Like many others, I am of the type who has been made to feel less. Less than healthy, less than human; whatever, the kind of feeling that sells diet food and diet plans. Read more on A Few Extra Pounds Might Not Be So Bad…
Filed under eating disorders, Nutrition, Psychotherapy, Self-esteem, weight by on Jan 17th, 2013. Comment. 
I think we’d all agree that kids have tough choices to make at every turn, and this includes what they eat and drink. A thick, sloppy sandwich served with fries and a sugary soda, or a salad of mixed greens and vegetables from every color of the rainbow with a side of vinaigrette. Yeah, I get it.
But c’mon, does anyone really think that creating junk food laws for kids is going to help? Read more on Making Criminals of Overweight Children…
Filed under eating disorders, Government, News, Research, weight by on Aug 30th, 2012. Comment.
To tell people who are overweight that they need to move around more and count calories is kind of like telling Yogi Bear to leave tourists alone and avoid eating the contents of picnic baskets. It ain’t gonna happen.
I have long ago surrendered to the fact that logic, reason, science and – yes, even the truth – have overcome the need to manipulate the population with misinformation in order to control them and to wring every bit of money out of them.
I give professional nutritionists the benefit of a doubt — even though two of them wrote this book. After all, every dietitian I have ever known was “recovering” from at least one eating disorder. And usually on the “lower serotonin” side of life, probably a little obsessive, maybe a little depressed.
Mostly, these are people who believe everything they are told without questioning, or exist on “wishful thinking.” Or they have a political or professional agenda. Read more on How Many Calories in B.S.?…
Filed under eating disorders, medicine, weight by on Jul 12th, 2012. 1 Comment.
To paraphrase some recent political campaigns, the FDA was against Qnexa before they were for it.
I’ve written about this diet drug compound before — HERE And HERE.
Last time I wrote about this “drug,” I thought it was down for the count. Aauugghh!!!!
Like a scene from “Night Of The Living Diet Drugs” – it is back from the grave.
You bet your life! (Literally if you take this) – our protective government watchdogs at the FDA originally said this was too dangerous to unleash on the public. Then – as the politicians say – they did a “Flip Flop.” This No-Vowel remedy QNEXA (ok, it has a couple of vowels, but not enough) is not actually a drug — it is a combination of two drugs.
This is of course, the cheapest way to get a new product on the market and eliminate R&D costs as well as testing for safety and efficacy. The company takes two separate FDA-approved agents and combines – kind of like making Frankenstein out of left-over body parts.
(This is turning into a Halloween column, isn’t it? Sorry.) Read more on They’re Ba-a-a-a-ck!!! Zombie Diet Drugs!!!…
Filed under eating disorders, medicine, News, Nutrition, prescription drugs, weight by on Feb 28th, 2012. Comment.
I had a patient once, long ago and far away, who was the worst “Caffeine Fiend” – properly known as “caffeinism” in medical lingo — I had ever heard of.
He was only 27 but depression and obesity added ten or fifteen years to his appearance. He was single and did not have much of a social life, but he did not much care. He was one of the earlier generation of people to build himself a career doing something with computers, with some sort of techie abilities which I could not understand at all. That enabled him to work from home at least part of the time, and only occasionally would he have to make a mad run to and from his employers’ office. This was in rural northern California, somewhat removed from the Silicon Valley mainstream of this type of activity.
The “from” part was important, as he did not much like to hang around with other humans, much preferring the company of his computer. Read more on Tale Of A Caffeine Fiend…
Filed under depression, Diagnosis, eating disorders, Stimulants, weight by on Jun 16th, 2011. Comment.
I remember the pain of being the fat person on an airplane, waiting for the stewardess to finish demonstrating how the seat belt had to be buckled. Was there really someone on the plane who had never buckled an automobile seat belt, who did not know how this apparatus was supposed to work? Sitting dutifully through the safety procedures description was a reason to squint, to ignore while seeming to listen. Then, the stewardess would hand off the seat belt example, which was really an extender. Suddenly, the fat woman could feel safe, and ignore her extender, as the belt fastened low on the hips, just like everyone else.
The “growing problem” (pardon my attempt at humor) of larger-size people is not a reason for guilt, but it is an obvious factor in the safety of transports. Obesity in America is the function of an over-processed food supply that addicts people to foods. Of this I am sure, having seen too many examples, including myself. Personal responsibility, detailed descriptions of the determinants of leptin secretion, none of these helped this morose fatty when there were only one or two in sight in any group.
Now there are more – scads more. Every time you walk into a room there are so many heavy-weights that there seems to be nothing else.
If these people are anything like I was nearly 200 lbs. ago, they want mutual support instead of guilt trips. Read more on Don’t Pick On The Heavyweights…
Filed under eating disorders, weight by on Mar 24th, 2011. Comment.
Okay, so nobody has done whatever kind of research they need to do to figure out why fatty diets work so well at controlling epilepsy. But it works, and it seems safe, and it seems to be saving lives by inductive reasoning; watching and gathering data. So let’s do it when and where we can. People have a hard time believing that food can serve as medication. Maybe they would have an easier time believing it if they believed how much fat there is in a brain. One of my earliest comedy bits, when I was just beginning to read about the brain, was trying to convince people that “fathead” was the world’s greatest compliment.
It is generally estimated that about 2/3 of the average human brain is made of fat. Read more on High Fat Diets To Treat Epilepsy…
Filed under eating disorders, weight by on Dec 8th, 2010. Comment.
This is the system we want to run health care.
Civil liberties get lost, people spend a lot of money writing spy reports and then don’t read them. There is little in government that works.
I know the system that the FDA wants for drugs does not work.
First, you know nobody will use it with diet and exercise as recommended. They are both dull, not fun, and in the literature I read changes that are increasingly modest seem to be acceptable, and take a team of cheerleaders. Even “natural” companies, like Metagenics, have gone and credentialed counselors to help with lifestyle changes. Read more on Diet Drugs: The Public Is The Loser…
Filed under eating disorders, medicine, weight by on Aug 17th, 2010. 2 Comments.
She was twitching. A sweet little girl only 23 years old with make-up and a hair-do that probably cost her more than one week’s worth of my salary.
I once saw a professional opera production of Donizetti’s “Daughter of the Regiment.” The leading lady — whose hair I remember because she was a redhead like me — had a less elaborate hairdo. But unlike the diva of the opera, this young lady twitched. My God, could this girl twitch.
The therapist at the agency who called for my assistance in this unusual case went out of her way to tell me that this girl was not a substance abuser. This adorable Dresden Doll of a woman did not abuse substances and she was twitching faster and faster as she and a social worker aide sat in my office. And she was getting more nervous. I always try to relax people and to make them feel at home, but this girl was a bundle of nerves.
The best news was that she had not seen another psychiatrist or even a general doctor. A “normal” medico would have zonked this little doll with drugs to keep her zombied-out – the standard treatment for nervousness in most health facilities. Ugggh!
Read more on Anorexia and Laxative Abuse — Potentially Deadly…
Filed under eating disorders by on Jan 22nd, 2010. Comment.