#obesity and chronic disease | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

drforambhuta · 8 months ago

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Preventing Chronic Diseases with Turmeric:

1. Addressing Chronic Inflammation: Chronic inflammation contributes to various chronic diseases like heart disease, cancer, Alzheimer's, and metabolic disorders. Curcumin, known for its strong anti-inflammatory properties, shows potential in reducing inflammation and associated health risks. Studies indicate its ability to suppress inflammatory molecules, potentially alleviating conditions like arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and asthma.

2. Supporting Heart Health: Heart disease remains a leading cause of mortality globally. Curcumin's cardiovascular benefits include improvements in factors linked to heart disease such as hypertension, dyslipidemia, and endothelial dysfunction. Research suggests it may lower blood pressure, decrease LDL cholesterol, and enhance endothelial function, thus promoting heart health and reducing cardiovascular risks. Its antioxidant properties may also combat oxidative stress, a major contributor to heart disease.

3. Cancer Prevention and Treatment: Cancer, characterized by uncontrolled cell growth, poses a significant health challenge. Although further research is necessary, initial studies suggest curcumin's potential in inhibiting tumor growth, inducing apoptosis, and suppressing tumor-promoting pathways. It shows promise in preventing and treating various cancers like breast, prostate, colon, lung, and pancreatic cancer, possibly enhancing conventional cancer therapies.

4. Enhancing Brain Health: With aging populations, age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's are on the rise. Curcumin's neuroprotective properties may preserve brain health by promoting neuroplasticity, increasing brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) production, and reducing amyloid plaque and tau tangle accumulation, hallmarks of Alzheimer's. Its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects may mitigate neuroinflammation and oxidative stress, key contributors to neurodegeneration.

5. Metabolic Health and Weight Management: Obesity and metabolic syndrome increase the risk of chronic diseases like type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Curcumin's metabolic benefits extend beyond inflammation and oxidative stress reduction, including improvements in insulin sensitivity, glucose metabolism, and lipid profile regulation. Research suggests it may help regulate blood sugar levels, reduce insulin resistance, and aid in weight loss, potentially benefiting individuals with obesity or metabolic disorders.

6. Joint Health and Arthritis Management: Arthritis, characterized by joint inflammation and pain, affects millions worldwide. Curcumin's anti-inflammatory properties may alleviate arthritis symptoms and prevent its onset by reducing joint inflammation and oxidative stress. Studies indicate its potential in improving symptoms of osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis, including pain and stiffness, while its antioxidant effects may protect cartilage and promote joint health.

7. Promoting Digestive Health: Digestive disorders like irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) and inflammatory bowel diseases impact quality of life. Curcumin's anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial properties may alleviate symptoms and promote gut health. Research suggests it could reduce symptoms of IBS, including abdominal pain and bloating, by modulating gut inflammation and restoring microbial balance, while its antioxidant effects may protect the gastrointestinal tract and aid in healing intestinal mucosa.

8. Supporting the Immune System: A robust immune system defends against infections and diseases. Curcumin's immunomodulatory properties may enhance immune function and prevent infections by reducing inflammation. Studies indicate its ability to stimulate immune cell activity, improving pathogen recognition and elimination. Additionally, its antimicrobial properties may inhibit the growth of bacteria, viruses, and fungi, reducing infection risks.

You can find some of the best hospitals in Mumbai offering regular health checkups for the early detection and management of chronic diseases, such as a regular full body health checkup at Jaslok Hospital Mumbai.

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joinfitlife · 9 months ago

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Obesity A Disease More Dangerous Than Diabetes and Heart Disease

Individuals who do not suffer from diabetes or heart disease but are overweight need immediate attention to lose weight for the sake of their lives. Becouse obesity a disease more dangerous than diabetes and heart disease. Read more

#health and wellness #exercise #Obesity Awareness #Health Risks #Enlarged Stomach #Chronic Diseases #Weight Management #Disease Prevention #Public Health #Lifestyle Choices #Health Education #Obesity Epidemic.

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flourishfusionlifestyle · 10 months ago

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To prevent and manage obesity, a comprehensive strategy including a balanced diet, consistent exercise, and lifestyle modifications is required. Nutritionists, exercise instructors, and other healthcare professionals can provide invaluable guidance in managing and reducing obesity for improved overall health and quality of life.

