This new study found that giving 2500 mg of potassium per day per day for one month in the form of either potassium chloride or potassium bicarbonate had numerous benefits on the heart including “significantly improved endothelial function”,“increased large elastic artery compliance”, “reduced [ left ventricular ] mass”, “improved [ left ventricular ] diastolic function”.

“A simple strategy such as losing [11 pounds] in 5 months has the potential to result in 27% to 34% fewer cardiovascular-related hospital admissions and deaths over the next 20 years,” according to a report titled Australia’s future fat bomb that was written by researchers at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Research Institute in Melbourne, Australia.

Dr. Andrew (Jay) Piatek says that Zonegran (zonisamide) may be the new and improved Topamax (topiramate), causing weight loss, but with fewer side effects. Here is information that he gives his patients about Zonegran (zonisamide). Corrections as of July 19, 2004 are shown in blue.

Dr. Jay Piatek explains how he uses phentermine and 5-HTP plus exercise and some unique motivational techniques to help both adults and children achieve long-term weight loss.

Fructose and glucose cause the same amount of weight gain and same amount of fat gain, however, fructose increases belly fat whereas glucose increases subcutaneous fat (fat under the skin) notes Kimber Stanhope, PhD, a researcher from the University of California at Davis, who has done studies comparing the effects of consuming glucose vs fructose, who was interviewed on ReachMD.com.

Sprinkling non-caloric taste-enhancing crystals on food cause men to lose an average of 34.8 pounds, or 16 percent of their body weight in six months, while women lost an average of 29.9 pounds, or 14.4 percent of their body weight versus a weight loss of 2 pounds for the control group according to a study by the always interesting Alan Hirsch, MD at his Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation in Chicago, Illinois, USA.

“The Tastants may have induced weight loss by enhancing the taste of the food, thereby accelerating the onset of sensory-specific satiety, causing participants to feel full faster and eat less,” Dr. Hirsch noted.

These crystals are being sold under the name of SENSA costing $210 for a 6 month supply.

(Update: Oct 26, 2010. I attached a couple of YouTube videos about Sensa to this story. The first one is from NBC Dateline. The second is of a woman who tried and and did not lose any weight.)

Calcium supplements increase the risk of heart attack by 24% according to a meta-analysis of 8 studies that gave calcium or calcium plus vitamin D, plus data from a ninth study only of the women were were not taking calcium supplements at the start of the study.

However, the total risk of death during the durations of these studies was only 1% greater in those taking a calcium supplements, and this difference was not statistically significant, that is, it could have been due to random chance.

In 2000, BMI Cut off points for overweight and obesity for children aged 2- to 18-years-old have been defined for the first time. These cutoff points are linked to the adult BMI’s of 25 and 30.

The most common side effects reported by patients given a half-dose of Qnexa (7.5 mg of phentermine plus 46 mg of Topamax) or a full-dose of Qnexa (15 mg of phentermine plus 92 mg of Topamax) were:

• 15-20% reported paresthesia (a feeling of “pins and needles” on the skin) versus 3% in the placebo group
• 12-18% reported dry mouth versus 0% in the placebo group
• 8-15% reported altered taste versus 0% in the placebo group
• 6-11% reported constipation versus 6 percent in the placebo group
• 0.9-1.9% reported depression and altered mood versus 1.8 percent in the placebo group

A new study claims that a West African Mango seed extract called IGOB131 caused a weight loss of 28 lbs in 2.5 months without diet and exercise versus a weight loss of 1.5 pounds in the placebo group.

I don’t believe it.

In the video, I show you exactly why I don’t believe the study.

“Stress exaggerates diet-induced obesity” which increases belly fat according to a study by researchers from Georgetown University Medical Center.

Animals who were under daily stress and fed a high-fat, high-sugar diet gained about twice as much belly fat as mice who were fed the same diet but were not under stress. Giving a drug which blocked neuropeptide Y2R receptors which are involved in this process reduced abdominal fat by 40 to 50 percent.

“Glutamine… is a fabulous amino acid when it comes to blocking sugar cravings,” notes Joan Mathews Larson, PhD, author of “Depression-Free Naturally”.

“I call it ‘God’s gift to Hypoglycemics’ because in emergencies it can be absorbed directly into the blood stream, bypassing your intestinal
tract.”

“Relief from cravings comes swiftly by opening a capsule and dissolving it in your mouth under your tongue (it tastes mildly sweet.)

“Inside your brain, glutamine converts to glutamic acid, the only other source of glucose available to the brain.

“So it becomes a great alternative source of brain fuel that will stop cravings set off by glucose levels that are dropping too low.

”(Alcoholics using glutamine this way can and do successfully stop cravings for alcohol, which speaks loudly to these cravings having a hypoglycemic basis.)”

