February 4, 2025 — Chasing the possibility of multi-billion dollar obesity medicines, pharmaceutical companies are jumping at the chance to spend billions in clinical research. But patient advocates find a reluctance from some of those same companies to take people with obesity into account in the drug labels for their products already on the market. Writing for In Vivo, […]
October 29, 2024 — In some ways, it is nothing new. The medical needs of people living with obesity have been dismissed seemingly forever. But at the same time it is shocking to learn of Merck – a highly respected pharmaceutical firm – leaving doctors in the dark by choice about how one of their drugs acts differently in […]
June 1, 2024 — This is a problem of human mistakes. Compounding pharmacies are exploiting the failure of pharmaceutical companies to meet the scale of need for effective obesity medicines. So people with a serious medical need for these medicines face a hideous choice. Suffer without them or take a chance on dodgy compounded products. The fact that this […]
March 11, 2024 — We can point to any number of symptoms. The rise of measles because of skepticism about vaccination comes to mind. Certainly, we hear from people who reject scientific concepts about obesity. So it’s no surprise to us that a new report in PNAS documents high but declining public confidence in science. Arthur Lupia, David Allison, […]
November 6, 2023 — It is frustrating. The list price of Mounjaro (tirzepatide) is more than a thousand dollars per month. Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) negotiate costs for this drug that brings the average cost down to an estimated $215, but many folks get stuck paying the full list price, forgoing treatment, or paying a copay that might exceed […]
November 2, 2023 — Over the past 20 years or so, there has been growing concern that many research results published in scientific journals can’t be reproduced. Depending on the field of research, studies have found efforts to redo published studies lead to different results in between 23% and 89% of cases. To understand how different researchers might arrive […]
December 23, 2021 — The New York Times has a wellness column called Phys Ed. Weekly it brings us factoids from mostly positive studies in kinesiology. “Staying physically active may protect the aging brain,” says one. “300 minutes a week of moderate exercise may help ward off cancer,” says another. Gretchen Reynolds feeds us quite a stream of good […]
October 30, 2021 — The Nutrition Source at Harvard makes one thing clear enough. Potatoes are a problem. They can give you obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. Skip across town and you’ll get a very different story from Boston University. “Nutrient-rich potatoes can be part of a healthy diet in young girls.” This kind of whiplash tells us that, […]
September 22, 2021 — We have an opportunity before us, say Thiago Gagliano-Jucá and Caroline Apovian. They are writing in Annals of Internal Medicine to reflect on the implications of words we use in healthcare. Specifically, they are talking about the words providers attach to obesity – words like morbid. These are words that leave patients feeling judged. Such […]
September 17, 2021 — For some time, it’s been clear to mental health professionals that social media could be a problem for teens. Facebook, which owns Instagram, has long minimized the issue. But reporting this week from the Wall Street Journal tells suggests that Facebook knows from its own research that Instagram promotes self-stigma for teenage girls. Slides from […]
