In the past I’ve written pieces specifically about issues and mistakes that are made with terminology that is used…let’s call it differently in weight science as well as common statistics mistakes and mishaps . Today I’m offering an update on terminology as part 1 and in part 2 we’ll talk about the statistics. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
I have written before about the various types of weight stigma that can impact healthcare including implicit weight stigma and bias (wherein people have negative beliefs and stereotypes about fat people and are acting on them unconsciously) and explicit bias (wherein people are fully aware that they have negative beliefs and stereotypes about fat people and are acting on them). Today we have a doctor who seemed to be going out of their way to demonstrate textbook explicit bias. Get full access t...
This is the second part of a series answering a reader’s question about weight loss industry “big think” strategies within healthcare. In part 1 we discussed how the weight loss industry strategically created a market by turning simply existing on the higher end of the weight spectrum into a so-called “disease diagnosis. “In part 2 we’ll talk about how they are relentlessly working to expand that market. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Today I’ll be taking a break from research breakdowns and such to talk about navigating nonsense that happens during the holiday season. Reader Anna asked: It seems like I can’t put a bite of food in my mouth from November to January without somebody saying something - my mom, the people at my work. I’m looking forward to seeing my family but also dreading it. A little help, maybe? I’m so sorry about this and I’m happy to offer some thoughts. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightand...
I have written plenty about the sorry state of weight science – an area of science wherein research that would get a freshman flunked out of their intro to research methods class gets published in peer-reviewed academic journals (some of which are actually owned and operated by the weight loss industry !) Today I’m offering three things that, if they were required of all weight loss studies, would instantly create massive improvement in the information that could be gleaned from these studies by...
I’ve written quite a lot about BMI-based procedure denials for higher-weight patients. These denials typically amount to a patient having their healthcare held hostage for a weight loss ransom that they are very unlikely to be able to pay. I have a collection of resources to fight gender-affirming surgery denials and now I have another study to add to that collection. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
In part 1 we discussed the types and rates of side effects for Wegovy. Today we’re going to discuss the claim that reader Connie’s doctor made that the weight loss drug Wegovy “has been around forever and is safe.” Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
I received the following question from reader Connie: “My doctor is pushing me to take Wegovy. I told him I’m not interested in weight loss medication but the kept pushing so I said that I was worried about the side effects. He said they are ‘nothing to worry about’ and that ‘all drugs have side effects’ and that ‘besides, this drug has been around forever and is safe.’ I didn’t know what to say to that, can you help?” Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/...
In part one we talked a bit about who was behind Ob*sityWeek and the money involved. Today we’re going to look at how this plays out. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
Ob*sityWeek* (OW) is over, but the onslaught of uncritical media articles promoting its contents has just begun. In Part 1 we’ll discuss what OW is (and who is behind it.) In part 2 we’ll discuss some of this year’s happenings. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
Today I was using cooking spray (for non-diet ease of use purposes!) and I had a flashback to a doctor’s appointment before I learned the truth about the failure rate of weight loss. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
A reader sent me the marketing email for a heart health seminar that perfectly demonstrates many of the issues that we see with weight science, weight stigma, healthcare, and pharmaceutical industry money. I want to acknowledge that the people who put this together may have been well-intentioned, but that doesn’t erase the harm. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter ! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! I received this question from reader J’Alice: I recently heard somebody say that ob*sity* is an addiction just like alcohol or gambling, but that sounds wrong to me. Can you explain? Thanks for the question J’Alice! You’re right, it’s wrong. Let’s dig into this a bit: Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter ! If you appreciate the content here, please consider supporting the newsletter by subscribing and/or sharing! This is another in the series of research breakdowns I completed as part of a project with Weight Inclusive Nutrition and Dietetics (WIND) to create a comprehensive response to the horrible AAP guidelines . The study is Association of pediatric ob*sity* treatment, including a dietary component, with change in depression and anxiety: a systema...
This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter ! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! The idea that people can gain “clinically meaningful health benefits” by losing 5-10% of their body weight is ubiquitous and ridiculous. Sometimes it is recommended as a way to improve general health, to reduce cardiometabolic risk factors, or to improve a specific health condition. I wrote about this, and a study that tested it, here . Today I want to look at the sheer fo...