#obesity #BMI #Body Mass Index (BMI)#chronic diseases #5 Ways to Prevent Obesity #preventing obesity #Health

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dratefahmed1 · 11 months ago

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Weismann Netter Stuhl Syndrome #medicalsyndrome #syndromes #shorts #Mrcs #Frcs #Usmle

#shorts #medicalsyndrome #syndromes #shorts #Mrcs #Frcs #Usmle #MedicalStudents #syndromes #syndromecaméléon #guntagalagaraaaku #medical #medicalcourier #medicaltvshow #medicaldrama #medicalexaminer #medicalstudent #medical_admission_result_2023 #medicalcoding #medicalschool #medicalreport #medicalaesthetics #medicalassistant #medicaladmission #medicaladmissionresult2023 #medicalanimation…

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diabetes-health-corner · 4 months ago

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10 Complications of Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes is a metabolic disorder, caused by the body’s inability to use the insulin produced by its own pancreas or insufficient insulin production. As glucose begins to accumulate in the bloodstream, it begins to damage the blood vessels in organs large and small across the body.

Read more how to Reduce Complication of Diabetes: https://www.freedomfromdiabetes.org/blog/post/10-complications-of-diabetes-mellitus/2713

#10 Complications of Diabetes Mellitus #Diabetes and Alzheimer's Disease #Diabetic Nephropathy #Diabetes and Cardiovascular Disease #Diabetic Retinopathy #Diabetic Neuropathy #Diabetes and Oral Health #Diabetes in Pregnancy #Diabetes and infertility #Diabetes and Hypertension #Obesity and Diabetes #complications of diabetes mellitus #chronic complications of diabetes mellitus #long term complications of diabetes

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harmeet-saggi · 11 months ago

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What Is Fatty Liver Disease, What Causes It And How It Is Treated?

People who have fatty liver often experience nausea, vomiting, upper stomach pain, loss of appetite, and tiredness. Some can lose a significant amount of weight because they consume a diet that is high in fat and low in other nutrients.

#fatty liver #chronic hepatitis #liver disease #obesity #nausea #vomiting #upper stomach pain #loss of appetite

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roomstudent · 1 year ago

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Unveiling the Secrets to Shedding Pounds with the Mediterranean Diet

If you've been searching for a healthy, sustainable diet plan to help you lose weight, you may have stumbled across the Mediterranean diet. This centuries-old diet plan is rooted in Mediterranean culture and laden with fresh fruits and vegetables, olive oil, lean proteins, and whole grains. And best of all, research indicates it can help you shed unwanted pounds and keep them off.

What Is the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional foods people in countries like Greece, Spain, and Italy consumed in the mid-20th century. This way of eating is rich in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, olive oil, and other ingredients common to the Mediterranean region. It's also low in processed meats, red meat, butter, and sweets. People who live on the Mediterranean coastline tend to stay active and have lower rates of cardiovascular disease and obesity than those who don't.

The Mediterranean diet emphasizes natural, minimally refined ingredients. This can be particularly beneficial for those who are looking to lose weight. Unlike other diet plans, you won't have to give up delicious flavors or eliminate entire food groups. Instead, you can enjoy your favorite dishes while reducing calories and losing weight.

What Are the Benefits of the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean diet can be beneficial for those looking to shed pounds. Research indicates that the diet can help you lose weight, reduce your risk of chronic disease, and reduce inflammation. The Mediterranean diet can also benefit those looking to maintain their health. Studies have linked the diet to improved blood sugar control, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.

In addition to its weight loss and health benefits, the Mediterranean diet is also a heart-healthy, plant-based eating style designed to be sustainable. It encourages you to replace unhealthy processed foods with unrefined, nutrient-dense ingredients. You can also enjoy generous servings of herbs, spices, fish, and lean proteins. The emphasis on fresh, whole food makes the Mediterranean diet attractive for long-term weight loss success.

What Are the Tips for Shedding Pounds with the Mediterranean Diet?

