More than $30 billion a year is spent on weight loss products in the U.S., with one in three adults reportedly trying to trim pounds.

The focus of these popular diets typically rests on both the overall amount of food consumed and the relative quantities of proteins, fats and carbohydrates. Vitamins and minerals tend to be overlooked.

In a comparison of four weight-loss plans, researchers from Stanford University in California found significant differences in the consumption of these nutrients.

“Shifting around the food sources that are good sources of fats versus carbohydrates means more than just changing fat and carbohydrate levels,” lead researcher Christopher Gardner told Reuters Health in an email.

Varying amounts of vitamins and minerals tag along, he said. And, as a result, deficiencies can arise that increase the risk of serious health problems, including low blood count, the bone-thinning disease osteoporosis and neurological damage.

In the study, Gardner and his colleagues looked at data from 300 overweight or obese women who were randomly assigned to follow one of four weight-loss diets: Atkins, Zone, LEARN (Lifestyle, Exercise, Attitudes, Relationships, Nutrition) or Ornish.

The women each received three unannounced phone calls around the start of the study and again after 2 months, asking them to recall what they had eaten over the previous 24 hours. These responses were then averaged to get a precise picture of the woman’s diet, report the researchers in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

At 2 months, participants across all diets had similarly reduced their daily intake to 1500 calories from an average of 2000 at the start of the study. (Each pound of weight loss requires eating 3,500 fewer calories.)

As expected, the team found differences in what dieters ate consistent with each diet’s design. Atkins dieters, for example, reported eating the lowest proportion of carbohydrates (17 percent of their daily calories) and the most fat and protein (28 percent).

Differences were also seen in how much of 12 of the 17 vitamins and minerals measured the dieters were eating, leaving some women at risk of inadequate levels based on national recommendations. Vitamin E posed the biggest problem across all groups: more than 65 percent of women weren’t getting enough.

With people eating less, it may come as no surprise that they were also missing out on vitamins and minerals. But for women on the Zone diet, the opposite was true. Risks of inadequacies significantly decreased for vitamins A, E, K and C, while no increased risks were seen for any other vitamins.

The researchers suggest this points to the potential benefits of a diet that encourages moderate but not extreme carbohydrate reductions: down to 40 percent of total calories from traditional recommendations of 45 to 65 percent.

“It isn’t just total carbohydrates that Zone recommends be cut back. It is more specifically the added sugars and refined grains,” said Gardner. “Keep the greens and beans and veggies. Lose the soda, sweets, and the packaged processed foods.”

One potential way to fill in the holes of any diet is through vitamin and mineral supplements, he added. But the researchers found that, of the four diets, only Atkins made this recommendation. And only 3 women in this group took the advice.

“Our bodies work best when vitamin and mineral deficiencies are absent, and healthy food is the best way to get enough of these important nutrients,” Dr. Michael Dansinger of Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, and advisor for the television series “The Biggest Loser,” told Reuters Health by email.

“I believe all the eating strategies in the Stanford study are healthy because they improve obesity, diabetes and heart disease risk factors, which are the leading killers in our society,” Dansinger said. “However, the Zone diet, and others like it, may have an advantage where vitamins and minerals are concerned.”

SOURCE: http://link.reuters.com/dym76m The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, online June 23, 2010.

Technorati Tags: Atkins diet, dieting, vitamin and mineral supplements, weight loss diets, weight loss products

Earlier research had shown that taking Depakote (valproate) during pregnancy might lower the baby’s IQ and lead to deformities in up to one in ten cases. (See Reuters Health story April 16, 2009.)

Scientists have long known about one of these malformations, called spina bifida, in which the fetus’ spinal column doesn’t close properly. But it was unclear whether the drug was linked to other birth defects, such as heart problems or extra short limbs.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, European researchers report an increased risk of six different birth defects in babies whose mothers took Depakote during their first trimester of pregnancy.

The odds of spina bifida, for instance, were more than 12 times higher in these babies compared to those whose mothers didn’t take epilepsy drugs. Abnormal skull development, cleft palate, holes in the heart’s walls, extra fingers or toes, smaller limbs, and urinary problems were also more frequent in the Depakote group, with odds increased up to seven times.

And five of these defects appeared to be specific to Depakote compared with other epilepsy drugs.

