Lap Band Lifestyle

Just go to the Lap-Band website and watch the intro. What starts as a sad and elegant musical score becomes quietly triumphant as people testify that the lapbad can solve everything from joint pain to type II diabetes. Moments before I had been goading myself to keep an open mind as I researched the topic, but soon I was silently cheering for the potentially happy lives this product might give these poor sad people. That's marketing.

To begin my research I went through the traditional channels. According to various medical websites, the lap band is an inflatable silicon band that fits around the top portion of the stomach. It is said to be a minimally invasive surgery that can be reversed in a relatively easy manner to accomodate unforseen circumstances such as a pregnancy. Liquid can be injected into the band to make it feel tighter so that the patient can better abstain from food. It is supposed to help people who have struggled with obesity for at least five years and who have failed in other attempts at weight loss. It brags of a low mortality rate and less loss of hair due to vitamin deficiency.

Where things really got weird was when I went onto newer media outlets. A casing of twitter showed feed after feed of post-op patients who seemed miserable. Don't get me wrong- no one lusts for food more than I do....but I don't tweet every time I smell something delicious. (Maybe that's because I'm too busy eating it) Take "Soon 2 B Skinny," who posted numerous times about her inability to quit caffeine as the surgery required. I feel you, sister. Then she tweets about her sadness at not being able to eat cake at a birthday party she's attending. Three hours later she posts that her husband is making spaghetti marinara and that makes her miserable. Hmmm. I scroll back a little and find that the day's first tweet is about lying to her son about why she couldn't go to his field trip because she's having surgery. Is lying about surgery normal?

Facebook is even worse. A group dedicated to people living with the Lap-Band shows a thread of people sharing advice that would better be discussed with their doctors. In the thread "To get a fill or not to get a fill?", a woman in Kansas feels she is eating more than she should if the band were tight enough. Upon the urging of a dozen other group members, none of whom claim to be md's, she decides to pump more liquid into the band to get a more restricted feeling. There is a big difference between a support group and a medical opinion, and one can only hope she knows the difference.

Three days of clear liquid eating, followed by six weeks of drinking only protein shake on the hour would be enough for me to remove the band myself after about ten minutes. A list of complications that includes band leakage, nausea, ulceration, and death is available on official websites but was not being widely discussed in any social medium I encountered. Perhaps the fact that it is reversible means the risks are no longer that risky?

ABCs of getting skinny

The alphabet diet gets around being monotonous and boring by being the most obsessive-compulsive regimen I have ever seen. According to blogger and nutritional counselor L. Vaughnan Spencer, people need to harmonize their diets and numerological capabilities they must eat only foods that begin with the first letter of their name... I'm Emily so I'm not terribly excited about eggs, edamame, eel, sheep's EYES, and ethiopian food. I'm not joking, eel and eyes are recommendations from the blog.

Compared to L. Vaughnan Spencer, the alphabet diet from Associated Content seems sane(r) and better balanced. The plan says that every day you eat only foods that start with the letter du jour. On the day for "x" fasting is encouraged. For example, on day 1 a sample meal plan would include an apple turnover, avocado salad, amaretto, antipasto, and armadillo salsa picante. (can you make this stuff up?)

It doesn't seem terribly healthful...especially on day "F" when everything starts with the words "fried." However, this diet may be effective in that people consciously avoid mindless grazing on the foods of forbidden letters.

Wez Swain wrote "The Alphabet Diaries" to chronicle his struggles of going through the diet for charity's sake. He takes the opportunity to try new foods and discover the failures of such concoctions as "cucumber, celery, and carrot soup with a squirt of curry." He acknowledges days where many vitamins and minerals are lost to this silly pursuit and laments the days at the end of the alphabet where near starvation kicks in.

The last week of near starvation probably does cause noticeable weight loss, thus propagating the diet. As far as I can deduce, the only logical benefit of such a scheme is to make the eater conscious of their food choices and to avoid mindless eating. There are easier ways to accomplish this goal...

A New Era of Privacy

On January 5th the United States dropped its name from the list of thirteen countries who restrict entry of HIV-positive visitors. According to the Global Database on HIV-related Travel Restrictions,the United States had previously been in the company of such countries as China, Russia, Sudan, UAE, and Korea. The website was created in Germany based on questionnaires the German government sent out to 130 embassies within its borders. It provides a comprehensive data base of the level of restriction each country imposes on a visitor whose status is positive.

The ban on HIV-positive travel was introduced in 1987 when the Center for Disease Control listed HIV as a disease of public health significance. Diseases of this category forbid immigrants and visitors from entering the country.

