Pointless Arguments: She's Not Fat!

We had just left a birthday party. The last words my mother had given the girl as we were leaving had to do with her weight: I didn't hear the whole exchange but I at least heard a reference to 'pills'. My brother and I were upset with my mother about this; not the nicest thing to leave a birthday girl with!

Me: "She's not obese." Why was I saying this? I had seen the girl, she was quite badly off. Just because she still maintained something like the hourglass shape did not mean she was not clinically obese. Thinking about how overweight and obese practically looked like, my mother was probably right.

My mother: "Did you see her? She is!"

Me: "She's only overweight." Why was this point so important to me? Was I prejudiced in some way? Did I need to think of this girl as "only overweight" because I liked her? Because she was a nice girl from a lovely family, who couldn't possibly let this happen to their lovely girl? Has my training in medicine already caused such a terrible overreaction to anything I perceive as unhealthy? I had even begun to go as far as to consider obese children as neglect and bad parenting; was I unwilling to apply this harsh label?

Mother: "It's causing her liver problems!"

Me: "The one thing obesity does not cause or worsen is liver problems." I was not even 100% sure about this, but I said it anyway. I checked with my friends later: forgot about non-alcoholic fatty liver disease.

Ever since I've started my course, I seem to have developed an allergic reaction to smoking, drugs, alcohol and obesity to name a few things. I'm not sure how much of this is an overreaction, especially compounded on top of my Islamic beliefs.

I just don't want to turn into my mother in this scenario, overzealously dispatching advice 'as a friend' or in unsuitable situations. I don't want to see everyone as a disease or a potential disease, not a person. The last thing that girl wanted to be reminded of was her health problems, on her own birthday party!

From The Pan Into The Fire

Seeing as how I have recently dissed the Daily Mail, I shall illustrate the principle I was trying to expound. Like a skeptical reader of romance acknowledging that there can be brilliant romance novels, I will acknowlege that the Daily Mail can talk sense occasionally as seen in this article here.

No Daily Mail panic or hyperbole there! I don't think anyone's happy with this situation and I can't imagine the strain in America; the prevalence there seems comparable to here in the UK.

Diabetes: Excercise & Diet versus Pills

I've seen this bit of news and I'm honestly not that surprised. A GP with a lot of experience will know that lifestyle changes are something very unlikely to occur. If they do occur successfully, they have to take the form of a perscription.

Basically, it is unlikely for a human being to go off and do more exercise unless I as the GP -- after discussion with them -- tell them they have to go to the following so and so classes or see the practice's exercise/diet specialists (ah, the ideal multidisciplinary team, such a beautiful dream) and bring evidence of this, lose some weight and produce a satisfactory diet diary otherwise I won't put them on the drugs.

According to this, there seems to be agreement with the idea that there should be some sort of structure to the throwaway advice 'get more exercise' with an actual practical, individualised approach e.g. taking into account the back and knee problems people may have.

I suspect part of the grumbling may be due to diabetes patients getting their medication for free. Let's assume the Department of Health doesn't hold this as its primary concern.

Obesity's sending everyone into a panic. It's hard to differentiate the beneficial thing to do from being a nanny state but I know when the 'too far' line has been crossed and thank God, so do most GPs at the moment. Some blasphemous ideas have been circulating. It's not that I have a conflict of interest except for my intractable addiction to the little tastes of heaven that go by the mundane name of chocolates, of which it would be a crime surely not to have at least one a day.