The variation in question appears in 7 out of every 1,000 severely obese people, and may also be linked to mental retardation and learning disabilities. The investigation appears in the February 4. 2010 issue of the British journal Nature.

The work, conducted by a team of European scientists, began by examining the genes of teens and adults who had learning problems and developmental delays.

Of these, 31 were missing the genes in question and all of these subjects were obese, with BMIs over 30.0. This led the researchers to look at the genomes of 16,053 healthy people who were either of normal weight or obese, of these, 19 people had the same set of missing genes, and all were severely obese. The genetic variation was not found in any of the normal weight subjects.

Interestingly, the obese subjects reported being average weight toddlers, but steadily gaining weight during childhood, and getting to the severely obese stage as an adult.

“Obesity is definitively a genetic trait, and it is very likely that additional small chromosomal abnormalities exist that may dramatically increase the risk of obesity and may also be linked to brain developmental problems,” explains study co-author Dr. Philippe Froguel, the head of genomic medicine at Imperial College London.

While other studies have looked at different genetic variations that might contribute to obesity, this is the first to clearly show that a relatively rare genetic variation is also part of the obesity puzzle.

Obesity in otherwise healthy adults may be caused by a variation where a section of that person’s DNA is missing. But just what the missing genes do in the body, and how the lack of them brings on obesity, remains unknown.

Some basic genetics might help here. We all inherit two copies of our DNA, one from our mother, the other from our father. The trouble starts when a child is missing a copy of one, or several, of these genes, and this can have a profound impact on the body. Experts believe these defects may make the bodily reaction to our modern unhealthy environment (junk food, no exercise, lack of sleep) far different from another person’s.

Continues below…

Very Obese Have Missing Genes Continued…

” The mechanism by which this genetic defect unveils itself may give us insight into how other conditions lead to obesity. There may be an enzyme or a protein that is involved in the development of obesity,” explains Dr. Stuart Weiss, an assistant clinical professor at NYU Langone Medical Center, who is familiar with the study and its findings.

This work might lead to medications and therapies that could turn something in the body on (or off) and effect body weight. It may also allow for ways to identify those at risk through genetic testing and offer support and medical intervention as needed.

Weiss points out that not all obese people can slim down just by eating less and exercising more. This may be especially true if the body is set up to extract calories or burn energy less efficiently, encouraging weight gain.

The good news for anyone struggling with obesity is that we may be getting closer to the day when medicine can offer real help, real hope, to those wanting to lose the weight.

Share This

It seems that family behaviors can have a significant impact on preschool children, helping them maintain a normal weight, and perhaps delivering other benefits as well.

The three habits?

- Sit down to dinner together as a family five or more nights each week.

- Be sure children get enough (10.5 hours a night at this age) sleep.

- Limit time in front of the TV or game system to less than two hours a day.

“Four-year-olds who regularly ate dinner with the family, got enough sleep and watched less than two hours of TV a day were 40% less likely to be obese,” points out study lead author, Sarah Anderson, an assistant professor of epidemiology in the College of Public Health at Ohio State University.

Since there are so few easy, effective treatments for childhood obesity, preventing it in the first place must get special emphasis. Childhood obesity isn’t something to brush of; it’s a serious medical condition that gets kids started on a path to health problems (high blood pressure, diabetes and high cholesterol) once only seen in adults.

The research included a nationally representative sample of 8,550 four year olds along with one parent per child who answered questions about family routine and behavior. In children, obesity is determined by the BMI being greater than the 95th percentile when compared to others of the same age and gender. The group of children in this study had an 18% obesity rate.

Only 14.5% of the children were regularly exposed to all three of the at home behaviors, and the obesity rate for this group was 14.3%. For those kids who were exposed to none of the three, the obesity rate shot up to 24.5%. Researchers were able to link each behavior to a 17% reduction in the rate of obesity.

These results held even after the team controlled for things that might impact a child’s risk of being obese. These included obesity of the mother, race, gender, socioeconomic status and living in a single parent household.

