High Cholesterol In Your 40s Increases Risk Of Alzheimer’s Disease

People with high cholesterol in their early 40s are more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those with low cholesterol, according to research that will be presented at the upcoming American Academy of Neurology 60th Anniversary Annual Meeting in Chicago, April 12-19, 2008.

“Our findings show it would be best for both physicians and patients to attack high cholesterol levels in their 40s to reduce the risk of dementia,” said study author Alina Solomon, MD, with the University of Kuopio in Finland. Solomon collaborated with Rachel Whitmer, PhD, senior author of the study and a research scientist with Kaiser Permanente Division of Research in Oakland, CA.

The study involved 9,752 men and women in northern California who underwent health evaluations between 1964 and 1973 when they were between the ages of 40 and 45 and remained with the same health plan through 1994. From 1994 to 2007, researchers obtained the participants’ most recent medical records to find 504 people had a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease and 162 had vascular dementia.

The study found people with total cholesterol levels between 249 and 500 milligrams were one-and-a-half times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease than those people with cholesterol levels of less than 198 milligrams. People with total cholesterol levels of 221 to 248 milligrams were more than one-and-a-quarter times more likely to develop Alzheimer’s disease.

“High mid-life cholesterol increased the risk of Alzheimer’s disease regardless of midlife diabetes, high blood pressure, health problem, smoking and late-life stroke,” said Solomon.

Solomon says conclusions regarding high mid-life cholesterol and the risk of vascular dementia were difficult to formulate as there are several types of vascular dementia that may have slightly different risk factors.

The American Academy of Neurology, an association of more than 21,000 neurologists and neuroscience professionals, is dedicated to improving patient care through education and research. A neurologist is a doctor with specialized training in diagnosing, treating and managing disorders of the brain and nervous system such as Alzheimer’s disease, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, Parkinson’s disease, and stroke.

Cholesterol, Blood Pressure Control May Reverse Atherosclerosis In Adults With Diabetes

Aggressively lowering cholesterol and blood pressure levels below current targets in adults with type 2 diabetes may help to prevent - and possibly reverse - hardening of the arteries, according to new research supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of the National Institutes of Health. Hardening of the arteries, also known as atherosclerosis, is the number one cause of heart disease and can lead to heart attack, stroke, and death.

The three-year study of 499 participants is the first to compare two treatment targets for LDL (”bad”) cholesterol and systolic blood pressure levels, key risk factors for heart disease, in people with diabetes. Results are published in the April 9 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

“This study provides good news for adults with type 2 diabetes,” said Elizabeth G. Nabel, M.D., NHLBI director. “These patients are two to four times more likely than people without diabetes to die from heart disease. For the first time, we have evidence that aggressively lowering LDL cholesterol and blood pressure can actually reverse damage to the arteries in middle-aged adults with diabetes.”

In the Stop Atherosclerosis in Native Diabetics Study (SANDS), approximately one-half of the participants (247) were asked to lower to standard levels their LDL cholesterol (to 100 milligrams per deciliter) and blood pressure (systolic blood pressure of 130 mmHg or lower), while the other half (252) aimed for more aggressive lowering of LDL cholesterol to 70 mg/dL or lower and of systolic blood pressure to 115 mmHg or lower. All participants were American Indians 40 years or older (average age of 56) who had diabetes, high blood cholesterol, and high blood pressure but no history of heart attack or other evidence of heart disease. The study was conducted at four clinical centers in southwestern Oklahoma; Phoenix, Ariz.; northeastern Arizona; and South Dakota. All participants continued to receive their medical care, including diabetes management, dietary and exercise counseling, and smoking cessation, from their health care providers with the Indian Health Service. Like the NIH, the Indian Health Service is part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“American Indians have a high rate of diabetes and cardiovascular disease related to diabetes, but there are few clinical trials that address these issues in this population,” said Barbara V. Howard, Ph.D., of MedStar Research Institute in Hyattsville, Md., lead author of the paper. “These study results provide needed evidence to help develop community-based programs to treat and prevent the epidemic of cardiovascular disease among American Indians. At the same time, we are increasing our understanding of the effects of intensively lowering cholesterol and blood pressure in adults with type 2 diabetes, which might also apply to other populations.”

