An intensive, one-on-one weight loss program developed by the Veterans Affairs Department failed to attract many comers, and the few who did take part didn’t lose much weight, researchers report.

It’s not clear why the program did not work, but it doesn’t bode well for efforts to help the two-thirds of Americans who are overweight or obese lose weight. Most studies looking at how to help people take off the pounds suggest such just such a personalized, lifestyle-changing approach.

Alyson Littman of the Seattle Epidemiologic Research and Information Center and colleagues looked at the VA’s MOVE! Weight Management Program for Veterans. 

Out of all the VA patients, 76,599 were classified as candidates for the program, based on their records, height, and weight. “A total of 3,192 (4.2 percent) patients participated in MOVE!,” Littman’s team wrote in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention journal Preventing Chronic Disease.

About half of these only showed up for one session. Those who showed up more often lost more weight but the effects also didn’t last much longer than a few months, on average. “Participants lost approximately 1 to 2 pounds during 6 to 12 months of follow-up,” Littman’s team wrote.

The program was intense and carefully planned, using dietitians, physical and recreational therapists, social workers, and mental-health professionals. Each participant had a tailored diet, exercise, and counseling regime. But most people did not stick with the program, perhaps demonstrating just how difficult it is to change lifestyle to lose weight.

Obesity in the military and afterwards is a serious problem. “An estimated 70 percent of veterans are overweight or obese, with a body mass index (BMI, in kg/m²) of 25.0 or more, consistent with the prevalence of overweight and obesity among demographically similar nonveterans,” Littman’s team wrote.

Being obese raises the risk of heart disease, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, and several types of cancer.

“Weight loss as small as 5 percent can reduce the risk of chronic conditions associated with obesity,” Littman’s team wrote—and some other programs have worked better. The MOVE! Program worked about as well as other “real world” studies, however, Littman pointed out.

“Evaluating the effectiveness of MOVE! is challenging because it is not clear that the program was implemented as intended. Sustained and intensive treatments are associated with better outcomes,” her team added.

National Journal will examine the issue of overweight military personnel in more detail on Wednesday.

Article source: http://news.yahoo.com/tailored-weight-loss-program-veterans-disappoints-080003962.html

Right after residency, I took a summer job in a family practice in a beach town on Long Island, covering Fridays and weekends for the regular doctors. The setting was quite different from my training in an urban hospital. It was a bit of a culture shock to go from a world of critically ill hospitalized patients to an outpatient suburban setting where most weekend appointments were for sore throats, rashes and sprained ankles. But I quickly became a pro at Lyme disease identification.

Joon Park Danielle Ofri, M.D.

One day, a woman in her early 40s came for an appointment. She asked me to prescribe fen-phen, a weight-loss pill that combined the drugs fenfluramine and phentermine and was being heavily marketed at the time.

I remember gazing at her from across the desk, thinking that she certainly didn’t look overweight, and asked her why she wanted weight-loss pills.

She grasped the skin around her stomach and said ruefully, “I’ve been trying to get rid of these extra pounds after having kids.”

I leaned over to see what she was holding in her grip. It looked like a normal amount of stomach to me.

Having just spent the past three years taking care of critically ill hospital patients who were dealing with heart attacks, septic shock, pneumonia and bleeding ulcers, I had a hard time seeing a few extra pounds as a medical issue. I was also a little leery of the whole idea of weight-loss pills, which seemed like a Band-Aid approach to what was usually a lifetime pattern of poor eating habits and inactivity.

I started to explain my concerns, noting that every medication has side effects. But before I could even get to any discussion about diet and exercise, she cut me off.

“I’ve taken fen-phen before,” she said, her voice more harsh now. “I just need a prescription from you, not a lecture.”

I was taken aback by the vociferousness of her response. I scanned her chart to see if she’d been heavier in the past. She hadn’t. In fact, she was quite healthy, with no major medical problems. I wondered if she might have an eating disorder that might alter her perception of her weight.

But we never got that far. When I reiterated my hesitations about prescribing pills for weight loss, she grew angry and stormed out in a huff.

