November 30, 2025 — Thanks to the power of exposure bias, a chorus of studies that correlate ultra-processed foods consumption with obesity and chronic diseases has convinced many policy advocates that these foods are a scourge to be eradicated. “Higher taxes on UPFs” are a “priority action,” says The Lancet, to “put health before profit.” But this well-intentioned impulse […]
November 29, 2025 — “Basically, all the scientific leadership has been wiped out at the CDC. They’re all political people now who are running the CDC and determining what the public health message is going to be,” says Julie Rovner. She has been reporting on the CDC for four decades now and has never seen anything like this. Leadership […]
November 28, 2025 — A new research letter in JAMA tells us that more new mothers are using GLP-1s for weight management. The rise of use in this context is dramatic – roughly 500% between 2022 and 2024. Note that these data come from Denmark. There, we estimate the per capita use of GLP-1s for obesity is somewhat less […]
November 27, 2025 — In the New York Times, science writer Amanda Schupak wants us to know that we can rationalize our Thanksgiving feast today as a good thing because it’s healthy: “If there’s one day of the year to slip on something elastic-waisted and ignore your typical eating habits, it’s Thanksgiving. The sides! The pies! The leftovers! The […]
November 26, 2025 — It seems like some good news is overdue for Novo Nordisk. So the topline report of a phase two study with amycretin that looks like a plausible win is especially welcome. The results at hand come from a 36-week placebo controlled study with a wide range of oral and injection doses in persons with type […]
November 25, 2025 — Novo Nordisk made a bold gamble on oral semaglutide for delaying the progression of Alzheimer’s disease. Yesterday, as can happen with bold gambles, it did not pay off. A daily 14 mg oral dose of semaglutide was no better than placebo for preventing disease progression as measured by the Clinical Dementia Rating – Sum of […]
November 24, 2025 — Americans are only barely aware of the role that pharmacy benefit managers play in health insurance. But what they do know is not good. To the extent that most people know anything about these shadowy players in health insurance, they know PBMs control which drugs they can get, how much hassle it is to get […]
November 23, 2025 — A new study suggests that, however painful it might be, a root canal might serve to improve a person’s metabolic health. The study appears in the Journal of Translational Medicine, authored by Yuchen Zhang and colleagues from King’s College London and the University of Helsinki. It is observational and thus cannot establish cause and effect […]
November 22, 2025 — A rupture of public trust occured this week. Information on the CDC website changed overnight, without input from scientists, to espouse the anti-vaccine agenda of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Specifically, the website now says “The claim ‘vaccines do not cause autism’ is not an evidence-based claim because studies have not ruled out the […]
November 21, 2025 — The sprint to the finish for orforglipron is picking up pace with a pivotal trial in obesity and diabetes published yesterday in The Lancet. Things are looking good for this relatively simple GLP-1 agonist in a tablet. The presentation of these results from ATTAIN-2 were a highlight of ObesityWeek earlier this month, but having this […]
