, PhD, and colleagues are published in the journal PLoS ONE. Shoham is an assistant professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine & Epidemiology of Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine.

Yep.

Lower Iron Levels Seen in Newborns of Obese Mothers

Fat people should not have kids.

A growing number of studies imply that children born to obese mothers face health problems stemming from the womb. New research from the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University and The Mother Infant Research Institute at Tufts Medical Center suggests that low iron status is among these health problems, according to an analysis of maternal hepcidin, a hormone that is key in keeping iron levels balanced.

More early nutritional child abuse.

Big Breakfast, Plus Dessert Aids Weight Loss

Not true.

Obese adults lost significantly more weight by starting the day with a calorie- and carbohydrate-heavy breakfast that included a sweet treat, instead of saving more calories for dinner, according to a study reported here.

The weight was lost because overall they ate fewer Calories.

Apparently the Calories came from what they would have eaten at dinner.

No magic here.

Just Calories in were less than Calories out.

Which is, and always will be, the case.

Epidemic Of Obesity Requires A New Focus On Controlling Energy Balance And Preventing Weight Gain

Wrong. Requires the same old focus on Calories in vs. Calories out.

As the United States confronts the growing epidemic of obesity among children and adults, a team of University of Colorado School of Medicine obesity researchers concludes that what the nation needs is a new battle plan - one that replaces the emphasis on widespread food restriction and weight loss with an emphasis on helping people achieve "energy balance" at a healthy body weight.

In a paper published in the journal Circulation, James O. Hill, PhD. and colleagues at the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center take on the debate over whether excessive food intake or insufficient physical activity cause obesity, using the lens of energy balance - which combines food intake, energy expended through physical activity and energy (fat) storage - to advance the concept of a "regulated zone," where the mechanisms by which the body establishes energy balance are managed to overcome the body's natural defenses towards preserving existing body weight. This is accomplished by strategies that match food and beverage intake to a higher level of energy expenditure than is typical in America today, enabling the biological system that regulates body weight to work more effectively. Additional support for this concept comes from many studies showing that higher levels of physical activity are associated with low weight gain whereas comparatively low levels of activity are linked to high weight gain over time.

"A healthy body weight is best maintained with a higher level of physical activity than is typical today and with an energy intake that matches," explained Hill, professor of pediatrics and medicine and executive director of the Anschutz Health and Wellness Center at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus and the lead author of the paper. "We are not going to reduce obesity by focusing only on reducing food intake. Without increasing physical activity in the population we are simply promoting unsustainable levels of food restriction. This strategy hasn't worked so far and it is not likely to work in the future.

Even wronger is the physical activity approach to weight loss/maintenance.

Hill is an obesity expert molehill.

Overweight? There's a Vaccine for That, at Least for Mice

Good for mice!

New vaccines promote weight loss. A new study, published in BioMed Central's open access journal, Journal of Animal Science and Biotechnology, assesses the effectiveness of two somatostatin vaccinations, JH17 and JH18, in reducing weight gain and increasing weight loss in mice.

Obesity and obesity-related disease is a growing health issue worldwide. Somatostatin, a peptide hormone, inhibits the action of growth hormone (GH) and insulin-like growth factor (IGF-1), both of which increase metabolism and result in weight loss. Vaccination with modified somatostatin causes the body to generate antibodies to somatostatin, effectively removing this inhibition without directly interfering with the growth hormones and subsequently increasing energy expenditure and weight loss.

Now they need to develop one for brontosapiens.

(Which ain't gonna happen. But if it ever does, you can be sure that you will be long dead.}

Childhood Obesity Challenge Launched By American Journal Of Preventative Medicine

So what?

The Childhood Obesity Challenge is a competition open to individuals or teams from any sector that has been launched by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine (AJPM) and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The Challenge aims to promote creative and innovative solutions to childhood obesity outside the box of scientifically published research.

