By MIKE STOBBE, AP Medical Writer

ATLANTA - Drunks swimming in gin, smokers in body bags and dopers living with their parents deep into adulthood. Those are among the public service ads shown in the past. But the government’s new batch of obesity spots declines even to show a fat person, let alone wag a finger for gluttony or sloth.

No one is advocating public service announcements that ridicule fat people; experts say such spots would do more harm than good. But critics complain that the three new spots premiering this month are a wimpy attack on the costly and deadly explosion of obesity in America.

“It’s so namby-pamby I think people will shrug it off,” said Michael Jacobson of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based advocacy organization. Read more » »

OAKLAND, Calif., (UPI) — A new practice in the U.S. medical community is focused on controlling the loss of blood in surgeries to the point of making blood transfusions unnecessary.

The San Francisco Chronicle said Friday that surgeons have begun using medication to control the loss of blood during surgeries and have been able to collect any pooling blood through a new “cell-saver” machine.

The revolutionary medical procedure is aided by medication, given prior to surgery to raise a patient’s blood count significantly.

While previously thought to be a risky procedure, Stanford University Medical Center Director of Transfusion Services Dr. Lawrence Goodnough said such surgeries are becoming increasingly safer. Read more » »

A French-led study showed the anti-obesity drug rimonabant not only fights obesity-linked liver disease in obese rats but also improves lipid profiles.

Obesity has been found to be the main cause of several metabolic syndrome features, including hepatic steatosis — an accumulation of fat in the liver. There are currently no drugs that have both anti-obesity effects and also reverse and prevent obesity-related steatosis, as well as a cluster of conditions such as high blood sugar and high triglycerides that can lead to cardiovascular disease.

The study was led by Mohammed Bensaid of Sanofi-Aventis in Montpellier, France — the company that manufactures rimonabant. It showed treatment with rimonabant reduced liver enlargement, eliminated hepatic steatosis and decreased blood levels of enzyme markers that indicate liver damage. Read more » »

Many people with high blood pressure think that taking their medication- while ignoring important lifestyle changes- is enough to get their condition under control. That doesn’t usually work. Here’s what you should know.

Out of Control

A recent study done by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that while most Americans with high blood pressure (also known as hypertension) are taking some steps to combat their condition, only 30 percent actually have it under control. That means the 70 percent of adults with high blood pressure need to do more to bring those levels down, including changing their diet and exercising, as well as sticking to their prescribed drug regimens. Untreated, high blood pressure can lead to heart disease, stroke, kidney failure and even blindness. Read more » »