Archive for December, 2014

Mixed Signals on Obesity

December 11, 2014 — We’re getting fatigue from mixed signals on obesity. The American Public Health Association, the United Health Foundation, and the Partnership for Prevention issued a report this week that shows renewed growth in obesity rates. USA Today delivered a scolding with a headline saying: “U.S. Falls Behind on Exercise and Gets Fatter.” The annual report behind these […]

Diabetes Drugs Moving into Obesity

December 10, 2014 — A decided shift has happened in the interaction between the development of therapies for diabetes and therapies for obesity. Ten years ago, diabetes drugs that actually caused weight gain — like Avandia and Actos — were ascending blockbusters while treatments for obesity were falling flat. Drug development for obesity was drying up. Today, the situation […]

Employers Worrying about Obesity, Not Discrimination

December 9, 2014 — Health insurance and business observers are noticing a growing blind spot for some businesses. These businesses more concerned with health costs than they are about discriminating against employees with physical or medical limitations. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) bars employers from compelling employees to provide personal health information for the purpose of health screening. The EEOC […]

Evidence that Exercise Improves Bariatric Surgery Outcomes

December 8, 2014 — It’s conventional wisdom. Ask anyone in the field and they’ll tell you they believe that exercise improves bariatric surgery outcomes. But until now, it’s only been an assumption. So it’s great to have a randomized, controlled trial that proves the point. A talented team of researchers from three research centers randomized 128 gastric bypass patients […]

Dietitians Stand Out

December 7, 2014 — Across the spectrum of allied health professionals, dietitians stand out as best suited to provide weight management counseling to people with obesity. No, that’s not PR from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics. It’s the finding of research from Johns Hopkins just published in Obesity. Sara Bleich and colleagues conducted a study with 500 health professionals […]

Better Outcomes If You Pay Attention to People

December 6, 2014 — Maybe good clinical care for people with obesity really is simple. Lawrence Cheskin of Johns Hopkins laid it out there in the midst of a session on treatment of severe obesity: “The more you pay attention to people, the better they do.” This epiphany comes from the American Society for Nutrition’s annual conference on Advances […]

Will a Mediterranean Diet Keep You Young?

December 5, 2014 — A new study this week has the news media buzzing that following a Mediterranean diet can help keep people young by protecting their genetic code as they age. How can this be? The study, published in the BMJ, analyzed the association between how closely people in the Nurses Health Study followed a Mediterranean diet and […]

CEOs Prefer Fining Employees for Wellness

December 4, 2014 — In a remarkable display of misdirected anger, CEOs from the Business Roundtable are fuming because the EEOC (Equal Opportunity Employment Opportunity Commission) wants to bar them from fining employees for wellness. In the case that prompted this concern, the EEOC has taken action against Honeywell for a “voluntary” wellness program in which employees must enroll unless […]

3 Social Justice Issues of Obesity

December 3, 2014 — Social justice provides a lens for examining obesity in a new book, Social Justice and the Urban Obesity Crisis — Implications for Social Work, by Melvin Delgado. For people with an interest in obesity, this book is well worth reading because it provides a fresh perspective on obesity that lies outside of the typical framework of public […]

The Scoop on Poop to Prevent Diabetes

December 2, 2014 — We could see this one coming. Endocrinologists from the University of Minnesota announced last week that they are on track to begin enrolling patients in March for a controlled trial of stool transplants to prevent diabetes. This will be a small, proof-of-principle study with just 20 subjects. Half will get a fecal transplant from donors with healthy […]