Best Weight Loss Questions and Reviews

- FRIDAY, Aug. 29 (HealthDay News) -- Eating plenty of antioxidant-rich food such as blueberries, artichokes and pecans may help protect against macular degeneration, the leading cause of age-related blindness in the United States and other developed countries.

U.S. researchers found that antioxidants disrupt a link between two processes in the retina that, in combination, contribute to macular degeneration. Antioxidants also extend the lifetime of irreplaceable photoreceptors and other retinal cells.

The "destructive synergy" that causes macular degeneration occurs when a buildup of a compound called A2E disrupts energy production in mitochondria, the "power plants" in cells, the researchers said. The lack of energy interferes with daily cleaning and maintenance of photoreceptors and another type of retinal cell. This leads to more buildup of A2E and a continuing cycle that results in the destruction of the vital visual cells that can't be replaced.

Experiments using visual cells from humans, rats and cows showed that antioxidants could completely counter the damage caused by this process, said the researchers from Brigham Young University and Weill Medical College of Cornell University.

"The implication is that people at risk of macular degeneration could help prevent the disease by consuming antioxidants," study author Heidi Vollmer-Snarr, a Brigham Young chemist, said in a university news release.

The study was published online in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

"This work by Dr. Vollmer-Snarr and colleagues ties these two damaging processes together and demonstrates the harm they cause in combination is much more than would be expected," Dr. Paul Bernstein, of the University of Utah's Moran Eye Center, said in the news release. "This new knowledge," added Bernstein, who wasn't involved in the study, "suggests the possibility of interventions which could prove to be powerful ways to prevent or delay age-related macular degeneration."

More information

The U.S. National Eye Institute has more about age-related macular degeneration.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Obesity is associated with an increased risk of colorectal adenomas -- growths or polyps that can become cancerous -- but weight loss might reduce the risk, a study hints.

"Colorectal cancer is known to be associated with obesity," Dr. Yutaka Yamaji from University of Tokyo, Japan told Reuters Health. "Our data, together with previous reports, shows pre-cancerous lesions are also associated with obesity."

Yamaji and colleagues investigated the relationship between obesity and the prevalence of colorectal polyps and studied the effect of weight loss on the development of these abnormal growths after 1 year. Almost 8000 "average-risk" subjects had an initial colonoscopy, and about 2500 of them had a second examination a year later.

The prevalence of colorectal polyps at the initial colonoscopy increased proportionally with increasing body weight, the team found. Increasing body mass index, or BMI, was also associated with increasing numbers of colorectal polyps, but not with size or stage of the polyps.

Losing weight appeared to have a beneficial impact on colorectal growths. While the incidence of polyps 1 year after the initial exam increased proportionally with increasing BMI, the researchers found that the incidence was lower in people who lost weight (9.3 percent) than in those that gained weight (16.2 percent) or maintained their weight (17.1 percent).

SOURCE: American Journal of Gastroenterology, August 2008.

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - In people who are obese, weight-loss surgery will likely lead to an improvement in obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) but it won't eliminate the nighttime breathing disorder. Many patients will have residual OSA one year after weight-loss surgery (also known as bariatric surgery), results of a study indicate.

"There are numerous benefits to weight loss by any means, (including) a reduction in the severity of OSA," study leader Dr. Christopher Lettieri of Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC, told Reuters Health. "However, patients and their physicians should understand that OSA can occur in the absence of obesity, and losing weight, even if substantial, may not resolve OSA."

OSA is a common problem, particularly among the obese, in which tissues in the back of the throat temporarily collapse during sleep causing numerous, brief episodes of interrupted breathing. It can be effectively treated with a special "CPAP" breathing device that alleviates the blockage by pushing air into throat.

In a study designed to clarify the impact of bariatric surgery on OSA, 24 morbidly obese patients underwent overnight sleep studies before and 1 year after bariatric surgery.

All of them had OSA at the start of the study and surgical weight loss resulted in substantial improvements in the severity of OSA, Lettieri and colleagues report in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

However, all but one patient had persistent OSA despite their weight loss. "In fact, the majority still had moderate to severe disease, which would require continued treatment," Lettieri said. Two people had a worsening of their OSA despite significant weight loss.

"OSA," Lettieri said, "is associated with numerous adverse effects on health and quality of life, especially in those with moderate to severe disease. If present, it should be treated."

Patients having weight-loss surgery, he added, should not assume their OSA has resolved and should have a repeat sleep study prior to discontinuing their OSA treatment.

SOURCE: Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, August 15, 2008.

- (HealthDay News) -- More than half of Americans take a dietary supplement of some kind, the Cleveland Clinic says.

But all supplements aren't safe and effective. The clinic offers this primer:

• There's no better substitute for a healthy, balanced diet, which can provide most healthy people with all of the nutrients they need.
• Supplements are a good option for people who can't get enough of certain needed nutrients through diet. Pregnant women, athletes and vegetarians are prime examples.
• Too much of a good thing can cause serious health problems. Be sure not to exceed the recommended daily amount of any supplement.
• Supplements aren't regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so it's up to consumers to carefully check supplement labels to be sure what they're taking.

An apple a day can keep the doctor away.

But two eggs a day might make the fat disappear.

A new study shows that eating eggs could help overweight adults lose weight and gain energy.

The two-month-study-- done by the egg nutrition center-- looked at overweight adults ages twenty-five to sixty.

It found that those who ate two eggs for breakfast under a low-calorie diet lost sixty-five percent more weight.

