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Latest Weight Loss Articles
Diabetes and Weight Loss Article Archives
November 2009
An ad in the November 15, 2009, edition of Parade magazine may be the opening salvo in a campaign to push adjustable gastric bands as a weight loss aid to help overweight type 2s dramatically improve their symptoms or even go into remission.
2 comments - Posted Nov 18, 2009
October 2009
LEXINGTON, Mass., October 27, 2009 - GI Dynamics, a leader in non-surgical treatments for type 2 diabetes and obesity, today announced data which support the safety and efficacy of the EndoBarrierTM Gastrointestinal Liner for pre-surgical weight loss treatment, along with a positive effect on glucose homeostasis in morbidly obese patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. According to the study, mean excess weight loss (EWL) achieved after 12 weeks post implantation was 19.0 % for EndoBarrier patients versus 6.9 % for control patients (p<0.002). The results of this European weight loss study were published today in the advance online publication of Annals of Surgery.
2 comments - Posted Oct 29, 2009
A recent and contentious meeting of diabetes experts at the European Association for the Study of Diabetes in Vienna, Austria, has continued the intense international debate over whether bariatric surgery should become a treatment for type 2 diabetes or continue to be reserved only for the extremely obese.
13 comments - Posted Oct 24, 2009
October 12, 2009. Philadelphia, Pa. - Children in Philadelphia who attended public schools and shopped at corner stores before or after school purchased almost 360 calories of foods and beverages per visit, according to new research published in the journal Pediatrics. Chips, candy and sugar-sweetened beverages were the most frequently purchased items. This is the first study to document both what foods and beverages children purchased in local corner stores on their way to and from school, and the nutritional content of those items.
0 comments - Posted Oct 15, 2009
The demise of Fen-phen dealt a body blow to hopes for an obesity pill that is actually effective. Unfortunately, the fen in Fen-phen, fenfluramine, caused grave pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems. The phen part of the drug, though, was apparently just an innocent bystander. And now phen (phentermine) has resurfaced in a new pill that has posted some amazing results in Phase III clinical trials. Patients who were treated for 56 weeks with the new drug, Qnexa, lost an average of 14.7 percent of their weight, or 37 pounds.
8 comments - Posted Oct 7, 2009
September 2009
The way information is presented to us makes a big difference in whether we are able to integrate that information into our daily lives. Although graphs and numbers may sway some people, putting educational materials into a culturally relevant context can be more effective. A recent study, for example, has found that a dietary program based on the Medicine Wheel Model for Nutrition can change eating patterns among Native Americans, who have the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease of all ethnic groups.
2 comments - Posted Sep 26, 2009
For most of us, the biggest problem with losing lots of weight is the demoralizing process of watching ourselves gain it all back. But some people who lose weight manage to keep it off for good. How do they do it? Researchers from the Miriam Hospital recently examined their brain activity with functional magnetic resonance imaging and actually saw their restraint in action.
1 comment - Posted Sep 25, 2009
Scientists have noted for a long time that the hormone leptin suppresses appetite. That's why they have been puzzled by the high levels of leptin found in obese people-shouldn't leptin decrease their appetites and act as a curb on their weight? Leptin also suppresses bone mass accrual, yet obese people do not suffer from loss or weakening of bone mass, despite their high leptin levels.
0 comments - Posted Sep 25, 2009
DAVIS, CA, SEPTEMBER 17, 2009 - While health officials have long suspected the link between obesity and soda consumption, research released today provides the first scientific evidence of the potent role soda and other sugar-sweetened beverages play in fueling California's expanding girth.
3 comments - Posted Sep 24, 2009
Even if they don't lose weight, a moderate aerobic exercise program can improve insulin sensitivity in obese adolescents who are sedentary.
4 comments - Posted Sep 23, 2009
Visceral adipose tissue (VAT), familiarly known as visceral fat, has long been associated with metabolic risk. But VAT is closely correlated with liver fat, also called intrahepatic triglyceride (IHTG) content. As a result, Samuel Klein of the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Missouri, set out to determine if liver fat is more closely correlated with complications in obese patients than VAT.
0 comments - Posted Sep 12, 2009
Here's a sweet bit of news: Drinking sugar-free beverages sweetened with low-calorie sweeteners increases "dietary restraint," the ability of people to maintain long-term weight loss.
5 comments - Posted Sep 7, 2009
According to a recent Pennsylvania study, kids need to learn to control themselves when it comes to food. Obviously, self-control is important for us all, kids and adults alike, when it comes to weight management. It’s equally apparent that children need to be taught by their parents to make healthy food choices. But parents who strictly forbid their children to eat many foods might be contributing to a lack of self-control in their offspring, thereby creating the very chubbiness that they were trying to avert.
2 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2009
July 2009
Researchers at Yale School of Medicine in New Haven, Connecticut, have found a brain enzyme that, when blocked, curbs appetite and increases energy levels-both crucial factors in controlling and losing weight.
0 comments - Posted Jul 25, 2009
For obese people, who often go on to develop type 2 diabetes, the magic bullet would be a drug that causes weight loss without surgery or the misery of drastic diets that often fail. So, news about a drug that produced dramatically slimmer lab rats in just a week should make them-and people with diabetes-perk up.
