May 31, 2023 — Plenty of people have strong feelings about metabolic and bariatric surgery (MBS) for young persons. The idea that it might even be an option for youth can inflame the passions of people who are happy to dictate what medical care should and should not be available to other people. This response drew a lot of […]
May 25, 2023 — Are we ready for a re-think of obesity and metabolic health? Ready to change the conversation about obesity medicines and bariatric surgery? Sergio Santoro, Scott Shikora, and Ricardo Cohen certainly think so. Writing in Obesity Surgery, they say it’s time to say goodbye to bariatric surgery and move on to the framework of metabolic surgery. […]
May 11, 2023 — The natural killers of our immune system – lymphocytes known as natural killer cells – increasingly seem to have a role in the pathophysiology of obesity and in the response to its treatment. Just this week, researchers from Ireland published a study showing that semaglutide for obesity may restore more normal function of these cells. […]
May 2, 2023 — Yet again we are reminded that bariatric surgery has quite an impressive record for improving the health of people with obesity. In a retrospective cohort study of 55,789 patients receiving bariatric surgery, risk of obesity-related cancer came down by half. Researchers matched the non-surgical control group using propensity scores for demographics, comorbidity, hormone therapy, and […]
April 20, 2023 — Like never before, we are in the midst of intensive public discourse about obesity, obesity care, and weight loss. Some of it is frivolous and some of it is frankly misleading. But what is really good in the middle of all this is that more people than ever before have options for dealing with obesity […]
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 […]
March 11, 2023 — Belief in the power of food stores and markets to shape outcomes in obesity runs deep. Perhaps it’s unshakable. But still, recent PR spin claiming that food stores “drive” bariatric surgery outcomes takes confusion of correlation with causality to new heights. In a press release from Ohio State University, the lead author of two new […]
January 26, 2023 — An impressive new study in Obesity, with up to 40 years of follow-up, confirms that the benefit of a longer life after bariatric surgery is durable, but it comes with certain risks. The authors of this study, led by Ted Adams, explain: “Results of this study attest to the decades-long durability of bariatric surgery in […]
December 12, 2022 — Hoops are fine tools for play and entertainment. But the hoops which health insurers put people with obesity through serve only to delay and discourage obesity care. The implicit message is clear enough: “You probably don’t deserve this, so you have to prove yourself first.” A recent study demonstrates once again that these insurance mandates […]
November 17, 2022 — Can bariatric surgery cut the risk of a heart attack in half? The answer, of course, depends upon the population of patients and their risk profile. And we must remember that risk is a tricky thing to measure. But a recent study in JAMA Network Open found half the risk of a wide range of […]
