BACKGROUND Surgery is the only effective treatment for people with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 40 Kg/m² or even greater than 35 Kg/m² when some diseases like diabetes or hypertension appear. In order to minimize surgical risk and improve postoperative results, preoperative preparation it's very important. "Acute" preoperative weight loss just before surgery plays a crucial role in that...

The aim of this article was to study the effect of virtual-reality exposure to situations that are emotionally significant for patients with eating disorders (ED) on the stability of body-image distortion and body-image dissatisfaction. A total of 85 ED patients and 108 non-ED students were randomly exposed to four experimental virtual environments: a kitchen with low-calorie food, a kitchen wi...

In a service environment a service provider needs to determine the amount and kinds of capacity to meet customers’ needs over many periods. To make good decisions, she needs to know the probability distribution of her customers’ demand in each period. We study a situation in which customers’ demand for a given service is random in each period, but inelastic, or modeled well by this assumption, ...

BACKGROUND The loss of self-control or inability to resist tempting/rewarding foods, and the development of less healthful eating habits may be explained by three key neural systems: (1) a hyper-functioning striatum system driven by external rewarding cues; (2) a hypo-functioning decision-making and impulse control system; and (3) an altered insula system involved in the translation of homeosta...

Short-term starvation (STS) protects normal cells while simultaneously sensitizing malignant cells to high-dose chemotherapeutic drugs in mice and possibly patients. The fasting-dependent protection of normal cells and sensitization of malignant cells depends, in part, on reduced levels of insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and glucose. Calorie restricted diets with defined macronutrient (car...

Obesity and insulin resistance are associated with an increase of cardiovascular risk factors, including adipocytokines. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of low-calorie diet on serum lipids, adipokines, insulin resistance and body composition in obese women. It was a clinical trial with class I obese women aged 30-45 years submitted to hypocaloric diet for 90 days. Dietary in...