Posts Tagged ‘obesity’

Spending yesterday with some of the top experts in obesity, health policy, and health systems reminded us of something essential that often escapes attention. The static measure of BMI cannot possibly be adequate for assessing the chronic disease of obesity. What brought this thought to mind was an expert in health benefit design who said: […]

As we move through the first month of real-world utilization, Wegovy tablets are showing unexpectedly strong uptake for obesity – getting a head start on the anticipated arrival of Lilly’s orforglipron. Early utilization data suggest Wegovy in an oral form might be carving out meaningful space in obesity, defying initial skepticism. The Skepticism When enthusiasm […]

A steady stream of headlines makes it obvious. The incomprehensibility of a chronic disease like obesity is overwhelming. The New York Times tells us it’s a hard truth about obesity medicines: “You’ll probably need them forever.” The wellness industry is peddling dubious strategies for an “off-ramp” from GLP-1 therapies with inflated claims about “sustained remission.” […]

U.S. spending on healthcare hit a new record in 2024 – $5.3 trillion. That is a seven percent jump from the prior year, maintaining a longstanding pattern of health spends rising faster than spending on everything else in this economy. But how can it be that, despite all this spending, the burden of chronic diseases […]

All the research on obesity is not simply about tinkering with GLP-1s or developing the next blockbuster to surpass semaglutide and tirzepatide. This week, for instance, Science published research that opens a window to understanding how obesity activates inflammation. That inflammation leads to many of the complications that make obesity a complex, chronic disease. A […]

It’s a neat trick. The newest kid on the block in obesity care is part of the oldest in the diabetes neighborhood. It is the Obesity Association of the American Diabetes Association. And yesterday, the OA of the ADA showed that it can play well with others by publishing landmark Standards of Care for obesity […]

It is taking a long time for diet culture to fade into oblivion. But we are well down that road when celebrity culture meets obesity science in a new book by Oprah Winfrey and Ania Jastreboff. It’s remarkable, really, that we have come to a time when one of the most iconic persons in the […]

Justin Sung and Dana Small are two neurobiologists offering us some very basic wisdom. It is wisdom with roots in a sophisticated understanding of biology. We should take care not to lose the pleasure of food. In PLOS Biology, they offer a very cogent argument in defense of the pleasure of food. Their bottom line […]

Twenty years ago, advocacy for people living with obesity was at ground zero. But now, we are entering a third decade of advocacy for the Obesity Action Coalition. We are in a profoundly different position. So we took the day yesterday to consider with leadership in the OAC community where the next two decades of […]

“People who come off slimming jabs regain weight four times faster than dieters.” The year is young, but already we have this contender for the dumbest headline of the year about obesity. It is helpful only as a reminder of how pervasive the implicit bias about obesity and its treatment is. Slimming Jabs? The headline […]