July 29, 2024 — When the subject of equitable access to GLP-1s arises, contrasting perspectives of what is equitable become apparent. Last week in the Annals of Internal Medicine, an analysis of prescription data for GLP-1 agonists made two facts about their use very clear. First, their use for obesity is growing much faster than the use for type […]
July 23, 2024 — Liver disease is frighteningly common worldwide. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease, or MASLD, is an umbrella term describing conditions related to a buildup of fat in the liver. Formerly known as nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, this condition affects 1 in 4 people worldwide. Among those with type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, obesity, or all three, […]
May 4, 2024 — Every day is a day to learn something new. So yesterday we learned that our gut has a mind of its own – the enteric nervous system. Randy Seeley presented his work on this at the Columbia Cornell Obesity Medicine course. It seems that much of the progress in obesity treatment over the last few […]
April 3, 2024 — We’re stuck. This assessment sums up frustration with efforts to reduce the harm of obesity and diabetes in public health. For many decades we have remained fixated on a paradigm that tells us obesity and diabetes are rising because our patterns of diet and exercise are all wrong. Writing in the Guardian, Amy McLennan tells […]
January 15, 2024 — Gary Taubes has a new book – Rethinking Diabetes: What Science Reveals About Diet, Insulin, and Successful Treatments. The problem of this book is right there in the title. It all but promises the truth about dietary health. Definitive Truth? The problem, of course, is that the science of dietary health is not so good […]
November 17, 2023 — It’s not easy. Getting access to good obesity care and maintaining it is a challenge that is especially frustrating as we see that the options for care are improving. But it seems that health systems right now are rigged to interrupt obesity treatment. An illustration of this comes from a recent study published in Obesity. […]
October 13, 2023 — The handwriting is on the wall. Insurers can’t avoid covering obesity drugs forever, said a recent analysis from Bloomberg and they were right. What prompted that conclusion is the cascade of health outcome studies that make it unmistakeable. Treating obesity and and related metabolic diseases with advanced medicines like semaglutide has a dramatic effect on […]
October 5, 2023 — Two professors yesterday at the EASD meeting engaged in a fierce and collegial debate about the feasibility of lasting remission in type 2 diabetes with very low calorie diets. Professor Kamlesh Khunti brought a polished presentation of objective data. He was unequivocal. Is lasting remission feasible in a real world setting? “It’s a definite no […]
August 27, 2023 — Writing for the New York Times, Joseph Goldstein tells us that prescriptions for GLP-1 agonists are going to the wealthiest, whitest, and healthiest neighborhoods in New York City. Neighborhoods where the medical need is greatest? Not so much. Though we might hope that advanced medicines for obesity and diabetes would go to places with the […]
August 8, 2023 — Folks who have not detected a shift in public discourse about obesity are simply not listening. In that shift, we detect some easing in longstanding bias about this disease. But perspective is difficult. Is the proverbial glass half full with progress to celebrate? Or is the remaining void a reminder that overcoming weight bias and […]
