Archive for April, 2024

Pressure Builds on GLP-1 Pricing, with More to Come

April 30, 2024 — Last week, the U.S. Senate launched an investigation into the high price of semaglutide, sold as Ozempic and Wegovy by Novo Nordisk. Yes, pressure on GLP-1 pricing is building and you can be confident there’s more to come. Senator Bernie Sanders chairs the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, which is undertaking this […]

Think About It: Does Your Weight Bias Reflect Your Beliefs?

April 29, 2024 — What does it take to change the explicit and implicit bias that people have about others and themselves based solely upon body weight or fatness? New research tells us that we should pay attention to cognitive dissonance. In other words, we should be asking, does our weight bias reflect our beliefs? Or is there a […]

Why Might Patients Not Trust Health Systems and Providers?

April 28, 2024 — Daniella Lamas is a critical care physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. She recalls telling the wife of a patient who was dying something she did not want to hear about her husband’s care. The woman told Lamas: “Why should I believe you? I don’t think that I do.” The Imperative for Trust […]

Can Obesity Medicines Improve Population Health?

April 27, 2024 — To open Obesity Medicine 2024 yesterday, David Arterburn presented a brilliant perspective on the radical paradigm shift and price wars that lie ahead in obesity care. Along the way, he explained how he believes that better obesity medicines can help meet a fundament goal of healthcare: to improve population health. He described the future of […]

Will We Always Have to “Keep Taking” Obesity Medicines?

April 26, 2024 — Perhaps the most persistent fault that people find with new obesity medicines is the need to keep taking them forever. “Nobody is ready ” for that, says Business Insider. “Patients hate forever drugs,” says the New York Times. And they have a point. Obesity medicine doctors are quick to say “suck it up.” That’s just […]

Both Gains and Pains with Updated Nutrition Guidelines

April 25, 2024 — We’ve seen a lot of gains in the quality of nutrition guidelines this month. Gains in aligning guidelines for the WIC program (nutrition for women, infants, and children) and school meals with U.S. dietary guidelines are something that most nutrition experts are praising. Yet even with those gains, come certain pains in dealing with their […]

Sex, Alcohol, and GLP-1 Clickbait

April 24, 2024 — Clickbait is a new spin on an old thing. Sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll used to be the formula for drawing eyes to advertising. Now the hottest clickbait is sex, alcohol, and GLP-1 drugs. People magazine tells us this month that GLP-1 agonists “may impact the desire to drink alcohol or have sex.” Oh […]

Study Says Taxing Unhealthy Food Cuts Obesity? Nope

April 23, 2024 — “Taxing unhealthy food helps cut obesity, says global study. Mexico is leading the way in implementing taxes on unhealthy food options, successfully helping to tackle obesity and related health issues.” This is the start of a breathtaking press release from Imperial College London. But those opening lines are more fiction than fact. First, the publication […]

Looking for Black and White Answers in a World of Gray

April 22, 2024 — Virginia Sole-Smith has black and white answers for the world of gray nuances that define the relationship of nutrition, obesity, and health. She is an outspoken advocate for fat acceptance and body liberation. Restraint is something she rejects. In a very personal profile for the New York Times, Lisa Miller describes her as both inspirational […]

Heretics and Derelicts Dispute Conventional Wisdom on Obesity

April 21, 2024 — Healthy eating and active living. For decades now, programs to prevent obesity have followed the conventional wisdom that pursuing these two ideals will solve the problem. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation pledged a billion dollars to prevent childhood obesity by following this template: “By 2025, we want to ensure that children in America grow up […]