January 15, 2025 — We’ve been waiting for this. And judging by the initial responses, the world is ready for it. The Lancet Commission on Clinical Obesity has made it official: The clinical disease of obesity is all about health. Not size, not appearance, not BMI. This global consensus report published at long last late yesterday in Lancet Diabetes […]
January 14, 2025 — It’s too dangerous, say some. In fact, quite sincerely, smart physicians have told us that the widespread use of compounded semaglutide represents a public health crisis. Others have told us that, yes, there are risks. But because of drug pricing and health insurance practices, it is the only option for many patients and they have […]
January 8, 2025 — Drug development for obesity may well be in a golden age. In large part, this is because the scientific understanding of obesity has grown exponentially in the past two decades. Unfortunately, little or none of that is reflected in new draft guidance from FDA, issued yesterday for public comment, on developing the next generation of […]
January 7, 2025 — It used to be that this was the time of year when popular culture turned its attention to weight loss season. The release of U.S. News rankings of “Best Diets” commanded media attention. Weight loss tips were everywhere. But no more is this true. No, idle talk about weight loss has not disappeared. But it […]
January 6, 2025 — As an article of faith, it is easy to find advice to avoid sweetness in the foods we eat. Canada’s Food Guide, for instance, tells us that “regularly eating foods that taste sweet can lead to a preference for sweet foods.” This is a common presumption. It is one of the rationales we see for […]
January 5, 2025 — In Nature Medicine on Friday, a striking new study from Brazil suggested that a conditional cash transfer program might have a strong effect on reducing incidence and mortality from tuberculosis in persons with extreme poverty and disadvantaged ethnic backgrounds. In fact, researchers documented more than a halving of risk. It’s quite popular to argue that […]
January 4, 2025 — The ongoing debate about the clinical definition of obesity is soon to get more intense. But already, it tells us pretty clearly that obesity is defined by more than excess weight. New research in Nature Medicine comes at this subject from an entirely different direction. Using proteomics, Lasse Maretty and colleagues find that the effects […]
January 2, 2025 — Will savings from reduced food and beverage spending be sufficient to cover the cost of obesity medicines? Will these medicines transform the patterns of a whole range of consumer purchases? Speculation about GLP-1s, consumers, and economics is rampant right now. It’s popping up in both serious economic reporting and academic journals. The speculation is only […]
December 28, 2024 — To make a list of really hard problems in health and obesity care is easy. It is a daunting list. Inequities, access to care, explosive growth in costs, and byzantine payment systems are just a few of the issues that come to mind. But a new paper in the Journal of General Internal Medicine suggests […]
December 27, 2024 — Diet and exercise is a dominant concept in obesity care that’s in the midst of an identity crisis. In The Atlantic, Daniel Engber sums up one point of view, writing: “Ozempic killed diet and exercise. Doctors might be slow to admit it, but Ozempic and other GLP-1 drugs are making dieting and exercise obsolete.” While […]