Researchers also found the adults lowered their body mass index by sixty-one percent more than adults who ate bagels for breakfast and reported higher energy levels.
The study was published on the on line 'International Journal of Obesity.'

Overweight is increasing day by day which could make a real dangerous for our health. It's a sad fact of modern life that many people will do whatever it takes for them to lose weight. Unfortunately, this often results in extreme behaviors such as binging, purging, and overdosing on laxatives or just not eating at all. These extreme eating habits, and the use of products such as slimming pills, can cause illness and permanent damage to the body.

There’s no doubt that being constantly bombarded by glamorous media images gives many people an unrealistic idea of an attractive body shape. However it's also true that our modern western diet is very unhealthy, leading to a huge increase in obesity levels.

So weight loss is actually necessary for many people in order to improve their health. Many turn to slimming pills for a quick fix. There are two main problems with this. First, many diet pills because unwanted side effects, let alone raising concerns about putting more chemicals into your body. Plus, once you stop taking the slimming pills, what happens? For most people, they put any lost weight straight back on again.

The long term solution is to make a few simple changes to your diet, and increase your levels of exercise. One change that's simple to make is to have four smaller meals each day, rather than three larger ones. Odd as it might sound, it actually helps your metabolism function more effectively by eating more frequent, smaller meals. Some nutritionists recommend as many as six small meals a day.

Slimming pills, on the other hand, generally work by suppressing your appetite. So instead of keeping your metabolism ticking over regularly throughout the day, it just ends up getting confused. Your body also needs a wide variety of vitamins and minerals for optimum health. You can't get those by not eating because slimming pills have suppressed your appetite.

Make a proper research for the diet pills whichever you want to adhere because if selected wrong then may have side effects to your body. So here you can buy slimming tablets online to save your time and also discover some great ways to lose weight fast.

- FRIDAY, Aug. 22 (HealthDay News) -- Gastric banding, a surgical procedure designed to combat obesity, appears to boost the risk for developing or exacerbating symptoms of gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD).

The finding stems from a review of research on the link between obesity and reflux. The experts concluded that gastric bypass may help reduce GERD, but gastric banding does not -- a finding patients may want to consider when choosing one form of weight-loss surgery over another.

"For people with obesity and reflux together, the gastric bypass procedure appears to be effective not only for weight loss, but also for the control of reflux symptoms," concluded the review's lead author, Dr. Frank K. Friedenberg, an associate professor in the section of gastroenterology at Temple University School of Medicine, Philadelphia. "Because in this case, most of the acid from the stomach is being partitioned away, so it doesn't have exposure to the esophagus," he explained.

"However, with gastric banding, the problem is that you actually create a pocket which acid has the ability to fill from the remainder portion of the stomach," Friedenberg said. "And this acid can just sit there above the band, and make its way back up to the esophagus. This can cause reflux disease to develop, or make it worse than it had been if it was a problem before the procedure."

Friedenberg and his colleagues published their findings in the August issue of The American Journal of Gastroenterology.

Gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) occurs when a muscle at the end of the esophagus does not close properly, allowing irritating stomach contents to leak back into the esophagus. Symptoms include heartburn and acid indigestion.

According to the new analysis, involving numerous studies, a high body mass index (BMI) and/or high amounts of abdominal fat does appear to raise the odds for significant acid reflux.

The researchers also found that diet-induced weight loss can help minimize GERD symptoms.

However, not all weight-loss surgeries were equally beneficial with respect to GERD, Freidenberg's team found.

Across several studies, a procedure known as Roux-en-Y gastric bypass -- which involves the creation of a small gastric pouch walled off from (or bypassing) the rest of the stomach and intestinal track -- consistently appeared to help patients shed pounds and eliminate or reduce GERD symptoms.

However, laparoscopic (gastric) banding was found to be less helpful in tackling GERD.

The popular surgery, which involves the placement of a band to divide and reduce the size of the stomach, initially debuted in 1993. It has proven effective in helping patients feel satiated earlier, spurring weight loss.

Patients often did lose weight after banding, the researchers found, and this reduction in weight did not immediately encourage GERD. In fact, in some cases, post-procedure weight loss appeared to moderately reduce some reflux disease symptoms, the researchers said.

However, the inserted gastric band often seems to shift in place over time, they said, leading to a reversal of any initial benefit and a gradual worsening of GERD symptoms.

Based on these findings, Friedenberg and his team concluded that gastric bypass may be "the preferred surgical technique" with specific regard to GERD risk. But they also pointed out that more rigorous studies need to be conducted to better understand the how's and why's of reflux disease in the context of weight-loss surgery.

One expert said the current work highlights the need to carefully assess the pros and cons of each weight-loss procedure.

"Gastric bypass is the most common and the most successful of the surgical procedures to deal with obesity," noted Dr. Anthony A. Starpoli, an attending gastroenterologist at Lenox Hill Hospital and director of gastro-esophageal research and endo-surgery at St. Vincent's Hospital, both in New York City. "But the advantage to the banding procedure is that, although it will not be an effective option for all patients -- depending on the level of obesity -- it's a lot less aggressive than bypass and has a lot less morbidity associated with it. And it's much more reversible. So, there are reasons some patients might choose that option."

"However, that said, there is no ideal procedure," Starpoli cautioned. "Both bypass and banding are not without their set of complications. And this study illustrates that while solving one problem, perhaps you worsen another. So, I would say that if you're going into any of these procedures to deal with obesity, and you have significant reflux, you definitely first need to have an appropriate evaluation as if you were considering an anti-reflux procedure."

More information

There's more on GERD at U.S. National Institutes of Health.