Posts Tagged ‘weight loss’

This past week new data suggested that some people taking the anti-obesity drug Meridia (sibutramine) are at greater risk of heart attacks and strokes than people taking a placebo. It also raised blood pressure and heart rate among users. What is interesting is how two large regulatory agencies responded to this data. The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has already advised physicians and pharmacists to stop prescribing and dispensing the medication, while the U.S. FDA has urged pharmaceutical company Abbott Laboratories, the maker of Meridia, to place a stronger warning on the drug. The warning is to caution against the use of the drug by people who are already at increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Was the EMEA too hasty in its decision or is the FDA not forceful enough? Proponents of the drug agree that it shouldn’t be given to those with cardiovascular disease or diabetes, while critics are in favor of an overall ban. In the drug’s twelve years on the market it has been linked to more than 80 deaths, including 30 people under age 50. [via New York Times]

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A National Institutes of Health and University of Minnesota study has found that vitamin D may assist in weight loss. By looking at vitamin D levels of overweight subjects before and after following a diet plan, researchers noted for every increase of 1 ng/mL in level of 25-hydroxycholecalciferol (the precursor form of vitamin D and a commonly used indicator of vitamin D status) subjects ended up losing almost a half pound  more. Also, higher vitamin D levels at the onset of dieting resulted in greater loss of abdominal fat. ”Our results suggest the possibility that the addition of vitamin D to a reduced-calorie diet will lead to better weight loss,” the authors say. However, more stringent clinical trials will be needed in order to see whether there is a true associated between vitamin D and weight.

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The EndoBarrier is a new technology that may be an alternative to gastric surgery for people who are dangerously obese. It’s an impermeable sleeve that can be deployed in the stomach to line the first 60 centimeters of the small intestine. The barrier is designed to remain in place for a few months and prevents the intestine from absorbing calories.  In animal experiments and preliminary human trials, it reduces weight and rapidly brings type 2 diabetes under control. Weight gain (especially around the waist) is associated with type 2 diabetes.

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“TOGA” is the acronym for transoral gastroplasty, a new type of weight loss surgery that involves making the stomach smaller by stapling it – by way of the mouth, rather than through incisions on the outside of the body. The procedure has now been performed on 98 individuals in Europe and and Mexico and, on average, those who have passed the one year mark have lost about 40% of their excess body weight. Only a few patients have tried it so far in the US as part of a study funded by Satiety, Inc., the company which makes the staplers. They are hoping to get FDA approval for the procedure, which falls in line with a current trend to make surgery less invasive and less painful. By not making incisions, you minimize many of the risks and side effects of surgery.

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