A month later, The New England Journal of Medicine published an article linking fen-phen to heart valve abnormalities. Shortly after, the medication was pulled from the market. I wanted to feel vindicated, but I knew that during my tense exchange with my patient I hadn’t had any clinical premonitions about the drugs’ dangers, just a sense that she didn’t really need weight-loss pills.

This encounter came to mind recently when I read an essay called “Lemons for Obesity” in Annals of Internal Medicine. The author, Dr. Michael S. Lauer, was one of only two members of a 22-member Food and Drug Administration panel who earlier this year voted against approval of the new weight-loss drug Qnexa, a combination of phentermine and topiramate, an epilepsy drug with an unexpectedly salubrious side effect of weight loss.

Final approval of the drug has been delayed, but in the essay, Dr. Lauer gives a brief history of Qnexa’s approval process, including concerns of cardiovascular side effects and possible risks of cleft lip and cleft palate in babies born to mothers taking the drug. Then he makes an interesting analogy to the used-car market, citing the 1970 paper “The Market for Lemons” that eventually won a Nobel in economic science for its author, George Akerlof.

Lemons are harder to sell than quality products, so sellers do more promotion and offer steeper discounts, Dr. Akerlof had argued. In addition, used-car buyers (like patients) know much less about the product than used-car sellers (and pharmaceutical companies). Lay people rarely have much success when looking under the hoods of either cars or medicines. This combination of “information asymmetry” and aggressive marketing can allow lemons to dominate the market.

Dr. Lauer lists the impressive number of lemons for treating obesity. Fen-phen, ephedra, sibutramine and phenylpropanolamine all had to be pulled from the market for safety concerns. A drug popular in Europe, rimonabant, was denied approval in the United States because of side effects. The lone prescription drug currently available in America for weight loss, orlistat, offers only minor weight loss with the trade-off of major stomach problems in the form of oily, greasy stools.

The weight-loss field is strewn with lemons, more so than other areas of medicine, Dr. Lauer argues. Because of the enormous potential market for these drugs — two-thirds of American adults are overweight or obese — pharmaceutical companies rush new drugs to market after conducting only small clinical trials. The F.D.A. and doctors are complicit in the process, Dr. Lauer says, leaving the population at large to act essentially as guinea pigs.

Dr. Lauer cites another intriguing paper from the 1970s, by Amos Tversky and Daniel Kahneman, that highlights our biases when interpreting data, especially from small studies. There is an “illusion of validity” for any random data point, a seductive sense that is colored by what we hope will be true. Mountains of pharmaceutical claims are often made from mere molehills of data.

In the decades since my encounter with the patient who demanded fen-phen, I’ve become a lot less smug about the problem of obesity. I appreciate that there are factors at play beyond diet and exercise, but the “lemon lesson” has stayed with me. It’s hard to know at the outset which new drugs are lemons and which will become game-changers. But any drug that arrives on the scene with heavy promotion and only modest benefits deserves the same circumspect attitude as that too-good-to-be-true used car.

---

Danielle Ofri is the author of three books, including “Medicine in Translation: Journeys With My Patients.” She is an associate professor of medicine at New York University School of Medicine and editor in chief of the Bellevue Literary Review.

Article source: http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/05/10/an-endless-quest-for-weight-loss-pills/

Pregnant women who are overweight and obese can safely reduce their weight by eating a healthy diet to reduce the risks of complications for themselves and the baby.

Nearly 58 per cent of women in Ontario exceeded guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy in a study published last month. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with health problems such as heart and metabolic complications.

In Thursday’s online issue of The Lancet, researchers analyzed the results of randomized trials of diet and physical activity plans for weight management in more than 7,000 women.

“Dietary intervention is effective, safe and potentially cost effective and dominates physical activity based intervention,” Dr. Shakila Thangaratinam, from Queen Mary, University of London, and her co-authors concluded.

Diets reduced gestational weight gain the most, by four kilograms on average, compared with 0.7 kilograms with physical activity and 1.0 kilogram for a mixed approach, they said.

“One of the main concerns of the mothers is the effect of dietary and lifestyle interventions on the weight of the fetus. There is no evidence that the interventions evaluated in our review or recommended in current clinical practice are associated with adverse maternal or fetal outcomes.”