Participants are asked to submit a brief proposal with a description of their entry. Supplementary videos, images, apps or other media related to the entry will be accepted. Proposals and related materials will be subject to a peer review by AJPM reviewers.

Promises to be crap especially since the RWJF is involved.

Leading Food Expert Says The Food Industry Should Be Regulated

Image (above) of a talking pig.

More drivel spouted from the piehole of fat f**k Kelly Brownell.

"The obesity crisis is made worse by the way industry formulates and markets its products and so must be regulated to prevent excesses and to protect the public good," writes a leading food expert in this week's PLoS Medicine.

Kelly Brownell from the Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity at Yale University argues that like all industries, the food industry plays by certain rules: "It must defend its core practices against all threats, produce short-term earnings, and in do doing, sell more food. If it distorts science, creates front groups to do its bidding, compromises scientists, professional organizations, and community groups with contributions, blocks needed public health policies in the service of their goals, or engages in other tactics in ''the corporate playbook,'' this is what is takes to protect business as usual."

Better to regulate Brownell than the food industry.

Study Finds That Physical Education Mandates Not Enough In Most States

Nor will they ever be since "exercise" is the least efficient way to lose weight.

Children need quality physical education to combat obesity and lead healthy lives. Georgia elementary schools make the grade when it comes to providing that education, but middle and high schools in the state don't even come close, according to a University of Georgia study.

A study by UGA kinesiology professor Bryan McCullick examined the mandates for school-based physical education in all 50 United States. The results found only six states mandate the appropriate guidelines-150 minutes each week-for elementary school physical education. For older students, two states mandate the appropriate amount of physical education instruction for middle school, and none require adequate physical education at the high school level, a weekly 225 minutes for both. The National Association of Sport and Physical Education set guidelines for the amount of school-based physical education instructional time.

The results of his research were published in the Journal of Teaching in Physical Education.

"Findings indicated that statutes were written in a manner that did not explicitly mandate school-based physical education but rather recommended or suggested it," said McCullick, who teaches in the UGA College of Education.

More useless crap.

Drinking Coffee: More Good Than Harm?

They don't know.

There was a time when the only news about coffee and health was how it was bad for the heart, likely to give us ulcers and aggravate our nerves, but now it seems this popular beverage is receiving a more favorable kind of press.

However, the researchers uncovering the good news are all saying the same thing: while there appear to be some health perks from drinking coffee, there are also a few cautions, and the evidence is not solid enough to actively encourage people to go out and drink coffee.

Another reason to reserve some caution, is that although the evidence is shifting toward a more favorable view of coffee's effect on health, it is not based on cause and effect but on links for which there could be other explanations: it could be that regular coffee drinkers have something else in common, that studies have yet to discover, to account for the effect on health.

And coffee has been the subject of research, like forever.

Imagine how little they know about other stuff.

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

Exercise Program Doesn't Affect Gestational Diabetes Risk

Of course not. Exercise is near useless or worse for weight loss.

New findings from The Netherlands provide more evidence that exercise interventions alone are not effective for reducing the risk of gestational diabetes in overweight pregnant women.

"It's difficult to reach these women and get them to comply with such an intervention, which may explain our findings," Dr. Mireille van Poppel of VU University Medical Center in Amsterdam, one of the study's authors, told Reuters Health. "We need to look for other types of interventions to reach these women."

No.

You need to let them experience their gestational diabetes and pay for the consequences.

No other intervention will be needed.

Just wait and see.

High Vitamin D Doses Lower Fracture Risk for Most Vulnerable

Only according to some.

Those older than 65 years who take high doses of vitamin D lower their risk of suffering a fracture by from 14% to 30%, according to a pooled analysis that demonstrated fracture risk reduction only at the highest level of vitamin D intake.

Heike A. Bischoff-Ferrari, MD, DrPH, from the Center on Aging and Mobility at the University of Zurich and the Wald City Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland, and coauthors reported their findings in a study published online July 4 and in the July 5 print edition of the New England Journal of Medicine.