If you're ready to start shedding pounds with the Mediterranean diet, here are some things you can do:

Focus on portion control. Portion sizes matter regarding weight loss, so limit your food at each meal. Start with small portions and work your way up if you need to.

Incorporate physical activity. Exercise is essential for long-term weight loss success. If you haven't been active in a while, gradually increase your workouts' intensity and frequency. Remember: any activity is better than none.

Embrace Mediterranean flavors. The Mediterranean diet emphasizes fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, herbs, and spices. Explore the various flavors of the Mediterranean through recipes like ratatouille, couscous, and zucchini with hummus. You can also explore Mediterranean cuisine, such as Greek, Italian, and Middle Eastern flavors.

Add healthy fats. Healthy fats play an essential role in the Mediterranean diet. Opt for olive oil, canola oil, and other monounsaturated fats rather than saturated fats in processed foods.

Focus on plant-based proteins. Incorporate plant-based proteins such as beans, lentils, and tofu into your meals. These proteins can help fill you up and promote feelings of fullness, which can help you shed pounds.

Don't Fear Fats. Healthy fats are an essential part of eating the Mediterranean way. Healthy fats, including olive oil, can help keep you full for longer and give your dishes a delicious flavor.

What Are the Secrets of Losing Weight on the Mediterranean Diet?

The Mediterranean diet isn't just about weight loss—it's about eating in a way that promotes overall health and longevity. But if you are looking to shed pounds with the Mediterranean diet, there are a few things you can do:

Focus on nutrient-dense foods. Choose nutrient-rich whole foods, including lean proteins, fresh fruits and vegetables, and healthy fats.

Portion control. Keep your portion sizes small so that you are not overeating.

Eat mindfully. Don't drown your meals in sauces, oils, and fats. Instead, measure out sensible portions of these healthy ingredients and enjoy them in moderation.

Eliminate refined carbohydrates. Processed, refined carbohydrates such as white bread and pasta can add extra pounds. Instead, opt for whole grain varieties and other complex carbohydrates, including those found in legumes, nuts, and whole grains.

Stay active. Exercise regularly to support your weight loss efforts and maintain your overall health.

Find sustainable solutions. Make dietary changes that are sustainable and won't leave you feeling deprived.

Enjoy stress-free meals. Try to enjoy meals without distraction and stress. This will help foster mindfulness and appreciation for food.

The Mediterranean diet can help you lose weight and promote health and longevity. By focusing on portion control, incorporating physical activity, eating wholesome foods and healthy fats, and enjoying stress-free meals, you can reap the rewards of this centuries-old diet plan. So, embrace the Mediterranean lifestyle for weight loss, health, and nutrition, and start shedding pounds today!

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thehappyvet · 7 months ago

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Just a reminder if you decide to illegally take a wild animal from the wild for yourself, even if you have the best interests at heart, you could be killing it.

If you feed it the wrong diet you can cause it's bones to break or other diseases associated with mineral imbalances. If you feed it too much you could cause issues associated with obesity including excessive fat stores.

If you aren't a trained wildlife rehabilitator you won't understand the importance of preventing imprinting or humanising. So you'll cuddle it, play with it, and let your pets play with it. So it will think it can only get food from humans, and that humans and domestic pets are part of its family.

If you take it while it's still young it won't learn the necessary foraging and social skills from its parents to survive in the wild. You might joke you don't even need a cage for it, but it isn't able to go anywhere because you've made it dependant on you.

If you aren't a wildlife carer or in the animal health industry you might not realise it's injured and needs treatment. This could lead to broken bones setting in ways that the animal can't perform normal functions and suffering from a life of chronic pain. Or it could lead to it suffering a slow and agonising death.

You might also not be aware that wildlife can contain diseases that can make you sick or even kill you. You could put yourself and your loved ones at risk of serious zoonotic diseases by bringing it home.

And, if you are found to be illegally holding a wild animal without the intention of rehabilitating and releasing it, the authorities are stuck. They can't release the animal because it thinks humans and domestic pets are friends. It can't forage for itself. It can't socialise with its own kind. It could have injuries or diet associated diseases that mean it can't perform normal functions, or is suffering from chronic pain. If they released it, it would die.

Is it fair for that animal that your choices have led to it not being able to experience its life in the wild as it should?

