Archive for May, 2024

American Heart: Zap the Gap Between Obesity Science and Care

May 21, 2024 — We are witnessing a conversion experience. With the publication of a new policy statement yesterday, the American Heart Association jumped in with both feet to call for closing the gap between obesity science and the typical care that people with obesity receive. Their statement says: “Experts have learned a great deal about the causes of […]

The Distorted Lens of Behavioral Risks for Global Health

May 20, 2024 — Two updated analyses from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study came out in the Lancet over the weekend. They bring a very specific lens to the problem of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and their looming implications for global health. Through this lens, the focus is on risk factors – high BMI and high blood glucose […]

Trash Talk About Obesity and Food

May 19, 2024 — Food policy advocates are sharing a music video that captures a certain way of thinking. The choruses are nothing but trash talk about obesity and food. “It’s your own damn fault,” says one verse. In the next, “a team of evil scientists through rigorous testing created the most abominable snacks.” So it draws us into […]

Guest Post: Can’t Win for Losing

May 18, 2024 — Recently, prominent singer and talk show host, Kelly Clarkson, admitted to taking medication to help with their weight, and the world is losing its mind, again. It seems more and more these days the “admission” of taking medication to treat a serious chronic disease is met with backlash by anyone really. Whether it’s family, friends, […]

Truth and Light, Carbs and Insulin, Trading Letters in Obesity

May 17, 2024 — “Give a boy a hammer and everything he meets has to be pounded.” Though this hammer-nail-pounding metaphor started half a century ago, it still works well today. For example, folks armed with the carbohydrate insulin model (CIM) of obesity see opportunities everywhere to pound away, bringing truth and light. Whatever the question, carbs and insulin […]

JAMA: Handing Out Anti-Obesity Cash – Why Not?

May 16, 2024 — We’re going to file this under “C” – for cluelessness. A new study in JAMA adds to the list of wellness strategies from people who have little understanding of obesity as a chronic disease. People who don’t understand that one-and-done weight loss does little to resolve the problem. The well-intended concept here is to pay […]

ECO2024: Unease About BMI Defining Clinical Obesity

May 15, 2024 — The symposium that packed an auditorium at ECO2024 yesterday dealt with the fundamental need to get beyond BMI for defining clinical obesity. It seems so simple. “Overweight and obesity are defined as abnormal or excessive fat accumulation that may impair health,” says the World Health Organization. And yet that definition ties back to BMI for […]

ECO2024: Four Years of Semaglutide Heart and Weight Benefits

May 14, 2024 — How long? So many questions about advanced obesity medicines center on this line of inquiry. How long must I take these medicines, how long will their benefits last. Yesterday we learned at ECO2024 that four years of semaglutide offers impressive benefits for a person’s weight and heart health. Nature Medicine published data on weight outcomes […]

ECO2024: Obesity Implicated in Nearly Half of Cancer Cases…But

May 13, 2024 — Compelling new research presented at ECO2024 implicates obesity in nearly half of all cancer cases. Researchers from Lund University in Sweden analyzed data from more than four million adults to find an additional 19 types of cancer for which obesity likely plays a significant role. They explained: “The findings of this study have important public […]

ECO2024: Tailoring and Tapering Obesity Medicines

May 12, 2024 — A pair of studies with semaglutide at ECO2024 in Venice goes straight to the heart of some core questions about advanced obesity medicines. Does everyone need the full, maximum dose to get good results? Will everyone have to keep taking that full dose to keep obesity under control? The answer to both questions is no. […]