Is obesity a disease or a symptom?

StepWise123

The AMA just issued a statement that obesity is a disease. If I get the flu my symptoms might be a fever and muscle aches. If I contract a cold, my symptoms are sneezing and a runny nose. If I have diabetes I would have high blood sugar.

So what is your opinion? Is obesity a disease or a symptom?

My0WNinspiration

Its a disease just like alcoholism is a disease.

Acg67

Its a disease just like alcoholism is a disease.

lol

Illona88

It's a risk factor for other diseases.

pastryari

Its a disease just like alcoholism is a disease.

:huh:

_Countryboy_

Obesity is neither a symptom or a disease. Its a condition that happens when people refuse to take some responsibility for themselves and control their actions. Push away from the table people...you really do not need that third slice of pie. Get off your donkey, turn off the tv, grab a bottle of water and take a walk.

Siegel15

I am no doctor. But IMHO obesity is a symptom of deeper issues.
We use food to solve other problems:
Stress, fear, self hate, boredom, even low levels of dopamine which gives some people very low pleasure feelings from food
So they eat more to get more. I actually read that some where.
All in all, obesity is a RESULT, isn't it? From choices we make.
I speak for myself in any case.
Now, when it comes to Prader Willi syndrom, THAT is a genetic disorder.
That is not be called a disease, but a syndrom.

Zombella

I would not call obesity a disease at all. Like previous posters have said, it can cause diseases or illnesses, and it can be the result of mental problems such as anxiety or depression. It can also just happen because someone loves food and doesn't feel like moving.

GetSoda

The dictionary says:

"A particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people."

So, just because something is self inflicted, doesn't mean it's not a disease.

pushyourself14

Neither?

ldrosophila

disease

AJinBirmingham

Obesity is not a disease. Alcoholism is not a disease. Addiction is not a disease.

You don't get to decide whether or not to have a disease, how to self administer it and to what extent - you don't get to "decide" to be well either - and hammering the above into the definition of "disease" based on incomplete criteria is just a way of throwing sunshine at people to make them feel better.

"I only meant to have early stage breast cancer, but I got carried away . . . I just wasn't thinking . . . It wasn't ME, it was the CANCER . . ." Sounds ridiculous, doesn't it?

nznatural

Obesity is neither a symptom or a disease. Its a condition that happens when people refuse to take some responsibility for themselves and control their actions. Push away from the table people...you really do not need that third slice of pie. Get off your donkey, turn off the tv, grab a bottle of water and take a walk.

Ohhhhh, so that's what I've been doing wrong!

Then again, I havent eaten pie in years - let alone a third slice, I dont own a donkey, I drink about 1.5-2L of water a day (at least), and I run about 25km a week. And yet here I am, still obese.

My own obesity is a symptom that will lead to other diseases if I stop taking care of myself.

j75j75

This is laughable :laugh: :laugh:

AmyZ46

That's a good question .

I think For some people it is a symptom

I went to a weight loss doctor who said our bodies are just to efficient for what we eat.

He also asked me if I thought all thin people exercise ? Then he said No , only a small percentage of thin people exercise ,all the others are just naturally thin.

Our bodies were made to use energy and conserve it for hard times- so if hard times come , we will be ok.

sammi674

Only 5% of people maintain their weight loss. So eat less, move more obviously isn't the solution.

It's a disease. Some people can eat insane amounts of food and never be more then 20 pounds overweight, while others pile the weight on and battle it their whole life.

LanBan101

Ha! So true. But it really isn't about eating less pie. Its about eating foods the way mother nature intended, whole nutritious foods. None of that boxed crap. Quality food outweighs net calories consumed. The middle of the grocery store will frakk you up.

RonnieLodge

I'd say it is a symptom of:

1. sedentary lifestyles
2. easy access to;
3. more processed and sugar laced food than ever before.

RhonndaJ

By the formal definiton of 'disease' I'd say that yes, obesity is a disease, just not in the sense that most people consider a disease.

I'm more inclined to think of it as a symptom, though not necessarily a symptom of a disease.

This doesn't mean that we're not personally responsible for being obese, most of us are so due to our own poor choices, it simply means that there's more to it than just being lazy and eating too much.

Bobbie8786

Perhaps the AMA is labeling it as such in order to make it easier to get insurance to cover the cost of weight loss surgery, or even the aftermath of weight loss (excess skin). The AMA is made up of doctors and their main motivator in life is money (not dissing them for that, just stating it as I see it).

Personally I don't think it is a disease, more like a symptom of our culture of gluttony. For me obesity came from the fact that I just like junk food and hate veggies and anything healthy. I also chose to sit and watch t.v. instead of exercise. To me that is NOT a disease.

Laces_0ut

not a disease...just a ploy by Big Pharma to sell more drugs.

salydra

Technically, it's a symptom, but is also a risk factor. It can be a symptom for a number of things including an eating disorder, depression, gluten sensitivity, thyroid problems, and a host of other physical and psychological conditions.

It *can* be treated as a disease, as it can technically be "cured" without necessarily addressing the underlying issues, but there usually is some kind of accompanying problem.

keina629

It can be a disease if you have a leptin deficiency which is a hormone that tells your brain to stop eating! Not sure how common a leptin deficiency is though.

dbratton87

not a disease...just a ploy by Big Pharma to sell more drugs.

