What are the risks and the benefits of current and emerging weight-loss medications?

Obesity is epidemic; new medications and therapeutic options are urgently needed to reduce the associated health care burden. The initial clinical strategy for weight loss is lifestyle modification involving a combination of diet, exercise, and behavior change. However, it is difficult for many to achieve and maintain weight loss solely through this approach. Only two drugs, orlistat and sibutramine, have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to treat obesity long term, and both medications have undesirable side effects, leaving an enormous unmet need for efficacious and safe therapy for obesity. Other medications with weight-loss effects have been approved by the FDA for short-term treatment of obesity or for disorders other than obesity, but these also have potential adverse effects. This article discusses the perceived benefits and risks of these approved medications along with emerging drugs that have shown weight-loss effects.     

Gerontology across the professions and the Atlantic: Students’ reflective views and voices

ABSTRACT

Health professions students need to have increasing exposure to interprofessional and international experience in developing the knowledge and skills needed to work with older adults. As students, the authors explore in this article the significant elements of our learning that took place in a blended Gerontology Across the Professions and the Atlantic course for participants from the United States, Canada, and Norway. These factors focus on the following aspects of this course: (1) weekly online topic discussions and learning experiences, (2) group case studies and presentations, (3) international perspectives, (4) interprofessional perspectives, and (5) the final course seminar in Bergen. The authors end their discussion by sharing sidebar stories of their experiences in this course that brought together the powerful, transformative elements of interprofessional and international insights into the challenges of geriatric care in the future.     

Inflammatory bowel disease and the genes for the natural resistance-associated macrophage protein-1 and the interferon-Á receptor 1

The genes for the interferon-γ receptor1 and the natural resistance-associated macrophage protein1 (NRAMP1) control the immune response to intracellular microbial pathogens. Such pathogens, in particular Mycobacterium paratuberculosis, have been implicated in the pathogenesis of Crohn's disease. We studied markers in the genes for NRAMP1 and two mutations in the interferon-γ receptor in relation to inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in the following groups: 270 healthy individuals, 74 patients with Crohn's disease, 72 patients with ulcerative colitis, and 40 patients with primary sclerosing cholangitis. We studied the allele frequencies of two restriction fragment length polymorphisms in the gene for NRAMP1 and the prevalence of two mutations in the interferon-γ receptor1 gene. The markers in the NRAMP1 gene were not associated with inflammatory bowel disease. Also, the mutations in the interferon-γ receptor1 were not found in the 186 IBD patients. Genetic markers in NRAMP1 are thus not associated with IBD. Therefore this gene is not likely to play a role in the pathogenesis of IBD. The mutation in the interferon-γ receptor was not found in our IBD patients group. Accepted: 13 October 1998     

Pollens and the environment: what does what at the regional and local levels?

In order to study the links between pollinoses and pollens in the most efficient way, it is essential to understand better who works in towns, in departments or in a region, for the development and protection of the environment. Study of the links between health and the environment must include all the bodies, institutions and partners.     

Molecular biology and the diagnosis and treatment of liver diseases

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