February 3, 2022 — We are pretty much done with the label of healthy obesity, because it is a perfect oxymoron. If a pattern of adiposity is healthy, then it’s not obesity. But newly published in eLife is a more thoughtful approach to this subject. This study seeks to untangle the metabolic effects of higher adiposity from other effects […]
July 12, 2021 — Will freeze-dried poop pills play a role in the future treatment of obesity and related problems? It seems possible, but much work will go into providing a complete answer. New research in Nature Medicine offers tantalizing hints, though. In subjects with severe obesity, researchers tested the combination of fiber and a transplant of microbes in […]
August 3, 2020 — Your writing seems to have a good deal of political and social influence rather than solid scientific thinking. Such an editorial comment is not unusual when one writes on health and racism. But it makes us wonder. Can health scientists wrap their heads around a pandemic of racism? Or shall we debate the semantics to […]
September 11, 2019 — A new study in Diabetologia tells us that shortness may heighten a person’s risk for type 2 diabetes. Over seven years, researchers observed a higher risk for type 2 diabetes among shorter people in a cohort of 2,500 individuals. Age, lifestyle, education, and waist circumference didn’t explain it. Even after accounting for those factors, the […]
July 2, 2019 — Beware of pilot studies. However, we have a fascinating one for you. Nature Medicine published this study yesterday. It’s a randomized, controlled trial of 32 subjects in three arms. Clara Depommier and colleagues found that a daily supplement of pasteurized bacteria (Akkermansia muciniphila) could improve some of the markers of metabolic syndrome. Specifically, they saw […]
May 24, 2017 — Obesity – the O word – has an image problem. It’s a condition that nobody wants to have. Nevermind that the best estimates hold that 38% of adults in the U.S. have it. Nevermind that, if ignored, it progresses to cause chronic diseases that harm just about every part of the body. Doctors don’t write it down. […]
July 25, 2016 — Sigh. A previously published study – which lacks a control group – is cropping up in a new form to beat the drum of claims that sugar is toxic. Based on a dataset published last year in Obesity, a new publication has just appeared in Atherosclerosis. The first publication from this dataset advanced a claim that holding calories […]
October 29, 2015 — Reading the latest headlines on a new study published in Obesity, it’s hard to know whether we are supposed to think that sugar is addictive or poisonous. Robert Lustig says his new study provides “hard and fast data that sugar is toxic irrespective of its calories and irrespective of weight.” Perhaps we are supposed to conclude that […]
