Category: Research (Page 25 of 93)

Control Diabetes With Weight-loss Surgery?

March 28, 2012 / Staff

Weight loss surgery to cure diabetes is an absurd notion which fails to address the real problem behind this disease; lifestyle choices.

Dr. Mark Hyman has painstakingly studied this epidemic and offers real solutions for curing diabetes and also addresses the drawbacks to radical solutions such as gastric bypass surgery:

A report on the effectiveness of weight-loss surgery published by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality found that within 3 to 5 years after laparoscopic gastric banding, as many as one-third of patients are not able to maintain weight loss due to noncompliance with a prescribed diet and other issues. Plus, the complications stemming from lap-band surgery were as high as 30 percent.
We also know that weight-loss surgery is not without risks. Altering the gastrointestinal tract can lead to nutritional deficiencies that require lifelong monitoring and supplementation of calcium, vitamin B12, folate, multivitamins, iron, and thiamine. And the psychological risks of these surgeries are often underplayed. In 2010, a study published in the American Journal of Medicine showed a dramatic increase in suicide among patients who had bariatric surgery, most occurring within three years following the surgery. (1)
Even more disturbing is the rise in overweight teens choosing weight-loss surgery. Since the late ‘90s, the number of weight-loss procedures performed on teenagers has skyrocketed. (2) Some studies show the mean age of these young patients is just 16 years old with some as young as 12! (3) Very few studies have looked at the long-term ramifications of these surgeries. What kind of problems are we passing on to our youth?

Does this costly and risky procedure truly address the root causes of Type 2 Diabetes?

Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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Chocolate To Stay Thin?

March 27, 2012 / Staff

Well, the good news is that chocolate may actually help you to stay thin even if you don’t diet.

What scientists are learning is that all calories are not created equal and our bodies don’t treat them equally.

Some foods contain substances which may actually helps us keep off the pounds.

“When people talk about the health benefits of chocolate,” says food scientist Joshua Lambert of Penn State University, “they typically talk about compounds called polyphenols.”
When he investigated some specific polyphenols found in cocoa, he found that they potently inhibit an enzyme, called pancreatic lipase, that’s responsible for digesting dietary fat.
This means that the fat in chocolate may exit our bodies before it has a chance to be absorbed. Or, in other words, these compounds in cocoa may help us fend off fat.

Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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Trans Fats May Fuel Aggressive Behavior

March 27, 2012 / Staff

A recent study has found a link between consumption of trans fats and aggressive behavior.

As if the already known health risks were not bad enough this finding is just one more reason to limit trans fats in the diet.

There is already substantial data from many other studies that high trans-fat consumption leads to a variety of poorer health outcomes, including heart disease and certain cancers.

The mean age of the participants was 57 years (range, 45 – 69 years), 68% were male, and 80% were white. The mean trans-fat consumption per day was 3.49 grams (range, 1.02 – 5.96 g/day).
The researchers collected nutrient data using a food frequency questionnaire; they collected information on behavioral acts of aggression toward self, others, and objects, with a variety of validated instruments, including the following:
Overt Aggression Scale Modified – Aggression subscale (OASMa)
Life History of Aggression (LHA)
Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS)
Impatience
Irritability
They found that participants who ate more trans fats had higher scores on each of these measures.

New York City has taken the initiative to limit how much trans fat can be used by restaurants.

Health Care Policy, Nutrition, Quality Control, Research, Wellness

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Generic Or Not Generic?

March 26, 2012 / Staff

Whether choosing generics because of cost or availability you would think that their safety and efficacy would be guaranteed by the maker, much like brand name products.

It seems like this is not the case.

Across the country, dozens of lawsuits against generic pharmaceutical companies are being dismissed because of a Supreme Court decision last year that said the companies did not have control over what their labels said and therefore could not be sued for failing to alert patients about the risks of taking their drugs.
Now, what once seemed like a trivial detail — whether to take a generic or brand-name drug — has become the deciding factor in whether a patient can seek legal recourse from a drug company. The cases range from that of Ms. Schork, who wasn’t told which type of drug she had been given when she visited the hospital, to people like Camille Baruch, who developed a gastrointestinal disease after taking a generic form of the drug Accutane, as required by her health care plan.

Health Insurance, Medicaid, Medicare, Quality Control, Research, Resources, Wellness

generic drugs pharmaceuticals public safety safety of generic drugs

A Little Dirt Is A Good Thing

March 25, 2012 / Staff

Moms can relax. Dirty little children aren’t such a bad thing.

Exposure to germs as a kid seems to be helpful, while living in an environment that’s squeaky clean seems to pose risks for some illnesses. Still, nobody knew precisely why. But now some scientists say they think they’ve figured out the details of the “hygiene hypothesis.”
They found that microbes in the gut keep a rare part of the immune system reined in. No microbes, and the immune cells go crazy in the lungs and intestines, increasing the risk of asthma and colitis. Add in the microbes, and cells in question, invariant natural killer T cells, retreat.

Aside from toxic waste, getting grimy and being exposed to a variety of germs in the environment can actually improve immunity.