Hollywood Celebs’ Gossips

Hydroxycut, a popular weight loss diet pill, is being recalled by its manufacturer after FDA issued today a press release urging consumers to immediately stop using the supplement as it could cause severe illness  or even death. Hydroxycut is produced by Iovate Health Sciences Inc., of Oakville, Ontario, Canada and distributed in US by Iovate Health Sciences USA Inc. of Blasdell, N.Y. Hydroxycut, which was claimed to be made from natural ingredients, is marketed for weight-loss, as fat burners and energy-enhancers, but unfortunately some of its products may lead consumers to develop various health problems, including liver damage, seizures, cardiovascular disorders; and rhabdomyolysis and so on. The 23 cases FDA received included jaundice, elevated liver enzymes and liver damage requiring transplant, as well as a 19-year-old man’s death due to liver failure. (more…)

Valerie Bertinelli Bikini People Magazine Cover! Picture here shows actress Valerie Bertinelli donned in a green bikini covering the latest issue of People Magazine . The 48-year-old One Day at a Time tv star looks totally fabulous after losing 50 pound of weight! (more…)

Apple CEO Steve Jobs’ health is a much discussed topic after he was noticed a sudden weight loss since 2008. His cancellation of a keynote speech at Macworld 2009 sparked a lot to think Jobs is in great ill, some pransters even spoofed Steve Jobs death news. In a letter to quell Apple community’s concerns for his health, CEO Steve Jobs said it was a hormone imbalance that caused him the weight loss while without giving any details. Also, he said he was expected to regain weight late this Spring as the remedy for his nutritional problem “is relatively simple and straightforward”. However, Times‘ article on the topic doubted Steve Jobs’ hormone imbalance excuse/explaination and even suspected he might have a second cancer (Steve was striken with pancreatic cancer in 2004):

[...] No illness involving a combination of a hormone imbalance and a loss of proteins that causes dramatic weight loss could be remedied with a simple nutritional fix, Lustig says.

A hormonal imbalance would indeed suggest an endocrine problem, like diabetes, says Lustig, but many of the conditions that cause the body to lose vital proteins are not endocrine in nature. If a patient were losing the proteins through urine, diabetes could be an explanation, but so could other conditions, including multiple myeloma, a cancer that causes symptoms ranging from bone pain to weight loss. 

Pancreatic cancer could also cause protein loss during the digestive process, Lustig says, which would suggest a recurrence of the malignant tumor that Jobs battled 2004. It is unlikely, however, that Jobs’ original cancer has spread, Lustig says. Since pancreatic cancer is so swift and deadly, “We have to assume he was cured of that,” Lustig says. “If he weren’t, he would have been dead years ago.” But having developed one endocrine tumor increases the patient’s risk for developing a second.

Another explanation for a protein deficiency is that the body is simply not producing enough of them — a symptom of conditions including hypothyroidism, in which the body underproduces necessary hormones, or Cushing’s syndrome, Lustig says. But both conditions cause weight gain, not loss. Another possible cause is celiac disease, in which a gluten intolerance diminishes the body’s ability to absorb nutrients, but that’s a digestive order, not the result of a hormone imbalance, Lustig says. What’s more, almost none of the hypothesized disorders involving hormone imbalance and protein deficiency can be treated with a basic change in nutrition. “There is no one disease process that encompasses these three medical threads,” says Lustig.