Win-win here. Rather than challenging the Big Soy and Big Corn agricultural lobbies, we’ll just push more revenue to Big Pharma.
intercst
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This is really disgusting.
I don’t know, sounds like fat-shaming to me…? Sounds like the parents who buy these need reeducating. Just where is the center of gravity with these things in the Public?
Science Bad: They’re corrupt, lying, they want to make everybody sick, COVID, vaccines, can’t trust them. There’s such a thing as a healthy weight.
Science Good: There’s such a thing as a Healthy Weight, drugs are good for everything, there “must be” life on other planets simply because there’s a lot of planets.
Was it Seinfeld who used to say: Who are these people…?
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I agree…5-6 year olds have this thing where their little tummies get really large as the organs enlarge in preparation for the pubertal growth spurt. This happens when they still have baby fat on the face and limbs…Then puberty arrives and they mostly begin to lean out. Girls have a huge increase in body fat at about 10-13 as they experience menarche, but this too passes for the most part.
That said, there are some very rare genetic disorders of obesity that absolutely need a solution. These are the kids we used to see on Jerry Springer weighing 125 lbs at age 3. These drugs might be a tool to help these kids.
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Sounds sane, unlike with adults
david fb
Possibly but all the drugs do is diminish hunger. Those diseases may not be based on overeating at times. Some form of starving the child would be the worst mistake. The human body at every age needs x number of calories.
There are multiple subtypes of genetic obesity. I once ran into a case of a 8-year old being raised by grandparents who wanted to eat constantly—she would eat anything😔. It was so bad that the grandparents had a lock for the fridge! The pediatric endocrinologist asked me (a young dietitian at the time) for help. So I designed a menu of low calorie salads available in copious amounts. The nurses and I fought because they were of the opinion that we should not feed the baby. I often wonder what happened to that poor child.
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Reading the article, it appears that this is an application for extending the diabetes drug to 6 year olds (I assume this is because FDA approval isn’t currently available).
Genetic causes and rare hormonal disorders aside, it’s fairly obvious that childhood obesity is increasing and in ever younger populations. Along with it an earlier onset of the diseases associated with excess adiposity and metabolic syndrome …including, but not limited to, liver transplant secondary to NAFLD and NASH (most rapidly growing groups on organ transplant lists are young adults…yes, it was a shock to me to find that out)
Should this diabetes drug show the same effects on T2D and weight loss effect in children as adults, it might well turn out to be a very useful tool in helping re-engineer dysfunctional eating habits and attitudes to food at the age when habits can be manipulated more easily.
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