Posts Tagged ‘health outcomes’

What Comes from 88 Weeks of Tirzepatide? Or Stopping It?

December 13, 2023 — NB: An earlier version of this post reflected confusion of time periods in this study. We regret the error. “The long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead,“ wrote John Maynard Keynes. But Keynes was obviously not a doctor. So his words don’t hold much sway […]

Fitspiration, Thinspiration, and Personal Health at Odds

December 8, 2023 — Sounds great, looks great, not helpful. That’s how we would sum up the evidence for “fitspiration” social media posts and their influence on personal health. Oxford defines this genre as “a person or thing that serves as motivation for someone to sustain or improve health and fitness.” But a recent systematic review puts a harsher […]

Vegan Diet Cuts Risk of Heart Disease After Two Months?

December 1, 2023 — Enthusiastic promoters of vegan diets are quite happy with headlines coming out of Stanford today. The Times of London captured the aspirational promise with their headline quite well: “Vegan diet cuts risk of heart disease after two months.” The Stanford University PR department was a little more subtle. They merely said “a vegan diet improves […]

Moving Beyond Weight in Pediatric Obesity Research and Care

November 30, 2023 — For the last two days, we have been both observing and participating in an NIH meeting on pharmacotherapy for obesity in children and youth that has been quite a pleasant surprise. Scientists, clinicians, parents, and young persons came together in a stimulating exchange of ideas. Perhaps the most notable dialogue focused on a desire to […]

The Difference Between Measured and Imagined Life Expectancy

November 26, 2023 — As an article of faith, we like to believe that healthy habits will lead us to a longer life. So of course, it makes sense to develop healthy habits for eating, enjoy an active life, and get enough good sleep every night. But putting a number on the benefit of those habits is not so […]

With Better Obesity Care, Will People Need Less Healthcare?

November 22, 2023 — The economics of healthcare bedevil us. Spending on it, with occasional interruptions, goes up year after year. Some countries spend less to get more, but the story is universal. The better we get at healing our health problems, the more we seem to spend on healthcare. In the case of obesity care, medical research has […]

The Gap in Lifespan Grows Between Men and Women

November 21, 2023 — Men are coming up short in life expectancy. In fact, the gap in lifespan between men and women is now the widest it has been in three decades. Why? The short answer is COVID. But the truth is that it is more than just COVID. The pandemic took more lives from men because their underlying […]

A Conversation with Dr. Ania Jastreboff About the SELECT Trial

November 16, 2023 — It was an amazing moment. Hundreds upon hundreds people packed into huge convention hall to hear about the detailed outcomes of the first ever randomized controlled trial to show that treating obesity could prevent heart attacks, strokes, and cardiovascular deaths. The implications of the SELECT trial for obesity care will be enormous and we had […]

The SELECT Study Makes One Thing Undeniable

November 11, 2023 — Newly published in full, the results of the SELECT study of semaglutide for cardiovascular outcomes in persons with obesity but not diabetes makes one thing undeniable. Obesity is a chronic, treatable disease. Treating obesity requires more than just telling a person to change their lifestyle. It involves addressing the disease pathology that is at work, […]

Caught Between Confronting Reality and Claiming Autonomy

November 11, 2023 — It has long been a struggle – one of confronting the biological reality of obesity while claiming autonomy and embracing our own identity. Having our eyes wide open about obesity and health while we tell people who want to impose their judgments on us to buzz off. This is my body and my life. Puritans […]