The diet plans that reduced weight gain in pregnancy were nutritionally balanced including:

Unprocessed whole grains, fruits, beans and vegetables.

A maximum of 30 per cent fat, 15 to 20 per cent protein and 50 to 55 per cent carbohydrate.

The energy intake should be individualized to the needs of the mother, the authors advised.

The authors speculated that the mixed diet and physical activity approaches might not have worked as well because compliance suffered or because diet is perceived as safer in pregnancy.

Obesity in pregnant women increases the risk of delivery by C-section or with instruments , hemorrhage, infection , longer hospital stay and need for neonatal intensive care, a journal editorial accompanying the paper said.

Lucilla Poston and Lucy Chappell of St Thomas’ Hospital in London called the review “timely and welcome,” but said there is not yet sufficient evidence to support diet or other interventions in pregnancy.

Randomized clinical trials, the gold standard in medical research, are underway in the U.K. and Australia to assess elements of intervention in overweight and pregnant women.

“This should also enable data on safety to be obtained from the trials themselves rather than relying on other, less appropriate, assessments of adverse outcomes obtained from observational studies in very different populations (such as women who are pregnant during war or famine),” they concluded.

The study was funded by the U.K. National Institute for Health.

Poston and Chappell said the study does not provide the evidence needed to reassess the guidelines for weight management in pregnancy.

They said several ongoing trials will enable a greater understanding of effective interventions in overweight and obese women.

Article source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/weight-loss-during-pregnancy-helps-mom-baby-230249177.html

Pregnant women who are overweight and obese can safely reduce their weight by eating a healthy diet to reduce the risks of complications for themselves and the baby.

Nearly 58 per cent of women in Ontario exceeded guidelines for weight gain during pregnancy in a study published last month. Excessive weight gain during pregnancy is associated with health problems such as heart and metabolic complications.

In Thursday’s online issue of The Lancet, researchers analyzed the results of randomized trials of diet and physical activity plans for weight management in more than 7,000 women.

“Dietary intervention is effective, safe and potentially cost effective and dominates physical activity based intervention,” Dr. Shakila Thangaratinam, from Queen Mary, University of London, and her co-authors concluded.

Diets reduced gestational weight gain the most, by four kilograms on average, compared with 0.7 kilograms with physical activity and 1.0 kilogram for a mixed approach, they said.

“One of the main concerns of the mothers is the effect of dietary and lifestyle interventions on the weight of the fetus. There is no evidence that the interventions evaluated in our review or recommended in current clinical practice are associated with adverse maternal or fetal outcomes.”

The diet plans that reduced weight gain in pregnancy were nutritionally balanced including:

Unprocessed whole grains, fruits, beans and vegetables.

A maximum of 30 per cent fat, 15 to 20 per cent protein and 50 to 55 per cent carbohydrate.

The energy intake should be individualized to the needs of the mother, the authors advised.

The authors speculated that the mixed diet and physical activity approaches might not have worked as well because compliance suffered or because diet is perceived as safer in pregnancy.

Obesity in pregnant women increases the risk of delivery by C-section or with instruments , hemorrhage, infection , longer hospital stay and need for neonatal intensive care, a journal editorial accompanying the paper said.

Lucilla Poston and Lucy Chappell of St Thomas’ Hospital in London called the review “timely and welcome,” but said there is not yet sufficient evidence to support diet or other interventions in pregnancy.

Randomized clinical trials, the gold standard in medical research, are underway in the U.K. and Australia to assess elements of intervention in overweight and pregnant women.

“This should also enable data on safety to be obtained from the trials themselves rather than relying on other, less appropriate, assessments of adverse outcomes obtained from observational studies in very different populations (such as women who are pregnant during war or famine),” they concluded.

The study was funded by the U.K. National Institute for Health.

Poston and Chappell said the study does not provide the evidence needed to reassess the guidelines for weight management in pregnancy.

They said several ongoing trials will enable a greater understanding of effective interventions in overweight and obese women.

