With obesity rates increasing across North America, you would expect to find more an more eating establishments offering low calorie, low fat, modest size portion foods for their clientele. However, that is not the case with the Heart Attack Grill, located in the Chandler, AZ, a suburb of Phoenix. Their motto is “We will feed you until you die,” and “Treating Anorexia Since 2005.”

The tongue and cheek marketing program is designed to poke fun at the notion that “What you eat can kill you – in fact we will help you get there.” Unfortunately, in some cases this is a reality, with the Heart Attack Grill’s spokesman Blair River of dying abruptly. Though his death was not attributed to a heart attack, his 570 lb weight surly helped contributed to his early demise.

These humorous marketing ploys may seem laughable, however, the truth of the matter is, to the morbidly obese, “What you eat can kill you.”

Learn more about the Heart Attack Grill in this video from Nightline.

Over the years there have been many drug treatments that have been tested to help people lose weight. Some include reducing a person’s appetite while others held the promise to increase a person’s metabolism. Unfortunately, excessive weight gain and obesity are very difficult to treat being that it’s a critical medical issue and varies from patient to patient. However, mostly because it comes down to lifestyles and rethinking what people put in their mouths to eat.

A recent study published by the Lancet has promising results. It’s centered around the endorphin system. Endorphin’s are the pleasure chemicals that people sense during exercise, excitement, pain, consumption of food, love and sex. They act very similar to the way opiates work with their ability to produce analgesia, producing the warm and fuzzy feeling and sense of well-being.

In a sense they are like the bodies natural drug addiction in regulating pain, addictions and the “Runners High.” There have been some animal studies that have determined a correlation between eating behaviors and endorphins.

The study encompassed over 1,700 adults who were labeled clinically obese and were randomized to be treated either with a placebo or a combination of drugs called naltrexone – which is an endorphin blocker and buproprion – which is used in the treatment of nicotine addictions. The primary goal of the study was to see if people could lose up to 5% of their body fat over the period of a year.

The test results were staggering. In the placebo group they had a 16% success rate, whereas in the drug treatment group there was over a 40% success rate.

The results of this study are promising, as there is potential for improvement through refined treatments. However, there were minor after effects though, with some reporting minor stomach upset, dizziness and dry mouth. Unfortunately, there is no further data beyond the one year study. Weight loss is a life long process to achieve optimal health.

Eating breakfast
Exercise and Dieting
Wear a pedometer to make sure you are walking at least 10,000 steps a day
Getting a good nights rest

Learn more in this video.

Professor of global health, Ali Mokdad, Ph.D., at the University of Washington, states, “This is scary and something that we should pay close attention to. These new findings actually underestimate the true impact of obesity on society because they don’t address the costs of obesity-related illnesses and other factors.”

The original study was conducted by the eminent epidemiologist Sir Richard Peto of the University of Oxford. This study was conducted to figure out how exactly a body mass index (BMI) relates to mortality.

Bod Pod

For years now nutritionists and health care providers have relied heavily on using a technique that determined a person’s body fat based on height and weight.  This system applied to both men and women. Unfortunately for many this system is not entirely accurate.  It is equally important to know what kind of weight people carry as well.  Are they a lean 225 lb or a flabby 180 lb or someone who is very thin and weighs 100 lb.

Body density testing really identifies how much a person is made up of actual fat and how much is lean mass, which includes muscle and bone. Many pro football players, if tested using the standard method for BMI, would show up as being obese or extremely overweight.  We know of course this is not the case.   So how do you accurately measure a person’s body composition?  Some have used skin calipers to measure subcutaneous fat on specific spot of the body.  Others have used hydrostatic weighing which is very hard to do.  

One new method seems to offer the most accurate measurement of body composition which uses air displacement plethysmograph.  This system developed by Life Measurement, Inc. is proving to be extremely accurate and easy to do.  They call it the Bod Pod.

Some of the things this new device can measure are:

Accurate whole-body density measurement

Accurate measure for Thoracic Gas Volume (TGV)

Accurate measurement on fat and fat-free mass, Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR), and Total Energy Expenditures (TEE).

This test can be safely tested repeatably.

Is safe and non invasive.

Simple to use for the subject and operator, requires no special licenses.

It can be used with any subject type, including children, elderly, the obese and those with physical disabilities.

To learn more about Obesity and Body Mass Index Testing  contact Puget Sound Surgical Center today.

This video is a rebroadcast of this report.