0 comments - Posted Jul 23, 2009
This article was submitted by GlaxoSmithKline, makers of LOVAZA, a medication to lower very high triglycerides, made from omega-3 fish oil.
0 comments - Posted Jul 16, 2009
Obesity has always been one of the major precursors to type 2 diabetes because of its ill effects on the body's ability to properly use insulin. But until now, scientists haven't been able to say with certainty just what happens in obese people to increase their insulin resistance.
0 comments - Posted Jul 14, 2009
June 2009
A surgeon who has been at the forefront of exploring bariatric surgery as a potentially curative treatment for type 2 diabetes is calling for it to be made accessible to more people.
5 comments - Posted Jun 23, 2009
Over the years, gastric bypass surgery has proven an effective means of controlling-and even reversing-type 2 diabetes in
"super-obese" patients (those with a body mass index of 50 or above; usually more than 200 pounds above ideal body weight).
3 comments - Posted Jun 10, 2009
Obese lab mice with severe type 2 diabetes had their blood glucose levels restored to normal and experienced a doubling in physical activity when sensitivity to the hormone leptin was restored to a portion of their hypothalamus.
3 comments - Posted Jun 9, 2009
May 2009
For generations, people have run hot and cold on the usefulness of vibrating exercise machines. There are plenty of comedy sketches in 1930s movies that portray overweight people being violently shaken around the midriff by a vibrating machine in the hope of strengthening their muscles and metabolizing fat. Those who have disdained such machines have reasoned that they substitute a mechanism's work for the work that exercisers should be doing themselves. After all, how can a machine do for you what you won't do for yourself?
2 comments - Posted May 28, 2009
Sometimes complex problems have simple answers. Take the alarming rise in obesity in the United States since 1970. Researchers have speculated in the past that the cause might be a combination of factors, perhaps a lack of exercise working in concert with the spread of cheap high-calorie junk food.
3 comments - Posted May 23, 2009
April 2009
Three studies just published in the New England Journal of Medicine have discovered that most adults have several grams of brown fat sequestered in little pockets on their necks and backs. It's a tiny amount, but it's big news because brown fat is not your everyday fat, the unwelcome white variety that stores calories and makes us hate mirrors. Brown fat is a busy little heat-producing fat that actually burns calories. It's brown because it contains special mitochondria, tiny factories within the fat cells that produce heat, lots of it, when activated by cold.
2 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2009
The following list shows 50 of the ways we have "convenienced" ourselves into diabesity. Before the technology boom, most Americans were active at work, at home, and at play. Much of what we did was manual, so we burned off the calories that we took in. When you consider that we did many of these activities on a regular basis, it is easy to see how we were able to remain trim. Obviously, no single one of these activities burns a large amount of calories by itself, but taken together, it is easy to see that the number of calories burned really begins to add up. (By the way, if you remember any of the things on this list, you don't have to tell anyone.)
12 comments - Posted Apr 23, 2009
Well, it's official: If you're elderly and fat, you're more likely to have problems getting around than if you're thin and elderly. A new study proves it. But here's the real kicker: If you're thin and elderly, but you used to be fat, you're more likely to develop problems getting around than people who were never fat. As a matter of fact, you're almost as likely to have mobility problems as people who are fat and elderly. Apparently, you just can't win for losing.
3 comments - Posted Apr 21, 2009
Diane Helms has spent most of her life struggling with her weight. She's tried just about every diet you can name and, despite them all, has watched the pounds pile on year after year.
0 comments - Posted Apr 8, 2009
A 12-month university study of 130 persons who ate either a USDA food pyramid-inspired high-carb diet or a diet moderately high in protein showed that members of the higher protein group lost 23 percent more weight and 38 percent more body fat than their high carb counterparts.
0 comments - Posted Apr 3, 2009
March 2009
The following is a Q&A with Judith Waldrop, who participated in Living Well, a week-long residential program designed for women with type 2 diabetes. The program is a joint effort of the healthy weight loss pioneers at Green Mountain at Fox Run and the Joslin Diabetes Center. This year, Living Well will take place April 19-25, 2009.
1 comment - Posted Mar 31, 2009
New cases of adult type 2 diabetes have increased by more than 90 percent in the past 10 years, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease and Prevention.(1) Equally troubling is the dramatic rise in type 2 diabetes among children. Recent reports reveal a 200 percent increase in hospitalizations for children with type 2 diabetes, a condition that was rarely diagnosed in children decades ago.(2) In the words of the CDC, "Diabetes is common, disabling, and deadly."(3)
2 comments - Posted Mar 18, 2009
The old joke has a man going to the doctor and saying, "It hurts when I do this. What should I do to make it go away?"
5 comments - Posted Mar 12, 2009
A few years ago a young man named Jeff came into my office seeking help to lose weight. He was 5'10" tall and weighed 130 pounds. Jeff denied starving himself, denied making himself throw up, and denied over-exercising. I tried to convince him that he was actually 30 pounds underweight. As I looked for the most effective ways of motivating him to restore his health, he brought up the fact that he had type 1 diabetes. Jeff said that he rarely gave himself insulin and that he had "diabulimia." I had never heard of diabulimia and had no idea what I was dealing with. I gave him a list of clinicians and asked him to call me back after he made appointments with an endocrinologist and a psychotherapist.