The results show an association between the three behaviors and obesity rates, but the study was not designed to demonstrate cause and effect. “We don’t know if it’s the routines per se, or if it’s the parenting associated with these routines or something else correlated with these routines, but we do know these routines are associated with a lower incidence of obesity,” continues Anderson.

The good news for parents is that all three of the behaviors are pretty simple – things you can do in your own home, in your own way, to help your children. Not only will you be denying childhood obesity a hold on your child, you’ll also be taking part in activities that have been shown to aid behavior and cognitive development.

Continues below…

3 Home Habits to Stay Slim Continued…

Even if you can’t manage making all three steps part of your family routine, Anderson says that introducing at least one can have a positive impact. Or do one as much as possible for your lifestyle and schedule.

As a parent, you will need to make these behaviors a priority… perhaps limiting the number of activities or changing your own routine to make it work. You might start by trying the one behavior you think you’ll be able to do most easily and watch the results. If you’re already doing one (or more) of these, try adding another.

Young children aren’t the only ones who can be encouraged to get their weight under control, as shown by another study set to appear in the same March 2010 issue of Pediatrics.

This work involved 81 obese teen girls enrolled in the Duke University Healthy Lifestyles Program who were randomly assigned to read an intervention novel about an obese heroine who learns about eating right, being active and thus improving her self esteem, or a control novel.

The girls who read the intervention novel were more likely to reduce their BMI percentile than those who read the control book, or a third group of subjects who didn’t read anything.

Age appropriate fiction that addresses healthy behaviors might have potential as a supplement to a weight management program.

So parents, grandparents and others… if you’re worried about childhood obesity, there are simple steps you can take to make a difference… starting tonight.

Share This

A fascinating Australian study looked at the birthdays of Australian Football League (AFL) players and found that many were born in the first months of the year and fewer were born in the later months of the year. The research appears in a Springer book called Analyzing Seasonal Health Data, written by study author Dr. Adrian Barnett and professor Annette Dobson.

In the study, the researchers found that 33% more AFL players than expected had birthdays in January, while 25% fewer had birthdays at the end of the year, in December.

These findings are similar to other research that found there was an association between being born near the start of the school year and a better chance of growing up to be a pro football, volleyball, basketball or ice hockey player.

Interesting that, Wayne Gretzky, Kelly Hrudey and Bobby Hull are all January babies.

The Australian school year starts in January, and according to Barnett, a senior research fellow at the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation at the Queensland University of Technology, “Children who are taller have an obvious advantage when playing [Australian rules football]. If you were born in January, you have almost 12 months’ growth ahead of your classmates born late in the year, so whether you were born on December 31st or January 1st could have a huge effect on your life,”

Strange to think that two children, born only a day apart, could experience things so differently. One will bear the disadvantage of being the youngest and smallest in the year, while the one born on January 1st will have the benefits of being bigger and stronger earlier than peers.

The Australian research results mirror other work that links being born near the start of the school year and the chances of becoming a professional in either football, volleyball, basketball or ice hockey.

The studies have found that those born at the start of the year do better academically while also having more confidence. Smaller kids miss out, perhaps getting discouraged by playing with those in the same grade who are physically bigger and stronger. Missing out on sports and the exercise that comes with it has consequences not only on their potential athletic careers, but also on their future health as well.

Continues below…

Professional Athletes From Birth Continued…

Organized sports have no shortage of cheerleaders, and there are certainly lots of benefits to being part of a team. Just be sure that your child is both emotionally and physically ready to participate – pushing a sport too early is frustrating (and pointless) for everyone.

Sometimes being pushed can turn a child off from sports for good. It’s really not until the age of 6 or 7 (usually) that most children have the physical skills and attention span to listen, take turns and understand the rules of a game.

The findings of the Australian research also suggest that children who have potential to excel in sports might be missed because they have to compete with more physically advanced peers.

Understanding the system that’s a part of organized sports and the evaluation of potential that favors children born in the early months of any year in sports like hockey, soccer and baseball is key.