The new legislation was enabled by former president George W. Bush's signing of the United States Global Leadership Initiative Against HIV/AIDS, which removed HIV from the list of mandated diseases that barred entry to the USA. Mandatory testing will no longer be part of the immigration process. According to a CNN.com interview with Steve Ralls, spokesman for the Immigration Equality organization, "The end of the HIV travel and immigration ban is the beginning of a new life for countless families and thousands who had been separated because of this policy."

HIV was not removed from the list of communicable diseases of public health significance, which continues to create a more complicated procedure for obtaining a visa. Persons carrying antiretroviral drugs must have a doctor's certificate in English describing the purpose of the drugs. Though seldom enforced, this rule actually pertains to anyone carrying prescription meds into the country.

In the words of amFAR, the foundation for AIDS research, “We’re thrilled that the ban has been lifted based on science, reason, and human rights.” With such proposals out there as stamping peoples passports with their status, the fight to destigmatize HIV may be far from over.

A European Pregnancy

In addition to the burden of carrying a child, pregnancy also carries the weight of unsolicited advice from everyone within earshot. Obviously the risks of fetal alcohol syndrome and low birth weight are enough to frighten most women away from drinking during pregnancy...but are these risks based on scientific evidence?

In 1973 the University of Washington identified a group of physical and mental symptoms that came to be known as Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. Symptoms include delayed mental and social development in addition to a variety of physical characteristics specific to the face and musculature. This information led the Surgeon General in 1981 to call for a ban on drinking during pregnancy.

According to Dr. Ernest L. Abel, a professor at Wayne State University Medical School in Detroit, the National Institute of Health addresses only heavy drinking, the equivalent of five or more drinks per day. Ummm...even during my most leisurely days of college I wasn't coming anywhere near five drinks per day. How does a pregnant woman have the time and stamina to hit up that many happy hours?

Publications such as Parenting Squad have appeared to call out the misconception that all alcohol is dangerous to a pregnancy. They claim the National Institute of Health did not trust women to make the distinction between moderate and heavy drinking - and that they consciously introduced these scare tactics because of their lack of confidence in expectant mothers. They cite the Women's Wine Critics Board whose statement says..."Others, however, see this attitude as illogical and have concluded that the risks and benefits associated with light to moderate regular wine consumption compare quite favorably with most other activities of daily life."

In my perusing of available information on the net I was left with the general impression that as mothers become older and better educated, they are starting to question the wisdom of a ban on wine and privately partaking of a glass when the mood strikes.

Sent to Live on a Pee Farm Upstate

     Thousands of women enter menopause each day and the vast majority will spend one third of their life in this phase.  The jury is still out on whether the risks of hormone replacement therapy, including increased risk of certain cancers, gall bladder disease, and heart problems, outweighs the discomfort of menopause. These medicines have been proven to nearly halt the effects of osteoporosis and have been, falsely, linked to a decrease in dementia and the effects of Alzheimers.   For those who choose to go on hormone replacement therapy (HRT) the most prescribed medicine is Premarin.

     The secret ingredient in Premarin is PREGNANT MARES URINE (PMU).  The brand name is derived from PREgnant MARes urINe.  Whether in cream, pill, or patch form, it is essentially conjugated estrogens extracted from the urine of pregnant mares. It is superior to synthetic estrogen because the hormone is harnessed through an all-natural source.  (that would be urine) 

    HorseAid is a nonprofit organization that crusades for the rights of horses forced to work on pee farrns.  When farms were shut down in Ontario, Canada after documented horse abuses, they reopened in Manitoba and Alberta among other places.  Pregnant mares are tied up indoors for at least six months out of the year while their urine is being harnessed via the use of a catheter.  After they can no longer reproduce the horses are sometimes fattened at the feed lot and sold off for slaughter.

Advocates argue that the pee farms are good for the Canadian agriculture industry and support privately owned farms. The producers of the drug, Wyeth Organics, announced in 2003 that they would be decreasing the production of urine by one-third.  However, Wyeth earns roughly 1.2 billion dollars a year from the sale of Premarin and is unlikely to make further cuts until the FDA approves the synthetic form of the urine as a genetic replacement. 

You're Gonna Have to Face It You're Addicted to Sex

    Tiger Woods has spent 45 days in a rehabilitation facilty for sex addiction and he is not the first celebrity to do so.  Sex addiction is a modern and convenient way to explain why some people seem hell bent on destroying their personal (and possibly professional) lives. It is an accepted term in the media. Is it real?  No one seems to be able to agree.

    According to The Baltimore Sun the accepted answer is technically no but possibly yes.  "Sex addiction is not listed in the American Psychiatric Association's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.  However, "hypersexual disorder"is being considered for the next edition. Hypersexual disorder is a state where one is abnormally focused on sexual activity and uses people as objects for gratification.  As we can see, these standards are beyond subjective and it would be impossible to find quantitative measures that are representative of the entire population.