7 comments - Posted Mar 3, 2009
January 2009
The appearance of professional football player William "Refrigerator" Perry used to bother me. It was clear that he had been encouraged to get really big, and I worried about all that extra weight he carried. There were others almost as heavy, of course, but the Fridge was especially likable-he had charisma and an obvious sense of humor. (For fun, he once boxed 7-foot, 7-inch super-skinny former NBA player Manute Bol. He even entered the 2003 Nathan's Famous Fourth of July Hot Dog Eating Contest, coming in about 40 hot dogs behind the winner.) I worried about his health.
0 comments - Posted Jan 28, 2009
Remember that New Year's resolution that you made a few weeks ago? Oh yeah, that one. How's that going? If you're like most people, you may have started to slack off just a little bit. Or even worse, maybe it's already a distant memory. No worries, I won't tell. Let's get you going again.
1 comment - Posted Jan 27, 2009
Hearts in the medical community beat with considerable excitement at the discovery of leptin in 1994. A hormone produced by fat, leptin has a very useful talent: it tells the brain when to stop eating. So hopes were high that leptin would become the basis of an anti-obesity treatment. What could be simpler than to dose an obese person with a hormone that says, "You're not hungry any more, and you want to stop eating."
0 comments - Posted Jan 22, 2009
Current thinking has it that obese people are obese because they engage in less physical activity and burn fewer calories than their thinner counterparts. But suppose you could show that obese women burn just as many calories as their thinner, supposedly fitter counterparts?
0 comments - Posted Jan 21, 2009
According to biologists at the Baylor College of Medicine, limiting the copies of a gene that produces a protein affecting organ development serves to decrease fat cell size in mice, enhance their responsiveness to insulin, and increase their energy level.
0 comments - Posted Jan 14, 2009
About half of young people who have diabetes report having tried to lose weight at one time or another, says a Kaiser Permanente Southern California study reported in the December 2008 issue of Diabetes Care.
4 comments - Posted Jan 6, 2009
Researchers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong report that having metabolic syndrome may raise the risk of chronic kidney disease in people with type 2 diabetes.
1 comment - Posted Jan 6, 2009
Type 1.5 diabetes, also known as Latent Autoimmune Diabetes in Adults (LADA), is an autoimmune disease that falls between Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes because it has characteristics of both.
10 comments - Posted Jan 6, 2009
In a recent study, obese teens with type 2 diabetes who underwent gastric bypass surgery not only lost a third of their weight, but also experienced the complete remission of their disease.
4 comments - Posted Jan 6, 2009
December 2008
Post-menopausal women hoping to avert type 2 diabetes stand a better chance of success if they rely on losing weight rather than on a low-fat diet, according to results of a 12-year study conducted by the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center in Seattle.
3 comments - Posted Dec 29, 2008
Next week we'll publish a great article written by Dr. Richard Bernstein. MD. Dr. Bernstein is a long-term proponent of paying more attention to carbs rather than fats (though he certainly doesn't advocate that you can have all the fats you want!) While Dr. Bernstein has been telling us about the benefits of low carb for over 30 years, there is still much skepticism about his (and many other's-Gary Taubes, anyone?) low carb results. The establishment has been slow to be convinced, despite the many research trials that back up their findings.
6 comments - Posted Dec 2, 2008
November 2008
No doubt about it: Most of us have never felt less in control of our destinies. The stock market is bottoming out and no one knows what to do about it. Jobs are down, food prices are up, and who knows what's going on with gas. To make things even more expensive, the holidays are upon us. Mix all these factors together, and you have a recipe for runaway stress and anxiety. But there is one thing you can control: your body weight. That's right. Now is the time to get fit, lose any extra pounds that might be hanging around, and develop the habits that will keep your weight at a healthful level over the long term.
1 comment - Posted Nov 24, 2008
With more than 2,500 facilities serving 10,000 communities that run the gamut from big-city downtowns to small rural sites, the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) could turn out to be a powerful tool in the fight to prevent diabetes.
1 comment - Posted Nov 17, 2008
October 2008
In gastric bypass surgery, the surgeon basically lops your small intestine in two and then hooks it back up again in such a way that it's much shorter than before. With the first section of your small intestine out of commission, food flows directly from your stomach to the middle of your small intestine. When less intestine is available to absorb food, less food is absorbed, not surprisingly. It works, but it's not pretty.
2 comments - Posted Oct 20, 2008
Orexigen Therapeutics has announced that the investigational weight loss drug Contrave (naltrexone SR/bupropion SR) reduced the prevalence of metabolic syndrome, which is associated with an increased risk of diabetes and heart disease, by 50 percent.
1 comment - Posted Oct 13, 2008
September 2008
I remember the call from the doctor's office two weeks after a long overdue annual physical. I sat in the examining room expecting to hear the usual "lose weight" diagnosis. I had been feeling tired and had been making more than a few daily trips to the bathroom. But in spite of the fact that my grandmother, father, cousin, and brother all suffered from type 2 diabetes, I was not prepared for my doctor's stern warning: My sugar had been totally out of control for several months. I needed to adjust my diet and lifestyle immediately. I was a 40-year-old chocoholic and totally calorie clueless. I also weighed 255 pounds. The doctor prescribed an oral medication and told me that monthly visits for testing would now be required. I thought, OK, I can do this.
