U of M researchers study medications to help pediatric obesity patients

Researchers at the University of Minnesota, including Megan Oberle Bensignor, MD, MSHP, Assistant Professor in the Division of Pediatric Endocrinology at the University of Minnesota, are tackling more ways to treat pediatric obesity. Though there are a wide variety of medications available to adults to help manage and mitigate symptoms, there are only three medications that are FDA approved to be used on pediatric patients, with those patients having to be above the age of 12 to use those medications. This excludes a large number of obese patients and makes access to treatment for this demographic increasingly harder. Though many think that obesity can be treated with a healthy diet and increased exercise, for some patients this isn’t enough as treatments must overcome natural instincts that have evolutionarily been ingrained into our bodies. For those pediatric individuals, obesity medicine could be the key to counteracting these instincts and making long-term healthy lifestyle changes to prevent further complications down the road. To read the full article and to listen to Dr. Oberle Bensignor’s full interview, please follow this link.