The Diet Diary

A new study shows obese patients injected with pramlintide ate nearly 1,000 fewer calories per day when they injected pramlintide.

Pramllintide, a synthetic version of the human hormone amylin seems to induce satiety– or a feeling of fullness– after eating. The drug is already approved for the treatment of insulin-dependent diabetes.

More information is available in a Pramlintide Treatment Reduces 24-Hour Caloric Intake and Meal Sizes, and Improves Control of Eating in Obese Subjects: A 6-Week Translational Research Study published Am J Physiol Endocrinol Metab.

Past studies had shown that high body weight tended to protect against osteoporosis. This lead some to conclude that obesity was somewhat protective of bones.

A recent study by Professor Deng of University of Missouri shows this is not true: If you correct for the mechanical loading effect of extra weight, then carrying body fat had a negative effect on bone mass.

That is to say: If you weigh a lot because you are are a tall person, your weight does protect against bone loss; just carrying a lot of weight stresses your bones and triggers your body to build bone. Hoever, But if you are short and fat, the fat itself tends to counteract the effect of the weight.

So, if you want to fend off osteoporosis, it’s advisable to lose weight but do perform some weight bearing exercise — like walking, running or weight lifting! (Easy, huh?)

Sanofi-Aventis withdrew its application to sell their obesity drug ribmonbant in the US after an advisory panel of medical experts recommended the FDA not approve the drug. Evidently, there are psychiatric side effects– including suicidal thinking– associated with the drug.

This drug is already available in the EU, where doctors are not permitted to prescribe it to patients suffering depression. In addition, the European Medicines agency is reviewing recent safety data and will issue an updated opinion on the drug this month.

Because the drug has been shown to control blood sugar levels, the company my be planning to resubmit the drug as a diabetes treatment rather than a diet drug.

If approved for the US, the drug known by brand name “Acomplia” and “Zimulti” was anticipated to be have blockbuster sales exceeding $1 billion.

test for feed… again. This time after uploading the new file!

Everyone knows exericise is good for your heart. But do you need intense exercise? Or is is it ok to exercise at low intensity for a long time? Well, it turns out that to increase good cholesterol exercise duration matters. Or at least that’s what Dr. Satoru Kodama and colleagues reported in The Archives of Internal Medicine.

This study was a statistical analysis of other studies which had generally shown exercise increases good cholesterol, but the strength of the effect varied. The statistical analysis of all studies revealed that duration is more important than intensity. It also showed the HDL raising effect of starting an exercise program was strongest for those with low BMI (body mass index) and initially high cholesterol.

I guess this makes sense: If you already have good cholesterol, more exercise isn’t going to make much difference. And if you are obese, it’s likely some experiments were of too short duration to have a huge effect? (Or so it seems to me– but I’m a mechanical engineer. So, don’t go by my speculations!)

Still, I guess this study would suggest long walks are great!

So maybe you didn’t care that getting drunk might lead to a heart attack. I bet you care that research confirms it gives you a belly!

Epidemiologists at the
University of Buffalo found that male or female binge drinkers — that is those who drink infrequently but heavily — had more abdominal fat as measured by “abdominal height”.

When I read that, I thought, “What the heck is abdominal height?” Well, it turns down those measuring this have you lie down on your back and measure how far up your belly protrudes above the table!

Interestingly, those who drank moderately had less “abdominal height” than those who had abstained completely during the 30 days before the study.

So.. once again, it appears that moderate drinking is like Baby Bear’s bed: just right!