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http://www.latimes.com/news/science/la-sci-obesity-disease-20130619,0,4422080.story
The 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.
The federally funded Medicare program, which insures an estimated 13 million obese Americans who are over 65 or disabled, already covers the costs of "intensive behavioral therapy" for obese patients, as well as bariatric surgery for those with additional health conditions. But coverage for such obesity treatments has been uneven among private insurers.
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The new designation follows a steep 30-year climb in Americans' weight — and growing public concern over the resulting tidal wave of expensive health problems. Treatment of such obesity-related illnesses as cardiovascular disease, Type 2 diabetes and certain cancers drives up the nation's medical bill by more than $150 billion a year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Projected increases in the obesity rate could boost that figure by an additional $550 billion over the next 20 years, a recent Duke University study concluded.
In laying out the case for and against the redefinition of obesity, the AMA's Council on Science and Public Health argued that more widespread recognition of obesity as a disease "could result in greater investments by government and the private sector to develop and reimburse obesity treatments."
American Medical Association has upgraded obesity from a "health disorder" (potential cause of disease) to a disease itself. Not sure what all implications this will have, but it seems like a lot of money is up in the air. I think everyone can agree that obesity is a major problem. Is this move going to help people? Might it lead to exploitation? Or maybe it won't change anything?
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"It's not my fault I'm fat, I have a DISEASE"
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This opens up a whole new can of worms insofar as discriminatory hiring practices and obesity are concerned.
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Here comes another fat-bashing thread. Every new obesity-related thread becomes one.
EDIT: Yep, sure enough.
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On the one hand this is going to increase awareness of it and make a much more proactive effort by the medical community to combat this. It's no longer a symptom or a potential cause of greater harm, it is now scientifically accepted as being inherently harmful. Hopefully this will encourage doctors to be far more persistent in their patients losing health and hopefully a lot more effort by people to lose their weight.
On the other hand, we're going to get tens of thousands of overweight people who now have a reason to stay fat because they have a DISEASE and how can they help it.
Overall this is good though. Still can't understand why they use BMI though. I've been with four personal physicians my entire life and every single one said BMI is a load of crap, Bodyfat % is what I should base my health after they recommend.
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"this part of my belly is disease, the other part is personal choice"
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"Doctor, I'm sick. I have obesity."
"Let me just write you a prescription for stop eating."
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On June 21 2013 03:46 farvacola wrote:
This opens up a whole new can of worms insofar as discriminatory hiring practices and obesity are concerned.
I'm curious where overweight people are being discriminated against in the workforce? Not trying to be condescending, I've honestly never heard of this being a thing.
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Are people going to be getting disability now because they are fat and lazy.
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On June 21 2013 03:49 Fruscainte wrote:
On the one hand this is going to increase awareness of it and make a much more proactive effort by the medical community to combat this. It's no longer a symptom or a potential cause of greater harm, it is now scientifically accepted as being inherently harmful. Hopefully this will encourage doctors to be far more persistent in their patients losing health and hopefully a lot more effort by people to lose their weight.
On the other hand, we're going to get tens of thousands of overweight people who now have a reason to stay fat because they have a DISEASE and how can they help it.
Overall this is good though. Still can't understand why they use BMI though. I've been with four personal physicians my entire life and every single one said BMI is a load of crap, Bodyfat % is what I should base my health after.
Your physicians were correct; BMI is an antiquated metric with very negligible utility in comparison to stuff like bf %, particularly when it comes to men and their propensity to hold onto a fair bit of muscle mass.
On June 21 2013 03:50 Fruscainte wrote:Show nested quote +On June 21 2013 03:46 farvacola wrote:
This opens up a whole new can of worms insofar as discriminatory hiring practices and obesity are concerned. I'm curious where overweight people are being discriminated against in the workforce? Not trying to be condescending, I've honestly never heard of this being a thing.
The point is not that fat people are being discriminated against, though I'm certain that there are many cases of this. The point is that with obesity being classified as a disease, it becomes more "protected" insofar as hiring practices are concerned.
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To me a disease is something that is out of your control, such as huntington's or parkinson's, and in the case of being obese if you have a glandular disorder. The vast majority of obese people have no glandular disorder, they are obese because of lifestyle choices. This is just watering down the subject since every year it seems more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lack of care and self-control.
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Does that mean gym memberships are covered by health insurances in the US?
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Russian Federation4447 Posts
Won't change a thing.
It's a completely voluntary mental disorder.
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There are proper medical conditions that cause obesity. Those should be treated as diseases.
There are psychological conditions that cause obesity. Those should be treated as mental illness.
