Nearly everyone has aspirations to be healthy. Following diets and new and improved workout plans are popular behaviors at the beginning of each New Year, as many will vow to eat better and get more exercise.
A few months of eating fresh, high quality cuisine and hitting the gym makes a big difference in the way we feel. A slimmer waistline, clearer skin, and an overall feeling of health is worth it, so why is it so hard to stay the course?
Your lifestyle plays a huge role in whether or not your good intentions are going to stick. If you think your lifestyle might not be supporting your desire to be healthy, keep reading.
Read Full Post >
News of a new weight loss drug called Adipotide surfaced early last year, but there haven’t been many updates since July regarding the status of the drug’s development. As reports suggest, Adipotide is still in trial phase being tested in clinical studies on humans. If approved, it would join Qsymia, Belviq and several others in the ‘miracle’ weight loss prescription drug line-up. 
Adipotide was created by Dr. Wadih Arap and Renata Pasqualini as a form of cancer treatment as it was designed to starve cancer cells of blood supply prohibit them from growing. However, the effects of Adipotide have actually shown it starves fat cells of blood, which forces them to die and be reabsorbed into the body.
Though successful initial trials have been completed on rats and monkeys, some negative side effects have been noted, including dehydration and small kidney lesions that left untreated could lead to kidney failure.
Diets in Review resident pharmacist Dr. Sarah G Khan reports that Adipotide will be marketed as an injection into the subcutaneous layer of the skin, administered directly into the fat. While this may seem more effective, she believes this could be a potential downside as this method is not as user friendly.
Read Full Post >
Cindy Santa Ana of Northern Virginia grew up like a lot of kids in the 70s, eating canned Campbell’s soups and Pop Tarts and school lunches that resembled fast food more than they did home-cooked meals. She also had an affinity for popsicles and candy, which all snowballed into a pattern of unhealthy eating. The only commitments that kept her slim through high school were going without soda, dancing and staying active with social engagements.
Despite any unhealthy habits she developed early on in life, Cindy always had an interest in health and fitness and even majored in physical education and health in college. As a result she followed the nutrition advice she learned in the process, following the USDA recommendation of 6-11 servings of carbohydrates per day.
Items like breads, pasta and cereal filled her daily diet, but all along she thought that was a healthy choice.
“At one point in college I had 11 boxes of cereal in my dorm room,” Cindy recalled. “I was also eating everything fat free because the fat-free mantra was on.”
Believing the basic assumption that fat was bad, everything she ate was either low fat or fat free, which meant it usually had ample amounts of added sugar and high fructose corn syrup. This pattern of eating led to a slow and steady weight gain throughout college – at least 10 pounds every year. And Cindy’s health only continued to decline.
At the age of 25 she was diagnosed with hypothyroidism and the migraines she frequently experienced as a kid only grew worse. Then in 2005 and again in 2007 kids came along, which left Cindy heavier and more unhappy with her body than ever.
Read Full Post >
The classic musical “Les Miserables” hit the big screen on Christmas Day and has since received rave reviews from fans and critics alike. However, one element of the film that’s stirred much discussion is the frail figures of both Hugh Jackman and Ann Hathaway, who combined lost nearly 50 pounds to play characters in the midst of a revolution. 
Jackman appeared on Ellen in late December to discuss his demanding role as Jean Valjean, which required him to appear gaunt and distressed in much of the film. “I lost about 25 pounds,” said Jackman. “I was as lean as I could possibly be.” Jackman had also gone on a water dehydration diet for certain portions of filming in order to get a “sunken cheek” look. “I hadn’t drunk for 36 hours I had a massive headache,” he said.
Read Full Post >
