It's a throwback with a comeback.A Colombian intimate apparel model named Natalia Paris wants to reinvent herself. According to the Atlantic, this blonde, babelicious, ex-girlfriend-of-a-former-Medellin-cartel-lieutenant has changed her "look." She got rid of her implants.
Why?
"Not getting any younger," she says in the article.
Continue reading Give It Up.
There's good news today about an alarming trend in teenage female athletes. As many as a fourth of our daughters who participate in sports or strenuous exercise stop menstruating -- or don't start -- compared with 2 to 5 percent in the general population. The phenomenon, known as hypothalamic amenorrhea is one part of the so-called "female athlete triad," which includes low energy availability, weak bones and menstrual disorders.
The reason for menstrual shutdown, particularly in athletes who are not thin enough to be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, is not clear. But now medical researchers have found one major suspect in the mystery: the hormone leptin - and new hope for treatment.
Continue reading Power Bars and Periods.
Several years ago, I received an email from a mother of a child diagnosed with anorexia. She asserted that the disease was caused by genes alone and that culture did not play a role. In response, I pulled several studies that testified to the the influence of societal mores on eating disorders. I told her what experts had told me -- that the disease was seeded by genes. But those seeds had to be sown on the fertile ground of environment in order to grow into the weeds of disease.
She became more vehement, and she and I agreed to disagree. Still, the conflict lingered in my mind.
Continue reading Eating Disorders: Who or What's to Blame?.
She's a bride-to-be, a princess-to-be and apparently losing weight. Kate Middleton's recent appearance in Northern Ireland sparked a buzz about whether she's slimming too many pounds before her April wedding.
Is
the stress? Is it the diet? Is it the media following her around
snapping photos of body parts and analyzing the girth of her calves?
Who
knows? except Middleton. And thankfully, she is keeping mum. Apart from
whether she has an eating disorder or simply pre-marital jitters, the
chattering and twittering points a finger at almost has become an iconic
prenuptial phenomenon. Brides-to-be are losing weight. And doing so to
the extreme.
Continue reading Eating Disorders Unveiled?.
Here's a shocker. Doctors and weight loss centers are prescribing human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG), a hormone produced during pregnancy, as a weight loss aid. They serve it up to desperate dieters, as daily injections, in combination with a 500-calorie-a day meal plan.
Are you kidding me? hCG is a PREGNANCY hormone. It's made from the urine of pregnant mares.
Continue reading Getting "Pregnant" to Get Thin.

Post holidays, guilt flares. And it is all to common to watch the
treadmills fill and the diet plans flow, as people try to shave off the
results of indulgence.
But here's a study
that begs caution. Researchers have shown that dieting sensitizes the
brain to stress, which in turn, prompts cravings for treats. These brain
changes last long after the diet is over. (They become genetic.) And
they entice even healthy individuals to binge -- and ultimately gain or
regain weight.
Continue reading What Dieting Does to the Brain.
Having covered obesity research for more than a decade for the journal, Science, it is no surprise to me that yet another diet pill, called Qnexa, suffered defeat by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.
Qnexa
is the third weight loss medicine to run afoul this month due to safety
issues. First, the FDA forced the withdrawal of 13-year veteran, Meridia, because of concerns about heart attacks and strokes. Next came lorcaserin, which the FDA rejected last week because it caused tumors in rats.
That leaves only Xenical, approved in 1999, for long-term use in managing weight. And its effects are, at best, modest.
Continue reading Diet Drug Defeat: Part III.
Just out today: Researchers found that individual therapy and family-based treatments both work for treating anorexia nervosa in teens. But adolescents in family-based programs are more likely to achieve full remission, gain weight faster and need hospitalization.
The study tackles one of the most pressing questions about anorexia: which therapy works best? Treatments had not been examined scientifically. So no one could say without utter certainty which was the best route to recovery for teens.
Continue reading Two Therapies Work: But Families Do it Better.
This just out. A new study confirms
that girls who hit puberty earlier are at higher risk for acquiring
metabolic syndrome and diabetes. But the study, published in the online Journal of Adolescent Health, shows that early puberty is not the full story.
Pediatric
endocrinologist Emily Walvoord, at the Indiana University School of
Medicine, analyzed 100 published articles on the topic. She showed that
diabetes and related diseases are linked less to early puberty and more
to obesity. Girls who are obese tend to get their periods earlier. Which
leads us to the issue most relevant issue for this blog.
Continue reading Early Periods, Early Eating Disorders?.
By Julie Goodman
After two-and-a-half years of a sedentary college lifestyle, I have
finally made exercise a priority and now hit the gym. I admit that I am
getting hooked, so much so that I have mentioned my newfound commitment
to many friends. While everyone seemed supportive, one friend caught me
off guard with his response.
"Which gym did you visit?" he asked.
I identified the small one near my dorm rather than the main
athletic complex, to which he replied, "Oh, you mean the girl gym!"
The
girl gym?
I was taken aback.
Continue reading Pink and Blue Fitness.
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