Here’s a novel thought: could the science that has enabled us to develop obesity drugs, be repurposed to help people put on weight? Now, the vast majority of us don’t, of course, need to put on weight. But some people do – notably many individuals with eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa. In a ‘Perspectives’ paper recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine, and an […]
Novo Nordisk Foundation announced it had awarded DKK 11.8 billion (€1.6 billion) during 2025 to support more than 2,200 projects aimed at improving people’s health and the sustainability of society and the planet. The projects cover the full range of the Foundation’s grant-giving areas, including key topics such as cardiometabolic diseases, antimicrobial resistance, the development of more resilient and climate-friendly […]
Back in mid-January Optimum’s Hot Topics column took a look at life expectancy data and asked the rather depressing question: “Will you live longer than your parents – or not?” Why so downbeat? Because besides stalling life expectancy figures, a slew of other data also seemed to hint that longevity might have peaked: steadily growing […]
OZEMPIC, Wegovy, Mounjaro, Zepbound: they’ve quickly become part of our vocabulary. In just a few years, powerful GLP-1 drugs, first introduced to control Type 2 diabetes but now much better known for their ability to help people rapidly lose weight, have become indispensable weapons in the Battle of the Bulge. In the UK alone, some […]
Not long ago, it was taken as a given that we’d live longer than our parents – just as most of them lived longer and healthier lives than their own. But something strange has happened in the last 15 years or so. Increases in life expectancy have stalled, and there are signs it might even […]
