June 20, 2016 — New research from Washington University has identified an abnormal dopamine response to sugar in the brains of people with obesity as they age. Lead author of the study, Marta Pepino, explained: We believe we may have identified a new abnormality in the relationship between reward response to food and dopamine in the brains of individuals with […]
June 19, 2016 — People hold onto some odd ideas about what constitutes helpful comments. “Don’t eat so much, you’re getting fat” are words that resonate into adulthood, especially for women. A new study by Brian Wansink, Lara Latimer, and Lizzy Pope explains how unhelpful such commentary can be. In a cross-sectional survey of 501 women aged 20 to 35 […]
June 18, 2016 — A new soda tax experiment will be starting January 1 in Philadelphia. On Thursday, the Philadelphia city voted 13-1 to approve a 1.5 cent per ounce tax on all packaged beverages that are sweetened with sugar or no-calorie sweeteners. The beverage industry says it will sue to stop the tax from being implemented. To his credit, Philadelphia’s […]
June 17, 2016 — A new study published this week in JAMA provides useful perspective on the safety and efficacy of the newer obesity meds now available for managing the chronic disease of obesity. Rohan Khera and colleagues integrated the results for 29,018 patients in 28 published clinical trials and concluded: Among overweight or obese adults, orlistat [Alli, Xenical], […]
June 16, 2016 — FDA has just approved a new gastric drain device for the treatment of severe obesity and it’s easy to find people with strong opinions about it. The AspireAssist system consists of a small tube placed through the skin and into the stomach. It connects to a port on the surface of the skin outside the […]
June 15, 2016 — Is objectivity possible in the study of intuitive eating? A new study by Janell Mensinger and colleagues published in Appetite might make you wonder. This study randomized 80 women to a controlled trial of a weight-neutral (the HUGS Program for Better Health) versus a weight-loss intervention (the LEARN Program for Weight Management). At the end of a six-month […]
June 14, 2016 — A quiet revolution is taking shape in the form of weight-sparing diabetes care that helps people live longer. Yesterday new data were simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) Scientific Sessions. The LEADER study showed that people treated for type 2 diabetes with liraglutide (Victoza) were 15% less […]
June 13, 2016 — Late-breaking data presented this past weekend at the Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association provides a good look at the efficacy of a new combination drug treatment for obesity. The combination is 300 mg of canagliflozin (Invokana) and 15 mg of phentermine. The combination of these two drugs produced an average weight loss of 7.5% […]
June 12, 2016 — Discipline – or the lack of it – is something that is sometimes offered up as an explanation for obesity. Public health professionals, employers, and physicians gathered at a medical forum in Baltimore last week to discuss obesity and how health plans can address this growing health concern. One physician who is medical director for a large health […]
June 11, 2016 — This week’s news on the latest trends in obesity was sufficiently dire to make JAMA’s editors feel desperate for a better obesity solution. Editor in Chief Howard Bauchner and Deputy Editor Jody Zylke are totally bummed by “the unrelenting challenge of obesity.” “Hundreds of millions of dollars” from “numerous foundations, industries, professional societies, and governmental agencies” […]
