From The Wall Street Journal:
Nearly 10% of Health Spending Due to Obesity, Report Says
JULY 27, 2009, 11:07 A.M. ET WASHINGTON -- New research shows medical spending averages $1,400 more a year for an obese person than for someone who's normal weight.
Overall obesity-related health spending reaches $147 billion, double what it was nearly a decade ago, says the study published Monday by the journal Health Affairs.
The higher expense reflects the costs of treating diabetes, heart disease and other ailments far more common for the overweight, concluded the study by government scientists and the nonprofit research group RTI International.
RTI health economist Eric Finkelstein offers a blunt message for lawmakers trying to revamp the health-care system: "Unless you address obesity, you're never going to address rising health-care costs."
Read entire article at The Wall Street Journal.
This seems so self-evident. But we are a nation of people filled with denial about the damage we are doing to our bodies by eating more than we need. Back in the days when I weighed 252 - *gasp* - my blood pressure was 180/130 and my doctor kept pushing high blood pressure medication, which I always stopped after a couple weeks because of dizziness or ankle swelling (God forbid my ankles should look fat even though the rest of me was desperately overweight!). I was truly headed for a stroke, but that didn't stop me from maintaining a dangerous weight.
When I lost 80 pounds in 2006, my blood pressure quite naturally returned to normal: 130/80. I hate to do this, but in the interest of possibly inspiring someone else to look in the mirror today and say Enough is Enough! I dutifully post my Before and After - embedded in a little pro-diet pep talk:
For anyone overweight who is open to the idea of looking at weight loss as a responsibility and spiritual duty/journey, please read my entire diet journey - along with all my emotional, psychological and spiritual insights :) - start by scrolling to the bottom here and working your way forward. Seriously, there's some helpful stuff there. Also, I found it helpful to google weight loss before and after to look at pictures. Very inspirational and motivational!
As much as I loathe doing this, for the sake of my readers, here are my before and afters - the first taken 12/2005 (I was making enchiladas for the family on Christmas Eve) and the second 10/2007:
From size 20w to size 10, 10 1/2 shoe to 9. Even my toes are smaller!
Now when I go to the doctor and look around, I see a waiting room filled with obese people. In fact, since I am prone to go into interview mode with anyone, I once asked my doctor what percentage of problems he saw daily that would probably be cured by losing weight and he said 90%.
I've been thinking for years that this is a problem: medicating people to deal with the symptoms of overweight rather than insisting they first make an effort to heal themselves. And just like other conditions resulting from lifestyle choices - e.g. smoking and promiscuity - it does place an unnecessary financial burden on insured individuals who are trying to live healthy lives. But because we are a consumer-driven society - with corporations making billions from people eating too much and taking too many drugs - the messages to indulge yourself and then expect to escape the consequences are plenteous and powerful.
To resist our culture's Have It Your Way! mentality means to go against the flow.
In light of this, I'm going to comment on something I let go last week - Obama's choice of Surgeon General, whose BMI puts her in the category obese - and quite possibly morbidly obese. Despite all the Emperor's New Clothes distraction of being able to be fit while fat - which has certainly contributed to the unhealthy denial of many obese people - I have to say that out of thousands of candidates for this position, Obama surely could have found a better role model. I'm not saying she's not a pleasant person and hasn't done some altruistic work, but this kind of hypocrisy - as in Obama still indulging his smoking habit - would not be brushed aside by the media under a Republican administration.
I think Obama blew it on this one, but what else is new?
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More thoughts on fat and media double standards later.. . . .
From The Wall Street Journal:
This seems so self-evident. But we are a nation of people filled with denial about the damage we are doing to our bodies by eating more than we need. Back in the days when I weighed 252 - *gasp* - my blood pressure was 180/130 and my doctor kept pushing high blood pressure medication, which I always stopped after a couple weeks because of dizziness or ankle swelling (God forbid my ankles should look fat even though the rest of me was desperately overweight!). I was truly headed for a stroke, but that didn't stop me from maintaining a dangerous weight.
When I lost 80 pounds in 2006, my blood pressure quite naturally returned to normal: 130/80. I hate to do this, but in the interest of possibly inspiring someone else to look in the mirror today and say Enough is Enough! I dutifully post my Before and After - embedded in a little pro-diet pep talk:
Now when I go to the doctor and look around, I see a waiting room filled with obese people. In fact, since I am prone to go into interview mode with anyone, I once asked my doctor what percentage of problems he saw daily that would probably be cured by losing weight and he said 90%.
I've been thinking for years that this is a problem: medicating people to deal with the symptoms of overweight rather than insisting they first make an effort to heal themselves. And just like other conditions resulting from lifestyle choices - e.g. smoking and promiscuity - it does place an unnecessary financial burden on insured individuals who are trying to live healthy lives. But because we are a consumer-driven society - with corporations making billions from people eating too much and taking too many drugs - the messages to indulge yourself and then expect to escape the consequences are plenteous and powerful.
To resist our culture's Have It Your Way! mentality means to go against the flow.
I think Obama blew it on this one, but what else is new?
~~~~
More thoughts on fat and media double standards later.. . . .