1 comment - Posted Sep 18, 2008
When I became a type 2 about fifteen years ago, I wanted to find a way to manage my weight and blood sugar with diet and exercise. I tried the high carb diet recommended by my doctor and dietitian for a time. It worked wonderfully well while my blood sugar level was high, but when my blood sugar stabilized and I was able to go off medication, I started gaining weight again. The next thing I tried was low carbohydrate dieting. I found it to be a very effective way to lose weight rapidly, but I was unable to endure the regimen for more than a short time.
5 comments - Posted Sep 11, 2008
With 21 million U.S. residents now officially diagnosed as having diabetes, healthcare professionals are looking at another statistic that is causing them many a sleepless night: The Centers for Disease Control estimate that there are 57 million people with pre-diabetes in the United States. (Pre-diabetes is defined as impaired fasting glucose of 100 to 125 mg/dl, impaired glucose tolerance of 140 to 199 mg/dl, or both.)
6 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2008
August 2008
Byetta has had a tough past few days. A lawsuit by a Virginia man alleges that the drug caused his life-threatening bout of severe pancreatitis, and there are rumblings from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration that it may force Byetta's makers to attach a "black box" warning to its container and packaging-a stern, highlighted caution about potentially dangerous, even fatal, side effects.
19 comments - Posted Aug 28, 2008
Imagine someone pressing a pillow over your face while you sleep. You wake up and struggle for air. After 10 seconds, you're allowed to breathe again. But pretty soon, the pillow goes back over your face.
2 comments - Posted Aug 28, 2008
June 2008
When you have diabetes, you make the acquaintance of a lot of high-tech tools to help you manage it: monitors, meters and pumps. One very handy tool that sometimes gets overlooked is a digital scale for weighing and analyzing the nutritional content of food.
1 comment - Posted Jun 19, 2008
Dear friends of Diabetes Health,
We value your hard-earned diabetes wisdom and we want you to share it with the world! Please join us as a professional or lay diabetes advisor in one of our Diabetes Health website content Rooms.
3 comments - Posted Jun 6, 2008
May 2008
Dear Diabetes Health,
I appreciated Jamie Bailes’ (April/May 2008) article on helping overweight kids. To me, it illustrated the complexity of weight regulation and the folly of linking it to one factor (fat).
2 comments - Posted May 30, 2008
Teenage obesity is a growing problem. Not only does it make teens susceptible to type 2 diabetes, but it's also very hard on the teens themselves, who are often bullied or ostracized because of their weight. What can a doctor do when a teen can't seem to lose weight with diet and exercise?
8 comments - Posted May 22, 2008
March 2008
I am a diabetic and was taking four insulin shots per day and still had problems with my sugar. I did two months of research on the Web because I had to find a way to get off the shots. I hate needles I was astonished at what I found on natural herbs!
37 comments - Posted Mar 19, 2008
NEW YORK – Growing evidence shows that surgery may effectively cure type 2 diabetes – an approach that not only may change the way the disease is treated, but that introduces a new way of thinking about diabetes.
18 comments - Posted Mar 13, 2008
What is the secret of effective weight management? When a person develops type 2 diabetes, this is a critical question. Losing weight is one of the most successful ways of dealing with this disorder. This is the challenge that I faced when I diagnosed as diabetic about 15 years ago.
2 comments - Posted Mar 7, 2008
January 2008
Gastric Banding Reverses Impact of Type 2 Diabetes
A new world-first study by Monash University researchers has found gastric banding surgery has a profound impact on one of society's biggest health issues - diabetes.
1 comment - Posted Jan 23, 2008
December 2007
David Bradley, age 44, was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes in 1991. A talented artist who recently went on the pump, he expresses his experiences with diabetes through his multimedia art.
1 comment - Posted Dec 1, 2007
November 2007
I learned that I had type 2 diabetes in February 1994. A dozen years later, I knew I had to make a change. Technically speaking, I was "morbidly obese." I'm tall - 6 feet, 2½ inches - but I tipped the scales at 312 pounds and had a body mass index (BMI) of 40.
7 comments - Posted Nov 28, 2007
In a recent 35-page report, two economists attempted to explain why we're all getting fatter. First, relative to consumer goods as a whole, the price of a calorie has dropped by 36 percent since 1977.
2 comments - Posted Nov 20, 2007
October 2007
Human adenovirus-36 (AD-36) is an unwelcome visitor already because it causes colds, infections like pink-eye, and small intestine inflammation.
0 comments - Posted Oct 27, 2007
Whether or not you get fat is not the critical factor in developing type 2 diabetes, according to a recent mouse study by Texas researchers; instead, it's where that fat is packed away.
1 comment - Posted Oct 16, 2007
Symlin, or pramlintide, is synthetic amylin, a natural hormone that slows stomach emptying and leads to a feeling of fullness. Currently Symlin is used to dampen blood sugar rises in people with diabetes, but it's showing potential as a weight loss drug as well, according to a recent study.
1 comment - Posted Oct 12, 2007
September 2007
Studies of rats, those ever-useful creatures, have already shown that a fatty heart accompanies obesity and type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, the heart fat produces toxins that cause heart cell death and then heart failure.