Unless a child has exceptional talent at an early age, they won’t stand out to coaches as readily and the mechanisms for second chances in a year or two simply don’t exist.

Share This

The research involved an analysis of data collected on 60,524 Chinese adults and looked at the role sweetened carbonated drinks and juices play in the development in this type of cancer in Asians. Earlier work has previously looked at the effect on Americans and Europeans.

The participants came from the Singapore Chinese Health Study that collected data on diet, physical activity and medical history among other things.

Those who drank two or more carbonated sodas (diet sodas and sports drinks were not included in the work) a week tended to be younger men who smoked, drank alcohol, ate calorie laden foods and were less active overall. These participants also ate more red meat, causing the researchers to adjust for dietary factors such as this.

“But the adjustments did not change the link between soda and the risk of pancreas cancer,” explains study author Mark Pereira of the University of Minnesota’s division of epidemiology and community health. “We suspect sugar is the culprit, but we cannot prove it from this study,”

Generally a serving of carbonated soda is 20 ounces and has 65 grams of sugar. As a comparison, a typical serving of a fruit juice, like orange juice, is 8 ounces and has 21 grams of sugar. Quite a difference.

Carbonated drinks are the leading sources of added sugar in the US diet, contributing to both high blood sugar and hyperinsulinemia (a higher than normal amount of insulin in the blood).

The pancreas is a gland deep in the abdomen (between the stomach and spine), surrounded by other vital organs like the liver and intestines. This pear-shaped gland is about 6 inches long and produces insulin (and other hormones) that help to regulate blood sugar.

This organ, like others in the body, can develop cancer though the causes remain unknown. It’s most common in smokers and those who are obese, with risk increasing as you age. This form of cancer is slightly more common in women than in men.

Tragically, 95% of those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer won’t be alive in 5 years.

Continues below…

This Increases Risk Of Pancreatic Cancer Continued…

When it comes to treatment, the picture is bleak – usually by the time this cancer is found, its quite advanced and has had time to spread to nearby organs.

In about 80% of cases the tumor cannot be removed, leaving chemotherapy and radiation as the most likely recommendations to shrink the size of the growth and prolong survival.

If the findings of this most recent study are confirmed by future work, this could provide a solid, sensible way to prevent a dangerous, deadly form of cancer.

Limiting these sweetened drinks as well as eating lots of fruits, vegetables and whole grains, exercising regularly and quitting smoking are all changes you can make to reduce your risk. In the case of pancreatic cancer, prevention is always the best, safest option.

Share This

This finding comes from work in the U.S. on a group of volunteers who were willing to adjust their sleep patterns so they could be monitored.

For seven days, one half of the group was given extra sleep, while the others were told to make no changes to their sleeping patterns.

The next week they were all sleep deprived. “After this week of either extended or habitual sleep per night, all the volunteers came to the lab and they were allowed only three hours of sleep, per night, for a week,” explained award-winning researcher Tracy Rupp from the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research.

Next, both groups were given tasks of varying complexity – tests showed that subjects who had banked sleep the week before were better off during the sleep restriction.

Those who banked sleep didn’t lose reaction time and alertness like the group who’d slept normally. Even a week after the experiment, the sleepers who banked sleep were recovering better from being deprived of sleep than those who had slept as usual.

“What we’re basically saying is if you fill up your reserves and pay back your sleep debt ahead of time, you’re better equipped to deal with the sleep loss challenge.”

The research team isn’t able to say just how much sleep you need to bank for maximum effect. Like the amount of sleep each of us needs, the amount to bank is likely very individualized.

Of course so many of us know well the feeling of going to bed early before a big day and not being able to fall off to sleep. This is where good sleep habits can truly make a difference, especially relaxation techniques, in helping you slow your thoughts and let go so you can slip into sleep easily.

And though the latest work didn’t look at napping, the researchers point out that short rests during the day have been shown to improve performance, at least in the short term.