During the three-year study, participants were examined by study clinicians one month after enrollment, then every three months, to assess their blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels and general well being. Food and medication Administration-approved blood pressure and cholesterol medications were added and adjusted as needed to help participants achieve their treatment goals. The same medications were available to participants in the standard and the aggressive treatment groups. Participants were also encouraged to follow lifestyle approaches to help meet their blood pressure and cholesterol treatment targets, such as following a heart-healthy eating plan, being physically active, maintaining a healthy weight, and not smoking.

To assess the impact of the treatments on the participants’ cardiovascular health, researchers used ultrasound to measure the thickness of the carotid (neck) artery — an indication of hardening of the arteries, a leading effect of high blood pressure and cholesterol and an early sign of cardiovascular disease. In addition, ultrasound was also used to measure the size and function of the left ventricle, the heart’s main pumping chamber. Enlarged hearts are known to be predictors of increased risk of heart attack and stroke. These measurements were taken at enrollment, at 18 months, and at 36 months, when the study ended.

On average, participants in both groups reached and maintained their target goals for blood cholesterol and blood pressure levels. The numbers of heart attacks and other cardiovascular events were similar between the two groups and lower than expected.

In addition, carotid artery thickness measurements of participants in the aggressive treatment group were significantly lower than those in the standard treatment group. Researchers report that, compared to baseline, carotid artery thickness increased slightly in the standard group and regressed in the aggressive treatment group, indicating a partial reversal of atherosclerosis. Furthermore, although heart size decreased from baseline in both groups, the beneficial change was significantly greater among participants in the aggressive treatment group.
 

To many people, any weight loss drug seems like it must be a scam. It’s just too good to be true, as plausible as an effective bust-enlargement cream or Home Alchemy Kit.

However, weight loss drugs — like Xenical and Meridia — do exist. They also work. And pharmaceutical companies across the globe are industriously working on more. They’re not for cosmetic use, so mildly overweight people fretting about bathing suit season shouldn’t apply. Their effects are also modest, usually resulting in a loss of no more than 10% of a person’s body weight. Contrary to some hopes, they don’t replace diet and exercise; weight loss drugs only work in conjunction with lifestyle changes.

Why Use a Weight Loss Drug?
Many people, including health professionals, have a strong aversion to using weight loss drugs to treat obesity, according to Holly Wyatt, MD, an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center. The longstanding wisdom was that obesity resulted from a failure of willpower. If only people would just stop eating so much and get off the couch, no one would be obese. So why bother with drugs?

But that simple way of thinking is increasingly under fire from experts. It isn’t the whole story.

“Lifestyle is a big factor in why people gain weight,” Wyatt tells WebMD. “But there’s a definitely a genetic and a physiologic reason, too. Because of differences in physiology, some people will just have a harder time losing and maintaining weight than others.”

George A. Bray, MD, professor of medicine at Louisiana State University, agrees that the traditional view of obesity — as essentially a moral failing — is wrong.

“Are people who are massively overweight because they lack [the hormone] leptin ‘weak-willed’?” asks Bray. “No, and, in fact, some kind of neurochemical derangement probably underlies most obesity.”

“It’s cruel and hurtful to categorize overweight and obese Americans as ‘lazy’ or ‘weak-willed,’” he says, “and to conclude that all they need to do is just push themselves away from the table.”

Obesity as a Disease
Obesity is a killer. So is it enough for a health professional to tell a chronically obese person to lose weight and leave it at that? Wyatt and Bray both point out that we routinely use medication for other conditions that can be controlled by changes in diet and exercise. For instance, diabetes and high blood pressure can both be helped substantially by changes in your lifestyle. But health professionals still prescribe medication for both conditions. It would be highly unlikely for your health professional to refuse to give you diabetes medicine simply because you could control the disease with more exercise and a stricter diet but don’t. Everyone knows that permanent lifestyle changes are very hard to make, Wyatt says.

“We don’t punish diabetics or people with high blood pressure by withholding medicine,” says Wyatt. “So why should we punish people with obesity? If you have a medication that will make it easier for people to lose weight, why not use it?”

