Melting Mama - Bariatric Bad Girl : March 2012 posts

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March 2012 posts

31 March 2012

Excuse the dust

PADOT Falling Rocks Sign (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

But, someone provoked me to attack my blog design this morning. Please to ignore moving objects, and be sure to watch for falling rocks. KTHANXBAI.

Posted at 10:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

30 March 2012

Book = Judged. Owned.

Obviously. Judging a person based on how they appear is WHAT PEOPLE DO. It's wrong, but it's WHAT they do. Try something new. Listening.

Posted at 07:54 AM in Advocacy, Motivation, Music | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

29 March 2012

OAC Officially Unveils Plans to Host Inaugural National Convention in 2012

Category:Images of Dallas, Texas (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

OAC Special Alert - OAC Officially Unveils Plans to Host Inaugural National Convention in 2012.

The wait is over! Since the OAC was formed in 2005, our members have constantly asked us when we would host an event of our own and give our members a chance to come together and experience the OAC first-hand. The OAC is excited to announce that day has come, and we are officially hosting our Inaugural Your Weight Matters Convention this year, October 26 – 28, 2012 in Dallas, Texas.

October 26 – 28, 2012
Dallas, Texas
Hilton Anatole

All about the OAC’s Your Weight Matters Inaugural Convention

The OAC is so excited to embark on this endeavor, because this is our chance to let you experience the OAC for yourself and show you what we are about – solid and unbiased education, useful and hands-on tools, and empowerment that goes beyond what you’ve experienced before. Whether you have been following us since we opened our doors seven years ago or you just stumbled on our Web site today, the OAC invites you to join us in our Inaugural Convention!

To kick-off our Inaugural year, we’ve titled the Convention “Explore. Discover. Empower.” This theme perfectly captures the essence of this annual event and sets the tone for what is to come not only this year, but the many years to follow. Our Convention is all about helping you seek-out the information you need, finding the answers you have been looking for when it comes to weight-loss and management, defying the status quo through discovering your voice through advocacy, and surrounding yourself not only with like-minded individuals, but renowned health professionals whose sole focus is to help you in your journey.

What you also will find different about the OAC’s Convention is that we literally have something for every individual who is struggling with their weight. Our overall message is to let individuals know that weight and health go hand-in-hand, and our goal is to cover fascinating general topics on weight issues for individuals at all stages. From those who are newly energized to take charge of their weight and health, to the post-bariatric surgery patient on a quest for more answers, our Convention promises to give you what you’ve been looking for in education, action and empowerment.

Posted at 10:42 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

28 March 2012

Get you some.

It's nearly the last day to get your BBGC Tee Shirts ordered! Get a bad girl on you.

Once the order is in - I'm DONE. (Yeah, I've said it twice before. But. Really.)

Posted at 08:54 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

27 March 2012

Celebrate Rewards!

Celebrate Vitamins announced it's new Celebrate Rewards program today!

How do you take advantage of Celebrate Rewards? It's simple:

1. Register on their site. Once registered, you will automatically be a member of our rewards program. If you were registered before we created Celebrate Rewards, then your account will be converted automatically.

2. Purchase your vitamins. Be sure that you sign in before placing your order.

3. Redeem Celebrate points for free or discounted products. You will be able to view your point balance from your account page and these points may be used at any time for the purchase of products from our website. Point balance will update once an order has been shipped. Points may be used at anytime once they are earned and they do not expire.

Whether you are a new or existing customer, you can now enjoy an additional benefit for choosing Celebrate Vitamins...

Posted at 01:23 PM in Vitamins, Supplements | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

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Posted at 09:27 AM in Caffeine!, Coffee, Giveaways. Freebies! | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

26 March 2012

Studies: Surgery can put diabetes into remission (For at least two years. Woo-hoo.)

Diagram shows insulin release from the Pancreas and how this lowers blood sugar leves. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

WLS can and often does put diabetes in remission. This isn't really new news, but, more good news.

Associated Press -

CHICAGO (AP) — New research gives clear proof that weight-loss surgery can reverse and possibly cure diabetes, and doctors say the operation should be offered sooner to more people with the disease — not just as a last resort.

The two studies, released on Monday, are the first to compare stomach-reducing operations to medicines alone for "diabesity" — Type 2 diabetes brought on by obesity. Millions of Americans have this and can't make enough insulin or use what they do make to process sugar from food.

Both studies found that surgery helped far more patients achieve normal blood-sugar levels than medicines alone did.

