South Denver Wellness by Scott McDoniel, PhD, FACN, FOS

South Denver Wellness by Scott McDoniel, PhD, FACN, FOS comes to the south Denver metro area. Starting June, 2011 Dr. McDoniel will begin seeing patients needing clinical weight loss, nutrition therapy, and behavioral counseling. Dr. McDoniel will partner with medical providers by providing these wellness services in their practices.

Exercise and Cellulite

We all know what cellulite looks like, but misconceptions prevail. The first thing you should know is that, in the true medical sense, cellulite is simply plain old fat. Yet it does have one defining characteristic - a dimpled, cottage-cheese, orange-peel look. 

Here's why: Everybody has connective tissue that separates fat cells into compartments. While men tend to have horizontal or crisscross patterns to those compartments, women  have a honeycomb appearance, giving fat a greater chance to protrude or bulge, hence the cottage-cheese effect. 

As a result, women are more likely to develop cellulite than men, mainly around the hips and thighs. However, men can develop the condition, too. Although cellulite becomes more noticeable with age, largely because the skin gets thinner over time, it generally strikes individuals in their 30s.

FDA Rejects Another Weight Loss Drug

It is becoming common practice for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to reject applications for new weight loss drugs. Over the past year,  the FDA rejected applications for three anti-obesity medications. This week, the FDA rejected the application for Contrave. Contrave is a combination of an antidepressant and an anti-addiction drug to curb appetite. Early studies demonstrate  modest weight-loss benefits (i.e., approximately 4.5% weight loss). 

However,  FDA scientists and safety advocates were critical of the data indicating Orexigen, Contrave's manufacturer, enrolled a limited number of elderly patients or patients with a history of heart disease in its trials, making it difficult to determine the drug’s safety in patients who are likely to need it most.