Would you want to know whether Atkin's (low carb) or Ornish (low fat) diet was more likely to help you lose weight?  That might just be possible, if you can believe study results presented today at a meet

Another great item from Jacob Goldstein over at WSJ Health Blog.

The journal Obesity published the paper. I have to admit I don't follow this journal very closely.

Twenty men were taken to a research lab high in the mountains of Germany, and allowed to eat whatever they wanted, minimal exercise. The results were impressive: all of them lost weight.

Sure it's a small study, but the research implications are enormous.

Two problems:

1) How do you put high altitude into a pill?

2) What happens when they open a Burger King in the mountains?

Counterfeit Alli weight loss supplements have appeared online. WebMD has details on how to tell if you have the real thing. FDA warns that the counterfeit pills actually contain sibutramine, an entirely different weight loss medicine.

http://www.webmd.com/diet/news/20100119/fake-alli-sold-on-internet

This report was missed by the mainstream press but an article in this week's American Journal of Clinical Nutrition highlights the distinction between liquid and solid calories: "Weight loss was positively associated with a reduction in liquid calorie consumption and liquid calorie intake had a stronger impact on weight than solid calorie intake." Wow.

Researchers from University of Miami gave us some clarity this week on a lingering question: at what age does being overweight start to affect health? Looks like the answer is as young as age three (!). That's the age at which researchers started identifying obesity-related changes in cholesterol levels and blood vessel inflammation. Now this story is not as strong as saying that kids had shortened longevity so all you can say is that it INDIRECTLY suggests that obese kids are a setup for problems down the road.

Time magazine reports on a New England Journal of Medicine study: simply limiting calorie intake may be the most effective way to lose weight. This should be pretty intuitive but a whole $40 billion dollar industry has sprung up around the idea that you can just eat certain types of foods to lose weight according to different theories. We still don't really have a pill that makes you lose weight with no side effects. Bariatric surgery is safer and has positive effects on glucose regulation but still requires general anesthesia. A simpler option: portion control.

The diet pill "StarCap" has been pulled from the shelves of GNC and other health food stores after the FDA alleged that they secretly contain prescription drugs! NYT ran the story today about how this pill formerly endorsed by an NFL star and Kathie Lee Gifford was found to contain the diuretic bumetanide. The idea I suppose was to induce water weight loss. Only problem is that diuretics can cause dangerous imbalances in electrolytes especially if people don't realize they're taking them!

Pharmaceutical corporations have sought safe effective weight loss pills for many years and Pfizer had been basking in the glow of a recent European approval of its diet pill Accomplia.  Hundreds of millions of obese people are at risk for heart attacks diabetes and strokes so the market for Accomplia is huge. Since the leptin gene was discovered in the year 1995 researchers have been trying to capitalize on the discovery to create a wonder drug that can treat obesity. Leptin (leptos means thin) is a hormone that regulates body fat.

Accidental release of urine is known a urinary incontinence (UI). It can happen while coughing laughing sneezing and during jogging. Sometimes you have the feeling to rush towards bathroom but can’t go there in time hence embarrassment. Among older people bladder control is a common problem. No doubt this situation does not causes health problems but is really embarrassing. Urinary tract infection constipation or a medicine are the common cause of cause of UI. This problem also happens by damage in the urinary tract or in the nerves controlling urination.

Diabetes has been linked to a lower incidence of prostate cancer. The majority of men who have diabetes also show signs of obesity. Being obese had been related to a higher risk of death from prostate cancer. Researchers from Massachusetts General Hospital have recently published a study in the Journal of Clinical Oncology (September 2008) that asked whether diabetes changed the death rates of subjects after they were diagnosed with prostate cancer.