A drug commonly used to manage symptoms of Alzheimer disease and other dementias — donepezil — is associated with a two-fold higher risk of hospital admission for rhabdomyolysis, a painful condition of muscle breakdown, compared with several other ... [Continue Reading]
What About Oxytocin?
It seemed that Childhood Obesity News‘ examination of currently available weight-loss drugs had come to an end, but no. As it turns out, another hormone might be in the running. This news was revealed at the latest annual meeting of the ... [Continue Reading]
Myths to Forget
Not long ago, IFLScience.com published a list of “23 Facts You Learned About Healthy Eating As A Kid That Are No Longer True,” replete with plenty of source links for those who wish to know where the information came from. The top three ... [Continue Reading]
Vitamin D for Weight Loss?
Parathyroid hormone is suspected of causing the body to hoard fat. We learn from Vitagene.com that “stored vitamin D tells the hypothalamus to decrease the output of parathyroid hormone.” Conversely, when incoming vitamin D is too low, ... [Continue Reading]
Why Vitamin D?
Most people have a vague idea that, if a nutrient was named after one of the first letters of the alphabet, it must be important, which is a fair assumption. We need vitamin D for bone health, muscle function, and an effective immune system, followed ... [Continue Reading]
Anti-Addiction Pills, Continued
The previous Childhood Obesity News post looked at some pills either shown or believed to have the potential to deal with compulsive overeating. A company called Adial developed a genetically targeted therapeutic agent that it believed could treat ... [Continue Reading]
Are the Weight-loss Drugs Worth It?
Weight-loss drugs work by different methods, and people often react to them differently. The phrase “Doctor’s orders” is well-known for a reason. A patient is often told to start off slowly and follow the expert’s guidance ... [Continue Reading]
The Struggle for Pharmaceutical Legitimacy
This continues the saga of one particular medication, beloranib. In 2013, writer Esha Dey had warned, “Even if all goes well, the drug is years away from hitting the market.” All did not go well. In October of 2014 a patient died of ... [Continue Reading]
An Injectable Raises, and Dashes, Hopes
Some drugs work better, or only, in injectable form. Turn back the clock six years, to what was said then about beloranib. Science looked for a cure that would make the body produce less fat, and burn more of what it did make, for fuel. This result ... [Continue Reading]
Pharmaceuticals In, Pounds Off
Some of this talk about weight-loss drugs might not seem relevant to childhood obesity, but the connection is, obese children tend to become obese adults. To learn about the possibilities is to fervently wish that our children will never have to ... [Continue Reading]