The Serotonin-Plus Weight Loss Blog: Artificial Environments
Posted on Tuesday, May 1, 2012 at 10:35am - 0 Comments »
As many of you know Serotonin-Plus is involved with Tethys labs in a landmark diabetes risk prevention study. This company has a 7-panel blood test that very accurately predicts diabetes risk and if someone already has diabetes, the severity. The study we are doing is a “before and after” as to what happens to this diabetes risk “score” (it is a 1-10 scale with “10″ being a very high risk) after 12 weeks of the SP program. Jessica, the local rep for Tethys showed me some data yesterday that was presented at the American Diabetes Association Meetings 2011. This was a 51 person study performed at a weight loss center in North Carolina. It was a 4-week study of “before and after” with the average BMI of the patients being 42, so these were extremely obese individuals. The study showed a statistically significant drop in the diabetes risk score, but it wasn’t as impressive as I expected. The thing about this program is that it is an “inpatient” program. The patients actually go to this facility and stay for 4 weeks, learning from nutritionists, psychologists, medical doctors etc. They are given their meals and activities are arranged. The program costs over 10,000 dollars. Now, I am not knocking this program at all, because fort those people with a BMI of 42 and above, there tends to be profound psychological issues involved and this incredibly comprehensive, albeit expensive, program is worth it. However, what happens when these people return to their real,. non-artificial environment where they have to prepare their own meals? Where they have to motivate themselves to exercise? The answer, most likely, i that over time, old habits are revisited and the what was “learned” will whither away. Helping people lose weight, inn my opinion, requires working with them in their “teal” environments if there is a chance at long term results. Once again, I am not ragging on this North Carolina program, as I believe it is a great attempt at helping people with profound weight control issues, but I believe the money would have been better spent on a surgical procedure with a medical followup weight loss program keeping the people in their real environments.
