AMA declares obesity a disease

[Kennedy 0]

Quote

AMA declares obesity a disease
The move by the American Medical Assn. board means that one-third of adults and 17% of children in the U.S. have a medical condition that requires treatment.

he American Medical Assn. voted Tuesday to declare obesity a disease, a move that effectively defines 78 million American adults and 12 million children as having a medical condition requiring treatment.

The nation's leading physicians organization took the vote after debating whether the action would do more to help affected patients get useful treatment or would further stigmatize a condition with many causes and few easy fixes.

In the end, members of the AMA's House of Delegates rejected cautionary advice from their own experts and extended the new status to a condition that affects more than one-third of adults and 17% of children in the United States.

"Recognizing obesity as a disease will help change the way the medical community tackles this complex issue that affects approximately 1 in 3 Americans," said Dr. Patrice Harris, an AMA board member.

Tuesday's vote is certain to step up pressure on health insurance companies to reimburse physicians for the time-consuming task of discussing obesity's health risks with patients whose body mass index exceeds 30. It should also encourage doctors to direct these patients to weight-loss programs and to monitor their often-fitful progress.

snip

I have no problem calling it a disease; it fits the definition. The problem is most people don't understand just how broad that definition actually is. Also, we are using the infrastructure created to treat infectious disease as a catch all for ALL disease. No bueno on that score.

Don't even get me started on "Caffeine Withdrawal Syndrome."

witty subliminal message
Guard your honor, let your reputation fall where it will, and outlast the bastards.
1*

[NorrinRadd 0]

It is crazy how many people only consider taste and feel in the mouth as the proper guidelines as to what to put into the body. So few people pay even the slightest attention to what effect the food has ON the body. Junk food. Candy. Fast food. Soda. Shitty all you can eat buffets. The list just goes on and on. Healthy food is tasty. It can be made quickly. It does not have to be expensive. All it takes is a conscious effort.

Why drive myself crazy trying to be normal, when I am already at crazy?

[billvon 2,426]

>Also, we are using the infrastructure created to treat infectious disease as a catch all
>for ALL disease.

Agreed - but that's been true for a long time. Cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes (to name just three) aren't infectious but we treat them as diseases.

[lawrocket 3]

It opens up the door for governmental and insurance funding of obesity treatmentsn from bariatric surgeries to nutritional counseling to....

I wonder if insurance will pay for a personal trainer if I gain 50 pounds?

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[skydiver604 0]

True enough, a friend of mine has a 6 yr old daughter who the doctors recently diagnosed as ADHD and of course their solution was to prescribe meds to "calm" her down, I was talking to her about it and being able to use past experience and research as a model suggested change to her daughter's diet, since then they have eliminated the following items from her diet, sugar and sugar substitutes, red dyed products, red meats that are potentially treated with red dyes for esthetic appeal, processed foods, they have increased the amounts of fresh vegetables and white meats, increased daily intake of water. In 2 weeks the change was so noticeable that her daughter's grandparents and teachers have called her at home wanting to know what drugs / meds the child is on to calm her down so much, it also used to be a struggle to get her to bed by 1030 pm, now 830 or 9 o'clock her daughter tired and ready for bed, there has also been no more incidents at school involving discipline or time outs and her school marks has improved.

edited for spelling

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo

[skydiver604 0]

It opens up the door for governmental and insurance funding of obesity treatmentsn from bariatric surgeries to nutritional counseling to....

I wonder if insurance will pay for a personal trainer if I gain 50 pounds?

I will maintain that unless one deals with their outstanding emotional issues then treatments for obesity such as they are will be a waste of $$$$

"The greater danger for most of us is not that our aim is too high and we miss it, but that it is too low and we reach it." - Michelangelo

[airdvr 198]

Docs can definitely make more money off diseases than they can off behavior.

Please don't dent the planet.

Destinations by Roxanne

[NorrinRadd 0]

skydiver604

True enough, a friend of mine has a 6 yr old daughter who the doctors recently diagnosed as ADHD and of course their solution was to prescribe meds to "calm" her down, I was talking to her about it and being able to use past experience and research as a model suggested change to her daughter's diet, since then they have eliminated the following items from her diet, sugar and sugar substitutes, red dyed products, red meats that are potentially treated with red dyes for esthetic appeal, processed foods, they have increased the amounts of fresh vegetables and white meats, increased daily intake of water. In 2 weeks the change was no noticeable that her daughter's grandparents and teachers have called her at home wanting to know what drugs / meds the child is on to calm her down so much, it also used to be a struggle to get her to bed by 1030 pm, now 830 or 9 o'clock her daughter tired and ready for bed, there has also been no more incidents at school involving discipline or time outs and her school marks has improved.

That is awesome! Healthy food is the best medication. Smart eating can also help with depression and anxiety. It can help prevent cancer, strokes and heart disease. It can increase your daily energy level, help you sleep at night and wake up without feeling bagged.

