Tag Archives: public health

Where You Live in America Determines When You Die

Posted on January 24, 2018

Shutterstock Debates over income inequality divide liberals and conservatives. In the last few decades, income inequality has soared in the U.S. In the 1950s, the top 1% of Americans brought home about a tenth of the country’s income. By 2012, … Continue reading →

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Got a Big Belly? (Why Big Sugar Is to Blame)

Posted on November 7, 2017

Photo Credit: LOIC VENANCE/AFP/Getty Images Growing up Republican, I have long believed in personal responsibility. In junior high school, when I observed close relatives who struggled with obesity, I vowed to never let myself get out of shape. (“Junior high” … Continue reading →

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HIV – The Epidemic Isn’t Over

Posted on October 30, 2017

We have great medications to treat HIV infections today, but the best medicine is to not need medicine – to not get infected in the first place. But according to an article in JAMA, HIV transmission is rising among gay … Continue reading →

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Hookup or Hookah?

Posted on June 2, 2015

I have two teenage boys. So of course I’m worried about them skipping the dating scene and engaging in “hookups.” That seems to be what kids do these days. But now, do I also have to worry about them engaging … Continue reading →

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The Harms of Believing in Exercise

Posted on April 27, 2015

Can beliefs make you fat? The answer to this question might seem pretty obvious. If I believe that the best way to lose weight is to super-size five meals a day at McDonald’s, while consuming bags of Doritos to tide … Continue reading →

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Cigarette Smoking Is So 1970!

Posted on April 24, 2015

I have two reasons for showing you this picture, illustrating the decline in cigarette sales in Germany, France, Japan, Switzerland and the US over the past few decades. First, to show you the decline in cigarette sales in Germany, France, … Continue reading →

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Calling Obesity A Disease Dooms Dieters

Posted on March 27, 2015

In June of 2013, the American Medical Association officially recognized obesity as a disease. The organization had its reasons. For starters, obesity leads to heart attacks, strokes, diabetes, early-onset degenerative arthritis…and just about every other illness on the planet. In … Continue reading →

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Do You Know How Many Calories Are in Your Burrito?

Posted on April 25, 2014

Here’s a new study I conducted with Peggy Liu, Jim Bettman, and Arianna Uhalde on calorie range information. Check it out below. Liu, Peggy J., James R. Bettman, Arianna R. Uhalde, and Peter A. Ubel (forthcoming), “How Many Calories Are … Continue reading →

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When Physicians Pay Attentions to Costs, They Promote Public Health!

Posted on April 4, 2014

This week, my good friend Reshma Jagsi and I published an article in the New England Journal of Medicine, in which we explain why physicians are doing their job, as physicians, when they pay attention to healthcare costs. Here is a … Continue reading →

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Should Our Government Combat the Obesity Epidemic?

Posted on April 17, 2013

Here is video from a talk I recently gave at the University of Wisconsin, laying out a few of the reasons I think the government needs to play a role in combating the obesity epidemic. If you dig further into … Continue reading →

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