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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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…

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A very large new study finds that obesity — no matter how it is calculated — is not an important independent predictor of cardiovascular disease. A report from the Emerging Risk Factors Collaboration published online in the Lancet analyzed individual records from more than 220,000 people without known cardiovascular disease and found that none of the…

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The Mediterranean diet may be a potent weapon in the battle to halt the growth of metabolic syndrome (MS), a new meta-analysis suggests. Christina-Maria Kastorini and colleagues performed a meta-analysis on 50 studies including nearly 535,000 participants. In their paper in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, they report that adherence to the Mediterranean…

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The association between BMI and the risk of death in Asia is mostly similar to that seen in people of European origin, but there may be some important differences between populations, suggesting that being underweight may be a more potent risk factor than being overweight in Asia. In a large pooled analysis including more than…

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Three papers published in the Lancet provide the most detailed view yet of worldwide trends over the last 3 decades in body-mass index (BMI), blood pressure, and cholesterol, and also include numerous details about different regions and countries. Here are a few highlights of the reports from the Global Burden of Metabolic Risk Factors of Chronic…

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Two new trials and accompanying editorials published online in JAMA offer hope that lifestyle interventions can result in significant weight loss. The bad news: The results are fairly modest, and it is difficult to obtain reimbursement for lifestyle interventions. In one study, Cheryl Rock and colleagues compared usual care with a program that included free…

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Abbott has pulled its weight-loss drug sibutramine (Meridia) from the U.S. market. A safety communication from the FDA said the “drug may pose unnecessary cardiovascular risks to patients.” Earlier this year the drug was withdrawn in Europe. Sibutramine was approved by the FDA in 1997. The FDA recommendation is based upon a recent analysis of…

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A good night’s sleep might be a key to losing weight. In a crossover study among 10 overweight people, Arlet Nedeltcheva and colleagues compared the effects of 2 weeks of dieting with 8.5 or 5.5 hours of sleep each night. They found that during the sleep curtailment period, weight loss came more from lean body…

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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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