The paper, published today in the International Journal of Obesity, was the result of a study funded by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine.

Nearly 500 participants from Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and Washington took part in the study, which measured whether sleep, stress, depression, television viewing, and computer screen time were correlated with weight loss. Several previous studies have found an association between these factors and obesity, but few have looked at whether these factors predict weight loss.

“This study suggests that when people are trying to lose weight, they should try to get the right amount of sleep and reduce their stress,” said lead author Charles Elder, MD, MPH, an investigator with the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., who also leads Integrative Medicine at Kaiser Permanente Northwest. “Some people may just need to cut back on their schedules and get to bed earlier. Others may find that exercise can reduce stress and help them sleep. For some people, mind/body techniques such as meditation also might be helpful.”

The study involved two phases: during the first phase, participants were asked to lose at least 10 pounds over six months. If they succeeded, they moved to the second year-long phase of the study, which tested a complementary acupressure technique against more traditional weight-maintenance strategies. Findings from phase two are not yet available.

During the study’s first phase, all participants attended weekly meetings at which they were weighed and advised to reduce calorie intake by 500 calories per day, adopt a low-fat, low-sugar diet with lots of fruits and vegetables, increase physical activity to 180 minutes a week, and keep daily food records. People who kept more food records and attended more meetings were more likely to lose weight during this phase of the trial.

Participants also were asked to report levels of insomnia, stress and depression, and to record how much time they slept and spent watching television or using a computer. The research team found that sleep and stress levels were good predictors of weight loss, but depression and screen time were not.

People with the lowest stress levels who also got more than six hours, but not more than eight hours, of sleep were most likely to lose at least 10 pounds. In fact, nearly three-quarters of this group moved on to the second phase of the trial, and were twice as likely to be successful as those who reported the highest stress levels and got six or fewer hours of sleep per night.

Participants who qualified for the second phase were divided into two groups: one received monthly guided instruction in the Tapas Acupressure Technique, which involves lightly touching specific pressure points on the face and back of the head while focusing on a problem (i.e., maintaining weight loss). The other group also met monthly with a trained interventionist and a support group, but used more traditional nutrition and exercise techniques to keep weight off. Both groups met for six months and then were followed for another six months to see which group kept more weight off. Results of that phase of the trial should be available in late 2011 or early 2012.

The study authors caution that their findings may not apply to all groups trying to lose weight. The authors also noted that the participants were highly motivated, and that 90 percent had attended at least some college.

These studies are part of ongoing research at Kaiser Permanente to better understand weight loss and the key factors to maintaining optimum weight. Another Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research study last year found that the more people logged on to an interactive weight management website, the more weight they kept off. Researchers at the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research also found that keeping a food diary can double a person’s weight loss and that both personal contact and web-based support can help with long-term weight management.

Study authors include: Charles R. Elder, MD, MPH, Christina M. Gullion, PhD, Kristine L. Funk, MS, Lynn L. DeBar, PhD, Nangel M. Lindberg, PhD, and Victor J. Stevens, PhD, all from the Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore.

Source:
Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research
Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness From Medical News Today

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A systematic review carried out by a team at the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry has analysed existing studies and concluded that there are benefits to mental and physical well-being from taking exercise in the natural environment. Their findings are published in the leading research journal Environmental Science and Technology.

The research team, supported by the NIHR Peninsula Collaboration in Leadership for Applied Health Research and Care (PenCLAHRC, part of the NIHR family of health and research initiatives) in collaboration with the European Centre for the Environment and Human Health (ECEHH), analysed data from a number of sources including 11 randomised and non-randomised control trials incorporating information from 833 adults.

Eligible trials were those that compared the effects of outdoor exercise initiatives with those conducted indoors and which reported at least one physical or mental well-being outcome in adults or children.

The study found that most trials showed an improvement in mental well-being: compared with exercising indoors, exercising in natural environments was associated with greater feelings of revitalisation, increased energy and positive engagement, together with decreases in tension, confusion, anger and depression. Participants also reported greater enjoyment and satisfaction with outdoor activity and stated that they were more likely to repeat the activity at a later date.

