Bariatric Surgery and Long-term Cardiovascular Events

Medicare and Medicaid Programs; Quarterly Listing of Program Issuances-January Through March 2012Lars Sjöström, MD, PhD; Markku Peltonen, PhD; Peter Jacobson, MD, PhD; C. David Sjöström, MD, PhD; Kristjan Karason, MD, PhD; Hans Wedel, PhD; Sofie Ahlin, MD; Åsa Anveden, MD; Calle Bengtsson, MD, PhD; Gerd Bergmark, BMA; Claude Bouchard, PhD; Björn Carlsson, MD, PhD; Sven Dahlgren, MD, PhD; Jan Karlsson, PhD; Anna-Karin Lindroos, PhD; Hans Lönroth, MD, PhD; Kristina Narbro, PhD; Ingmar Näslund, MD, PhD; Torsten Olbers, MD, PhD; Per-Arne Svensson, PhD; Lena M. S. Carlsson, MD, PhD
Context  Obesity is a risk factor for cardiovascular events. Weight loss might protect against cardiovascular events, but solid evidence is lacking.
Objective  To study the association between bariatric surgery, weight loss, and cardiovascular events.
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Global Payments says Visa had dropped it after big data breach, hopes to reclaim business

Global Payments says Visa had dropped it after big data breach, hopes to reclaim business

ATLANTA – Visa Inc. has dropped the card processor involved in a massive data breach from its registry of providers that meet data security standards.
Global Payments CEO Paul Garcia noted that the company continues to process Visa transactions, but that being dropped from the registry “could give our partners some pause that they’re doing business with someone who experienced a breach.”
Garcia said he expects to Global Payments to be reinstated once it has been issued a new report of compliance. But he declined to specify when that might be. He said the situation is “absolutely contained” but that the investigation is continuing and that parts of it still need to be resolved.
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Weight Loss Camp: Prevent Childhood Obesity Consequences

Weight Loss Camp Prevent Childhood Obesity Consequences
Almost one third of children in America are overweight or obese. Some parents not only take no action to get their child’s weight under control, by sending them to weight loss camps for example, but go to further measures to reassure the child that being overweight is ok. If your child is “fluffy” or “has more to love,” there are some things you should know about their future, potentially dangerous, health outcomes.
First of all, the psychological effects of teasing, bullying, and self esteem can be so extreme for children. Depression is usually a side effect of childhood obesity. You can build your child up as much as you can, but you cannot control what other children say. This is most likely the reason for parents that praise their children who are overweight, but there are much healthier and effective solutions.
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More on the Useless Ontario School Trans-Fat Ban

More on the Useless Ontario School Trans-Fat Ban
So did you think I was being too harsh on Ontario’s Premier Mr. McGuinty with my criticism of his school trans-fat ban?
Turns out, I was being too easy.
Someone pointed me to one of the pieces that the CTV had done on the ban and sent me both the link to the video and some screen captures and asked for my thoughts.
That picture at the top of this blog, those are the foods that Dalton McGuinty tells a bunch of students will,
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More Hoops For Ontarians Seeking Bariatric Surgery.

More Hoops For Ontarians Seeking Bariatric Surgery.I’ve blogged before about how Ontario’s Ministry of Health has chosen to shut the doors for timely access to bariatric surgery for Ontarians.
As part of their much bally-hoo’ed new strategy they decided to create a centralized bariatric registry which involves a website where physicians register so as to apply to have their patients wait for months to years to get an appointment at a bariatric assessment centre.
Well just two weeks ago, after 7 months of “coming soon”, the site finally went live and yesterday I had the opportunity to use it.
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