MD/PhD Student @UABMSTP. New Orleans born. adrenergics/autonomics/diabetes. anti-fatphobia, anti-racism. I am a Long Covid caregiver. he/his. words mine
Dec 5, 2022 • 10 tweets • 2 min read
Hi! Were you about to post that 1) nothing is known about Long Covid and 2) there are no treatments? Stop! Don’t say that! (Because it isn’t true!)
If you are one of many Long Covid patients with POTS, you could be helped by these medicines and a variety of lifestyle changes including hydration, electrolytes, and compression leggings (especially high waisted ones).
Yesterday I performed a classic metabolic test: the glucose tolerance test. One group of mice had unexpectedly high blood sugar. I checked my notebook and observed they had low body weights during first 3 weeks of life. That’s not an original observation, but it still matters.
We have an idea of what diabetes prevention looks like. There are fifty tips on NIDDK’s website. Most involve eating less. That’s our core, innovative, 21st century tool. And it restricts our understanding of diabetes to this one slice of time, in this one person.
Aug 16, 2021 • 30 tweets • 7 min read
An important piece, if you can make it through the rampant fatphobia. My thoughts below, as well as a thread of threads on structural violence and diabetes. As this otherwise excellent work highlights the perils I discussed in my @ASBMB piece. 1/n
reuters.com/investigates/s…
But first, let me make clear. When we discuss diabetes , we are discussing *people* with diabetes. We are not losing a battle with diabetes. We don't battle diseases. We care for people experiencing them. Or not. The choice is ours, in metaphor and action. 2/n
Aug 2, 2021 • 9 tweets • 2 min read
“Hunger was never absent”. This piece brought up a lot for me. Some thoughts about what it means to conduct responsible research in metabolic disease, bearing in mind the legacy and present of colonization: 1/n
A resonant quote: “generations of health practitioners and researchers may have overlooked childhood malnutrition in residential schools as one of the most important factors influencing Indigenous health in Canada”
Sep 5, 2020 • 17 tweets • 5 min read
Trials claiming benefits of weight loss *actually* measure many effects of pleiotropic interventions (incl. weight loss). But we don't manipulate weight. No manipulation, no causality.
It's scientifically irresponsible to confuse a DEPENDENT VARIABLE W/ THE INDEPENDENT VARIABLE
I am a fierce advocate for exercise and healthy foods. I reject the idea that they matter only insofar as they decrease weight. But that's the message of these studies. Weight loss gets all the credit. It gets the title. It gets the abstract. It gets the punchy headline.
Aug 1, 2020 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
Much rhetoric around obesity as a critical pre-existing condition for Covid-19.
A key lesson from H1N1 epidemic: meta analyses (n=25,189) showed an odds ratio of 1.8 for fatality amongst obese people. Until they controlled for one key variable
1/n
#HAES#fatphobia#medtwitter
Smaller bodied people *systematically* received earlier antiviral treatment than larger bodied people. Controlling for this difference eliminates impact of obesity on H1N1 fatality. Obesity kills, but the critical mediator is not biology, it's bias.