However, none of the identified studies measured the effects of physical activity on physical well-being, or the effect of natural environments on sticking to exercise.

On balance this review has identified some promising effects on self-reported mental well-being immediately following exercise in the natural environment, as opposed to those reported following exercise indoors. This is a first step towards vindicating the positive effects of programmes such as the Green Gym and Blue Gym, and innovative interventions by medical practitioners that include exercise outdoors as part of holistic treatments for those suffering from depression and similar psychological ailments.

At present research analysts are working with a paucity of high quality evidence, and one significant outcome from this study is the urgent need for there to be further research in this area. Large, well-designed longer-term trials in populations who might benefit most from the potential advantages of outdoor exercise are needed to fully analyse the effects of outdoor exercise on mental and physical well-being. Studies are also required that measure the influence of such effects on the sustainability of physical activity.

Dr. Jo Thompson-Coon, PenCLAHRC Research Fellow, commented: “The hypothesis that there are added beneficial effects to be gained from exercising in the natural environment is very appealing and has generated considerable interest. By using the data currently available to us we have added strength to the link between mental and physical well-being and outdoor exercise, but further research and longer, tailor-made and focused trials are needed to better understand this link.”

The senior author of the study, Professor Michael Depledge, Chair of Environment and Human Health at the ECEHH, added: “Some 75 per cent of the European population now live in urban environments, so that increasing efforts need to be made to re-connect people with nature via programmes such as the Green Gym and Blue Gym. Our research, which brings together data from a wide variety of sources, adds significant weight to the case for spending more time in the natural environment as members of the public and their clinicians fight to counteract the negative outcomes of modern living, such as obesity and depression. We look forward to conducting the further research and trials required to establish the evidence-base for introduction of outdoor activity into general lifestyle to complement therapeutic intervention.”

Professor Stuart Logan, Director – Institute of Health Service Research and Director – PenCLAHRC, at the Peninsula College of Medicine & Dentistry, said: “This is just the sort of project that PenCLAHRC is designed to support. It reflects the aim of the National Institute for Health Research in establishing CLAHRCs around the UK – locally identified and undertaken research that translates to improved health and well-being and that both benefits the local community and contributes to the production of research evidence. This is an exciting project with immense potential.”

Source:
Andrew Gould
The Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry
Sports Medicine / Fitness From Medical News Today

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Issued by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010 suggest that individuals look to HHS’ 2008 Physical Activity Guidelines for Americans for guidance on the amount and types of exercise needed for health benefits. For most adults, 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic activity each week is required to achieve and maintain a healthful body weight. Adults also should include muscle-strengthening activities that involve all major muscle groups on 2 or more days a week. For children and adolescents ages 6 years and older, HHS recommends 60 minutes or more of physical activity per day, which can be achieved through “short bursts” of time. At least 3 days a week children and adolescents should engage in muscle-strengthening physical activity.

“We applaud USDA and HHS for explicitly stating the importance of physical activity in attaining and maintaining a healthful weight,” said physical therapist and APTA spokesperson Ethel Frese, PT, DPT. “However, for individuals who have led sedentary lifestyles, who are overweight or obese, or who have a physical disability becoming physically active or increasing activity can be a challenge. Physical therapists’ extensive knowledge of health conditions allows them to examine people of all ages and abilities and design safe and effective physical activity programs that help establish life-long habits of physical activity.”

Specifically, the new dietary guidelines include “key” recommendations that USDA says are “the most important in terms of their implications for improving public health.” The 2 key recommendations for balancing calories to manage weight are:

• Prevent and/or reduce overweight and obesity through improved eating and physical activity behaviors.
• Increase physical activity and reduce time spent in sedentary behaviors.

The new dietary guidelines come one month into 2011, just as many people who made New Year’s resolutions to get fit are abandoning them. In January, to help individuals keep their New Year’s resolutions while avoiding injury and working the major muscle groups of the body, APTA launched a month-long Twitter campaign that included 12 instructional videos featuring physical therapist and APTA member Robert Gillanders, PT, DPT. In the videos, Gillanders demonstrates correct posture and form for selected core, leg, shoulder, and arm exercises that can be done at home or at the gym.