Continues below…

Bank Sleep To Fight Fatigue Continued…

Earlier work has found that those who suffer with chronic sleep deprivation might be able to function just fine just after waking, but experience slower reaction times as the day goes on… even if they tried to catch up the night before. Chronic sleep deprivation appears to take some time and effort to fix.

Not only does this sleep banking idea have implications for business people, but also for the military where it could be a lifesaver. The idea, if supported after some more testing, could become a part of pre-tour routines for armed forces.

The next step is to find out why the extra sleep can be banked and to identify just what’s happening in the brain – something that we can be observed with advanced brain-imaging machines.

According to the National Institutes of Health, 50 to 70 million Americans deal with chronic sleep disorders and sleep problems that can truly affect health, not to mention alertness and safety.

Sleep disorders that don’t get treated have been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, depression, diabetes and other chronic conditions. The trouble for many of us is that we overlook or ignore our sleep problems and don’t mention them to our doctor.

Share This

Following a Mediterranean style diet helps lower the risk of developing small areas of dead tissue that have been linked to thinking problems. Doctor’s call these brain infarcts, and cite them as involved in vascular dementia, the second most common form of disease after Alzheimer’s disease. The Mayo Clinic puts the numbers with vascular dementia at between 1-4% of those over 65.

The risks for vascular disease are similar to Alzheimer’s disease and include high blood pressure, a high fat diet, type 2 diabetes and low folate intake. In this latest study the subjects had never had a clinical stroke, but might have had smaller, unnoticed ones. MRI brain scans can detect such small strokes.

The study ties diet to stroke, and will be presented at the annual meeting of the American Academy of Neurology in April 2010. The subjects were 712 New Yorkers over the age of 65 who were asked about their diet and then six years later underwent an MRI. Dr. Nikolaos Scarmeas, a neurologist at Columbia University Medical Center, says that dietary patterns tend to remain consistent for at least seven to eight years.

Researchers found that those who most closely followed a Mediterranean style diet were 36% less likely to have areas of brain damage, compared with those whose eating habits were least like the diet.

When the researchers controlled for high blood pressure, the Mediterranean diet was still tied to a lower risk of brain damage. It could be this way of eating helps to protect the brain vessels themselves, without regard to other problems like hypertension Scarmeas says.

The researchers also looked at the individual components of the Mediterranean diet to see if one could be identified as especially beneficial. They found a stronger association between eating the whole diet and brain damage prevention than with any single food in the diet. It might just be that the combination of all the elements, including fish oil, may be producing the positive effect on the brain.

When it came to strokes, the subjects who followed the diet plan the least had an increased risk of strokes that was similar to those with high blood pressure. Those who stuck to the Mediterranean diet regimen had a level of protection that was similar to those who didn’t have hypertension. Other studies have suggested that this eating style might help in preventing a second heart attack, stopping the need for diabetes drugs and lowering cancer risk.

It’s important to understand that the results of the work show association, not causation, which tells us that there could be other factors linking the Mediterranean diet to resistance to this type of brain damage. Other research has shown that the more subjects stick to the diet, the better protection against hypertension they get, and this is also associated with these brain problems.

Continues below…

Mediterranean Diet For Healthy Brain Continued…

The Mediterranean diet isn’t so much a diet plan as a way of eating for life, and is nothing like the typical American diet. The Mediterranean diet is:

- Very low in red meat and poultry

- Uses olive oil as the main fat source

- Very high in fruits, nuts, legumes, vegetables and cereals

- High in fish

- Permits low to moderate intake of wine

Future work will need to confirm whether subjects must follow the entire Mediterranean diet, or if there are parts that bring about the positive effects. Identifying specific foods might make changing the way we eat easier – adjustments could be centered on adding one or two elements to our current diet, rather than trying to reshape a lifetime pattern of eating.

Still, no matter what the experts end up concluding; we are seeing clearly that what you put into your body (good or bad) does indeed have an impact on both body and mind.

