Archive for December, 2013

Three Ways You’ll Pay More for Healthcare in 2014

December 21, 2013 — Cheery statistics about healthcare cost trends are nice, but it’s becoming clear that you’ll pay more for healthcare out of pocket in 2014. Employers are continuing to experiment with cost shifting as a strategy to make people more thoughtful about their healthcare choices. Here are three ways your out of pocket costs will mount in […]

Medical Obesity Devices Through a Patient’s Eyes

December 20, 2013 — FDA is trying to look at medical obesity devices through a patient’s eyes as they work with the medical device industry and payers to foster innovative medical technology for the treatment of obesity. At a two-day meeting jointly sponsored by  the FDA and the American Gastroenterological Association, Telba Irony presented research conducted by FDA into […]

Trauma, Obesity, and Ghrelin

December 19, 2013 — New studies suggest that trauma, obesity, and ghrelin may interact to provide yet another biological pathway for obesity. Clinicians will tell you that traumatic stress, such as sexual abuse, can be an important risk factor for obesity. Now researchers at the Harvard School of Public Health have documented that symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) […]

Thanks and a Request

December 18, 2013 — Thanks to every one of you who take the time to read the updates we’re publishing here daily. Because of you, we now reach 10,000 people monthly and literally all over the world with updates on the accumulating evidence and observations about obesity, health, and policy. And the trend is very encouraging. The request is […]

FDA Says Antibacterial Soaps May Be Bogus

December 18, 2013 — Antibacterial soaps for consumer use will come off the market unless their makers prove that they actually live up to their claims. This would be the effect of a ruling published by FDA this week for a 180-day public comment period. People use these products to kill bacteria that cause illness and prevent their spread. […]

Discrimination Against Big People

December 17, 2013 — Discrimination against big people can result from a naive understanding of obesity as a simple matter of size and weight. But increasingly, the AMA ruling that obesity is a disease is leading employment law experts to warn business that discriminating against people because of their size is a risky practice. Claudia Center of the Legal […]

Hit or Miss: Obesity in Wellness and Health Plans

December 16, 2013 — Wellness and health plans increasingly purport to address obesity, but the the actual experience for people in those plans is a bit of hit or miss. Some plans appear to be thoughtfully designed to encourage people to live the healthiest lives they can. Others not so much — their focus is more on marginalizing people […]

10 Notes: Race, Gender, Weight, and Healthcare Experiences

December 15, 2013 — Healthcare experiences vary widely. Variances in the quality of care based on gender, race, and weight status have been reported, but a deep understanding of what’s driving these variations is a challenge. Rebecca Puhl, Kimberly Gudzune, and others have published good studies of the effects that stigmatizing experiences in healthcare have upon patients with obesity. […]

Eight Invisible Facts of Obesity

December 14, 2013 — Eight invisible facts of obesity get in the way of a more rational health policy to deal with this pernicious chronic disease. Without coming to grips with these facts, policy makers will keep making dumb mistakes and tripping over them. Obesity is more than one disease. For people who have barely come to terms with the […]

FDA Bans Antibiotics for Fattening Livestock

December 13, 2013 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration acted this week to ban antibiotics for fattening livestock. Over a period of three years, the FDA is asking manufacturers of antiobiotics for livestock to change their labeling to effectively make it illegal to use them for the purpose of fattening livestock. FDA says that the companies that make […]