Still, the researchers note, the actual frequency of specific birth defects were relatively small, all ranging below one percent. That compares to an overall rate of all birth defects of about 2 percent in the general population.

“I would say valproate is a poor first choice for pregnant women with epilepsy,” said Dr. Kimford J. Meador, a seizure disorder expert at Emory University in Atlanta, who wasn’t involved in the study.

Since last summer, U.S. guidelines have recommended against using Depakote in pregnancy, but Meador said it was still widely used across the country.

Although a few women with epilepsy may only respond to Depakote, often there are alternatives. “If a drug doesn’t work on a woman, you can try another,” said Meador. But fixing malformations is more of a challenge.

Depakote is also approved by the US Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of psychiatric conditions such as bipolar disorder. For women taking the drug, Meador said they should start considering switching medication before they think about having kids.

“By the time they find out they are pregnant, it’s probably too late,” he said.

SOURCE: NEJM/New England Journal of Medicine, June 9, 2010. http://www.nejm.org

Technorati Tags: birth defects, Depakote, epilepsy drugs, heart problems, using Depakote in pregnancy

These shifts in the microbial environment, reported in the Nov. 11 edition of Science Translational Medicine, might mean that experts should look more closely at the billions of microorganisms residing in human guts to better understand and perhaps even treat the epidemic of obesity plaguing the modern world.

“Although how much you eat and how much you exercise are dominant drivers of your energy balance, it’s possible that microbial communities and how they work also comprise a factor that determines your risk for obesity or risk for malnutrition,” said study senior author Dr. Jeffrey I. Gordon, director of the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.

The researchers plan to use the mouse model, or “humanized” mouse, to further study the diverse organisms that reside in people’s guts and how their presence might effect their hosts’ health.

“There are 10 times more microbial cells associated with adult human bodies than there are human cells, so we are 90 percent microbial and 10 percent human,” Gordon said. The bacteria can help people digest and absorb food that might otherwise be indigestible.

But the denizens of the digestive system are hard to study, given the complex environmental, genetic and cultural factors that affect digestion and obesity.

To devise a better way to study these microorganisms, Gordon and his fellow researchers transplanted microbes from human feces into mice that, courtesy of genetic manipulation, had no gut microorganisms of their own.

“When we switched these humanized animals [from a low-fat] to a junk-food diet, high in fat with lots of simple sugars, the structure of the microbial community changed dramatically and very rapidly, not only in terms of who’s there or which species but the proportional representation of species changed very abruptly within 24 hours,” Gordon explained. “These mice also became obese on Western diets.”

“The microbes can adjust with astonishing speed to different types of diets,” he said.

And transplanting the microbes to another set of microbe-free mice also caused the new mice to gain weight, even though they were on a low-fat feeding plan.

“They also showed that the microbiota passes from generation to generation,” said Jun Sun, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry in New York. “This raises the question of whether we can pass microbiota from mothers to children, and the answer seems to be yes.”

The “21st century medicine cabinet,” then, might be composed of microbes themselves or drugs targeting particular sets of microbes to modify how they work in a person’s gut, Gordon said. “We can identify the human genes that are manipulated by microbes and those themselves could become therapeutic targets.”

The findings also helped advance science, Sun said.

“In the past, scientists published very descriptive studies of the flora, but the big question was how to apply the research,” she said. “I think we have jumped a big step forward. Now scientists have an established, well-controlled model of the gut flora.”

Technorati Tags: Gut Bacteria, microbiota, obesity, Western diets

“The take-home message is that body-mass index, however we measure it, is associated with the risk of heart failure,” said Emily B. Levitan, a research fellow at the Cardiovascular Epidemiology Research Unit of Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. She is lead author of a report in the April 7 issue of Circulation: Heart Failure.

That report gave results of two studies, one of 36,873 Swedish women and one of 43,487 Swedish men, who were followed for six years and tracked for body-mass index (BMI) and the incidence of heart failure. Overweight is defined as a BMI between 25 and 30, and obesity as a BMI of 30 or higher. By that definition, 34 percent of the women in the study were overweight and 11 percent were obese, while 46 percent of the men were overweight and 10 percent were obese.

