A recent post here inquired, “Are crucial questions being addressed?” One of them is, “Why is it even necessary to ask that particular question?” Whenever a major story hits the news, the same phenomenon can be observed. Generally, the public hears an awful lot about one aspect, or a couple of major aspects, of the event. Some in-depth, long-form reporting still exists, of course, but most people have neither the time nor the inclination to pursue any topic with the rigor of either a Ph.D. candidate or a law enforcement officer. About the GLP-1 receptor agonists and the other concoctions with ..read more

  There’s been a lot of talk of using the GLP-1 agonists for weight loss, both adults and children. However, there’s a solid case that they won’t replace interventions like 12 steps, displacement theory-based interventions, good old exercise, and Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT). Let’s discuss CBT — the internet-based CBT (iCBT) in particular. Studies show promising results According to an article published in the Journal of Affective Disorders and reposted on ScienceDirect, patients with binge spectrum eating disorders often struggle to access standardized treatment. iCBT significa ..read more

As of last month, the people who keep close track of these matters, namely ResearchAndMarkets.com, have identified more than 80 pharmaceutical firms that currently have more than 100 new anti-obesity drugs in the “pipeline,” the wide area that exists in between the gleam of inspiration and the marketing of a finished product. Naturally, the public expects that a medicine offered for sale has jumped through every possible hoop, and is as safe to use as human ingenuity can make it. There are so many types of products, based on so many different molecules, with several possible routes of adminis ..read more

The US Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) updated its recommendations in June for how primary care clinicians can effectively assist children with high body mass index (BMI), a standard metric used to identify obesity. The task force emphasized that extensive and intensive behavioral interventions are the most effective means for helping children achieve a healthy weight. Although recent studies have highlighted the success of weight-loss drugs and surgical procedures for children, and the American Academy of Pediatrics endorses these methods as viable options, they are not included in t ..read more

For DiabetesJournals.org, Deborah Hinnen wrote, “Proper patient selection and education can assist in achieving positive treatment outcomes.” The writer is talking about the utility of the GLP-1 drugs in treating diabetes, but the same can be said of their use to fight obesity. Patient selection implies that some people, even if they could greatly benefit from any particular treatment, are just not suited to it for other reasons. Education is paramount in any case. We hope that the patient will take any words that come directly from the physician’s mouth as gospel, and strive to obey “doctor ..read more

Initially developed for diabetes treatment, GLP-1 agonists have gained significant attention for their weight-loss benefits. The success of GLP-1 medications like Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound has spurred a wave of research exploring their potential beyond diabetes and weight loss. Discovering secondary uses for GLP-1s The headlines are coming at us fast and hard. Just in recent weeks, we’ve read that the GLP-1 agonists may help reduce sleep apnea, reduce pancreatitis risk in obese and diabetic patients, reduce rheumatoid arthritis symptoms, and potentially even boost fertility. In ..read more

Most of the research on these drugs, over the years, has been performed with an eye to their usefulness in treating Type 2 diabetes. The findings are also, obviously, pertinent to their effects when prescribed for weight loss in non-diabetic patients. And of course, it is not their effects alone that matter, but what happens when those effects combine with whatever else the patient is already taking? The professional with a prescription pad must be meticulously conscientious in recording a patient’s history, lest something important and potentially threatening to slip through the net. Regardi ..read more

The previous post listed some activities of the vagus nerve as having to do with… […] stomach expansion, stomach contraction, gastric acid release, stomach content release into the small intestine, digestive pancreatic enzyme secretion and the sensations of both hunger and fullness. Who is in charge of those departments? Who tells the vagus nerve what messages to convey? It now appears that the directives carried from this area of the body originate with the gut microbiome (as differentiated from, for instance, the skin microbiome). The notion does seem rather radical, and it feels appropri ..read more

In breaking news last week, Eli Lilly is preparing to sue several medical spas and wellness centers for allegedly selling counterfeit and compounded versions of its popular weight loss and diabetes drugs, Mounjaro and Zepbound. This issue has also been raised by Novo Nordisk, the maker of Ozempic, and health organizations, who warn that these fake products can cause serious side effects, including infections. In an open letter on Thursday, Eli Lilly cautioned against using drugs labeled “research purposes only” or “not for human consumption,” highlighting that federal regulators have not appr ..read more

In the past months, the vagus nerve has been showing up quite a lot in the media. Before moving on to consider more recent theories and claims connected with this anatomical feature, it will be useful to recollect some past mentions of it in Childhood Obesity News and other sources. The vagus nerve connects the brain to the heart, lungs, digestive tract, and several other entities. This quotation from technology writer Aaron Mamiit gives a basic explanation of what the nerve does: Functions of the vagus nerve involve the enabling of several mechanisms in the human metabolic and gastrointesti ..read more