A new weight-reducing pill
October 2, 2001 | 12:00am
Once again, we give way to the many questions we have received from our readers all over the Philippines. The medical topics covered by the queries are quite interesting – from the possible health benefits of sake, Japanese rice wine, to the different ways by which we can avoid being hit by lightning. I hope that you will find the answers informative. Read on.
Q. My friend told me that there is now a new drug for weight reduction available in the Philippines. How does this new drug work and how does it differ from Xenical? – J.O., Cebu City
A. Your friend is right. Aside from Xenical (orlistat), people who are severely overweight have a new option to help them shed excess pounds. This is Reductil (sibutramine HCI), which actually has been available in the US since early 1998 and marketed there as Meridia. It was introduced in the Philippines only this July.
By altering chemicals in the brain that control feelings of hunger and fullness, Reductil also promotes modest weight loss in dieters. Like Xenical, it’s only for those who are obese and who have failed with other weight-loss plans. Specifically, Reductil inhibits the reuptake of serotonin and non-adverse noradrenaline in the brain and thereby produces earlier satiety or the feeling of fullness after each meal. Thus, you tend to eat less. Furthermore, it also has a thermogenesis effect enabling the body to utilize stored calories. It is not an appetite suppressant. The dose is one capsule a day and it is claimed that weight loss may be evident within four weeks after starting treatment.
Which is best for you? That depends on your eating habits. Reductil is for people who eat the right foods but just eat too much. Xenical is better for those who can’t stick to a low-fat diet.
Q. Does sake, the Japanese rice wine, offer the same heart-protective benefits as wine from grapes? – E.B., Quezon City
A. Though I know of no research specifically on sake, drinking it in moderation should offer the same benefits and drawbacks as any kind of alcohol. Moderation is defined as no more than one drink a day for women, two for men. A drink is defined as four to five ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor. The equivalent serving of sake would be about three ounces.
Sake is fermented from polished rice and thus is technically a beer, though it’s often called "rice wine." (Wines are fermented fruit juices, usually grape juice; beers are made from grains.) However, its flavor is wine-like, and it is never carbonated like beer. Like wine, sake comes in many types; it is often aged in wood, too. Sake has an alcohol content of 15 to 17 percent by volume, higher than beer (averaging five percent alcohol) or wine (averaging 12 percent). It’s the alcohol that protects the heart, according to most studies, but this is probably because wine drinkers tend to have better health habits, such as lower rates of smoking and obesity, and tend to consume their wine with meals – a more healthful practice.
If you are allergic to sulfites found in most wines, sake is free of them. Don’t believe manufacturers’ claim that sake won’t give you a hangover. Too much alcohol in any form will cause a hangover.
Q. During this rainy season, how do we avoid being hit by lightning? Is it safe to stay in the car during a thunderstorm? – R.A., Davao City
A. I do not have the statistics for the Philippines but in the United States, about 400 people are injured or killed by lightning strikes each year. Most deaths occur out in the open or under trees.
To protect yourself:
• Avoid isolated trees or tall structures. They’re lightning targets. If they’re hit, you may receive the jolt directly via a side flash or through the ground.
• Get down. Go to the bottom of a hill or ravine. If you’re at the highest point in an open field, make yourself a small target. Sit or kneel, put your hands on your knees and tuck your head.
• Don’t mix water with lightning. In a storm, get out of and away from water. It provides a good contact with any lightning current in the ground.
• Stay inside your home or building. Keep away from open doors and windows.
• Turn it off and hang it up. Don’t use electrical appliances or talk on the phone. Lightning can follow electrical wires and phone lines into your home.
• Get out of the shower or tub. Lightning can also follow the plumbing into your home.
Yes, you are safe from a lightning strike in a car with a solid metal top and the windows and doors shut, if you are not touching a metal part of the car. The lightning charge would travel over the car’s metal surfaces to the ground (it’s not the rubber tires that protect you). It could jump through an open window, though. Don’t stand right outside a car or lean on it in a storm.
