Cooking Up a Solution to the Obesity Crisis?
As the global obesity epidemic continues to escalate, different solutions are put forward every day by governments, private organisations, charities, and members of the public. Of the many varying solutions that are suggested, one, in particular, seems to have gained a lot of traction in the last couple of years; cooking classes. It is said that due to the obesogenic environment we live in,...Read More
Rethinking public mental health: learning from obesity
This commentary piece written in the Lancet Psychiatary, reviews Stanley J Ulijaszek’s new book, Models of Obesity. It argues that the field of mental health could learn a lot from the challenges of obesity and the approaches used to tackle it. It first argues that the obesity debate has been reframed in a way that presents it as a chronic relapsing-remitting condition. This has shifted...Read More
The obesity paradox in cancer: clinical insights and perspectives
The obesity paradox refers to the paradoxical relationship between obesity and instances of better long-term survival in cancer, given the huge body of evidence for obesity’s carcinogenic effects. This article, published in Eating and weight disorders- studies on anorexia, bulimia and Obesity, seeks to explore the available studies concerning cancer incidence, survival and obesity in...Read More
Socioeconomic status in childhood and obesity in adults: a population-based study
This paper, published in Revista de Saúde Pública, aimed to determine the relationship between socioeconomic status (SS) in childhood and obesity in adult life. It conducted a cross-sectional analysis of a population of 1,222 adults in Florianópolis, Southern Brazil. Socioeconomic status was determined using the participant’s parents level of education as a proxy. Adult obesity was...Read More
Future Pharmacotherapy for Obesity: New Anti-Obesity Drugs on the Horizon
This review published in Current obesity reports looks at how our increased understanding of energy regulation and neurohormonal pathways in energy homeostasis (the body’s mechanism for controlling caloric intake and energy expenditure) are being utilised to find pharmacological solutions to obesity. The review looks at centrally acting agents, gut hormones & incretin targets and...Read More
Practical Strategies for Engaging Individuals with Obesity in Primary Care
In this review article published by the Mayo Clinic, Dr Scott Kahan discusses the best strategies for engaging patients in obesity management, as well as looking at the barriers to good clinical practice. His findings are based on PubMed searches as well as his own clinical experience. The two strategies identified as being practiced sub-optimally are screening and referral for counselling....Read More