by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Yes, you can lose weight, at least for a price.

A study in this week’s JAMA proves, if you show them the money, they show you the weight loss.

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by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E.

Unless you’ve been hiding behind a scarecrow, you’ve probably seen the bags of candy crowding the grocery store shelves. And if you’ve shopped with children lately, you’ve likely had bags mysteriously jump into your shopping cart. The junk food season which starts before Halloween and doesn’t end until Valentine’s Day is upon us.

So what’s a parent to do? How do we temper the candy frenzy with our kids? How do we handle it for ourselves? Without a plan, a lot of pounds can be gained before Cupid visits us.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

The better you stick to a Mediterranean diet the less likely you are to die of heart disease, have or die of cancer, and interestingly enough, develop Parkinson’s disease or Alzheimer’s.  This, according to a meta-analysis study published in the BMJ this month.

We already knew the diet could lower glucose, but the BMJ study looked at the bottom line of bottom lines–death–and found good news, as well as pleasant surprises.

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by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E.

I had a wonderful new patient come to me for weight loss guidance yesterday. Like many new patients, this is not her first dieting attempt and her idea of trimming down included deprivation. That is not my idea at all. I’m not giving up chocolate, and I don’t expect you to banish your favorite treat either.

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by Jill Weisenberger, M.S., R.D., C.D.E.

If you are among the fortunate one-third of the population who is at a “healthy weight”, does it also mean that you are fit and healthy? Likewise if you are overweight, does it mean that you are not fit or healthy? Researchers recently studied these questions and reported their finding in the Archives of Internal Medicine.

They analyzed data of 5440 US adults, and found that approximately 29 percent of the obese men and 35 percent of obese women had no metabolic risk factors for heart disease. About 30 percent normal-weight men and 21 percent normal-weight women showed at least two metabolic abnormalities. The researchers looked at blood pressure, triglycerides, blood glucose level, HDL (good) cholesterol and indicators of insulin resistance and inflammation.
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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

I have read and reread the obesity articles in the August 11/25, 2008, Archives of Internal Medicine attempting to glean a take-home message. They’ve been all over the news because they surprisingly concluded that about a third of overweight and obese people are at low risk for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. As if that weren’t enough, around a quarter of those at normal weight are at high risk.

So what is it about the fat that’s different? What do we do with this data?

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

An article in the most recent issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine attempts to discover what it takes to keep weight off after losing it. The participants lost an average of 8 to 10 percent of their original body weight after a year but gained back 5 percent by year two even while trying to stick with the same regimen. That is, all but one group, who kept all of their weight off.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

Attempting to keep up with all the latest medical advice can be daunting. Just when you think you’re doing everything right, you discover news reporting just the opposite.

“Don’t drink tap water–too many contaminates!”

“Don’t drink bottled water–plastic containers can leach out chemicals!”

Is coffee good or bad? What’s the best diet? “Get checked for moles, diabetes, colon cancer” … fill in the blank. Some people just get frustrated and want to give up, thinking, what’s the use? Well, this blog’s for you.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

The name of the report is the American Medical Association “Expert Committee Recommendations on the Assessment, Prevention, and Treatment of Child and Adolescent Obesity.” Do you want fries with that? If ever an acronym was needed …

It has good ideas, but the question is: How do we get people to put them into practice? I have a feeling answers are in the works.

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by James Hubbard, M.D., M.P.H.

I must admit that I have a bias against the low-carb Atkins diet. It just doesn’t make sense to me and I don’t want to try it. I have written off past studies that conclude these diets do, in fact, lower cholesterol and weight by reasoning that the study is too short, or some other flaw. However, I am being worn down with facts.

Still, the devil is in the details.

The latest is a two-year study in the July 17 New England Journal of Medicine pitting the low-carbohydrate, non-restricted-calorie diet against the Mediterranean-style and low-fat diets, both restricted-calorie. Who won? It depends on how you look at it–and there are lots of numbers.

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