If you take something from the wild and intend to keep it, I hope this makes you think twice.

These kinds of stories are all over social media now, but none of them tell this side. They normalise putting a wild animal though an incredibly stressful experience purely for likes and engagement.

If you want to be a hero, get accredited to be a wildlife rehabilitator. Join an amazing network of compassionate humans just like you who understand that wild things should be wild, and do everything they can to get them back there.

If you find a wild animal and you're not sure what to do, call your local veterinary clinic or wildlife rehabilitation group. Trust that we have the knowledge to make the best choices for that animal. And if you want to make those choices, join us.

#vetblr #vetmed #veterinary #let wild things be wild

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thoughtlessarse · 7 months ago

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Nestlé, the world’s largest consumer goods company, adds sugar and honey to infant milk and cereal products sold in many poorer countries, contrary to international guidelines aimed at preventing obesity and chronic diseases, a report has found. Campaigners from Public Eye, a Swiss investigative organisation, sent samples of the Swiss multinational’s baby-food products sold in Asia, Africa and Latin America to a Belgian laboratory for testing. The results, and examination of product packaging, revealed added sugar in the form of sucrose or honey in samples of Nido, a follow-up milk formula brand intended for use for infants aged one and above, and Cerelac, a cereal aimed at children aged between six months and two years. In Nestlé’s main European markets, including the UK, there is no added sugar in formulas for young children. While some cereals aimed at older toddlers contain added sugar, there is none in products targeted at babies between six months and one year. Laurent Gaberell, Public Eye’s agriculture and nutrition expert, said: “Nestlé must put an end to these dangerous double standards and stop adding sugar in all products for children under three years old, in every part of the world.” Obesity is increasingly a problem in low- and middle-income countries. In Africa, the number of overweight children under five has increased by nearly 23% since 2000, according to the World Health Organization. Globally, more than 1 billion people are living with obesity.

#switzerland #africa #nestlé #infant formula and cereals #added sugars

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xtruss · 11 months ago

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Illustration By Bryce Wymer

The Year of Ozempic: We May Look Back on New Weight-Loss Drugs as Some of the Greatest Advances in the Annals of Chronic Disease.

— By Dhruv Khullar | December 14, 2023

A Century Ago, August Krogh, a Danish physiologist who had just won the Nobel Prize, embarked on a U.S. lecture tour. Krogh studied the intricate network of blood vessels that nourish our muscles, but he was increasingly interested in diabetes—a condition that his wife, the physician Marie Krogh, not only treated but also suffered from. Marie asked her husband to stop in Toronto, where a surgeon and a medical student had experimented with “pancreatic extract,” which appeared to shift sugar from the bloodstream into muscles and other organs. Krogh returned to Denmark with permission to sell the stuff. He and some colleagues started Nordisk Insulinlaboratorium, and in the spring of 1923 they injected their first patients with an early miracle drug: insulin.

The next year, two Nordisk employees, brothers named Thorvald and Harald Pedersen, left the company. Krogh apparently asked Harald, “What are you going to do?”

“We want to make insulin,” Harald responded.

“Well, you’ll never manage that,” Krogh said.

Krogh was wrong. The Pedersens founded Novo Terapeutisk Laboratorium, and for decades, the two rival companies produced much of the world’s insulin. In the early days, they operated hospitals mostly for people with Type 1 diabetes, a previously fatal autoimmune condition in which the body produces little or no insulin. In the second half of the twentieth century, however, their market grew: obesity and an associated condition, Type 2 diabetes, were becoming more common. Novo and Nordisk, which merged in 1989, explored other potential diabetes remedies, including a naturally occurring hormone, GLP-1, that appeared to exert exquisite control over blood sugar. It would eventually form the basis for one of the world’s most profitable drugs.

Krogh once argued that, for many biological problems, “there will be some animal of choice, or a few such animals, on which it can be most conveniently studied”—an insight known as Krogh’s principle. Originally, GLP-1 wasn’t considered a useful medicine because it dissolved too quickly in the body. But in the nineteen-nineties, as though in homage to Krogh, an endocrinologist at the Department of Veterans Affairs discovered that the venom of Gila monsters, a type of lizard native to North America, carried a peptide similar to GLP-1 that lasted for hours. He licensed his finding to researchers who developed a twice-daily injection that imitated the lizard peptide. Meanwhile, scientists at Novo Nordisk developed their own GLP-1 analogue and, in 2010, released a once-daily injection called liraglutide, or Victoza, for Type 2 diabetes. The GLP-1 drugs had another effect, too: people taking them lost a little weight.

