10/25 Weight loss - Fast, quick and healthy

Please add updates@feedmyinbox.com to your address book to make sure you receive these messages in the future. Weight loss - Fast, quick and healthy Orexigen obesity drug shows added benefits: studies October 24, 2009 at 7:52 pm Orexigen obesity drug shows added benefits: studies By Bill Berkrot NEW YORK (Reuters) - Nearly half of patients who completed 56 weeks of treatment with Orexigen Therapeutics Inc's experimental obesity treatment, Contrave, lost at least 10 percent of their weight in a late-stage study and the drug also appeared to help cholesterol and blood sugar levels. The drug demonstrated an even greater improvement in non- weight loss measures in patients considered to be at high risk of heart disease, according to data released on Saturday. Orexigen released top-line data in July from a trio of Phase III trials showing Contrave met its primary goal of at least 5 percent weight loss compared with a placebo. That data included all patients who began the studies, even those who discontinued the medicine at any point. The data presented Saturday included only those who completed 56 weeks of treatment, which the company called "a more clinically relevant number." Orexigen also released data that looked at several secondary measures, such as impact on waist circumference, blood lipids and a marker for inflammation, as well as blood sugar levels in a separate trial of obese diabetics. "We're very encouraged that all those things are going in the right direction," Dennis Kim, Orexigen's head of medical affairs who presented the new data at the Obesity Society scientific meeting in Washington, said in an interview. Contrave is a pill that combines the antidepressant Wellbutrin, known generically as bupropion, with a sustained- release version of naltrexone, an opioid blocker used to treat alcoholism and other addictions. New obesity treatments are needed for what has become a public health epidemic as obesity is a leading cause of diabetes, heart disease and many other serious medical problems, and the condition is rising at alarming rates. The top-line data in July showed 48 percent of obese patients lost at least 5 percent of their body weight in one trial and 56.3 percent in a second study, compared with 16.4 percent and 17.1 percent on placebo. Those differences are considered robust enough for likely FDA approval and the company said it was on track to apply for U.S. approval in the first half of next year. But when looking only at patients who completed the 56-week study, the Contrave numbers jump to 61.8 percent and 75.8 percent compared with 23.1 percent and 21.7 percent on placebo. In addition, 48.2 percent of Contrave patients lost at least 10 percent body weight and 23 percent dropped an impressive 15 percent of their weight in one of the studies. In the other Phase III trial, 34.5 percent lost at least 10 percent on Contrave and 17.2 percent achieved 15 percent weight loss -- all significantly better than the placebo group, which topped out at 3.4 percent losing 15 percent of body weight and 10.7 percent who dropped 10 percent. "These numbers demonstrate some really compelling efficacy results that I think patients and prescribers will be impressed by," Kim said. The data also demonstrated impressive impacts on blood lipids and other measures in those patients in the study considered to be at high cardiovascular risk. In that population, triglycerides went down 66.3 milligrams/deciliter and 51.2 mg/dl on Contrave. "Those drops in triglycerides actually is in the ballpark of what you would expect to see from a lipid lowering drug that's on the market today," Kim said, referring to Abbott Laboratories' blockbuster triglyceride lowerer TriCor. Levels of good HDL cholesterol rose 5 mg/dl and 6.2 mg/dl among Contrave at risk patients -- similar to what one would expect from niacin, which is approved to raise HDL. High risk Contrave patients also had significant drops waist circumference and c-reactive protein -- an indicator of arterial inflammation associated with heart disease -- and small drops in bad LDL cholesterol, according to the data. Blood sugar levels from the study of diabetics was also more impressive than originally thought when looking at just patients who began the trial with A1c levels of greater than 8 percent. American Diabetes Association guidelines call for an A1c level of 7 percent or less. Among those patients, Contrave led to a highly statistically significant mean A1c reduction of 1.1 percent. "That is very impressive and outdoes a lot of diabetes drugs that are approved today," Kim said. "And you get big weight loss on top of it." (Reporting by Bill Berkrot; editing by Andre Grenon)   This email was sent to wwirone@gmail.com.  Create Your Account Don't want to receive this feed any longer? Unsubscribe here.