Article source: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/weight-loss-during-pregnancy-helps-mom-baby-230249177.html

Facebook $16 Billion IPO Seen as Fuel for Strategic DealsBloomberg

Facebook’s IPO will give Mark Zuckerberg access to more than $15 billion that may step up the pace and size of …

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/broadcastmed-highlights-live-weight-loss-201200530.html

WASHINGTON, May 17, 2012 /PRNewswire/ — JJ Smith, Nutritionist and Certified Weight-Loss Expert, offers a free eBook, “5 Reasons You Can’t Lose Weight!” to those who are committed to losing weight and getting healthy in 2012!

Many of the reasons for weight gain are often outside of one’s control. It is important to understand the hidden causes of weight gain, such as hormonal imbalances, excess toxins, and a sluggish metabolism. When many of these hidden conditions exist, traditional diet and exercise won’t work … and if it does, it’s generally temporary. Ninety-five percent of people who lose weight on a diet gain it all back within 3-5 years. So, in this 30-page eBook, JJ discusses the hidden causes of weight gain and shares some real solutions for correcting them to help your body burn fat more effortlessly. Click here and go to the top right corner to get your free download: http://jjsmithonline.com.

It is important to understand that the body is smarter than any fad diet or magic weight loss pill. The body has a natural ability to stay slim and maintain its ideal weight if you focus on a “healthy lifestyle!” Diets are not the most effective way to lose weight permanently. Your goal should be to change to a healthy lifestyle, including proper nutrition and getting physically active, as a way to achieve your weight-loss goals. Get your free copy of this eBook if you want to understand what’s really causing you to gain weight so you can get off the roller-coaster ride of weight loss and stay slim for life! Click here and go to the top right corner to get your free download: http://jjsmithonline.com.

For More Information:

JJ Smith (http://www.JJSmithOnline.com), author of the #1 Bestseller Lose Weight Without Dieting or Working Out, is a certified nutritionist and weight-loss expert who has been featured on The Steve Harvey Show, The Montel Williams Show, The Jamie Foxx Show, The Michael Baisden Show and on the NBC, FOX, CBS and CW networks. Her advice has also been featured in the pages of Glamour, Essence, Heart and Soul, and Ladies Home Journal. Since reclaiming her health, losing weight, and discovering a “second youth” in her forties, bestselling author JJ Smith has become the voice of inspiration to women who want to lose weight, be healthy, and get their sexy back! JJ may be contacted by email at info@jjsmithonline.com, by phone at 202-558-5543 and on Twitter: jjsmithonline and Facebook Page: RealTalkJJ.

This press release was issued through eReleases(R).  For more information, visit eReleases Press Release Distribution at http://www.ereleases.com.

 

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/weight-loss-expert-jj-smith-123000418.html

Charles Barkley said he was inspired to join and campaign for Weight Watchers when he realized he’d gained 100 pounds since retirement from basketball.

ADVERTISEMENT

Currently weighing in at 292, Barkley has lost nearly 60 pounds since joining the weight-loss program. He told Parade Magazine he’d like to drop another 20 pounds from his 6-foot-5-inch frame.

“I’d gained, like, 100 pounds since I retired, and that wasn’t good,” Barkley said.

Barkley admitted it was his idea to dress up as a woman for the Weight Watchers ad about “man food.”

“I thought their commercials were a little intense and I wanted to have more fun. I’ve dressed like a woman on Saturday Night Live, so it doesn’t bother me at all. My message is about health,” he said.

In January Barkley was caught on air during a Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks game calling his Weight Watchers gig a scam. He believed his microphone was turned off at the time.

“I thought this was the greatest scam going — getting paid to watch sports. This Weight Watchers thing is a bigger scam,” The New York Times quoted him as saying.

Weight Watchers released a statement from Barkley, in which he said: “I meant what I said. The fact that I’m dropping pounds, getting healthier and getting paid at the same time is my definition of a great scam.”

