Weight Loss
Parents foster significant misperceptions of children’s weight
Results of a survey presented at the American College of Gastroenterology’s 73rd Annual Scientific Meeting in Orlando revealed that many parents do not accurately perceive their children as overweight or at risk for adulthood obesity. Obesity in the United States is often accompanied by an increased risk of gastrointestinal diseases and has emerged as a major health concern, particularly the issue of obesity among children and adolescents.
Researcher Rona L. Levy, Ph.D. and her colleagues at the University of Washington in Seattle and the University of Minnesota measured parental perceptions of their children’s current weight and perceived risk for developing obesity as an adult.
Forty-six parents of children ages 5 to 9 with a body mass index (BMI) in the 70th percentile or higher were recruited for the study. Child height and weight were measured during a routine pediatric clinic visit. Parents were mailed a series of questionnaires, which included questions on their perception of their child’s current weight, and whether they perceived that their child was at risk for developing obesity as an adult.
Steroids Not as Effective in Obese Asthma Patients
Glucocorticoids, the primary controller medication for asthma, are 40 percent less effective in overweight and obese asthma patients than in those of normal weight, according to researchers at National Jewish Health, in Denver. The study also identified a potential mechanism involved in the resistance, which suggests therapeutic targets for future medications.
The study, by Associate Professor of Medicine E. Rand Sutherland, M.D., M.P.H., and his colleagues at National Jewish Health, appears in the first issue for October of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, published by the American Thoracic Society.
“This study identifies what could be a significant issue for the 20 million Americans with asthma; specifically, the main controller medication might be less effective if you are overweight or obese,” said Dr. Sutherland. “These findings should spur doctors to carefully evaluate response to treatment in overweight and obese asthmatics and consider optimizing therapeutic regimens as indicated. We also hope they will spur additional research into the treatment of obese patients with asthma.”
Genes affect weight loss drug effectiveness
A study conducted by researchers at Mayo Clinic shows that obese patients with specific genetic makeup had enhanced response to the weight loss drug sibutramine, while others who lack these genetic factors lost little or no weight.
The findings are published in the October issue of Gastroenterology (http://www.gastrojournal.org).
In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, Mayo researchers measured the impact of two different dosage levels of sibutramine (10 or 15 mg daily) combined with behavioral therapy for 12 weeks in 181 overweight or obese participants. Participants received structured behavioral therapy for weight management at four, eight and 12 weeks.
Intestine liner helps weight loss, U.S. firm says
A U.S. company is developing a removable liner for the intestine that mimics some aspects of weight-loss surgery, offering obese people a nonsurgical way to drop weight and combat the most common form of diabetes.
GI Dynamics Inc. of Lexington, Massachusetts, said its EndoBarrier is intended for morbidly obese people who want to avoid procedures such as gastric bypass surgery. The company presented research on Friday showing the device helps obese people lose weight and lower blood sugar levels.
The device lines part of the intestines with a thin material similar to Teflon, keeping food from touching the intestinal walls, the company said.
Diabetes linked to poor weight loss with surgery
Obese individuals with diabetes lose less weight with gastric bypass surgery than do their peers without diabetes, researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, report.
With gastric bypass surgery, a small stomach pouch is created, which limits food intake by making the patient feel full sooner after eating than he or she otherwise would. In addition, a portion of bowel is connected to the stomach, effectively bypassing the first portion of the bowel where most food absorption occurs.
The new findings, which appear in the Archives of Surgery, also indicate that a bigger stomach pouch leads to inferior weight loss.
Insurers recoup obesity surgery cost in 2-4 years
Insurers recoup the costs of weight-loss surgery within two to four years as obese patients become healthier and have fewer medical problems, researchers said on Wednesday.
The findings show that bariatric surgery, an increasingly popular operation, benefits patients’ health and saves money, according to Pierre-Yves Cremieux of the economic consulting firm Analysis Group and the University of Quebec at Montreal, who led the study.
Bariatric surgery alters the digestive system’s anatomy, reducing the volume of food that can be eaten and digested. The most common form is gastric bypass, which makes the stomach smaller and permits food to bypass part of the small intestine.
How gastric bypass rapidly reverses diabetes symptoms
A report in the September Cell Metabolism, a publication of Cell Press, offers new evidence to explain why those who undergo gastric bypass surgery often show greater control of their diabetes symptoms within days. It also helps to explain why lap-band surgery doesn’t offer the same instant gratification. By studying mice that have undergone both procedures, the researchers show that changes in the intestine are the key.
In addition to removing about two-thirds of the stomach, gastric bypass in effect produces a “double intestine,” said Gilles Mithieux of Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale in France. The portion closest to the stomach is taken out of the loop so that it receives no nutrients. The segment normally farther down is then attached directly to the stomach, where it receives all the nutrients coming in.
In both cases, those positional changes ramp up production of blood sugar by the small intestine, Mithieux said. He noted that fasting normally induces blood sugar production by the upper small intestine. By placing the lower small intestine, which doesn’t normally produce much glucose, in close proximity to the stomach, it starts to act more like the upper portion.
