Health Weight Loss Keys

Provenge, the first-ever cancer vaccine, has the hefty price tag of $23,000 per month of life gained — $93,000 in total for a treatment that extends life, on average, by four months.

Given already skyrocketing health care costs, the nearly-six-figure cost of Provenge has raised concerns among health care experts, but to those men who have benefited from this revolutionary new therapy, it’s worth every penny.

“On a general basis, to survive is worth anything,” says Bob Feutz, 84, of Redmond, Washington. Feutz received Provenge in 2007 as part of a clinical trial after other hormone therapy and 38 sessions of radiation failed to control his prostate cancer adequately.

Provenge, unlike his radiation treatments, caused him nearly no side effects, just two short bouts of chills, during the three sessions needed. While his PSA level – a test that helps gauge the presence of prostate cancer – was over five before treatment, in the three years since it has steadily dropped to .69. “I’m happy to be alive,” he says.

Frank Notaris, a 77-year-old Brooklyn native, feels the same way. He just went through treatment a few months ago, but says that “if it keeps you alive, I think it’s absolutely worth the cost. Hopefully the insurance companies will cover it.”

But given the skyrocketing cost of health care, that cost, multiplied by the thousands of patients each year who could qualify for the treatment, raises concerns for some health policy experts.

The revolutionary technology responsible for the first vaccine for cancer treatment was 15 years in the making, says Mitchell Gold, president and CEO of Dendreon, the company that produces Provenge.

“It was a laborious process. We had to raise $1.2 billion to support the development. I think we’ve come up with a price that’s acceptable. It’s priced fairly for the value we’re providing to the patients.”

Gold says that the cost of Provenge was based on the “overall landscape” of treatment prices for cancer. More specifically, the comparable chemotherapy for advanced stage prostate cancer patients, Taxotere, ends up costing about $23,000 per month of life extended by the treatment. This was used, in part, to set the price of Provenge — four months, on average, of extended survival comes out to about the $93,000 price tag.

Given that Provenge only takes three sessions of treatment over the course of a month, and causes few side effects, Gold says it provides “increased value” when compared to chemotherapy, which takes months and causes fatigue, nausea, and other side effects. Chemotherapy kills new cells in the body in order to attack cancer cells. But Provenge works by boosting the patient’s own immune system and training it to attack invader cancer cells specifically.

But does setting the price on par with other similarly costly cancer treatments make it a “fair” price? “Fairness has nothing to do with it,” says David Howard, assistant professor in the department of Health Policy and Management at Emory’s Rollins School of Public Health.

Because cancer treatment is usually covered by insurance, not the patient, pharmaceutical companies don’t have to answer to the budgets of consumers when pricing. “If they charge a million dollars that might be so ridiculous that it wouldn’t be covered, but otherwise they have a pretty broad range,” Howard says. This is one reason there has been a gradual uptick in the price of cancer treatments, he says.

Every year, a “ridiculous” price for a new treatment comes out, and “it’s high but in the same ballpark as last year’s high-priced treatment. It’s an upward ratcheting of what’s the maximum acceptable price,” Howard says. And while patients don’t normally have to answer to this price, health insurance companies and Medicare do.

200,000 new cases of prostate cancer are diagnosed each year, according to the National Cancer Institute. While only a fraction of these cases will ever become eligible for treatment with Provenge, the potential burden on Medicare funds is sizable.

Currently, Medicare is not allowed to deny a treatment based on cost alone, but in the coming years, “it will be difficult to sustain coverage of these very costly procedures considering the Medicare program is facing a huge long-term deficit,” Howard says. “Ten years, 20 years down the road, Congress is going to have to rewrite the law to allow cost to play into coverage decisions.” While some local Medicare providers already cover Provenge, Medicare nationally will be taking a year to review the product before offering it unilaterally, a caution that Howard says is most likely due to the high cost.

But while $93,000 for four months of treatment seems like a lot, the benefit provided to patients and the revolutionizing technology brought to the fore by Provenge makes it worthwhile, says Dr. Anna Ferrari, professor in the Department of Medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center.

Provenge was approved by the FDA for use in patients with advanced, hormone therapy-resistant prostate cancer in April, following the positive results of a study Ferrari co-authored. That study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday, found that, on average, patients taking Provenge survived 4.1 months longer than those who took a placebo, and did so with significantly fewer side effects than normally seen with chemotherapy or radiation treatments.

