News Archive for August, 2023

It is hard to believe. But a new commentary in Health Affairs Forefront tells us once again that drug labeling fails to assure safe and effective use for many important drugs by people with obesity. These are drugs for conditions other than obesity. But people with obesity may represent half or more of the people […]

This comes as an early morning post of anticipation. Right now we are in a dark plane over the North Atlantic, anticipating two things. First we anticipate two intense days that will begin with a jolt as we land in a bright (and possibly wet) morning in Naples, Italy, for the IFSO meeting that started […]

Bet you never saw this one coming. We did not. But a new RCT published in Nature Communications suggests that hookworms might have benefits for the metabolic health of people with insulin resistance that puts them at risk for type 2 diabetes. This was a phase 1 study with the primary aim of confirming the […]

On Friday, NEJM published impressive results in an RCT of semaglutide for treating patients who have obesity and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). The treatment enabled these people to function better, feel better, and suffer half as many serious adverse events. These are important benefits for people with a very difficult condition. But […]

Writing for the New York Times, Joseph Goldstein tells us that prescriptions for GLP-1 agonists are going to the wealthiest, whitest, and healthiest neighborhoods in New York City. Neighborhoods where the medical need is greatest? Not so much. Though we might hope that advanced medicines for obesity and diabetes would go to places with the […]

Scientists who study semaglutide in obesity are producing a steady stream of impressive results. Yesterday in the New England Journal of Medicine, a randomized controlled trial in persons with obesity and heart failure with preserved ejection fraction demonstrated superior weight reduction, improvement in heart failure, better physical functioning, and a halving of serious adverse events. […]

Let’s start with a few simple facts. Obesity causes cancer. Not every kind of cancer, but for at least a dozen types of cancer, obesity can clearly play a causal role. Scientists attribute between four and eight percent of all cancers to obesity. It is also true that, for now, the most effective single treatment […]

Simplistic thinking about obesity has an overwhelming appeal. Sadly, though, it has a dismal history of letting us down. “Yes, calories in/calories out really is the key to weight loss,” writes Tamar Haspel in the Washington Post. To insure we don’t miss the point, she closes by saying: “It’s the calories, people. It’s the calories.” […]

A new study of real world primary non-adherence (PNA, not filling an Rx) for obesity medicines provides documentation for something that should surprise no one. More than 90% prescriptions for obesity meds are never filled. Writing in the Journal of Managed Care + Specialty Pharmacy, Hong Kan and colleagues say this is unusual, especially for […]

If you are paying attention to the disparities in wealth, poverty, health, and obesity, you might note that there’s good news and bad news to be found right now. On the good news side of things, the global inequality of wealth shrank in 2022. That happened for two reasons. People in some of the poorest […]