The Thin Pill

An article in the new issue of WIRED magazine (it just came today, so I haven't read thru the whole thing yet):

The Thin Pill

The Post-diet Era is here: the future of obesity is drugs

75 million Americans may have something called metabolic syndrome.  How Big Pharma Turned Obesity into a Disease and then Invented the Drugs to Cure it

What is a disease?

• For patients, a disease puts a name to an affliction. It answers that question we all face at one time or another: What's the matter with me? If there is a clear and precise explanation for what's wrong, then surely there is an equally clear and precise way to get better.
• For doctors, disease identifies why people are sick and suggests a course of treatment.
• For researchers, disease fixes an area of investigation, a mystery to be studied in the hopes of finding a cause or perhaps, a cure.
• For the pharmaceutical industry, it's is a business model. Disease offers an opportunity to develop and market drugs that help people get better and, along the way, help companies make a profit.

I think most (not all) of us on this site do not advocate using drugs for weight loss.  But this article made me wonder if the members of this community think that obesity is a disease....

No. No, I don't think obesity is a disease. I don't think we all have some sort of eating disorder (though we may have disordered eating).

I think this is another attempt by Big Business to sell us misinformationm and bullsh*t.

the article is an expose on the pharma industry, it's questioning the recent acceptance of obesity as a disease

I didn't read the article, sorry. :)

I don't think Obesity is a Disease. I think Anorexia and Bulimia ARE diseases. I think Obesity is a direct result of bad education and the food industry's ability to sell us cheaper garbage that we eat.

hkellick, I agree with you 110%

I totally agree, obesity is not a disease.

And I find it sad that the media (or whoever) is turning it into that.  People are fat because of various reasons...from the food that is shoved in our face, from our materialistic society where work is more important that the individual, people wanting things now now now and not wanting to put in an effort to get it.

Sad...just plain sad

Obesity is also the result of eating disorders, Binge Eating Disorder, also people who eat to feel full EMOTIONALLY- that is a mental disorder.

Obesity is not ONLY a result of this "Obesity is a direct result of bad education and the food industry's ability to sell us cheaper garbage that we eat.", sorry not trying to pick on you at all, I know that is your opinion, but it's not fair to claim that under eating and starvation are diseases but overeating and binging are not. Yes some people who are obese got that way from being lazy and not caring, but some people struggle with mental disorders.

For every thing there is an equal opposite. The opposite of a mental disorder that makes you afraid of calories is the one that makes you need calories to feel full emotionally. That's what I think anyways.

I'm not saying Obesity in itself is a disease, but it is the result of diseases in some situations.

I'm not sure I can agree with the obesity isn't a disease but anorexia and bulimia are statement.  I'd have to ponder this more in depth at a later time.  I'd also have to ponder if I like the term disease for them.  I think that just like those who don't eat enough or throw up, over eating can be in the same catagory.  Anorexis and bulimics have a distorted image in their mind of what they look like and get some satisfaction out of controlling what they eat to an extreme.  They have an illness for sure.  Similarly someone who eats so much out of a need for comfort or don't see themselves as being an unhealthy weight also has an illness.  This doesn't mean that everyone who is overweight or underweight is sick, it depends.  Yes I think the media just wants to sell us more stuff but it works for both missleading people into thinking that foods are good when they're very unhealthy as well as shoving unachievable thin celebrity bodies.  I dunno quite yet what I would call either situation, but I don't think one is and the other isn't, they're polar opposites, but essentially similar I think.

My thoughts are that obesity is a symptom of another problem.

What that other problem is, that's what needs to be treated.

If you overeat and don't have the metabolism to keep up with your food intake, then the overeating behavior is what needs to be addressed. (The overeating behavior can be the result of a psycho-emotional problem, in which case, THAT is the problem that must be addressed.)

If you eat the same food you've always eaten, but now are gaining weight, then you have to look at other possible causes, like less muscle mass, less activity, etc. and either increase your activity or cut back your calories.

But there are other aspects of metabolism that aren't well understood and I would like to know what other sorts of problems can allow someone to eat a healthful diet, exercise moderately, but remain obese. And I think that searching for a drug that controls appetite or allows fat to pass through the bowel undigested is barking up the wrong tree.

I'd really like to know how hormones factor into it.  What is making people's cells resistant to their own insulin?  There are so many missing pieces to the puzzle -- in the big picture. 

I guess I come to this discussion from a very different background. I don't have malfunctioning hormones or binge eating. For me, and not JUST for me, I was obese because of bad eating, because of bad choices.

We need to remember, in the end, that while some things AREN'T in our choices and by no means do we have total control, but, for some of us, especially in America, alot of it, perhaps all of it is bad choices and bad information. Some of us CHOSE to be fat, in a way, or at least chose NOT to be thin.

So.. I speak for myself. For myself, it was bad information, bad choices, and the fact that the food industry tricks you into eating unhealthier stuff to keep prices down. (Such as high fructose corn syrup)

I think the problem is that for a small percentage of people who are overweight there truly is a biological problem which causes them to gain weight - thyroid issues, tumours, hormone imbalances etc.  For the vast majority of people the act of gaining weight throws their bodies balance of hormones and other chemicals off balance and gives them all the symptoms and problems of the diseases that researches are looking at.  The cure for all of these "metabolic" diseases is to lose weight.  Imagine that - remove the extra weight that caused all the imbalances and you're back to being healthy again.  I was diagnosed with insulin resistance and pretty much the cold hard truth was - lose weight or eventually become diabetic.  Losing weight will remove the cause of the insulin resistance and make me healthier again.  I certainly don't blame my insulin resistance for making me fat - I did that all by myself by eating too much and not excersizing enough plain and simple.  It does make it harder for the weight to come off though but I've been doing that all on my own using will power, healthy eating and excercise - basically good old fashioned hard work.

