Antihistamine Use Linked to Weight-Gain

Go ask anyone who starts to snort and sniffle when pollen is high and the smell of fresh cut grass wafts through the air, and they'll tell you, antihistamines are a godsend.

Antihistamine medication is used to stop allergic reactions. Histamines in the body cause fluid to escape from capillaries resulting in swelling, itching, and sneezing.

But those beloved antihistamines, most of which you can get over-the-counter without a doctor's note, might come with a heavy price to pay -- weight-gain.

Writing in the journal Obesity, experts found an association between antihistamine use and weight-gain. Individuals taking prescription antihistamines were more likely to be obese or overweight, than individuals not taking the drugs.

In the study, among the 268 antihistamine users, 45% of study participants were overweight, compared to all 599 of the people involved in the study, where only 30% were overweight. Antihistamine users had a higher body mass index (BMI) than non users, weighing in at 31 and 28 respectively.

A BMI 25 to 29 is considered overweight, anything higher is obese. Obesity starts with a BMI of 30 and up.

But, the researchers involved with this study urge that the results do not say antihistamines cause weight-gain, only that there is an association between weight-gain and taking antihistamines.

Other medications can cause weight-gain, and I know this firsthand with anti-depressants. Some experts say medications like Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, and Zoloft can cause weight-gain of 10 pounds or more.

Image credit: Rakka

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Link Time! Gluten-Free, Eating Cake, Nasal Sanitizer, and more

I'm not sure how any of us survived so long eating all that gluten and dairy, but by the thousands people are switching to a gluten-free and a dairy-free lifestyle for many reasons.

Fortunately, award winning french chef, Alain Braux, just released a new book, Living Gluten and Dairy-Free with French Gourmet Food. If you want or need to be gluten and dairy-free but want to do it gourmet and deliciously, this book is a must have.

While you're baking all Chef Braux's delicious gluten free french cakes, you can look no further than to The Have Your Cake and Eat it Diet. Developed by Personal Trainer, Charli Cohen, this plan attacks the Fad Diet mentality and teaches dieters to change their lifestyle, which includes still enjoying the foods they love. Her plan seems very effective and sensible. Who doesn't love Cake!?!

The Flu Season has begun and if you remember, just over 12 years ago hand sanitizer gel made its surge into the marketplace encouraging people to apply the alcohol based gel often to kill germs when washing hands isn't convenient. Well, 2010 brings us NOZIN, the nasal sanitizer.

It's the same basic concept, but this alcohol based product is swabbed up the nose to kill those nasty bugs before they can replicate out of control. NOZIN is available in most major pharmacies and would be great for use during air travel or in other crowded conditions as sneeze particles can travel more than 30 feet (10 meters).

While we're on the health subject, did you know that 12 million Americans alone suffer from incontinence which can be an extremely uncomfortable and embarrassing situation. New research from The University of Alabama shows that women who drink a lot of caffeine are 70% more likely to develop a leaky bladder. Some women may want to cut back on the coffee.

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Some Obese People Don't See Themselves as Fat

Many obese people don't see themselves as fat and in fact, they think they're healthy - or so says a new study.

Talk about being a "glass is half full" type of person. I wish I was like that!

The problem is this positive attitude doesn't dispel the fact that obese people are at a heightened risk of death, i.e. heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, etc.

Published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, scientists gauged body awareness of 2,056 men and women already participating in a study, surveying the individuals on their body perception.

Researchers asked participants to look at pictures and choose their ideal body size. People who picked figures that were the same or larger than their actual body size were classified as "misperceiving" their body size, but these people were also more likely to be happier.

However, worry warts who acknowledge they're fat and out of shape tend to be less happy. I'm willing to guess that only exacerbates the problem. For you Shaun of the Dead fans, that means "to make things worse."

Important factors were considered. Scientists found people with higher incomes and better education were no more likely to perceive their body weight accurately, than less educated people, or those with lower incomes.

And here's the problem with that. Those who misperceived their size, saw their health risks as the same as people who more accurately identified their body size; which is a problem. Obese people are at a higher risk of cardiovascular disease, cancer, type-2 diabetes, hypertension, and the list goes on and on.

All this reminds me of the scene in Four Weddings and a Funeral - no I don't like girly movies, I saw it in a film class in college - where the overweight, smoking, drinking, jovial guy drops dead from a heart attack after boozing, eating, and dancing at the wedding reception.

I think this is a personality thing. If you're happy go lucky and have a fun social network, you spend less time being introspective and worrying about all the nitty-gritty. I'm a miserable, cynical, depressed mess, so I spend a ton of time worrying about my health, but one of my happier and - as coincidence may have it - overweight friends enjoys life more and doesn't sweat the small stuff. Well, the not so small stuff.

Image credit: The Sneeze

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Small Tips For Losing Weight? [Forum]

I know that it's through exercise and diet, but I don't know where to start. I'm 5'1 and 140 lbs. Please help me.

I love sweets, junk food and soda. I know it's a lethal combination. Please give me small tips that I can work on. I'm not in a rush to lose weight I think I'd be happy if I lose my first 5 pounds.