0 comments - Posted Sep 20, 2007
Two large studies, both published in the New England Journal of Medicine, have just confirmed that if you're obese, weight loss surgery can make you live longer. A Swedish study tracked about 4000 obese people, about half of whom had undergone gastric bypass or lap band surgery.
0 comments - Posted Sep 7, 2007
An Australian review of six short clinical trials has found that low glycemic diets (which involve eating foods that raise blood sugar slowly instead of quickly) cause about two pounds more weight loss than calorie-restricted diets.
3 comments - Posted Sep 4, 2007
August 2007
There are plenty of corporate weight-loss programs around, but Lite For Life is a weight loss program with a difference: Its philosophy is based upon the work of Seale Harris, a diabetes pioneer who discovered hyperinsulinism (excess secretion of insulin related to insulin resistance) in 1924.
3 comments - Posted Aug 20, 2007
America is fat now, but we'll be even fatter later. According to a meta-analysis of twenty studies and four national surveys, 75 percent of us will be overweight, and 41 percent of those will be downright obese, by the year 2015. Even our children, nearly a quarter of them, will be overweight or obese by then.
0 comments - Posted Aug 18, 2007
A French study, recently published in Diabetes Care, tracked the effects of swelling and shrinking waistlines on risk of developing metabolic syndrome (often considered a precursor of type 2 diabetes).
0 comments - Posted Aug 12, 2007
July 2007
Stressed mice get fat, according to a study out of Georgetown University Medical Center. And now they know the mechanism that does it; in fact, they can manipulate that mechanism to make the mice fat, or they can block the mechanism and keep the mice from getting fat no matter how stressed they may be.
0 comments - Posted Jul 31, 2007
According to a new article in the New England Journal of Medicine, obesity is socially contagious, spreading from person to person within a social network. If your friend becomes obese, your odds of becoming obese go up 57 percent. And if your portly friend considers you a friend as well, your odds of becoming equally plump rise 171 percent.
0 comments - Posted Jul 26, 2007
This book chronicles one woman's lifestyle change and how her journey ignited a popular movement called the "Meltdown" that brought an entire county together in a community-wide weight loss experience.
0 comments - Posted Jul 24, 2007
Obese eighteen-year-old boys with a body mass index between thirty and 35 have a one in two chance of developing diabetes later in life. The odds are even a bit worse for obese young women. These were the dismal findings of a study just published in Diabetes Care using data from the National Health Interview Survey of 780,694 people between 1997 and 2004.
0 comments - Posted Jul 7, 2007
Dishware is destiny, according to new research just published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. There exists a plate that has just been scientifically proven to cause weight loss. And it's a mighty cute little piece of pottery to boot.
0 comments - Posted Jul 6, 2007
June 2007
Bariatric Surgery isn't just for weight loss anymore. It's been shown to be possibly curative of type 2 diabetes even in the absence of major weight loss following the surgery. Here's the rundown on how it works.
0 comments - Posted Jun 28, 2007
May 2007
Bariatric surgery, formerly used only for treating obesity, is being explored as a cure for type 2 diabetes in normal weight or moderately overweight people.
1 comment - Posted May 19, 2007
What is the best kept secret in weight management? When I became a type 2 diabetic and had to lose a significant amount of weight, I wanted a program that was guaranteed to succeed. I tried low carbohydrate dieting, but found it too difficult.
1 comment - Posted May 10, 2007
The 21st century may be remembered as the time when diabetes became a worldwide epidemic. However, it may also be known as the time when the disease was cured.
8 comments - Posted May 3, 2007
April 2007
If food groups were sporting leagues, carbs would be the NFL. You've got your low carb teams, your high carb vegan teams, and your middling carb teams—and each team believes that truth is on its side.
0 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
Carbs and carbs alone, not fat, increase body weight. It doesn't matter whether the carbs are from sugar, bread, fruit, or vegetables: They’re all rapidly digested and quickly converted to blood glucose. A short time after a carb-rich meal, the glucose in your bloodstream rises rapidly, and your pancreas produces a large amount of insulin to take the excess glucose out.
21 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
Remember the big picture: Populations that stick to traditional high-carbohydrate diets (for example, Asian rice-based diets) typically have low rates of obesity and diabetes. When they abandon traditional rice-based diets in favor of meatier Western fare, carbohydrate intake falls, but weight problems and diabetes increase.
4 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
When I developed diabetes in 1946, physicians thought that the high illness and death rate of diabetics was due to dietary fat and the supposedly resultant elevation of serum cholesterol. Since the DCCT trial, the scientific literature overwhelmingly supports the role of elevated blood sugar in all long-term diabetic complications.
2 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
Let’s be realistic and take a long-term perspective in this “which diet is best” debate, rather than wasting time quibbling over extremes—from low-carb to vegan. You’ll have type 2 diabetes for the rest of your life, and you’ll likely struggle with weight management throughout your life as well. The major challenge in weight loss, and even more so in weight maintenance, is long-term adherence.
12 comments - Posted Apr 24, 2007
Ah, the good life. Dining out, shopping for clothes, dining out, shopping for clothes, dining out, shopping…wait a minute. Is there a pattern here? Americans are eating out more and more, and leading researchers say that’s a big part of why so many of us are overweight. The biggest part of that big part? Big portions–Portion Distortion!