The treatment is custom-made from a patient’s own blood. The patient’s immune system factors are mixed with an immuno-boosting agent and prostate cancer-specific antigen that make up Provenge. The vaccine is then returned to the patient’s body where it incorporates into the body’s immune system.

This immunological attack on treating advanced cancer is groundbreaking Ferrari says, and “provides a completely new weapon for cancer, with minimum toxicity.” It is a development that may lead to similar treatments for other common cancers, such as breast cancer, she adds. “I’m very optimistic that this will open a whole new venue for cancer treatment with hardly any side effects,” she says.

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Drug companies are once again trying to get New Weight Loss Drugs back on the market after a series of high-profile recalls. The government’s Food and Drug Administration is set to review the efficacy and safety of Qnexa, one of three new weight-loss drugs.

Experts hope Qnexa, and the other drugs, Lorcaserin and Contrave, will provide effective weight-loss without the dangerous side effects that doomed other drugs, such as Fen-phen, Meridia and Alli. Fen-phen was pulled from the market in 1997 after it was linked to a thickening of the heart valve. Meridia was pulled from the European drug market in 2009, and the FDA recently warned consumers about Alli’s link to severe liver damage. Tests for Qnexa have, so fa,r reported positive results. It’s shown a 10 to 15 percent weight-loss in patients.

Qnexa contains the amphetamine phentermine – one half the ingredients of the popular combination diet pill Fen-phen, ultimately pulled by Wyeth, its manufacturer in 1997 because of its link to heart damage. Although it proved dangerous in the combination, there were no safety issues with phentermine by itself.

According to Vivus, Inc., the company that makes Qnexa, phentermine helps suppress a person’s appetite, while the other ingredient, the anti-convulsant topiramate, makes a person feel more satiated. Some experts though, questioned the safety of a combination pill that appears to show striking similarities to previously recalled drugs. Whether any drug will become another Fen-phen is hard to predict. Every time we see a drug recalled, none were predictable, but it seems that similar classes of drugs can have inherent problems.

It’s also unclear to some experts on whether topiramate actually works. Drug companies are once again making an attempt at getting weight loss drugs on the market after a series of high-profile recalls. The anticonvulsant in both Contrave and Qnexa is a new variation on the theme of tweaking brain pathways to adjust appetite but does not appear to be more than a minor innovation to me, and one of questionable utility.

Studies and found it wasn’t the phentermine. It was phenfluramine that was linked to the heart issues. Trials for Qnexa, Lorcaserin and Contrave lasted about a year. The drugs were tested on about 4,500 patients each. However, others believe there have not been enough studies done to show that these drugs are safe for most patients. Just because these compounds don’t have the same chemical mix as Fen-phen doesn’t mean they don’t have a chemical mix that can cause long-term harm.

The new drugs seem safe, but so did the Fen-phen combo. Many experts say said it is safe to assume that there will be side effects with these drugs. Any drug powerful enough to cause weight loss is probably going to cause other problems. It is difficult to believe the risk of memory loss and other neurological effects found with topimarate will provide adequate safe use. If the drugs do end up on the market, they will target those who are obese and possibly morbidly obese.

Studies have looked at the morbidly obese – about 7 percent of our population falls into this category – that’s a group that has a huge need.

Though risky, invasive procedures such as gastric bypass surgery clearly offer better results than taking diet pills. But many obese Americans may not qualify for surgery.

It’s been predicted that pills may eventually be as effective as gastric banding. Candidates for bariatric surgery will become candidates for these medications. Given the grim history of many diet pills that have come and gone, many experts said they don’t think the answer to the obesity epidemic can be found in a pill.

The more effective drugs are less safe, and the safer drugs are less effective. said Katz. More than half of overweight adults are metabolically healthy. Why put metabolically healthy people on a drug when they don’t need it?

Regardless of whether a person undergoes surgery or takes diet pills, both options must be accompanied by an overall healthier lifestyle that includes diet and exercise.

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Healthy Weight Loss Cruising on Crystal Cruise Lines makes more use of its ships’ wrap-around promenades than most cruise lines with two innovative programs for walkers. The first, called Walking on Water (WOW) is a fitness program designed exclusively for Crystal. The program utilizes cotton vests that have pockets for weights, so walkers can increase their resistance training when striding around the promenade deck. Passengers can also make use of motivational music, day-by-day walking programs and instructions on how to use the vests safely and effectively.

Crystal also offers Nordic Walking through a partnership with LEKI USA. Guests will have complimentary use of walking poles for a low-impact, full-body workout. Grab some polls and don a vest, and those other shipboard walkers are sure to be intimidated by your power and energy!

