Posts Tagged ‘observational research’

As an article of faith, many people, even some who should know better, dispense advice that sweeteners are bad for metabolic health and weight management. They rely on observational evidence and theories about how they might have subtle effects to undermine health. But no direct evidence. Now, in Nature Metabolism comes a randomized controlled study to […]

Honestly, we share the underlying concern. Rising global temperature are a threat to our health and welfare. But twisting a scientific paper to make the point doesn’t help. It actually hurts the cause. New research in Nature Climate Change documents an association between added sugar consumption and rising temperatures. That’s a fair question to study. […]

It is eye-popping really. Novo Nordisk issued a press release from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress over the weekend, with extravagant claims for Wegovy versus tirzepatide. Specifically, the claim was that “Wegovy cuts risk of heart attack, stroke or death by 57% compared to tirzepatide.” This is quite an amazing claim to make. […]

The evidence keeps building. Broadly, it is telling us that treating obesity is about much more than simply losing weight. It is about gaining health by managing the chronic disease of obesity and controlling it over time. Specifically this week, we have another piece of evidence to suggest that obesity treatment prevents cancer. In JAMA […]

Making America Healthy is an industry with very low barriers to entry. Lots of people have fun with it. They also make lots of noise. The trouble is that because of those low barriers to entry, most of them, including some academics, do very little to actually make Americans healthy. Instead, they generate headlines and […]

The annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology is not where we typically get insights on obesity. But from this year’s meeting, another hint emerges that treating obesity treatment may prevent some of the cancer that arises from obesity. This hint comes from a large and seemingly careful study of 170,030 persons with […]

A new study in JAMA Surgery adds to the impression that long-term outcomes are better with gastric bypass surgery when compared to gastric sleeve procedures for treating obesity. Specifically researchers found that people who have gastric bypass surgery are better than one third less likely to have heart attacks than those who have a gastric […]

Coffee and chicken are fueling nutrition headlines this week. “Black coffee improves insulin sensitivity in women,” say headlines sparked by one study. “Eating chicken could shorten your lifespan, raise cancer risk,” according to headlines from another study. Coffee good, chicken bad. Got it. Eating Chicken Isn’t Killing You Please, don’t hit the panic button if […]

Early on after semaglutide captured public attention, people started noticing that the drug was not only helping people reduce excessive weight, it seemed to reduce the desire for drinking alcohol. But until now, all we’ve had to support this idea were anecdotes and retrospective observational studies. Yesterday, JAMA Psychiatry published an RCT offering stronger evidence […]

An important new paper in JAMA Pediatrics this week tells us that pediatric obesity treatment can improve a person’s health into young adulthood. Anecdotally, health professionals have seen it. Logically, many have long believed it. But this is the first time we have clear evidence for the health benefits of effective pediatric obesity treatment. In […]