0 comments - Posted Apr 18, 2007
It’s well known that depression is not good for your sugar numbers and that alleviation of depression is accompanied by improved glucose control. The question has been whether the improvement is due to body weight reduction and better self-care, or whether it might be partially due to healing of the depression condition itself, independent of the aforementioned two factors.
0 comments - Posted Apr 17, 2007
March 2007
GlaxoSmithKline announced in February 2007 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved orlistat for over-the-counter use. It’s been christened “alli,” and it contains 60 mg of orlistat, as opposed to the prescription form, Xenical, which contains 120 mg of orlistat.
0 comments - Posted Mar 31, 2007
Are ketones a healthy or an unhealthy sign?
Ketones in the urine can be a danger sign if your blood sugar is too
high and insulin levels are too low. It can indicate acidosis, an
abnormal condition usually occurring in people with out of control
type 1 diabetes requiring immediate medical attention. Ketones can
also occur because of other metabolic conditions.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2007
February 2007
The diabetes research community was knocked on its ear when findings were published stating that any efforts to reduce the risk of developing type 2 should start with weight reduction.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2007
December 2006
University of Pittsburgh researchers say that moderate weight loss improves arterial stiffness in people with type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2006
October 2006
‘You wouldn’t believe how much I ate. Every night, besides dinner, I ate one of those big poppers full of popcorn with lots of butter and salt on it.”
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2006
September 2006
Reducing Inner Body Fat Is the Key to Metabolic Improvement After Weight Loss
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
The amount of inaccurate or even misleading information that is passed off as fact among many people regarding lower-carb lifestyles still surprises me.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
Weight-Loss Books Dr. Bernstein’s Diabetes Solution: The Complete Guide to Achieving Normal Blood Sugars, by Richard K. Bernstein, MD (Little Brown, 2003)
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2006
August 2006
Byetta, which came on the market last year, was developed to help people with type 2 diabetes who weren’t getting adequate blood glucose control using other drugs. Any associated weight loss was only incidental.
12 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
“I can bend over and paint my own toenails now,” says Annie, who had bariatric surgery on February 5, 2005.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
“The 7 Step Diabetes Fitness Plan: Living Well and Being Fit With Diabetes, No Matter Your Weight” (Marlowe & Co., 2006) is the book I hoped would be there for me one day if I were to be diagnosed with pre-diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2006
July 2006
The mantra of healthcare professionals when talking about weight loss is plain and simple: Eat less and exercise more. The dream of many people who are overweight or obese would be to simply inject something that would help them to do just that.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2006
For Ed, diabetes wasn’t only a wake-up call—it was an alarm clock.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2006
June 2006
You’ve heard it a thousand times: If you want to lose weight, eat less and exercise more. Sounds so simple, doesn’t it? But in reality, it’s not.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2006
May 2006
This month, we hear from Rachel, who will tell us about the process she is going through right now.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2006
April 2006
Ernest had high triglycerides and his blood glucose was rising. He thought he was doing all right, so you can imagine what he thought when I recommended that he increase the amount of fat and protein in his diet and decrease his carbohydrate intake.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2006
March 2006
Dennis Robinson, a University of Missouri economist, says, “Give me a challenge, make it make sense, and I can do almost anything. That’s how I could lose 60 pounds and keep it off, and even take insulin.”
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2006
February 2006
For Deb it was a vicious circle. She was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes 33 years ago at age 20. It was four weeks before her marriage. You can imagine the stress she endured at that time. “I have lived on a diabetes rollercoaster ever since, until about eight months ago,” she says.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2006
January 2006
You may not believe it by looking at me now, but I have weight issues. I’ve had them since I was a child. I’m telling you this because I know it’s hard to relate to someone who tries to help you with your weight problems if that person is not overweight herself.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2006
October 2005
Eating yogurt in place of other foods can be a boon to weight loss, conclude Tennessee researchers who designed a study to compare potential antiobesity benefits from increased dietary calcium compared to other calcium sources.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2005
August 2005
Louisiana researchers say that controlling the size of your food bites significantly reduces food and caloric intake.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2005
April 2005
Carbohydrate counting and new sugar substitutes, food products and medications have given people with diabetes an array of strategies and resources to help them manage their blood glucose. However, for some people, following a structured diabetes meal plan may not work.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2005
March 2005
Last year, Stacey Martin, a 41-year-old real estate agent from East Hampton, New York, was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. At 270 pounds, the medical community considered her “morbidly obese.”
7 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2005
February 2005
Do you struggle to lose weight and keep it off? If so, the lessons learned by researchers at the National Weight Control Registry (NWCR) can help you meet your goals.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2005
December 2004
Low-fat, high-fiber diets promoted weight loss in patients with type 2 diabetes without causing unfavorable alterations in plasma lipids or blood glucose control.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2004
November 2004
What is the difference between fat body mass and lean body mass?
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2004
August 2004
Sibutramine (Meridia) is well tolerated by most patients and considered to be a safe drug. It has been shown to promote successful weight loss in most patients.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2004
July 2004
Obese adults who increase their dietary calcium while adhering to a diet lose more weight than those on a similar diet who don’t take additional calcium.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2004
June 2004
As we age, we tend to get heavier, weaker, slower and more prone to injury, disability and chronic disease.
