Does alli, the Orlistat weight loss drug now available without prescription, really help you lose weight, or will it be alli-OOPS?  Two words describe the worst side effect of alli – anal leakage.  If you eat too much fat while on the alli weight loss program, you can have “loose oily or fatty stools, possible uncontrolled bowel movements, flatulence with discharge, and abdominal pain.”  Will the threat of that keep you on your low-fat plan?  Will alli act as an effective FAT NAZI to your diet?
Perhaps it will, because the other side effects of alli are GOOD, and test subjects actually did lose more weight using alli than (more…)

Every month I list the fun and informative blurbs that appeared in Boomer Bites.  Here they all are, one more time:

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OK, only kidding.  But we do hear that “cholesterol” word a lot at our post-40 checkups, don’t we?  The drug company drones have been busy churning out research that shows that in addition to lowering the cholesterol, triglycerides, and CRP levels in our blood, statins lower the formation of plaques that characterize Alzheimer’s and they lower diabetes and general cancer risk.   Yet a 2006 meta-analysis of previous studies concluded that “taking statins regularly may reduce the risk of major heart and cerebrovascular events such as heart attack and stroke but not coronary heart disease or overall death rate.”  In other words, these expensive drugs don’t make you live any longer!  Recommended for diabetics and those with cardiac risk factors, the analysis did not (more…)

Most of us will acknowledge the truth – we eat too much and move too little.  The new drug Acomplia/Zimulti (due this summer) can increase your weight loss results.  But what about the whole midlife metabolism slowdown – fact or fiction?  Americans lose 10-20% of their ability to burn calories with each decade after age 25, but only because they become less active.  Active seniors show only a 2% total slowdown over their lifetime, so the ball’s back in your court on that excuse!  And it’s true that buff  Betty and Biff burn more calories while they sleep because muscle boosts metabolism.
Especially when observing your pizza-popping slender sister, don’t you sometimes feel that you “don’t eat that much?”  Studies consistently show that we underestimate how many calories we take in; a New England Journal of Medicine study revealed that dieters who reported eating and burning 1,000 calories/day were actually consuming 2,000 calories and burning about 750. The answer? (more…)

Erectile dysfunction drugs can be the big blue elephant in the bedroom, with some men keeping them a secret even from their wives. Though the news about ED is blasted from the TV many times a day, most people don’t know that 50% of men will have THE PROBLEM of erectile dysfuntion at one time or another. It’s a common situation. (more…)