Weight loss and Weight Chat Blog

It’s an unfortunate reality, but as a widespread, somewhat mysterious illness that has more questions than answers, the swine flu is a ripe target for scam artists. So along with protecting yourself and your family from infection, you’ve also got to be on guard against unscrupulous and shady marketers. There are three main types of swine flu-related scams:

Swine spam
Swine malware
Swine “cures,” “remedies,” and “vaccines”

Swine spam are e-mail messages that have the words “swine flu” in the subject line. The senders are simply using swine flu as a hook to get you to open the e-mail. When you open a spam e-mail, the sender may be notified that yours is a valid address and that you are amenable to opening messages. At a minimum they can collect these “good” addresses and either use them in other marketing campaigns or sell them to other marketers. Once you’ve opened the e-mail, […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

As Stephen Colbert would say: “Welcome to the Report ladies and gentlemen.” Dr. Z’s Medical Report has a new home here on Everyday Health, and I am happy to welcome both old and new readers to my blog, which began in 2006 on HealthTalk. Although HealthTalk no longer exists as its own website, much of its content has been incorporated into the Everyday Health website, including all the postings of Dr. Z’s Medical Report. You can still search the blog using the little search box on the right side of the page and can still subscribe to it via RSS. Nothing has changed except for the owner of the website; namely, Everyday Health and I’m happy to be part of their team.
For those new to the Report, here’s a brief overview. I usually write twice a week with postings on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s. The easiest way to stay informed is […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

The first time I came across Kinoki detox foot pads I knew immediately that they were a scam and wrote a piece in these pages entitled “Kinoki detox foot pads - a scambuster report.”  In that blog I went so far as to say that Kinoki foot pads were such a blatant scam that they gave other scams a bad name. That blog became one of the most widely read items I’ve ever written, generating nearly 500 comments at last count. While some respondents disagreed and said that the pads had helped them, many writers agreed with my assessment of Kinoki as being a scam. Well, now the federal government has weighed in and guess what? They agree with me and have officially called Kinoki detox foot pads a scam.
I’d always held that it was just a matter of time before the feds came down on Kinoki and on January […]

Original post by admin and weightlossopinions.com

It’s the time of year when annual “top” lists begin appearing everywhere like so many ornaments on the tree. So here’s Dr. Z’s roundup of the top five health scams of 2008:

Kinoki Detox Foot Pads

Kinoki and all other so-called detox foot pads top the list because of the sheer audacity involved in their shameless marketing and the utter lack of either a scientific basis through which they might work or any medical studies proving that they do. Yet we’ve received over 400 comments on my blog about them, attesting to the surprising interest people have in these worthless products. Despite their having been debunked on National Public Radio and the ABC news program “20/20″ inquiring minds still want to know, likely due to relentless marketing and widespread distribution. Users of these pads seem quite impressed that they turn brown or black after being worn overnight […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Not long ago, I recommended you avoid CT angiography as a screening test for heart disease unless you were absolutely convinced that it was necessary and not just being ordered either because it’s a new, extremely cool, technology, or because your doctor has an equity position in the machine (meaning he or she or the practice profits every time the test is run because they own or lease the equipment). I noted that as a screening test for people without symptoms of heart disease, CT angiography has yet to be proven effective. Moreover, even though the test is quite short, there is significant radiation exposure from the X-rays used to obtain the high-tech images (orders of magnitude greater than that used in a simple chest X-ray).But let’s say that you actually have symptoms of coronary artery disease. Is CT angiography an appropriate diagnostic test for you? […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

Last time, I wrote about Ginkgo biloba being ineffective for the prevention of Alzheimer’s disease, which may have led you to wonder what actually can prevent it? In your Internet search, you might have been drawn in by the headline at CNN: “Five ways to keep Alzheimer’s away.” Unfortunately, that article, as with many similar ones that abound on the Internet, is long on hype and short on hard evidence. The article is so misleading, in fact, that before I tell you what’s really known about preventing Alzheimer’s I’d like to briefly puncture that particular hot air balloon.The CNN list of five ways to prevent Alzheimer’s begins with antioxidants, and in particular, vitamins A, C and E. They quote a psychiatrist who claims that “There are studies that suggest antioxidants might prevent dementia.” Yes, but those studies are seriously flawed and by no means definitive. […]

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

On Friday July 25, 2008, California became the first U.S. state to ban trans fats (from restaurants beginning in 2010 and from baked goods in 2011). Similar bills are pending in more than 12 other states and are already on the books in several cities including Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. But while banning trans fats is a good idea, it is only a partial fix as it is likely that they will be replaced by other hidden fats, which, while they may be less bad than trans fats, are nonetheless bad. In order to help you understand this complex but important issue, I am reprinting my April 3, 2008 piece on this subject:
Most people know that foods containing trans fats are bad, which is good. But not everyone realizes that foods containing no trans fats are not necessarily good, which is bad. You can hardly […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

If you see advertisements for or your doctor recommends you undergo CT angiography because it’s a relatively quick, painless way to get detailed images of your heart and its blood supply, and could uncover hidden abnormalities even though you have no symptoms of heart disease, consider asking the following questions:

Do you, or does your practice, own or lease the CT scanning machine?
How much money do you or your practice stand to gain from this test?
If I went to another cardiologist, who doesn’t own or lease a CT scanning machine do you think they would also recommend the test?

Turns out that there’s a significant controversy surrounding the increasing use of CT angiography. Not surprisingly, most of its proponents own or lease the equipment while its detractors either don’t or work […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com

If you see advertisements for or your doctor recommends you undergo CT angiography because it’s a relatively quick, painless way to get detailed images of your heart and its blood supply, and could uncover hidden abnormalities even though you have no symptoms of heart disease, consider asking the following questions:

Do you, or does your practice, own or lease the CT scanning machine?
How much money do you or your practice stand to gain from this test?
If I went to another cardiologist, who doesn’t own or lease a CT scanning machine do you think they would also recommend the test?

Turns out that there’s a significant controversy surrounding the increasing use of CT angiography. Not surprisingly, most of its proponents own or lease the equipment while its detractors either don’t or work […]

Original post by natalieb and weightlossopinions.com