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Doctors Communication Style Matters for Weight Loss

A study from Duke University showed that the manner in which Doctors communicated with patients, regarding their weight loss, impacted their success -- it is better to be Dr. Mark Green than Dr. Greg House, when broaching the subject of weight.

The study is published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Researchers recorded the conversations between 40 primary care physicians, and 461 of their overweight or obese patients, over an 18-month period. Investigators were tracking how much time was spent and, specifically, how doctors talked with their patients about diet, exercise and weight loss. (The doctors were not told what the researchers were looking for).

Doctors discussed weight with patients in 69% of cases. Doctors spent an average of 3.5 minutes discussing diet and weight issues -- about 15% of the visit.There was little difference between patients who were counselled vs. those who were not, in terms of weight loss.When researchers accounted for the doctor's communication style, however, they found a statistically significant difference between communication styles.Patients whose doctors talked about diet and weight loss in a more motivational fashion, using predominantly reflective or empathic statements, were much more likely to lose weight, compared to those whose physicians used a more judgmental or confrontational style of communication.Patients whose physicians communicated well lost about 3.5 pounds three months after the visit.Excellent study: first of its kind to examine specifically Physicians' communication style, and its affect on patients' weight loss.Possible study flaws: communication styles aren't always directly definable and hence there is room for interpretation. Another potential flaw is that Doctors were recorded. While they didn't know why, it may cause them to be more vigilant in addressing issues thoroughly.Physicians are an important cog in the wheel of overall health. They are the front-line practitioners and as such, they can have enormous influence on the success of patients' efforts to lose weight and improve health.Counselling training would certainly help physicians communicate effectively and "get through" to their patients. At the same time, doctors tend not to have much in the way of formal education in nutrition, exercise science and specifics of how to lose fat. You have to know the right information before you learn how to deliver it.

In the end, I think the patient is best served by a physician who is both empathetic, but also honest and to the point. I also think that in addition to counsellor training and more extensive education in nutrition, MD's should work closely with other health professionals, who specialize in fat loss and nutrition.

Image Credit #1: Playtime Magazine
Image Credit #2: Actuzap

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Can We Stop Food Stamp Users Buying Soda?

In the uphill battle to fight obesity, Mayor Michael Bloomberg has petitioned the United States Department of Agriculture to ban the 1.7 million food stamp users from using them to buy soda, or other sugared drinks.

This move is part of series of interventions to curb obesity, which have included advertisements, stricter rules on food sold in schools, and a yet-to-be successful attempt to tax sugared drinks.

Herein lies a good concept in a stirred pot of political, ethical and health soup.

I'm going to come right out and say it: I like the idea. I like it a lot. In fact, I think food stamps should be used to buy vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds and canned goods - healthy foods. I also realize the stepping-on-eggshells nature of this kind of idea.

Look, this thing should be signed, sealed and delivered starting today, but in the "humor us all" department, let's take a look at some of the sticky issues that may arise with this sort of stipulation.

Ethically, is it fair to discriminate against those with food stamps? Who are we to tell them what they can and cannot buy?

Conversely, we all have a collective responsibility to ensure that our already-off-the-rails health care spending doesn't go even further into the abyss.

I don't see this as too "big brother" at all. The run-of-the-mill straw man argument here will be "how dare they tell people what they can and cannot eat or drink", but let's remember that regulating what people can spend their government assistance on is not the same as telling people what they can and cannot eat/drink.

As with many other similarly conceived ideas, the problems are deeply rooted, and the solution is multifaceted. While this is a great idea, there are bigger fish to fry - specifically corn subsidies that keep prices artificially low.

In the end I don't see this passing due to the industry-cozy relationship between big food and government food regulators. I'm sure they have the soda lobbyists working overtime to ensure that this idea never sees the light of day. Moreover, in 2004, the Agriculture Department denied a request by Minnesota to prevent food-stamp recipients from buying junk food.

What are your thoughts on this?

Image credit: poolie

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Antihistamine Use Linked to Weight-Gain

Go ask anyone who starts to snort and sniffle when pollen is high and the smell of fresh cut grass wafts through the air, and they'll tell you, antihistamines are a godsend.

Antihistamine medication is used to stop allergic reactions. Histamines in the body cause fluid to escape from capillaries resulting in swelling, itching, and sneezing.

But those beloved antihistamines, most of which you can get over-the-counter without a doctor's note, might come with a heavy price to pay -- weight-gain.

Writing in the journal Obesity, experts found an association between antihistamine use and weight-gain. Individuals taking prescription antihistamines were more likely to be obese or overweight, than individuals not taking the drugs.

In the study, among the 268 antihistamine users, 45% of study participants were overweight, compared to all 599 of the people involved in the study, where only 30% were overweight. Antihistamine users had a higher body mass index (BMI) than non users, weighing in at 31 and 28 respectively.

A BMI 25 to 29 is considered overweight, anything higher is obese. Obesity starts with a BMI of 30 and up.

But, the researchers involved with this study urge that the results do not say antihistamines cause weight-gain, only that there is an association between weight-gain and taking antihistamines.

Other medications can cause weight-gain, and I know this firsthand with anti-depressants. Some experts say medications like Prozac, Lexapro, Paxil, and Zoloft can cause weight-gain of 10 pounds or more.

Image credit: Rakka

View the original article here