Magda Szubanski parts ways with Jenny Craig again

9 October 2014

I suspect this sounds familiar to a few of you... successfully losing significant amount of weight on a diet and then being faced with the heartbreaking reality of weight re-gain.  The yo-yo dieting phenomenon is a very real experience for lots of people and it can break the strongest resolve.  It is a cycle that slowly eats away at your self worth and puts you into 'failure' mode.  This is devastating and certainly makes you ask the question 'is there a better way?'  Bariatric surgery is definitely an option for most people who are obese and can be the catalyst needed to finally break the cycle of failure with successive diets. Anyway, let me know if you need more information.  Afterall, it doesn't hurt to be better informed.

Happy hunting,

Steph Ulmer

Magda Szubanski parts ways with Jenny Craig again

Not a happy ending: the relationship between Magda Szubanski and Jenny Craig has finished for the second time.

Just six months after she was re-signed, Magda Szubanski has split with Jenny Craig.

It looks fishy and some news outlets are reporting that it is because Szubanski failed to lose upwards of 30 kilos fast enough.

A spokeswoman for the weight loss company confirmed the 53-year-old comedian will no longer hold her role as an ambassador, but refused to be drawn in on the reason why.

Szubanski in 2012, during her first stint as ambassador for Jenny Craig.

"Jenny Craig and Magda Szubanski can confirm that their working relationship will not be continuing," she told AAP in a statement on Wednesday.

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"Magda will pursue her weight loss journey privately."

It is a surprise move given Szubanski's contract was reportedly worth more than $1 million.

The split comes only half a year after Jenny Craig re-signed Szubanski in March, so the Kath and Kim star could try to shed the kilos she re-gained after her previous weight loss success with the company.

Szubanski famously lost 36 kilos with Jenny Craig, dropping to 85kg from 121kg between 2009 and 2011.

The comic starred in Jenny Craig's ad campaigns and was credited with triggering a spike in new customers.

But her failure to maintain her goal weight reportedly led to her being dropped from the company's promotional material.

She was replaced by rising star Rebel Wilson, who was then succeeded by former Spice Girl and X Factor judge Mel B last year.

Szubanski drew criticism for signing back on, including from radio commentator Matty Johns, who lamented the company was "rewarding people for being fat, and getting fat again".

She blamed "calorie amnesia" and a broken rib for the piling the weight back on.

Szbanski and her management are yet to respond to calls for comment from Fairfax Media.

Sleeve Gastrectomy lowest Complication rates - compared to Lapband and Bypass surgery

9 September 2014

This study comes out of a single Bariatric institution in America and it directly compares how patients go following the 3 types of Bariatric procedure ie Gastric Sleeve, Gastric Banding and Gastric Bypass.  This is quite a useful comparison because you know that the same group of surgeons have performed the operations.  Whereas, if you compare Bypass surgeries from one hospital with Sleeve Gastrectomys from another hospital there are a lot more variables that may lead to a difference in outcomes (including the fact that different surgeons will be operating in the different hospitals).  It also shows that they can all be very safe procedures in their own right - which is reassuring too! If you are interested in more information than a google search can give you then feel free to book a consultation to discuss the issues with me.  I look forward to meeting you.

Kind regards,

Steph Ulmer

LSG (Laparoscopic Sleeve Gastrectomy) has lower complcation rates than bypass and banding

Thursday, July 5, 2012 - 10:05

Owen Haskins - Editor in chief, Bariatric News

According to the outcomes of a new study presented at the ASMBS’ 29th Annual Meeting in San Diego, CA, when compared with other bariatric procedures laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy (LSG) appears to have the lowest procedure related morbidity.

“The aim of the study was to identify which of the bariatric procedures performed today is the safest in terms of procedure related morbidity,” said Dr Raul J Rosenthal from the Bariatric and Metabolic Institute and the Section of Minimally Invasive and Endoscopic Surgery, Cleveland Clinic Florida. “So we carried out a single institution retrospective review of our centre’s six year experience since LSG was introduced comparing the procedure with Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) and laparoscopic adjustable gastric band (LAGB).”

Rosenthal and colleagues retrospectively analysed a prospectively collected database in morbidly obese patients that underwent bariatric surgery between 2005 and 2011. They identified and compared complications, hospital stay, readmissions and re-operations in patients that underwent all three procedures.

A total of 2,433 bariatric procedures were performed during this period of time. There were no significant differences between the groups in terms of age, gender or BMI. Rosenthal explained that in his institution, banding is only applied to patients with a BMI 35-50, whereas LSG is applied to all patients including the high risk and RYGB is applied to all patients with a BMI of >35.

Outcomes

Of those procedures 1,492 were RYGB, 602 LSG and 339 LAGB. The number of readmissions was minimal in all three groups with RYGB 1.7 times, LSG 1.3 times and 1.5 times for LAGB. The percentage of procedures requiring reoperations due to complications or failures was 7.7% in the RYGB group, 1.5% in the LSG and 15.3% for the LAGB.

“LSG appears to have the lowest rate of re-operations when compared to banding and bypass, and surprisingly banding had the highest rate of re-intervention,” said Rosenthal. “The primary reason for removing bands was slippage, followed by failure and reflux.”

The outcomes also revealed that average postoperative length of stay was longer following RYGB (3.75 days) compared with LSG (3.4 days) and banding (1.47 days). The leakage rate was 0.4% for the RYGB and 0.3% for the LSG (leakage rates are not applicable for LAGB).

“One of the weaknesses of this study, as with all retrospective studies, is that patients were not randomised,” he explained. “Therefore, it could be that there is a patient population in one group or another that could trigger a difference in the outcomes.”

