April 30, 2021 — As the UK variant (B.1.1.7) became dominant in the U.S., something else started to change. More young people started showing up in the hospital. In fact, COVID wards are filling up with younger patients in Michigan. This may simply be a result of more infections in young people. Teens in Michigan are testing positive at […]
April 19, 2021 — Does staying active reduce the risk of severe outcomes with COVID-19? A new study suggests this possibility. In fact, the authors of this study found that being inactive was a top risk factor for landing in the hospital or dying from COVID-19. Only advanced age or an organ transplant had higher risks. This makes sense. […]
February 6, 2021 — For some time now, speculation about the impact of COVID-19 on obesity risk in children has been plentiful. It makes sense. COVID has turned the lives of kids and their parents upside down. On top of that, models suggest childhood obesity rates could go up markedly. However, these were projections and speculation. So we have […]
January 28, 2021 — Media images of good health are a tricky business. On one hand, fashion and lifestyle businesses are feeling pressure to include more diversity in the imagery they blast at us. But when they do, guardians of public health protest. So we have debates about what is healthy to show people in Cosmopolitan. Or the health […]
January 27, 2021 — “It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic,” said British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The UK became the smallest country in the world yesterday to surpass 100,000 deaths due to COVID-19. Not surprisingly, the conversation turned to a simple question. Why? Ever ready with a fat-phobic quip, Piers Morgan seemed eager to […]
January 25, 2021 — This has become annoying. Casual misinformation about COVID vaccines is spreading through otherwise reputable news sources. “Experts” who haven’t bothered to look at the data are helping. Perhaps it comes from innocent ignorance. Or maybe from unconscious bias. But that really doesn’t matter. It is flatly wrong to keep reporting that COVID vaccines won’t work […]
January 10, 2021 — It never fails. In the UK, Cosmopolitan can stir up a controversy simply by suggesting that people of all sizes can have good health. A provocative cover story did the trick. Piers Morgan is happy to participate and stir the pot. But in the end, this is not a story about obesity. In fact, conflating […]
October 18, 2020 — New research from Rand and the Indiana University School of Public Health at Bloomington offers a vivid picture of two major health risks colliding. Alcohol use is growing more frequent during the COVID-19 pandemic. Also, it’s growing heavier. This is not what we need, because alcohol use is already the number one global health risk […]
October 11, 2020 — This week, the CDC added overweight to its list of conditions that might bring increased risk for severe symptoms with COVID-19. By that, the agency means anyone with a BMI between 25 and 30. For a BMI of 30 and above, CDC does not mince words. Your risk is higher. Think about it. This means […]
October 7, 2020 — In 1826, Jean Anthelme Brillat-Savarin wrote: Tell me what you eat and I will tell you what you are. Those words appeared in The Physiology of Taste, a work of seven volumes. Now we’ve boiled it down to you are what you eat. A new study in PLOS Medicine suggests there’s real wisdom in that […]