Why drive myself crazy trying to be normal, when I am already at crazy?

[NorrinRadd 0]

What really gets me is how parents feed their kids all this crap. I mean, as a consenting adult, if you are willing to take the chance with your own life, and pay your own medical bills to cover your health costs for your poor dietary choices. But how can any responsible parent feel it is ok to poison their kids?

Why drive myself crazy trying to be normal, when I am already at crazy?

[lawrocket 3]

[Reply]as a consenting adult, if you are willing to take the chance with your own life, and pay your own medical bills to cover your health costs for your poor dietary choices

Hahahahaha!!! Ay their own bills. That slays me.

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[metalslug 31]

Quote

...Junk food. Candy. Fast food. Soda....

For the last 15 years of my life so far; approx. 70% of my diet has been KFC, pizza from Caio's and burgers from Steers (popular franchise here). I also have a tremendous fondness for a particular brand of soda; 2 to 3 liters per week.
As at today; I'm 41 yrs, have a BMI of 24.2 and colesterol of 3.3 , I weigh 2kg more than I did on my 18th birthday.

How is that possible ? A little excercise, low appetite and perhaps some crazy genes. I never have more than 2 meals each day and I very seldom have breakfast.
IMO, 'junk food' gets a bad rap. I expect that most people can have pretty much anything if done in moderation.

[NorrinRadd 0]

lawrocket

[Reply]as a consenting adult, if you are willing to take the chance with your own life, and pay your own medical bills to cover your health costs for your poor dietary choices

Hahahahaha!!! Ay their own bills. That slays me.
lol Speaking as a Canadian I am all for healthcare. What I am not for is people who do stupid things to their body and expect the rest of us to foot the bill. Like seeing cancer patients smoking cigs outside the hospital doors. But that starts a whole new topic of healthcare services and such.

Why drive myself crazy trying to be normal, when I am already at crazy?

[rehmwa 2]

metalslug

I expect that most people can have pretty much anything if done in moderation.

agree

the key words here are "most" and "moderation"


pretty much applies to anything, not just eating

...
Driving is a one dimensional activity - a monkey can do it - being proud of your driving abilities is like being proud of being able to put on pants

[NorrinRadd 0]

The issue is this is the kind of food people ONLY eat. And they accompany it with very little exercise.
And while in moderation it may not kill you, why not simply avoid it, when the healthy alternatives are just as accessible?

Why drive myself crazy trying to be normal, when I am already at crazy?

[kelpdiver 2]

Iago

And that stuff really isn't all that bad for you. People harp on McDonalds but the burgers and sandwiches really aren't that bad.

As a daily diet, yes, it's pretty bad for you. Low quality beef (in the past augmented with the pink slime), too much salt, too much sugar, and virtually no fiber, vegetables.

Unfortunately, if you look at the grocery store and how much inventory is "good fresh" food, you see that it will be difficult for everyone to actually eat well. It's worse in non agricultural states.

Metalslug - one question for you - what sort of work do you do? And how do you get to/from work?

[rushmc 18]

kelpdiver

***
And that stuff really isn't all that bad for you. People harp on McDonalds but the burgers and sandwiches really aren't that bad.

As a daily diet, yes, it's pretty bad for you. Low quality beef (in the past augmented with the pink slime), too much salt, too much sugar, and virtually no fiber, vegetables.

Unfortunately, if you look at the grocery store and how much inventory is "good fresh" food, you see that it will be difficult for everyone to actually eat well. It's worse in non agricultural states.

Metalslug - one question for you - what sort of work do you do? And how do you get to/from work?

your post here, is a perferct example of those who let the media build their opinions

I am refering to what the news story called pink slim

you may want to look into it and maybe reform your opinion on the product, an opinion based on fact

Reminds me of tha allar on apple scare (which turned out to be bull shit , but the damage is already done)

Sad really

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[Skyrad 0]

An interesting post, anything to get away from the normalisation of morbid obesity has to be a step in the right direction. After a certain level of obesity the yes I'd say it was a disease which may well require treatment.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Skyrad 0]

billvon

>Also, we are using the infrastructure created to treat infectious disease as a catch all
>for ALL disease.

Agreed - but that's been true for a long time. Cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes (to name just three) aren't infectious but we treat them as diseases.

If your only tool is a hammer suddenly everything looks like a nail.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Skyrad 0]

metalslug

Quote

...Junk food. Candy. Fast food. Soda....

For the last 15 years of my life so far; approx. 70% of my diet has been KFC, pizza from Caio's and burgers from Steers (popular franchise here). I also have a tremendous fondness for a particular brand of soda; 2 to 3 liters per week.
As at today; I'm 41 yrs, have a BMI of 24.2 and colesterol of 3.3 , I weigh 2kg more than I did on my 18th birthday.