If the story ended there, so-called GLP-1 agonists—also known as incretin mimetics, because they mimic natural gut hormones—would not be very well known. But Novo Nordisk wanted a medication that people didn’t have to inject every day, so it developed a once-weekly formulation. For reasons that remain a mystery, semaglutide, which is sold under the brand names Ozempic and Wegovy, caused profound reductions in weight. A two-hundred-pound woman might easily lose thirty pounds on the medication. People who had struggled to lose weight since childhood suddenly could.

Last year, the news spilled from scientific journals onto social media, generating hope for patients, excitement among doctors, and a windfall for Novo Nordisk. It is now the most valuable listed company in Europe, worth nearly half a trillion dollars, and Novo Nordisk is responsible for essentially all of Denmark’s recent economic growth. Meanwhile, there are scores of similar drugs in development, including pills, which patients prefer to injections. In June, a clinical trial sponsored by Eli Lilly found that a pill with the melodious name orforglipron caused weight reductions on par with Ozempic’s. Soon, millions of people could wake up, brush their teeth, and swallow their orforglipron along with their multivitamins or baby aspirin.

The science of GLP-1 agonists has often zigged, and now it might zag. GLP-1 produces all sorts of cascading effects; the human body has receptors for it not only in the gut but also in the liver, muscles, and brain. Studies keep turning up surprises: some of the medications appear to reduce the incidence of heart attacks and strokes, slow the progression of kidney disease, and shrink dangerous fat deposits in the liver. People who take them have reported diminished cravings for alcohol and tobacco; some have reported feeling less compelled to gamble, compulsively pick at their skin, and engage in other addictive behaviors. “It’s an unprecedented situation,” Christian Hendershot, a University of North Carolina clinical psychologist who is studying semaglutide’s effect on alcohol use, told me. “The anecdotal reports of people saying these drugs are helping them cut back on drinking or smoking have come much faster than our clinical studies can confirm.” Lizard venom helped to turn an obscure hormone into potent diabetes medications, and then into the most promising weight-loss treatments in history. We’re still discovering how much they’ll change our lives.

Obesity has existed in some form since antiquity. So-called Venus figurines, which date back tens of thousands of years, portray women with wide hips and bellies that, in times of food scarcity, might have signified wealth and well-being. But, over time, obesity has assumed harshly negative connotations. When Alexander Hamilton was Treasury Secretary, his sister-in-law, in England, fretted in a letter that “our dear Hamilton writes too much and takes no exercise and grows too fat.” Just before assuming the Presidency, William Howard Taft, perhaps the first American politician to be defined by his weight, enlisted the services of a British weight-loss physician. “No real gentleman,” Taft wrote, “weighs more than 300 pounds.” His weight yo-yoed for the rest of his life, and a generation of cartoonists ruthlessly caricatured him. According to one study, between 1922 and 1999, a period when many Americans gained weight, the average weight of a beauty-pageant winner declined by twelve per cent. An unrealistic and often harmful ideal of beauty was taking hold, even as sedentary jobs, targeted advertising, and ultra-processed foods made it less attainable. Corporations were hiring food scientists to test combinations of sugar, salt, and fat that hijacked the brain’s reward circuitry. “We’ve built a consumer society that extracts profit from consumers by exploiting our inability to control our cravings,” Scott Galloway, an N.Y.U. marketing professor and podcaster, told me. “The industrial food complex offers us what we’re evolutionarily unable to resist.”

It is hard to overstate how little progress the United States has made on this issue. Weight is not always a health problem: people with larger bodies can be metabolically healthy, just as people with normal B.M.I.s can develop diabetes and heart disease. But, over the years, obesity has been medicalized because of its links to diabetes, hypertension, and heartburn; arthritis, strokes, and heart disease; cirrhosis, sleep apnea, and kidney failure; depression, infertility, and cancer. Even so, the share of the population that is overweight has increased virtually every year since the nineteen-seventies. In the years after the National Institutes of Health essentially declared war on obesity, in 1998, rates of severe obesity doubled, and deaths from obesity-related heart disease tripled.

These poor results are not for lack of trying: when prescriptions of “diet and exercise” proved insufficient, there were the fen-phen debacle of the nineties, the Atkins craze of the early two-thousands, and the soda taxes of the twenty-tens. Advocates have argued for more walkable neighborhoods, changes to food subsidies, and the removal of junk foods from vending machines in schools; researchers developed protocols that produced small reductions in weight, only to see patients quickly gain it back. Today, nearly three-quarters of the U.S. population is considered overweight, and more than forty per cent is considered obese. Globally, twice as many people are overweight today as there were humans on the planet a century ago. Too often, obesity has been blamed on bad choices. In truth, it is a condition that, perhaps more than any other, has been manufactured by modernity.

As a doctor, I regularly treat patients for whom obesity has worsened an illness or complicated a treatment. Often, the impact is obvious: severe sleep apnea makes an older woman’s pneumonia worse; a man who doesn’t drink suffers from cirrhosis, because fat has infiltrated and inflamed his liver; an adolescent who has been mercilessly bullied for her weight arrives in an emergency department with suicidal thoughts. At other times, the medical system itself can make it harder for patients. Years ago, when I was still in medical training, I was surprised when a surgeon refused to operate on a patient of mine who was overweight. Obesity, I learned, is linked to complications like wound infections, blood clots, kidney problems, and difficulty weaning off a ventilator. But my patient had a medical condition that made it difficult for him to exercise, and his job as a taxi-driver made it virtually impossible. Asking him to lose fifty pounds before a surgery that we all knew he needed seemed cruel and futile.

For patients like these, the new medications could be transformative. Doctors who once had little to offer could soon have many effective treatments to choose from. Ozempic and its sister drug, Wegovy, mimic the effects of GLP-1 to lower blood sugar, suppress appetite, and produce a faster sense of fullness. In clinical trials, people who’ve taken the medications have lost, on average, fifteen per cent of their weight. A newer drug, Mounjaro, also mimics a second hormone, producing even greater reductions in weight; in Phase II trials of retatrutide, a “triple-agonist” that mimics three hormones, people taking the highest dosage lost nearly a quarter of their body weight—a decline approaching that of a much more invasive intervention, gastric-bypass surgery. These drugs tend to make food less appealing, leading to fundamental and durable health benefits, at least while patients take them.

Over the past year, demand for Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro has greatly outstripped supply, creating persistent shortages for patients who need them. (Technically, Ozempic and Mounjaro are approved for diabetes, while Wegovy and Zepbound are approved for obesity. In practice, all have been used for weight loss, and “Ozempic”—which was the first to market—has become a kind of shorthand for the class.) Suspected fake Ozempic pens have spread across Europe and caused several people in Austria to be hospitalized; in the U.S., some have turned to off-brand compounding pharmacies for their supply. Unfortunately, unreasonable beauty standards are driving some of the demand, showing us just how far we are from having truly healthy relationships with our bodies. People have used the drugs to get into wedding shape, and have taken out credit cards or second jobs to pay for them; wealthy Americans look around at thin neighbors and ask, “Who’s on Vitamin O?” This spring, speaking to a crowd of annoyingly attractive actors at the Academy Awards, Jimmy Kimmel mused, “When I look around at this room, I can’t help but wonder: Is Ozempic right for me?”

Galloway, the marketing professor, is convinced that new weight-loss drugs will reshape American society almost as profoundly as processed foods once did, leading to better health, elevated moods, more sex, deeper creativity, and even a reorientation of the capitalist drives that manufactured our obesity epidemic. In a sense, the enormous collateral damage of one industry, Big Food, is helping to supercharge another industry, Big Pharma. In recent months, shares of beer, snacking, and fast-food companies have fallen, in anticipation of the changing consumption habits of tens of millions of Americans. (Investors seem to hold special concern for the prospects of Krispy Kreme.) Some think that lighter passengers could save airlines millions on fuel costs, and medical-device manufacturers are scrambling to assure investors that people will still need glucose monitors and knee prosthetics. Obesity is a problem that our high-tech society invented; now we’re finding out whether technology can also be the solution.

