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Weight Loss Surgeries Safer Than Thought, Says Study

Researchers have come up with a safe tag for three eminent and widely popular weight loss surgeries. Some practitioners had been rather abhorrent about advising weight loss surgery to fat patients owing to safety concerns.

Dr. Bruce Wolfe of Oregon Health & Science University suggested the surgery to be pretty safe. Studying a trio of such stomach diminishing surgeries, it was found that one out of 333 patients passed away 30 days into the surgery and one out of every 24 developed some metabolic intricacy. Putting it against open surgery, the figures are a relief. 1 out of 47 patients tend to pass away during open surgeries. Wolfe said that there was further chance of improvement but presently, the data seems rather satisfying in light of recent past.

Weight-loss or bariatric surgery has gained fast grounds and come as a manna from heaven for the obese people. Such people have found it tougher to lose flab and abate the health issues that come along with obesity. Any one with a body mass index at or over 40 is being recommended such a surgery by the National Institutes of Health. BMI happens to be weight in kilograms divided by height in meters squared.

A research took a look at 1198 highly obese people who had undertaken gastric banding. The process creates a smaller stomach through incisions thereby helping create an illusion of wholesome meals. Another surgery done laparoscopically, (Roux-en-Y) created tinier incisions in the belly by closing the stomach in its anterior area.

There were no deaths reported 30 days into the program for gastric banding. It was one among 500 for the laparoscopic bypass. It is worthwhile to note that a self-pronounced open bypass resulted in 10 calamities per 500 people.

Even in regards to complications like clot development, follow-up surgery and death, gastric banding led from the front with 1% complication, followed by laparoscopic bypass with 4.8% complication and then an open bypass with 7.8% complication. Wolfe further explained that the data also show why many surgeons would prefer gastric banding than laparoscopic bypass due to the risk factors involved.

Dr. Malcolm Robinson of Harvard Medical School suggested that complication rates for weight loss surgeries are along the lines with other major operations. An important point to be noted is that since the study took into its wing the services of 33 highly talented U.S surgeons, the result is not easily reproducible.

Johnson & Johnson and Allergan Inc are two band manufacture for weight-loss surgery.

Food Allergy – Doctors Develop Therapy To Cure Peanut Allergy

Thousands of children around the world suffer from peanut allergy, to cure this situation doctors have found a potential solution recently. This breakthrough therapy, controlled doses of the peanut flour that are used for retraining the child’s immune system in order to bring it back to the normal condition.

Initially, doctors treated 20 children who were severely suffering from peanut allergies with this therapy. Six month after the experiment, some youngsters were able to eat up to twelve peanuts daily without undergoing any allergic reaction that may have harmed their life. Now, researchers at the Cambridge want to find out whether a similar technique can also be used for tackling other food related allergies like kiwi fruit, gluten and milk.

It has been found that around 2% of children in Britain suffer from allergy from peanuts and in total; around four hundred and fifty thousand children and adults have this condition. Allergy to peanuts can cause several symptoms in the allergic people that may range from rashes and mild itching to dangerous swellings of airways, severe asthma and breathing problems. Peanut allergy is one the most common allergic reaction in people and it appears to be rising even more.

On an average, 7 children die due to peanut allergy every year. Dr. Pamela Ewan, who played a significant role in the study and works as a consultant allergist in the Addenbrooke’s Hospital, said that the treatment that has been found cannot be identified as a cure. Basically, the aim of the technique is to retrain the immune system of the person by exposing his body to peanuts with a low dose initially and then gradually increasing the amount.

Some people show serious symptoms even at a very low amount of peanut (1/400 peanut) and for such people, the minimal amount is used to begin with. It is still to be seen that how long this desensitization term can work.

Wherever people go, they have to eat peanuts in one or another form, being free from peanut allergy is a life-changing experience. However, parents have been warned to not use the technique at their home. Giving doses of peanut flour to the children can be extremely dangerous and it should be done only under expert medical supervision.

20 children suffering from severe peanut allergy were given small doses of peanut flour daily for 6 months. Initially, the amount of peanut flour given was not enough to trigger an adverse reaction, then the dose was increased in every 2 weeks. The procedure followed until the children were able to eat peanut flour equivalent to 6 peanuts everyday. After 16 weeks, their immune system was desensitized by eating peanuts daily.

According to the researchers and the doctors, the 20 patients who were between 5 to 17 years of age can now eat up to 12 peanuts in a day. They said that these 20 children will be monitored for the next 3-4 years so that their tolerance level can be followed. Studies will also be conducted to see whether peanut flour can also be given in the form of a tablet.

The chief executive of Allergy UK, Jules Payne, has welcomed the study and said that this is giving a tremendous hope for people who are suffering from food allergies because being allergic to foods can make one’s life very miserable.

One of the major causes of food allergies in children is cleanliness in the homes. They believe that homes are too clean today and children are not exposed to germs and dirt of outside, and as a consequence, their immune system is not developed properly and their body reacts even at the slightest amount of foreign matter.

Injectable Drug On Test May Reduce Weight By 25% In Just A Week

A drug test conducted on mice brings new hope to quick obesity fix when it reduced their weight significantly in short period of time. Result from the test may serve as a possible solution for humans around the world who are suffering from obesity. As far as the composition of the drug is concerned, it is a combination of synthetic versions of 2 glucose hormones linked to metabolism: GLP-1 (glucagon-like peptide-1) and glucagon. The level of glucose in the blood is boosted by glucagon produced in pancreas and reduced by GLP-1.