If someone is struck, get medical help at once. You can safely do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or CPR. The victim carries no electrical charge after being struck. Injuries caused by lightning are often serious, but people who appear to be dead – even if they aren’t breathing or have no pulse – can sometimes be revived.
Q. What is the Mozart effect? How does it work? Will it really make my baby smarter? – R.S., Makati City
A. In 1999, a book called The Mozart Effect stated that listening to Mozart’s music actually add points to the listeners’ IQ and improves their health. (This might have astonished the composer, who died at an early age and whose aristocratic patrons grumbled about the length of his works and who demonstrated no improvement in either their brain power or health.) The book, though, received wide media exposure in the US and was a financial success.
The fad actually began in 1993 with a research report from the University of Wisconsin claiming to show that college students who listened to a Mozart sonata did better on a "spatial-temporal" task than those who listened to no music. No doubt hoping for a cheap way to improve children’s test scores, Zen Miller, the governor of Georgia, had Mozart CDs sent home from the hospital with every new mother (whether she owned a CD player or not). Florida passed legislation requiring toddlers in state-funded schools to listen to classical music every day. Not that it was a terrible law: This so-called "Beethoven babies bill" provided for other forms of enrichment, too. Still, you may wonder how classical music got to be the equivalent of a vitamin pill or a supplement. Then, Dr. Christopher Chabris of Harvard, writing in the journal Nature in 1999, analyzed 20 studies dealing with this subject and concluded that listening to Mozart has little or no effect on abstract reasoning and only a small effect on "spatial-temporal tasks."
It takes time to learn to enjoy complex and sophisticated music, particularly that of another time and place. Children usually start out with simple melodies and then move on, provided they get good instruction in school and a chance to play an instrument and sing. But that’s called "music education," which requires good teaching, access to instruments, interested parents, money and so forth. Perhaps, this kind of exposure to music really does make children smarter – who knows? But it is very different from just giving their mothers a CD.
And here’s the grand finale, according to Dr. Chabris: "Listen to music, play music, compose music, because you enjoy it or you want to learn something about music, not because you think it will make you smarter." And while you’re listening, or teaching kids to listen, don’t believe every study that gets reported in the papers!
REDUCTIL |
Q. My friend told me that there is now a new drug for weight reduction available in the Philippines. How does this new drug work and how does it differ from Xenical? – J.O., Cebu City
A. Your friend is right. Aside from Xenical (orlistat), people who are severely overweight have a new option to help them shed excess pounds. This is Reductil (sibutramine HCI), which actually has been available in the US since early 1998 and marketed there as Meridia. It was introduced in the Philippines only this July.
By altering chemicals in the brain that control feelings of hunger and fullness, Reductil also promotes modest weight loss in dieters. Like Xenical, it’s only for those who are obese and who have failed with other weight-loss plans. Specifically, Reductil inhibits the reuptake of serotonin and non-adverse noradrenaline in the brain and thereby produces earlier satiety or the feeling of fullness after each meal. Thus, you tend to eat less. Furthermore, it also has a thermogenesis effect enabling the body to utilize stored calories. It is not an appetite suppressant. The dose is one capsule a day and it is claimed that weight loss may be evident within four weeks after starting treatment.
Which is best for you? That depends on your eating habits. Reductil is for people who eat the right foods but just eat too much. Xenical is better for those who can’t stick to a low-fat diet.
SAKE |
A. Though I know of no research specifically on sake, drinking it in moderation should offer the same benefits and drawbacks as any kind of alcohol. Moderation is defined as no more than one drink a day for women, two for men. A drink is defined as four to five ounces of wine, 12 ounces of beer, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof liquor. The equivalent serving of sake would be about three ounces.