I agree with you HK.  I also became overweight simply by making bad choices with my foods and not being informed.  And I binge from time to time, but never to the point where I think I have some sort of disease.  But I feel that there might be some situations where the individual has other issues, whether physiological or physological, that make them obese.

I think where we will, and have, run into problems is that some people might take the label of obsity being a disease and therefore "I have no control over it and it's not my fault I can't do anything about it", when in fact, they have it in there complete control to lead a healthier life.

It's a fine line, but I think there is a distinction. 

:) That is reasonable. It is true that the industry pushes unnatural disgusting things down our throats and due to a lack of education we grow up eating it, then as adults we crave it!

Once people start eating natural healthy foods I think the cravings for the junk become less and less, I know I can't eat any chips anymore. They make me sick.

Too bad there can't be a day on TV that is devoted to promoting healthy living, I mean since most people who are unhealthy obviously watch hours and hours of TV.

Emotional eating may stem from the fact that parents were not supportive or around for their children because they were too busy making as much money as they could so they would be able to buy their child that fattening burger at McDonald's, which in the back of that child's mind translated into the feeling of LOVE.

Overeating may come from growing up in poverty. For instance, when I was a child we didn't have much food and my sisters and I were hungry. Now as an adult I have as much food as I can keep stocked up in my kitchen. I used to go through periods where I would hoard my food and eat it all in fear of not having any again. I am not that way anymore.

I worked in a "group" home with adults who were developmentally disabled. The ones who were older and had lived in the big institutions as young adults would frequently hoard and steal food, they would also eat as much as they possibly could and would have to be monitored, because they were afraid of not having any or not being fed.

These are just three examples of what can cause obesity outside of the fact that some people are just lazy and uneducated. Which really isn't their fault either. :)

Tink

Grouping all obesity into one catagory is wrong. Some obesity is due to medical issues. Some is emotional issues. Some is economic reasons.

People can have thyroid (sp?) problems that allow them to gain weight way too easily. Some people gain weight to do emotional differences. I fit it this catagory the best as I want to eat when I am board, not when I am hungry like it should be. I also eat when I am sad, angry or frustraded and just don't care what I look/feel like as long as it feels good while I am eating. Some people are obese because they are in poverty and honestly, usually the cheapest foods out there are some of the most unhealthy. Not that you can not still eat healthy if you are in poverty, but it sure is ALOT easier to eat unhealthy. Others can gain weight easity because of inactivity (another problem of mine). And I belive most people are obese because of a combination of previously mentioned causes.

I just don't think it can all be grouped into one simple catagory. Some obesity may be a physical disease, some a side effect of mental disease or dissorder, some just plane laziness.

So I say it can be a disease and it can't.

just my overextened .02

This is interesting.  I think that nomore is right.  Obesitiy in and of itself is not a disease, nor is thinness.  It is a direct result of a disorder... I like disorder rather than disease. 

It is interesting to me because on this site my perception is, and this is only my perception, that people have much more tolerance for people who are obese rather than those who are under weight.  I bet if you picked it apart, both disorders have elements of manipulation, distorted body image and a digging in of the heels so to speak, that are beyond the sufferer's control without proper intervention by a qualified person. Yet in the outside world, people in general, have more tolerance for those who are under weight than those who are over weight. 

I guess it makes sense since most of us here of the latter group so we  as a community are more about weight loss than weight gain??  Who knows.  It was interesting for nomore to put that question out there though!  Great discussion topic!! 

Yes, great discussion :) Woo for some good discussion. Thanks, nomo! You rock! :D

I second that...I mean third it!  :-)  Good topic, good discussion.  I like stuff that makes me use my brain a little and think.

So far, it seems like a reasonable conclusion that people think that their own experience must be the common one. 

As in,

• of course it's not a disease, I just ate like crap, ate too much and didn't move enough
• of course it can be a disease, I ate in order to change my brain chemistry, so it's just like other brain chemistry disorders
• I was fat so I exercised, ate well and lost a bunch of weight, so of course this will work for everyone.

I do think there are some experiences that are more common than others.  But if you don't fit into the common ground, there should still be room to figure out your problem too.

A new initiative: LNFB. Leave no fat behind. 

  :D

Nice summary :-)  Short, sweet and about right :-)

Yes, I agree, I think we do have a tendency to assume others experience life as we experience it.

Which is wrong, but... yeah...

That could explain alot of things - we all come from our own unique perspective, beliefs and experiences. 

If we want to learn tolerance I guess we have to let go a bit and allow for other's uniquness to be respected and honoured.  I love that because at the beginning of this post I was totally in Hk's corner because I gained weight for the exact same reason's he did, but then, as I read on, a light bulb went on and I could see the other answer clear as a bell as well.  Now, instead of having my own tunnel visioned approach to this, I have an enlightened and more empathetic one!!  If only all discussions here could go the same way!  :)