Wyatt and Bray both stress that anyone who needs to lose weight should try lifestyle changes first. But for those who can’t seem to do it with exercise and diet alone, weight loss drugs could help.

The Causes of Obesity
At the most basic level, your weight is determined by the balance between the amount of energy you take in and the amount you expend — the food you eat and the calories you burn. If you burn more calories than you eat, you’ll lose weight; if you eat more than you burn, you’ll gain.

However, while that equation is still roughly true, researchers have found that it’s a lot more complicated. The body has many complex and interacting mechanisms that help regulate your weight.

One of them is the hormone leptin, which is secreted by fat cells. Your brain detects the amount of leptin in your system and uses it as a kind of barometer. Not enough leptin presumably means that you need more food; enough leptin is a sign that you’ve eaten as much as you need, and your brain triggers feelings of fullness. The problem is that many obese people are leptin-resistant. Their brains don’t correctly detect the amount of leptin in the system, “thinking” that the level is lower than it really is. As a result, a leptin-resistant person will keep feeling hungry after a person with normal leptin levels would feel full.

Leptin is only one of many different mechanisms that regulate weight. Any kind of abnormality in these systems could make it harder for a person to lose weight and keep it off.

Weight and Genetics
Wyatt observes that, from an evolutionary standpoint, there’s an advantage to building up excess fat. For most of human history, people were subject to periodic famines. Those who retained excess fat might have been more likely to survive a famine than those who didn’t. The problem is that this evolutionary adaptation — that may have saved the lives of our ancient ancestors during difficult times — is hurting us now.

Weight and Genetics continued…
This is not to say that having a predisposition to being obese means you will be obese. The fact that Americans are heavier now than they were a generation ago proves that genes aren’t the whole story. It’s the changes in our environment that have made the biggest difference, Wyatt says. A genetic predisposition toward obesity will only come into play when the environment is right. Getting obese was unlikely when our ancestors were eking out an existence on the savannah. But when we live in a society of sedentary jobs, sedentary entertainment, and cheap, plentiful and colossally caloric meals available at countless locations near you, that genetic predisposition can make a big difference.

How Do Medications Help?
The two drugs currently approved by the FDA to treat long-term obesity are Xenical and Meridia. They work in different ways. Meridia affects certain chemicals in the brain and makes people feel full without eating as much.

Xenical works very differently. It isn’t absorbed by the system. Instead, it binds to fat cells in the gastrointestinal tract and prevents them from being absorbed, just like the ingredient Olestra used in some low-fat foods. The usual dose can reduce the amount of fat that’s absorbed by about 30%.

The FDA has approved the use of weight loss drugs in people with a BMI of 30 or as low as 27 in some people who have illnesses related to obesity, like diabetes or heart disease. The BMI is a measurement based on height and weight. According to the National Institutes of Health, a normal BMI ranges from 18.5 to 24.9, 25-29.9 is overweight, and anything above that is obese.

Other drugs may be helpful in some cases. For instance, Wyatt has had good success with the generic drug phentermine, which suppresses appetite like Meridia. However, the FDA has not approved phentermine for long-term use. That’s not because it was found unsafe — it’s just that no one has funded a study of its long-term effectiveness. And because studies are expensive, no pharmaceutical company will want to spend the money testing a generic drug that it doesn’t exclusively own.

Modest Results
As much as people may dream of the pill that lets them lose weight without diet or exercise — the claim of countless hucksters and infomercials — none of these drugs works that way. Studies have shown that these drugs really only work in conjunction with lifestyle changes.

The amount of weight that people lose on weight loss drugs varies: Some people have great success and some don’t. On average, people don’t lose more than 10% of their baseline weight — that’s a 20-pound weight loss for a person who is 200 pounds. Generally, people lose the most weight in the first three to six months on the drugs and then plateau.

A 10% weight loss may not sound like a lot. But experts stress that modest weight loss — even 5% — can make a big difference in your risk of developing disease. Many studies have shown the effectiveness of weight loss drugs in reducing health risks. For instance, a recently published study of Xenical found that it could cut the risk of type 2 diabetes by 37%.