Source:
American Physical Therapy Association (APTA)

Sports Medicine / Fitness From Medical News Today

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Check-ups of 1,003 Michigan 6th graders in a school-based health program showed children who are obese were more likely to consume school lunch instead of a packed lunch from home and spend two hours a day watching TV or playing a video game.

The results were compiled by the University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center and suggests unhealthy habits are feeding the childhood obesity trend.

“For the extremely overweight child, genetic screening may be a consideration,” says study senior author Kim A. Eagle, M.D., a cardiologist and a director of the U-M Cardiovascular Center. “For the rest, increasing physical activity, reducing recreational screen time and improving the nutritional value of school lunches offers great promise to begin a reversal of current childhood obesity trends.”

President Obama recently signed the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 to create healthier school menus for the 31 million children in the United States who eat lunch through school programs.

The act is designed to improve nutrition by reducing salt, fat and sugar in school meals and reduce childhood obesity which has tripled in the U.S. in the past 30 years.

The prevalence of obesity among U.S. children ages 6 to 11 has increased from 6.5 percent in 1980 to 19.6 percent in 2008.

Children involved in the study participate in Project Healthy Schools, school-based program supported by communities and the U-M Health System to teach middle school students about healthy lifestyles, in hopes of reducing their future risk of cardiovascular disease and diabetes.

Project Healthy Schools is available at 13 Michigan middle schools and is one of the few school-based programs to show sustained benefits in reducing cholesterol and high blood pressure among participants.

The U-M study was published in the American Heart Journal.

U-M researchers found that 58 percent of obese children had watched two hours of TV in the previous day, compared to 41 percent of non-obese children. Forty-five percent of obese students always ate school lunch, but only 34 percent of non-obese students ate school lunch.

Significantly fewer obese kids exercised regularly, took physical education classes, or were a member of a sports team.

Because the eating and exercise patterns of obese children were so different than their normal weight peers, researchers concluded that lifestyle was more closely linked with childhood obesity, than genetics.

New evidence has emerged showing a leptin deficiency, a genetic mutation in the hormone that controls hunger, may cause a person to overeat.

“If diets and physical activity were similar in obese and non-obese students this would argue for a stronger genetic basis for obesity in children,” says study first author Taylor Eagle.

In the U-M study, 15 percent of the middle school students were obese, but nearly all, whether overweight or not, reported unhealthy habits.

More than 30 percent had consumed regular soda the previous day, and less than half remembered eating two portions of fruits and vegetables within the past 24 hours. Only one-third of students said they exercised for 30 minutes for five days in the previous week.

“It’s clear that opportunities to improve health abound for the majority of our students, not just the 15 percent who are already obese,” says study co-author Elizabeth Jackson, M.D., assistant professor of internal medicine at the U-M Cardiovascular Center.

U-M authors: Taylor F. Eagle, Roopa Gurm, M.S., Caren S. Goldberg, M.D., Jean DuRussell-Weston, R.N., M.P.H., Eva Kline-Rogers, R.N., LaVaughn Palma-Davis, M.A., Susan Aaronson, M.S., Catherine Fitzgerald, M.P.H., Lindsey R. Mitchell, M.P.H., Bruce Rogers, Patricia Bruenger, Elizabeth Jackson, M.D., and Kim A. Eagle, M.D.

Reference: “Health status and behavior among middle-school children in a Midwest community: What are the underpinnings of childhood obesity?” American Heart Journal, Vol. 160, Issue 6, December 2010. Abstract.

Source: University of Michigan Health System
Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness From Medical News Today

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Simply taking more steps every day not only helps ward off obesity but also reduces the risk of diabetes, finds a study published on bmj.com today.

While several studies have shown that physical activity reduces body mass index and insulin resistance – an early stage in the development of diabetes – this is the first study to estimate the effects of long-term changes in daily step count on insulin sensitivity.

