Chuqui 3.0

Dieting hardest for emotional eaters: study

Dieting hardest for emotional eaters: study - Yahoo! News:

Emotional eaters -- people who eat when they are lonely or blue -- tend to lose the least amount of weight and have the hardest time keeping it off, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.

They said the study may explain why so many people who lose weight gain it all back.

"We found that the more people report eating in response to thoughts and feelings, the less weight they lost," Heather Niemeier, an obesity researcher at The Miriam Hospital and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University, said in a statement.

"Amongst successful weight losers, those who report emotional eating are more likely to regain," said Niemeier, whose study appears in the journal Obesity.

Ya think?

Hold this thought, I'll come back to it later.

Acupuncture, real or fake, gets results in study

Acupuncture, real or fake, gets results in study:

Fake acupuncture works nearly as well as the real thing for low back pain, and either kind performs much better than conventional care, German researchers have found.

Almost half the patients treated with acupuncture needles felt relief that lasted months. In contrast, only about a quarter of the patients receiving medications and other Western medical treatments felt better.

Even fake acupuncture worked better than conventional care, leading researchers to wonder if pain relief came from the body's reactions to thin needle pricks or, possibly, the placebo effect.

"Acupuncture represents a highly promising and effective treatment option for chronic back pain,"

Hmm. Very, very interesting, that the faux treatment is still more effective than the standard ones. Says a lot about how we treat back problems, no?

Study: Money can prod one to lose weight - Yahoo! News

Study: Money can prod one to lose weight - Yahoo! News:

People will lose weight for money, even a little money, suggests a study that offers another option for employers looking for ways to cut health care costs.

The research published in the September issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine found that cash incentives can be a success even when the payout is as little as $7 for dropping just a few pounds in three months.

Okay, so maybe I should set something up so that people pledge donations to charity for every pound I lose, so I feel guilty about not losing those damn pounds? And fi hat works, I can start some kind of web 2.0 startup to coordinate people committing to lose weight for charity with people willing to donate to charities for weight lost?

Hell, there have been sillier startups out there. Any VC out there want to get on board early? Maybe with a pledge of $100 a pound and $10 a line of PHP?

Chemical clue sheds light on winter depression - health - 19 September 2007 - New Scientist

Chemical clue sheds light on winter depression - health - 19 September 2007 - New Scientist:

The researchers studied 73 drug-free patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD) and 70 people without the condition. People with SAD get depressed in the autumn and winter, and often go into remission in the spring and summer. So-called “bright light therapy” – where sufferers stare at brightly lit screens – can also relieve symptoms.

The researchers were interested in these patients’ serotonin transporter (SERT) – a molecule that "pumps" serotonin back into cells. SERT is expressed in blood platelets, so they drew blood at three points in time: in the autumn or winter (when patients were experiencing seasonal depression), after four weeks of light therapy, and again in summer.

They tested the platelets to see how much SERT was expressed there, and found levels were normal in both groups. They then measured how many times per minute the SERT would go to work removing serotonin, and here they found significant differences.

In blood taken during winter depression, SAD patients had significantly more removal events per minute than those in the healthy control group – about 350 compared with 200.

The process “is too efficient”, says Willeit. After therapy, in people who got better, the number of removal events declined. In those who did not improve, the numbers stayed the same. In summer, SAD patients’ removal events slowed to normal levels.

some interesting data on winter depression and possible causes and cures....

Exercise on par with drugs for aiding depression - Yahoo! News

Exercise on par with drugs for aiding depression - Yahoo! News:

Regular exercise may work as well as medication in improving symptoms of major depression, researchers have found.
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In a study of 202 depressed adults, investigators found that those who went through group-based exercise therapy did as well as those treated with an antidepressant drug. A third group that performed home-based exercise also improved, though to a lesser degree.

Importantly, the researchers found, all three groups did better than a fourth group given a placebo -- an inactive pill identical to the antidepressant.

Is anyone surprised? I'm not. FWIW, I recently ran through this scenario myself by coincidence -- I was having a real grumpy day, and finally told myself to quit whining and go get some work done. Five hours yanking bermuda grass later, I had a real sweat on, really sore arms, and a much more positive attitude.

I know there's a tendency to just crawl into a chair and mope, but it looks like that might be the worst thing you can do on those days when your life is bugging you.....

Being Overweight is Hard on the Heart - Yahoo! News

Being Overweight is Hard on the Heart - Yahoo! News:

A new study involving more than 300,000 people finds that being overweight independently increases a person's risk of coronary disease.

In other words, even if doctors could get an overweight person's blood pressure and cholesterol down to normal, that patient would still be at higher heart risk.

The Dutch analysis involved data from 21 previous studies that included more than 302,000 people.

Of those people, 18,000 suffered heart events or deaths during the studies. After factoring in age, sex, physical activity levels and smoking, the team concluded that moderately overweight people had a 32 percent increased risk of heart disease and obese people an 81 percent increased risk compared to those who weren't overweight.

This looks to be a pretty well-defined and managed study. And it seems to put a big stake in the heart of the "I can be heavy and healthy" idea. While I long ago stopped believing in the the "fat == unhealthy" concept, the truth seems to be that extra weight has an impact, which I don't find all that surprising.

Weight-loss surgery boosts survival rate

Weight-loss surgery boosts survival rate - Yahoo! News:

The first long-term studies of stomach stapling and other radical obesity treatments show that they not only lead to lasting weight loss but also dramatically improve survival. The results are expected to lead to more such operations, possibly for less severely obese people, too.                     


