That's Fit

Fitzness Fiends is a section devoted to you, the reader! We all have learned so much on our path to becoming more fit, and now it's time to learn from and inspire each other! Fitzness Fiends are constantly working to better themselves. Some are perfect, some are not. All have health on the mind. Please send Fitz your answers to these questions with a photo of yourself. Time for you to be the motivator!

Name: Paul Watford

Age: 61

Occupation: Retired

How often do you exercise? Five to six days a week

What type of exercise do you do? Two to three days a week I do stadium steps. Two to three days a week I do core body exercises: sit-ups, push-ups, varying plank exercises, and yoga stretches.

What gets you to workout, even when you're feeling lazy? Its up to me. I am the only active person in my family.

The first large-scale study comparing heart bypass surgery and stents has some conclusive results that may deter people from using those mesh cylinders so often. Death rates and heart attacks were lower among people who have had the more severe treatment, heart bypass.

That can be disheartening due to how prevalent the other treatment option is. After all, 1.2 million angioplasties were done in 2005. Compare that to less than half a million heart bypass operations the same year. But this isn't the first study to conclude that stents come up short.

A similar comparison was made several years ago, but it had to do with the metal variety as opposed to the newer drug-coated mesh stents now used today. Both results are clear: heart bypass is better for you considering multiple clots. When you think about how undergoing either one of these could save a life, it becomes obvious how important prevention is with heart health!

Now this is something that boggles the mind. The FDA said this week that it may want to increase the number of medicines available to customers that will no longer require a doctor's prescription. All that will be required will be a pharmacist's recommendation.

Although pharmacists most likely know quite a bit more than a GP about the interactions of drugs and the specific conditions of each drug, are we to trust ourselves to try and explain what ails us in order to get that 'no doctor required' prescription-level drug directly from that local pharmacy?

The standard thinking by the FDA references ease of access for the uninsured, but this will surely benefit drugmakers in selling more products since the physician will be out as middleman in many cases if this proposal reaches fruition. Note, though, that the drugs in question will be "behind the counter" drugs (hidden from view unless asked for), not 'over the counter' drugs, which anyone can buy off the shelf.

What do you think -- is this a good idea or a bad one?

Having weight loss surgery isn't just about committing to the moment and the surgery, but about committing to a permanent lifestyle change as well. Surgery is no guarantee of weight loss, but research shows that surgery patients who make it to more of their follow-up appointments have better success in the long run.

Unfortunately one of the biggest reasons patients miss follow-up appointments is lack of insurance coverage, but hopefully studies and statistics like these will help change that. In the meantime do what you can to get to your appointments -- even years later it really helps the payoff to your health!

There are enough potential complications to worry about when you're pregnant, even if you're completely healthy, that it may make women who are obese, but who still want to have a baby, a bit nervous. Until recently, it was thought to be too dangerous for women to have a baby after having gastric bypass surgery, limiting it as an option for those who want to lose weight in order to have an easier and healthier pregnancy.

However, a small study conducted recently has shown otherwise. The study involved 57 women, one-third of whom had obesity surgery and waited until their weight stabilized before getting pregnant. Apparently, while these future moms were more likely to become anemic, they were less likely to suffer from high blood pressure, pre-eclampsia and a condition that causes a deficiency in amniotic fluid called oligohydramnios.

While this is good news for obese women hoping to get pregnant, it is important to remember that the study only involved a limited number of subjects and ultimately your doctor can give you the best advice about losing weight before having a baby.

Gastric bypass surgery is becoming fairly commonplace anymore, and so many of the risks, side-effects, and potential complications are more and more understood. One "side-effect," however, is still boggling doctors and scientists: the way gastric bypass surgery patients react to drinking alcohol.

The fact that many post-surgical patients were reporting similar symptoms of "getting drunk faster" and "I'm suddenly a cheap date" prompted a study to look at just how the surgery changes the way a person's body metabolizes alcohol. The data confirms that people who've had gastric bypass surgery have faster spikes and slower declines in blood alcohol levels than people who haven't had the surgery.

There are several theories out there on why and how this happens, but so far very little concrete facts. But whatever the cause, it's definitely something to be aware of!

Although there are certain risks associated with any surgery, gastric bypass has become common enough that it's considered one of the "safer" ones, right? Well maybe not, according to new research. I just covered an article yesterday that went into some of the potential risks of weight loss surgery, and now it seems nerve damage may be a bigger problem than previously thought.

The scary part is that the nerve damage isn't caused by the actual surgery itself, but by a lack of nutrients that slowly builds up over time afterward. Patients may not even know they have a problem until it's too late and there's permanent damage. To battle this, doctors will begin to adjust their post-op approach by encouraging and teaching patients to take supplements and teaching them about the early signs of neurological damage. Hopefully this risk can be all but eliminated or at least reduced to treatable cases only with some increased awareness and education.