Obesity Medicine

LEICESTER, England -- Lifestyle changes appear to be at least as effective as drugs to prevent type 2 diabetes among patients with impaired glucose tolerance, according to a meta-analysis.

CAMBRIDGE, England -- Defects in the receptor for leptin are rare but should be considered when diagnosing obese patients with uncontrolled appetites, according to researchers here.

WATERTOWN, Mass. -- Instead of popping pills, men with erectile dysfunction may be able to improve their performance through weight loss and getting in shape.

STANFORD, Calif. -- The fact that Ponce de Leon grew old and died should have been an object lesson, but the search goes on for the fountain of youth. Take human growth hormone, a recent popular and expensive candidate. No way, say investigators here.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The demand for obesity surgery has swelled by nearly 2,000% from 1998 to 2004, according to the federal Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

LOS ANGELES -- For heart failure patients, the "obesity paradox" of better survival rates with increasing heft appears to hold true during acute hospitalization as well, according to a large registry study.

BETHESDA, Md. -- For men who have prostate cancer, extra poundage may increase the risk of dying from an aggressive form of it, according to investigators here.

BOSTON -- When soft-drink companies fund nutritional research, the result is quite likely to be a favorable outcome, according to sour researchers here.

VILLEJUIF, France -- Risk factors for new-onset diabetes following liver transplantation include hepatitis C status, weight, and impaired fasting glucose status, French investigators reported.

BALTIMORE -- The most vulnerable age for girls to initially put on too much weight is from nine to 12, and that may lead to high blood pressure and other cardiovascular risk factors, according to investigators here.

NEW YORK -- Pre-hypertension appears to increase the risk of developing an enlarged heart among teens and young adults, according to a study of American Indians.

BOSTON -- The interplay of genetic predisposition and modifiable risk factors, such as obesity and smoking, increases the risk for age-related macular degeneration, researchers reported.

MILAN, Italy -- An hour a week devoted by office workers to on-the-job stress management achieved small but significant improvements in both heart rate variability and arterial blood pressure after a year, researchers here reported.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Clinical and regulatory developments in psychiatry during the year included extended black box warnings about suicide for antidepressants, new insights for treating schizophrenia gleaned from an old trial, and the possibility of a "taste test" for selecting the best medicine.

SAN ANTONIO -- The thiazolidinedione Actos (pioglitazone) produced metabolic and histologic improvements in patients with nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, the most severe form of fatty liver disease, researchers here found.

ATLANTA -- Despite fortification of the food supply with folic acid, serum folate levels have fallen en masse among women in recent years, researchers said.

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- The FDA approved a diet drug today that it wants no one to even consider taking. Slentrol (dirlotapide), is an obesity agent for dogs, with nasty side effects if humans try it.

WASHINGTON -- The Federal Trade Commission announced today that it fined four makers of over-the-counter weight-loss products more than million for false advertising, including a .2 million civil penalty against Bayer for claims made for One-A-Day Weight Smart.

ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- African Americans with chronic hepatitis C (HCV) are significantly less likely than Caucasians to have a fatty liver, according to researchers here.

TOKYO -- Tremors and other symptoms associated with Parkinson's disease can be reduced significantly by the antiepileptic drug Zonegran (zonisamide) without an increase in dyskinesias, according to Japanese researchers.

PITTSBURGH -- Poor sleep is a frequent companion of depression in children, according to researchers here.

abstract: Pulmonary disease caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) can be challenging to diagnose and manage. Patients typically present with nonspecific symptoms, such as cough and fever, and they often have underlying lung disease, which further complicates both diagnosis and treatment. To avoid treating pseudoinfection, the diagnosis should be based on a combination of the history and results of physical examination, radiographic imaging, and smears and cultures of at least 3 sputum samples. Occasionally, it is necessary to perform bronchoalveolar lavage or obtain tissue via transbronchial or open lung biopsy for histopathology and to assess for tissue invasion. Treatment involves a long course of often costly multiple antimycobacterial drugs. However, treatment with the second-generation macrolides, clarithromycin and azithromycin, has significantly improved cure rates for specific NTM infections. (J Respir Dis. 2007;28(1):7-18)

The authors report a case of idiopathic eosinophilic pneumonia in a man with sclerosing cholangitis and ulcerative colitis associated with features of sarcoidosis.

Asked to evaluate bilateral unexplained upper-thigh bruises on a profoundly impaired woman newly admitted to our rehabilitation unit 2 weeks after an intracerebral hemorrhage. Patient received high-dose dexamethasone to reduce perihemorrhage edema.

ABSTRACT: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is characterized by abdominal pain or discomfort, bloating, and constipation or diarrhea; the pain is typically relieved by defecation. The diagnosis is not one of exclusion; it can be made based on the answers to a few key questions and the absence of "alarm" symptoms. Fiber therapy, the elimination of particular foods, and regulation of bowel function can help relieve symptoms. Tegaserod or polyethylene glycol can be used to treat IBS with constipation. Loperamide and alosetron are of benefit in IBS with diarrhea (although the latter carries a small risk of ischemic colitis). Low-dose tricyclic antidepressants may be used to treat the abdominal pain associated with IBS. Probiotic therapy or rifaximin may help reduce bloating. Psychological therapies seem to improve well-being in patients with IBS.