Could we have hit “peak” obesity?
I am stunned. The Financial Times reported today that there’s been a dip in obesity rates this year, indicating that we may have already hit the peak and could see a slow and steady decline from here.
What’s driving that? Data columnist John Burn-Murdoch suggests that it might very well be the GLP-1 medicines, given that 1 in 8 members of the public have now tried these drugs per data from KFF. Moreover, he noted, that the drop off seems to be most steep when it comes to younger adults (college graduates), and that’s the group using medications like Ozempic at the highest rate.
We can’t be certain this is the most important factor, but there is some compelling evidence. For those who didn’t catch it, I’ll drop the tweet storm here for reading pleasure. As you can see, the tweet is already taking off in a big way.
So how enthusiastic should we be? For context, I asked the go-to obesity medicine experts in my network to weigh in. And unsurprisingly, I got very mixed opinions.
Some say that it is a big deal. Dr. Jonathan Slotkin, a neurosurgeon who’s been closely tracking all the relevant studies, described the outcome as “remarkable and unprecedented.” He went as far as to suggest that it may even be worth adjusting the CDC’s 2030 Healthy People goal for reducing obesity in our population to be even more aggressive.
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