"The findings suggest that only a high intake of vitamin D [median, 800 IU daily; range, 792 - 2000 IU] leads to a significant reduction in the risk of fracture — with a 30% reduction in the risk of hip fracture [hazard ratio, 0.70; 95 percent confidence interval (CI), 0.58 - 0.86; P < .001] and a 14% reduction in the risk of any nonvertebral fracture [hazard ratio, 0.86; 95% CI, 0.76 - 0.96; P = .007]; this reduction is independent of the assigned treatment dose of vitamin D, age group, sex, type of dwelling, and study," the authors write. Dr. Bischoff-Ferrari and coauthors sought to shed light on the relationship between supplemental vitamin D and reduced fracture risk; a simple question that has bedeviled scores of research teams, with several meta-analyses and 1 prior pooled participant-level analysis yielding inconsistent results. About 75% of fractures are suffered by people aged 65 years or older.

Read the second to the last sentence.

Not according to others.

Being Overweight Alone Does Not Increase The Short-Term Risk Of Death

Meaningless, even if true.

An evaluation of national data by UC Davis researchers has found that extra weight is not necessarily linked with a higher risk of death.

When compared to those with normal weight, people who were overweight or obese had no increased risk of death during a follow-up period of six years. People who were severely obese did have a higher risk, but only if they also had diabetes or hypertension.

Dead is a lousy metric.

Sick is a better metric.

Fat folk are more sick.

Whether we can keep them alive, at too great a cost, is not the point.

Put someone on a ventilator for years and they are not clinically dead.

Stupid research, stupid conclusion, stupid headline.

Kids' Total TV Time Influenced By What Parents Do

Fat slug parents, have fat slug kids.

So do uncaring, unfit parents.

Parenting style can determine how active or how inactive a child is, according to two new studies published in the journal Early Child Development and Care.

Duh.

Lower DHEA in Elderly Linked to Cardiovascular Events

Two words - Anabolic Clinic (sm).

Elderly men with decreased levels of dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) show increased rates of major cardiovascular events, even after adjustment for other traditional cardiovascular risk factors, according to a large-scale study presented here at ENDO 2012: The Endocrine Society 94th Annual Meeting.

Production of the naturally occurring steroid DHEA is known to decrease with age; however, studies on its association with cardiovascular health have been inconclusive.

To find out why, go here and here.

Obesity Linked To Acute Kidney Injury After Heart Surgery

How fat are you?

Obesity increases the risk of acute kidney injury (AKI) following cardiac surgery, according to a Vanderbilt study published in the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology.

Considered common after cardiac surgery, AKI represents a fivefold increase in mortality risk within 30 days after the procedure and is associated with longer hospital stays and a range of complications.

Fat enough to kill your kidneys while you are destroying your heart.

Is it really worth it?

The Skinny On What Makes Us Fat

Lies.

Obesity is a disorder in which fat cells grow larger and accumulate. Certain proteins, called WNT family proteins, function to prevent fat cell formation. However, the activity of WNT proteins can be inhibited by secreted frizzled-related proteins (SFRPs), thus leading to fat cell generation. One of these SFRPs, SFRP5, is highly expressed during fat cell generation and increases during obesity.

Obesity is what you get from eating way too many Calories.

That is all.

Higher Rates Of Childhood Obesity May Be Linked To Phthalate, An Environmental Chemical

Wanna bet?

Obese children show greater exposure than nonobese children to a phthalate, a chemical used to soften plastics in some children's toys and many household products, according to a new study, which found that the obesity risk increases according to the level of the chemical found in the bloodstream. The study was presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

The chemical, di-ethylhexyl phthalate (DEHP), is a common type of phthalate, a group of industrial chemicals that are suspected endocrine disruptors, or hormone-altering agents.

In the study, children with the highest DEHP levels had nearly five times the odds of being obese compared with children who had the lowest DEHP levels, study co-author Mi Jung Park, MD, PhD, said.

