January 26, 2022 — The relationship between diabetes and COVID-19 grows more interesting by the day. Early in the pandemic, it became clear that diabetes is an important risk factor for severe complications with COVID-19. As more research emerged, it became clear that inflammation is a mediator for this risk. And now it seems that diabetes might even raise […]
January 15, 2022 — A new study this week in the New England Journal of Medicine brought home a basic fact. Severe illness and deaths from COVID in adolescents are almost entirely preventable. This is especially true for youth with conditions – like obesity – that would otherwise put them at risk. In a case-control study of 1,222 adolescents, […]
January 7, 2022 — In the midst of a huge surge of COVID cases due to omicron, hospitals are seeing a remarkable growth in children admitted with COVID. Until last week, the record for daily hospital admissions of children up to 17 years old with COVID was 340. That’s a seven-day average. But last week brought nearly twice as […]
December 13, 2021 — We’re hearing a lot about antibodies and immunity to COVID-19 and its new variants right now. But unfortunately, a lot of it is speculation that does more to confuse our response than to make us smarter. Omicron significantly reduces Covid antibody protection in small study of Pfizer vaccine recipients, says a typical headline. This is […]
December 9, 2021 — More than a year ago in Obesity, Paul Ryan and Noel Caplice laid out a theoretical framework suggesting SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19) might target and exploit fat tissue. They wrote: “Adipose tissue in individuals with obesity may act as a reservoir for more extensive viral spread, with increased shedding, immune activation, and cytokine […]
November 29, 2021 — We have plenty of reasons to think that COVID might be a spark for growth in obesity care. First of all, untreated obesity leaves a person more vulnerable to bad outcomes with COVID. More data is suggesting that effective obesity care might reduce those risks. And then we have anecdotal reports telling us that uptake […]
November 24, 2021 — New data this week in SOARD tells us once again that gastric bypass can produce impressive results over time for someone with severe obesity. After ten years, Su-Hsin Chang and colleagues found that their cohort of 1,104 patients had maintained an average 31 percent reduction in body weight. Best Results for White Women But it […]
November 23, 2021 — “The way that fat people and thin people experience this conversation is worlds apart,” says Michael Hobbes on a recent episode of his Maintenance Phase podcast with Aubrey Gordon. He’s describing a heated debate about catastrophizing obesity that has been smoldering for almost two decades. This is a conflict between two views of obesity. One […]
November 15, 2021 — Last year, when we didn’t have many great options for dealing with COVID-19, interest in vitamin D was keen. A number of studies found a correlation between vitamin D levels and COVID risk. So splashy headlines ensued. Even the former president and Tony Fauci told us they were taking it. But in retrospect, those headlines […]
November 12, 2021 — NASH (non-alcoholic steatohepatitis) is one of the most serious complications of untreated obesity. It’s very hard to treat. It can lead to liver failure, liver cancer, and death. So when a careful study of bariatric surgery shows an an 88 percent reduction in the risk of NASH progressing, this is big news. JAMA published this […]