Researchers in Sweden and the United States separately found that obese people who underwent drastic surgery had a 30 percent to 40 percent lower risk of dying seven to 10 years later compared with those who did not have such operations.
The research, published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine, should put to rest uncertainties about the benefits and risks of weight-loss surgery and may cause governments and insurers to rethink who should qualify for the procedure, some doctors said.

These look, at first glance, to be good, solid studies that at least for me carry a lot of (ahem) weight. it's one of those issue's that's been in the back of my head that I'm going to have to grapple with if i can't get the weight off in less drastic ways...

Too fat? Common virus may be to blame: study - Yahoo! News

Too fat? Common virus may be to blame: study - Yahoo! News:

A common virus caused human adult stem cells to turn into fat cells and could explain why some people become obese, U.S. researchers said on Monday.


The research builds on prior studies of adenovirus-36 -- a common cause of respiratory and eye infections -- and it may lead to an obesity vaccine, they said.

"We're not talking about preventing all types of obesity, but if it is caused by this virus in humans, we want a vaccine to prevent this," said Nikhil Dhurandhar, an associate professor at Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University System.

I have real mixed feelings about this. If this is true, we may be onto part of the reason some people carry weight and other's don't -- but it seems tailor made for giving people looking for excuses one to use and not take responsibility for the situation. As you might imagine, that's a topic near and dear to me these days.

What it really shows to me, honestly, is that this simply isn't a simple situation with simple answers. Everyone's situation is going to be different.

On the other hand, there are doctors already lining up on the "just eat less" -- where the evidence is more and more pointing to issues well beyond lack of self control.  that kind of Calvinistic diatribe doesn't help the situation, either, and more than the "carbs good, fat bad" days of the 70's and 80's did. Remember when pasta and the bagel was the future of good diet?

Well, for some...

Portion-Control Dishware Helps Obese Diabetics Lose Weight - Yahoo! News

Portion-Control Dishware Helps Obese Diabetics Lose Weight - Yahoo! News:

Using a plate and cereal bowl that indicate proper portion sizes helped obese patients with diabetes lose weight and decrease their use of glucose-controlling medications, says a Canadian study.
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The plates -- divided into painted-line sections for carbohydrates, proteins, vegetables, cheese and sauce -- held enough for an 800-calorie meal for men and a 650-calorie meal for women. The bowl allowed for a 200-calorie serving of cereal and milk.

Over six months, about half of 122 patients (average age 56) used the portion-control plates and bowls, while the rest of the patients received usual care consisting of dietary assessments and teaching by dietitians.

The patients who used the portion-control plates and bowls lost an average of 1.8 percent of their body weight, compared to an average of 0.1 percent among those who received usual care.

Now here's an interesting idea. Visual feedback on appropriate serving size; if someone gets good reinforcement on what they "ought" to be eating -- they don't over eat as much.

To me, this actually makes a lot of sense. One contributing factor to over-eating is that some of us have a slow trigger on the hormone that signals fullness; there's a tendency to keep eating until it kicks in, and then you're too full. By using a way to show what the proper portion is in an easy to manage form (practical, not theoretical or through "education"), it helps a person reset expectations and eat to a specific dietary amount, not until they're full. this one, I think, has some potential.

it's similar to the old idea (which has been proven a few times) that one way to lose weight is to use smaller plates for your food. This is an interesting variant of that.

FDA says unmoved by aspartame/ cancer report - Yahoo! News

FDA says unmoved by aspartame/ cancer report - Yahoo! News:

Italian researchers published a new study last week that showed aspartame -- widely used in soft drinks -- might cause leukemia, lymphoma and breast cancer in rats.

I stopped eating Aspartame-containing foods years ago, not because of possible cancer, but because I just didn't seem to tolerate it well (contrary to what they say in public, there does seem to be a small percentage of users who can react to aspartame in a way similar to an allergic reaction. I don't consider that a huge deal, except I seem to be one of them; I just avoid it and use Splenda instead)

But -- this study has the same kind of problems rat and mice studies tend to have. First, rats and mice can be indicators that further study is warranted, not evidence of a problem IN HUMANS. Unless you're feeding rats, you can't take evidence from studies like this as definitive to any other species.

And, the researches use what is called a "mega mouse" standard:

The CSPI said the Acceptable Daily Intake of aspartame in the United States is 50 mg per kilogram of body weight, equivalent to a 50-pound (20 kg) child drinking 2.5 cans of diet soda a day, or a 150-pound (68 kilogram) adult drinking about 7.5 cans a day.

The Italian researchers found a cancer risk at the very highest doses -- double the U.S. Acceptable Daily Intake.

In other words -- to match their dosage, I'd have to finish off a 12 pack a day every day for the rest of my life. And then, I *might* find a small possible increase in cancer rates if enough people statistically did that. Oh, and they also extended the life of the rats and studied them when they died naturally, which gives them the maximum chance of "something happening". That's not necessarily a bad technique, actually -- but it looks like the actually increase is quite small, especially given the high dosages involved. Even if this does statistically carry across to humans, the increase rate isn't going to push other diseases or accidents off the map any time soon. I'd say, given the emerging evidence about high-yield fructose, you're a lot worse off on that than any dosage of Aspartame. Of course, I've cut almost all of this stuff out of my life -- maybe five cans of Splenda-based soda a week now, and the rest is water or iced teas (unsweetened); a much better option altogether, IMHO.

Especially since, if I'm reading this right, at more moderate doses they DIDN'T see any cancer increase. they had to really crank the dosage to get the rats to show any statistical change. But you'd never know that from the hype and (frankly) bad, lazy reporting.

I am no real fan of Aspartame; I am less a fan of people who take studies like these and go off generating press releases and hype. it's not science, it's scare tactics.