A gender difference emerged from the study of waist circumference in men and women. In women, BMI was associated with heart failure risk only among those who were fattest at the waist. In men, each one-point increase in BMI was associated with a 4 percent increase in heart failure risk, no matter what the waist size.

These are several possible explanations for the difference, Levitan said. “One is that the type of heart failure that men and women get is different,” she said. “Another is that overall body size is more important than body shape in men.”

Whatever the reason, the lesson for both men and women is that weight control can reduce the risk of heart failure, Levitan said.

“For many years, at least among physicians, we were taught that obesity in and of itself was not a risk factor for heart failure,” said Dr. Muriel Jessup, professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and a spokeswoman for the American Heart Association. “We knew it to be a risk factor for coronary disease, but heart failure is a separate condition.”

Coronary disease is blockage of heart arteries that can eventually cause a heart attack. Heart failure is the progressive loss of the heart’s ability to pump blood.

While many patients who have heart failure also have coronary disease, this is not always so,” Jessup said.

“These studies look at the impact of obesity and go a long way toward helping us understand why that is so,” Jessup said.

The study, done among the ethnically homogeneous Swedish population, “can help us get insights into why some racial groups have early heart failure,” she said. A study reported last month that heart failure tends to occur at least a decade earlier in blacks than in whites, Jessup noted.

While the incidence of coronary disease among Americans has been going down, heart failure has increased, she said. One reason is that methods of preventing and treating coronary disease have improved, Jessup said. “People don’t die of myocardial infarction [heart attack] but go on to have heart failure,” she said.

The link between excess weight and heart failure “is another reason for people to watch their weight and another signal to physicians to be more aware of following their obese patients,” Jessup said.

Technorati Tags: cardiovascular, heart failure, heart failure risk, obese, obesity, obesity and heart failure

Obesity can result from excessive intake of food, lack of physical activities, lack of knowledge on balanced diet and genetic factors etc. Obesity can also be visible as a result of side effect of some certain kind of medications. Obesity is considered as a disease by the medical fraternity as it may give rise to future health risks like – heart ailments, diabetes, prostate cancer, high blood pressure, and hypertension etc. Hence, it is important to get rid of obesity when time is left.

Acomplia is a diet pill is a sympathomimetic amine and is known as ‘anorexigenic’ or ‘anorectic’ drug too. This diet pill stimulates the central nervous system and its periphery thus helps in increasing heart rate and blood pressure. This increase in blood pressure and heart rate helps one decrease his or her appetite. Acomplia is a short term appetite suppressant to be used in tandem with controlled diet and exercises. As Acomplia is a diet supplement it cannot directly help one get out of obesity rather it helps in supplementing the process of weight loss through exercises.

Before starting its dosage individuals with thyroid problem, anxiety, epilepsy, allergy, and diabetes should tell their doctor about it. One should not take Phentermine if he or she has – heart disease, high blood pressure, glaucoma or have a history of drug abuse. Acomplia is a prescription drug hence this drug should not be taken without proper medical guidance. An obese can have online prescription for the drug from a number of online facilities. These online prescriptions are free of cost, i.e. one does not need any fee to pay to avail these services.

Side effects of Acomplia may include hallucination, abnormal behaviour, confusion, headache, blurred vision, difficulty in breathing, swelling of face, lips, tongue or closing of throats etc. In case such events occur one should stop taking Acomplia diet pills immediately. Other minor side effects like restlessness, insomnia, headache, diarrhea and changes in libido may also occur. In case these happen you should talk to your doctor.

Where to buy Acomplia online?

• Brand Acomplia medication without prescription from Europe
• Generic Acomplia medication without prescription from Europe

(source: weightlossmedications.org)

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If you are one of these people, then you might consider weight loss drugs to help achieve a clinical significant weight loss. Weight loss drugs are not meant to be used by the Jacks and Jills who just want to lose a few pounds for cosmetic reasons. You can benefit from weight loss drugs if you are obese, and this obesity is causing health problems.

Weight-loss drugs should not replace the need for changes in your eating habits or activity level.