“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is alerting consumers nationwide not to purchase or consume [Somotrim Weight Loss Caps] marketed for weight loss because they contain [the prescription diet drug Meridia (sibutramine), an] undeclared, active pharmaceutical ingredients that may put consumers’ health at risk,” according to a press release from the FDA.

“In my experience I believe Topamax is a great adjunct for weight-loss especially when combined with anorectic agents [ such as phentermine ],” says Robert Skversky, MD, a weight loss doctor from Newport Beach, California.

“No wonder obesity is so rarely cured. Eating less—that is, undereating—simply doesn’t work for more than a few months, if that,” writes Gary Taubes in Chapter Two of his excellent book Why We Get Fat and What To Do About It.

“This reality, however, hasn’t stopped the authorities from recommending the approach…”

Vitamin C at a dose of 1000 mg per day reduced C-reactive protein by 25 percent in people with levels above 1.0 mg per deciliter.

This was as much as occurs with statin drugs used to lower cholesterol levels.

Three-fourth of obese people (75 percent) had levels of C-reactive protein at or above 1.0 mg per deciliter.

“In summary, treatment with vitamin C but not vitamin E significantly reduced CRP among individuals with CRP >/=1.0 mg/L,” the researchers concluded.

C-reactive protein is produced by the liver and by fat cells. Elevated levels of C-reactive protein are associated with an increased risk of heart attack and are a marker for inflammation in the body. Levels are elevated in obesity people because, as one researcher said, obesity is a chronic inflammatory state.

Zyprexa (olanzapine) causes a 7 percent weight gain or more in 40 percent of patients according to a new review paper about drugs that cause weight gain.

Women who restricted their calories to only 650 calories per day for two days per week lost an average of 14.1 pounds in 6 months compared a weight loss of 12.3 lbs for women who were assigned to eat a diet limited to 1500 calories per day according to a new study from the University Hospital of South Manchester in Manchester, England.

People consumed 296 more calories when they were only allowed to sleep 4 hours per night compared to when they were allowed to sleep their normal 7-9 hours according to a study from researchers at Columbia University in New York.

On the fifth day of being allowed only four hours of sleep, they consumed an average of 2813 calories versus 2517 calories when they were allowed their normal amount of sleep.

Zonegran (zonisamide) improves depression and mania in people with bipolar disease (manic-depression) and causes an average weight loss of 19.8 pounds after one year according to a new study.

People lost an average of 16.3 pounds of fat in three months when they were asked to fast 12-14 hours per day and then perform prolonged, moderate-intensity aerobic exercise at least 3-5 times per week during this period of fasting each day.

This according to a study by Babak Bahadori, MD from Austria, author of the book “Dr. Bahadori´s Leanness Program” (which does not seem to be available at this time), and people from the Oasis of Hope Hospital in Tijuana, Mexico.

The idea behind this is that exercising while fasting forces your body to burn fat.

That’s because it’s merely a blood sugar measurement. A sign. An effect. Not a disease, or a cause. We have become mesmerized by blood sugar levels — we fight to get them down — we are happy when the level is lowered. Doctors claim when the blood sugar level falls below an arbitrary figure that the Type II Diabetes has been treated, even cured. But what exactly have we cured? 

(This article was written by Malcolm Kendrick, MD, author of the wonderful, eye-opening, paradigm-shifting book The Great Cholesterol Con: The Truth About What Really Causes Heart Disease and How to Avoid It .)

Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD took large doses of niacin for 57 years (1952 - 2009) and lived to be 92-years-old.

Linus Pauling, a Nobel Prize-winning chemist, also took large doses of niacin and lived to be 93-years-old.

In this audio clip, Dr. Hoffer talks about a woman who is 111-years-old who had been taking niacin for 41 years, and who attributes her longevity to niacin.

Chewing gum containing nicotine and caffeine increases metabolism nearly 10 percent according to a recent study.

In this audio clip from 2005, Janet Downing, a mother, tells how she successful treated her 25-year-old son of schizophrenia using Dr. Hoffer’s nutritional therapy which includes large doses of niacin.

Although her son had been diagnosed 10 years earlier, the treatment worked from the first dose.

Robert Skversky, MD from Newport Beach, California was on the Dr. Oz television show on Thursday, March 17th, 2011 talking about Phentermine plus Topamax for weight loss.

The nutritional supplement alpha-lipoic acid “causes profound weight loss in rodents by reducing food intake and enhancing energy expenditure,” according to a recent study.

I just got off the phone with my good friend, 75-year-old Eddie Ford, MD, and asked him about his experience with giving patients HCG (human chorionic gonadotropin) 20 and 30 years ago. He’s very open-minded and the smartest person I’ve ever met.

