Is Ozempic right for you? If you think so try “Gulliblex;” it will solve any problem you may have.
OK, it may be the only thing that will help lose weight, so, it may ok to try, but I recommend you consider that it is not covered by insurance, it can have gastrointestinal side effects, and 2/3 of people regain their weight when they stop it. Oh, and one more thing: remember Fen-Phen and all the problems it caused?
Weight loss in older adults tied to early death, life-limiting conditions
“According to CNN (4/10, Holcombe), research suggests that “weight loss in older adults is associated with early death and life-limiting conditions,” while “weight gain…was not associated with mortality.” The study, published online in JAMA Network Open, “looked at nearly 17,000 adults at least 70 years old in Australia and more than 2,000 adults in the United States who were at least 65 years old.” The study did not “distinguish,” however, “if people involved lost weight intentionally or unintentionally.”
Comments: we are programmed to store fat as we age. It increased the chances of survival when the tribe began to feed their seniors less food in times of famine and rationing. Consult your doctor before trying to lose weight if you are over 65.
Treatment Type Did Not Change Prostate Cancer Survival in UK Trial
Published online March 22, 2023. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.4002
“Results from a trial involving 1643 men in the UK aged 50 to 69 years with localized prostate cancer showed that, after 15 years of follow-up, deaths from prostate cancer were similarly low among patients randomized to receive active monitoring of their tumors, a prostatectomy, or radiotherapy.
Radical therapies to treat prostate cancer can carry adverse effects including sexual and urinary dysfunction. The findings suggest that men with recently diagnosed, low-risk prostate cancer and their physicians “can take the time to carefully consider the trade-offs between harms and benefits of treatments when making management decisions.”
Comments: Err on the side of doing nothing if a good doctor gives you that choice.
Nephrologists more likely to recommend plant-based diet after attending a cooking class
Healio Minute, April 12, 2023
“Attendees were more likely to recommend plant-based cooking after the demonstration. Attendees suggested the demonstration include a cost analysis of recipe ingredients.”
Comments: amazing what education can do… Veggie proteins are fine for the kidneys. Animal proteins are not.
Bigger health boost from coffee
AMA Morning Rounds, April 16th 2023
“A large majority of adults consume caffeine daily and depend on a steaming cup of coffee to get their day started on the right foot. But does drinking that daily cup of joe offer health benefits for patients? It does pack some surprising health benefits depending on the amount consumed. With consumption of up to four cups of coffee—compared with nondrinkers—there is a 29% reduced risk of all-cause mortality over a seven-year period and a 15% reduction in all cardiovascular disease. There is even a 29% reduction in risk of developing type 2 diabetes by the highest consumers of coffee, compared with those who don’t drink it at all.”
Comments: sounds good but some people may get stomach irritation and elevated blood pressure with that much coffee. And then there is the “small” matter of getting addicted to it.
Greater dietary antioxidant intake associated with reduced osteoporosis risk in menopause
“Healio (4/17/23, Welsh) reports, “Among postmenopausal women, consuming more dietary antioxidants was associated with decreased likelihood of osteoporosis, according to a population-based study.” The findings were published in J. Menopause.”
Comments: eat more veggies. They have more antioxidants. They also have more fiber, which is great for your microbiome. A healthy microbiome maximizes absorption of antioxidants AND minerals to support bones. Osteoporosis is basically a nutritional problem of not enough micronutrients and poor absorption, not a lack of milk. See below.
A longitudinal observational study of skeletal development between ages 3 months and 6 years in children fed human milk, milk formula, or soy formula
AJCN Epub April 5, 2023
“Although infants at age 6 months in the Soy Fed group showed some enhanced bone metabolism compared with those in the Breast Fed and Milk Fed groups, as indicated by the urinary biomarkers, no differences in bone metabolism or BMD were noted between ages 2 and 6 years.”
Comments: yet another example that milk is not absolutely necessary to have strong bones. BTY, stop being afraid of soy, unless it is GMO.
Scientists target mild cognitive impairment, early Alzheimer’s stages to delay disease worsening
“The Washington Post (4/24, McGinley) reports that now, as “changes are coming in how” Alzheimer’s disease “is diagnosed and treated…patients with mild cognitive impairment are at the center of the efforts,” while “scientists are trying desperately to delay the worst phase of the illness.” Medications are emerging that “are designed to slow the disease, not just treat symptoms, for people with mild cognitive impairment…and early dementia from Alzheimer’s.” In addition, “new blood tests are making it easier to diagnose the ailment,” and “a growing number of studies suggest that lifestyle changes can help keep people in the early stage longer.”
Comments: the last part is where the money is. Think of sugar as poison to your brain.
Gut Microbiome May Guide Personalized Heart Failure Therapy
Medscape Medical News, April 27, 2023. Sue Hughes
“Understanding more about the gut microbiome and how it may affect the development and treatment of heart failure could lead to a more personalized approach to managing the condition, a new review article suggests. “The gut microbiome modulates heart failure pathophysiology, contributes to disease progression and therapeutic responses, and holds promise as a novel biomarker,” the authors note. “Interactions among the gut microbiome, diet, and medications offer potentially innovative modalities for management of patients with heart failure,” they add.
The review will be published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
“Over the past years we have gathered more understanding about how important the gut microbiome is in relation to how our bodies function overall and even though the cardiovascular system and the heart itself may appear to be quite distant from the gut, we know the gut microbiome affects the cardiovascular system and the physiology of heart failure. We’ve also learnt that the microbiome is very personalized. It seems to be affected by a lot of intrinsic and as well as extrinsic factors. For cardiovascular diseases in particular, we always knew that diet and lifestyle were part of the environmental risk, and we now believe that the gut microbiome may be one of the factors that mediates that risk.”
“Studies on the gut microbiome are difficult to do and we are right at the beginning of this type of research. But we have learned that the microbiome is altered or dysregulated in many diseases including many cardiovascular diseases, and many of the changes in the microbiome we see in different cardiovascular diseases seem to overlap.” Patients with heart failure have a microbiome that appears different and dysregulated compared with the microbiome in healthy individuals. “The difficulty is teasing out whether the microbiome changes are causing heart failure or if they are a consequence of the heart failure and all the medications and comorbidities associated with heart failure.”
Many microbial products, small molecules made by the microbiome, seem to affect how the heart recovers from injury, for example after a myocardial infarction, and how much the heart scars and hypertrophies. These microbiome-derived small molecules can also affect blood pressure, which is dysregulated in heart failure.
Comments: the way to a man’s/woman’s heart is through his/her stomach.