Practitioners may recommend weight loss drugs to different classes of people including:

1. Patients with a body mass index (BMI) of 30 or more,
2. Overweight patients with a BMI of 27 or more who either lack “good” HDL cholesterol, have too much “bad” LDL cholesterol, are at risk of developing type 2 diabetes, have a high blood pressure, or have sleep apnea
3. People who have tried other weight loss methods, and failed

Common drugs available on the market

Some commonly available drugs are listed below. This list is by no means exhaustive. The first two are available on the NHS, if you meet their criteria.

• Sibutramine Meridia (US) /Reductil (UK)). This drug changes your brain chemistry, making you feel full more quickly. Typical dosage is 10 milligrams (mg) once a day. Possible side-effects include increased blood pressure, headache, dry mouth, constipation and insomnia.
• Orlistat (Xenical). Prevents the absorption of fat in your intestines. Normal dosage is 120 mg three times a day. Possible side effects include frequent oily bowel movements, diarrhea, bloating and abdominal pain.
• Rimonabant (Acomplia). Works by blocking the endocannabinoid system in the brain which regulates hunger. This stifles hunger and cravings. You take 1 pill a day. Possible side effects include dizziness, nausea, anxiety, diarrhea and insomnia.

During tests sibutramine and orlistat users typically achieved weight losses of 3-4 percent over a year. Rimonabant users typically achieved 5-10%, with almost 40% achieving 10% weight loss. Rimonabant is not expected to be on the NHS within the next two years due to its cost (£55 per patient per month).

Technorati Tags: acomplia, meridia, rimonabant, weight loss drugs, xenical

Rimonabant (Acomplia, Zimulti), a selective cannabinoid-1 receptor (CB1) blocker, has been shown to reduce body weight and improve cardiovascular risk factors in obese patients. The Rimonabant in Obesity–Lipids (RIO-Lipids) study examined the effects of rimonabant on metabolic risk factors, including adiponectin levels, in high-risk patients who are overweight or obese and have dyslipidemia.

Methods

We randomly assigned 1036 overweight or obese patients (body-mass index [the weight in kilograms divided by the square of the height in meters], 27 to 40) with untreated dyslipidemia (triglyceride levels >1.69 to 7.90 mmol per liter, or a ratio of cholesterol to high-density lipoprotein [HDL] cholesterol of >4.5 among women and >5 among men) to double-blinded therapy with either placebo or rimonabant at a dose of 5 mg or 20 mg daily for 12 months in addition to a hypocaloric diet.

Results

The rates of completion of the study were 62.6 percent, 60.3 percent, and 63.9 percent in the placebo group, the group receiving 5 mg of rimonabant, and the group receiving 20 mg of rimonabant, respectively. The most frequent adverse events resulting in discontinuation of the drug were depression, anxiety, and nausea. As compared with placebo, rimonabant at a dose of 20 mg was associated with a significant (P<0.001) mean weight loss (repeated-measures method, –6.7±0.5 kg, and last-observation-carried-forward analyses, –5.4±0.4 kg), reduction in waist circumference (repeated-measures method, –5.8±0.5 cm, and last-observation-carried-forward analyses, –4.7±0.5 cm), increase in HDL cholesterol (repeated-measures method, +10.0±1.6 percent, and last-observation-carried-forward analyses, +8.1±1.5 percent), and reduction in triglycerides (repeated-measures method, –13.0±3.5 percent, and last-observation-carried-forward analyses, –12.4±3.2 percent). Rimonabant at a dose of 20 mg also resulted in an increase in plasma adiponectin levels (repeated-measures method, 57.7 percent, and last-observation-carried-forward analyses, 46.2 percent; P<0.001), for a change that was partly independent of weight loss alone.

Conclusions

Selective CB1-receptor blockade with rimonabant significantly reduces body weight and waist circumference and improves the profile of several metabolic risk factors in high-risk patients who are overweight or obese and have an atherogenic dyslipidemia.

Source Information: From the Quebec Heart Institute, Laval Hospital Research Center, and the Division of Kinesiology, Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Laval University, Ste.-Foy, Que., Canada (J.-P.D.); the Service of Therapeutic Education for Chronic Diseases, University Hospital Geneva, Geneva (A.G.); and the Department of Body Composition and Metabolism, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Göteborg, Sweden (L.S.). Full Article at The New England Journal of medicine Website

Technorati Tags: acomplia, obesity, rimonabant, Weight Loss, weight management, zimulti