Medical Bulletin 22/October/2022

Obesity is a medical condition in which too much body fat negatively impacts your health. It is healthy to have some body fat. In fact, a healthy level of body fat is needed to survive. But too much fat can be harmful to your body. Obesity is most often measured by body mass index (BMI), a calculation of body weight compared with height. BMI isn't the only way to measure healthy weight. For most adults trying to shed pounds diet and exercise mostly fail in the long term. Recently new evidence-based guidelines were released by American Gastroenterological Association strongly recommending that these patients with obesity use recently approved medications coupled together with lifestyle changes.

The following medications, paired with healthy eating and regular physical activity, are first-line medical options and result in moderate weight loss as noted as a percentage of body weight (reported as the difference compared to percent weight loss observed in the placebo group).

Reference:

Eduardo Grunvald, et al,AGA Clinical Guidelines on Pharmacological Interventions for Adults with Obesity,JOURNAL:Gastroenterology

Weight change in early Parkinson's linked to changes in thinking skills

People who gain or lose weight soon after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease may be more likely to have changes in their thinking skills than people who maintain their weight, according to a study published in the online issue of Neurology.

The study involved 358 people who were recently diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and had not yet started taking Parkinson's medications. They were an average age of 61 and had been diagnosed an average of two years earlier. They were compared to 174 people who did not have Parkinson's disease.

Weight gain or loss was defined as a change of more than 3% of body weight during the first year of the study. Weight maintenance was defined as no change or change of no more than 3%. A total of 98 people had weight loss, 59 had weight gain and 201 maintained their weight.

Participants took tests of thinking skills at the beginning of the study and then every year for up to eight years. They also took tests for other non-motor symptoms that can occur in people with Parkinson's disease, such as depression, anxiety and sleep disorders.

Reference:

Jin-Sun Jun et al,JOURNAL:Neurology

A more active friend can make you less sedentary

A newly developed mathematical model incorporates the influence of social interactions on community exercise trends, suggesting that interacting with moderately active people could influence sedentary people to become more active.

In 2018, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services published evidence-based guidelines outlining recommended types and amounts of physical activity to promote health benefits for different populations of Americans. However, national population-level trends suggest that there has been little improvement in meeting these recommendations.

Reference:

Mema E, Spain ES, Martin CK, Hill JO, Sayer RD, McInvale HD, et al. (2022) Social influences on physical activity for establishing criteria leading to exercise persistence. PLoS ONE 17(10): e0274259. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274259