Weight loss and Weight Chat Blog

It’s not often that I recommend natural remedies because there’s rarely any scientific evidence that they work better than a placebo. But when there’s data supporting their use I’m all for it. Such is now the case in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) as shown by a review of research recently published in the British Medical Journal. Turns out that two of the best treatments for IBS, peppermint oil and fiber, are old-fashioned, inexpensive and widely available over-the-counter (OTC). And I don’t mean that these are just two of the best natural remedies or two of the best OTC remedies, they are two of the best remedies period.
The research review found three IBS treatments to be consistently better than placebo. In addition to peppermint oil and fiber, the anti-spasmodic scopolamine (also called hyoscine), a natural product derived from certain plants, is also effective […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

With the economy slowing (or crashing depending on your point of view), and food prices rising, you may be forced to make some tough choices when it comes to what to eat, where to eat it and how to pay for it. Can you still afford to buy nutritious fresh food, which is notoriously more expensive, or will you turn to more calorie-dense, less nutritious packaged foods? Will you “dine” at fast food restaurants more often, eating their high-fat, high-sugar but low-price offerings? Recent articles in the Los Angeles Times and on MSNBC.com address this issue.
You might think that leaner times would lead to leaner waistlines as people cut back on spending. But it appears that the opposite is true. Adam Drewnowski, a professor of epidemiology at the University of Washington in Seattle and Director of their Center for Obesity Research, is quoted on […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Have you heard of the National Children’s Study (NCS), an ambitious new research undertaking that will examine the effects of environmental influences on the health and development of 100,000 children from before birth to age 21? It’s already been 10 years in the making and will finally begin enrolling pregnant women in January 2009. That means it’ll take more than another two decades to complete, at an estimated cost of some $3.2 billion. But because the study will follow children over time, it will uncover and report different information as the children are born and as they age.According to a recent National Institutes of Health press release “[B]ecause the study will enroll pregnant women and, in some cases, women who are not yet pregnant, study scientists hope to identify a range of early life factors that influence later development. ‘With more than 100,000 participants, we believe […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

The latest fad weight loss scheme is something called the Morning Banana Diet (MBD), which started in Japan and swept across the country like an unrelenting tsunami. It’s so popular there that bananas literally fly off the shelves as fast as they can be stocked. But you should be forewarned, Japan is known for its fad diets and there have been many others before this one that also were so big they caused product shortages. And, of course, like all fad diets, this one will likely lead to some weight loss in the short run but will fail in the long run, which is why they are always replaced by the next crazy idea. But this one actually has a hidden nugget of gold called resistant starch that I’ll explain a little later.
So what is the Morning Banana Diet? Like all fad diets, there […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Recently, I noticed a flyer in my local newspaper advertising an upcoming stroke prevention screening and since the flyer was so misleading and from a national company that screens all over the U.S., I thought I’d give you some facts to consider in case one of these screenings comes to your town and you wonder whether it’s worthwhile.
The company involved is called Life Line Screening and their flyer claims “We Can Help You Avoid a Stroke.” They offer a package of four tests for $139 in which they look at your carotid arteries and your abdominal aorta using ultrasound technology, your heart rhythm using ECG technology, and the blood flow in the arteries of your legs using blood pressure technology (but actually, only the carotid exam and the heart rhythm have anything to do with stroke prevention). The entire process only takes an hour and is perfectly safe, […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

This post is important for all pregnant women, mothers who are breast feeding their babies and for parents of infants, children and adolescents (please forward it to your family, friends and others as appropriate).
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has revised their recommendations for vitamin D supplementation of the diets of all newborns, infants, children and adolescents. The new recommendations (detailed below) basically double the amount of vitamin D recommended from 200 IU/day to 400 IU/day. The AAP’s recommendations were described in an October 13, 2008 press release as well as in a more detailed free online Clinical Report.
The new recommendations come at a time when the importance of vitamin D in maintaining health and preventing disease, and the near ubiquity of vitamin D deficiency are being recognized as critical public health concerns. It seems that every other day there is new information linking vitamin D […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

St. John’s wort, an herb long thought to be effective for the treatment of depression, is used widely in many countries for this purpose and is available over-the-counter in the United States (but not approved by the FDA as an antidepressant). But clinical studies have sometimes yielded conflicting results, in part because of variations in study designs (such as the exact definition of depression) as well as variations in the preparation of the herbal extract and the dosages used. But a new meta-analysis has reviewed 29 separate studies involving nearly 5500 patients and found that, overall, St. John’s wort was more effective than placebo and similar in efficacy to both older antidepressants (such as those called tricyclics of which amitriptyline is typical) and newer ones (such as those called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, of which Prozac and Celexa are typical). Most of the patients studied […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Election day, Tuesday, November 4, is fast approaching and I encourage everyone to register and vote in this historic presidential election. But a new study has found that if you drive on election day during voting hours, you should exercise extra caution. That’s because, as strange as it may seem, there’s an 18 percent increased risk of dying in a motor vehicle accident during voting hours on a presidential election day than on a non-election day. The research was published in the October 1, 2008 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The researchers examined all eight presidential elections since 1976 and found a consistent pattern of increased fatalities on election days across the decades. They compared the number of traffic accident-related fatalities on presidential election Tuesdays with the numbers on the Tuesdays before and after, which served as controls. On average, there were […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

The world mourns the loss of Paul Newman, a great actor, philanthropist and humanitarian. He was the embodiment of the Yiddish word “mensch,” meaning a person of great character, integrity and honor. And while it has been widely reported that his death was due to lung cancer and that he was, formerly, a heavy smoker, whether his lung cancer was caused by smoking is unknown. What is known is that smoking greatly increases one’s risk of lung cancer. But what’s also known is that up to 15 percent of lung cancer deaths occur in people who have never smoked. Moreover, lung cancer in never smokers is, according to the Lung Cancer Alliance, “the sixth biggest cancer killer in the United States.”
Over 215,000 people in the U.S. will be diagnosed with lung cancer in 2008 and the majority will die within 12 months. More people die […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

The other night, I was watching “The Colbert Report,” which, along with “The Daily Show,” is a regular TV staple at our house (both shows won Emmy’s the other night by the way), when the guest was Rick Riley, a sportswriter and founder of the anti-malaria effort Nothing But Nets. Nothing But Nets is a grassroots campaign to save lives by preventing malaria, a leading killer, especially of children, in Africa. The disease is transmitted by mosquitoes, which are primarily active at night and which can be effectively thwarted by the use of sleeping nets. The charity’s name is a play on the basketball term for a perfect shot that does not touch the backboard or rim, hitting “nothing but net.” In addition, it speaks to the focus of the campaign, which is directed solely at the purchase and distribution of anti-malaria sleeping nets, at a […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com