The 21st Show

How weight loss drugs work and the shame of carrying excess weight

 
Expanded growth charts released Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now include a body mass index of 60 — up from previous charts that stopped at a BMI of 37.

Expanded growth charts released Thursday, Dec. 15, 2022 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now include a body mass index of 60 — up from previous charts that stopped at a BMI of 37. Patrick Sison/AP, file

According to the Trust for America's Health, a non-partisan public health organization, nearly 40 percent of Illinois adults and nearly 20 percent of Illinois children are obese. But, within the past year, the Danish company Novo Nordisk launched two new diabetes drugs that are now being used by some to lose weight.*

We spent the entire hour with two doctors and an author to discuss two diabetes drugs that are being used for weight loss. To finish our conversation, we tackled the shame associated with weight.

GUESTS: 

Disha Narang, MD

Director of Obesity Medicine, Northwestern Medicine Lake Forest Hospital

Nicole Florence, MD

Medical director and bariatrician, Memorial Wellness Center, Springfield

Cathy O’Neil

Author: The Shame Machine: Who Profits in the New Age of Humiliation

 

 

Prepared for web by Owen Henderson

* An earlier version of this story misspelled the name of the company Novo Nordisk. Return to the corrected sentence.

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