The Ozempic Revolution could still disappoint us. For one thing, the medications don’t work for everybody. “Everyone wants to be that person they see on TikTok or Instagram who lost fifty pounds,” Fatima Cody Stanford, an obesity-medicine physician at Massachusetts General Hospital, told me. “The reality is that there are high-responders and low-responders, and people need to be prepared that they could fall anywhere along the spectrum.” Stanford wants pharmaceutical companies to study the role of genomics in the effects of GLP-1 drugs: “Why is Jane Doe losing tons of weight while John Doe, poor guy, hardly loses any weight at all?”

Ozempic and Wegovy can cause nausea, constipation, diarrhea, and other gastrointestinal symptoms. A man in his early fifties told me that he has persistently experienced these side effects since starting Ozempic six months ago. He said he lives with the trade-off in hopes of avoiding obesity in old age, when it’s most harmful. “I’ve come to accept that the side effects are kind of how the drugs work,” he said. “It’s the price you pay for gaining the ability to not overeat.” Still, one analysis found that, although most people tolerate the drugs in clinical trials, roughly two-thirds of real-world patients discontinue them within a year. One major downside of the drugs is that if you stop taking them you tend to regain the weight.

Weight loss can come with its own risks for older adults. People can lose fat on the medications, but also bone density and muscle mass, which in turn has been linked to an increased risk of falls and other problems in older individuals. (Several pharmaceutical companies are studying weight-loss drugs that could reduce these potential risks.) “I try not to call these drugs game-changing or earth-shattering or whatever,” Stanford said. “They are another tool in our tool kit. Yes, that tool kit is growing more effective—maybe a lot more effective—but these drugs have some issues, and they should be understood as one part of the over-all solution.”

The cost of the medications presents a further challenge, especially in the U.S., where a thirty-day supply of Ozempic is priced at close to a thousand dollars. (It costs a hundred and forty-seven dollars in Canada, and just ninety-three in the United Kingdom.) Even Americans with health coverage may find that insurers don’t want to pay for decades of drugs, and Medicare, which covers sixty-five million Americans, is currently prohibited from paying for weight-loss medications. (If advocates succeed in changing that, Medicare could face a colossal budgetary problem: if everyone diagnosed with obesity used the drugs, coverage could cost more than the program’s current spending on all other drugs combined.) Meanwhile, Medicaid’s tight budgets could make low-income Americans, who have the highest rates of obesity, the least likely to benefit from the new medications.

Even as new competitors enter the market, reducing prices, “the huge numbers of people who could benefit from these medications, multiplied by the indefinite period of time they need to take them, makes this a very big and very long-term spending problem,” Stacie Dusetzina, a drug-policy expert at Vanderbilt, told me. She pointed out that Sovaldi, an antiviral that can help cure hepatitis C, débuted in 2013 at a cost of nearly ninety thousand dollars; although versions of the drug are now sold for less than half that price, only a third of eligible American adults have been treated. “The fact that we missed so badly with hep C doesn’t inspire a lot of confidence when it comes to drugs,” Dusetzina said. There are some three million Americans with hepatitis C; there are more than a hundred million with obesity.

Early in My Medical Training, I thought that I might devote my career to fighting obesity. I interned at a tobacco-control organization, hoping to apply the lessons of one public-health campaign to another. I shadowed an obesity-medicine doctor, took classes on food marketing and food addiction, and researched the causes of childhood adiposity. Over time, though, I became disillusioned. Whereas the harms of smoking can be traced to tobacco and the companies that peddle it, obesity is tangled up in our food, jobs, culture, education, and neighborhoods. Year after year, in visit after visit, I couldn’t help feeling that I was failing my patients. As I sat in the clinic, asking them to try “diet and exercise” or intermittent fasting—these appeals have limited effectiveness, according to numerous studies—my recommendations started to feel hollow. I was reading them a script, knowing how the story would end.

