Health Habits

improve your health, habit by habit

Posts Tagged ‘pills’

Diet Pills Suck

November 6th, 2008

Fenfluramine, the appetite suppressant drug banned in the US in 1997 due to fears over its links to heart conditions, has been shown to have serious long-term effects.

In a report published today in the journal BMC Medicine, researchers have shown that people who stopped using fenfluramine eleven years ago had damaged heart valves up to seven years later.

In this study, Charles Dahl from the Central Utah Clinic led a team of researchers who studied the heart condition of 5743 former fenfluramine users. He said, “Valve problems were common in individuals exposed to fenfluramines, more frequent in females and associated with duration of drug use in all valves assessed”.

Heart valves, such as the aortic, mitral and tricuspid valves, ensure that your blood flows in the correct direction around the heart.

When they fail, blood back-flows (termed regurgitation).

If the regurgitation is severe enough, congestive heart failure and/or the need for heart valve surgery may occur.

Dahl said, “We found clear evidence for a strong, graded association between duration of exposure to fenfluramines and prevalence of aortic regurgitation and for mild or greater mitral and tricuspid regurgitation”.

Let’s get this straight.

We take a drug that causes this…

Aortic Regurgitation

So that we can eat like this…

And look like this…

What???

Sorry to break the news to y’all, but…

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Thus endeth the rant.

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A New and Improved Diet Pill?

September 2nd, 2008

The geeks in the lab coats think that they have discovered the Holy Grail of pharmaceuticals:

A Diet Pill that actually works.

Well, sort of.

In a new study, published in the August 31 online edition of Nature Medicine, scientists from the Salk Institute of Biological Studies claim to have identified a genetic master switch for obesity.

This switch, known as TORC1, is designed to turn on a variety of genes in the body.

One of those genes (CART – Cocaine and Amphetamine Regulated Transcript) is designed to shut down our appetite for food.

The researchers believe that subtle mutations in TORC1 may result in an inherited risk factor for obesity.

They also believe that “tweaking mutated and inefficient TORC genes may be possible through drug therapy”. “TORC1 is regulated by phosphate handling enzymes called kinases, and kinases often make for very good drug targets”.

So What Does This Mean?

A defective TORC1 gene seems to have a role in determining human obesity.
Researchers have no idea how prevalent defective TORC1 genes are in the human population.
A lot of research needs to be done to determine the prevalence of TORC1 mutation in the human population.
If it is determined that TORC1 plays a significant role in human obesity, research into a cure will begin.
Initial research will be performed on mice.
IF, IF, IF…

In the Meantime…

High Intensity Interval Training burns the maximum amount of fat in the minimum amount of time.
A diet focusing on health instead of convenience is your quickest path away from obesity.
All the workouts and diets in the world won’t work if your mind and emotions are not ready for the challenge.