1/5. eating disorders in adolescents and young women with spina bifida.This is the first report of the association of spina bifida and eating disorders. Five patients were diagnosed rather late in the course of their illness. They all had been overweight premorbidly and had been urged to lose weight for years in order to improve their mobility. As they dieted, they experienced their weight loss as a source of power that could somehow compensate for their losses and neurologic limitations. They responded to a multidisciplinary intervention. Clinicians taking care of patients with spina bifida need to be cognizant that they may be at risk of developing an eating disorder. Such awareness should influence the quality of nutritional counseling (prevention aspect) and the clinical assessment of sudden weight loss (early intervention).- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = overweight (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/5. An activity calendar program for children who are overweight.sedentary lifestyle activities, such as computer use and television viewing, are modifiable causes of overweight among children. There are many recommendations in the literature that suggest the number of children who are overweight must be decreased; however, none of the research describes an instrument to achieve this goal. This article describes the use of a home-based physical activity calendar and its successes and failures.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 6keywords = overweight (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/5. Providing nutritional information to people with lung disease.Studies have shown that about 30 per cent of people who have chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) lose weight. weight loss has been shown to be associated with a reduction in lung function (Poole, 1993). Conversely, patients who are overweight have an increased respiratory workload due to their extra weight. Excess weight also increases the risk of hypertension, diabetes, heart disease and osteoarthritis (Collins, 2003). Many patients are unaware of changes in their nutritional status. The case study in Box 1 provides an illustration of this.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = overweight (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/5. Speaking of weight: how patients and primary care clinicians initiate weight loss counseling.BACKGROUND: obesity is epidemic in the US and other industrialized countries and contributes significantly to population morbidity and mortality. Primary care physicians see a substantial portion of the obese population, yet rarely counsel patients to lose weight. methods: Descriptive field notes of outpatient visits collected as part of a multimethod comparative case study were used to study patterns of physician-patient communication around weight control in 633 encounters in family practices in a Midwestern state. RESULTS: Sixty-eight percent of adults and 35% of children were overweight. Excess weight was mentioned in 17% of encounters with overweight patients, while weight loss counseling occurred with 11% of overweight adults and 8% of overweight children. In weight loss counseling encounters, patients formulated weight as a problem by making it a reason for visit or explicitly or implicitly asking for help with weight loss. Clinicians did so by framing weight as a medical problem in itself or as an exacerbating factor for another medical problem. CONCLUSIONS: Strategies that increase the likelihood of patients identifying weight as a problem, or that provide clinicians with a way to "medicalize" the patient's obesity, are likely to increase the frequency of weight loss counseling in primary care visits.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 4keywords = overweight (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/5. obesity treated with phototherapy: four case studies.We studied the effect of phototherapy on body weight in 4 overweight women. melatonin was measured in the serum and urine before and after 1 hr of bright light (350 cd/m2). Psychiatric self-ratings with the Comprehensive Psychopathological Rating Scale (CPRS) and visual analog scale (VAS) were performed. phototherapy (1,500 lux) was given daily at 7-9 a.m. for 10 days and thereafter twice weekly for another 4 1/2 weeks. Three of the 4 women reduced their net weight (1.5-2.4 kg) and improved in mood. All were sensitive to light. The findings indicate that phototherapy affects the melatonin-serotonin system and carbohydrate regulation and may reduce body weight.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = overweight (Clic here for more details about this article) |