CardioExchange Archive

March 26th, 2012

Bariatric Surgery Turns Back the Clock on Diabetes

Larry Husten, PHD

Two new randomized trials offer evidence that bariatric surgery is highly effective in obese patients with diabetes. The results, according to Paul Zimmet and K. George M.M. Alberti, writing in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, “are likely to have a major effect on future diabetes treatment.” In the STAMPEDE trial, which was presented at […]

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January 5th, 2012

Diets Differ in Effect on Weight Gain and Fat and Lean Mass

Larry Husten, PHD

A new study published in JAMA demonstrates the various effects of overeating of three diets that differed mainly in protein composition. George Bray and colleagues randomized 25 healthy volunteers to participate in an inpatient study to consume low-, normal-, or high-protein diets that provided 40% more calories than required to maintain one’s normal weight. After 8 weeks, […]

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January 3rd, 2012

Bariatric Surgery Cuts Cardiovascular Deaths and Events

Larry Husten, PHD

Bariatric surgery results in significant reductions in cardiovascular deaths and events, according to a new study from Sweden published in JAMA. But one expert cautions that the results do not mean that obese patients without other weight-related complications should undergo surgery. Analyzing data from more than 4000 obese patients enrolled in the ongoing Swedish Obese Subjects (SOS) […]

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September 22nd, 2011

Diet Drugs Get a New Slim Chance at Approval

Larry Husten, PHD

Contrave, the investigational diet pill combination of naltrexone and bupropion, has been granted a possible new lease on life by the FDA. In January of this year, the FDA issued a complete response letter to Orexigen, the drug’s sponsor. Now Orexigen says that it has received guidance from the FDA that could lead to approval of the […]

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April 11th, 2011

Phentermine-Topiramate Combination Yields Significant Weight Loss

Larry Husten, PHD

The experimental diet drug combination of phentermine and topiramate demonstrated “robust efficacy” in  CONQUER, a large new trial published online in the Lancet. The trial’s results come after a year in which the FDA turned down three investigational diet drugs (including Qnexa, the phentermine-topiramate combination used here) and removed the diet drug sibutramine from the […]

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March 14th, 2011

AHA Offers Qualified Endorsement of Weight-Loss Surgery

Larry Husten, PHD

For the first time, the AHA has offered a qualified endorsement of bariatric surgery. The scientific statement, published in Circulation, states that bariatric surgery is a relatively safe procedure that can lead to long-term weight loss and significantly improve health in appropriately selected obese patients who have been unable to lose weight nonsurgically. But, said Paul Poirier, […]

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September 1st, 2010

NEJM Editors Call for Removal of Sibutramine from U.S. Market

Larry Husten, PHD

Earlier this year, following the discovery of signals of potential danger in a large clinical trial, the weight loss drug sibutramine (Meridia) was withdrawn from the market in Europe while the FDA added a strongly worded contraindication to its use in people with cardiovascular disease. Now, 2 weeks before an FDA advisory panel will vote […]

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