Online Pharmacy Medicine Blog

It hasn’t quite gotten to that point yet, but I wouldn’t be surprised if dietary substances start being recommend to children. It seems far fetched, but who knows now a days?

I feel parents must step up to the plate and take responsibility for their child’s health. Instead of trying to find a quick fix in the form of a diet pill, they must teach them how to lead a healthier lifestyle.

The prevalence of childhood obesity is now at an all-time, but researchers are now finding out that the problem may be starting at an even earlier age than previously thought. Evidence shown in a report posted by the NY showed “pivotal events very early in life — during the toddler years, infancy and even before birth, in the womb — that can set young children on an obesity trajectory that is hard to alter by the time they’re in kindergarten.”

Some of the findings in the study:

The chubby cherub-like baby who is growing so nicely may be growing too much for his or her own good, research suggests.

Babies whose mothers smoked during pregnancy are at risk of becoming obese, even though the babies are usually small at birth.

Babies who sleep less than 12 hours are at increased risk for obesity later. If they don’t sleep enough and also watch two hours or more of TV a day, they are at even greater risk.

While prescription diet medications such as Alli and Xenical are not the way to get the childhood obesity problem under control, parents must step up and take responsibility for their child’s health before the problem spirals further out of control.

Orexigen Therapeutics Inc. reports that the a mid-stage trial of Empatic met its goal of demonstrating significant weight loss.

This news comes at a great time. America is getting bigger by the day; roughly two-thirds of adults in the United States are overweight, and almost one-third are obese.

Today, ABC News reported

An ongoing giant study of American nurses showed that only about 10 percent who made it to age 70 could be considered in top shape. Women who steadily gained weight from age 18 on ended up in the worst shape, the researchers said.

Most had some kind of physical or mental limitation, and more than a third had both chronic diseases and also mental or physical limitations.

Currently there are only a few options for weight loss aids deemed safe by the FDA: Meridia, Xenical, and Alli.

The good news is that results from the preliminary trails on Empatic look promising. Orexigen said

the 729-patient trial found that 60.4 percent of obese people given the highest dose of the drug lost at least 5 percent of their body weight, compared with 14.7 percent of patients given a placebo.

The 24-week trial also found that patients treated with Empatic had mean weight loss of 7.5 percent, compared with 1.4 percent for the placebo group — a percentage point difference of 6.1.

Empatic must still receive final approval by the FDA, but early estimates have it ready for market in 12 to 18 months.