Why you should consider a career in Obesity Medicine:

Reason #1: Essentially No Call

Yes, I occasionally have to decrease insulin because a patient’s glycemic control is improving too rapidly. I know! It’s a terrible problem to have.
Reason #2: Medication Deprescribing

How many of you get to routinely stop BP, Diabetes, antidepressants, and pain meds? Deprescribing is the new prescribing.
Reason #3: Highly Rewarding

When a patient loses weight for the first time in years. When you stop their pain meds because their knee or back stops hurting. When you throw away their CPAP because they no longer have OSA. These shared moments are special.
Reason #4: Make a difference

On a daily basis I have the privilege of empowering others. Most patients undergo both a physical and mental metamorphosis. The latter is so inspiring and keeps me coming back.
Reason #5: Exciting Times

The field is young and growing. This past year the #ABOM certified more specialists than ever. Our scientific understanding of the biology of weight regulation is refining, and with it, the novel therapies are getting better!
There are many reasons to enter this field, but for me, it was the first time I felt like I was impacting someone’s life. The first time I felt like I was changing the trajectory of an individual’s health. [end]

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Michael "Mike" Albert, MD

Michael

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @MichaelAlbertMD

29 Jan
Edit: 1/ THE THREAD YOU NEED TO READ

Anecdotes are empowering and even intoxicating for most. If you lose 100+ lbs, change the trajectory of your health, and have increased vitality it may seem like a natural step to share your miraculous discovery with others. The reality is...
2/ biological systems are complex and individuals are unlikely to respond in the same way as YOU. How do we know? We have studied it. When you look at the variation in response across different wt loss interventions, it looks something like this...
3/ Some lose a small amount of weight
Some lose a LOT of weight (maybe like you)
Some lose NO weight
Some GAIN weight

This is why we study these things and perform the scientific method. Just like in TV disclaimer: INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES MAY VARY. (gotta love @ethanjweiss' plot)
Read 4 tweets
27 Jan
1/ ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!!!

We can and should acknowledge that bariatric (metabolic) surgery is a superior intervention for the treatment of obesity. [thread]
2/ Independent metabolic and CV benefits outside of absolute wt loss...

1⃣ - ⬇️ in ASCVD & mortality at lower wt loss thresholds than non-surgical wt loss: jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/…

2⃣ - normalization of CV risk factors not wholly attributable to wt loss:
3/ More likely to have long-term remission of type 2 diabetes:
Read 12 tweets
25 Jan
There is a stronger evidence basis for calorie counting as a core behavioral strategy for reducing food intake than “eating to satiety.”

Eating foods that reduce the risk of overeating and promoting satiety and less hunger is impt but this is an unproven behavioral strategy.
The reality is appetite is complex; regulated by a number of factors acting on two neural circuits. Also, we know people can eat past satiety given higher level neural circuitry involved in the complex regulation of feeding. But, hey, people like oversimplifying things. 🤷🏼‍♂️ Image
People struggle to be healthy in an OB environment, and w/o monitoring, typically overeat without knowing. Calorie counting serves as a way to self-monitor and should not be viewed as an "exact science." People pushing this narrative have no idea what they are talking about.
Read 8 tweets
3 Dec 20
The presumption that all individuals start with the same potential for restraint (i.e., the ability to refuse a cookie) is not evidenced-based.
Read 4 tweets
15 Nov 20
1/ In honor of #WorldDiabetesDay2020, and to directly address two significant public health threats of the 21st century, I want to discuss very-low-energy-diets and low-energy-diets as a potential treatment for obesity and T2DM. [thread]
2/ Total Diet Replacement (TDR) strategies have been extensively studied and found to be an effective dietary intervention to promote a Calorie deficit and reduced food intake. Image
3/ I originally became interested in TDR interventions reading the many works of Dr. Thomas Wadden, demonstrating clinically significant short-term weight loss with VLEDs. [Tsai & Wadden, 2006] Image
Read 16 tweets
17 Oct 20
1/ WHY INCREASING PHYSICAL ACTIVITY/EXERCISE SHOULD BE A GREATER FOCUS THAN LOSING WEIGHT:

I still think a weight-centric approach to managing chronic dz is the best approach, but if you are going to focus on ONE change in your life, I hope it is increasing PA.
[thread]
2/ To understand my point you need context. First, losing WT and maintaining it is hard. I could give you any number of obscure stats on this, but I think you all know from experience. The obesogenic environment (sedentary life + modern UPFs food) is unforgiving.
3/And while I think we should cont to manage our Wts the best we can (lifestyle/meds/surgery), THE SYSTEM is rigged against us. Until we address the systemic issues driving OB (food deserts, health inequity, poverty, agricultural subsidies, etc.) major changes will not occur.
Read 13 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!