How is that possible ? A little excercise, low appetite and perhaps some crazy genes. I never have more than 2 meals each day and I very seldom have breakfast.
IMO, 'junk food' gets a bad rap. I expect that most people can have pretty much anything if done in moderation.

You could also be thin on the outside and fat on the inside, TOFI no I'm not joking.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[jclalor 12]

I have always just been short for my weight.

[kelpdiver 2]

Though the public outcry was more emotional, the FDA did ban daminozide as a carcinogen. One can argue if they like about the purpose of the spray in making the fruit easier to harvest and sell. When I see the organic apples at the farmer's market in front of the office, they definitely look hideous. But the generation before me insists that grocery store apples used to taste a lot better too.

That aside, I'd love to hear your defense for the practice of chemically treating beef trimmings and reconstituting it as a portion of the burger. We already have enough issues of contamination and the risk is pretty well correlated to surface area. The chemicals used are something else. If it delivered a benefit to me, any benefit, then you can start to talk about risk tradeoffs, but the point of this was to increase margins for the cheap beef market - fast food burgers, and those big 5lb tubes at the store. So long as you cook your meat to well, you're fine, they say. Nothing to worry about.

Even the non slime beef in the fast food burger is below my standards. And I rarely cook to well. Sometimes even eat it rare or raw. So I get better beef. And my ground beef comes from one cow, not an unholy union of 100 random ones.

[rushmc 18]

kelpdiver

Though the public outcry was more emotional, the FDA did ban daminozide as a carcinogen. One can argue if they like about the purpose of the spray in making the fruit easier to harvest and sell. When I see the organic apples at the farmer's market in front of the office, they definitely look hideous. But the generation before me insists that grocery store apples used to taste a lot better too.

That aside, I'd love to hear your defense for the practice of chemically treating beef trimmings and reconstituting it as a portion of the burger. We already have enough issues of contamination and the risk is pretty well correlated to surface area. The chemicals used are something else. If it delivered a benefit to me, any benefit, then you can start to talk about risk tradeoffs, but the point of this was to increase margins for the cheap beef market - fast food burgers, and those big 5lb tubes at the store. So long as you cook your meat to well, you're fine, they say. Nothing to worry about.

Even the non slime beef in the fast food burger is below my standards. And I rarely cook to well. Sometimes even eat it rare or raw. So I get better beef. And my ground beef comes from one cow, not an unholy union of 100 random ones.

I understand the standards point you make

As for the pink slim demonizing, I think you would understand that being fromt he midwest the local news covering this issue , while still maintaining the national media slant, had more and differeing perspectives of this product, which is still be sold and consumed safely

I will try and find some of the info from here for you

Also, did you see the big UK study that showed organic foods offered no health benifits?

Didnt get much play around here

"America will never be destroyed from the outside,
if we falter and lose our freedoms,
it will be because we destroyed ourselves."
Abraham Lincoln

[kelpdiver 2]

Skyrad

***>Also, we are using the infrastructure created to treat infectious disease as a catch all
>for ALL disease.

Agreed - but that's been true for a long time. Cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes (to name just three) aren't infectious but we treat them as diseases.

If your only tool is a hammer suddenly everything looks like a nail.

yet obesity is more 'contagious' than many of these (well, type II diabetes tracks hand in hand). Friends tend to eat similarly, and exercise similarly. The correlation is stronger for families - the kids eat what the parents give them, and again the activity level is set by their example. Often one person successfully drops weight, but rebounds thanks to the example set by their peers.

Whatever we've been trying to do for the past 30 years has been a total failure. And it seems like we've focused on the individual. Time to take a different path...medicare can't afford a world where we have fat college football cheerleaders as common.

[davjohns 1]

Hmmmm....my BMI is over 30. Wonder if I can get the doctor to give me hormone therapy? A little test could be nice.

What a crock.

I know it just wouldnt be right to kill all the stupid people that we meet..

But do you think it would be appropriate to just remove all of the warning labels and let nature take its course.

[Skyrad 0]

kelpdiver

******>Also, we are using the infrastructure created to treat infectious disease as a catch all
>for ALL disease.

Agreed - but that's been true for a long time. Cancer, Alzheimer's and diabetes (to name just three) aren't infectious but we treat them as diseases.

If your only tool is a hammer suddenly everything looks like a nail.

yet obesity is more 'contagious' than many of these (well, type II diabetes tracks hand in hand). Friends tend to eat similarly, and exercise similarly. The correlation is stronger for families - the kids eat what the parents give them, and again the activity level is set by their example. Often one person successfully drops weight, but rebounds thanks to the example set by their peers.

Whatever we've been trying to do for the past 30 years has been a total failure. And it seems like we've focused on the individual. Time to take a different path...medicare can't afford a world where we have fat college football cheerleaders as common.

You make a good point and I agree that we need to tackle the increasingly homogenised obesogenic society in which we are living in.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca