Treat obesity as physiology, not physics

摘要

"It is better to know nothing," wrote French physiologist Claude Bernard in An Introduction to the Study of Experimental Medicine (1865), "than to keep in mind fixed ideas based on theories whose confirmation we constantly seek."Embracing a fixed idea is one of the main dangers in the evolution of any scientific discipline. Ideally, errors will be uncovered in the trial-by-fire of rigorous testing and the science will right itself. In rare cases, however, an entire discipline can be based on a fundamental flaw.As a science journalist turned science historian, I have written at length about how and why this may have happened in obesity research. I have suggested that the discipline may be a house of cards-as, by extension, may much research into the chronic diseases associated with obesity, such as diabetes.