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Healthnotes Newswire (July 17, 2008)—A new study has shown that education, combined with healthy behaviors such as eating fruits and vegetables each day, exercising, and keeping a food diary, are key ingredients for maintaining weight loss. While it is well known that such behaviors can help a heavy person lose weight, few large studies have looked at behavioral interventions for keeping weight off, which is critical for overweight people with high blood pressure or high cholesterol.

Healthy habits are key

The study, known as the Weight Loss Maintenance Trial, compared various strategies for maintaining weight loss over a 30-month period. All 1,684 participants were 25 years or older and were overweight or obese and taking medication for high blood pressure and/or high cholesterol. Each participant was encouraged to attend 20 weekly group educational sessions, restrict calories, use a daily food diary, exercise daily at a moderate to intense level, and follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, which is rich in fruits, vegetables, and low-fat dairy foods, and limits saturated fat, total fat, and cholesterol.

After two and a half years, people who lost the most weight (18.7 pounds [8.5 kg] or more) had, on average, attended more weekly educational sessions (15), exercised more (159 minutes per week), kept more food diary records (4.2 records per week), and eaten more fruits and vegetables (3.6 servings per day).

“A combined emphasis on dietary intake and physical activity is important to both short- and long-term weight loss goals,” said the study’s author, Jack Hollis, PhD, from the Center for Health Research, Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, Oregon. “Behavioral strategies to modify these health behaviors are important components of weight-loss interventions because they emphasize the individual’s ability to monitor and regulate behavior, and target the barriers to both initial weight loss and long-term maintenance.”

Smart slimming strategies

People with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and diabetes are at high risk for cardiovascular diseases such as stroke or heart attack, but weight control can help prevent and treat these conditions. There is no quick fix for losing weight or maintaining weight loss. If you are overweight, start by eating right, exercising, keeping stress in check and seeing your doctor.

Here are some tips for losing weight and keeping it off:

• Eat an abundance of fruits and vegetables based on recommendations from your healthcare provider. Limit saturated fat and sugar and avoid “empty” calories that provide little or no nutrition such as some processed foods, snacks, and beverages.

• Get enough exercise. A report from the Institute of Medicine suggests that adults need 60 minutes of moderate physical activity every day in order to optimize health and prevent disease; children need a minimum of 90 minutes.

• Keep a diary to track your daily food and calorie intake and help you learn how to identify eating patterns and make healthy choices throughout the day.

• Join a support group for health lifestyle behaviors or share the experience with friends and family, which can help improve your chances for success.

(Am J Prev Med 2008;35:118–26)

Healthnotes Newswire (June 5, 2008)—Skin affected by eczema might seem to be crying out for creams and salves to ease itching and inflammation, but what’s on the inside might be more important than what’s on the outside. A new study found that supplementing with the omega-3 fatty acid DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) helped relieve symptoms in people with eczema.

In the study, published in the British Journal of Dermatology, 44 adults with eczema received either 5.35 grams of DHA per day or placebo for eight weeks. At the study’s beginning, mid point, and end, scores were given to each person based on symptom severity, including the size of the affected area, redness, swelling, crusting, scabbing due to scratching, thickening, dryness, itching, and sleeplessness.

Symptom scores in people using DHA improved over the course of the study, but scores for those in the placebo group did not change significantly. In particular, the size of the affected area decreased 42% in the DHA group but did not change in the placebo group.

Eczema is a common inflammatory skin condition that is typically treated with topical and occasionally oral steroids. People with eczema often have other inflammatory conditions such as asthma, allergies, and food sensitivities. Many people with eczema notice that flare-ups can be triggered or exacerbated by stress.

DHA and EPA (eicosapentaenoic acid) are the omega-3 fatty acids found primarily in fish. Their anti-inflammatory effects are well established, and a number of studies have found that fish oil or EPA-DHA combinations are effective in treating conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn’s disease, asthma, and cardiovascular disease. One previous study found that taking about 2 teaspoons of fish oil per day reduced symptoms in people with eczema.

“Our findings suggest that DHA might be helpful in supporting the standard treatment of eczema,” commented the principal investigator of the study, Dr. Margitta Worm, at the Charite-Universitatsmedizin in Berlin, Germany. “This is the first study to look at DHA alone in the treatment of eczema, so more research is needed to confirm our findings and identify the amount that would result in greatest improvement.”

Save your skin

People with eczema can take the following steps to reduce their symptoms:

• Identify food sensitivities and avoid reactive foods. Some of the most common reactive foods in people with eczema are wheat and other grains with gluten, dairy, eggs, and corn, including corn syrup.

• Manage stress through exercise and relaxation.

• Supplement with 3 grams per day of evening primrose oil or 2 or 3 teaspoons per day of sunflower or safflower oil, which have anti-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids.

• Eat plenty of cold-water fish that are rich in EPA and DHA such as salmon, tuna, mackerel, sardines, and herring. Or consider a supplement with these omega-3 fatty acids.

(Br J Dermatol 2008;158:786–92)