The results were dramatic: Some people were able to stop taking insulin as soon as three days after their operations. Cholesterol and other heart risk factors also greatly improved.

Doctors don't like to say "cure" because they can't promise a disease will never come back. But in one study, most surgery patients were able to stop all diabetes drugs and have their disease stay in remission for at least two years. None of those treated with medicines alone could do that.

"It is a major advance," said Dr. John Buse of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a leading diabetes expert who had no role in the studies. Buse said he often recommends surgery to patients who are obese and can't control their blood-sugar through medications, but many are leery of it. "This evidence will help convince them that this really is an important therapy to at least consider," he said.

There were signs that the surgery itself — not just weight loss — helps reverse diabetes. Food makes the gut produce hormones to spur insulin, so trimming away part of it surgically may affect those hormones, doctors believe.

Weight-loss surgery "has proven to be a very appropriate and excellent treatment for diabetes," said one study co-leader, Dr. Francesco Rubino, chief of diabetes surgery at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center. "The most proper name for the surgery would be diabetes surgery."

The studies were published online by the New England Journal of Medicine, and the larger one was presented Monday at an American College of Cardiology conference in Chicago.

More than a third of American adults are obese, and more than 8 percent have diabetes, a major cause of heart disease, strokes and kidney failure. Between 5 million and 10 million are like the people in these studies, with both problems.

For a century, doctors have been treating diabetes with pills and insulin, and encouraging weight loss and exercise with limited success. Few very obese people can drop enough pounds without surgery, and many of the medicines used to treat diabetes can cause weight gain, making things worse.

Surgery offers hope for a long-term fix. It costs $15,000 to $25,000, and Medicare covers it for very obese people with diabetes. Gastric bypass is the most common type: Through "keyhole" surgery, doctors reduce the stomach to a small pouch and reconnect it to the small intestine.

One previous study tested stomach banding, a less drastic and reversible procedure for limiting the size of the stomach. This technique lowered blood sugar, but those patients had mild diabetes. The new studies tested permanent weight-loss surgery in people with longtime, severe diabetes.

At the Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Philip Schauer studied 150 people given one of two types of surgery plus standard medicines or a third group given medicines alone. Their A1c levels — the key blood-sugar measure — were over 9 on average at the start. A healthy A1c is 6 or below.

One year after treatment began, only 12 percent of those treated with medicines alone were at that healthy level, versus 42 percent and 37 percent of the two groups given surgery.

Use of medicines for high cholesterol and other heart risks dropped among those in the surgery groups but rose in the group on medicines alone.

"Every single one of the bypass patients who got to 6 or less got there without the need for any diabetes medicines. Almost half of them were on insulin at the start. That's pretty amazing," said a study co-leader, Dr. Steven Nissen, the Cleveland Clinic's cardiovascular chief.

An obesity surgery equipment company sponsored the study, and some of the researchers are paid consultants; the federal government also contributed grant support.

The second study was led by Dr. Geltrude Mingrone at the Catholic University in Rome, with Rubino from New York. It involved 60 patients given one of two types of surgery or medicines alone. The researchers set as their goal an A1c under 6.5 — the level at which someone is considered to have diabetes.

Two years later, 95 percent and 75 percent of the two surgery groups achieved and maintained the target blood-sugar levels without any diabetes drugs. None of those in the medicine-alone group did.

There were no deaths from surgery and only a few complications. Four patients in the Cleveland study needed second surgeries, and two in the Italian study needed hernia operations. Doctors note that uncontrolled diabetes has complications, too — many patients wind up on dialysis when their kidneys fail, and some need transplants.

An adult who has a body mass index (a calculation based on height and weight) of 30 or more is considered obese. That's 203 pounds or more for a 5-foot-9 man, for example.

The government recently lowered the criteria for use of gastric bands from a BMI of 35 down to 30 in diabetics or people with heart disease, opening the way for wider use of this and other procedures for obesity.

Dr. Alvin Powers, director of the Vanderbilt University diabetes center, said the results are very encouraging for people like those in these studies — very obese, with diabetes that can't be controlled through less drastic means.

"We still don't know the long-term outcomes of these surgeries" and whether the benefits will last for more than a few years, he said.

Others were more positive.

The studies "are likely to have a major effect on future diabetes treatment," two diabetes experts from Australia, Dr. Paul Zimmet and George Alberti, wrote in an editorial in the medical journal. Surgery "should not be seen as a last resort" and should be considered earlier in treating obese people with diabetes, they wrote.

- Associated Press