"Although this study cannot prove causality between childhood obesity and phthalate exposure, it alerts the public to recognize the possible harm and make efforts to reduce this exposure, especially in children," said Park, a pediatric endocrinologist in Seoul, Korea, at Sanggye Paik Hospital and professor at Inje University College of Medicine.

Link it all you want, moron researchers, but it is CAUSED by too many Calories in and all the phthalates in the world will not change that fact.

American Diet Fuelling Heart Disease And Diabetes Rates In Southeast Asia

Wrong focus.

As Southeast Asians embrace American fast foods, such as pizza, french fries, hot dogs and hamburgers, more are dying prematurely form coronary heart disease and developing diabetes type 2, researchers from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and the National University of Singapore reported in the journal Circulation. The authors say that attention should be focused on the impact of behavioral and dietary changes that take place when cultures interact.

The researchers found that Chinese adults who live in Singapore and consume American-style fast foods, on average, twice each week, had a 56% higher risk of dying from heart disease and a 27% greater chance of developing diabetes type 2, compared to their counterparts who never ate American-style junk foods. Those who ate fast foods at least four times per week were 80% more likely to die from coronary heart disease...

It's clear that the increasing obesity in North America and Europe is a product of diet and lifestyle and concerns are mounting about looming health implications for future generations, with some predicting an avalanche of type two diabetes and cardiovascular problems over the next few decades. Clearly, this problem is not confined to Caucasians, it's simply a question of cultural and dietary habits that can weigh heavily on the health.

Focus on the number of Calories, not the sources.

Gastric Emptying Rate May Be Key To Preventing Obesity

This is it.

Really.

This is the key.

Not. Real key to follow.

Researchers have discovered how a hormone in the gut slows the rate at which the stomach empties and thus suppresses hunger and food intake. Results of the animal study were presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

"The gut hormone glucagon-like peptide 2, or GLP-2, functions as a neurotransmitter and fine-tunes gastric emptying through - as suspected - its receptor action in the brain," said the lead investigator, Xinfu Guan, PhD, assistant professor of pediatrics and medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston.

The researchers found that this action occurs in the GLP-2 receptor specifically in a key group of nerve cells in the brain, called pro-opiomelanocortin, or POMC, neurons. These neurons are in the hypothalamus, the part of the brain that produces appetite-controlling neuropeptides.

In their study using molecular methods, mice lacking this GLP-2 receptor in the POMC neurons showed late-onset obesity and higher food intake compared with normal wild-type mice. The mutant, or GLP-2 receptor "knockout," mice also had accelerated gastric emptying after a liquid meal, as found on a noninvasive breath test. The faster the gastric emptying, the higher the food intake, scientists know.

The real key is the gastric filling rate - how many Calories you shove down your piehole relative to the number of Calories you burn.

Period.

Potential Link Between Long-Term Calcium, Vitamin D Supplement Use And Increased Risk Of Kidney Stones

More bad news for the cure du jour.

Calcium and vitamin D supplements are associated with high calcium levels in the blood and urine, which could increase the risk of kidney stones, a new study finds. The results were presented at The Endocrine Society's 94th Annual Meeting in Houston.

"The use of calcium and vitamin D supplementation may not be as benign as previously thought," said principal investigator J. Christopher Gallagher, M.D., professor and director of the Bone Metabolism Unit at Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha, NE.

Still think they have any idea what they are talking about?

Healthy Drinks Only - New Trend Hitting Many U.S Elementary Schools

There are no "healthy" foods, there is only eating healthily.

Although more elementary schools in the United States are replacing sugary drinks with healthier options, such as water, unhealthy beverages remain available to one-third of public elementary school students, according to a new report.

The study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, examined the availability of competitive beverages - those sold by schools outside of meal programs through vending machines, a la carte lines in the cafeteria, school stores and snack bars - in public elementary schools in the U.S.

The team discovered that more schools are removing unhealthy options, such as sports drinks, soda, and high-fat milk and replacing them with healthier choices, such as bottled water, 100% juice or low-fat milk.

This is politics, not science.