“However, I believe that this study adds to the body of evidence, which includes randomised studies and meta-analyses, that LSG is an outstanding treatment option for morbid obesity,” concluded Rosenthal. “I think the message from this relatively small study is that at this point LSG is the safest procedure when treating morbidly obese patients.”

Obesity has a negative impact on outcomes in women with breast cancer

4 September 2014

Sorry to throw so much medical jargon at you - but this article does have an interesting message... We know that obesity affects every organ system in some way, however the relationship between obesity and cancer risk is a relatively new concept.  There appears to be increasing evidence that obesity affects not only your risk of getting cancer but it also affects how well you will do  following cancer treatment ie your prognosis.  This is scary, especially for people who struggle with losing weight and keeping it off and those who have a family history of certain types of cancer.  However, the good news is that decreasing your weight over the longterm is able to reverse this risk and keep you cancer free or improve your outcome if you have had cancer.  Yay, I'm glad there is some good news in all of this!  Anyway, if you want to have further discussions around this or any other aspects of Bariatric surgery ie Gastric Banding, Sleeve Gastrectomy or Gastric Bypass, then you know who to call.

Kind regards,

Steph  

Obesity and diabetes have adverse effects on outcomes in breast cancer patients who receive chemotherapy as primary treatment before surgery (neoadjuvant chemotherapy), according to research presented at the 9th European Breast Cancer Conference (EBCC-9). Although a high BMI is known to have a negative impact on cancer development and prognosis, until now there has been uncertainty as to whether having a high BMI had an equal effect on patients with different types of breast tumours.

Dr Caterina Fontanella, a trainee in medical oncology from the University of Udine (Italy) and a research fellow with the German Breast Group, based in Neu-Isenburg, near Frankfurt am Main, Germany, presented an analysis based on nearly 11,000 patients with early breast cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy. She showed that a high BMI adversely affects the chances of surviving without the breast cancer recurring or spreading to other parts of the body, although this detriment was not seen in those women had been diagnosed with HER2-positive disease.

"We think that hyperinsulinemia may encourage the growth of tumour cells by providing them with large amounts of glucose"

"Although the overall survival of patients with metastatic breast cancer has increased over the past few decades, it remains an incurable disease," said Fontanella. "So preventing disease relapse after primary treatment of early breast cancer is fundamentally important in oncology daily practice. Considering that about one-third of the worldwide population has a BMI>25, investigating the possible higher risk of relapse that affects overweight and obese patients compared with normal weight patients should be a priority."

The researchers studied data from 8,872 early breast cancer patients from the German Breast Group, and 1,855 from a joint EORTC/BIG[1] trial. All had received a modern treatment consisting of an anthracycline/taxane-based neoadjuvant chemotherapy, anti-HER-2 drugs, or hormone therapy according to tumour type and national guidelines.

The vast majority of the patients in this study received chemotherapy doses capped at a body surface area (BSA) of 2.0m², which is often the limit when calculating doses.

"Obese patients may have a BSA of more 2.0m², but the chemotherapy dose they receive will not reflect this. It is a very common practice in these patients for fear of overdosing, but of course it means that they will often receive a relatively lower quantity of chemotherapy," she said. "In my opinion, a deeper understanding of chemotherapy metabolism and distribution in patients with high BMI and with increased adipose tissue is needed."

"We already know that obese hormone receptor-positive tumour patients respond less well to aromatase inhibitors as adjuvant treatment, and this underlines a key role of higher aromatase activity in patients with increased adipose tissue."

Aromatase is an enzyme that synthesises oestrogen, and blocking it is important in cancers where oestrogen encourages tumours to grow.

Final analysis of outcomes from the two groups in the joint study showed a significant decrease in survival without the cancer spreading (metastasising) – distant disease-free survival (DDFS) – or the cancer recurring – distant relapse-free survival (DRFS) – in patients with increased BMI in all tumour types, apart from those with HER2-positive tumours.

"The exception in this group can probably be explained by the impressive impact of anti-HER2 treatment," said Fontanella. "Given the significant proportion of the world's population with a BMI higher than recommended for good health, it is vitally important that we find a way to treat overweight and obese cancer patients that combines maximum efficacy with the avoidance of unnecessary side-effects."

In a second study, Fontanella and colleagues investigated the incidence of Type 2 (adult onset) diabetes in patients with early breast cancer at the time of diagnosis, as well as its effect on the outcome after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Diabetes has been reported in 15%-20% of elderly breast cancer patients, although in the group of just over 4,000 patients studied it was considerably lower.

"This was probably because these patients were enrolled in clinical trials and were therefore selected to be in good physical condition without other illnesses that could complicate procedures and outcomes," she explained. "However, we did find that patients with diabetes were more likely to have their cancer diagnosed at a more advanced stage, and this suggests that diabetes may affect the size of the tumour. We also found that patients with diabetes had worse distant disease free survival rates."

Diabetes is currently believed to be associated with a 49% increased risk of death from all causes in breast cancer patients, as well as being an independent prognostic factor for the risk of recurrence and metastasis. Increased insulin levels seem to be related to a high risk of recurrence after primary treatment, and an increase in C-peptide [2] levels has been associated with an increased risk of cancer-related deaths, particularly in hormone receptor-positive tumours.

"We think that hyperinsulinemia may encourage the growth of tumour cells by providing them with large amounts of glucose. We therefore believe that strict control of blood sugar levels is essential to the successful treatment of breast cancer," she concluded.

"The growing epidemic of obesity needs to be given greater attention as a risk factor for developing breast cancer, and in how we treat patients in routine practice,” said Professor David Cameron, from the University of Edinburgh, UK, who is a member of the EBCC-9 executive scientific committee. “The data presented by Dr Fontanella are important as they challenge not only the concept of 'chemotherapy dose capping' but also highlight how much we need to learn about the interaction between obesity and the biology of breast cancer."