How Long Would Someone Need to Use Them?
Studies have shown that if a person on one of these medications doesn’t lose 4 pounds in the first four weeks, then it can probably be stopped; it’s unlikely that the drug is going to work. If someone does have success with a drug, it should probably be taken long term. Weight loss drugs are not a quick fix. Instead, they’re more like medication for high blood pressure or diabetes, Wyatt says. Obesity really is a chronic disease. “The physiology that causes someone to become obese doesn’t go away,” says Wyatt. Stopping the drugs usually means that the weight will come back. And losing the weight doesn’t matter as much as keeping it off. If you lost 20 pounds but regained it all within the year, it’s not going to help all that much.

Long-term treatment doesn’t mean that people will necessarily be taking the same weight loss drug every day for the rest of their lives. Instead, it’s possible that someone might switch between Xenical, Meridia, or other drugs.

It may also be possible for people to take breaks in treatment. “Weight isn’t like blood pressure,” says Wyatt. “If you stop taking your blood pressure medication, it goes up within a few days. Regaining weight takes longer.” So far, studies have not shown any advantages to using weight loss drugs periodically. But as researchers learn more about how to best use these medications, it may be a possible form of treatment in the future, Wyatt says.

Are They Safe?
One of the biggest concerns for anyone considering a weight loss drug is its safety. The fear is understandable. The much-touted combination of weight loss drugs called fen-phen — phentermine and another drug, fenfluramine — was found to cause dangerous damage to the heart valves in some people. As a result, both fenfluramine and Redux, another similar weight loss drug, were pulled from the shelves in 1997. On its own, phentermine is considered safe and still used.

Being cautious about any weight loss drug is good policy. None of these drugs have been around that long, and so we can’t be sure of their long-term effects.

That said, the safety records for both Xenical and Meridia are good and the risk of side effects are low. Meridia can cause headaches, dry mouth, and a rise in the pulse and blood pressure.

Xenical can cause gastrointestinal side effects, such as spotting, an urgent need to go to the bathroom, and an increased number of bowel movements. These side effects tend to fade over time, and are aggravated by eating a high-fat meal. Xenical can also reduce the amount of vitamins that your body absorbs, so you may need to take a multivitamin to compensate.
But researchers have found no side effects like those of fen-phen.

“Any medication carries risk,” says Wyatt. “But at this point, I think that [Xenical and Meridia] are as safe as any other medication that we routinely prescribe.” In fact, because of the fen-phen debacle, she thinks that weight loss drugs may be held to an even higher level of safety than other types of medicine.

Wyatt also observes that the very small risks of these drugs have to be compared to the real risks of obesity, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, stroke and heart disease. For people who are very obese, another way to frame the choice could be to compare the low risks of weight loss drugs with the higher risks of bariatric surgery, often called stomach stapling.

The Future of Weight Loss Medications
Many doctors and researchers hope the weight loss drugs of the next decade will make Xenical and Meridia look crude. As researchers learn more and more about the complex set of mechanisms that regulate our weight, the drugs we use will become increasingly sophisticated.

A number of medications are now in various stages of development with more specific targets. Many are designed to affect some of the hormones — such as leptin — that play a role in appetite and weight regulation.

Wyatt has modest hopes for new weight loss drugs in the immediate future. “I don’t see any of the new drugs as obvious blockbusters,” she says. She points out that we may need combinations of new drugs to have a substantial effect. The problem is that there are so many different mechanisms that affect our weight that just targeting one may not be enough.

Bray says we’ll just have to wait. “Until we get the data from the long-term trials of these drugs,” he tells WebMD, “we just won’t know how safe or effective they are.”

“We’re really just in the early stages of using weight loss drugs,” says Wyatt. “It’s just like when we first began to use drugs for high blood pressure, and they didn’t work all that well and caused a lot of side effects. But we’ll get better drugs, and as we do, doctors will use them more and more.”

So barring some unforeseen breakthrough, weight loss drugs are not going to be “the answer” to obesity any time soon. But along with diet and exercise, they can be an important part of the solution.
 

What the heck is a BMI score?!?
Since Acomplia has been so much in the news these days, there has been a lot reported about the detrimental health effects of obesity. Obesity, as is generally medically defined, refers to a person with a BMI score of more than 30; and obesity has been conclusively linked with a number of serious health threats.
The sad truth is that if you are obese, you are far more likely to get type 2 diabetes, certain types of cancer, high blood pressure, heart disease, and a host of other ailments. If you are obese, you need to act now to get your weight down to a healthier level.