A popular guideline is to do 10,000 steps every day, though a more recent recommendation is 3,000 steps, five days a week.

The research, by the Murdoch Childrens Research Institute, Melbourne, involved 592 middle aged adults who took part in a national study to map diabetes levels across Australia between 2000 and 2005.

At the start of the study, participants completed a detailed diet and lifestyle questionnaire and underwent a thorough health examination. They were also given a pedometer and instructed how to use it. Participants were monitored again five years later.

Other lifestyle factors, such as diet, alcohol and smoking were taken into account.

A higher daily step count over five years was associated with a lower body mass index, lower waist to hip ratio, and better insulin sensitivity.

These associations were independent of dietary energy intake and appeared to be largely due to a change in adiposity (fatness) over the five years, say the authors.

The authors estimate that, in their setting, a sedentary person who takes a very low number of daily steps but who was able to change behaviour over five years to meet the popular 10,000 daily step guideline would have a threefold improvement in insulin sensitivity compared with a similar person who increased his or her steps to meet the more recent recommendation of 3,000 steps for five days a week.

They conclude: “These findings, confirming an independent beneficial role of higher daily step count on body mass index, waist to hip ratio, and insulin sensitivity, provide further support to promote higher physical activity levels among middle aged adults.”

Source: British Medical Journal

Diabetes From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/213549.php

During February, American Heart Month, Dr. Holly Andersen, director of education and outreach at the Ronald O. Perelman Heart Institute of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, offers some easy steps to improve heart health and overall well-being throughout the year.

An estimated 58 million Americans are affected by heart disease, including nearly half a million women who die every year of heart disease and stroke. Yet, women continue to lag behind in their understanding of this disease.

“While we are making great strides in advancing the treatment of heart disease, we need to do more to encourage prevention and educate women about their risk factors,” says Dr. Andersen. “Educating women about this disease not only helps them to improve their own health, but women are more likely to spread the message of prevention to friends and family. When you educate a woman you educate a society.”

Step 1: Know your numbers. Your blood pressure, cholesterol and triglyceride levels are the most important numbers you will need to know before you begin on the path to good heart health. A normal blood pressure level is 140/85 or less, total cholesterol levels should be less than 200, and triglycerides less than 150.

Step 2: Start walking. Exercise is the fountain of youth. A simple 20 to 30 minute walk a few days a week can actually reduce the risk of premature death by more than 50 percent. Physical activity also improves sleep, reduces stress, elevates mood, reduces blood pressure, improves cholesterol, improves cognition and prevents memory loss.

Step 3: Laugh out loud. Laughter really is the best medicine. Just 15 minutes of laughter is about equivalent to 30 minutes of aerobic exercise with respect to our cardiovascular health. Laughter has also been linked to the healthy function of blood vessels, an increase of the brain hormones that improve mood, and reduction of pain and anxiety.

Step 4: Focus on your waistline, not your weight. Your waistline is a better measurement of your overall health than your weight because the amount of fat around your waistline is directly linked to high blood pressure and high cholesterol and can place you at increased risk for diabetes. Anything you can do to make your waistline smaller is definitely a step in the right direction. Liposuction doesn’t count!

Step 5: Get a good night’s sleep. Sleep is one of the most undervalued elements of our daily routines, but it is absolutely vital to good health. Lack of sleep increases your blood pressure, induces stress, increases your appetite and slows down your metabolism, dampens your mood and decreases your cognition.

Sources: NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital

Heart Diseasey From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/213425.php

In an analysis that included data from 9 studies, having higher measures of walking speed among older adults was associated with increased length of survival, according to a study in the January 5 issue of JAMA.

“Remaining years of life vary widely in older adults, and physicians should consider life expectancy when assessing goals of care and treatment plans. However, life expectancy based on age and sex alone provides limited information because survival is also influenced by health and functional abilities,” according to background information in the article. There are currently no well-established approaches to predicting life expectancy that incorporate health and function. Gait speed, or walking speed, has been recommended as a potentially useful clinical indicator of well-being among older adults.

