Junk Food Not to Blame for America’s Obesity Epidemic

Despite their bad reputation, junk food, fast food and soda aren’t the root cause of American’s obesity epidemic, Cornell University researchers contend.

While these sugary and salt-laden foods may not be good for your health, the scientists found no significant difference in how much of these foods either overweight or normal weight people consumed – The real problem, according to the researchers: too many Americans eat too much.

“These are foods that are clearly bad for you and if you eat too much of them they will make you fat, but it doesn’t appear to be the main driver that is making people overweight and obese,” said lead researcher David Just, co-director of the Cornell Center for Behavioral Economics, in Ithaca, N.Y.

“For 95% of the country, there is no relationship between how much fast food and junk food they’re eating and their weight,” Just said. “Because of the bad habits we have, with all our food, just eliminating junk food is not going to do anything.”

But that doesn’t mean it’s OK to eat junk food. “These foods aren’t good for you,” he said. “There is no good argument for soda in your diet.”

Just said a broader approach is needed to fight the obesity epidemic. “We are eating too much generally. We need to cut back on our total consumption. We need to be better about exercising,” he recommended.

For the study, Just and his colleague Brian Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, used the 2007-2008 National Household and Nutrition Examination Survey to analyze a sample of about 5,000 adults in the United States.

Back Pain Patients Seek Pain Relief First, Mobility Second

When asked to choose between a treatment that would reduce back discomfort and one that would help them stand and walk, the vast majority of patients wanted to ease their pain, a new study found.

“There has long been a debate in the medical community over striking the right balance between pain relief and physical function,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. John Markman, director of the Translational Pain Research Program in the University of Rochester Department of Neurosurgery in Rochester, N.Y.

“While physicians have leaned toward the need to increase mobility, this study shows that patients have a clear preference for pain relief,” Markman said in a university news release.

The study’s authors focused on nearly 270 patients who had trouble standing and walking and suffered from chronic back pain associated with lumbar spinal stenosis. The participants were asked to choose between a therapy that reduced their pain and one that would enable them to stand and walk. Nearly 80% of the patients said they would rather have relief from their pain than greater mobility, the study published recently in Neurology found.

“Even the patients who could not stand long enough to pick up a letter from their mailbox or wash the dishes after dinner chose pain relief,” said Markman.

The authors pointed out patients are playing a greater role in setting new standards for pain relief, demanding new medications that are both safe and effective.

Wisdom Wednesday: Iatrogenic Disease

Iatrogenic – induced inadvertently by [the words or action of] a physician or by medical treatment or diagnostic procedures.

I have experienced many examples of iatrogenic disease over the course of 39 years of practice. In the early years of my chiropractic career, it was trying desperately to treat patients that had failed back surgery syndrome. I have also treated a number of patients that became ill from bowel resections and cholecystectomies. But those number pale compared to the escalating numbers of patients developing new diseases from their medications.

This week alone I have two patients that appear to have developed type II diabetes from taking statin drugs. In both cases they have been taking statin drugs for years. When the diabetes was detected, their PCP (primary care physician) just added metformin and glyburide to their growing list of prescription drugs. One patient was on five meds, the other on ten. Neither case responded to the diabetic medications and they ended up in my office.

In another case this past week, a patient’s insomnia was due to her thyroid medication and another patient’s memory loss was secondary to his heart medication. His memory loss mimicked intermittent, advanced dementia. It was the radical swing in memory issues that keyed me in to the medications as the cause. Of course, he is on ten additional medications daily, so some the effect is probably from drug interactions.

Low Fat Diets No Better

Low fat diets are often promoted as a superior way to lose weight, but they’re no more effective than other types of diets, a new review indicates.

“We found that low fat diets were not more effective than higher fat diets for long term weight loss,” said study leader Deirdre Tobias, an associate epidemiologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

The key to success seems to have more to do with adherence than a specific weight-loss plan, Tobias said. “Being able to stick to a diet in the long term will probably predict whether or not a diet is successful for weight loss,” she said.

The new analysis was published online Oct. 30 in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology journal. The research was supported by the American Diabetes Association and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

In conducting their analysis, Tobias and her colleagues looked at 53 published studies involving more than 68,000 adults. Those on low-fat diets did lose weight. But, those on low-carbohydrate diets were slightly more than 2 pounds lighter than those on low-fat diets after a follow-up of at least one year. The average weight loss across all groups was 6 pounds, the researchers said.

