I know Oprah’s telling us that in order to stop overeating we have to figure out what’s eating US –is it anger, boredom, sadness, fear?  Okay, I get it.  But still – wouldn’t it be nice if we could take a pill that would make us feel full and not WANT to eat?!  Three new weight loss drugs are under review by the FDA right now and one of them, lorcaserin, is looking REAL good, no increase in blood pressure or heart valve problems.  About 50% of the study participants on lorcaserin lost 5% or more of their body weight and even more were able to keep it off the next year.  Dr. David Katz, of Oprah Magazine fame, was not impressed, however.  “Better daily use of feet and forks holds far greater promise for sustainable weight loss.” he said.  Sigh.

And speaking of comforting foods, have you noticed that you don’t NEED that 3 pm snack when you’re on vacation or having a great time on a Saturday excursion?  If that’s true, then you probably don’t need that snack to make it until dinner, you’re just bored with your daily routine.  Try taking a walk or having a cup of green tea instead.

Powerful men and younger lovers – go together like a horse and carriage?  But powerful women?  Nah!  Can you picture Hillary or Nancy cavorting with a 19-year-old?  Better start picturing, ‘cause that’s what 60-year-old Iris Robinson, a married member of Northern Ireland’s Parliament, actually did.  A family friend asked her to “look after the boy” on his deathbed, and she supplemented the affair by setting young Kirk up in a café with $80,000 provided by local developers (and kept $8,000 for herself).  Ooops!  The BBC outed the affair and Mrs. Robinson resigned – here’s to you, Mrs. Robinson?!  Should women feel ‘empowered’ that, like Bill Clinton, the lad looked up to her?  Should we cheer that, as with Mark Sanford, her lover was a family friend?  Are we now just as unfaithful and devious as men?  Is this a new dawn of equality in sexual politics or a new low in the history of women in public life?  Like Tiger Woods and John Edwards, the affair involved (more…)

It’s that barefoot time of year again, but there’s a new reason to take any injury to the foot very seriously – MRSA.  MRSA is on the skin of about 1/3 of our population now and can enter the bloodstream though any break in the skin, causing organ failure or even death.  If you step on something or get a blister, clean up, use Bacitracin, and cover for a few days.  A callus or corn can open and let MRSA in, so if you see redness, swelling, pain, or warmth see a doctor that very day to get antibiotics.

But you already knew that…the key is, how can we get fat OFF without leaving bruises and bumpy skin the way liposuction does?  The answer is in April’s O, The Oprah Magazine – UltraShape, a high-intensity ultrasound wave that melts fat, taking two or three inches off the treated area.  Not yet FDA approved, UltraShape and Zeltiq (a fat-freezing machine) work best on (more…)