Obese people are often simply greedy and should not always be treated with pills, the head of the British Medical Association has said.
Dr Hamish Meldrum believes an obsession with medical labels may be stopping overweight people addressing their own problems.
He said the obesity epidemic is being mistakenly targeted with medical treatments and doctors' appointments.
Dr Meldrum told our sister paper, the Evening Standard: "We are saying, 'This patient has a hyper-appetite problem' rather than, 'They are just greedy.'
"People like to put fancy labels that suggest things are a medical problem. But [obesity] is not just a problem for GPs, it is societal.
And don't start with the BS that some fat people have a medical problem that keeps them overweight. Maybe 0.01% of fat people have a true medical problem (and even that can be dealt with most of the time).
It is 99.99% societal. It sucks that we subsidize fat people who don't want to work as well.
oh dont start me on this subject. I stop pitying obese folks a long time ago. They are like that because they want to be like that. Some cant do much about it (it being medical), but as the article states that a very low percentage. Most find excuses why they are fat instead of doing something about it. Ok, I be quiet now.
I've been fat most of my life. A couple years ago, I took one of those "how long will you live" quizzes. It said I would die at 54. I decided it was time to lose some weight, and I dropped about 100 pounds.
I think it's easy to say that people are fat because it's how they are wired and that they can't do anything about it, or on the other side that it's all because they choose to eat too much. I think reality lies in between the two extremes. I think people who are overweight probably have some genetic differences - lower metabolism, don't get full as quickly, ect. I know plenty of people who have horrible eating habits and never work out and are still a reasonable weight, and I know a handful of people (myself included) who eat healthy, work out more than average, and still aren't exactly skinny.
Do I think that most overweight people can lose weight? Yes. Do I think they have a tougher time of it than the average person because of genetics and other factors? also yes.
Yah I eat A LOT of the same food as my GF yet she's a beanpole.
I've never seen her restrict the TYPE of food, although I do know she can't eat breakfast because it makes her sick.. so that's a lot less meals than the average person I suppose.
Another note on this subject, like anything else in life. Most people who are obese are comfortable being that way, it being because food gives some type of high or fullfills some type of need that they are lacking in life. Its difficult to get out of your comfort zone so I can understand that. But its no different than smoking, it can kill you. ok, off my soap again.
Worms? Something like 20% of kids have pinworms. THey prevent your body from absorbing food.
Very true. If you are not grossed out about pinworms read this article by Dr. Green:
"When I was a young boy, I used to have a creepy-crawler set. I delighted in making these little jiggling critters. I found particular joy in trying to make other people shudder when they saw the various worms and bugs that I had created. Although we adults often shudder at pinworm infections, most kids don't have this same gut response.
The pinworm, or Enterobius vermicularis, is one of the most common parasitic infections of humans. Somewhere between 10% and 40% of children have pinworms at any given time (Pediatric Consult, Williams and Wilkins 1997). The infections are usually limited to children below the age of twelve.
The adult pinworms are white and measure less than one half inch long, with the diameter of a strand of thread. These tiny roundworms are quite complex. Like us, they have mouths, throats, and gastrointestinal tracts. Like us they have nervous systems. The females have a vagina, a uterus, and ovaries. The males have a testical, vas deferens, seminal vesicle, and ejaculatory duct. They eat, drink, pee, poop, and reproduce sexually.
The adult worms live in the colons (large intestines) of human children and apparently feed on human fecal matter.
When an adult male and female worm copulate, each female pinworm produces about 10,000 fertilized eggs. At night, the pregnant female migrates from the colon, out through the child's anus and onto the skin of the buttocks. There she violently expels all of her eggs and then dies. Some of the eggs become airborne and land elsewhere in the child's room, but the great majority of the fertilized eggs stay on the skin of the child's buttocks. The eggs mature within six hours of being laid.
The adult worms and the eggs on the skin of the buttocks can cause intense itching in the child. When the sleeping child scratches, the eggs often get on the fingers and under the finger nails. If the child then sucks his or her thumb or otherwise brings his or her hand to the mouth (perhaps while eating breakfast), the pinworm eggs are swallowed. Usually they hatch within the small intestine and mature there. When they become adults they move to the colon where they take up residence. The entire life cycle lasts four to six weeks.
Occasionally the story goes a little differently. Sometimes a child can inhale airborne eggs and become infected that way. Every now and then the eggs will hatch on the skin of the buttocks, and the immature larvae will crawl back through the anus, up into the rectum and eventually arrive in the colon. Also, the eggs can hatch on the skin of girls and the larvae crawl into the vagina instead of the rectum. This happens in up to 20% of girls with pinworms (Nelson's Textbook of Pediatrics, Saunders 1996). The vaginal pinworms usually die out with no outside help.
Most children with pinworms have no symptoms at all. In the same way that many bacteria live in our intestines without making us sick, pinworms can live happily in our intestines without causing any problems (Parasitic Diseases, Springer-Verlag 1982). Since the pinworm almost always stays in the gastrointestinal tract (or vagina), there is usually no systemic illness.
Some children, however, develop nighttime itching of the skin around the anus. For a small number of these children, the itching can be quite intense. The girls who develop vaginal pinworm infections often develop vaginal itching and sometimes a vaginal discharge. Attempts to link pinworm infection to bed wetting or grinding of the teeth have been unsuccessful.