Article source: http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/charles-barkley-my-weight-loss-attempt-is-all-about-health-1029532.php

5 Steps To Becoming Your Own Weight Loss Boss

Since I’m entrenched in the fitness industry, I come across a lot of Diet and Fitness books. Frankly, when I saw the new book, “Weight Loss Boss” by David Kirchhoff, President and CEO of Weight Watchers, I didn’t know what to expect! Yet surprisingly, it really struck a chord: It’s a refreshing, authentic look at the struggle of losing weight and maintaining it by the head of one of the most successful weight loss brands in the world.
What I love about this book is that he doesn’t speak as a CHIEF EXECUTIVE from his lofty perch in an ivory tower, but as a regular guy who has had his own lifelong struggle with weight and learned valuable lessons along the way. The truth is, whether you’re a world traveling CEO or a stay-at-home Mommy blogger, everyone struggles with similar food and weight issues. Kirchhoff’s advice and tips are realistic, relatable, practical for everyone, and they pave the way for a sustainable, healthy lifestyle – the kind of lifestyle I advocate for in everything I do. Here are 5 steps he talks about that you can use to set yourself up for your own success:

1. Willpower is overrated

When you rely on willpower alone you set yourself up to fail. Routine will win out over willpower 99% of the time and this is why diets don’t work. They rely on short-term changes that no one can keep up! If you plan your everyday routine around exercise, nutritional meals, and reaching realistic goals, you set yourself up for success.

2. Create Good Habits

A good habit doesn’t require willpower or discipline. By definition, a habit is something you don’t think about much, it’s automatic. With a bad habit you probably don’t think about it until you suffer the repercussions. Kirchhoff outlines the Formula for Behavioral Change created by B.J Fogg, a professor at Stanford. If there’s a habit you’re trying to shed, you need to be motivated to lose it. You need a reward (not food!) to make it worthwhile; you need the steps to get rid of it in the simplest way possible which is the ability. Finally, you need a trigger. This can be anything from a personal trainer, best friend who will remind you, or even an alarm clock to get you going. It takes 4-6 weeks to internalize that trigger mechanism and establish a habit, and now is the best time to start!

3. Managing your Environment

Kirchhoff says, “Out of sight, out of mouth” and don’t bring it in to your house or your office. Make the better alternatives for yourself easily accessible, and learn to predict what David calls “hot states” and “cold states.” Hot states are when you’re tossed into a situation where temptation is all around you, like a buffet at a busy conference that is filled with foods out of your normal routine that will kill your calorie budget and make you feel horrible afterwards. The best way to deal with these situations is with a plan when you are in a cold state, before temptations present themselves. Most of the time you can predict your “hot states” – our brains can get us in trouble with cravings, but they can also help us behave. The longer you’ve been practicing your routine, the less you’ll be prone to give in to a hot state situation.

4. Build a Support Network

We tend to think that we’re the only ones who are having a hard time, and everyone else eats well and exercises without any effort. This couldn’t be further from the truth! Opening up about your experience helps to hold you accountable for your actions. Before writing Weight Loss Boss, Kirchhoff started a blog called “Man Meets Scale” to share his struggles and triumphs with weight maintenance. He found that men and women opened up, and found encouragement to keep going and keep sharing. The more people who know about your goals and struggles, the more people are able to help and support you in your journey.

5. It’s about Food Exercise

It’s one thing to lose the weight, but how do you keep it off for the rest of your life? He talks a lot about maintenance: Staying focused, continuously setting new goals and being accountable are the keys to maintaining weight loss. It’s a sobering truth that if you struggle with weight, you will always struggle with weight, but that doesn’t mean you’re doomed to live a life without enjoying food! The best thing you can do for your relationship with food is to love food that loves you back. Stay away from the “bad girlfriends of food,” as Kirchhoff cleverly calls them. They’re the ones that give you a quick thrill and make you feel like crap afterwards, leave you wanting more and are TERRIBLE for you in the long run. “Settle down” with great food, and you’ll be in a happy and satisfying commitment for life.

All proceeds of “Weight Loss Boss” the book go to benefit Share Our Strength’s No Kid Hungry Campaign, a nonprofit dedicated to ending childhood hunger in America. You can check out “Weight Loss Boss” on Amazon and where books are sold. For more information visit www.ManMeetsScale.com

How do you balance health and a busy life? Comment below, talk to Jennifer on Facebook at www.Facebook.com/theRealJenniferCohen, or on twitter @therealJenCohen.

