Obesity Medicine

ATLANTA -- A prostate cancer diagnosis should be a cardiovascular wake-up call, said researchers here.

BILTHOVEN, The Netherlands -- Pounds weigh heavily on the risk of developing coronary heart disease, independent of traditional risk factors, according to a meta-analysis

DALLAS -- A fatty heart, cardiac steatosis, can occur in patients on the road to type 2 diabetes and in the presence of normal left ventricular dysfunction, investigators here have determined.

ABSTRACT: Low-density lipoproteins are the most common atherogenic particles in diabetic dyslipidemia; therefore statins, which dramatically reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol, are first-line therapy for patients with diabetes. These agents produce equivalent relative risk reductions in those with and without diabetes but confer greater absolute risk reduction because of the increased incidence of ischemic cardiovascular events in those with diabetes. The LDL cholesterol goal for patients with diabetes who do not have coronary heart disease is below 100 mg/dL. For secondary prevention, the goal is below 70 mg/dL. High-dose statin therapy may be required to achieve these goals. Fibric acids are a reasonable initial option for patients with triglyceride levels above 200 mg/dL and high-density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels below 40 mg/dL; in such patients they reduce risk as effectively as statins. Intermediate-release niacin raises HDL cholesterol levels; the effect is enhanced when niacin is combined with a statin.

For 2 weeks, a 67-year-old obese woman has had episodes of diffuse, nonradiating abdominal pain that last for several hours and are slightly relieved by famotidine/antacid. She rates the pain as 7 on a scale of 1 to 10.

abstract: Common causes of poorly controlled asthma include nonadherence to long-term inhaler therapy; environmental exposures; and uncontrolled comorbidities, such as allergic rhinitis. Adherence can be limited by many factors, including inadequate patient education, medication cost, prior failed treatment, poor physician-patient relationship, unrealistic expectations for therapy, and depression. For patients who have a poor perception of their symptoms, emphasizing the "disconnect" between symptoms and pulmonary function can help motivate them to monitor themselves with a peak flow meter and to adjust their medication accordingly. For patients with allergic triggers, instituting allergen-specific environmental controls can decrease symptoms and urgent care visits for asthma. Chronic rhinosinusitis and gastroesophageal reflux disease can also contribute to difficult-to-control asthma, and treatment of these comorbidities can help reduce asthma symptoms. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(9):365-369)

A 47-year-old woman who recently completed adjuvant chemotherapy for colon cancer has painless cervical lymphadenopathy of 1 to 2 cm. She has no fever, sore throat, cough, or unexplained weight loss, and she denies exposure to ill persons or animals.

Respondents to a MedPage Today poll were almost equally split over whether bariatric surgery should be first-line therapy in the treatment of obesity, but most of those who said Yes did so with reservations.

BETHESDA, Md. -- Emphasizing that asthma affects different patients in different ways, the National Asthma Education and Prevention Program has issued new evidence-based guidelines on the disease.

SEATTLE -- ZIP codes and property values will provide a better handle on the scope of the nation's obesity problem than income, race, or education, investigators here reported.

BOSTON -- Whole grains may help prevent type 2 diabetes, with consistent results across studies, researchers said.

BOSTON -- The development of type 2 diabetes -- or at least part of it -- may be in your head, researchers here said.

LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Intensive behavioral therapy helped severely obese patients lose at least 100 pounds in 44 weeks and maintain 60% of the loss at five years, researcher here reported.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Untreated gestational diabetes nearly doubles the risk that offspring will be obese by kindergarten age, but treatment of maternal hyperglycemia can prevent it, said investigators here.

WASHINGTON -- Mississippi has exceeded the 30% obesity rate, the first time any state's population has done so, reported a health advocacy group. But 19 other states with large obese populations are not far behind.

BOSTON -- Myocardial infarction more than doubles the risk of new-onset diabetes and leads to a 15-fold increased risk of impaired fasting glucose, results of a study of more than 8,000 MI patients show.

Take this MedPage Today survey on bariatric surgery.

DALLAS -- An over-abundance of a key hormone protects the "world's fattest mice" from the metabolic effects of their excess fat, researchers said.

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Adolescent boys deprived of a high glycemic index junk-food diet had better clearing of acne vulgaris in 12 weeks than a medicine chest full of pimple medications can provide.

BOSTON -- Obesity may be caused -- at least in some cases -- by a virus, researchers said here.

GOTHENBURG, Sweden -- Two research groups have provided long-awaited evidence that bariatric surgery saves lives, up to 136 per 10,000 operations.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba -- Physiologically appropriate infant weight loss is less for babies fed formula in the hospital than for those who are breastfed, suggesting that hospitals feed too much, researchers said.

IOANNINA, Greece -- Clinicians may have to reassess the ABCs of the gender differences in disease manifestations specifically linked to X or Y chromosomes.

BOSTON -- Childhood hypertension is there, if only pediatricians would look for it. Most of the time, they don't, investigators here reported.

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- A decade before women develop dementia, they may begin to have an unexplained loss of weight, according to investigators here.