We’ve had a lot to write about this year and you, our readers, have been doing a lot of reading. This running commentary is simply a labor of love. We don’t sell advertising or anything else here, but we do take pleasure when you read what we write and we do pay attention. So with pleasure, we note the five articles we posted in 2025 that were most read. The order reflects the number of unique readers for each posting.

Thank you for taking the time to take notice of what we’re doing here each day. No doubt 2026 will hold much in store for all of us to follow and consider.

1. Burning Down Medical Science at the NIH

People who know describe the National Institutes of Health as the crown jewels of American biomedical research. It is the biggest public funder of medical research in the world. In January, our government began a process of burning down a great deal of medical science at NIH. It became obvious, even though the administration threatened people who work there with immediate termination if they breathed a word about what was happening.

This has been a tragedy, followed by other tragedies in federal policy on health policy research. Because this was the most read article of 2025, it’s plain that people are paying attention.

2. Lilly Withdraws Tirzepatide Application to FDA for Heart Failure

Rather quietly in May, Eli Lilly and Company announced that it had withdrawn an application to FDA for an indication to use tirzepatide (Zepbound) in treating heart failure – specifically for HFpEF. The drug has merit in patients with HFpEF, but getting an FDA-approved indication seems to be a tough thing to ask.

3. Extravagant Wegovy Claims with Limited Evidence at ESC

It was eye-popping really. Novo Nordisk issued a press release from the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress in September, 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.”

We found their claims to be less than persuasive.

4. It’s Obesity That Causes Overeating, Not the Other Way Around

In the course of an impressive opening presentation at YWM2025 on the science of obesity, Bob Kushner turned conventional (and mistaken) thinking about obesity upside down with a simple statement. “Overeating does not cause obesity. Obesity causes overeating.”

He knows a thing or two about the complexity and challenge of obesity and clinical care for this disease. So you, our readers, took note.

5. Sleep Apnea Takes Zepbound from No to Maybe in Medicare

In January, we saw incremental progress in coverage for obesity medicines in health insurance plans. CMS announced that Medicare drug plans (Part D or Medicare Advantage) could start covering Zepbound (tirzepatide) when doctors prescribe it to patients for obesity and sleep apnea. This did not open the floodgates. It is movement from an absolute “no” to “maybe.”

+3. Stories from 2024 That Still Appeal

For the purpose of this list, we excluded three stories from 2024 that still had strong appeal in 2025 – more widely read than three on this list. They were about Mandisa’s cause of death being obesity, the gray market for obesity medicines, and the blue zone diet.

Late Breaking

We’ll also note that stories from the last three months have had less time to build readership numbers than those published earlier in the year. Nonetheless, our posts about take-home thoughts from ObesityWeek and food as medicine in November attracted impressive readership.

Thanks for noticing.

Children Reading, painting by Pekka Halonen / WikiArt