I received a request to write about an article titled “Graphic and grisly beverage warning labels stressing sugar content dangers could curb ob*sity*, study finds.” The study found no such thing. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
Our current medical view of weight and health is deeply muddied by weight loss industry involvement. I created this list of questions as a guide to interrogation. It can be used by or with healthcare practitioners, or by anyone who wants to take a critical look at our current weight and health paradigm. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
I received this question from reader Jeremy: “I’m in healthcare and I was recently in a training that was talking about O-word as a chronic disease (eye-roll) and then they used the term lifelong relapsing remitting obesity but didn’t elaborate what it meant, can you help?” Thanks for asking Jeremy, let's get into it! Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
I've written previously about the serious issues with the field of so-called “ob*sity* medicine.” Today I’d like to talk about what could be. What if there was a field of medicine dedicated to providing better care to fat* patients rather than dedicated to making us thin? Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe
Thanks to everyone who sent me this article from Medical News Today and asked me to write about it! I’ll discuss the study, but I’m also going talk about the article because it’s a great demonstration of how even articles that appear to question weight stigma can still be deeply rooted in weight stigma. Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
Healthcare practitioners have a long history of blaming and shaming fat patients for the failure of intentional weight loss. While fat activists and weight-neutral healthcare practitioners have been talking about this for literally decades, we are starting to hear pushback against this from, what seems at the outset, an unlikely source – the weight loss industry. Suddenly they seem to be falling all over themselves to admit the failure of intentional weight loss. While that seems like a step in ...
I have permission to share the story of a patient I advocate for. She is fat and has Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). Her latest A1C test was 7.1%. This is .1% over her goal and up from her previous test. Her doctor told her that she didn’t need to adjust meds but should “do her best to eat less sweets and carbohydrates.” This is incredibly common advice (perhaps especially with fat patients for whom many healthcare practitioners seem to always be trying to find a reason to prescribe food restriction, but...
I received the following question from reader Ximena: “I appreciate how you always look to find out how much money different doctors have taken from pharmaceutical companies but I’m wondering, is there any proof that these payments actually influence doctors?” This is a great question, and there is research about this... Get full access to Weight and Healthcare at weightandhealthcare.substack.com/subscribe...
This series is part of the work I did with WIND (Weight Inclusive Nutrition and Dietetics) to create a comprehensive response to the disastrous American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for higher-weight children . I was part of the team that analyzed the research that, the AAP claims, supports their recommendations, and I’ll be publishing my breakdowns here as well. Today’s study is The effectiveness and risks of bariatric surgery: an updated systematic review and meta-analysis, 2003-2012...
Embroiled in lawsuits and investigations across multiple countries about the dangerous side effects of their weight loss drug Wegovy (which I interrupted writing about to write about this,) Novo Nordisk put out a press release today with the headline “Semaglutide 2.4 mg reduces the risk of major adverse cardiovascular events by 20% in adults with overw*ight or ob*sity in the SELECT trial.” Normally I would be releasing a detailed breakdown of the study results. The problem is, the SELECT trial i...
I was recently asked for an interview by a reporter who was writing about Novo Nordisk’s new weight loss drug . I sent a long answer via email and then we did a 30 minute phone call. The quote that appeared in the article didn’t come from my email interview or the phone interview, but rather from a piece I had written here, so I thought I would share the full email interview that I sent (I asked the reporter for the recording and/or transcription of our call and they declined.) I want to note th...
As a fat patient who often exercises my right of informed refusal when it comes to recommendations of weight loss, I have had to correct my chart multiple times when the healthcare provider who recommended the weight loss labeled me as “non-compliant.” I’ll tell you how I handle it, but first I want to dig into the whole concept of “compliance” and weight loss recommendations. I refuse weight loss recommendations whether they are behavior-based, pharmacotherapy , or surgical , but in this post I...
This series is part of the work I’m doing with Weight Inclusive Nutrition and Dietetics (WIND) to create a comprehensive response to the disastrous American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) guidelines for higher-weight children . I’m part of the team that is analyzing the research that, the AAP claims, supports their recommendations, and I’ll be publishing my breakdowns here as well. Today’s study is Laparoscopic sleeve gastrectomy in children younger than 14 years: refuting the concernsAayed Alqahta...
I received this question from an anonymous reader who is an RN, and it’s a question I’ve received in various shapes and forms from a number of providers: I feel like I’m surrounded by weight stigma all day long - negative body talk in front of (sometimes to and at!) patients, diet talk amongst the staff (sometimes also in front of patients) jokes at high weight patient’s expense behind the scenes …you get the idea. I want to say something but I’m not clear how. Do you have any ideas on what to s...
This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter ! If you appreciate the content here, please consider supporting the newsletter by subscribing and/or sharing! I’ve previously written a series about fat people and joint health, including joint pain , osteoarthritis , and resources to fight BMI-based joint surgery denials . I’ve added a new resource to the list thanks to Dr. Greg Dodell who let me know about this new study. Before I get into this particular study, I want to offer a reminder that even...
