April 6, 2024 — Sleep apnea is a complication of obesity and at the same time, obesity can be a complication of sleep apnea. This two-way relationship sets up a problem that is serious and can be hard to resolve. But it deserves close attention because it can lead to an early death. So, given the tangled relationship between […]
February 8, 2024 — This is not exactly startling news. But two new studies this week do offer a very clear confirmation of one of the important benefits that comes from treating obesity – unmistakably better control of hypertension. One reason this is important is the substantial amount of disinformation that circulates to suggest obesity is not a real […]
January 17, 2024 — Over the past year, as the world has embraced GLP-1 medicines like semaglutide for obesity, we have heard much speculation about dire prospects for the future of metabolic surgery. Stock prices dropped earlier this year for medical device companies with big investments in bariatric surgery when Intuitive Surgical announced they were seeing a slowdown in […]
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 […]
September 4, 2023 — Health systems seem adept at denial of care for the most prevalent chronic disease in America, obesity. To understand this, just look at the hurdles a patient must clear to receive that most effective treatment with the longest track record: metabolic surgery. The goal is to pick the people for surgery who will have the […]
September 1, 2023 — At IFSO 2023 in Naples, it was clear the people are keenly aware. Change is afoot in obesity care. New obesity medicines are starting to produce clinical outcomes that approach the outcomes people see with surgery So the recurrent question at the meeting was all about what might be on the horizon for metabolic surgery. […]
August 30, 2023 — This comes as an early morning post of anticipation. Right now we are in a dark plane over the North Atlantic, anticipating two things. First we anticipate two intense days that will begin with a jolt as we land in a bright (and possibly wet) morning in Naples, Italy, for the IFSO meeting that started […]
August 24, 2023 — Let’s start with a few simple facts. Obesity causes cancer. Not every kind of cancer, but for at least a dozen types of cancer, obesity can clearly play a causal role. Scientists attribute between four and eight percent of all cancers to obesity. It is also true that, for now, the most effective single treatment […]
August 16, 2023 — “If you thought that GLP-1 agonists would replace bariatric surgery you are wrong.” Neil Floch is not alone in saying this and new research adds to the reasons we suspect that he is right. In JAMA Surgery, Jessica Mok and colleagues tell us that one plus one equals three with the combination of bariatric surgery […]
August 5, 2023 — Often in scientific research we find a tension between answering a question and telling a story. A recent study of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) after metabolic surgery offers a case in point. The scientists who designed this study wanted to answer a simple question. Does CBT improve the the clinical outcome of weight reduction? Or […]
