To get closer to the dream of personalized obesity treatments, we need more data to piece together which combinations of solutions work for which types of people.
Obesity is arguably the largest medical epidemic we face today—in the U.S. and around the world. It's also one of the leading causes of preventable chronic diseases and healthcare costs. Yet we aren't doing enough to combat it.
Part of the challenge is that, culturally, we often assign blame to individuals suffering from obesity, implicitly accusing them of causing their own disease. The more we do this, the less we empathize with sufferers, and the less able we are to marshal the necessary resources to treat the disease effectively. In contrast, blame is rarely part of the discussion around cancer, or even conditions related to obesity like heart disease.
