If you are on a diet, artificial sweeteners seem like a reasonable answer to cutting calories. Using artificial sweeteners instead of real sugar to get the sweet flavors that we crave without the extra calories is a popular answer. New research suggests that the body is not easily tricked, and that artificial sweeteners [...]
Weight loss drugs are big pharmaceutical business these days–The new anti-obesity drug Rimobant is a different class of medications than previous weight loss drugs. It blocks receptors in the brain that are similar to those that marijuana activates when it causes “the munchies”. New research suggests caution should be used when the drug is [...]
Interventional cardiologists (Drs. Hijazi, Kavinsky and Amin) at Rush University Medical Center ( Chicago,Il ) are performing minimally invasive nonsurgical valve replacement procedure for patients with congenital heart disease that doesn’t involve open heart surgery.
Rush is one of 3 sites participating in an investigational study of minimally-invasive pulmonary valves and successfully implanted the [...]
University of Chicago researchers have found that many of the gene variations which enabled humans to tolerate cold climates affect the susceptibility to metabolic syndrome (a cluster of related abnormalities including obesity, elevated cholesterol levels, heart disease, and diabetes).
Over100 years ago, scientists noted that humans inhabiting colder regions were stockier and had relatively shorter arms and legs. More recently, [...]
Epigenetics which refers to gene expression and regulation is a rapidly advancing science. A new study of obese patients in Iceland has offered new insights as to how some genes are regulated and associated.Gene variations create either increased or decreased chances of developing obesity or type II diabetes by regulating the activity of major biochemical [...]
The new obesity drug lorcaserin is in Phase 3 (final stage) trials, which are double-blind, randomized, drug trials with 3,200 patients in 100 centers in the United States. Echocardiograms were done to make sure that the new drug had no adverse effects on heart valves and so far it looks safe. Locaserin is the first [...]
