‘obesity’ CAUSES heart disease deaths…oh really?
Right.
I would like to see exactly HOW body fat causes heart disease, you know, the nuts and bolts of it so to speak. There is a lot of carry on in this article as to how horrendous fat is and how is causes so many health conditions yada yada yada but nothing as to exactly HOW this occurs. Perhaps because they don’t bloody know how it occurs? Perhaps because it doesn’t occur and fat is an easy scapegoat for everything they can’t explain?
I can accept (begrudgingly) that fat is correlated with heart disease and appears to be a risk factor for the development of heart disease but until they can tell me how exactly it causes heart disease, I am not singing their song. Once again, there is no mention of the fact that the attitude of the medical profession towards fat people could have a lot to do with why fat people seem to be at increased risk of particular illnesses. If a fat person knows or expects to get the BMI lecture every single time they set foot in a medical clinic, or is treated like a sub standard member of the human race (or not as human at all) then they are not going to seek timely medical treatment, mild conditions worsen and end up as serious conditions and voila, your stats are artificially inflated and come out looking like fatties get sick more often and sicker than thin people. The roll on effect is so damn obvious that it boggles my mind that researchers don’t think of this stuff…
“It showed that patients with obese levels of BMI were four times more likely to die of heart disease than those of normal weight. A waistline that fell into the obese category increased the risk three-fold.”
Sounds like correlation to me. Not one iota of that article backs up the ridiculous headline.
Even if we accept their “fat causes heart disease” premise as true… the article still isn’t very good proof that it’s as bad as they are claiming.
Take just the first sentence of the article, which was “One in three heart disease deaths is a direct result of being overweight or obese, a study has suggested.”
What reason (other than a sincere hatred of fat people for our own good naturally) is there that that sentence could not have been “Two out of three heart disease deaths are not a direct result of being overweight or obese, a study has suggested.”
Same with the second “finding”… sure, 1 out of 7 cases of heart disease may be caused by the evil fat… but that still means 6 out of 7 were NOT.
The also neglect to mention that fat people generally live longer than fat people & recover from heart attacks or strokes, etc., faster than thin people, & a few dozen other things that, when they are ever acknowledged AT ALL, are labeled ‘the obesity paradox’, because they don’t want to lend them credence & come around to admitting that fat doesn’t actually CAUSE anything except needing a larger clothing size & that, especially for those of us who have left youth far behind, it can be quite protective of health. It bears constant repeating: there are NO illnesses, no health events, which happen to fat people which do not happen to thin people as well & the vast majority of fat people live as long as, & in some cases, longer than, the majority of fat people. Also, as far as any reliable science I have been able to find in my 30 years or searching can find, any exacerbation of health problems by fat usually occurs in people who are far fatter than the majority of us are or ever will be.
One thing these ‘experts’ do not like to touch with a ten-foot pole is the fact that the biggest single health risk is being male. It is so great that a non-smoking woman who weighs over 350 pounds has a very good chance of outliving a six foot, 170 pound man (just to give an example) by three or four years, while a woman of my size (just under 5′6″ & about 205-210 pounds) should outlive that same thin man by about 6 years or so. Of course, a lot of men also beat those odds; I have two brothers, both weighing between 250-270 for years & having been fat their entire lives, who are in their 70’s & not only still breathing but still functional. I also confess to speaking from the viewpoint of a passionate fat activist of 30 years standing & a woman who is past 60 years old & in better general health than many of my peers & someone who has long-lived genes from an army of (mostly fat) relatives who have lived well into their 80’s & 90’s. Also, we have no family history of heart disease on my mothe’s side at least.
I always remember that those making these proclamations are spouting the party line in order to keep jobs & grants, etc., & that there is not much money to be made in telling people that they are okay as they are & that they do not need to buy products or programs to change their bodies.
Live longer than THIN people obviously…duh!
And amen on claiming greater health problems & healthcare costs, etc. caused by fat people, when most of the problems caused are by medical indifference & neglect, the reluctance of fat people to GET medical attention, the tendency of the medical profession to blow off most health problems with “lose weight & it will go away”, all the emotional & psychological stress, which in turn causes physical health issues, of living in a world which constantly abuses, ridicules, & ostracizes you. People of color, people for whom English is a second language, very poor people, etc., also show health problems which are almost certainly caused or greatly exacerbated by poverty, prejudice, & various cultural pressures & expectations.
And it’s not just that we’ll delay seeking treatment, but that once we do seek treatment our treatment will be further delayed while the doctor does the usual song and dance about our fattyfatfat. Our treatment is doubly delayed by fat prejudice. There’s no way on earth that these factors don’t play out in health statistics.
I really hope you get your funding to move forward with your study. It’s terribly important. And if you need help with your research let me know. I’m a librarian.
I’m actually not convinced that being overweight or obese is, in and of itself, a risk factor. Given that recent studies show that about 1/2 of overweight and 2/3 of obese people have some sort of metabolic abnormalities, and those overweight/obese people who are metabolically normal or “healthy” do not have an increased risk of heart disease, I would be more likely to ascribe the increased risk of heart disease to a common underlying cause of the higher weight.