Stool and blood tests are not very helpful in diagnosing pinworms. Seeing a worm clinches the diagnosis. Check your child's skin with a flashlight during the night and first thing in the morning. Look for white, wiggling threads. If it's not wiggling, it's probably just lint. Occasionally a wiggling worm will be seen on the surface of a stool. Pinworms are so common that children with nighttime anal itching are often treated without any lab test at all. The classic diagnostic tool is to apply a piece of transparent tape to the skin near the anus first thing in the morning. This tape can then be attached to a glass slide and examined under a microscope for the presence of eggs. Your doctor can supply you with a pinworm lab kit, if necessary.
Treatment is with a single dose of an anti-pinworm drug such as Albenza (albendazole) or Vermox (mebendazole). Vermox comes as a chewable tablet. Most children and adults experience no side effects. Hives or other allergic rashes have been reported only rarely. Very rare cases of convulsions have occurred. This medicine kills the worms 95% of the time, but does not kill the eggs. Hence, retreatment in two weeks is a good idea. Girls with vaginal itching alone do not necessarily need treatment, since the problem will often disappear on its own.
Physicians disagree about whether or not to treat all family members. Often treating the infected child alone will get rid of the infestation. Anyone who sleeps with the child, or any family member or friend with itching should be treated. In stubborn cases, treating the family members, and particularly the other children, can be a good idea. It is certainly possible that your daughter is an asymptomatic carrier. In any case, reinfections with pinworms are quite common.
There are no differences in pinworm infections on the basis of race or socioeconomic class. Neither is pinworm infection evidence of poor hygiene. This is a very easily transmissible infection that is very common in children. It is easily spread at home, school, or day care (pets, though, have no part in the pinworm story). Since most kids experience no ill effects whatsoever, extreme measures to treat pinworms are not wise.
I usually recommend trimming the fingernails, scrubbing the hands (after awakening, before meals, and after toileting) and machine washing the bedding on the treatment day. These hygiene measures have never been proven to help at all, but they still seem like a good idea to me.
Although pinworms are like creepy-crawler bugs in that they are usually harmless (and seem worse than they are!), they are still a real nuisance! I hope you and your family will soon find relief from this bothersome problem."
MadAnthony said:I think it's easy to say that people are fat because it's how they are wired and that they can't do anything about it, or on the other side that it's all because they choose to eat too much. I think reality lies in between the two extremes. I think people who are overweight probably have some genetic differences - lower metabolism, don't get full as quickly, ect. I know plenty of people who have horrible eating habits and never work out and are still a reasonable weight, and I know a handful of people (myself included) who eat healthy, work out more than average, and still aren't exactly skinny.
Do I think that most overweight people can lose weight? Yes. Do I think they have a tougher time of it than the average person because of genetics and other factors? also yes.
Right on, Anthony!! Over-eating and eating "bad" things, and lack of exercise--these are choices people make. Behaviors. But to say "greed" is the sole motivator...that's incredibly stupid. It's a blend of all kinds of things, conscious and subconscious, environmental, social, and physical, too. And it's a unique blend for each person.
As for the "eat healthy, work out more than average, and still aren't exactly skinny," that's me, too.
c7530303 said: Right on, Anthony!! Over-eating and eating "bad" things, and lack of exercise--these are choices people make. Behaviors. But to say "greed" is the sole motivator...that's incredibly stupid. It's a blend of all kinds of things, conscious and subconscious, environmental, social, and physical, too. And it's a unique blend for each person.
As for the "eat healthy, work out more than average, and still aren't exactly skinny," that's me, too.
Thats because keeping in shape gets harder with age.
HolyBanana said:Thats because keeping in shape gets harder with age.
Perhaps! I'm in better shape now than at any other time in my life--I'm pretty sure about that. In terms of body strength, and stress levels, and pant size...
I find the article OP posted kind of mind-boggling, that a medical professional would just say: "it's greed." Where'd he get his degree, from mailing in boxtops off cereal boxes? Everyone on this planet (that I know!) enjoys eating, it's a sensual, pleasurable, primal experience. What exactly is he saying, that they enjoy it too much = greed? Anytime someone tries to pigeonhole a COMPLEX, infinitely complex blend of issues such as eating/health/weight management/self-image into a simple declarative sentence attributing a negative trait to a person, that's a copout. When I was a kid, it wasn't "greedy." It was "stupid." Fat = stupid, in the minds of so many.
There are many things people can do to stay skinny but just don't want to.
I know I always take the stairs upt to 5 floors instead of using an elevator. I always walk if the the pace is within 1.5 miles of where I live and/or ride a bike if within 3 miles. I also never wait for parking and just park far away instead of circling for hours burning gas instead of calories.
Other tips are chewing your food and taking your time eating instead of the "american way" of swallowing giant chuncks and eating as fast as possible help tremdously.
Once can also add more water into their diet and considered any drink besides water as a special occasion.
And don't start with the BS that some fat people have a medical problem that keeps them overweight. Maybe 0.01% of fat people have a true medical problem (and even that can be dealt with most of the time).
It is 99.99% societal. It sucks that we subsidize fat people who don't want to work as well. I love to eat! I just don't consider it a problem! Heh nyeh
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