March 3, 2025 — Today marks the first day of Obesity Care Week. This is a time to recognize the importance of high-quality, science-based, and compassionate care for people living with obesity. True commitment to care means embracing advocacy, evidence-based treatment, and respect for individuals affected by this chronic disease. Organizations like the Obesity Action Coalition (OAC) and The […]
February 18, 2025 — Two new papers offer a sharp focus on a stark gap at the intersection of healthcare and obesity – a dearth of empathy. Stuart Flint and colleagues explain the importance of understanding lived experiences with obesity for closing that gap: “The lived experience of obesity is clearly much more complex than the typical societal narrative, […]
December 4, 2023 — By the end of this month, we will be seeing lists of what’s in and what’s out for the coming year. For people whose minds drift toward liver disease, we have an entry. Fatty liver is out and steatotic liver is in. NAFLD goes to the dustbin, replaced by MASLD, while MASH takes over from […]
August 22, 2023 — A new study of real world primary non-adherence (PNA, not filling an Rx) for obesity medicines provides documentation for something that should surprise no one. More than 90% prescriptions for obesity meds are never filled. Writing in the Journal of Managed Care + Specialty Pharmacy, Hong Kan and colleagues say this is unusual, especially for […]
June 11, 2023 — Health stigma presents a difficult problem because it prompts competing human impulses of cruelty and denial. Together, these impulses get in the way of better health. Attach stigma to a disease or a health condition and the people who have it begin to feel socially undesirable and isolated. So understandably, they may hide the condition, […]
June 8, 2023 — Typically, Ruth Marcus writes about justice for the Washington Post. But this week, she posted a very personal essay – “the most personal piece I have ever written” – about her experience with taking Ozempic. More than just a testimonial about the life-changing effects of better obesity care, it became an exploration of the interaction […]
June 5, 2023 — One of the neat tricks of semaglutide and tirzepatide is their unexpected ability to shift the frames of bias through which we look at obesity and human behavior. Neuroscience and behavioral psychology have long told us the human desire for food is not purely a matter of choice. Yet in addressing obesity, weight bias and […]
January 1, 2023 — While some of us slept last night, the calendar rolled us into the start of a whole new year. A clean slate with new challenges and opportunities. So what lies ahead? It’s impossible to know (as our review of 2022 predictions nicely shows), but that won’t stop us from offering our best guess. In that […]
October 23, 2022 — “Prevention is better than cure. We don’t even want people to gain excess weight. We want to have a food system in which people can eat healthily and not become fat.” This assertion came at the end of three days of an outstanding program for presenting and discussing theories, conjectures, and evidence about the causes […]
September 14, 2022 — A diverse group of folks with unusual expertise gathered in Charlotte last night with a small audience of about a hundred people. They brought questions and curiosity about the chronic disease of obesity. They also brought lifetimes of experience with this disease – either in themselves or through loved ones. It was an evening for […]