Your profile pic just made me really sad..... Charlie

KAYRRIE

It's hard to agree that obesity is a disease. I see a disease as something you contract unvoluntarily. What we eat is a choice and if not done carefully and consicously, it can lead to obesity. And grant it, some people have thyroid problems and slow motabolisms but if you have those problems and you're eating healthy, you're not going to become obese. Now, if you have those problems and you're eating unhealthy, you can become obese. So therefore I think it's a result of bad decisions. There is a cure for obesity, a healthy diet and exercise. I heard a commercial the other day and the lady was like, I eat right and I exercise and I still gained weight (it was a diet pill commercial). I thought, that's impossible to eat right, exercise and gain weight unless you're strentgh training. So as an obese person myself, I disagree that it's a disease. I know I gained weight as a result of my food choices.

dbratton87

I agree, disease. Some people's attitude toward overweight people is very sad. Like someone above said, a very insignificant number of people maintain more than 15-20 lbs of weightloss. It is simply not as easy as eating less. Some people are very genetically predisposed to weight gain. The genetic risk factors alone would cause me to categorize it as a disease.

I don't mean to be negative. I believe anyone CAN lose a significant amount of weight and maintain it but few actually DO. It's just a depressing fact and I have resolved to be one of the few. That said, we all know it is NOT easy. We should have more compassion.

Laces_0ut

not a disease...just a ploy by Big Pharma to sell more drugs.

Your profile pic just made me really sad..... Charlie

if we keep his memory in our hearts he will always live on.

kevinrbarger

Obesity is a disease. For it to be a symptom of something, then there would have to be another disease that it was a symptom of.

Being "fat" is a symptom of obesity.

I also find huge issues with some people in this thread who automatically assume that obesity squarely sits on the shoulders of those who are obese. Yes, personal responsibility is a factor, but there are other deep psychological and physiological reasons that keep people from losing weight. Losing weight is not an easy thing. It's not as simple as "put down the doughnuts!"

For instance, did you know that guilt makes "bad" foods taste better and therefore harder to resist? By making someone feel guilty about eating something, you are making it more rewarding for them to indulge. Here is a link to an article about the science behind that:

http://www.psmag.com/health/guilt-makes-the-pie-taste-sweeter-49624/

What about the fact that sweeteners such as high fructose corn syrup (which has found its way into basically everything) reduce the amount of leptin (the chemical that makes you feel full) in the blood, and if you're not mindful of that you will continue eating even though you have had enough. That has nothing to do with personal responsibility, but moreso being the victim of greedy corporations who want you to buy more of their product. Here is the science behind that:

http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/79/4/537.long

Or if you want to talk about greedy corporations, we can discuss how junk food has been deliberately designed to be addictive. Here is a New York Times article about that:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/magazine/the-extraordinary-science-of-junk-food.html?pagewanted=all&_r=2&

And since junk food has been deliberately designed to be addictive we can talk about how, when someone does decide to go on a diet and quit junk food, they go through the same symptoms as drug withdrawal--on par with cocaine and meth. Here is an article about the science behind that:

http://www.livescience.com/25588-junk-food-withdrawal.html

But let's jump off that train of thought and talk about how people who are overweight have difficulty losing weight because the weight gain has destroyed the body's fat fighting invariant natural killer T-cells. The fatter someone becomes, the less of these cells they have. Here are two links about that:

http://gizmodo.com/5948168/why-fat-people-cant-help-getting-even-fatter

http://www.alphagalileo.org/ViewItem.aspx?ItemId=124501&CultureCode=en

There are a lot of other factors that I could mention, too (such as how MRI imaging has showed that the prefrontal cortex of obese people does not activate in order to stop them from wanting high fat foods when they are not hungry), but I think I've given enough links here already. The point of all this isn't to discourage people from losing weight (or to give them excuses not to do so) because there are all of these factors against them, but to pat them on the back. This is really, really hard. There is a lot working against you, but we're all here because we're doing it. And that's amazing!

To try and act like obesity is solely a "symptom" of a lack of willpower or something is absurd and counterproductive. It is a disease, and there are a multitude of internal and external reasons for it. The science is behind that. A disease does not need to be caused by a virus or whatever in order to be classified as such. Like GetSoda up there so sufficiently said:

The dictionary says:

"A particular quality, habit, or disposition regarded as adversely affecting a person or group of people."

So, just because something is self inflicted, doesn't mean it's not a disease.

diodelcibo

Brb selling obesity cure pills.

micqs

I heard this story on the radio this morning. They are adding it as a disease to allow the cost of care covered by insurance and to allow people to seek help without paying an arm and a leg.

I personally believe that it isnt a disease but a symptom of something. Diabetes, thyroid problems, etc. But this way, people will be able to get the help they need if they search for it and want it which is excellent, but I can see the problems this will probably cause in terms of options of care, etc

eric_sg61

I'd say it is a symptom of:

1. sedentary lifestyles
2. easy access to;
3. more processed and sugar laced food than ever before.

Came into post number 1. Most people don't have to endure physical labor to make a living.