Stephanie Studenski, M.D., M.P.H., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues conducted a study to assess the association of gait speed with survival in older adults and to determine the degree to which gait speed explains variability in survival after accounting for age and sex. The study included a pooled analysis of 9 participating studies (collected between 1986 and 2000), using individual data from 34,485 community-dwelling adults age 65 years or older with walking speed data available at the beginning of the study, followed up for 6 to 21 years. Participants had an average age of 73.5 years; 59.6 percent were women; and 79.8 percent were white. Gait speed was calculated for each participant using distance in meters and time in seconds. All studies used instructions to walk at usual pace and from a standing start. The walk distance varied from 8 feet to 6 meters. The average gait speed of the participants was 0.92 meters (3 feet) per second.

During the course of the study, there were 17,528 deaths. The overall 5-year survival rate was 84.8 percent; the 10-year survival rate was 59.7 percent. The researchers found that gait speed was associated with differences in the probability of survival at all ages in both sexes, but was especially informative after age 75 years. At this age, predicted 10-year survival across the range of gait speeds ranged from 19 percent to 87 percent in men and from 35 percent to 91 percent in women.

“Predicted years of remaining life for each sex and age increased as gait speed increased, with a gait speed of about 0.8 meters [2.6 feet]/second at the median [midpoint] life expectancy at most ages for both sexes. Gait speeds of 1.0 meter [3.3 feet]/second or higher consistently demonstrated survival that was longer than expected by age and sex alone. In this older adult population the relationship of gait speed with remaining years of life was consistent across age groups, but the absolute number of expected remaining years of life was larger at younger ages,” the authors write.

The researchers also found that predicted survival based on age, sex, and gait speed was as accurate as predictions based on age, sex, use of mobility aids, and self-reported function or as age, sex, chronic conditions, smoking history, blood pressure, body mass index, and hospitalization.

The authors suggest there are several reasons why gait speed may predict survival. “Walking requires energy, movement control, and support and places demands on multiple organ systems, including the heart, lungs, circulatory, nervous, and musculoskeletal systems. Slowing gait may reflect both damaged systems and a high energy cost of walking.”

The researchers write that there are a number of ways gait speed might be used clinically, including helping to identify older adults with a high probability of living for 5 or 10 more years, who may be appropriate targets for preventive interventions that require years for benefit. Gait speed might be used to identify older adults with increased risk of early mortality, perhaps those with gait speeds slower than 0.6 meter (2 feet)/second. “In these patients, further examination is targeted at potentially modifiable risks to health and survival.” Also, gait speed might be monitored over time, with a decline indicating a new health problem that requires evaluation.

“The data provided herein are intended to aid clinicians, investigators, and health system planners who seek simple indicators of health and survival in older adults. Gait speed has potential to be implemented in practice, using a stop watch and a 4-meter [13 feet] course. From a standing start, individuals are instructed to walk at their usual pace, as if they were walking down the street, and given no further encouragement or instructions. The data in this article can be used to help interpret the results. Gait speed may be a simple and accessible indicator of the health of the older person,” the authors conclude.

JAMA. 2011;305[1]:50-58.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association

Seniors / Aging From Medical News Today
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/212560.php

The studies in mice suggest that exercise turns on a genetic program that leads the heart to grow as heart muscle cells divide. It appears that shift in activity is driven in part by a single transcription factor (a gene that controls other genes). That gene, known as C/EBPb, was known to play important roles in other parts of the body, but this is the first evidence for its influence in the heart.

“We’ve identified a pathway involved in beneficial cardiac hypertrophy – the good kind of heart growth,” said Bruce Spiegelman of Harvard Medical School.

The findings may have clinical implications, particularly for those with heart failure or other conditions that make exercise difficult to impossible, the researchers say.

“This is yet another reason to keep on exercising,” said Anthony Rosenzweig of Harvard Medical School. “In the longer term, by understanding the pathways that benefit the heart with exercise, we may be able to exploit those for patients who aren’t able to exercise. If there were a way to modulate the same pathway in a beneficial way, it would open up new avenues for treatment.”