Article source: http://www.forbes.com/sites/jennifercohen/2012/05/15/5-steps-to-becoming-your-own-weight-loss-boss/

WASHINGTON, DC–(Marketwire -05/16/12)-
Thanks to two recent studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers and surgeons have established a tangible link between bariatric surgery and the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Doctors with the Bluepoint Surgical Group, a team of bariatric surgeons in Northern, VA and Washington, DC, say the new findings suggest weight loss procedures are the most effective therapies for type 2 diabetes in obese and morbidly obese patients and should be considered sooner and more often by patients battling with the disease. The Bluepoint Surgical Group says it is encouraged by the results of these trials and hopes they help patients find the most successful treatments for type 2 diabetes on their return to a healthier life.

As the first head-to-head studies to compare bariatric surgery versus medical therapy, The New England Journal of Medicine reports that bariatric surgery procedures such as gastric banding or gastric sleeve have proven to be superior to medical treatment such as pharmaceuticals in producing the remission of type 2 diabetes. One study, conducted by the Cleveland Clinic, shows within one year type 2 diabetes remission rates with bariatric surgery were 40%, compared to 12% for patients treated with the best pharmacotherapy available. A similar two-year study from the Catholic University of Rome, Italy and New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center experienced remission rates of about 85% for bariatric surgery (75% gastric bypass, 95% biliopancreatic diversion) and zero for medical therapy in patients with BMI greater than 35. Dr. Amir Moazzez and Dr. Denis Halmi of the Bluepoint Surgical Group say they have seen similar results from their patients who have undergone surgical treatment through weight loss surgery in Washington, DC.

Dr. Halmi and the rest of the Bluepoint Surgical Group say the implications of the two studies will have enormous effects on the future of diabetes treatment. While weight loss surgery procedures have always been known to produce significant results in life expectancy (89% improvement according to the latest study from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery), he says patients are also able to reduce the risk of more serious health complications such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and now diabetes, a correlation he is eager to explore both at his practice and through further research.

“Research like this helps patients make informed decisions about bariatric surgery. The article here adds credence to the fact that the surgery does more for the patient than just aid in weight loss, if often times reduces other life-threatening conditions the patient may have,” says Dr. Halmi.

Because of the gravity of the decision to undergo weight loss surgery, the Bluepoint Surgical Group strongly urges patients to consult with a board-certified and experienced bariatric surgeon before deciding on a procedure, whether it be a gastric bypass or revisional bariatric surgery. Dr. Halmi says through partnership with a dedicated and knowledgeable practice, patients can make a serious difference in their lives. Now equipped with further evidence pointing towards the benefits of bariatric procedures, he adds that he is excited about the future of weight loss surgery and hopes to continue pursuing the highest quality care for his patients in eliminating both type 2 diabetes and obesity.

About Denis J. Halmi, MD, FACS

Dr. Denis Halmi completed his surgical residency at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York. Board-certified in general surgery, he has completed over 1,500 gastric bypass surgeries and over 100 laparoscopic gastric bands. Dr. Halmi is the Medical Director of the Weight Loss Surgery Center at Potomac Hospital and a designated Center of Excellence Surgeon by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

About the Bluepoint Surgical Group

As a Designated Center of Excellence by the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons, the Bluepoint Surgical Group is comprised of a team of bariatric, general, and laparoscopic surgeons focusing on a range of procedures including colon/rectal surgery, weight loss procedures, and several plastic surgery options. Doctors with the practice have performed over 2000 weight loss operations and also offer long term weight management assistance programs through dietary education, nutritional counseling, and support groups.

The Bluepoint Surgical Group has three locations in the Washington, DC area: 3620 Joseph Siewick Drive Suite 200 in Fairfax, VA, reachable at (703) 620-3211; 2280 Opitz Blvd Suite 320 in Woodbridge, VA, reachable at (703) 878-7610; and 125 Hospital Center Blvd Suite 207 in Stafford, VA, reachable at (540) 318-6135. It can also be contacted online via the website bluepointgroup.com or the Bluepoint Surgical Group Facebook page.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/washington-dc-weight-loss-surgeons-090900661.html

WASHINGTON, DC–(Marketwire -05/16/12)-
Thanks to two recent studies published in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers and surgeons have established a tangible link between bariatric surgery and the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Doctors with the Bluepoint Surgical Group, a team of bariatric surgeons in Northern, VA and Washington, DC, say the new findings suggest weight loss procedures are the most effective therapies for type 2 diabetes in obese and morbidly obese patients and should be considered sooner and more often by patients battling with the disease. The Bluepoint Surgical Group says it is encouraged by the results of these trials and hopes they help patients find the most successful treatments for type 2 diabetes on their return to a healthier life.

