Prenatal Measures to Prevent Childhood Obesity
In advanced cases of overweight, up to and including morbid obesity, in teenagers and adults, the answer becomes clear. Many, many people are addicted to food in the same way an alcoholic or cocaine addict is hooked. They can only help themselves through interventions that adhere closely to the classical 12-step program, especially effective in […]
Childhood Obesity and Meta-Analysis
In a time of limited resources, to look at different independent studies with some kind of system or organizing principle in mind is a very economical use of information. The data is already paid for. It’s even possible that some error might be discovered in a long-completed survey, a misunderstanding that once led the scientific […]
A Bit of a Conflict of Interest
In America, among kids ages four to 17, about 8% are diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD.) They have a hard time sitting still, following a train of thought, being regimented, staying quiet, and settling down. And even though stimulants are supposed to stir a person up, when stimulants are taken by the kids […]
Atypical Antipsychotics and Childhood Obesity
There are disquieting hints everywhere that if we really were honest about discovering the causes of childhood obesity, we might not be happy about the answers. We might wish we had never asked. For example, some people believe our entire culture is warped by massive overdiagnosis of pathological conditions. We have discussed the question of […]
The Unnatural Sweetener
A disturbing aspect of childhood obesity is that, in an attempt to avoid it, children are ingesting large amounts of aspartame (marketed as Equal, NutraSweet, Canderel, Equal-Measure, Spoonful, Benevia, etc.) and other sweeteners that have really bad health consequences. One of the most vocal critics of aspartame, Dr. Joseph Mercola, certainly has a way of […]
The “DSM-5” and Obesity, Part 1
We’ll get to the obesity relevance in a minute, but meanwhile, here is an interesting detail about the upcoming revised edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. The Roman numerals are being dropped in favor of Arabic numbers, so the new version will actually be DSM-5. Another footnote of interest: the third […]