Archive for June, 2024

Nutrition 2024: Keeping People Guessing About Food Security

June 30, 2024 — In dealing with health policy related to obesity for nearly two decades, the stubborn persistence of health disparities has been one of the most frustrating issues. On the opening day of Nutrition 2024, an impressive series of new studies reminded us of an important contributor to those disparities. Keeping people guessing about their food security […]

Food Noise – in Our Heads and All Around Us

June 29, 2024 — The revolution in obesity treatment has brought surprising new discoveries along with a lot of unsettling change. Among those discoveries is that food noise is a big part of living with obesity for many people. The noise of food cues all around us sets up intrusive thoughts. It can come to dominate the lived experience […]

Momentum! TROA Passed in House Ways and Means

June 28, 2024 — With a bipartisan a vote of 36-4 yesterday, the House Ways and Means Committee passed an amended version of TROA – the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act. Honestly, after a decade of toiling away to educate legislators about the need for this, we need a pinch to assure ourselves it’s real. This is great  news […]

Getting Serious About Obesity Care in Medicare

June 27, 2024 — Today for the first time ever, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee will be marking up the Treat and Reduce Obesity Act on Capitol Hill. This is a big deal simply because it means that finally, after a decade of advocacy efforts, Congress is getting serious about obesity care in Medicare. Technically, what the […]

Generic Liraglutide Is Here – Will It Make Any Difference?

June 26, 2024 — One of the four dimensions that sum to a terrible problem of inadequate scale in obesity care is cost. Right now, the list prices for obesity medicines like semaglutide and tirzepatide in the U.S. put them out of reach for all but the wealthy and the well-insured. So will it help that a generic GLP-1 agonist – […]

Semaglutide at ADA2024: Old News or Gaining Momentum?

June 25, 2024 — It’s over. The 84th Scientific Sessions of the American Diabetes Association came to an end yesterday and for anyone interested in obesity, it has given us a lot to absorb. After four days with a steady stream of new information about drugs like the GLP-1 agonists that regulate appetite and adiposity, we are left wondering. […]

ADA2024: How Big Is the Problem with Scale for Obesity Care?

June 24, 2024 — One thing is plain to us in the huge showing of interest in obesity at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions (ADA2024). The scale of opportunity is large because the unmet medical need is great. And yet we face a tremendous problem of scale for coping with the need for obesity care. We have problems […]

ADA 2024: BPA Causes Insulin Resistance. Why Do We Drink It?

June 23, 2024 — A new study presented at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions this weekend shows us quite clearly that bisphenol A (BPA) causes insulin resistance. So we scratch our heads and wonder. Why do we keep on drinking it? This is no trivial observational study of correlations that would be easy to dismiss. Rather, it is […]

A First and a Burst of Evidence for Sleep Apnea and Obesity

June 22, 2024 — We like to celebrate firsts. And yesterday, we got one to celebrate in the first ever drug treatment shown to be effective for sleep apnea – the obesity medicine called tirzepatide. In presenting this new research at the American Diabetes Association Scientific Sessions yesterday, Atul Malhotra reminded us, “sleep is an important part of cardiometabolic […]

Has USPSTF Lost Touch with Reality on Obesity in Youth?

June 21, 2024 — This week in JAMA, the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) published an evidence review and recommendation for youth with obesity. In a word, it is disappointing. The task force seems to have completely lost touch with advances in obesity care in young persons. They recommend only that youth with a BMI in the […]