Sake is fermented from polished rice and thus is technically a beer, though it’s often called "rice wine." (Wines are fermented fruit juices, usually grape juice; beers are made from grains.) However, its flavor is wine-like, and it is never carbonated like beer. Like wine, sake comes in many types; it is often aged in wood, too. Sake has an alcohol content of 15 to 17 percent by volume, higher than beer (averaging five percent alcohol) or wine (averaging 12 percent). It’s the alcohol that protects the heart, according to most studies, but this is probably because wine drinkers tend to have better health habits, such as lower rates of smoking and obesity, and tend to consume their wine with meals – a more healthful practice.
If you are allergic to sulfites found in most wines, sake is free of them. Don’t believe manufacturers’ claim that sake won’t give you a hangover. Too much alcohol in any form will cause a hangover.
LIGHTNING |
A. I do not have the statistics for the Philippines but in the United States, about 400 people are injured or killed by lightning strikes each year. Most deaths occur out in the open or under trees.
To protect yourself:
• Avoid isolated trees or tall structures. They’re lightning targets. If they’re hit, you may receive the jolt directly via a side flash or through the ground.
• Get down. Go to the bottom of a hill or ravine. If you’re at the highest point in an open field, make yourself a small target. Sit or kneel, put your hands on your knees and tuck your head.
• Don’t mix water with lightning. In a storm, get out of and away from water. It provides a good contact with any lightning current in the ground.
• Stay inside your home or building. Keep away from open doors and windows.
• Turn it off and hang it up. Don’t use electrical appliances or talk on the phone. Lightning can follow electrical wires and phone lines into your home.
• Get out of the shower or tub. Lightning can also follow the plumbing into your home.
Yes, you are safe from a lightning strike in a car with a solid metal top and the windows and doors shut, if you are not touching a metal part of the car. The lightning charge would travel over the car’s metal surfaces to the ground (it’s not the rubber tires that protect you). It could jump through an open window, though. Don’t stand right outside a car or lean on it in a storm.
If someone is struck, get medical help at once. You can safely do mouth-to-mouth resuscitation or CPR. The victim carries no electrical charge after being struck. Injuries caused by lightning are often serious, but people who appear to be dead – even if they aren’t breathing or have no pulse – can sometimes be revived.
MOZART EFFECT |
A. In 1999, a book called The Mozart Effect stated that listening to Mozart’s music actually add points to the listeners’ IQ and improves their health. (This might have astonished the composer, who died at an early age and whose aristocratic patrons grumbled about the length of his works and who demonstrated no improvement in either their brain power or health.) The book, though, received wide media exposure in the US and was a financial success.
The fad actually began in 1993 with a research report from the University of Wisconsin claiming to show that college students who listened to a Mozart sonata did better on a "spatial-temporal" task than those who listened to no music. No doubt hoping for a cheap way to improve children’s test scores, Zen Miller, the governor of Georgia, had Mozart CDs sent home from the hospital with every new mother (whether she owned a CD player or not). Florida passed legislation requiring toddlers in state-funded schools to listen to classical music every day. Not that it was a terrible law: This so-called "Beethoven babies bill" provided for other forms of enrichment, too. Still, you may wonder how classical music got to be the equivalent of a vitamin pill or a supplement. Then, Dr. Christopher Chabris of Harvard, writing in the journal Nature in 1999, analyzed 20 studies dealing with this subject and concluded that listening to Mozart has little or no effect on abstract reasoning and only a small effect on "spatial-temporal tasks."
It takes time to learn to enjoy complex and sophisticated music, particularly that of another time and place. Children usually start out with simple melodies and then move on, provided they get good instruction in school and a chance to play an instrument and sing. But that’s called "music education," which requires good teaching, access to instruments, interested parents, money and so forth. Perhaps, this kind of exposure to music really does make children smarter – who knows? But it is very different from just giving their mothers a CD.
And here’s the grand finale, according to Dr. Chabris: "Listen to music, play music, compose music, because you enjoy it or you want to learn something about music, not because you think it will make you smarter." And while you’re listening, or teaching kids to listen, don’t believe every study that gets reported in the papers!
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