Archive for the ‘Health & Obesity’ Category

Insurance for Profits But Not Health

March 28, 2023 — A close look at how health insurance denies access to care for children and youth with severe obesity reveals one thing. The system is really set up as insurance for profits – not for health. The story of Debra and Dan Tyler seeking care for one of their daughters, as reported by Ariana Eunjung Cha […]

Tab or Jab? Oral Semaglutide for Obesity

March 27, 2023 — While Ozempic and Wegovy – two injectable forms of semaglutide – have been grabbing headlines, an oral tablet form – Rybelsus – has been quietly building momentum. Right now, it’s only approved for use in type 2 diabetes. But on Friday, Novo Nordisk announced results from the first phase 3 study of oral semaglutide for […]

More Food, Less Joy, and Shorter Lives

March 26, 2023 — Food is medicine, say folks in certain food policy circles, and we have an abundant supply of it – especially in the U.S. So why is it true in this country that we have more food, find less joy in it, and live shorter lives? Eating More, Enjoying It Less, Losing Years of Life American […]

Promoting Stigma for Seeking Obesity Care

March 25, 2023 — New research in BMC Public Health raises important questions. Does news media frame obesity care for young persons in a way that promotes stigma? Does this reflect the bias of the media itself? Or does it play to the bias of the public that consumes this reporting? Thematic Analysis of Reporting from 2014 to 2022 […]

Preventing Obesity at the Entrance to Causal Pathways

March 23, 2023 — We face a pivot point for public health strategies to prevent obesity. The advent of advanced medicines for obesity treatment brings critical questions. Can we find better strategies for preventing obesity at the entrance to causal pathways for it? Or will we instead depend solely on medical interventions to reduce the harm it causes? These […]

Colon Cancer and Obesity in Young Persons

March 21, 2023 — Both colon cancer and obesity are rising in young people. In fact, a new report in CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians suggests colorectal cancer is on the way to becoming the deadliest cancer for people under 50. While colon cancer death rates are dropping for older persons, they are headed in the opposite direction […]

Do Obesity Meds Threaten Body Acceptance?

March 21, 2023 — For years, many health experts have been raising alarms about the rising prevalence of obesity. It’s an epidemic – no, a pandemic. In the absence of a good solution, though, most people move on to worrying about problems they can solve. So the idea of body positivity and acceptance has gained traction. “Diet culture” became […]

Anecdotes and Studies of Lived Experiences with Obesity

March 19, 2023 — People want to be seen and heard. To feel like they matter. But in research and policy related to obesity, this fact was long neglected for many reasons. The principal reasons have much to do with stigma and the explicit dehumanization of people with this disease. With explicit efforts to overcome these issues, we see […]

A Cluster of Unreliable Prevention Studies

March 18, 2023 — The search for effective prevention strategies in obesity is daunting. For decades now, researchers have been casting about for effective ways to educate, nudge, or cajole groups of people into moving more and eating less or better. Trying to influence a group of people means that controlled studies of interventions can wind up being cluster-randomized […]

Letting Pregnant Women Die in America

March 17, 2023 — Politicians, activists, and courts are busy fighting about when and whether to permit a woman to have an abortion. But while that tussle continues, very little energy goes into the problem of an extraordinary number of pregnant women who die in America. A new report from the CDC tells us that maternal death rates soared […]