     Craig Fabrikant, a clinical psychologist from Hackensack University medical center, believes this behavior is more of a habit than an addiction.  (Cohen)  Many in the field compare sex addiction to a form of obsessive compulsive disorder or perhaps a part of narcissistic personality disorder or the manic phase of manic-depression, now bipolar disorder.  They say it is a symptom of these others illnesses that make one feel compelled against their will to repeatedly perform an action that he or she is powerless to control.

     If you want to know whether you suffer from sex addiction, CNN has a quiz to find out whether you're a sex addict.  Sample criteria include:  You lie, Sex consumes you, You have an intense interest in pornography, or You're 'divorced, dead, fired, or arrested.'  (Since everyone does one or more of these things, you're only an addict if "several" of the categories apply to you)  It's clear to see the criteria is broad.  Sufferers feel indignant that their "disease" isn't given the academic acceptance of substance abuse.  Others feel this is hogwash.

Creatine: Helping White Men Jump

   Creatine is a wonder supplement, typically ingested in powder form, that allows you to gain weight, reduce recovery time, and increase muscle mass.  It's legal, it's available, and it's being consumed by thousands of young adult men struggling to get bigger and lift heavier weights.  Americans spend +/- 14 million dollars a year on the product.  Is it safe?  I went on a hunt of the online communities and university publications to find out.

    Creatine is an organic acid that is naturally produced in the skeletal muscle.  The body manufactures about half of the creatine we store.  The rest we ingest from eating meat - specifically wild game, beef, herring, tuna, and salmon.  Vegetarians have markedly lower levels of creatine in their systems.   The theory behind it's weight-gaining potential is that it causes "cell volumization" by drawing water into the muscle cells.

     According to studies conducted by the University of Maryland Medical Center, preliminary results show that the increase in muscle mass one experiences with creatine may be useful in treating muscular dystrophy and heart failure.  They are optimistic that creatine is more useful than potentially dangerous.  That said, creatine has noted side effects including dizziness, high blood pressure, and stomach cramping.

    The danger seems to be that creatine has not been studied on subjects under the age of nineteen.  According to Men's Health side effects appear to be the result of the consumer allowing himself to become dehydrated or overusing the supplement.  Logically speaking, these should be the people most likely to misuse a substance.

      The NCAA is very conflicted about creatine.  Its policy is that athletic trainers cannot give creatine to athletes or mandate that they use it.  However, athletes are free to use creatine on their own.The French Agency of Medical Security has said the use of creatine is "against the spirit of sportsmanship and fair competition."

     Online bodybuilding forums are very supportive, not only of the supplement but of each other.  Veteran body builders urge newcomers to drink plenty of water, follow the guidelines, and reduce dosage to "maintain" physique once the desired weight gain has been achieved.  I am suprisingly disappointed this expose uncovered nothing harmful (and may need to evaluate why I would wish doom this way) but it appears that creatine is, for all intents and purposes, safe.

Topics to Avoid: Religion, Politics, and...Fat Children?

     Michelle Obama is in the news for the crime of trying to relate to people who have struggled with their children being overweight.  She said she was once worried when a pediatrician expressed concern that her daughters' body mass indexes were in danger of becoming "out of balance."  Critics say she is pushing her preteen daughter down the path to an eating disorder.
     When did weight become so taboo?  If it is addressed with respect and good humor (as were Mrs. Obama's comments) there is no reason to suspect a child is being scarred.  In fact, my mother jokes that as a baby I had legs that resembled ham hocks, and I grew up to be a healthy and confident adult.  (though I do confess to being a little grossed out by ham)
     According to the CNN.com "Talking to Tweens About Healthy Eating," Dr. Tom Robinson says "It's better to talk to a child directly about the problem than to pretend it doesn't exist."  Children already know if they are overweight and they need a long term plan in partnership with their parents.  The internet is full of quick fixes.  On the "45 Pounds" site you can buy a mail order diet for your child that promises to make your tubby toddler into child star material.  Accompanying the testimonies are "before and after" shots guarenteed to produce the nauseating feeling that only child exploitation can deliver.
     The parenting community at ivillage is a bit more positive.  It encourages families not to use food as a reward or to heap stress on the child by demanding instant results.  How much force is just right?  According to telegraph.com the United Kingdom is creating the National Child Measurement Programme.  Students will be weighed by the government and letters will be sent home to those who are "overweight" or "very overweight."
     If you are uncomfortable having your child weighed by the government and want to avoid causing the child to feel ashamed, treat yourself to a dose of shame at the ezine community.  Articles such as "Childhood Obesity - Parents- It's Your Fault Your Kids Are Fat" will yell at you and accuse you of sabotage.  The "advice" hurls confusing numbers about glycemic indexes and improper chemical combinations at any parent silly enough to click on this link to become more educated and responsible.  It's enough to make anyone start stress eating!
   