On Royal Caribbean’s newest ships, sundecks are incredible destinations for recreational pursuits. On Voyager, Freedom and Oasis-class ships, head up and aft to find the FlowRider wave pool for surfing and body boarding (on Oasis, there are two!). Rock climbing walls tower above basketball courts, miniature golf courses, golf simulators and rollerblading tracks. A jogging track overlooks the pool deck below. Just keep your fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain! Freedom-class vessels have boxing rings (where the workouts are incredibly challenging aerobically). On Oasis of the Seas, there’s also zip-lining. And though not located on the sundeck, all ships’ ice skating rinks feature open-skate sessions on sea days.

Windstar combines the best of small-ship cruising with the romance of a masted sailing vessel. Its three ships offer complimentary water sports straight from the ship in destinations like the Caribbean, Costa Rica and the Greek Isles, with more limited offerings in the Mediterranean. Experienced sports enthusiasts can borrow kayaks, windsurf boards, Topper or Rumba Escape Sailboats, and inflatable boats. Snorkel equipment is provided free of charge though organized snorkeling expeditions cost extra. Waterskiing is also offered by the ship’s staff; two people at a time can water-ski in half-hour increments.

Holland America Line’s program of mind-body-spirit classes. Guests can now participate in yoga, tai chi and aqua aerobics free of charge, in addition to the for-fee classes like Pilates and spinning that are offered in the Greenhouse Spa’s fitness center. Plus, many active seniors take advantage of the ships’ wraparound teak promenade decks for leisurely strolls or brisk walks.

Dining is usually not an athletic event, but healthy eating often goes hand in hand with an active, healthy lifestyle. Celebrity Cruises was the first line to embrace this connection with spa cafes on its Millennium- and Solstice-class ships. Located by the spa pool, the cafes serve up healthy breakfasts and lunches, including smoothies, salads, fish dishes and low-fat desserts. In addition, the Solstice-class ships have Blu, a private dining room reserved for passengers booked in Celebrity’s AquaSpa cabins. Its menu focuses on natural ingredients and healthy fare.

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Once again, a major study indicates the health benefits of Omega-3 fatty acids – this time for breast cancer. It found that women who regularly used fish oil supplements had a 32 percent reduced risk of developing the most common form of breast cancer.

Harvard University is conducting another, randomized controlled trial of vitamin D and fish oils in older men and women, as there was more than enough evidence from the study to invest in additional research.

Long-chain, omega-3 fatty acids (abundant in fish oil supplements and fatty fish) are essential building blocks for the cell membranes of the body and brain, blocking inflammation and allowing messages to be transmitted between cells, she said. Because the body doesn’t produce it on its own, people must get it from their diet, and fatty fish is the best source.

Among those fish are salmon and sardines. There are plant-based sources of omega-3 fatty acids, including canola, soybean and flaxseed oil – but the body can’t convert them to the more potent form as well as it can the ones that are found in fish.

For people who don’t get 2 or more servings of fish a week, fish oil supplements are a great alternative for people at risk for heart disease. People can take about 1 gram per day, either in liquid or capsule form. It is too soon to recommend fish oils solely to prevent breast cancer, however.

Fish oil and omega-3 fatty acids have already been proven to lower the risk of death and heart attack in people with have heart disease. Fish oil is also used to treat people with high levels of the blood fat known as triglyceride, and has been shown to have a beneficial effect on the healthy HDL cholesterol levels.

The American Heart Association already says that omega-3 fatty acids are helpful to heart disease patients, while research has shown that omega-3 fatty acids decrease the risk of arrhythmia, a condition of abnormal heartbeats that can lead to sudden death.

Research is underway to determine the effects of omega-3 fatty acids on mental health and brain conditions, as well as prostate cancer.

The Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center study was part of a larger 10-year study that is looking at the effects of fish oil and other non-vitamin supplements on cancer in men and women.

Make sure the supplement you purchase is of high purity. Make sure it has the USP label, meaning that it’s a supplement that has been verified by United States Pharmacopeia. USP is the non–governmental, official public standards–setting authority for prescription and over–the–counter medicines and other healthcare products that are manufactured or sold in the United States.

Consider that big-box store brands are often as good as name brands. Many fish oil products are advertised on the Internet. They’re not regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, so if you don’t know which ones to choose, ask your doctor for a recommendation.

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The US House of Representatives has passed the trillion-dollar Health Reform Bill that will overhaul nearly every facet of the American medical industry and health services. President Obama is expected to quickly sign the bill into law.

