November 18, 2025 — An important new study in Nature Medicine yesterday gave us a unique view of food noise at a source deep within the brain. Researchers implanted electrodes in the nucleus accumbens of a single subject to monitor brain activity in that region of the brain. The subject had a history of severe obesity and distressing preoccupation […]
October 2, 2025 — The press office at the UNC School of Medicine wins the prize for clickbait this week with this gem: “Junk food can scramble memory in just four days.” That headline inspired some impressive creativity. From the seed of junk food to scramble memory sprouted headlines about rewired brains, disrupted memory circuits, cognitive decline, and brain […]
June 17, 2025 — While much of the public has focused on the remarkable effects of GLP-1 agonists for many people living with obesity, an even more remarkable story has largely escaped notice. In March, FDA approved the first ever treatment for Prader-Willi syndrome. This drug, an extended-release form of diazoxide choline, is transforming the lives of families of […]
June 4, 2025 — It is fascinating. Nutrition 2025 concluded yesterday in Orlando and even though the conference is all about nutrition research, an intense interest in the interaction of GLP-1 medicines with nutrition was a theme in the meeting from its very start all the way to the end. At the end, with two distinguished obesity researchers, Randy […]
February 10, 2025 — The remarkable advances of the last few years in understanding and responding to obesity all comes from insight into a place in your brain that’s about the size of an almond. It is your hypothalamus. In Nature last week, researchers from Cambridge and the Max Planck Institute published a detailed map of the human hypothalamus. […]
April 24, 2024 — Clickbait is a new spin on an old thing. Sex, drugs, and rock ’n’ roll used to be the formula for drawing eyes to advertising. Now the hottest clickbait is sex, alcohol, and GLP-1 drugs. People magazine tells us this month that GLP-1 agonists “may impact the desire to drink alcohol or have sex.” Oh […]
April 12, 2024 — Do our brains respond differently to food cues when we’re feeling lonely or socially isolated? New research from UCLA certainly suggests this may be true. Researchers from UCLA published findings in JAMA Network Open last week from an analysis of functional MRI (fMRI) scans of 93 women with varying levels of self-reported social isolation. The women […]
February 20, 2024 — The potential for benefits to brain function with effective obesity treatment is becoming difficult to miss. In particular, a new observational study of brain function in a cohort of patients receiving metabolic surgery for treatment of obesity is drawing much attention right now in JAMA Network Open. It suggests the possibility of a lasting benefit […]
December 31, 2023 — “We have found a way to soothe the pain of living in this society by stimulating the reward pathway with unhealthy foods just as people do with alcohol and drugs.” This blunt obserservation landed in our inbox with a thud from obesity scientist and clinician Caroline Apovian last week. A counterbalance to the optimistic talk […]
December 19, 2023 — For some time now, scientists have noted that GLP-1 agonists have effects on more than just blood sugar and body weight. They seem to have an effect on systemic inflammation. For more than a decade, researchers have been exploring their anti-inflammatory effects. But a key question has remained: exactly how do GLP-1 agonists help with […]
