Just heard obesity referred to as a disease- seriously?
Was busy reading the Ozempic post below and saw this. Come on. It is not a disease! I realize that some people have a greater difficulty with weight biologically than others- we all have something that we get from our family past. But calling this a disease? If people need something to help them lose weight (and does not hurt the people that need the something for a legit medical reason by a shortage) then go for it if that is the choice you make. But do not classify this as a disease.... and we certainly will have to do a cost benefit analysis at some point I imagine.
Did I mention that it is NOT a disease?
34 Replies
2y
In both cases, people can't control themselves, even though they very likely would like to do so.
Being fat certainly in and of itself is not a disease. However, for those that no matter what they do, can't stop eating despite their best intentions, it is likely that there is some mental "disease" that makes it very difficult to do.
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
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B
BobG
2y
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
Norm MacDonald: "Alcoholism is a disease, but I think it's the best one"
"It's the only disease where you can constantly drink booze. In fact it IS the disease."
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
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2y
Healthy and calling out doctors and others for "fatphobia"
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
chemical and others do not (from what I remember). Diabetes is classified as a disease.
The studies I read about identified specific chemicals in the brain that caused patients to be satiated / insulin modulated. Semaglutide was found to help modulate / regulate the insulin levels, reducing the need for diabetics to stab themselves regularly to measure insulin levels. The weight loss was discovered as a side benefit (I think it reduces heart disease, too).
The off market prescriptions benefit those working to lose weight, but I think it’s prescribed specifically for those that have that chemical deficiency (if I got that right- read about it last year).
Hell I’m interested, but I think it’s big money.
You may have the accepted amount of those chemicals where others do not- you don’t believe you need medicine, and you might not have that disease.
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
If someone is overweight and makes a decision to lose weight through diet and exercise have they cured themselves of a disease?
I am not unsympathetic to the overweight, but I just do not see being obese as a disease though it can certainly cause the diseases
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
In the specific cases where semaglutide was used, the patients had (I think) type ii diabetes- which I don’t think is curable. In the case of semaglutide use, I think the patients need it for life, just like insulin shots for diabetics.
I’ll see if I can find the research. The bottom line was that once they start taking it, they regress if stopping the meds.
Dr. Lau at Novo Nordisk discovered in in 2012-
The Discovery and Development of Liraglutide and Semaglutide:
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fendo.2019.0...
Discovery of the Once-Weekly Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) Analogue Semaglutide:
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.jmedchem.5b00726
Wiki wiki wiki:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semaglutide
** Edited by reconhokie at 11/15/2023, 10:45:45 AM
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
A thing can be a disease and be cured without pharmaceutical intervention. Humans were doing it for thousands of years before modern medicine.
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
That, worldwide, MOST of the people who have contracted COVID subsequently worked through it without medical intervention. Especially if you're going to count those that were asymptomatic. Double especially if you're going to count those who spend much of their day wearing tinfoil hats.
(In response to this post by MP4VT2004)
2y
abusing that fact for a variety of sketchy reasons. As mentioned in Vienna's post below, selling more drugs and eliminating personal responsibility are some of the big reasons why everything is being referred to as a "disease" now.
"Its not your fault, your bad choices and poor impulse control are actually a disease. Here take these pills, they've got a 500% profit margin..."
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
Obscene profit potentially? Yeah, definitely. Over 100%? Mathematically
impossible.
Margin is what percent of your revenue is profit. The only situation where you're 100% margin is when someone walks up to you and hands you money, or a wire transfer (where you're not paying the transfer %) and so on.
(In response to this post by HokieNoVA)
2y
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2y
"Disease" just means that something is wrong. It's not a moral judgement. People develop diseases through no fault of their own, or directly as a result of choices they made. Someone who is obese because they deliberately make poor lifestyle choices is as much at fault for their disease as is an intravenous drug user who develops Hep C. People can also be obese for reasons entirely out of their control.
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
2y
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2y
(In response to this post by VT Pops)
2y
Bad choices lead to both of those outcomes. But with lung cancer, once you have it there's no going back to normal without medical treatment. With obesity, you can usually change your lifestyle and largely reverse the "disease" on your own.
(In response to this post by JoesterVT)
2y
It doesn't have to be contagious, or even spontaneous, to be considered a disease. Is addiction a disease?
Here are a couple of quick googled definitions of disease. Obesity meets every one of them:
1) a disorder of structure or function in a human, animal, or plant, especially one that has a known cause and a distinctive group of symptoms, signs, or anatomical changes.
2) a condition of the living animal or plant body or of one of its parts that impairs normal functioning and is typically manifested by distinguishing signs and symptoms
3) a condition that deteriorates the normal functioning of the cells, tissues, and organs
(In response to this post by turkeywinghokie)
This is the Lounge, we are experts in all things medicals!!
We know better than all those 'doctors' . All fat people are just lazy :)
(In response to this post by JoesterVT)
H
HWA
2y
Eat less (and/or eat healthy), and move more.
Millions of Americans can sure as heck find 5-10 hours/week to watch Netflix, but they're all too busy to jog a few miles, lift some heavy objects, jump some rope, etc? Not buying it.
(In response to this post by FfxStationHokie)
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Va AandM
2y
There was a push to in some quarters but when leptin and then other genes were identified (MC4-R mutations for one) it catalyzed discussion. To expand what Joester notes in item 3, the increases in cardiovascular diseases, cancers, kidney disease and neurologic disorders, chief among them dementia, are very greatly increased in the obese
** Edited by Va AandM at 11/15/2023, 9:36:10 AM
(In response to this post by JoesterVT)
E
EDGEMAN
2y
..."low fat" diet back in the 70s. That move alone increased the number of obese individuals a minimum of 10X, and I wouldn't be surprised if it accounts for 100X or even 1,000X .
They "cherry picked" a flawed study to push that crap on America, and we have been the loser since.
(In response to this post by Va AandM)
2y
and socially people can have another behavioral driven issue that they are no longer responsible for.
I'm overweight, I know it, it's my fault because I would rather sit on my ass and eat a bowl of ice cream than do something. The vast majority of overweight and obese people are the same. The disease is self inflicted.
(In response to this post by Va AandM)
2y
(In response to this post by Vienna_Hokie)
2y
Yes, nicotine is addictive, etc. But smoking is the single greatest threat to people's health. Making smokers hang out in little groups outside buildings and such was a good start (made me quit 25 years ago).
The second greatest threat is obesity and the things that go along with it (heart disease, diabetes, etc).
Not saying we should be making smokers and fat people social outcasts, but accepting it and making people feel good about it is not helping them, it's literally killing people and bankrupting our medical system.
(In response to this post by vthokieq)
2y
Calling something a disease doesn't mean the victim was helpless to prevent it, and it doesn't mean they are helpless to cure it.
Someone saying "____ isn't my fault, it's a disease!", not only has a problem with ____, but also a problem with the English language.
(In response to this post by Vienna_Hokie)
E
EDGEMAN
2y
And most everyone is in the same shape.
(In response to this post by Vienna_Hokie)