Posts Tagged ‘evidence based medicine’

Evidence is a good thing, right? And when it comes to dealing with a wicked problem like obesity, we certainly advocate for following the evidence. Most people do. And yet, we often find controversies erupting about what the best available evidence tells us we should be doing. Evidence-Based Public Health More and more, we hear […]

In case you weren’t paying attention, 130 is the new 140. Before Monday, the threshold for high blood pressure was 140 over 90. Now the consensus is that it’s 130 over 80. Boom. Nearly half the population has hypertension. How’d that happen? The Landmark SPRINT Study Truthfully, this change didn’t happen overnight. The impetus to […]

We live in a polarized age of brittle ideologies. Is the connection between obesity and health merely a product of ideology? A new paper in Critical Public Health argues for that view. And the authors propose “an end to seeing obesity as a significant health issue.” Right now, we need more respect for diverse views on difficult […]

Really? “The doctor’s office is moving into the kitchen,” says the New York Times. So where can we find the full prescribing information? In a cheery feature, Donna De La Cruz describes physicians who have discovered that nutrition is an issue at the root of many problems they see. The Dr. Yum Project Pediatrician Nimali Fernando […]

Healthcare providers are frank about it. Up until now, training has left them ill-prepared to provide real, evidence-based care for people with obesity. So when the Bipartisan Policy Center yesterday unveiled core competencies for equipping healthcare providers to deliver obesity care, it was a gratifying event. Even more inspiring is the fact that these competencies […]

A new randomized, controlled trial of options for community-based childhood obesity care popped up yesterday in JAMA Pediatrics. You won’t find radical breakthroughs in it. But the study offers some solid insights about delivering better obesity care for kids. Lead author Elsie Taveras explained: Our findings are pretty conclusive that three aspects of interventions for childhood obesity […]

The suggestion box is locked. So is the clinic if you need obesity care. A new report card on access to evidence-based obesity care in Canada gives the country’s healthcare system a solid F. The system is effectively locking people out from receiving care for obesity until the disease has serious complications. Band-Aids for Obesity […]

“Science is not a liberal conspiracy.” That theme of yesterday’s March for Science echoed in more than 600 cities around the world. Hundreds of thousands marched despite gloomy weather. Still, it was hard to deny that politics were infused into these marches. The U.S. president appears to like attention and, without a doubt, he inspired […]

Is evidence-based policy no more than a useful myth? Political science professor John Boswell clearly thinks so. And current headlines might suggest he’s right. Facts get twisted. Policymakers do what they want. Boswell explains his view in a paper that Governance will publish soon. For a case study, he uses bariatric surgery guidelines recently adopted by Britain’s National Institute […]

Drink more water, Michelle Obama told us in the Let’s Move! campaign. She wasn’t the first with that advice. It’s everywhere. The presumption is that water can substitute for sweetened beverages, fill you up, and help you lose or maintain a lower weight. Thankfully, Julia Wong and colleagues from Boston Children’s Hospital tested that advice. […]