The FDA asked Abbott to withdraw the weight loss drug Meridia after the SCOUT trial found users lost 1.7 kg over 3.4 years while heart attack, stroke and cardiovascular death risk rose 14%. The piece offers green tea as one alternative, noting the trials are not all consistent.
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Weight Loss
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Drug
Abbott Removes Weight Loss Pill Meridia Due to Heart Risk - FDA
The FDA asked Abbott on October 8 to withdraw the obesity drug Meridia and the company agreed, after the SCOUT trial found patients taking sibutramine were 16 percent more likely to suffer serious heart events than those on placebo, with only a small difference in weight loss.
Nutrition
Weight loss is easy! Just drink 2 cups of water before meals
Overweight and obese adults aged 55 to 75 who drank two cups of water before each meal lost 15.5 pounds over 12 weeks on a low-calorie diet, against 11 pounds for those who did not, Virginia Tech researchers told an American Chemical Society meeting.
Obesity
Wanna Lose Weight? Try Drinking More H20
In a 12-week study of overweight adults aged 55 to 75 on a low-fat, low-calorie diet, those told to drink two cups of water before each meal lost 15.5 pounds on average against 11 pounds. Brenda Davy's team found the tactic does not work for 18- to 35-year-olds.
Environment
The Internet CAN Help You Keep Your Weight Off
People who logged in most often to a Kaiser Permanente weight-loss website kept off the most weight, about 9 pounds on average, against 3 pounds for the least frequent users. The site combined weekly weight and exercise logging with reminders and chat among participants.
Nutrition
Jennifer Hudson weight loss 2010
Hudson has signed on as a Weight Watchers spokesperson seven months after giving birth, though whether her weight loss came from the company's products or services is unknown. A 2005 comparison of four diets ranked Weight Watchers third, with an average 3.0 kg loss over a year.
Diet
How to reduce the risk of heart attack that kills Peter Graves
Peter Graves died at 84 of what his doctor said was likely a heart attack, collapsing outside his Los Angeles home. Most heart attacks follow plaque buildup in the coronary arteries, and nutritionist Colin Campbell is cited for the view that diet drives that buildup and can reverse it.
Obesity
How to Easily Cut Your Calories -- Eat Slowly
Eating fast appears to mean eating more. In one study, people given identical servings of ice cream released more fullness hormones when they took 30 minutes over it than when they took five. Chewing longer also curbs portions and aids digestion, since most digestive enzymes are in the mouth.
Heart & Blood
High fat low carb diet may raise heart risk
In an 8-week trial of 24 overweight and obese adults, a 60 percent fat, 20 percent carbohydrate diet matched a low-fat, high-carb diet on weight loss and glucose metabolism, but researchers concluded its heart disease risks outweighed the benefits.
Food
More green tea benefits discovered
Two findings: elderly Japanese drinking seven or more cups of green tea a day were less likely to die prematurely over six years in a cohort of 14,001, though cancer deaths showed no link; and in lab tests the green tea compound EGC raised a bone-building enzyme's activity by up to 79 percent.
Disease
Weight loss helps sleep apnea
Among 264 obese patients with type 2 diabetes, those given a weight-loss program lost about 24 pounds in a year against one pound for an education-only group, and were three times more likely to see sleep apnea remit, 13.6 percent versus 3.5 percent.
Alerts
FDA, Weight-Loss Company Announce Recall
The FDA and distributor Young You Corp. recalled four weight-loss supplements, Slimbionic, One Weight Loss Pill 30, SlimDemand and Botanical Weight Loss, after they were found to contain undeclared sibutramine, a drug that can raise blood pressure and endanger people with heart disease.
Miscellaneous
Pregnancy and weight gain
With nearly two-thirds of US women of childbearing age overweight or obese, the Institute of Medicine and National Research Council issued new guidelines advising obese women, those with a BMI over 30, to limit pregnancy weight gain to 11 to 20 pounds.
Disease
Rapid weight loss may be predictor of dementia
A Neurology study tracked 1,836 Japanese-Americans averaging 72 years old for eight years; 129 developed dementia, and those with lower BMI at the outset were 79% more likely to become ill. An earlier study had found the pre-dementia weight loss only in women.
Food
Green tea, capsaicin affect weight loss
Testing 27 subjects over six weeks, researchers found CH-19 sweet pepper and the combination of capsaicin and green tea significantly cut energy intake during positive energy balance, though no significant interactions on intake emerged overall. Capsaicin's effect faded with habitual use.
Food
Drinking vegetable juice helps weight loss
Overweight people with metabolic syndrome who drank at least 8 ounces of low-sodium vegetable juice with a calorie-controlled DASH diet lost four pounds over 12 weeks, against one pound on the diet alone. Juice drinkers also took in more vitamin C and potassium.
Obesity
Replacing soft drinks with water may equal weight loss
A Dutch study found teens who swapped sugary drinks for water did not compensate by eating more snacks. In a USC study of 54 overweight Latino adolescents, those who cut back on sweet drinks had healthier blood sugar, and many also ate more fiber and lost visceral fat.
Lifestyle
55 minutes per day needed to sustain weight loss
Following 201 overweight and obese women eating 1,200 to 1,500 calories a day, University of Pittsburgh researchers found that sustaining a 10% weight loss over two years took about 55 minutes of exercise five days a week - well above the 150 minutes a week currently recommended.
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