What is a BMI score?
BMI refers to a calculation called the body mass index. The BMI is calculated by dividing a person’s weight in kilograms, by the square root of a person’s height in meters. If you score from between 26 and 29.9, you are considered to be overweight, and if you score 30 or over, then you are medically obese.
To determine your own BMI score, first calculate your height in meters, by multiplying your height in inches by 2.5, and the dividing by 100. To calculate you weight in kilograms, take your weight in pounds, and divide by 2.2.
BMI= weight in kg/ (height in meters squared)
The BMI score has proven to be a reliable indicator and predictor of future health problems, and is widely accepted as a useful tool in the medical community. The tool is not perfect, and there will be some people with high BMI scores, that are obviously not obese. Muscle weighs more than fat, so if you are very muscular, then you will likely score as obese, but in truth have nothing to worry about. Most of us will be able to self determine whether the majority of our weight is coming from muscle or fat!
If you score as obese, and know that you are carrying too much fat, you should not wait any longer to try and shed that excess weight. every day spent as an obese person puts you at greater risk for a host of serious ailments. If you cannot lose the weight on your own, you should speak with your health professional about what options may be available to you.
Acomplia has been very effective for a lot of people, but no drug is a magic solution. Ultimately, you will need to make some lifestyle changes, if you are to really keep the weight off over the long term. If you do decide to use Acomplia as a weight loss tool, make sure that you combine the drug with a sensible diet, and regular moderate exercise.
Always consult with your health professional before taking any prescription drug.

“There is not enough substance or proof that they are on the right track and that’s why the market is not very impressed,” said Stephen Pope, head of equities research at Cantor Fitzgerald Europe. Pope has a sell recommendation on the stock with a target of 60 euros.Sanofi-Aventis said tests on the potential successor of Lovenox showed the anti-clotting medicine may work better than the original.The third stage of tests required for regulatory approval is beginning with more than 10,000 patients, with plans to seek approval in 2010. The medication is aimed at people requiring hip and knee replacement surgery, abdominal surgery or those receiving chemotherapy.”It’s like they are making grand announcements that this will be this or that will be that before they’ve actually got to the stage of saying this has been put out to trial and is being tested thoroughly and is ready to go to the regulators to be examined,” Pope said.Merrill Lynch said Sanofi-Aventis provided “little new data of merit.”Marc Cluzel, head of research at Sanofi-Aventis, claimed the company is in “good shape,” at a news conference in Paris.Sanofi-Aventis is pressing ahead with tests of Acomplia or Generic Rimonabant, known as Zimulti in the United States, which he called a “unique product.”The company withdrew its marketing application for the drug in the U.S. in July after it was linked to suicide in overweight patients.Cluzel said he expects to refile after the company has gathered long-term data from a late-stage trial, expected in 2010. Sanofi-Aventis said around 11,000 out of the planned 17,000 patients have enrolled for this clinical study so far.

Acomplia or Generic Rimonabant was launched in Europe and other markets in 2006. The company said it expects to submit Acomplia or Generic Rimonabant to regulators for the treatment of diabetes in 2009.Sanofi-Aventis said it has several promising antidepressant drugs.Saredutant was effective in two late-stage trials against a dummy pill for the treatment of severe depression, the company said, adding that it expects to file the drug for marketing approval in Europe and the United States in 2008.Amibegron, another antidepressant in late-stage development, met its target in one out of four clinical trials. Sanofi-Aventis said it will wait until the results on an ongoing study, due next year, before seeking marketing approval.Sanofi-Aventis’ announcement also contained news of a failed drug: Xaliproden. The company’s drug for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, failed in late-stage trials. This outcome had been expected by analysts, who had previously noted that this was a high-risk product.Sanofi-Aventis also announced “very positive results” from a low-dose bird flu vaccine that would allow the company to produce a massive quantity of doses if there is a pandemic. Senior Vice President Wayne Pissano said the company is unable to estimate potential revenues from the vaccine because it depends on how the virus evolves.Cluzel also said the company will look to expand its biotech products _ laboratory-created proteins used to treat disease _ through acquisitions.

