Refuse To Regain

Fasting Sugar 100

by Barbara Berkeley, MD In the late 1980s when I first started taking care of very overweight people, our clinic would occasionally treat a diabetic. Since we were using a full liquid diet at the time, we would put these people in the hospital and monitor them for as much as a week while adjusting their calories. This was before the days of hand-held glucose monitors that came in rainbow colors, before ads for diabetic testing supplies started running during... Read more →

The Price of Our Pleasures

by Barbara Berkeley, MD The following obituary (exerpted here) appeared in the New York Times on Tuesday: Barbara Holland, Defender of Small Vices, Dies at 77 Barbara Holland, a writer whose humorous essays sang the simple pleasures of drinking martinis, cursing and eating fatty foods....died on Sept 7 at her home in Bluemont, Va. She was 77.The cause was lung cancer, her daughter...said. In her essay collection, "Endangered Pleasures: In Defense of Naps, Bacon, Martinis, Profanity, and Other Indulgences" (1995)... Read more →

A Second Chance at Vigilance

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering Our dog Mathilda woke up lame in her hind legs on Wednesday. Because she’s a large breed and 10 years old, we didn’t want to put her through a lot of tests other than x-rays and blood work. Our vet agreed and began treating her conservatively with heavy doses of steroids to see if inflammation was the problem. On Friday we took her home, and while she’s still a little wobbly on her legs, she can walk... Read more →

A Group Project

by Barbara Berkeley, MD Within the next couple of weeks, I'm going to be starting a new project. For years, I've wanted to develop a maintainer's group that would look very different from the standard weight loss meetings. To do this effectively, I'd love to have your help. My office practice has given up on groups. Over the years, we've found that patients who must pay out-of-pocket for treatment prefer the convenience and privacy of individual visits. When we've tried... Read more →

The Lean World, The Fat World

by Barbara Berkeley, MD In the 1950s, I grew up as the daughter of two normal weight people. My sister and I were skinny. My aunts and uncles were all of reasonable weight. So were my cousins and all of my friends. My maternal grandmother was always heavy, but she was the definite exception. Our family was completely and utterly sedentary and so were the families of most of my friends. My father worked long hours at a desk job.... Read more →

The Mystery of Aunt Flo

By Lynn Haraldson-Bering “Knock, knock.” “Who’s there?” “Aunt Flo.” “Aunt Flo WHO?” “Aunt Flo! You remember! I haven’t “visited” in 3 years, 7 months and 2 days! Mwahahaha! But I’m baaaaack!” And so it was, last Tuesday, August 31, 2010. In the immortal words of Shania Twain, I felt “like a woman” again. And I’m totally confused. We all know that losing weight reduces our risk of heart attack, stroke, diabetes, arthritis, some types of cancer and a myriad other... Read more →