May 28, 2023 — “Money makes the world go around.” Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli explained this in Cabaret. But sorting it out in healthcare – and specifically in obesity care right now – is quite a challenge. A lot of money is in play and so the tension between greed, health, and obesity care is painfully obvious. The […]
May 26, 2023 — Some health insurance plans seem to be panicking. For years, the order of things was simple. People with obesity had only themselves to blame and besides, nothing could be done about their condition. So health insurers routinely denied coverage for medical care of obesity. “Regardless of any potential medical benefit” was the language written into […]
May 23, 2023 — A pair of reports on Monday raised the possibility that we may soon have oral obesity meds that match the remarkable effectiveness of injections. One of these drugs is an oral formulation of semaglutide that’s already available at a much lower oral dose for diabetes under the brand name of Rybelsus. Novo Nordisk makes it. […]
May 20, 2023 — ECO2023 closed today with a clear focus on future progress in obesity. Lee Kaplan offered a view of what that future might look like with a focus on access and delivery of chronic care for obesity. Kaplan told us the future of obesity care lies in getting beyond merely saying that obesity is a disease. […]
May 14, 2023 — “Fix the food first. Let’s see if these drugs are actually better than real food.” Those words from Robert Lustig (the sugar is poison guy) capture the dissonance obesity medicines are causing for people who believe that obesity is simply the result of bad food. They’re framing care for people with obesity as an obstacle […]
May 4, 2023 — How can we possibly afford paying for all of the innovation that’s coming in obesity care? This is hardly an academic question. It’s a practical one that flickers in the minds of policymakers who balk at finding ways to make effective treatment for obesity more accessible to the people with great medical needs for it. […]
May 2, 2023 — “Especially for children, diet and lifestyle must remain at the forefront of obesity prevention and treatment.” This conviction, summing up a new editorial in JAMA, beautifully captures the discomfort that the availability of more effective treatments for obesity causes. The belief persists that diets and exercise are the right way to reverse obesity. So the […]
May 1, 2023 — Translating the stunning advances we’re presently seeing in obesity into something that both patients and professionals can appreciate is no small feat. But this is what just happened over the weekend at the Obesity Action Coalition YWM Virtual conference. A planning team led by Bob Kushner and Scott Kahan assembled a small faculty of some […]
April 28, 2023 — Tirzepatide, marketed by Lilly under the Mounjaro brand, may be gliding toward an FDA approval for obesity later this year. A year ago, the first phase 3 study results for tirzepatide in obesity wowed us. Yesterday, Lilly revealed yet another impressive piece of the puzzle – impressive weight reduction in persons who have both obesity […]
April 26, 2023 — Tamar Haspel is angry. She notes that many of the people expressing righteous concerns about advanced obesity medicines are also folks who have a book to sell you. Or a diet or a supplement or an exercise program. Personal convictions, money, and the conflicts that go with all of that are a jumbled mess when […]