The bill contains some very unpopular measures that lawmakers have agreed to amend. The Senate will be able to make changes to the House bill in a procedure known as reconciliation. No Republican voted in favor of the bill and 34 Democrats voted against.

The law would extend insurance coverage to an estimated 32 million Americans, impose new taxes on high-income earners, provide tax breaks and subsides for others, and considerably toughen the regulatory regime under which insurance companies operate.

The law will require insurance companies to provide coverage without regard for preexisting conditions or gender; and will create a system of fines for persons who fail or refuse to obtain health coverage.

This was a major political victory in President Obama’s year-long battle for health reform. Bitterly opposed to the end, it constitutes the biggest expansion of federal health care guarantees since the enactment of Medicare and Medicaid more than four decades ago, and represents a significant step towards the goal of universal coverage sought by every Democratic president since Harry Truman.

The rare Sunday vote occurred after a long weekend of intense negotiations between the White House, House leaders and individual congressmen. Obama traveled to Capitol Hill Saturday to make a last-minute plea to the entire House Democratic caucus. He spent much of the last week trying to personally convince dozens of members.

Anti-abortion rights activists were reassured by a last-minute promise of an executive order from Obama, that the provisions in the health care bill will restrict federal funding for abortion.

Republicans failed to stop the Democratic health care initiative despite utilizing almost every weapon in their legislative arsenal. GOP leaders repeatedly have warned the plan will lead to a government takeover of America’s private employer-based health care system.

Key provision:

• Medicaid will be significantly expanded, ensuring coverage to those earning up to 133 percent of the poverty level, or just over $29,000 for a family of four.
• Individuals are required to purchase health insurance coverage or face a fine of up to $750 or 2 percent of their income — whichever is greater. It includes a hardship exemption for poorer Americans.
• Companies with more than 50 employees that don’t provide coverage are required to pay a fee of $750 per worker if any of its employees rely on government subsidies to purchase coverage. The compromise package would drop the individual fine to $695 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater. The fine on companies failing to provide coverage would jump to $2,000 per employee.
• Federally funded abortion coverage for people purchasing insurance through the exchanges will be banned under the bill now passed by Congress. Exceptions will be made in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the life of the mother. Individuals receiving federal assistance who want abortion coverage will have to purchase the coverage using private funds.
• Illegal immigrants will be barred from buying insurance in the health insurance exchanges.
• Parents will be entitled to keep their children on their health care plans until age 26.
• A major student loan reform measure that ends the practice of having private banks offer student loans and would expand direct lending from the government.

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Calcium Weight Loss research indicates that consuming 600 milligrams or more of calcium, roughly the amount in a cup of broccoli or 1/2 cup of cottage cheese, suppresses calcitrol – a hormone that signals fat cells to make more fat and burn less fat.

Include two servings of either cottage cheese or yogurt in your calcium weight loss diet each day. A serving is 1/2 cup of cottage cheese or one small 100-120 calorie yogurt. Don’t go for fat-free versions. A little fat will help keep you feeling full.

Researchers stumbled on this scientific evidence for calcium in the late 1980s as part of a study on high blood pressure.

The researchers had a group of people with hypertension add extra calcium to their diets in the form of 2 cups of yogurt a day.

The idea was that the 800 milligrams or so of extra dietary calcium would help the participants lower their blood pressure. It did; and they also lost an average of 11 pounds over the year the experiment lasted, even though they weren’t dieting and the yogurt added extra calories to their daily intake.

The Journal of the American College of Nutrition published an article which stated “… increasing calcium intake by the equivalent of two dairy servings per day could reduce the risk of overweight substantially, perhaps by as much as 70 percent”.

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The Cabbage Soup Diet allows you to eat as much soup as you desire. The recipe varies slightly, but includes a variety of low-calorie vegetables such as cabbage, onions, and tomatoes, flavored with bouillon, onion soup mix, and tomato juice.

Each day of the seven-day Cabbage Soup Diet has specific foods that must be eaten, including potatoes, fruit juice, many vegetables, and on one day, beef.

Basically you make a huge amount of soup from cabbage, onions, stock cubes and celery. You are allowed to eat as much of this soup as you like and on special days you are also allowed to eat jacket potatoes or bananas.

You certainly lose a lot of weight due to the fact that you are eating very little during the day. Of course it is very difficult to sustain a diet based on cabbage soup. It doesn’t allow for social days.

Cabbage was known to the ancient Greeks and Romans; Cato the Elder praised this vegetable for its medicinal properties, declaring that, “It is first of all the vegetables”.