It’s entirely possible that I’m wrong, since I’m not a doctor or medical professional, but this is just how I’m inclined to think about it.
I’m not too sure about the reports on this study. I’m not sure how they got the figures.
The report says 1 in 3 heart disease deaths are attributed to overweight and obesity-unless they are using those words interchangeably, are we expected to beleive that the overweight and obesity rate even for the Dutch is less than 30%?
I know it doesn’t quite work like that, but there has to be some relation between the percentage of overweight and obesity and the amount of the heart deaths attributed to it.
Especially because after 50, there’s actually increased mortality for those who are “underweight” according to their BMI. And did you see the studies that found that people with high stress but low status jobs have a much higher risk of heart disease? Why, no one knows, but it’s true of low status monkeys as well…
But surely if one-third of heart disease victims are overweight or obese, then two-thirds must be ‘normal’ or underweight – or, in other words, you’re actually more at risk from dying of heart disease if you’re thin. In fact, with one of the so-called obesity paradoxes being better survival and recovery rates from strokes, cancer and ys, heart attacks, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. It’s amazing how these ‘grave’ statistics can often be used to support our argument when turned on their heads.
But surely if one-third of heart disease victims are overweight or obese, then two-thirds must be ‘normal’ or underweight – or, in other words, you’re actually more at risk from dying of heart disease if you’re thin. In fact, with one of the so-called obesity paradoxes being better survival and recovery rates from strokes, cancer and yes, heart attacks, it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest. It’s amazing how these ‘grave’ statistics can often be used to support our argument when turned on their heads.
Here is something that I saw somewhat recently that looks a bit at the “roll on” effect, which includes stress of stigma:
“These data points suggest a rather simple approach to America’s obesity problem: Stop hating. If we weren’t such unrepentant body bigots, fat people might earn more money, stay in school, and receive better medical care in hospitals and doctor’s offices. All that would go a long way toward mitigating the health effects of excess weight—and its putative costs. But there’s an even better reason to think that America’s glutton intolerance is a threat to public health and the federal budget. Recent epidemiological research implies that the shame of being obese poses its own medical risk. Mental anguish harms the body; weight stigma can break your heart.”
http://www.slate.com/id/2231508/
“The Health Affects of Discrimination against Fat People by Daniel Engber”
They are saying in this study that fat people have a two fold increase in the incidence of non fatal cardio vascular disease, (and a two fold increase in fatal CVD) in comparison with the acceptably weighted.
So they are actually challenging the idea that we have better survial rates than slim people.
They don’t, or it’s not been reported whether they made comparisons with the underweight or between the mediocre and the overweight.
my grandma suffers from heart disease(s). she’s overweight. losing fat would at the very least make it easier for her heart to pump blood to make her be able to walk, turn, bend down… the fat gone from around her organs would make it easier for her body to sustain itself.
i don’t know whether i’d call obesity *the* cause, but *a* cause – very likely. even if it’s no.15 on the list of causes.
and as far as being mistreated and reminded about the bmi… should they *not* tell a person they’re at risk? you’d want to know about any other disease you have, so why not obesity?
i wish doctors in my country paid more attention to excessive weight of their patients because they don’t really.
Anna, I’d suggest that you do some reading about the real impact that doctor’s focus on BMI at the expense of overall wellness has caused many of us, particularly the stories at http://fathealth.wordpress.com.
Obesity is not a disease. “Obesity” is a poorly-defined physical characteristic which, if you read the research critically, hasn’t been shown to cause much of anything. Except neglect and insult of fat people by medical professionals.
Anna, like O.C. said, obesity is not a disease and pathologizing it does far more harm than good. Doctors are human and often have the same anti-fat bias as the rest of the population. By focusing on a patient’s weight instead of other risk factors for things like heart disease, doctors 1. give thinner people the false belief that they are not at risk, and 2. may miss other important health factors or blame disease on fat when there is another underlying cause.
Bri, I agree with your comments 100%. I had two knee replacements some years ago. At the time I was a little overweight, not much. I made an amazing recovery from surgery and was back at work six weeks after having the replacements. I could have returned to work probably 3 weeks after it was done really – I recovered so quickly. However, on my very last appointment with my surgeon, where he was really positive and amazed at my incredible recovery, the last thing he said was – “Okay, I would like to see you in 2 years time. Get some xrays done before you come and and all you need to do now is lose some weight”. I was shocked. I know that being lean will stop the wear and tear on the artificial joints but the point is this. My weight hasn’t changed since then and I’m not game to go back for my checkup in case he embarasses me by asking me why haven’t I lost weight. So your theory, that needs to be researched thoroughly, I feel is quite correct. People who get lectured by their medicos don’t go back for their checkups. If something is wrong with my implants that potentially could be picked up early it won’t be because I’m putting of the dreaded lecture!!!