I asked him if he ever used it for weight loss. He said, “No.”

The anti-convulsant Neurontin (gabapentin) can cause weight gain according to a 1997 study.

Here is a interesting story of a man who lost 50 pounds, going from 330 pounds to 280 pounds, while on Byetta (exenatide), an injectable drug for type 2 diabetes.

Studies have shown that arginine reduces body fat in growing rats.

Here is the first piece of anecdotal evidence showing that this is probably true in humans as well.

Women with type 2 diabetes are at a 20 percent greater risk of breast cancer than women without type 2 diabetes according to an analysis by researchers from Sweden.

“Thanks to Celexa, I gained 100 lbs in less than 11 months,” noted a woman named Lynn.

Contrave, a drug combination of Wellbutrin (bupropion) and naltrexone, causes the most weight loss with doses of 400 mg of Wellbutrin (bupropion) plus 32 mg of immediate-release naltrexone according to a press release from Orexigen Therapeutics, the company developing this drug combination.

Paul Rivas, M.D. is an internist in the Baltimore area who is using the combination of phentermine and Effexor (venlafaxine) with good success. Larry Hobbs interviewed Dr. Rivas by phone.

Here is video clip of Abram Hoffer, MD, PhD describing what he took in the way of vitamins, minerals and nutritional supplements.

Dr. Hoffer lived to be 91-years-old (November 11, 1917 – May 27, 2009).

Dr. Hoffer discovered that niacin raises HDL levels. He also discovered that large doses of niacin can often cure schizophrenia.

Nobel Prize-winning chemist, Linus Pauling, PhD, coined the term orthomolecular medicine after meeting and working with Dr. Hoffer.

Drug and alcohol problems are the result of biochemical glitches. They are not caused by a lack of will power and cannot be solved with talk therapy. Prescription drugs such as Prozac cannot correct these problems either. I believe the exact same thing is true for anxiety and depression.

In this audio clip, you will hear Dr. Julian Whitaker describe the research of American biochemist, Dr. Roger Williams.

He found that “alcoholic” rats could be cured of their desire for alcohol with large doses of nutrients.

You will then hear Dr. Whitaker interview Joan Mathews Larson, PhD whose son committed suicide about 30 years ago after returning from talk therapy.

Dr. Larson committed her life to finding a better way, and came across the research of Dr. Roger Williams.

“The amount of sleep has declined by 1.5 hours over the past century, accompanied by an important increase in obesity,” notes a recent paper.

“Shift work, sleep deprivation and exposure to bright light at night increase the prevalence of adiposity,” they continue.

Two weeks ago I wrote that HCG, human chorionic gonadotropin, does not cause weight loss. I received the following response to my article from Dr. Daniel Belluscio from Buenos Aires, Argentina.

People ate an average of 321 fewer calories for the entire day after consuming the high dairy calcium, high vitamin D breakfast compared to when the ate the low calcium, low vitamin D breakfast—1706 calories per day versus 2027.

Stephen Perrine, Editor-at-Large of Men’s Health magazine and author of the book, The New American Diet describes in this video clip how BPA found in some plastics can make us fat.

This video clip is from the Dr. Oz Show on Sept 22, 2010.

Dopamine agonists, that is drugs that stimulate dopamine receptors, such as Mirapex (pramipexole), can cause compulsive eating and weight gain according to a new paper from researchers at Colum

Patients who were told to follow a diet consisting of drinking milk only or milk plus one designated food daily lost 4 to 6 times as much—17-19 lbs more—as those who were prescribed a conventional diet of 800 calories per day.

The average weight loss for all patients including those who dropped out of the study at some point was

• 20.7 pounds for those on the milk-only diet which contained roughly 800 calories per day, the same as the conventional diet
• 15.4 pounds for those on the milk-plus-one-food diet which contained roughly 1340 calories per day
• 3.7 pounds for those assigned to a conventional diet of roughly 800 calories per day.

The average weight loss for only patients who completed the four-month study was:

• 24.6 pounds for those on the milk-only diet
• 18.0 pounds for those on the milk-plus-one-food diet
• 5.7 pounds for those assigned to a conventional diet.

Most exercise studies that have measured food intake have found that exercise does not increase appetite.

Nineteen ( 19 ) percent of exercise studies that have measured food intake have found an increase in appetite, 64 percent found no effect and 16 percent found a reduction in appetite according to recent review paper.

Ambien (zolpidem), the most commonly prescribed sleep medication, can cause sleep eating and large amounts of weight gain according to a report on the CBS television show, “The Early Show”. This has also been previously reported in the medical literature. It seems to occur mostly in people with sleep disorders such as restless leg syndrome, obstructive sleep apnea or sleep walking and previous episodes of nightly eating according to a report from the Mayo Clinic.

