Tag Archives: Obesity Medicine

For many years I have told my patients that obesity is not a problem of eating too much and exercising too little, in spite of this common stereotype that has been propagated everywhere from the lay press to physician beliefs. We have had good science to support that in fact obesity should be considered a disease and not simply a result of conscious behaviors dating back to the discovery of leptin, a hormone that fat cells make which governs appetite regulation, back in 1994. In 1998 our National Institute of Health recognized obesity as a disease. And today the American Medical Association adopted new policy recognizing obesity as a disease. [Read more]

I am excited to report that Belviq became available in Denver area pharmacies as a new FDA-approved weight loss medication as of Friday, June 7th, 2013. Pharmacies are expected to receive the medication during the week of June 10th – 14th and have it available to patients after that time. [Read more]

It is hard for me to believe that with what we know about obesity in 2013, it is still not considered a disease by our health insurance industry, and medical weight loss remains an out-of-pocket expense for most obese individuals. For the past 10 years, I’ve enjoyed watching patients in Denver with obesity get medical weight loss treatment at CNC and dramatically improve their lives. [Read more]

In 2012, a new board, the American Board of Obesity Medicine (ABOM) was formed to establish the Medical sub-specialty of Obesity Medicine. The goal of this organization is to define what body of knowledge an Obesity Medicine specialist should be competent in, and then to establish standards for a doctor to become certified in Obesity Medicine. [Read more]

Dr. Ethan Lazarus is attending the Medical Weight Loss lecture series in Orlando, Florida this week. The ASBP meeting attracts about 500 doctors specializing in medical weight loss from across the country. Dr. Lazarus was a featured speaker at this year’s meeting, helping prepare weight loss doctors for the upcoming Obesity Medicine board examination next month. [Read more]