The mythology of the drug has become a living story. And regardless of whether or not the story is true, it is a seductive story. Perhaps you’ve heard it yourself. The story goes something like this:

If you take this drug, Acomplia (new weight loss pill), you will automatically eat less because your hunger will be turned off. And when you start losing weight, the first place you will lose body fat is your mid-section. The pounds will just melt away. And better yet, your cholesterol will go down and your blood pressure will return to healthy levels.(buy acomplia)

But that’s not all. The drug, miraculously, will also help you stop smoking. And if you’re addicted to alcohol, it is also said you will stop drinking! But why stop there? The mythology is so seductive that we might as well add more things to the story. Maybe the drug will repair your broken relationships with family members, spouses, and co-workers. Perhaps the drug will quadruple the balance in your bank account. Maybe the drug will even improve your appearance or add ten pounds of lean muscle mass to your body each and every year, without working out at all! I mean, why not? If the drug is going to do all these other things, let’s just make the story even more seductive.

This is the mythology surrounding Acomplia (new weight loss pill). And of course, there is nothing in the mythology that is true. In fact, there is not a single clinical trial proving a single one of these suggestions. The drug hasn’t been shown to result in permanent weight loss, lower cholesterol, reduce smoking addiction, or help people stop drinking alcohol. None of these things have been demonstrated with the drug.

So why is Acomplia (new weight loss pill) so remarkably popular even before it has been approved by the FDA? The reason it’s popular has nothing whatsoever to do with science or nutrition or health. It has to do with the seductive idea that we as Americans can pursue whatever lifestyles we want and yet have never have to face the consequences for making such decisions.

The mythology says that we can eat all the junk foods we want, avoid physical exercise, avoid having to quit the cigarette habit, continue binge drinking, and yet somehow this magic pill will release us from the natural consequences of all those actions.

The seduction of Acomplia (new weight loss pill) is that it takes over our responsibilities. It allows us to shift control of our lives from our own conscious intentions to a prescription drug handed out to us by doctors. It is in this very mythology that the danger to Americans hides. Not in the drug itself — (buy acomplia)it is the mythology that’s dangerous, not the chemical. The seductive qualities of this drug encourage people to release themselves from responsibility. They encourage people to disempower themselves, to shift their power to external influences. Rather than self-discipline, wisdom or education taking a role in the person’s outcome, the only factor that counts, according to the mythology, is the name of the drug you choose to take.

Of course, Americans absolutely love this story. They love it because there is a great unwillingness in Western societies, but especially in America, to take responsibility for shaping one’s own health outcome. In America, we like to blame everybody else for our situation. We don’t want to admit that we put ourselves into the health condition we are currently experiencing. Even our conventional medical system helps us give away our power by saying that it’s our genes, not our actions, that cause chronic disease. That way we can conveniently blame our parents when we get heart disease after eating a lifetime of fried foods and hydrogenated oils.(buy cheap acomplia)

It is a victim mentality, and it is precisely the mentality that pharmaceutical companies would very much like patients to consider integrating into their own lives. Because people who believe they are victims of circumstance always seek external solutions rather than inner transformation. And those solutions more often than not come in the form of prescription drugs.

In contrast, people who refuse to be victims look for answers within themselves. They understand that they have the ability to alter their outcomes by making new decisions, by learning new information and by shaping their lives one day at a time, in a way that serves their long-term goals.(buy acomplia online)

If Acomplia (new weight loss pill) is approved, will likely be a blockbuster success regardless of whether or not it actually works. It will be a financial success because people are willing to pay almost anything to perpetuate the mythology that prescription drugs can release us from a lifetime of poor decisions.

But there’s more to this story! Acomplia (new weight loss pill) will likely be a very popular drug, and five or ten years down the road, after tens of millions of Americans have taken it, we may begin to find some problems with it, in the same way that we found serious health problems with Vioxx, Baycol, NSAIDs and antidepressants. People may be harmed by Acomplia (new weight loss pill) in ways that modern doctors and the makers of Acomplia (new weight loss pill) cannot foresee. And when that happens, the very people who are taking the drug will then turn around and blame the drug companies for their problems!