This mocks both of those. Obesity is a symptom, in which case this is an unneeded definition, or a choice, which makes a farce of people with actual problems.
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On June 21 2013 03:52 Stress wrote:
To me a disease is something that is out of your control, such as huntington's or parkinson's, and in the case of being obese if you have a glandular disorder. The vast majority of obese people have no glandular disorder, they are obese because of lifestyle choices. This is just watering down the subject since every year it seems more and more people are becoming overweight due to a lack of care and self-control.
I'm going to have to agree here. It's a mental condition if anything. I had experience with this, and it really is nothing more than that. You know you shouldn't eat that food. You know it's bad for you. You know if you don't eat it you'll be under your caloric intake for that day and you'll be on the right track but your brain just fucking forces you man. It's honestly a terrible experience, and a lot of physically fit people who've never had to deal with being obese/overweight will never understand that. It takes an incredible amount of mental fortitude to lose weight because for the first couple of weeks it genuinely feels like you are starving yourself even if you're still taking in 3000 calories per day and your body becomes so accustomed to it you start to freaking break down at times.
I don't know how they got to the conclusion that this is a disease, but anything to provide more awareness is good in my book as far as I'm concerned though.
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It's fast food restaurants and how our lives have become completely intertwined with them.
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On June 21 2013 03:45 Lycaeus wrote:
"It's not my fault I'm fat, I have a DISEASE"
Well we call diabetes a disease but you can still bring it on yourself. Just because it's a disease doesn't absolve you of responsibility. Just wanna throw that out there.
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To be honest I don't see this having any real effect on how much treatment patients get for obesity. Doctors already know that being obese is unhealthy, and I'm pretty sure most people who are fat already know it's unhealthy but are unable to lose weight for one reason or another (self-discipline, succumbing to temptation, slower metabolism, etc.). I don't see how classifying obesity as a disease is going to deal with any of those issues.
On June 21 2013 03:45 Lycaeus wrote:
"It's not my fault I'm fat, I have a DISEASE"
Yes, I know we all love to call out fat people for their often-times poor eating habits and lack of self-discipline. However, I don't think that's really all that fair.
Sure, having a lack of self discipline may be what ultimately causes obesity many times, however genetics determines how much any individual person is punished for a lack of self-discipline.
I'll use myself as an example. I was blessed with a ridonkulously fast metabolism. I have never had to worry about my weight, no matter how poor my eating habits. I'll often eat an entire box of oreos or 2 (big) bags of jelly beans after a long day of work. Last night I ate an entire gallon of ice cream.
Yet I am never punished for these poor eating habits in the slightest, simply because of my genes, while some other person with poor eating habits may be getting obese, even if their eating habits are better than mine (not great, but still better than mine).
I suspect that a lot of skinny people are thin for the same reason that I am: genetics. And therefore it's never quite sat right with me to go around labeling fat people as being lazy and having no self-control.
Edit: With that rant out of the way I would like to say that I think this decision is ridiculous because it's confusing the causes with their symptoms (i.e. a obesity is a symptom of something, either poor lifestyle or a medical condition, etc.). I made another post in this thread that goes into that more.
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On June 21 2013 03:53 Tien wrote:
Won't change a thing.
It's a completely voluntary mental disorder.
This is exactly right. Laziness and complacency. "Genetics" is a hilarious excuse.
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On June 21 2013 03:57 AnomalySC2 wrote:
It's fast food and how our lives have become completely intertwined with them.
I feel like a lot of people would be in much better shape if they just cooked at home. I know that's what really tipped the scales for me. I ate as much as I always ate and I still do eat as much I always have eaten, but I cook nearly everything and I carefully crafted my meals so that I eat for instance a lot more vegetables that are much lower calories but can eat in far larger quantities and it fills me up more.
People live fast lives and have no time to take an hour out of their day to cook though, so why not head to the local Publix and pick up a box of fresh ready to eat fried chicken for $7.99 or whatever?
I suspect that a lot of skinny people are thin for the same reason that I am: genetics. And therefore it's never quite sat right with me to go around labeling fat people as being lazy and having no self-control.
You're a very, very, very unique case.
I can't tell you the amount of times I've seen my mom stuffing her face with half a gallon of ice cream going on about how blessed my brother is with his genetics and that's why he's so muscular and in shape. Metabolism is such a cop out argument. Genetics determines your potential, but not your actual gain or loss. No one is above the Laws of Thermodynamics. If someone performs enough activity where they naturally burn off 3000 calories per day, they can eat 2500 calories per day and they will lose weight. That's that. That's all it takes and nothing more.
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EPT
