This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! In part 1 we talked about a request that has been submitted for the World Health Organization (WHO) to add diet drugs to their list of “essential medicines.” We discussed who was making this request and the justification that they were using. Today we’re going to take a deeper dive into the research that they used to try to support this request, and in part three will look at the research around harm and “efficacy,” as well as “cost effectiveness.” (I was originally going to write this in two parts, but I realized that it was just ridiculously long, and there is time before the WHO meets about this, so I’ve decided to break it into three parts.)
“Based on a survey taken by 97 people, a study that failed to control for any confounding variables and made wild assumptions about causality based on simple correlation, and their own research’s acknowledgment that changing body size may not change health outcomes, it is evident that affordable and available pharmacotherapy for ob*sity is needed on a global level.”
Not gonna lie, this is scary stuff. It’s getting so hard to get unbiased care. How long before insurance companies require a year on meds like these before they’ll approve necessary surgeries?
Yoni Freedhoff was showing some promise until he signed onto the NOVO Nordisk bandwagen. At least 3-4 other Canadian experts were in the same boat. Dr. Sue Pederson was one of them, but at least she published her involvement with NOVO. I had some hopes for Dr. Arya Sharma, but he caved also. I had to get off their mailing list. I forget their names. NOVO uses methods that I equate with Purdue promoting opioids, or any of the tobacco companies.
A great essay! You are our "Gatling gun" compared to their small arms fire. Trouble is, there are more of them than there are of us! The struggle against the diet companies has always been unbalanced. Eventually, we win, but it may take a few more decades for it to be decisive.
Another metaphor: You are like the lad who proclaimed that the emperor had no clothes.
But meanwhile, we will win some hearts and minds in the process.
“Based on a survey taken by 97 people, a study that failed to control for any confounding variables and made wild assumptions about causality based on simple correlation, and their own research’s acknowledgment that changing body size may not change health outcomes, it is evident that affordable and available pharmacotherapy for ob*sity is needed on a global level.”
this is pure gold
Not gonna lie, this is scary stuff. It’s getting so hard to get unbiased care. How long before insurance companies require a year on meds like these before they’ll approve necessary surgeries?
Dammit, I thought Yoni Freedhoff was one of the good ones.
Yoni Freedhoff was showing some promise until he signed onto the NOVO Nordisk bandwagen. At least 3-4 other Canadian experts were in the same boat. Dr. Sue Pederson was one of them, but at least she published her involvement with NOVO. I had some hopes for Dr. Arya Sharma, but he caved also. I had to get off their mailing list. I forget their names. NOVO uses methods that I equate with Purdue promoting opioids, or any of the tobacco companies.
A great essay! You are our "Gatling gun" compared to their small arms fire. Trouble is, there are more of them than there are of us! The struggle against the diet companies has always been unbalanced. Eventually, we win, but it may take a few more decades for it to be decisive.
Another metaphor: You are like the lad who proclaimed that the emperor had no clothes.
But meanwhile, we will win some hearts and minds in the process.