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Dr. Hamdy in the Press

Book offers a 12-week plan for reversing the progression of Type 2 diabetes

In “The Diabetes Breakthrough,” Osama Hamdy and Sheri R. Colberg offer a program that they say can stop and even reverse the “relentless progression” of that disease. Dr. Hamdy, medical director of the Obesity Clinical Program at the Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center, and Colberg, an exercise physiologist, say their 12-week strategy has enabled patients at Joslin’s Boston clinic to cut the amount of medication they take by an average of 50 to 60 percent while keeping their disease under control. If you’re looking for a quick guide to eating and exercising, this isn’t the book for you. But if you want to understand your disease as you try to get better, it has a lot to offer.

Diabetic weight-loss plan yields long-term success

(Reuters Health) - Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center report that a 12-week weight-loss program they devised for patients with type 2 diabetes continues to have a positive, long-lasting effect on weight loss 1 year later, long after patients are off on their own.

Meet the New Faces of Middle Age

Building block: stable blood sugar

Osama Hamdy, MD, PhD, of the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, says overweight people should shoot for losing about 7 percent of their total body weight: "For most people, that's enough to cut their risk of developing diabetes in half."

How to avoid—and even reverse—diabetes

You read that right: Blasko essentially reversed her diabetes. And, most people with type 2 diabetes—which afflicts 1 out of every 10 women in the U.S.—could do the same, according to Dr. Osama Hamdy, medical director of the Obesity Clinical Program at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "We've been treating diabetes for 40 years by adding more and more medications, with no big improvements," Hamdy said. "But if you act early, keep the weight off, and maintain a healthy lifestyle, you can put this disease in remission forever."

What works?

A new study is weighing the success of surgical bypass and banding against intensive lifestyle changes to fight type 2 diabetes and obesityThe wonder workout

Patients who have previously gone through the program have lost an average of nearly 25 pounds and kept off more than 18 for a year, according to research published by Joslin in 2008. Hamdy said newer findings show they kept almost all that weight off for three years — “the longest, to my knowledge, weight loss that we have ever seen in clinical research,’’ he said. More than 80 percent of the patients also met their diabetes targets; their kidney and liver functions improved, and their blood pressure fell

Calling Obesity A Disease May Make It Easier To Get Help

Classifying obesity as a disease is long overdue, according to Dr. Osama Hamdy, who directs the Obesity Clinical Program at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. "The reality is, if you have that genetic susceptibility to gain weight, you will gain weight easily, no matter what."

Genetic susceptibility has to do with hormones and chemical systems in the body that direct appetite, metabolism and the absorption of nutrients and fat. One of those hormones is leptin. It's produced by fat cells and tells the body when it's eaten enough. Hamdy says the majority of people who are obese are resistant to leptin. "The brain is shielded from the information on how much fat you have in your body," he says. "The brain is under the assumption all the time that you need more fat."

Other hormones make some people get hungry more often than others.

Exercise can help people with diabetes profoundly reduce their medication loads

After completing the 12-week Weight Achievement and Intensive Treatment (Why WAIT) fitness program at the Boston-based Joslin Diabetes Center, Smith lost the 25 pounds and saw his hemoglobin A1C level, a measurement that reflects a person's average blood sugar level over several months, drop from 8 percent to 5.8 percent (7 percent or less is a common treatment target for diabetics). He also has been able to cut his insulin intake in half and reduce his cholesterol and blood pressure medications.

The New Way To Reverse Your Diabetes Risk

Dr. Hamdy says these easy strategies can reverse prediabetes: controlling portions (fewer calories leads to weight loss); cutting saturated fat—found in dairy products and fatty meats—to reduce the risk of coronary artery disease; getting more fiber from fruits, vegetables, and whole grains (you'll feel full longer and avoid blood sugar swings); and engaging in regular activity and exercise (at least 30 minutes a day helps muscles use more blood sugar). The payoff is huge: You'll sidestep a long list of health concerns. The complications of diabetes include heart attack and stroke, vision loss, kidney failure, nerve damage, sexual problems, impaired circulation, and—in the extreme—foot and leg amputation. You could also give your bank account a break: The lifetime out-of-pocket cost of diabetes care is now approximately $85,000, according to a CDC study.

