November 19, 2024 — Fat cells don’t forget. That simple fact comes from new research published in Nature yesterday which explains a fundamental truth about obesity that eludes most people in their thinking about this condition. It is a chronic disease. Fat cells have an epigenetic memory for obesity they retain even when people lose a lot of weight. […]
November 4, 2024 — From the Presidential Plenary at ObesityWeek, a primary issue standing in the way of progress is quite clear. Are we tipping toward equity in obesity care, or are we tripping over it? Tipping Toward Progress The argument for progress comes from putting the lived experience of obesity on stage to dominate the opening plenary for […]
April 9, 2024 — More than a decade has passed since the American Medical Association confirmed that obesity is a complex, chronic disease. But the rest of the world is still struggling with this idea. Much as we have all started to say obesity is a disease, we more often act like it’s merely a risk factor for other […]
March 6, 2024 — One of the core principles Obesity Care Week is that this chronic disease is treatable. That’s becoming plain to see with emergence of advanced GLP-1 therapies. But equity in access to obesity care is practically non-existent. Prices for these medicines are high, supplies are low, and health plans make a sport of torturing people who […]
March 5, 2024 — On this, the second day of Obesity Care Week, let’s step back from all the complexity of obesity and focus on five simple principles that hold great promise for improving the way we care for people with this disease. It really doesn’t have to be so hard. 1. It Is Undeniable That Obesity Is a […]
November 28, 2021 — Medical terms can carry a lot of baggage. Leprosy, cancer, diabetes, autism, and obesity are just a few examples. What they all have in common is that they describe conditions that can cause a lot of trouble, but either don’t or didn’t have an easy resolution. So to greater or lesser degrees, people attached stigma […]
December 24, 2020 — Watching the pandemic of COVID-19 play out this year has given us an education in so many things. Will it prompt us to wrap our heads around a persistent pandemic of racism? Or shall we fall back on tired rhetoric? Racism has profound effects on health and lifespan for people of color. The facts are […]
August 31, 2020 — A chronic disease is a medical condition that stays with you. Doctors don’t have a cure, so the goal is to control it. To come as close as possible to living a healthy life despite whatever chronic condition might trouble you. Diabetes? By carefully controlling your blood sugar and your body’s response, most people can […]
June 16, 2020 — This is a problem that makes your brain hurt. We face an acute threat with COVID-19. New data from CDC tells us that chronic diseases amplify that risk. In fact, the risk of death is 12 times higher for people who have chronic diseases – diabetes, heart disease, severe obesity, or a host of other […]
January 1, 2019 — Popular culture all over the world spells it out. We should aspire to live a healthy lifestyle. And we surely do. In the spirit of living healthfully, gym memberships will soar with the beginning of the new year. Roughly half of us will resolve to lose weight or improve our fitness. It’s a big business. […]
