Physicians writing on KevinMD about obesity: whether it is a disease, what the GLP-1 drugs from Ozempic to oral Wegovy have changed, what happens when patients stop them, who should take them and who pays, teenagers, compounded versions, bariatric surgery, and the stigma patients describe in the exam room. One maintained record draws on this archive: GLP-1 drugs: what physicians say about Ozempic and its successors, in their own words.
There is a certain irony in the nearly immediate juxtaposition of the rare introduction of a new FDA-approved drug for weight loss (Belviq) to the marketplace and the recognition of obesity as a “disease” by the AMA. A line from the movie Jerry Maguire comes to mind: “You complete me!” Drugs need diseases; diseases need drugs.
And that’s part of what has me completely worried. The notion that obesity is a disease will inevitably invite a …
Everyone has opinions. You probably know what they say about that. But leaving aside the olfactory qualities of all the opinions to which we are entitled, we at least tend to know when our opinions are just opinions. But not with nutrition, where not only does everyone have an opinion, but everyone seems to think theirs is an expert opinion. And our culture seems to be okay with that. I’m …
Following the lead of the World Health Organization and the National Institutes of Health, the American Medical Association declared obesity a “disease.” The AMA cited the plethora of evidence linking obesity to chronic disease including the number one cause of mortality in the US, cardiovascular disease. They describe the move as an effort to urge physicians and third party payers to recognize the need for obesity treatment ranging from behavioral …
Our culture — at least the movie-going part of it — seems to have embraced the adage: With great power comes great responsibility. Somehow, at the same time, it seems to have ignored the inevitable, underlying principle: Power and responsibility are conjoined. This, in turn, implies a corollary our culture also neglects routinely, if not universally: Before anyone can reasonably be expected to take responsibility, they must be suitably empowered.
The AMA recently announced that they now considered obesity to be a disease. This announcement set off the usual firestorm: swarms of posts and comments on the internet and elsewhere by highly opinionated people, each of whom was certain of his or her position.
There were those who were predictably outraged (“obesity is solely the result of gluttony and lack of will power!”) and those who welcomed the new label as …
The American Medical Association (AMA) has voted to formally recognize obesity as a disease. In the shadow of this recognition is the untimely and tragic passing of a great actor, James Gandolfini, who, known for throwing his weight and clout around onscreen as Tony Soprano, is suspected to have died from a heart attack at the early age of 51.
Last week I served lunch at my son’s school. It was a hoot, really, serving an entire K-8 school lunch. Dishing out lasagna, broccoli, pizza, and grilled cheese provided all sorts of insight into what lunch is like in 2013. My son didn’t choose exactly as I’d predict (see below). When a 33-year prospective study published recently which connects childhood ADHD with adult obesity, …
NuVal began as, and remains, a dream of mine — a dream about helping everyone find and choose better foods, and in the process, putting pressure on the food industry to offer better foods in the first place. They’ll stop selling what we stop buying, after all.
This was a dream born initially of frustration. I have been caring for patients for over 20 years, and placing an emphasis on the …
Exercise is good for you. Eat more fruits and vegetables. Stop smoking. Drink less alcohol. Such messages abound in public health campaigns and there is a firm belief that they will ultimately change behavior. This is based on the assumption that individuals are motivated to change behaviors to reduce their individual health risks.
While healthy individuals may understandably ignore such messages, one would certainly assume that people who already have conditions …
I recently spoke at a symposium on nutrition and public health at the Tuck School of Business at my alma mater in beautiful Hanover, N.H., Dartmouth College. Among others on the panel with me was Richard Starmann, the former head of corporate communications for McDonald’s. Those with even a modest number of Katz-column frequent flyer miles can readily guess how often he and I agreed.
Recently the wires have been active with suggestions that people with obesity pay more for airline travel. This discussion was prompted by a Samoan airline announcing that they would begin charging passengers by the pound. It was also stimulated by Bharat Bhatta, an economist from Norway suggesting that heavier passengers pay a surcharge while lighter passengers are offered discounts.
Angelina Jolie discovers she has a breast cancer gene, the same one that caused her mother to die an early death, and she decides on a proactive, and possibly radical, prevention – double mastectomy. By doing so, she lowers her risk of genetic breast cancer from 70% to 5%. No guarantees, but definitely improved odds of survival. Assuming she continues her lifestyle changes to support her good health.
In that riveting courtroom scene we all know from the movie A Few Good Men, Jack Nicholson’s character famously tells us: We can’t handle the truth. That often seems the case with regard to food.
I have encountered the resistance to fundamental truths about food often, but I am committed to doing the best I can to tell them even so. I tell them in narrative every chance I …
The American Heart Association says, “It is estimated that if Americans cut their average sodium intake by more than half – to an average of 1,500 milligrams a day – there would be a nearly 26 percent decrease in high blood pressure and a savings of more than $26 billion in healthcare costs over just a year.”
The American Heart Association recommends foods with little or no salt to …
I’m sad that a New York judge struck down the 16-ounce size limit for sodas and some other sweet drinks. I think Mayor Bloomberg had the right idea.
I get that whole personal freedom argument (although the court just said that it was arbitrary and out of Bloomberg’s purview), that this was a “nanny state” idea. But honestly, when it comes to obesity, …
I have witnessed a lot of obesity bias in my career, and I have railed against it on more than one occasion. But it’s not the focus of my career, as it is for some of my colleagues. I have long thought those colleagues who do devote themselves to the topic may tend to overlook a very fundamental question, namely: Why would obesity bias even exist? What rational basis is …
Ah, the addictive power of modern food. Never underestimate it.
On a recent trip to New York I happened to be flipping through the channels on my in-flight TV when I ran across Mike Huckabee doing an interview on Fox News. I was surprised to see that he had gained his weight back. The former governor of Arkansas and presidential candidate had staked quite a bit on the success of his …
With gratitude to Doctors Rafael Espada and Michael Madani, for fixing my father’s heart, twice.
When Michael Phelps was interviewed during the Beijing Olympics, the world first learned about the extraordinary amount of food needed to fuel the swimmer with the wingspan of a pterodactyl. He said that he ate 12,000 calories a day, and no one believed him except for me. I believed him because I too was a swimmer …
Perhaps you already know the behind-closed-doors guiding principles of the news media, but if so, I suppose I’m a bit naïve in comparison. I thought they would be all about reliably reporting the news. Instead, I learned this guiding principle during my days working as an on-air contributor for ABC News’ Good Morning America: “Comfort the afflicted, and afflict the comfortable.” This is by no means an ABC mantra; …
A common belief, even among doctors, is that almost no one succeeds in losing weight in the long term. And for almost two decades, I’ve counted myself among the skeptics, being able to tally on the fingers of one hand the number of my patients who’ve managed to do it—literally less than five out of multiple hundreds, if not a few thousand.
