A diabetic friend was recently told he needed to lose weight for the sake of managing his diabetes. It’s standard advice, for good reason. Weight loss does help with diabetes and several other conditions (PCOS, sleep apnea, high blood pressure…). But he was clearly having a lot of trouble doing it on his own. As he pointed out, “I wouldn’t have gained the weight in the first place if I’d been able to avoid it.”

His insurance, however, will not cover weight loss medications. They are considered cosmetic. Never mind that in some cases, they actually aren’t cosmetic at all. Aside from insurance companies trying to pay for as little as possible, I suspect some of it has to do with cultural prejudice. Read more →