Sleep and Health Journal

By Mark Levy, MD

Hypertension, diabetes, high lipids, and obesity are found together so frequently that their path of physiology has been combined into a set of issues referred to as metabolic syndrome. Chronically ill, obese people are plagued by western society’s most common ailments and there are multiple complications.
The traditional approach to these problems has been to just diagnose these people in the later stage of the disease and offer medications to slow down their speed of decline. Current advances and medicine allow a revised approach through the concept of global health using proper sleep, diet, and exercise to reduce pharmaceutical dependence and increase the population's overall well-being.

Medicalizing Overweight/Obesity

The Medical Model for Weight Management

Part 3

By Mitchell
R. Weisberg, M.D., M.P.

Weight Loss Medications

The eleven prescription medications utilized in Medicalizing Overweight/Obesity have one thing in common; they reduce appetite and food intake, thus enhancing an individual’s chances for complying with the stringent dietary behaviors that are required for successful weight loss and weight maintenance. However, they do not and cannot replace the requirement for participation in a high level of physical activity. They are all FDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved. Some are approved specifically for the treatment of obesity. However, most of these medications were originally approved for purposes other than weight loss such as depression, seizure disorder, migraine headache, Type 2 Diabetes, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), and Excessive Daytime Sleepiness, but along the way they have been found to have the side effect of appetite suppression and weight loss. By taking advantage of this anorexiant side effect (side benefit), individuals receiving these medications, either alone or in combination, are more successful at losing a clinically significant amount of weight and at maintaining this weight loss. Prescribing medications for a purpose other than its FDA approved indication is referred to as “off-label prescribing” and is a common and accepted medical practice. Off-label prescribing is practiced by the majority of physicians for numerous disease states.

Hypothyroidism, evidence-based cause of overweight, sleep disorders and associated medical complications

By Mark Levy, M.D., Ph.D., FACP

Our hormones control every aspect of our life from the ability to raise your family to the how well you could handle stress and fight with diseases.

Louis Keith, MD, PhD

No reader of Sleep and Health should be unaware that humans never appear to have enough of war. Indeed, it is estimated that any given moment at least 50 armed conflicts are taking place at some point or another on our planet. The wars in Afghanistan and Iraq may seem to get the majority of the media attention but they only represent those battlefields that are of interest to the world powers. Border conflicts, mini-revolutions, insurgencies and the like occur regularly, but they are either relegated to the back pages or the wastebasket of the copy editors room. In any event, the results of these wars are often reported in terms of body counts.

Weight May Be Linked to Type of Bacteria

By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer

The size of your gut may be partly shaped by which microbes call it home, according to new research linking obesity to types of digestive bacteria. Both obese mice — and people — had more of one type of bacteria and less of another kind, according to two studies in the journal Nature.

In The Mood For Food: You FEEL What You Eat

Experts say what you eat can actually affect your mood. Want to feel happier? Less cranky? More calm? Check out these tips from Hungry Girl.