People using two SlimFast meal replacement shakes and two SlimFast bars in place of two meals and two snacks lost an average of 15.6 pounds in the first three months compared to only 2.9 pounds for those on a low calorie diet alone.

Tea drinkers have less body fat and a smaller waist-to-hip ratio than non-tea drinkers according to a study from Taiwan. People who have been drinking tea at least once a week or more were found to have 19.6 percent less body fat than non-tea drinkers and have a 2.1 percent lower waist-to-hip ratio than non-tea drinkers.

The antidepressant Celexa (citalorpam) can cause significant weight gain according to according to a new review paper about drugs that cause weight gain.

Several people taking drugs for schizophrenia, such as Zyprexa (olanzapine) or Seroquel (quetiapine), have complained how much weight they have gained taking these drugs. Someone called yesterday and said he had gained 80 pounds taking Seroquel (quetiapine), and asked if I had heard of any other medicines that did not cause weight gain. Yes, maybe there is.

“Our results indicate that when combined with a hypocaloric diet, consuming 500 ml [ approximately 16 fl oz] of water prior to each of the three main daily meals (1.5 [ liters per day ]) leads to [ approximately 4.4 lbs ] greater weight loss over 12 weeks [ 3 months ] as compared to a hypocaloric diet alone, among middle-aged and older adults,” the authors of new study conclude.

A drug called Qnexa, which is really just a combination of phentermine and Topamax (topiramate), caused half of the patients to lose an average of 25.1 pounds after six months compared to 4.8 pounds for those given a placebo.

Substituting almonds for complex carbohydrates in a low calorie diet increases weight loss according to a study from researchers at the City of Hope National Medical Center in Duarte, California.

On patient given phentermine plus 5-HTP plus carbidopa lost 24.4 percent of body weight in six months, while patients who had successfully maintained an average weight loss of 12 percent for 4-11 years on phentermine alone gained 6 percent when 5-HTP plus carbidopa was added.

In this 3rd part of Dr. Julian Whitaker’s interview with Joan Mathews Larson, PhD, she notes that drugs are not the answer for alcohol and drug problems, nor for the treatment of anxiety and depression.

Dr. Larson notes that she is bewildered how doctors can believe that drugs can solve the problem rather than using the natural chemicals that we are made of.

“In 1990, among states participating in the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System, ten states had a prevalence of obesity less than 10% and no states had prevalence equal to or greater than 15%,” according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“By 1999, no state had prevalence less than 10%, eighteen states had a prevalence of obesity between 20-24%, and no state had prevalence equal to or greater than 25%.”

“In 2008, only one state (Colorado) had a prevalence of obesity less than 20%. Thirty-two states had a prevalence equal to or greater than 25%; six of these states (Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and West Virginia ) had a prevalence of obesity equal to or greater than 30%.”

“No eating after 2 pm,” says Gary R. Albertson, D.O. of Monahans, Texas when asked about his No-Dinner diet. As far as diet drugs Albertson’s says “I only use three diet medications—phentermine, diethylpropion and phendimetrazine.”

Type 2 Hypothyroidism can cause obesity according to Mark Starr, MD author of the wonderful book Hypothyroidism Type 2: The Epidemic.

Men who are obese at the age of 18 are 52 percent less likely to get a college education than normal weight men according to a study from Sweden.

The one-fifth of people consuming the most potassium were 35% less likely to die from coronary heart disease than the one-fifth of people consuming the least.

The top one-fifth consumed an average of 3363 mg of potassium per day versus 1720 mg per day for the bottom one-fifth.

Hi, this is Larry Hobbs @ FatNews.com

The one-fifth of people consuming the most sodium versus the one-fifth consuming the least were:

• 42 percent more likely to have cardiovascular disease
• 55 percent more likely to have a stroke of any kind
• 104 percent more likely to have an ischemic stroke (2X as likely).

The top one-fifth consumed 6523 mg of sodium per day versus 2322 mg per day for the bottom one-fifth.

Rats given Splenda (sucralose) gained more weight than rats not given Splenda (sucralose) according to a recent study from Duke University.

They not only gained more weight—9-12 percent more weight—during the three months they were given Splenda (sucralose), they also gained more weight after they were stopped given Splenda (sucralose)—17-21 percent more. Yikes!

This same study found that Splenda (sucralose) also reduces good bacteria in the gut.

My advice is—Avoid Splenda (sucralose)! It causes weight gain during and after use. It decreases good gut bacteria which may increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer and irritable bowel syndrome. It looks to me like by consuming it, you have nothing to gain and everything to lose. Sounds like something I want to avoid like the plague.