Obesity in The USA Touches All-Time High
11.03.10
Despite the education, diets and weight loss plans, and weight loss medication like Xenical , obesity in America has become something that is rapidly growing to epidemic proportions. An Agriculture Department sponsored debate held last week concluded that this was due to several factors and that Americans needed to eat less (in particular, sugar) and exercise more. Said Barry Sears, author of "The Zone", "We need to view food as a potential drug ... as Americans are the fattest we have ever been."
Obesity is defined as being 30 percent more than normal weight. A recent study of obesity found that in the spread rapidly in the 1990s across all sections of the population and increased from 12 percent in 1991 to 17.9 percent in 1998.
Alarmingly, the maximum increase took place in the age group of 18 to 29 years."Overweight and physical inactivity account for more than 300,000 premature deaths each year in the U.S., second only to tobacco-related deaths.
Obesity is an epidemic and should be taken as seriously as any infectious disease epidemic," says Jeffrey P. Koplan, director of the CDC. "Obesity and overweight are linked to the nation's number one killer - heart disease - as well as diabetes and other chronic conditions."
Source: NewsBlaze
Is the hCG diet good to lose 20-30 pounds?
12.03.10
Expert answer
Hi Stacey -- I'm glad you asked this question as I get asked about this frequently in my practice. I was not completely familiar with this diet so I consulted a fellow member of the Obesity Society (a leading nonprofit organization dedicated to the treatment and prevention of obesity), Dr. Caroline Apovian, the director of the Center for Nutrition and Weight Management at Boston Medical Center and an associate professor of medicine and pediatrics at Boston University School of Medicine.
HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, is a hormone produced by the placenta during pregnancy. HCG has not been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for treatment of overweight or obesity. FDA approval is an important process that requires years of research on both animals and humans to evaluate the safety of a drug and to determine whether the drug actually works before it is approved as a prescription medication. "We have no idea how dangerous this drug might be since there is no science behind it for safety and efficacy," Apovian explained. She went on to say that "the hCG diet allows one to lose weight because it is a very low calorie diet, and any diet that is so low in calories will promote weight loss." The diet is a 500-calorie diet, far below the level that most experts prescribe, as discussed in another recent CNNHealth article .
Source: CNN
Obesity and Arthritis: Are they linked?
11.03.10
Arthritis risk tied to obesity
Carrying extra body poundage increases your odds of suffering arthritis of hips and knees as you age, a study at the Lund University in Lund, Sweden reveals.
While age, sex, level of physical activity, and smoking history can increase one’s chances for osteoarthritis, researchers found that high body mass index is the highest risk factor among them. The research, presented at the American College of Rheumatology in San Francisco last month, shows that an extra weight of 30 percent already increases your odds for osteoarthritis by 60 percent. Further increase in body mass also increases the size of risk.
Understanding the relationship between obesity and arthritis
The knees and hips carry all the stress of weight of our body. The pressure around the joints increases by up to three times with each step when you walk or up to six times when you climb up or down a flight of stairs. If you weigh 150 pounds, multiply that by 3 and that’s the amount of stress your hips and knees experience when walking.
Source: Staugnews
Using a non-addictive weight loss aid, such as Xenical is sometimes recommended. Speak with your doctor and see if Xenical is an option for your weight loss
There are some sensible weight loss medications available such as Reductil which works as an appetite suppressant or Xenical that prevents fat from being
In particular it appears that individuals are selling fake versions of the weight loss medication Xenical in eBay auctions. Some of the people selling