Share This

Using data from the Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study, the team followed 13,549 middle aged (45-65 years) Americans for nearly 20 years, looking to see if ischemic stroke risk was associated with several measures of obesity; body mass index (BMI), waist circumference and waist-to-hip ratio.

The intriguing report has just been published online in the journal Stroke.

Medicine defines a stroke as an interruption of the blood supply to a part of the brain. A stroke happens when blood flow to a part of the brain is interrupted because a blood vessel is blocked or bursts open.

If the flow stops for even a few seconds, the brain can’t get the oxygen it needs and the cells start to die. This death can result permanent damage.

“We found that the risk of stroke was increased with each measure of obesity,” explains study lead author Dr. Hiroshi Yatsuya, a visiting associate professor of public health at the University of Minnesota. The degree of risk varied by ethnicity, as well as for men and women, with risks especially high for blacks.

This increased risk has been confirmed by many earlier studies, and has also been seen in Asians, though no one knows precisely why.

In this research, the increased stroke risk that came with added weight was seen in every ethnic group – men and women in the highest obesity categories had almost double the risk for stroke as did those in the lowest category.

For instance, those in the highest BMI category had a 1.43 to 2.12 times’ higher risk of stroke, with variations by race and sex.

Continues below…

Stroke Risk Increases As Weight Goes Up Continued…

Measure obesity by waist circumference and the stroke risk ratios ranged from 1.65 to 3.19, from 1.69 to 2.55 when the waist to hip ratio was used.

“Degree of obesity, defined by body mass index, waist circumference, or waist-to-hip ratio, was a significant risk factor for ischemic stroke regardless of sex or race,” the study authors point out.

Experts think that obesity increases the incidence of high blood pressure and diabetes, both major risk factors for stroke and other diseases of the cardiovascular system.

When the researchers factored in blood pressure and diabetes the association between obesity and stroke risk was weaker, but sill there.

“Obesity contributes to both diabetes and hypertension [high blood pressure], which are associated with stroke and at an earlier age,” points out Daniel Lackland, a professor of epidemiology at the Medical University of South Carolina and spokesman for the American Heart Association.

When it comes to stroke prevention, the organization stresses the need for controlling your weight by following a healthy diet as well as getting regular physical activity.

Controlled trials would need to be conducted to provide clear evidence that obesity also brings down stroke risk, but until they are, if you’re concerned take steps to reduce your weight, and you’ll very likely reduce your stroke risk too.

Daily Health Bulletin
For A Limited Time: Click Here To Grab 5 Free Essential Health Reports Today!

Share This

Try a glass of blueberry juice and you’ll be giving your brain a boost says a new study in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

According to the groundbreaking research, a daily drink of wild blueberry juice improved the memory of older subjects who were known to have memory problems related to age.

Experts have long believed that what we eat and drink has an impact on thinking capacity, but this is the first work to show the benefit of a food like blueberries in helping the memory of older people who are already at risk for dementia.

While some lapses in memory or slowing down of thinking are a normal part of getting older, significant memory loss is not.

Surprisingly, the brain is able to produce new cells at any age, and can be trained or learn new things at any age. What we often put down to forgetfulness is more accurately a slowing down of the brain’s ability to absorb, store and retrieve new information.

“The findings of this preliminary study suggest that moderate-term blueberry supplementation can confer neurocognitive benefit,” says researcher Robert Krikorian, of the University of Cincinnati Academic Health Center.

A group of participants in their 70s who had signs of age related memory decline drank almost two and a half cups of commercially available blueberry juice each day, while a control group of subjects drank a berry flavored, non-juice beverage in similar amounts. The study lasted two months

The team conducted memory tests, like word associations and word list recall, at both the start and end of the study period.

The results? Those who drank the blueberry juice had significant improvement in learning and memory tests compared to the demographically matched sample that drank the non-juice beverage.

The blueberry juice drinkers also reported fewer symptoms of depression and had lower glucose levels. More work will be done to confirm these details, but the benefits of the blueberries on memory seem pretty clear.