Adults who eat eggs for breakfast lose 65 percent more weight
A study published online today in the International Journal of Obesity shows that eating two eggs for breakfast, as part of a reduced-calorie diet, helps overweight adults lose more weight and feel more energetic than those who eat a bagel breakfast of equal calories. [1] This study supports previous research, published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition, which showed that people who ate eggs for breakfast felt more satisfied and ate fewer calories at the following meal. [2]
“People have a hard time adhering to diets and our research shows that choosing eggs for breakfast can dramatically improve the success of a weight loss plan,” said Nikhil V. Dhurandhar, Ph.D., lead researcher and associate professor in the laboratory of infection and obesity at Pennington Biomedical Research Center, a campus of the Louisiana State University system. “Apparently, the increased satiety and energy due to eggs helps people better comply with a reduced-calorie diet.”
Internet, alcohol and sleep tied to girls’ weight
Girls and young women who devote much time to the Internet, get too little sleep or regularly drink alcohol are more likely than their peers to put on excess weight, a new study suggests.
The researchers, who followed more than 5,000 girls between 14 and 21 years old for 1 year, found that the more spare time girls spent on the Internet, the more their body mass index (BMI) increased.
Similar patterns were seen when the researchers looked at alcohol consumption and sleep. In the latter case, lack of sleep was linked to greater gains in BMI—a measure of weight in relation to height.
Day care babies gain more weight: study
Infants cared for by someone other than mom or dad are more apt to be exposed to “unfavorable” feeding practices and to gain more weight during their first year of life, a new study shows, which could contribute to childhood weight problems.
“Parents may want to have enough communication with child care providers about when, what and how to feed their babies during their stay in day care, which is important to avoid potential risk of overfeeding or underfeeding at home,” Dr. Juhee Kim of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, told Reuters Health.
Kim and co-investigator Dr. Karen E. Peterson of Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, analyzed data on child care arrangements, feeding practices, and weight gain collected for 8,150 infants who were 9 months old. More than half of these children received regular child care from someone other than a parent.
Laparoscopic gastric bypass provides better results
Performing gastric bypass surgery to reduce the weight of morbidly obese patients using a laparoscopic method, rather than the conventional more invasive “open” abdominal method, reduces postoperative complications, the need for a second operation, and shortens hospital stays, new research shows. Nevertheless, laparoscopic gastric bypass is more expensive.
Obesity surgery, also called bariatric surgery, is growing in popularity and more and more of these operations are being done using a laparoscope, note co-authors Dr. Wendy E. Weller, from the University at Albany in New York, and Dr. Carl Rosati, from Albany Medical Center.
This is done by placing one or more small incisions in the abdomen, through which a hollow tube is inserted. This allows very small instruments to be inserted to perform the gastric bypass. The entire procedure is visualized on a screen. In contrast, the more invasive “open” procedure involves making an incision to open the abdomen so the procedure can be performed.
On-the-Job Weight Loss: Worksite Programs Work
Employer-sponsored programs for weight loss are at least partially effective at helping workers take off extra pounds, according to a new review of recent studies.
“For people who participate in them, worksite-based programs do tend to result in weight loss,” said co-author Michael Benedict, M.D. Intensity matters, he found. “The programs that incorporated face-to-face contact more than once a month appeared to be more effective than other programs.”
Since most employed adults spend nearly one-half of their waking hours at work, such programs could have enormous potential in making a dent in the obesity epidemic, according to Benedict, a researcher at the Institute for the Study of Health, Division of General Internal Medicine at the University of Cincinnati College of Medicine.
Lose weight on the carb-packed “big breakfast” diet
To lose weight and keep it off, eat a big breakfast packed with carbohydrates and protein, then follow a low-carb, low-calorie diet the rest of the day, a small study suggests.
The “big breakfast” diet works, researchers say, because it controls appetite and satisfies cravings for sweets and starches. It’s also healthier than popular low-carb diets because it allows people to eat more fiber- and vitamin-rich fruit, according to Dr. Daniela Jakubowicz, of the Hospital de Clinicas in Caracas, Venezuela.
She told the Endocrine Society’s annual meeting in San Francisco that she’s successfully used this diet in her patients for more than 15 years.
Weight Gain Within the Normal Range Increases Risk of Chronic Kidney Disease
Healthy individuals who gain weight, even to a weight still considered normal, are at risk for developing chronic kidney disease (CKD), according to a study appearing in the September 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Society Nephrology (JASN). The study suggests that CKD should be added to the list of conditions that are associated with weight gain, including diabetes and hypertension.
Research has shown that obesity is linked to an increased risk of CKD, but no studies have looked at the effects of weight gain within the “normal” range of an individual’s body mass index. To investigate, Drs. Seungho Ryu and Yoosoo Chang of the Kangbuk Samsung Hospital in Seoul, Korea, and their colleagues conducted a prospective study of individuals who were of a healthy weight and had no known risk factors for chronic kidney disease.
In Korea, all workers participate in either annual or biennial health exams, as required by Korea’s Industrial Safety and Health Law. As a result, the investigators had access to clinical data from thousands of individuals. For this study, they included 8,792 healthy men who participated in the health exams in 2002.
Weight loss can spur bone loss, even with exercise
Obese older adults who shed pounds also tend to lose bone mass, even if they exercise regularly, a new study suggests.
It’s known that weight loss, in young and old alike, can be accompanied by a dip in bone density, but researchers have hoped that this could be prevented with exercise, which generally helps build bone mass.
In the new study, however, obese older adults who lost weight through diet and exercise showed a decline in bone mass at the hip—despite a supervised regimen of aerobic and strengthening exercises.