Spring Cleansing

      Spring is coming and people are going to be looking for a quick fix to their weight woes. (a few suggestions: abolish the skinny jeans trend and accept we aren't seventeen anymore!) One of the pieces of advice I consistently read in the blogosphere is that celebrities are "going on a cleanse." This magical sounding Hollywood experience is code for fasting and using enemas or drinking sludge to make your colon purge itself in horror. Cleanse does sound better, right?   
  
     The most famous of these is the Master Cleanse, a regimen of drinking a mixture of lemon juice, cayenne pepper, and grade B maple syrup. No solid food is eaten the entire time you're on it, which is typically ten days but can be much longer. This must be the reason so many Hollywood marriages fail! After ten days with no solid food I can only imagine what a train wreck I would become.

     The most recent news in cleansing is Megan Fox's assertion that after a night of eating junk food, she takes a table spoon of apple cider vinegar to cleanse away the bloating. She says:

     "It just cleanses out your system entirely."

  
       "It will get rid of ... for women who retain water weight from your menstrual cycle and all that ... it gets rid of it really fast. see Megan Fox diet advice
  
       Forget that she's twenty-three and not a nutritionist. And forget about downing the vinegar! Unless you're  willing to go on a starvation diet, it's not going to work for you. That doesn't stop advertisers from trying. Just go to twitter.com and you'll see ad after ad for colonics and cleansing products such as "The Bowtrol Colon Cleanser." and type in "colon cleansing."  You'll see scores of ads for products guarenteeing instant results.  Numerous studies have shown that purging your colon can make it lazy and dysfunctional (like someone who thinks a tbsp of vinegar will replace healthy habits) and can cause irreversible damage. For a comprehensive overview, see Stephen Barrett's "Quack Watch."
  
      What purpose do these adds serve on Twitter? Who are they selling to? According to Steve Rubel's "The Steve Rubel Lifestream" blog, thirty seven percent of internet users ages 18-24 use Twitter.  Only ten percent in the 45-54 age group. These cleanses are not only dangerous, but are being pushed on the people with the least amount of life experience who may be less equipped with the knowledge of the risks.

"Maybe the Rats Had a Drinking Problem..."

by: Emily Byers

 

        In researching an article on carb-bashing, I came across a warning that our bodies could not handle  "processed non-nutritive franken-foods."  The post (http://www.healthy-eating-politics.com/best-diet.htmll) is recommending a hybrid diet that harks back to our ancestors and is  carb-free. (who knew our ancestors should have eschewed apples and bananas?)  It seemed perfectly in keeping with the motif that they would bash genetically modified foods.
         
        I began to wonder, are genetically modified foods the evil stuff of science fiction?  And if they are, how could we prove it?  According to a post at Slashdot, the 2009 International Journal of Biological Science found that rats who ate three varieties of genetically modified corn had damaged livers, kidneys, and other organs after just ninety days.  Ninety days sounds like precious little time to have organ failure, which leads me to question: Just how much were these rats being fed a day?  Eating my body weight in anything, even carrots and quinoa, would certainly cause liver failure.  Also, who were these rats?  Were they wholesome, well exercised, bred in captivity rats? 
     
        Obviously I'm not advocating we take the rats to the health department, but I do think the above study deserves critical analysis.  Cancer and long term damage associated with genetically modified food should take years to become apparent.  The  African-American Environmentalist Association (http://www.aaenvironment.com/) argues that starvation is a much more dangerous threat and that droughts and famine are much more likely foes than genetically altered superbugs or superweeds.  If damage does show up, one would have to eliminate smoking, environmental hazards, genetic abnormalities, etc. 
        
        There is prevalent information on the web about the dangerous of the uncontrolled genetic engineering experiment.  With no USDA regulations on labeling and the existence of corn in an ingredient in processed foods, we've all been eating it already...likely in mass quantities.  That hasn't stopped Green Peace and its partner organizations from organizing a new media campaign that made Trader Joe's agree to pull all genetically modified foods from its shelves by year's end.  No one wants to go on record as saying they're completely safe and then be the face of folly in decades ahead, much like the tobacco industry.  Nonetheless, this world is projected to have twelve billion people to feed fifty years from now.  Even if the scientific community isn't passionately advocating genetic engineering, they're doing it.

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