April 10, 2017 — A comment last week at the National Academy of Sciences from a well-known obesity expert stopped us cold: “I don’t think the science of obesity is going to get us any closer to reducing the burden of obesity in the near term.” Dismissing Science Oh my. We are in deep trouble indeed. Hearing the value […]
April 9, 2017 — Disease statistics rise to the top when describing the urgency to solve a critical health problem. How much suffering and death is this causing? A new study in PLOS ONE finds that the number of deaths caused by diabetes may be as much as four times higher than the numbers typically reported. Getting to Root Causes The […]
April 8, 2017 — Here’s a news flash you don’t see every day. Industry says FDA should slow down. Usually drug and medical device companies are complaining that the agency doesn’t move fast enough. Food companies now are saying that FDA shouldn’t move so fast on requiring new and improved nutrition labels on food products. FDA Commissioner Nominee “Delighted” to Consider Slowing […]
April 7, 2017 — At the National Academy of Sciences yesterday, the Roundtable on Obesity Solutions presented a workshop with 27 expert speakers covering the full range of challenges in treating obesity. It started with current options. It extended to pathways for innovation and considerations of payment systems and health policy. One thing was abundantly clear. We have many underused […]
April 6, 2017 — The eternal question of obesity – What’s causing all this obesity? – may not have a definitive answer. But that doesn’t stop everybody from asking. The easy answer is that obesity is mainly an inherited condition. If a person is susceptible, environment and life experiences trigger it. And then, that begs another question. What’s triggering […]
April 5, 2017 — A remarkable collaboration is taking shape to set a higher bar for the quality and safety of dietary supplements. This week in Washington the Dietary Supplement Quality Collaborative (DSQC) brought together people from the supplement industry with consumer advocates, health professionals, and scientific organizations. This group has been taking shape over the last year. The shared […]
April 4, 2017 — Affixing blame is an ancient human ritual. Affixing blame helps people make sense of a situation and move on to solving a problem. In the ancient scripture of Leviticus, the community places its sins upon a goat and casts the goat into the desert. It’s the original scapegoat. With sins removed, everyone can get on with […]
April 3, 2017 — Membership rules for the Good Doctors’ Club are changing. It used to be that a doctor could neglect or disrespect patients with obesity and stay in the club. But that’s not OK anymore. ACP Internal Medicine 2017 If you want a clue, look at what was taught in the premier scientific meeting for internal medicine physicians, […]
April 2, 2017 — Biostatisticians can be very helpful when they save someone from an embarrassing mistake. They can be frustrating when a person has already made the mistake. The frustration scenario comes out loud and clear in a case that Retraction Watch investigated this week. Claiming Efficacy Without Proving It Back in February, ConscienHealth reported on the mysterious […]
April 1, 2017 — Big sugar is on the move. Late yesterday, federal agents stopped a sugary terror plot. They seized suicide sugar bunnies aimed at millions of innocent children. Those bunnies were set to inflict maximum damage on a major religious holiday soon. “This amounts to chemical warfare,” said Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly. “Those bunnies carry a load of pure, white, and […]