Lately, I’ve been thinking back to the moment in late 2020 when covid treatments and vaccines started to change the course of the pandemic. For months, doctors could do hardly anything as patients suffered and died. Then, suddenly, we could do a lot. Steroids helped patients survive, antiviral medications seemed to reduce symptoms, and soon we had not one but several powerful vaccines. For me as a doctor, the arrival of these medications this past year has felt like a similar kind of tipping point—the moment when a leading threat to human health may finally have started to recede. We may look back on these drugs as some of the greatest advances in the annals of chronic disease. They are not a cure for obesity, or the stigma associated with it; some people will struggle with side effects, and others will struggle to pay for them. But, for many millions of people, our post-Ozempic world will be better than the one we lived in before. For the first time in years, I’m reading from a new script. This one has a more hopeful ending. ♦

— Dhruv Khullar, a Contributing Writer at The New Yorker, is a Practicing Physician at Weill Cornell Medicine and an Assistant Professor at Weill Cornell Medical College.

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fatliberation · 6 months ago

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hi, i'm a fat person who is just starting to learn to love and appreciate my body and i'm very new to the fat community and all that.

i was wondering if you could maybe explain the term ob*se and how it is a slur. i've never heard anything about it being a slur before(like i said, i'm very new here) and was wondering if you could tell me the origin and history of the word or mayy provide links to resources about it? i want to know more about fat history and how to support my community but i'm unsure of how to start

Welcome!

Obesity is recognized as a slur by fat communities because it's a stigmatizing term that medicalizes fat bodies, typically in the absence of disease. Aside from the word literally translating to "having eaten oneself fat" in latin, obesity (as a medical diagnosis) straight up doesn't actually exist. The only measure that we have to diagnose people with obesity is the BMI, which has been widely proven to be an ineffective measure of health.

The BMI was created in the 1800s by a statistician named Adolphe Quetelet, who did NOT sudy medicine, to gather statistics of the average height and weight of ONLY white, european, upper-middle class men to assist the government in allocating resources. It was never intended as a measure of individual body fat, build, or health.

Quetelet is also credited with founding the field of anthropometry, including the racist pseudoscience of phrenology. Quetelet’s l’homme moyen would be used as a measurement of fitness to parent, and as a scientific justification for eugenics.

Studies have observed that about 30% of so-called "normal weight" people are "unhealthy" whereas about 50% of so-called "overweight" people are “healthy”. Thus, using the BMI as an indicator of health results in the misclassification of some 75 million people in the United States alone. "Healthy" lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index.

While epidemiologists use BMI to calculate national "obesity" rates, the distinctions can be arbitrary. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold from 27.8 to 25—branding roughly 29 million Americans as "overweight" overnight—to match international guidelines. Articles about the "obesity epidemic" often use this pseudo-statistic to create a false fear mongering rate at which the United States is becoming fatter. Critics have also noted that those guidelines were drafted in part by the International Obesity Task Force, whose two principal funders were companies making weight loss drugs. Interesting!!!

So... how can you diagnose a person with a disease (and sell them medications) solely based upon an outdated measure that was never meant to indicate health in the first place? Especially when "obesity” has no proven causative role in the onset of any chronic condition?

There is a reason as to why fatness was declared a disease by the NIH in 1998, and some of it had to do with acknowledging fatness as something that is NOT just about a lack of willpower - but that's a very complicated post for another time. You can learn more about it in the two part series of Maintenance Phase titled The Body Mass Index and The Obesity Epidemic.

Aside from being overtly incorrect as a medical tool, the BMI is used to deny certain medical treatments and gender-affirming care, as well insurance coverage. Employers still often offer bonuses to workers who lower their BMI. Although science recognizes the BMI as deeply flawed, it's going to be tough to get rid of. It has been a long standing and effective tool for the oppression of fat people and the profit of the weight loss industry.

More sources and extra reading material:

How the Use of BMI Fetishizes White Embodiment and Racializes Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI by Aubrey Gordon

The Racist and Problematic History of the Body Mass Index by Adele Jackson-Gibson

What's Wrong With The War on Obesity? by Lily O'Hara, et al.

Fearing The Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

#inbox #resources #the bmi is bullshit #fat liberation #fat acceptance #fat activism #bmi #medical fatphobia

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