There may also be ways to optimize training regimens such that they tap into this natural mechanism more efficiently, Spiegelman added.

Researchers had known that heart muscle adapts to increased pressure and volume by increasing in size. That’s true in the case of exercise as it is in pathological conditions including high blood pressure. In disease states as opposed to exercise, those changes to the heart can ultimately lead to heart failure and arrhythmias.

In the new study, the researchers sought to better understand those differences using methods developed in the Spiegelman lab that allowed them to quantify changes in the expression of transcription factors in the heart at the genome-wide level in both exercised mice and those who had their aortas surgically constricted, a treatment that leads to a pathological increase in heart size.

The researchers found changes in 175 transcription factors in exercised mice and 96 in mice whose aortas were constricted. Importantly, the changes showed little overlap between the two animal models. For instance, the researchers said, 13 percent of the genes with differential expression following exercise have known or suggested roles in cell proliferation compared to less than one percent of those that changed with the surgery.

The researchers then zeroed in on one transcription factor, C/EBPb, which goes down about two-fold with exercise and a second that rises in turn. Studies in animals and cell culture showed that the decline in C/EPBb leads to changes that appear to be consistent with those that follow endurance exercise, including an increase in heart muscle size and proliferation. Those mice with lower C/EPBb levels also were resistant to heart failure.

That finding is key given that there is little prior evidence showing that the increase in heart size with exercise has direct benefits, the researchers say. The new evidence also gives important biological insights into the heart’s potential for regeneration of muscle.

Rosenzweig said it will be important in future studies to explore all of the players in the pathway and to provide even more definitive evidence that exercise leads to an increased rate of cell proliferation in heart muscle.

Source:
Elisabeth (Lisa) Lyons
Cell Press

Sports Medicine / Fitness From Medical News Today

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/212468.php

Below are research-based tips from investigators at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center that may help jump start one’s weight loss progress in the coming year.

1. Keep moving each day. We all know that exercise is crucial to losing weight, but sometimes it’s easier said than done. The task need not be daunting; all it takes to see a weight-loss benefit is 30 to 60 minutes of aerobic activity daily. “You don’t need to be athletic. Just brisk walking or dancing to your favorite music or using an aerobic exercise machine like a stationary bike or treadmill is all you need to do – just try to do it each day,” said Anne McTiernan, M.D., Ph.D., director of the Hutchinson Center’s Prevention Center. The exercise doesn’t have to be all at once. “You can break it into 10- or 15-minute sessions throughout the day to get the weight-loss benefit,” she said.

2. Keep a food journal. “By spending a little extra time to write down everything you eat and drink, you’ll be able to see where extra calories sneak in,” said postdoctoral research fellow Caitlin Mason, Ph.D., an exercise and health researcher in the Public Health Sciences Division of the Hutchinson Center. “There are lots of good online tools that can help estimate the calorie content of common foods and track your weight loss progress over time,” she said.

3. Set realistic goals. “The biggest mistake people make when trying to lose weight is trying to lose too many pounds too fast or setting unrealistic goals,” Mason said. “For long-term success, aim for a slow, steady weight loss of about 1 to 2 pounds a week. No one wants to lose weight only to gain it all back – and often more – a few months later.

4. Set specific goals. Instead of resolving to “lose weight,” which is too general, set several smaller but more specific goals, such as eating five servings of vegetables per day, taking a 15-minute walk at lunch each day or drinking six glasses of water per day. “Adding healthy behaviors to your routine is often easier than telling yourself ‘don’t do this’ or ‘don’t eat that,’” Mason said.

5. Don’t let one slip-up derail your efforts. “Don’t throw your entire routine out the window after one bad day,” Mason said. “Instead, try to identify the specific barriers that got in your way and think through strategies to avoid such challenges in the future.” For example, to avoid the temptation of buying a candy bar while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store, make sure to eat a healthy snack, such as a handful of nuts or a piece of string cheese, before going shopping.

