Archive for March, 2017

A Loop from Brain Function to Obesity and Back

March 31, 2017 — Brain function can play a role in the development of obesity. And in turn obesity can play a role in brain function. Many knowledge gaps remain, but fascinating insights keep coming. And dopamine – an important neurotransmitter – seems to lie at the heart of changes in the brain linked to obesity. More and more research links dopamine […]

Cana/Phen: Unlocking a Potential New Drug Combination

March 30, 2017 — A new study in Diabetes Care provides tantalizing new data on a potential new combination drug for obesity: cana/phen. The study compared a combination of 300 mg of canagliflozin and 15 mg phentermine to each drug alone and to placebo. It was a randomized, controlled study that lasted 26 weeks. The combination was more effective than […]

Understanding an Inheritance of Obesity

March 29, 2017 — Confronting the inheritance of obesity really grates on people. It challenges a broad cultural bias that obesity is primarily a result of personal choices. The fact of obesity being a highly heritable trait is simply annoying to people who insist that strength of will can solve the problem. Regardless, scientists persist in exploring the genetic basis for […]

Escaping from the Tyranny of Body Mass Index

March 28, 2017 — Is Body Mass Index (BMI) dead? That depends on how you’ve been using it. If you’ve been using it to define obesity, then maybe it will soon be dead to you. Today in Obesity, a new commentary and an editorial both call for an end to BMI as the hard and fast definition of obesity. A Better […]

Throw Open a Window to Prevent Obesity and Diabetes?

March 27, 2017 — “Open your bedroom window at night to prevent obesity and type 2 diabetes.” The Telegraph reports this simple solution from an Oxford endocrinology professor. In a similar vein, the Guardian says “access to nature reduces depression and obesity.” That promise comes from a report of the Institute for European Environmental Policy. Cool Night Air Professor Asheley Grossman […]

Virtue, Wellness, Health, and Obesity after the ACA

March 26, 2017 — Seven years of efforts to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) seem to be taking a rest for now. Perhaps the moral outrage on both sides of this debate can take a rest, too. But will we ever get a rest from health and wellness as a tool for signaling virtue? The Epithet […]

Less Beef = Less Carbon and More Health?

March 25, 2017 — The NRDC has a little ray of sunshine for us this week. Americans are eating less beef and that means less carbon going into the atmosphere to heat up the planet. It might also mean healthier dietary patterns. The Environmental Impact of Beef Production Meat production creates a lot of greenhouse gases. And beef is […]

An Economic Plague of Death, Despair, Diabetes, and Obesity

March 24, 2017 — Suffering shows up in many ways until it becomes unmistakable. Today at the Brookings Institution, Anne Case and Angus Deaton present their newest findings on a “sea of despair” among white working class Americans. People see this crisis in many different ways. All at once, it is an economic, medical, and human tragedy. An Economic Crisis […]

Our Messy Love Affair with Butter

March 23, 2017 — “With enough butter, anything is good.” – Julia Child Author Elaine Khosrova says “I never gave up on butter.” In her recent book, she explains that it has a “rich history” woven into 10,000 years of human history. Ancient cultures revered it for curative and mystical qualities. As Julia Child knew, it is essential to French cuisine. […]

Chasing Good Heart Health in the Jungle

March 22, 2017 — Headlines flowed this week from a study about people in a remote corner of the Amazon jungle who have exceptionally good heart health. This study, published in Lancet, tells us that the Tsimane people of Bolivia have the lowest rates of coronary artery plaque ever seen in any population. This is one case where health […]