Gastric bypass surgery may lower diabetes risks, but also carries dangers

"I have to caution against jumping to a conclusion about the absolute benefit of bariatric surgery for patients with diabetes since most of the studies are short-term for less than two years, and the very few long-term studies are poorly designed or using surgeries that are obsolete," said Dr. Osama Hamdy, director of Inpatient Diabetes Management at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, Mass.

Hamdy, who was not involved in the study, pointed out that while there is normally a temporary remission from diabetes with any person who loses a lot of weight, almost 50 percent of people who had gotten rid of their diabetes after surgery eventually ended up with diabetes again. Most surgery subjects have major issues with nutritional deficiency.

Obesity? Diabetes? We’ve been set up.

Harvard researchers are targeting obesity and its cousin, diabetes

“It’s not just a trap, it’s a trap and a downward spiral,” said Assistant Professor of Medicine Osama Hamdy, a physician at Harvard-affiliated Joslin Diabetes Center and director of a groundbreaking weight loss program being replicated at Joslin affiliates around the world.

Short-Term Intensive Weight Loss Program Works for Four Years; Valid Option Seen to Bariatric Surgery

Newswise — PHILADELPHIA -- June 12, 2012 -- A study by a team of clinicians and researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston has shown for the first time that patients with diabetes who enrolled in a short-term intensive weight management program were able to lose weight and keep it off on their own for four years. The findings suggest an alternative course to bariatric surgery in the fight against type 2 diabetes.

The study, presented as a late-breaking abstract Sunday at the American Diabetes Association’s 72nd Scientific Sessions, strongly counters the popular view that people generally cannot maintain long-term the weight loss achieved during lifestyle intervention programs.

Paula Deen drops 30 pounds, feels 'a thousand times better

For someone with type 2 diabetes, changing your diet and losing weight are “the major modifiers” of the disease, says endocrinologist Dr. Osama Hamdy, medical director of the obesity clinical program at Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston. Those two things can sometimes be even more effective than medications, he said.The body needs glucose, or sugar, to work properly, Hamdy says. Insulin is the “key” that opens the door to the body’s organs and tissues to allow the glucose in.

The Hamdy Why WAIT Diet for Type 2 Diabetes

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, approximately one-third of American adults are obese or overweight. And that number is steadily growing, as is the rate of childhood obesity. Obesity can lead to many other health complications including an increase in the risk of heart disease and diabetes. The link between obesity and type 2 diabetes is especially strong.

As a result of these factors, Dr. Osama Hamdy, the medical director of the Obesity Clinical Program at Joslin Diabetes Center, advocates a modified diet and exercise with the primary objective of treating and preventing diabetes. This program is called Why WAIT, or Weight Achievement and Intensive Treatment, and represents an interdisciplinary effort and weight loss through behavior modification.

The wonder workout

The Goal: Blast belly fat, improve insulin resistance, and regulate blood sugar in 8 weeks. This workout and diet plan was designed to fight prediabetes, but it’s great for anyone.

The results: The six prediabetic women who followed the plan saw their risk factors diminish in just 8 weeks. They dropped pounds and even lowered cholesterol and blood pressure.
The experts: The workout/diet was designed by Jacqueline Shahar, a clinical exercise physiologist at the Joslin Diabetes Center in Boston, and Osama Hamdy, MD, PhD, director of the center’s
obesity clinical program

Multidisciplinary approach maintains weight loss in diabetes patients

The Goal: Blast belly fat, improve insulin resistance, and regulate blood sugar in 8 weeks. This workout and diet plan was designed to fight prediabetes, but it’s great for anyone.