As the first head-to-head studies to compare bariatric surgery versus medical therapy, The New England Journal of Medicine reports that bariatric surgery procedures such as gastric banding or gastric sleeve have proven to be superior to medical treatment such as pharmaceuticals in producing the remission of type 2 diabetes. One study, conducted by the Cleveland Clinic, shows within one year type 2 diabetes remission rates with bariatric surgery were 40%, compared to 12% for patients treated with the best pharmacotherapy available. A similar two-year study from the Catholic University of Rome, Italy and New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center experienced remission rates of about 85% for bariatric surgery (75% gastric bypass, 95% biliopancreatic diversion) and zero for medical therapy in patients with BMI greater than 35. Dr. Amir Moazzez and Dr. Denis Halmi of the Bluepoint Surgical Group say they have seen similar results from their patients who have undergone surgical treatment through weight loss surgery in Washington, DC.

Dr. Halmi and the rest of the Bluepoint Surgical Group say the implications of the two studies will have enormous effects on the future of diabetes treatment. While weight loss surgery procedures have always been known to produce significant results in life expectancy (89% improvement according to the latest study from the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery), he says patients are also able to reduce the risk of more serious health complications such as heart disease, stroke, hypertension, and now diabetes, a correlation he is eager to explore both at his practice and through further research.

“Research like this helps patients make informed decisions about bariatric surgery. The article here adds credence to the fact that the surgery does more for the patient than just aid in weight loss, if often times reduces other life-threatening conditions the patient may have,” says Dr. Halmi.

Because of the gravity of the decision to undergo weight loss surgery, the Bluepoint Surgical Group strongly urges patients to consult with a board-certified and experienced bariatric surgeon before deciding on a procedure, whether it be a gastric bypass or revisional bariatric surgery. Dr. Halmi says through partnership with a dedicated and knowledgeable practice, patients can make a serious difference in their lives. Now equipped with further evidence pointing towards the benefits of bariatric procedures, he adds that he is excited about the future of weight loss surgery and hopes to continue pursuing the highest quality care for his patients in eliminating both type 2 diabetes and obesity.

About Denis J. Halmi, MD, FACS

Dr. Denis Halmi completed his surgical residency at the Brooklyn Hospital Center in New York. Board-certified in general surgery, he has completed over 1,500 gastric bypass surgeries and over 100 laparoscopic gastric bands. Dr. Halmi is the Medical Director of the Weight Loss Surgery Center at Potomac Hospital and a designated Center of Excellence Surgeon by the American Society for Metabolic and Bariatric Surgery.

About the Bluepoint Surgical Group

As a Designated Center of Excellence by the American Society of Bariatric Surgeons, the Bluepoint Surgical Group is comprised of a team of bariatric, general, and laparoscopic surgeons focusing on a range of procedures including colon/rectal surgery, weight loss procedures, and several plastic surgery options. Doctors with the practice have performed over 2000 weight loss operations and also offer long term weight management assistance programs through dietary education, nutritional counseling, and support groups.

The Bluepoint Surgical Group has three locations in the Washington, DC area: 3620 Joseph Siewick Drive Suite 200 in Fairfax, VA, reachable at (703) 620-3211; 2280 Opitz Blvd Suite 320 in Woodbridge, VA, reachable at (703) 878-7610; and 125 Hospital Center Blvd Suite 207 in Stafford, VA, reachable at (540) 318-6135. It can also be contacted online via the website bluepointgroup.com or the Bluepoint Surgical Group Facebook page.

Article source: http://finance.yahoo.com/news/washington-dc-weight-loss-surgeons-090900661.html