1 comment - Posted Jun 1, 2004
The next time you see or hear an ad claiming that some dietary supplement will help you lose 10 pounds in two days, take it with a grain of salt.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2004
May 2004
On the same day that the U.S. government was lamenting the news that obesity has caught up with smoking as a leading killer of Americans, a study demonstrated that a pill may help people quit smoking and lose weight at the same time.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2004
Would you believe the two leading killers in the United States are lifestyle choices? It’s true.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2004
April 2004
It’s a good bet that the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse didn’t have to worry about body-fat composition, considering all the tea drinking they did in “Alice in Wonderland.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) slapped administrative penalties in December 2003 against three companies that “falsely claimed their products [caused] substantial weight loss without dieting or exercise.”
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2004
March 2004
A low-calorie diet that includes almonds may have a “potential role” in fighting the obesity epidemic.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
Eating a low-fat diet that includes the controversial fat substitute olestra (Olean) produced improvement in cardiovascular risk factors in a recent study—an effect largely explained by the participants’ weight loss.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2004
February 2004
I’m not a diet doctor, but I can help you lose weight. A lot of it. In less time than you’d ever think was possible. The secret is a revolutionary new diet I developed while working with overweight men and women who visited my cardiology practice in Miami.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
Suddenly it seems that sugar-free products are everywhere.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
In October 2003, the North American Association for the Study of Obesity held its conference in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Here we provide summaries of some of the more interesting research presented at the conference.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
Have you had type 2 diabetes for less than five years? Do you want to lose approximately 30 percent of your body weight?
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2004
April 2003
"We don't use them anymore," said my certified diabetes educator when I asked for a copy of the exchange lists used for meal planning.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2003
February 2003
In today's busy world, it's difficult enough for most of us to get a meal on the table at all—let alone follow a healthy meal plan every day.
2 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
A gene said to cause obesity in humans has reportedly been discovered, according to an October 29, 2002, news release from Myriad Genetics, Inc., a company based in Salt Lake City, Utah.
0 comments - Posted Feb 1, 2003
December 2002
The circumference of your waist better forecasts the likelihood of cardiovascular disease (CVD) factors than your body mass index (BMI) does, according to Columbia University researchers.
1 comment - Posted Dec 1, 2002
Your doctor diagnoses you with type 2 diabetes and advises you to lose weight—and then gives you a prescription for a medication that is known to cause excessive weight gain.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2002
November 2002
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is warning consumers not to take the Chinese weight loss products Chaso (Jianfei) Diet Capsules and Chaso Genpi. The FDA reports that several people in Japan have become ill, and some have died, after taking the diet products.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
A shift in fat distribution from visceral (the internal abdominal area) to subcutaneous (under the skin) could be the reason the insulin sensitizer Actos (pioglitazone) helps to lower blood-glucose levels in people with insulin resistance.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
Most people associate sweetness with happiness, good times and good food. In fact, the average American goes so far as to consume an estimated 20 teaspoons of sugar each day.
1 comment - Posted Nov 1, 2002
The holiday season presents many challenges for people with diabetes. Because we tend to eat more (at office parties and family outings) and exercise less during these months, weight gain could typically be as much as five to 10 pounds.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2002
June 2002
"Clearly no diet works reliably," says Jan Harper of San Jose, California.
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
"Clearly no diet works reliably," says Jan Harper of San Jose, California. Harper, who has type 2 diabetes, takes oral medications to control her diabetes and tries to adhere to a "good diet"-the advice most often given to people who have type 2. However, as Harper laments, what is a "good diet" or the "right diet" for a person with type 2 diabetes? Does such a thing actually exist?
0 comments - Posted Jun 1, 2002
May 2002
Many people who want to lose weight are not following the recommended guidelines for weight loss, according to researchers at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. Two-thirds of those trying to lose weight and four-fifths of those trying not to gain weight are not following the recommended guidelines of cutting calories and/or fat and exercising at least two and a half hours a week, write the researchers in the February 2002 issue of the Mayo Clinic Proceedings.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2002
April 2002
A type of weight-loss surgery called the LAP-BAND has been successful in putting type 2 diabetes in remission, according to researchers in Australia. Doctors from Monash University in Victoria found that the majority of people with type 2 diabetes who were treated with the stomach-reduction surgery achieved better blood-glucose control one year afterward. Results of the study were published in the February 2002 issue of Diabetes Care.
1 comment - Posted Apr 1, 2002
For the first time in years, I bought something from the Misses Department, not the plus sizes!" exclaims Sue Felton, a woman of 43 who's been battling obesity and type 2 diabetes for the past five years.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2002
For the first time in years, I bought something from the Misses Department, not the plus sizes!" exclaims Sue Felton, a woman of 43 who's been battling obesity and type 2 diabetes for the past five years.
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 2002
March 2002
A low-calorie diet, particularly one that includes meal-replacement foods, can lead to long-term weight loss, according to researchers at the University of Kentucky. In addition, they say, more exercise helps to keep the weight off. Researchers examined data from 29 studies of weight-loss programs for their report, which was published in the November 2001 issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
0 comments - Posted Mar 1, 2002
January 2002
High-protein diets that cut back on fruits, vegetables and carbohydrates put you at risk for multiple diseases and won't help you lose weight, according to the American Heart Association (AHA).