Cabbage is often consumed as German sauerkraut and Korean kimchi.

Nutritionally, it has the same health and cancer-inhibiting potential as the other cruciferous vegetables (broccoli, brussels sprouts, kale, bok choy and cauliflower) because it contains the nitrogen compounds called indoles and a significant amount of vitamin C. It also supplies good amounts of folate (folic acid), potassium, vitamin K, and a small amount of beta-carotene.

The cabbage soup diet is sometimes referred to as the “Mayo Clinic Diet”. A running myth suggests that this diet originated at any number of hospitals, but thus far, no medical facilities have claimed it as their own.

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Weight Watchers has announced that rival Jenny Craig will end a controversial advertisement campaign as part of a legal settlement between the two weight-loss companies.

“We are pleased that Jenny Craig will no longer be allowed to continue using this false and misleading advertising, now and in the future, and to put this situation behind us,” Weight Watchers President and CEO David Kirchhoff said in a statement.

Weight Watchers had charged in a lawsuit that Jenny Craig’s ads made false and misleading claims. The ads referred to a study comparing Weight Watchers current weight-loss program and Jenny Craig’s prepackaged meals system.

Weight Watchers, based in New York, previously said no such study had been done and that the claims in the ads were not supported by fact or science.

Weight Watchers International Inc. said that rival Jenny Craig will end a controversial advertisement campaign as part of a legal settlement between the two weight-loss companies.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York had implemented a temporary restraining order at the time barring Carlsbad, Calif.-based Jenny Craig from broadcasting, publishing or distributing the ads through other means.

Weight Watchers began in the early 60′s, when founder Jean Nidetch began inviting friends into her Queens home once a week, to discuss how best to lose weight.

Today, the Weight Watchers group of friends has grown to millions of women and men around the world who use the products and services of WW to lose unwanted pounds.

After that first Queens meeting, an estimated one million people, from Brazil to New Zealand, come together each week to help each meet their weight-loss goals at group meetings. And now, WW is reaching others via the internet.

The WW weight loss plan is developed by credentialed scientists with proficiency in weight management. In addition, Weight Watchers consults regularly with renowned experts to ensure that its weight loss plan reflects the latest scientific thinking.

Internet offerings currently include a comprehensive free-access site with a rich community section, broad and deep information on weight loss and healthy lifestyles, and a convenient way of locating meetings. In addition, two offerings are available to consumers on a subscription basis: WW Online, for those who cannot join Meetings, and WW eTools, to enhance the meetings experience.

Twenty minutes of continuous aerobic activity 3 days per week is recommended for weight loss. Examples of physical activity that are considered aerobic are: walking, running, jogging, hiking, swimming, bike riding, rowing, cross-country skiing, and jumping rope.

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Scientists discover how a wild, parasitic, mushroom Cancer Drug works.

Cordycepin, commonly used in Chinese medicine, was originally extracted from a rare kind of parasitic mushroom that grows on caterpillars. This astonishing, vital-health discovery is opening up possibilities of treatment in a wide range of different cancers.

At a low dose cordycepin inhibits the uncontrolled growth and division of the cells, and at high doses it stops cells from sticking together, which also inhibits growth.

Both of these effects probably have the same underlying mechanism – that cordycepin interferes with how cells make proteins.

At low doses cordycepin interferes with the production of mRNA, the molecule that gives instructions on how to assemble a protein. And at higher doses it has a direct impact on the making of proteins.

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Jenny Craig promotes a reduced calorie diet that focuses on a nutritional balance of 60%carbs, 20%fat and 20%protein and follows the Food Guide Pyramid.

The diet consists of 1200 calories/day, give or take a few hundred based on weight and age, which is a bit aggressive for the long-term. Exercise is not a primary health focus.

The Jenny Craig approach focuses on pre-packaged meals, which can be convenient and helpful in dealing with controlling your portion size, but it often fails to prepare the dieter for food preparation once the diet ends.

The key to the success of this diet is the transitional period when the client goes from pre-packaged to regular, prepared meals.

Learning the proper habits, which are essential for long-term success, takes a back seat to short-term weight loss goals.

You are assisted by a weekly journal and one-on-one sessions with a counselor, who is not a registered dietition, but a person hired and trained by the company.

The primary focus of these sessions is teaching a healthy relationship with food and behaviour modification, which includes living a more active lifestyle. Many clients consider this the best part of the program and very helpful.

IRS allows taxpayers to deduct fees associated with this program.

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