News Archive for August, 2017

“At the end of the day, what we’d like to see is fewer obese people in the Medicare population about which we have to have these conversations.” Those striking words came Aloysius Cuyjet, MD, MPH. They came after he chaired more than five hours of evidence review at Medicare’s advisory committee on evidence and coverage […]

A new economic analysis published in Pediatrics leaves us with simple questions. Are we willing to pay for childhood obesity care? If we believe in family values, how do we value families? Cost-Effectiveness of Family-Based Childhood Obesity Care Teresa Quattrin and colleagues have previously demonstrated the effectiveness of family-based care for childhood obesity. And they […]

Good news, everybody! You can now order “A More Mindful Burger” at Epic Burger in Chicago. Or a mindful trucker’s cap from Mindful Supply. Authors stand ready to sell you books on every flavor of mindfulness you can imagine: pregnancy, parenting, politics, teaching, and spirituality. Oh, and of course, mindful eating is an especially hot […]

It’s official as of Friday. Liraglutide (Victoza) is not only for treating type 2 diabetes and obesity. FDA now says it also effectively prevents heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths. This new information applies to people taking it for diabetes who also have heart disease. A Dramatic, Ongoing Shift in Diabetes Care This news represents […]

Employers who want to impose wellness on their employees received a setback last week. A federal judge ruled that if employees lose money unless they participate, it’s not voluntary. AARP Victory on Privacy Rights This ruling came in a lawsuit filed by AARP to contest EEOC rules about protecting privacy. By law, employers are not […]

Celebrity nutritionist Adelle Davis preached it. She said we should be eating breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper in the mid 20th century. Despite little evidence behind her advice, it has incredible staying power. Popular and Controversial Between 1947 and 1965, Davis published four hugely popular books on […]

Whether the subject is politics, nutrition, or obesity, moderation and respect seem rare. Instead we have bitter arguments between brittle ideologies. Some folks are rallying behind a belief that “sugar is toxic.” But others are raging against a “nanny state” that imposes sin taxes on soda. When the AMA joined many other health experts in […]

Women’s Health summed up a bunch of sensational headlines recently: “Eating this one food might be the trick to losing weight.” That one food, of course, is magic walnuts. And the headlines flowed from some perfectly valid research. There’s just one tiny problem. Weight loss was not the subject of the research. In fact, the […]

Bill Maher has discovered the absurdity of blowhards. Friday on his show, Real Time, he started with the idea that extremes of both the left and the right push some absurd ideas. But then took his sport of public ridicule further. He hurled a rant at people who don’t look like him: These colors don’t […]

Among the complex web of factors that are causing obesity to rise, you will find the rise of drugs that cause weight gain. New antipsychotic drugs – like olanzapine or Zyprexa – are classic examples. They offer important benefits for people living with schizophrenia or bipolar disease. But they have a downside. They can cause obesity and metabolic […]