It's a throwback with a comeback.

A Colombian intimate apparel model named Natalia Paris wants to reinvent herself. According to the Atlantic, this blonde, babelicious, ex-girlfriend-of-a-former-Medellin-cartel-lieutenant has changed her "look."  She got rid of her implants. 

Why? 

"Not getting any younger," she says in the article.

There's good news today about an alarming trend in teenage female athletes. As many as a fourth of our daughters who participate in sports or strenuous exercise stop menstruating -- or don't start -- compared with 2 to 5 percent in the general population. The phenomenon, known as hypothalamic amenorrhea is one part of the so-called "female athlete triad," which includes low energy availability, weak bones and menstrual disorders.

The reason for menstrual shutdown, particularly in athletes who are not thin enough to be diagnosed with anorexia nervosa, is not clear. But now medical researchers have found one major suspect in the mystery: the hormone leptin - and new hope for treatment.

Several years ago, I received an email from a mother of a child diagnosed with anorexia. She asserted that the disease was caused by genes alone and that culture did not play a role. In response, I pulled several studies that testified to the the influence of societal mores on eating disorders. I told her what experts had told me -- that the disease was seeded by genes. But those seeds had to be sown on the fertile ground of environment in order to grow into the weeds of disease.

She became more vehement, and she and I agreed to disagree. Still, the conflict lingered in my mind.

She's a bride-to-be, a princess-to-be and apparently losing weight. Kate Middleton's recent appearance in Northern Ireland sparked a buzz about whether she's slimming too many pounds before her April wedding.

Is the stress? Is it the diet? Is it the media following her around snapping photos of body parts and analyzing the girth of her calves?

Who knows? except Middleton. And thankfully, she is keeping mum. Apart from whether she has an eating disorder or simply pre-marital jitters, the chattering and twittering points a finger at almost has become an iconic prenuptial phenomenon. Brides-to-be are losing weight. And doing so to the extreme.

Here's a shocker. Doctors and weight loss centers are prescribing human Chorionic Gonadotrophin (hCG), a hormone produced during pregnancy, as a weight loss aid. They serve it up to desperate dieters, as daily injections, in combination with a 500-calorie-a day meal plan. 

Are you kidding me? hCG is a PREGNANCY hormone. It's made from the urine of pregnant mares.

Post holidays, guilt flares. And it is all to common to watch the treadmills fill and the diet plans flow, as people try to shave off the results of indulgence.

But here's a study that begs caution. Researchers have shown that dieting sensitizes the brain to stress, which in turn, prompts cravings for treats. These brain changes last long after the diet is over. (They become genetic.) And they entice even healthy individuals to binge -- and ultimately gain or regain weight.

Having covered obesity research for more than a decade for the journal, Science, it is no surprise to me that yet another diet pill, called Qnexa, suffered defeat by the Food and Drug Administration on Thursday.

Qnexa is the third weight loss medicine to run afoul this month due to safety issues. First, the FDA forced the withdrawal of 13-year veteran, Meridia, because of concerns about heart attacks and strokes. Next came lorcaserin, which the FDA rejected last week because it caused tumors in rats.

That leaves only Xenical, approved in 1999, for long-term use in managing weight. And its effects are, at best, modest.

This just out. A new study confirms that girls who hit puberty earlier are at higher risk for acquiring metabolic syndrome and diabetes. But the study, published in the online Journal of Adolescent Health, shows that early puberty is not the full story.

Pediatric endocrinologist Emily Walvoord, at the Indiana University School of Medicine, analyzed 100 published articles on the topic. She showed that diabetes and related diseases are linked less to early puberty and more to obesity. Girls who are obese tend to get their periods earlier. Which leads us to the issue most relevant issue for this blog.

After two-and-a-half years of a sedentary college lifestyle, I have finally made exercise a priority and now hit the gym. I admit that I am getting hooked, so much so that I have mentioned my newfound commitment to many friends. While everyone seemed supportive, one friend caught me off guard with his response.

"Which gym did you visit?" he asked.

I identified the small one near my dorm rather than the main athletic complex, to which he replied, "Oh, you mean the girl gym!"

The girl gym?

I was taken aback.