Blueberries, beyond being tasty, have a great deal of phytochemicals, known to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on the body.

Earlier studies on animals have found that polyphenols in blueberries (known as anthocyanins) have increased signaling in brain centers linked to memory. They also aid the brain in getting rid of glucose.

Beyond what you eat, there are other things you can do to keep your mind sharp as you age. Exercise regularly as this brings more oxygen to your brain. Eat a healthy diet with fruits (including blueberries), veggies, whole grains and healthy fats.

Stress can be a terrible drain on your mind, so you’ll need to do all you can to manage the stress in your life. Be sure you get a good night’s sleep, and if you’re not, take steps to improve your sleep habits.

Lastly, don’t smoke, as this increases the risk of vascular disorders that can cause stroke or constrict arteries that bring oxygen to the brain.

If you find you’re already forgetting more than you’d like, here things you can do…

Continues below…

Battle “Senior Moments” With Blueberries Continued…

- Use notes or checklists to keep yourself organized.

- Put important appointments/dates in a planner, calendar or electronic organizer.

- Put things you use all the time in the same spot every time.

- Write down the steps for complex, or difficult to remember tasks.

- Use an alarm clock or timer to help you remember when to leave or do something.

- Rely on maps, GPS systems, or family and friends to help get yourself from point A to point B.

- Learn new things faster by listening closely when someone talks, repeat back the information, focus on one thing at a time and try to have your session in quiet, distraction free places.

- Do mental exercise – play strategy games, try crossword or number puzzles, read newspapers and magazines that challenge you, learn new things like games, recipes or driving routes, take a course in a subject you don’t know or try a project that calls for design and planning.

- Social interaction aids the brain by challenging the mind and helping to ease stress or symptoms of depression brought on by isolation.

Remember, to a great extent, keeping your brain healthy and sharp in the years to come is within your control. All you have to do is get started.

Daily Health Bulletin
For A Limited Time: Click Here To Grab 5 Free Essential Health Reports Today!

Share This

Neuroscientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Beijing’s Tsinghua University find that upping your intake of magnesium – an essential mineral in dark, leafy veggies and some fruits, beans and nuts – might just help with the memory lapses that happen as we age.

Many experts believe that diet can have quite an impact of our cognitive capacity, and the researchers point to an estimate that only 32% of Americans are getting the recommended daily allowance of magnesium, as a cause for concern and a reason to learn more.

The recommended dietary allowance of magnesium for adults is 400 milligrams/day for men; 310 milligrams/day for women who aren’t pregnant.

Adults over 31 should get 420 milligrams/day for men; 320 milligrams/day for non-pregnant women. “Magnesium is essential for the proper functioning of many tissues in the body, including the brain and, in an earlier study, we demonstrated that magnesium promoted synaptic plasticity in cultured brain cells,” explains Guosong Liu, Director of the Center for Learning and Memory at Tsinghua University in Beijing. “Therefore it was tempting to take our studies a step further and investigate whether an increase in brain magnesium levels enhanced cognitive function in animals.”

Even thought the experiments were conducted on rats, experts believe that the findings have implications for people too.

The study appears in the January 28, 2010 issue of journal Neruon, and demonstrates that increasing brain magnesium using a new compound, magnesium-L-threonate (MgT for short), aids learning, working memory as well as short and long term memory in rats.

The mineral also helped the older rats do better on a series of learning tests conducted by the researchers. It was in 2004 that Guosong Liu and his team at MIT first discovered that magnesium might aid memory and learning, following up by developing a new magnesium compound that’s been shown to be better than conventional supplements at bringing up levels of this mineral in the brain.

The team then examined how MgT stimulates changes in synapses. Synapses are the junctions between neurons that are key to transmitting nerve signals. In both young and old rats, MgT increased strength among synapses, promoting density in the hippocampus, the area of the brain that plays an important role in spatial navigation and long term memory.

“This study not only highlights the importance of a diet with sufficient daily magnesium, but also suggests the usefulness of magnesium-based treatments for aging-associated memory decline,” says study author Susumu Tonegawa, who works at MIT’s Picower Institute for Learning and Memory.