The researchers in Indiana University injected a drug that combined both glucagon and GLP-1 into the mice and found that within a period of one week, their weight reduced by 25% and fat mass dropped by 42%. Within a month, their body weight lost by 28% and their fat mass dropped by 63%. The researchers said in the Nature Chemical Biology journal that the drug was successful at suppressing the appetite and enhancing the calorie usage of the mice.

Dr Richard DiMarichi who leads the study commented that extra weight can be closely linked to several chronic diseases like cardio vascular diseases and diabetes, therefore main objective of this research is to look for a therapy which could help patients to lose their weight fast and easy as well as to treat diabetes. Dr DiMarchi also said that currently there is no single agent that is able to reduce weight of obese people by more than 5-10%. The concept of combining multiple drugs together to achieve the desired results is still being tested; it is hope that one day obesity can be treated more effectively.

Keeping in view the increase in obese people around the world, there have been unlimited numbers of pills that claim to shed body weight. But most of them are not fully efficient to fulfill their claim or they at least have some note worthy side effects. Apart from that, most of the pills are only effective as far as the patient is consuming them. Whenever the patient stops taking the pills, he or she will get obese again. Researchers are so excited about this finding but they also warned that the drug’s effectiveness on humans is yet to be tested. They believed that it may take a few years for this drug to come into market.

Over-The-Counter (OTC) Drug Overdose Raise FDA Concern

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is currently trying to find out the possible ways to prevent the deaths that are caused by the over-the-counter drug overdose. They are mainly concerned with the overdosing deaths that are related to drugs which contain acetaminophen. Some of these drugs that use this ingredient include Tylenol, Nyquil and Excedrin. FDA told the media that acetaminophen is the main reason behind these increase in number of deaths and this chemical has resulted in more liver failures in the United Status.

The agency also added that public are yet unaware of the potential risks of taking this chemical above the limit in spite of the efforts taken to educate them regarding this. The advisory committee of FDA had a meeting last week to decide whether prescriptions and medications containing this chemical, acetaminophen need special regulation to stop or prevent overdosing.

When asked about the increase in deaths related to overdosing drugs, Federal regulators said that lot of people are dying just because they are taking in excess amount of these OTC drugs that contain acetaminophen. FDA also made a note that the maximum dosage level that is printed on the label of these drugs is shy of the actual levels that can cause severe liver damage. The chemical is present in hundreds of drugs and this causes the confusion among people and makes them take twice or thrice the dose of these says Sandra Kweeder, Office of new drugs, FDA.

CDC also commented on overdose of acetaminophen when it said the chemical causes lots of deaths and sends almost 56000 people to the emergency ward every year. Kweeder also added to this point and said that there are many people who tend to get confused when they take more than one OTC drug that has this acetaminophen.

The Food and Drug Administration is now considering a viable solution to this problem and is thinking of lowering the recommended dosage of acetaminophen, ways to eliminate acetaminophen – containing drugs and also adding additional warning box to all the products to make people aware of these risks. Drug manufacturers are also aware of these and they are also taking steps to prevent these death related to acetaminophen overdose. Linda Suydam, member of Consumer Healthcare Products Association feels that acetaminophen is a very safe ingredient and more than 99% of people who take this chemical appropriately do not suffer from any problem. When asked about this, the makers of popular OTC drug Tylenol said that they consider safety as their number one priority and they also feel that some of the recommendations of FDA are out of focus and would not serve to solve the root cause of acetaminophen-overdose.

Some drug manufactures are also voluntarily involved in taking corrective steps to prevent this problem. Some of these steps include boosting the info in the warning labels, eliminate non-child bounded packaging and also modify the liquid medications to prevent overdose. Though these steps may prove useful, the most important advice to the public is to read the label thoroughly and follow all directions correctly and do not exceed the daily dosage specified. Not taking more than one drug containing acetaminophen is also a nice step if you wish to prevent overdosing.

Statins (Cholesterol-lowering Drug) May Cut Heart Risk In Healthy Patients

Heart diseases may appear even at people with no high cholesterol problems. Recent studies have shown that statin, a drug which lowers cholesterol, seems to help these people too in their battle with heart illnesses.

The website BMJ published the results of 10 such studies where 70 000 people were involved, some of them having high amounts of cholesterol in their bodies, some with high blood pressure and others with diabetes or even completely healthy people. Lipitor, Zocor and other statins, have proved their benefits on all patients with heart disease risk no matter what their body condition was.

Researchers lead to the following observations: 12% fewer cases of death among patients who took statins and had other risk factors other than heart disease; 20% less strokes and 30% diminution in heart attacks among those treated with statins during the 4 years follow-up period.

Statin’s efficiency among people who suffered a stroke or a heart attack is now clearly confirmed by studies and experiments. This applies to patients with high LDL cholesterol and those with heart disease risk factors as well. The question now is whether this drug also benefits healthy people too, or only to those which are clearly affected by heart related risks.

A group of international researchers try to study whether statins could reduce the number of deaths and major heart diseases such as strokes and heart attack in healthy people without heart disease record. The researchers analyzed 10 studies which monetized and tracked patients for a period of 4 years. It compared statins against placebos or the control groups.

Result from these studies showed that compared to control groups, statin treatments cut death and decreased the risks of patients who don’t suffer any heart illnesses. The analysis also concluded that there is no significant differences between women and men, young people and old people and those with and without diabetes. It also revealed that there is no strong evidence that link statin therapy to increase risk of cancer on patients using the drug.

Researchers concluded that statin is an excellent drug, improvements on every patient’s condition being undeniable. However, further analysis is still required, in order to obtain the most accurate results about the benefits of this drug on different types of patients.