December 11, 2022 — “Let’s just agree to disagree” is an expression of utter nonsense, says Professor David Allison in an introduction to the concept of adversarial collaboration. Of course, he is describing this in the context of scientific controversies. And in obesity and nutrition research, it’s quite easy to construct a list of subjects on which the disagreements […]
December 10, 2022 — In a perverse way, there might be some good news in the current frothy coverage about new medicines for obesity and diabetes. We are a bit fed up with nonsense about who “deserves” access to care with drugs like semaglutide. But it does serve to highlight some of the usually hidden biases about treating obesity. […]
December 9, 2022 — We have four levels in our home – three sets of stairs to climb. So this new study in Nature Medicine yesterday definitely has our attention. Digging into observational activity monitor data from the UK Biobank, Emmanuel Stamatakis and colleagues from all over the world found that short bursts of vigorous activity – like quickly […]
December 8, 2022 — The not so humble water bottle. Look around and it’s easy to see that this is an indispensable accessory for signaling an active, healthy lifestyle. CDC makes it clear. Drink plenty of water and you can protect yourself from all kinds of health problems: dehydration, fuzzy thinking, mood changes, overheating, constipation, and kidney stones. It […]
December 7, 2022 — We live in an age of algorithms and machine learning, says Professor Barbara Fister. But we should be aware that a bigot can find its way into the machine. She explains: “A provider of healthcare decision-making software that helps to manage care for some 200 million people each year wanted to create an algorithm to […]
December 6, 2022 — The fix is in press this week for our terrible eating habits. In Nature Medicine, Pao-Hwa Lin and Crystal Tyson review a new RCT of interventions in food stores that they believe point the way to “fixing America’s eating habits.” They write: “Today, more than half of all adults in the USA have one or […]
December 5, 2022 — Move over, Novo Nordisk and Eli Lilly. Amgen wants a piece of the action in obesity treatment. With some obvious pride of accomplishment, Amgen unveiled results from a phase 1 study of its dual action conjugate on Saturday. This new experimental drug, AMG 133, is a molecule that combines peptides to activate GLP-1 receptors (as […]
December 4, 2022 — We have been living in an age of outrage for a while now. Blame it on politicians, social media, cancel culture, or whatever you like. But that impulse to assign the blame for it might be an indicator that we are suffering from a deficit of forgiveness. Writing in the New York Times, Timothy Keller […]
December 3, 2022 — You can’t outrun a bad diet. It’s a clever turn of phrase that resonates. But like many things that resonate about diet, exercise, and obesity, it might be a little too clever. In a very gentle way, David Allison, Dennis Bier, and Julie Locher point this out in a brief commentary appearing this week in […]
December 2, 2022 — It doesn’t take a genius to understand the futility of sprinting in a marathon. But it does seem to take some knowledge and insight to differentiate between the sprint of short-term weight loss and the marathon of obesity treatment. Right now that distinction matters because of a short supply of drugs that are medically necessary […]