“The conclusion from this, and similar studies, is that weight loss is not a results of limiting one calorie nutrient over another, and that achieving weight loss is likely a matter of calorie control, in a manner that works for the individual,” said Connie Diekman, director of university nutrition at Washington University in St. Louis.

Heartburn Drugs Tied to Kidney Disease

Proton pump inhibitors (PPIs) seem to be linked with an increased risk of chronic kidney disease, two new studies suggest.

Prilosec, Nexium and Prevacid belong to this class of drugs, which treat heartburn and acid reflux by lowering the amount of acid produced by the stomach.

While the current studies have shown as association between these drugs and the development of chronic kidney disease, they did not prove cause-and-effect relationship.

Still, the lead author of one of the studies believes, “It is very reasonable to assume that PPIs themselves can cause chronic kidney disease,” said Dr. Pradeep Arora, a nephrologist and associate professor at the SUNY Buffalo School of Medicine and Biomedical Science in Buffalo, N.Y.

“Patients should only use PPIs for [U.S. FDA] approved indications, and not to treat simple heartburn or [indigestion],” he cautioned.

Chronic kidney disease is increasing in the United States, with more than 20 million Americans now suffering with it, according to the American Society of Nephrology. This occurs when a person’s kidneys become damaged and can’t filer blood as they should. Diabetes and high blood pressure are two common risk factors for kidney disease, the society said.

Arora’s study involved more than 24,000 patient who developed chronic kidney disease between 2001 and 2008.

One out of the four of the kidney patients had been previously treated using a PPI. People taking a PPI also had nearly twice the risk of dying prematurely, the researchers found.

In the second study, researchers were led by Dr. Benjamin Lazarus from Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital in Australia, and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. They followed more than 10,000 adults with normal kidney function form 1996 to 2011.

Wisdom Wednesday: Intracoastal Waterway Century

On October 25, 2015, my wife, Margie and I participated in the Spacecoast Freewheelers metric century bike ride. The ride began in the historic little village of Cocoa, wound north and east along the Indian River. The first rest stop was the American Police Hall of Fame Museum. After passing through the Kennedy Space Center, the course then turned south along the east side of the Indian River and Intracoastal Waterway. At southern most point, the route crosses the Indian River again, turning north back to Cocoa.

The weather was mixed with cloud cover to keep the heat down but the wind shifted as the ride progressed so we faced a head wind for the first 55 miles. Once we made the final turn to go north, the wind decided to stay southeast and give us a little push.

Neither of us had any experience in drafting as our annual trek from Miami to Key West strictly prohibits riding any closer than one bike length between riders. Triathlons also will disqualify riders for drafting.

However, after Margie and I each spent close to 40 miles without drafting, we were exhausted. Finally, a couple of retired firemen from Jacksonville offered to lead us in as they had been drafting us since the first rest stop.

Apparently, people who draft and never lead are called “leeches” and we had between 10 and 20 at all times. They ride in the draft that you create, saving up to a third of the energy the lead rider is expending.

Worse Psoriasis, Less Healthy Arteries

The skin disorder psoriasis appears linked with artery inflammation, raising the odds for heart disease, a new study says.

“As the amount of psoriasis increases, the amount of blood vessel inflammation increases,” said senior investigator Dr. Nehas Mehta, a clinical investigator with the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

His team also found that even mild psoriasis may indicate an increased risk for heart attack and stroke.
Just one psoriasis skin patch, or plaque, “might be biologically active, causing low-grade inflammation and starting a cascade, speeding up their blood vessel disease,” Mehta said.

“People really should know that psoriasis is not just a cosmetic disease,” he added.

Psoriasis is a chronic disease that affects about 3% of U.S. adults. It occurs when skin cells grow too quickly, causing thick, white or red patches of skin.

Blood vessel, or vascular inflammation is most likely the direct result of psoriasis, not treatment, Mehta said. Treating psoriasis may lower the risk for heart attack and stroke, he said. Mehta advises people with psoriasis to lower their risk of heart disease by controlling traditional risk factors.

“Avoid smoking, try to maintain a healthy lifestyle, including moderate exercise and a balanced diet,” he said. “You should also have your blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar checked. Try to do that, because psoriasis itself might be a risk factor.”