The problem is the caboose and we have to figure out what is driving this train!

Obesity - - Disease or Over Nurtured?  The layman’s perspective on a big problem.

The recent announcement of the American Medical Association (AMA) to classify obesity as a disease had me in an uproar.  Being involved with fitness & wellness for about five years now, I was somewhat aghast.  There are many levels to this situation and the pharmaceutical and commercial fallout is another topic all together. My first reaction was on the level of consumption. 

Obesity is an abnormal accumulation of body fat, usually 20% or more over an individual’s ideal body weight. Obesity is associated with increased risk of illness, disability, and death. The World Health Organization terms obesity a worldwide epidemic and the diseases which can occur due to obesity are becoming increasingly prevalent.  Obesity is a major public health problem and the leading nutritional disorder in the U.S.  It is responsible for more than 280,000 deaths annually in this country.

I believe we can saturate our nervous system and psyche with repeated abuse of simulants that affect a person down to the cellular level.  Too much salt in your diet will cause hypertension; too much sugar in your diet, diabetes.  These ailments (hypertension and diabetes) have been classified as a disease too.  Genetic factors significantly influence how the body regulates the appetite and the rate at which it turns food into energy (metabolic rate).  A predisposition though does not mean that a person will be obese. Habits and lifestyle can contribute to poor health causing problems. 

A person who continues to smoke may get cancer but smoking is not a disease.  Or the sex addict who continues to have multiple and numerous sex practices will expose themselves to getting a host of diseases.   Addictions can lead to disorders, abnormalities, and disease.  But it doesn’t start off as one. 

My personal conviction on this issue comes from a background of addiction.  I have been sober for over 20 years.  I drank to cope.  Then the coping became a habit.   The habit caused health and emotional problems.  The health problems contributed toward a disease being what is called at the time early stages of liver disease.  Alcoholism contributed to that.  Alcoholism and Heroin usage has been labeled a disease.   I am not born an alcoholic; I may have a pre-disposition because of my environment.  Good news is that the liver is one of the organs that can recreate the cells, rejuvenate, and heal itself.  This has been my case through maintaining a healthy lifestyle and being an active member in a 12-Step program.    Total abstinence or suffer the consequence.  There is a line you don’t cross.  You can’t sort of drink like you cannot sort of be pregnant.  With food addiction, a “slip” is too much of a gray  area and crossing the boundary line leaves too much wiggle and cheating room. 

So this is my view on the AMA’s recent labeling of obesity.  It is a behavior addiction, perhaps disorder, like smoking, sex, gambling, and hoarding.  But, obesity is not a disease nor do I believe anorexia and bulimia should be classified as such.  A person who starves themselves messes with their body chemistry.  Eating too much can and will harm the body creating havoc on organs which may lead to cancer or disease.  One learns to put the utensils down and close the mouth.

We need to deal with the root cause.   It is the war on obesity and not the war on obese people.  As Mark Sisson, fitness expert says - we need a balance, not a diagnosis. On one side is “obesity as a disease,” with patients assuming it’s out of their control and a medical intervention is necessary. On the other side is “obesity as personal failing,” with the obese feeling a deep sense of shame and hopelessness, especially when their willpower fails to deliver them to the promised land.

Also it is entirely possible (and preferable) to reverse obesity without ever seeing a medical professional of any type.  Obesity by definition is therefore NOT what the AMA says it is.  Doug McGuff, MD.

My reading and research has also found that - -the AMA does NOT represent physicians. Less than 20% of physicians are members. The bulk of the AMA’s income comes from the publishing of the CPT and ICD10 manuals that are used by government payers of healthcare (with commercial insurers following suit). The more diseases classified and coded means a more solidly entrenched monetary gain play ground for the pharma-medical-government players.

I just get a bad taste in my mouth about this new AMA announcement.  However I will continue to educate myself on the topic.  The last time I got on a conscious social movement and was passionate about something was air pollution in the early 1990’s.   Sadly, years and years have gone by and still we are paying for the effects of a destroyed environment but minimal progress and success dealing with the causes.

Programs like the Presidential Fitness Awards counsel and Let's Move may offer some hope in curbing the childhood obesity epidemic.  I am favoring the adult healthcare/wellness programs that offer incentives and reduced rates for being healthy or pay higher premium penalties for an unmanageable lifestyle.  As health care reform apexes in 2014, perhaps we may put a little dent in this big problem beyond prescribing a pill or off the rack medical procedure.