It's a pandemic....obesity is the top news

It's official that the H1N1 flu has been catagorized as a pandemic - the first global flu epidemic in 41 years. Infections continue to climb in the United States, Europe, Australia, South America and in Hong Kong, schools are officially closed for 2 weeks n response to flu numbers. The recommendations remain the same: wash hands frequently, sneeze and cough into your sleeve and not your hands, stay home if you are sick and avoid sick individuals when possible. If you suspect a complication or if you have ongoing chronic health issues - seek medical help immediately. Tamiflu is still the treatment of choice to reduce symptoms and shorten duration of illness.

Several headlines in the news pertain to obesity:

The diabestes drug, exenatide, when combined with diet and exercise, helped non-diabetic obese patients lose more weight than similar individuals who just received diet and exercise instruction and support. Many doctors feel that drug therapy is an important element of treatment for obesity. Expected drug side effects include mild/moderate nausea and diarrhea (these symptoms were not contributory to the weight loss). The drug seems to decrease food intake because patients feel fuller.

Obese women who suffer with PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) seem to lose weight and do well when their doctors give them diet advice and continue to advise and follow up on them. Many doctors feel ill equipped, pressed for time or fear losing patients if they offer such advice. This study shows that doctors should "give it a try" and offer general advice on diet and exercise after finding a way to broach the subject of their patients weight. Metformin, a diabetes oral drug, can help some of these women maximize their weight loss.

Children who are depressed can exhibit increased levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, another confirmation that obesity and depression can be linked in kids as well as adults. This study confirmed that abnormalities of cortisol play a direct role in both obesity and depression. Doctors should screen obese children for depression and kids with depression should be screened for eating disorders and the possibility of a high risk for developing serious weight gain.

Breast feeding is one of the greatest "health gifts" you can bestow upon your child, and the longer the better. But if mom is choosing to eat high fructose containing foods on a regular basis, mostly in the form of sweetened drinks, during pregnancy and/or breast feeding, then they may be more likely to have children, especially sons, who will be prone to becoming overweight. The actual mechanism may be an induced risk for an unbalanced metabolism, that makes the children susceptible to overeating and becoming overweight.

If your vitamin D levels are within normal limits at the start of a diet, new research shows that you will have more successful weight loss on that lower calorie diet. If you maintain those vitamin D levels or increase them, you may have more success with losing that resistant abdominal fat. In general, experts feel that we all need to target higher daily intake of vitamin D.

It seems that brown fat is a good fat to have, and adults and especially women do have some stores of this fat. This information may help scientists to figure out ways to maintain or even increase our stores of brown fat, which in turn, may help us to lose weight effectively or to maintain a healthy weight.

When choosing a diet, recent research show, a moderate carb diet may be your best choice. Of course, the carb choices you make should include fruits, vegetables, and high fiber/whole grain choices as your primary, portion controlled carb choices.