December 4, 2020 — Type 2 diabetes can be a brutal disease. It often, but not always, goes hand in hand with obesity. Thus, both of these conditions are rising throughout the world, exacting a terrible toll on human health. Once again, though, research tells us that a good option exists to turn this back for many people. A […]
November 6, 2020 — The Obesity Journal Symposium at ObesityWeek is a reliable source of new insights. This year’s edition was yesterday and it did not disappoint. Four new papers covered a diverse range of topics with excellence. But two of them are especially notable for challenging some popular thoughts about obesity. First, Emma Stinson et al tells us […]
November 4, 2020 — Many of us are struggling to hold onto a quaint belief in facts. But we’re also learning to deal with ambiguity. Simply because we don’t have all the facts. So we all, to varying degrees, rely on feelings to guide us. Welcome to the world of obesity, where we cope with an imperfect knowledge of […]
November 3, 2020 — Oddly enough, obesity can be a bit of an abstraction. Everybody thinks they know all about it. But in truth, the smartest people who study know how little we know. At the opening of ObesityWeek 2020, though, all that abstract science came face to face with humanity. Perhaps more than we’ve ever seen before, the […]
October 31, 2020 — Lifestyle Medicine is a new open access journal from John Wiley & Sons. The journal claims to set a high standard, with rigorous peer review. But we are not so sure about its ethical standards. Because the journal is promoting a stereotype about people with obesity. A low IQ is a risk factor for obesity, […]
October 4, 2020 — The talk about obesity in the UK is drifting away from a full and constructive view. Instead, it has moved toward a more narrow view of personal responsibility. These findings come from a new analysis by Paul Baker and colleagues. Over ten years following the landmark Foresight Report, reporting about obesity in the British press […]
September 20, 2020 — A new perspective in Obesity reminds us that weight discrimination at work is stubborn. Worse yet, it’s perfectly legal. Shreya Sabharwal and colleagues from Harvard describe the situation: Even though weight discrimination has a negative impact on people’s health and wellness and results in unequal academic and job opportunities, there is only one state in […]
September 12, 2020 — Obesity has emerged as a significant risk factor for poor outcomes in patients infected with COVID-19. Based on how doctors and others in health care have previously treated patients with obesity or overweight conditions, my guess is that many will respond by declaring: “Well, it’s their own fault for being overweight!” In the spirit of […]
September 8, 2020 — When you read news feeds about obesity day after day, one thread is unmistakable. It’s a problem. A huge problem. The cost runs into trillions of dollars in the U.S. It’s making whole countries more vulnerable to COVID-19. Stories about this big, bad, terrible problem never end. But solutions are not getting so much play. […]
September 7, 2020 — A new review in JAMA is unequivocal. The choice to have bariatric surgery is something that every patient with severe obesity should be considering: All patients with severe obesity – and especially those with type 2 diabetes – should be engaged in a shared decision-making conversation about the risks and benefits of surgery compared with […]