6. Practice yoga. Two observational studies conducted by cancer prevention researcher Alan Kristal, Dr. P.H., a member of the Hutchinson Center’s Public Health Sciences Division, have found an association between regular yoga practice and weight maintenance and weight loss. One of his studies, published in 2005, found that regular yoga practice is associated with the prevention of middle-age spread in normal-weight people and the promotion of weight loss in those who are overweight. A follow-up study published in 2009 found that regular yoga practice is associated with mindful eating, and people who eat mindfully are less likely to be obese. “These findings fit with our hypothesis that yoga increases mindfulness in eating and leads to less weight gain over time, independent of the physical activity aspect of yoga practice,” Kristal said. “Mindful eating is a skill that augments the usual approaches to weight loss, such as dieting, counting calories and limiting portion sizes. Adding yoga practice to a standard weight-loss program may make it more effective.”

Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today

Weight loss surgeons Mr. Abeezar Sarela and Mr. Simon Dexter will be performing the procedure at the Nuffield Hospital in Leeds. “We have evaluated many of the new incisionless technologies that are emerging, and this is the most promising and most tested approach that we have seen” commented Mr. Sarela. “We feel that there are many patients who are interested in pursuing a weight loss procedure, but believe that existing interventions are too extreme – the TOGA Procedure offers these patients a scar-free, less invasive alternative.” According to Mr. Sarela the most important benefit of the TOGA Procedure is safety. “All conventional surgical procedures carry some risk of complications. With endoscopic or “incisionless” procedures the risk of serious complications is very small.”

Professor David Haslam, Chairman of the National Obesity Forum said: “Bariatric surgery has been demonstrated to be amongst the most clinically effective and cost-effective procedures in any field of medicine. It is the only method of treatment which offers permanent weight loss alongside dramatic long term reduction in co-morbid illness, including the resolution or ‘cure’ of Type II Diabetes. Current laparoscopic, or keyhole techniques have improved safety and efficacy of bariatric operations, but represent only steps along the evolutionary process until better procedures emerge.

“The TOGA procedure, a minimally invasive surgery may represent the next step in this evolutionary process. It is inevitable, due to the skyrocketing levels of obesity being seen in the UK, that more and more people will turn to surgery for weight loss, having explored all other avenues. The increased demand that this will cause must be met by a health service struggling to stay afloat in dire economic times. The TOGA procedure has sufficiently robust evidence, albeit for now in only small studies, to potentially offer an answer by being sufficiently safe and affordable to be used across a large population, offering a tangible solution for obesity related illness.

“Weight loss results do not yet suggest that TOGA will immediately usurp gastric bypass or band, but show immense promise, and represent an optimistic glimpse of the future.”

The Nuffield Health Leeds Hospital is already considered a centre of excellence for weight loss surgery and now, following successful patient trials in Belgium and Italy, will be the first hospital in the UK to offer the new procedure.

General Manager Mike Flatley said “Patient care and safety is our primary concern at Nuffield Health which is why it is so important for us to be able offer the TOGA procedure to our patients. Under the guidance of Mr. Sarela, I’m confident that this is an important part of the future of weight-loss surgery at Nuffield Health.”

Patients interested in learning more about the TOGA Procedure can visit http://www.togauk.com.

Eligibility for the TOGA Procedure

The procedure is suitable for overweight individuals with a body mass index (BMI) of over 40, or over 35 if they have an obesity-related condition, such as Type II Diabetes. All patients will be pre-screened by the surgeons and weight loss team to ensure that they are appropriate candidates, and after treatment must make periodic visits to the clinic to ensure they understand and can comply with post-procedure dietary changes. To check your BMI, click here.

About the TOGA Procedure

In the TOGA Procedure, flexible stapling devices are inserted through the patient’s mouth into the stomach, where they are used to create a narrow passageway for food (a “sleeve”). The sleeve slows the movement of food through the stomach, giving patients a feeling of fullness after a smaller meal. The TOGA Procedure has been used in over 450 patients worldwide. In a European pilot study, patients lost 35-40% of their excess weight in their first year after treatment. The instruments used in the TOGA Procedure were developed by Satiety, Inc. of Palo Alto, California, USA.

Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness News From Medical News Today