Because once again, the takers of the drugs are taking on the role of the victim. They believe they have been victimized by bad genes. They have been victimized by having bad luck in getting chronic diseases like diabetes and heart disease. And they have been victimized, they will claim, by this evil drug, Acomplia (new weight loss pill), which has given them some strange side effects. And thus the cycle of playing the victim and demanding external recourse and will continue.

This cycle will not end until individuals in America and elsewhere around the world have a reckoning — that the power to shape their lives and their health outcomes rests entirely within themselves. They are responsible for their health outcome. No one else can take that responsibility for them. And if they have not created the health situation they desire, they have no one else to blame.

Now certainly, genes can be a factor. There are some people who are born with greater ability to store food as body fat. There are other people born with stronger hearts. Some people didn’t get good nutrition when they were infants, because their pregnant mothers didn’t know about good nutrition and didn’t feed them well, and thus they may be born with a predisposition to adult onset-diabetes later in life.(buy cheap acomplia online)

But these are not points of surrender. These are the realities of life. None of us are born with perfect bodies and perfect circumstances. And if you look around at the most successful people in the world, you will find that they came from less than ideal circumstances. They were forced by necessity to take charge of their own life and create an outcome that would serve them better. It is no excuse to say, ‘We don’t have perfect genes.’ Or ‘We don’t have a perfect environment.’ We can no longer place this responsibility for our health on these outside factors.

Granted, it is seductive, the idea that we can lower our cholesterol not by changing our foods or engaging in physical exercise, but by taking a magic pill called a statin drug. There is another seductive idea that we don’t have to take responsibility for our emotional health or our mental state. Instead, we can just take antidepressant drugs and let the chemicals take over for us. I speak in far more detail on this subject in a book called “Health Seduction,” found at www.CesaOnline.com.

The real result of this seduction, by the way, is perhaps worse than you think. There are millions of men now who can’t even get an erection because they have abused their bodies to the point that their reproductive organs no longer respond! And they have to use Viagra just to make their body parts function in a normal healthy way. And now women are interested in female Viagra. Because they’ve abused their health, too, and they don’t have the sexual energy they once had when they were younger. And they want it back. They think the answer is to look outside themselves in a pill or a patch or some other drug that will solve their problems for them.

The ultimate price of all this, by the way, is that we as individuals have sold our souls. We are no longer human beings that operate in harmony with the natural world, we are people who try to conquer our own internal ecosystems as well as the ecosystems in the natural world around us. And we do that through the use of synthetic chemicals and prescription drugs.

The message that we truly need to hear is one I’ve been repeating for years: being healthy does not require the use of synthetic chemicals. Being healthy is something that your body was designed to achieve naturally, you have a blueprint for health in every cell of your body right now. It’s called your DNA. And your DNA was designed and fine-tuned over hundreds of thousands of years of human evolution to thrive and survive in harmony with the natural environment.(buy acomplia)

You come from a long line of survivors — people who could get erections, people who didn’t die from heart disease before they could reproduce. The human body is designed for perfect health. The only reason we are not in perfect health today is because we have given up our power and, instead, put the responsibility for our health on drugs like Acomplia (new weight loss pill) that we think can save us from all of the bad decisions and lifestyle mistakes that we continue to make on a daily basis.

Reality folks, is that a drug cannot replace good decisions. A chemical cannot reverse decades of being sedentary and refusing to get off your ass and go work out once in a while. A prescription drug cannot reverse the toxicity of the foods that you have been buying and consuming from grocery stores each and every day of your life.

As people take Acomplia (new weight loss pill) in a desperate effort to pursue the mythology of this drug, they are only going to do themselves more harm. They are going to wind up in a situation where they are still obese, they still have body fat, they still have high cholesterol, they still have diabetes and heart disease and cancer. And now they’re spending $400/month on a synthetic chemical that has other side effects that are yet unknown.

That’s the reality of the situation. That’s what tens of millions of Americans are aiming for right now in placing so much hope in this unproven synthetic chemical that they believe will excuse them from a lifetime of pursuing unhealthy habits. Call it a deal with the devil if you like. But it really is nothing more complicated than unjustified belief in the mythology of prescription drugs.