How to Live Longer With a Healthy Diet and Some Exercise

I guess we all want to know that magic formula to help us lose weight whenever we want. We would all love to discover that simple solution that would help us to live longer and much healthier lives. But unfortunately we all know that there just aren't any shortcuts to having good personal health.  If you really want to live longer then you must have a healthy diet and some exercise at least. It will not happen with trick diets or magic pills - that's for sure.  To be honest it is really not very surprising that we want to find quick shortcuts to good health and a better lifestyle. By eating a healthier diet and following a regular, but not strict, exercise routine can seem like hard work. And of course they both take time and effort to succeed. In today's society of quick fixes it seems that diet and exercise just do not do it quickly enough for most of us. So most personal health plans just fail.

However if you can manage to eat a good healthy diet and stick to your exercise program you will actually lose weight, improve your health and as a consequence you will feel better physically and mentally too. Really there is no great secret to having a healthier lifestyle. You just need to burn up more calories than you do now and eat less too. Basically it is a fairly simple formula to follow. Your first step to living a longer life from diet and exercise is when you begin eating in a healthy way. For starters you must avoid all fast food restaurants however much you crave them. It is better to only eat out only occasionally as a very special treat. Try and cut out deserts as they usually mean you over eat. But instead focus on eating plenty of vegetables, fruit and aim for leaner meats.


Please understand though that dieting does not mean starving yourself. That is a recipe for trouble and potentially bad health!. Also it doesn't mean cutting out your favorite foods. If you're in love with pizza you do not have to forbid yourself from ever eating a slice of your favorite pizza ever again. Just be sensible and make sure you only eat pizza occasionally from now on. Also do not be tempted to try one of the trendy diet plans that get advertised. If you are lucky you could lose weight using a plan like this, but what will happen after you leave that diet plan? The weight you lost inevitably comes back, often sooner rather than later. Be warned also that it is actually impossible to follow most of these diet plans for a very long time. So thick bout what you are doing and just try eating healthy as the first step as this is something you will then be able to do for the rest of your life.


But just eating a healthy diet on its own is not going to be enough to get you there. Don't kid yourself, because to really live a long and healthy life you must also exercise. Sorry, but this is the hard truth we hate to hear. Any type of physical activity will burn calories and most will strengthens muscles, improve your balance and help make your heart stronger. And if you are healthier then the stresses of daily life will start to disappear too.  Plan before you act! So, before defining your own personal health plan and exercise regime, first take a closer look at your own personal lifestyle. If you have not actually worked out regularly for a few years then make sure you start to exercise slowly. Don't do too much at first. A good personal health plan in this situation should be started by taking a long walk every evening to see how you get on. Or if you feel fitter then this you may cold start going for regular bicycle rides, every day or so.


As your stamina begins to build up and your endurance improves you will be able to increase the frequency and the intensity of your exercise workout sessions. You could try jogging instead of just walking. You could join a local gym and do circuits on their specialist machines. You could also buy some weights for use at home and incorporate them into your personal exercise program. However this whole process of getting fitter and healthier does take time. But the good news is that if you can stick with it then you will build up your stamina and then you will start to see the results that you wanted so much. The same commitment will be rewarded if you make the effort to eat a healthy diet too. So before too long you should be seeing a much healthier person when you look in the mirror every day. And that will give you a much better chance of living longer!


So in order to do this right we need to think and make some decisions before starting out on our own personal health plans, but we should not ignore this important step. Exercise and diet are key, so learning how to eat a balanced diet is an essential component, but remember that without exercise it is unlikely to help you lose weight or give you a longer life.


Source: EzineArticles.com/?expert=Jo_Smiley