Recognizing that aging does cause some decline in the ability to recall memories when not all the information is presented, the researchers conducted other experiments as part of the study.

Continues below…

Magnesium Might Keep Memories Strong Continued…

They found that MgT treatment boosted memory recall under partial information conditions in older rats, but had no affect in younger ones.

The study authors point out that the control rats in the study ate a normal diet that had a sufficient amount of magnesium. The effects observed in the studies were due to elevation of magnesium to the levels higher than what you’d get in a normal diet.

Half the population of the industrialized world is believed to have a magnesium deficiency according to researcher Liu. “If MgT is shown to be safe and effective in humans, these results may have a significant impact on public health.” Liu is a cofounder of Magceutics, a company that creates drugs for the prevention and treatment of age related memory decline and Alzheimer’s disease.

A diet that gives you sufficient daily magnesium is a smart, natural move to help retain your mental function, and might have some use if you’re fighting age associated cognitive decline.

Research is ongoing and more work needs to be done to investigate the relationship between the magnesium you get in your diet, as well as body and brain magnesium levels and cognitive skills.

Daily Health Bulletin
For A Limited Time: Click Here To Grab 5 Free Essential Health Reports Today!

Share This

In the study, overweight or obese subjects who followed a low-carb diet lost about the same amount of weight as those who cut down on their fat intake while also taking weight loss drug Xenical or Alli.

The surprise was that the low-carb diet brought more beneficial effects to blood pressure numbers.

What makes this study different, according to William S. Yancy Jr. of the VA Medical Center in North Carolina, is that this work enrolled real people who had common health problems like heart disease or diabetes – these conditions are usually not part of most studies of weight loss.

He and his team assigned 146 subjects to either a low-carbohydrate diet, eating less than 20 grams of carbs a day, or to take 120 mg of orlistat three times a day and followed a low calorie, low fat diet. The instructions the subjects were given came at group meetings held every two weeks for the first six months of the study, monthly thereafter.

The meetings for diet advice were a big part of the success – subjects who came to 80% (or more) of the meetings lost an average of 14-15% of their body weight.

Low-carb diets, as the name implies, limit carbohydrates – breads, grains, rice, starchy veggies and fruit – and focus on sources of protein and fat.

The Atkins diet, the Zone diet and Protein Power are a few of the more popular low-carb plans. Low fat plans rely on limiting the number of calories; even the ones in fat-free, trans fat-free and low-fat foods and burning more than you take in. So, exercise is part of the weight loss equation here.

Continues below…

Low Carb Diet Lowers Blood Pressure Continued…

The drug in the study, orlistat, works by blocking the absorption of fat from food. If you take it, you must cut down on your fat intake or put yourself at risk for some nasty side effects, like gas and incontinence. In the current study, those who took the drug were more likely to report gas, bowel incontinence and diarrhea than those on the low-carb eating plan. Only one subject stopped using the drug because of the side effects.

“Orlistat can work quite well if it’s used correctly,” Yancy points out.

At the end of 48 the weeks, the low-carb subjects lost almost 9.5% of their body weight, compared to 8.5% for the orlistat group – not a big difference. Cholesterol levels between the two groups had similar improvements. The difference came in blood pressure numbers. The low-carb group had a 6% drop in their systolic (top) blood pressure and a 4.5% drop in diastolic (bottom) blood pressure. In the orlistat group the differences were much smaller – 1.5% in their systolic number, 0.4% in the diastolic number.

When it comes to weight loss, the best bet is to choose the plan (low-carb or low fat) that’s best for you, taking into account the types of foods you like.

Look for a way of eating that you can live with long term, not just for a few weeks or months. The research also points out the value of regular support for your efforts, so be sure you find a reliable source or “buddy” to cheer you on during your efforts.

Daily Health Bulletin
For A Limited Time: Click Here To Grab 5 Free Essential Health Reports Today!

Share This