Weighty Issues
Results of a newly-issued study which researchers published in the journal Chronic Diseases and Injuries in Canada inform that even while Canada is suffering an obesity epidemic doctors are lax in addressing the issue with their obviously-overweight patients. Doctors may just be hesitating to bring to their obese patients' attention the harm they are doing to themselves because they know full well that to do so is to risk alienating the patient.
People who are overweight know they are, and those who are obese are also quite aware of their condition. They are, by and large, accustomed to living with extreme weight gain, and seem not to be too terribly exercised over it. It is not exactly possible to overlook the fact that one is grossly overweight. It is the reaction to that overweight that is telling; an acceptance of it, rather than a concern over it.
If people felt enough concern over their health deteriorating as a result of gaining an excess of weight, they would vault themselves into corrective mode, become more diligent in stopping themselves from eating to excess, become more focused on eating nutritious whole foods, spurning pre-prepared faux food, and gradually accustom themselves to leave their sedentary lifestyles behind.
It is true that doctors should feel the obligation of their profession to point out to their patients that their excess weight constitutes a real risk to their future health condition, but to do so would be stating the obvious. Should a doctor broach the subject, there is no guarantee that the patient would not take umbrage and become abusive, inviting the doctor to tend to his business, and they would theirs.
This does not, of course, excuse those in the medical profession from expressing their opinion to their clients, since it is, after all, incumbent upon them to stress healthy living. Moreover, Canadian guidelines do recommend that doctors screen their adult patients for weight problems through the measurement of waist circumference, the newly-recognized 'vital sign' predictive of future disease risk.
The survey came to the conclusion that as people gain weight they begin to observe themselves as representing the 'new normal', since they become familiar with the sight of everyone around them becoming heftier. Some 40% of clearly overweight or obese people described themselves as "about right". And that's looking at themselves through those proverbial rose-coloured glasses.
The fact is that nationally, 59% of adult Canadians fall into either the overweight or obese category. And it is anticipated that if that trend continues, the proportion of overweight/obese people will reach 70% by 2026. Severe obesity appears to be tracking at an even more accelerated rate than obesity, with those rating a body mass index of 40 of more tripling over the past three decades.
People with a BMI over 30, stresses the study, are four times more likely to become diabetic, three times as likely to have hypertension, and one and one-half times as likely to have heart disease, according to the researchers.
Obesity is poorly managed in Canada, according to the Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
People who are overweight know they are, and those who are obese are also quite aware of their condition. They are, by and large, accustomed to living with extreme weight gain, and seem not to be too terribly exercised over it. It is not exactly possible to overlook the fact that one is grossly overweight. It is the reaction to that overweight that is telling; an acceptance of it, rather than a concern over it.
If people felt enough concern over their health deteriorating as a result of gaining an excess of weight, they would vault themselves into corrective mode, become more diligent in stopping themselves from eating to excess, become more focused on eating nutritious whole foods, spurning pre-prepared faux food, and gradually accustom themselves to leave their sedentary lifestyles behind.
It is true that doctors should feel the obligation of their profession to point out to their patients that their excess weight constitutes a real risk to their future health condition, but to do so would be stating the obvious. Should a doctor broach the subject, there is no guarantee that the patient would not take umbrage and become abusive, inviting the doctor to tend to his business, and they would theirs.
This does not, of course, excuse those in the medical profession from expressing their opinion to their clients, since it is, after all, incumbent upon them to stress healthy living. Moreover, Canadian guidelines do recommend that doctors screen their adult patients for weight problems through the measurement of waist circumference, the newly-recognized 'vital sign' predictive of future disease risk.
The survey came to the conclusion that as people gain weight they begin to observe themselves as representing the 'new normal', since they become familiar with the sight of everyone around them becoming heftier. Some 40% of clearly overweight or obese people described themselves as "about right". And that's looking at themselves through those proverbial rose-coloured glasses.
The fact is that nationally, 59% of adult Canadians fall into either the overweight or obese category. And it is anticipated that if that trend continues, the proportion of overweight/obese people will reach 70% by 2026. Severe obesity appears to be tracking at an even more accelerated rate than obesity, with those rating a body mass index of 40 of more tripling over the past three decades.
People with a BMI over 30, stresses the study, are four times more likely to become diabetic, three times as likely to have hypertension, and one and one-half times as likely to have heart disease, according to the researchers.
Obesity is poorly managed in Canada, according to the Canada Research Chair in Health Services Research at Dalhousie University in Halifax.
"We don't manage this problem well, we don't provide people with what they need in order to manage their weight successfully and we have very negative attitudes toward people who have a weight issue."
Labels: Canada, Health, Human Relations
posted by Pieface @ 7:12 PM
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