Media and Research Roundup: March 2024
Image description: A photo of a gold fountain pen. Image Credit: Art Lasovsky via Unsplash.
CONTENT WARNING: Some articles featured in the Media and Research Roundup may refer to stigmatizing events or use stigmatizing language.
February 8, 2024: Pharmaceutical companies are rushing to find ways to counteract muscle loss associated with their weight loss drugs.
February 27, 2024: Researchers find an association of middle-aged males (but not females) at high Alzheimer’s dementia risk with higher pancreatic fat and lower cognition and brain volumes, suggesting a potential sex-specific link between distinct abdominal fat and brain health.
February 29, 2024: As Weight Watchers struggles with financial losses and competition from weight-loss drugs, Oprah Winfrey plans to step down from the Board of Directors and donate her stock (which fell more than 27% following her announcement) to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington.
March 2024: Since no validated scale exists for fat microaggressions, researchers looked at four studies demonstrating the negative health associations of fat microaggressions to develop such a scale, hoping it will be used for further study.
March 2, 2024: Ragen Chastain discusses obstacles fat people are encountering in receiving COVID-19 vaccinations and boosters.
March 8, 2024: Eli Lilly, maker of tirzepatide (branded as diabetes drug Mounjaro and its weight loss counterpart Zepbound), put out a new TV ad which appears to call to task people who use these drugs out of vanity rather than medical necessity. This begs the question, why are they so willing to risk the health of fat people, but not thinner people?