30th August 2024, A/Prof Chee L Khoo
Up until GLP1RAs +/- GIPs were shown to be efficacious in assisting patients lose weight and keeping the weight off, long term sustainable weight loss was practically unachievable. Not everyone wants to or is able to afford bariatric surgery to assist in weight loss. Even then, the weight loss is usually not sustainable. International guidelines (including Australian) include medical nutritional therapy in the management of obesity.…
11th May 2024, A/Prof Chee L Khoo
I recall reading somewhere that increasing fish intake during pregnancy results in leaner offsprings. It all makes sense as we know that ω-3 fatty acid (ω-3 FA) is beneficial for adults (also read somewhere). It must be good for babies then. Is there data on those claims? Well, sort of. We shall look into them.…
29th July 2022, Dr Chee L Khoo
12 months ago, at GPVoice, we announced the arrival of drug LY3298176, which now has a name, tirzepatide, as the first in its class of “twincretins” in the management of type 2 diabetes. We briefly explored the 4 Phase 3 trials looking at the efficacy and safety of trizepatide in comparison with placebo, semaglutide, insulin degludec and insulin glargine.…
24th December 2021, Dr Chee L Khoo
Obesity is often the core underlying pathology leading to many degenerative and inflammatory diseases. Unfortunately, there is no easy fix to treat obesity. Over the last 12 months we have explored a number of novel molecules which have proven efficacious in reducing fat mass in patients with obesity with or without diabetes. We last looked at the up and coming tirzepatide.…
27th November 2020, Dr Chee L Khoo
Every so often you come across reports of some “ultra-rare” disease that has a treatment available now and you probably thought that it really doesn’t concern you or your patients. In a recent small study reported in The Lancet, Karine Clément, Erica van den Akker et. al. presented the results of setmelanotide in participants with proopio-melanocortin (POMC) gene mutation which is associated with severe childhood obesity.…
11th October 2019. Dr Chee L Khoo
We all know that weight management is not as simple as a calories in calories out equation. Increasing nut consumption in particular, in theory, can cause weight gain because of nuts’ energy density but it doesn’t always translate to weight gain. In fact, a recent study showed the opposite – increased nut consumption actually is associated with reduced long term weight gain.…
24th December 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Losing weight is the second hardest thing to do. The hardest is keeping that weight off. With weight loss, hunger increases and energy expenditure decreases as the body adapts physiologically to the weight loss. The kilogram loss is not all fat loss. Some of the losses are muscles and with less muscle bulk, basal metabolic rate also decreases adding further to the decrease in energy expenditure. …
March 2018, Dr Chee L Khoo
Several meta-analyses of randomised clinical trials showed that ketogenic diets induce a long-term significant improvement in body weight, diastolic blood pressure, triglycerides and HDL-cholesterol, when compared to low fat diets. However, rapid weight loss may cause a transient rise in plasma triglycerides which can contribute to impairment in cardiac function in the short term.
The heart has a very high energy demand, which is met almost entirely by the mitochondrial oxidation of fatty acids and carbohydrates.…