1 comment - Posted Jan 1, 2002
December 2001
A study in the September issue of Obesity Research suggests that the anti-depressant drug bupropion (Wellbutrin) is effective at producing weight loss.
0 comments - Posted Dec 1, 2001
November 2001
A new surgical procedure for weight loss could be more harmful than expected, say researchers. The gastric band, which received FDA approval for testing, had to be removed from a significant number of patients and did not achieve satisfactory weight loss in most of them, according to the report published in the June issue of the Annals of Surgery.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 2001
October 2001
A group of Brazilian researchers say bariatric surgery (stomach stapling) is the most effective therapy for extreme obesity. Their recent studies show that glucose control can also improve with the surgery.
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 2001
August 2001
On June 5, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a surgically implanted adjustable stomach band, called the Lap-Band Adjustable Gastric Banding System, for treating severe obesity.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 2001
July 2001
May 22 that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced that it will review the weight-loss drug orlistat (Xenical) to determine if it is a suitable treatment for type 2 diabetes. If given FDA approval, Xenical, which works by preventing about one-third of the fat in the food consumed from being absorbed, will be the first weight-loss drug indicated for the treatment of type 2 diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 2001
May 2001
According to the American Society of Bariatric Physicians (ASBP), BMI—a measurement of height and weight—is the gold standard for measuring obesity.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2001
Results of a recent study suggest that liposuction—commonly perceived as a strictly cosmetic procedure—may have significant health benefits for people with diabetes.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 2001
January 2001
Weight loss is one of the cornerstones of treating and preventing type 2 diabetes. A new study, however, suggests patients continue to set weight-loss goals that are unattainable, even when counseled. This, in turn, translates to perceptions of failure.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 2001
September 2000
A new study published in the July 18 Annals of Internal Medicine says exercising without dieting is as effective for modest weight loss as dieting without exercising.
0 comments - Posted Sep 1, 2000
January 2000
A recent study published in the May issue of Epidemiology has led its authors to conclude that even losing as little as two pounds per year can significantly reduce an individual's chance of developing type 2 diabetes. Although obesity is widely recognized as a risk factor for developing type 2 diabetes, so far there has been little evidence to prove that the converse is true.
0 comments - Posted Jan 7, 2000
August 1999
Jerry Mathers, one of the most beloved childhood actors of all time, starred as Beaver Cleaver in the hit television show "Leave it to Beaver" from 1957 to 1963. When the show concluded in 1963, Mathers attended University of California, Berkeley, and then worked in real estate and catering. In the 1980's, Mathers got back together with several "Leave it To Beaver" original cast members, and starred in "The New Leave it To Beaver," which ran from 1982 to 1989. As Mathers puts it, he sort of "retired" after the series concluded, and from that point on, his life became sedentary. An ensuing weight gain of about five to seven pounds per year followed.
2 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1999
July 1999
Orlistat, brand name Xenical, a new drug for weight loss, has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The first of a new class of drugs called lipase inhibitors, Xenical does have some side effects that may be difficult to discuss in polite company.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1999
April 1999
I never thought I would weigh over 200 pounds in my life, yet I stepped on the scales one day and weighed 214 pounds!
0 comments - Posted Apr 1, 1999
May 1998
How full did that meal you just ate make you feel? Did it satisfy your hunger, or did it make you feel like you'll need a snack later?
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1998
November 1997
It seems like half of America is either on a diet or thinking about going on one. Every month a new exercise fad is promoted as the miracle solution to weight loss. Entire sections of grocery stores are devoted to fat-free foods and low-calorie snack items. Book shops feature the latest in celebrity exercise books and tapes. Yet, statistics tell us that Americans are still gaining weight.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1997
August 1997
Many young women with diabetes are putting looks before their health, even going so far as to stop taking insulin to lose weight.
0 comments - Posted Aug 1, 1997
May 1996
Even though doctors say slight weight loss can greatly benefit a person's health, overweight adults feel they must lose a significant amount of weight to reduce health problems, according to a recent poll.
0 comments - Posted May 1, 1996
January 1996
Fluoxetine is the generic name for Prozac, the increasingly-popular antidepressant drug. A study published in Diabetic Medicine, May 1995, reported that fluoxetine may help elderly people with type 2 diabetes lose weight.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
A report published in the September 1995 issue of Annals of Surgery indicates that gastric bypass surgery can be an effective treatment for diabetes.
0 comments - Posted Jan 1, 1996
November 1995
You watch your diet, take up jogging, and don't even look at pictures of high-fat goodies. After a month, you hop on the scale and find you've lost a whopping three pounds.
0 comments - Posted Nov 1, 1995
July 1995
It was a year ago that Evelyn Narad found herself practically immobilized by a broken shoulder. A 74-year-old woman with type 2 diabetes, she was very overweight, dependent on daily insulin, and miserable.
0 comments - Posted Jul 1, 1995
October 1994
Q: Why is weight loss so emphasized for people with type 2 diabetes?
0 comments - Posted Oct 1, 1994