We’re going meta today! What do you want to talk about and/or read other folks perspectives about on these Friday conversation threads?
Some upcoming topics I have include options for declining weigh-in, clap-backs to medical fatphobia, and things we wish healthcare practitioners would stop doing. That’s what I’ve got, but I really want to hear what you want to talk about!
I’m interested in how bench science feeds into harms in the clinic, and how bench science could form the basis for protecting fat people in medicine instead. In my experience, it’s hard to convince doctors that the links between body size and health are not as firmly causal as some want to believe, because there’s a huge body of preclinical literature claiming that body size is both controllable and an unequivocal indicator of poor health. I think that part of it comes from how biomedical research can uncritically incorporate fatphobic assumptions into its production of “scientific fact." But I don’t understand why scientific models of some diseases (NASH, diabetes, atherosclerosis) continue to reinforce the dogma of behavior—>adiposity—>sickness, even though the mechanism is demonstrably not that simple in real humans. And I want to know if there’s any work being done to change how biomedical science thinks about fat people!
I wish there was a way to find weight neutral medical doctors (especially GPs/PCPs and bonus points for any who are practicing telemedicine)… I’ve never had any luck calling ahead to offices to screen them (office staff flat out don’t know how to respond to questions, and the only way to interview a doctor is to set up an appointment as a new patient, which is costly, stressful, and time consuming), and the fat friendly professionals list and HAES provider lists are either outdated or don’t have many medical doctors.
That probably all means that weight neutral doctors are as rare as unicorns, and as easy to find, but i want to believe it’s possible. Because the alternative is dying of treatable conditions.
I’m getting older and my long-standing disability and chronic conditions aren’t going away, and new ones are cropping up as they tend to do when we age, and I feel more of a sense of urgency about finding a doctor, when I could be a little more flexible and patient in my younger years.
But medical trauma (cPTSD) is making it impossible to navigate this process of finding a doctor, and all the old tips and tricks don’t seem to work outside the major US metro areas.
It’s really really hard to navigate healthcare as the industry succumbs a little more to its own hate and greed every year.
I am gonna hate myself for saying this because I think capitalism has no place in healthcare, but I almost wish someone would make a startup for fat-friendly telemedicine, the way some have popped up for other oppressed identities (like those startups for trans folks needing safe access to hormones).
Tl;dr: I’d like to talk about how to find medical doctors that treat fat people properly, with a way to get actual names of actual practicing MDs/DOs. And maybe updating the current best-practice suggestions for finding a fat-friendly or weight-neutral provider in rural and suburban areas. Maybe that’s beyond the scope of a convo here. Maybe that’s impossible!
Often in the HAES/weight-neutral medical care arguments, we talk about how the science that "proves" that ob***ty is unhealthy is wrong/biased/inaccurate/misinterpreted. As someone who is not savvy about scientific studies and how to interpret them, why do we think that the studies that show that weight is not a factor in health issues is any more accurate? (I'm wondering how to defend this kind of argument from people who disbelieve that healthcare can be weight-neutral and successful as such). Thanks!
I’m interested in how bench science feeds into harms in the clinic, and how bench science could form the basis for protecting fat people in medicine instead. In my experience, it’s hard to convince doctors that the links between body size and health are not as firmly causal as some want to believe, because there’s a huge body of preclinical literature claiming that body size is both controllable and an unequivocal indicator of poor health. I think that part of it comes from how biomedical research can uncritically incorporate fatphobic assumptions into its production of “scientific fact." But I don’t understand why scientific models of some diseases (NASH, diabetes, atherosclerosis) continue to reinforce the dogma of behavior—>adiposity—>sickness, even though the mechanism is demonstrably not that simple in real humans. And I want to know if there’s any work being done to change how biomedical science thinks about fat people!
Sometimes it’s nice to hear stories of times healthcare providers were surprisingly compassionate or weight-neutral.
I wish there was a way to find weight neutral medical doctors (especially GPs/PCPs and bonus points for any who are practicing telemedicine)… I’ve never had any luck calling ahead to offices to screen them (office staff flat out don’t know how to respond to questions, and the only way to interview a doctor is to set up an appointment as a new patient, which is costly, stressful, and time consuming), and the fat friendly professionals list and HAES provider lists are either outdated or don’t have many medical doctors.
That probably all means that weight neutral doctors are as rare as unicorns, and as easy to find, but i want to believe it’s possible. Because the alternative is dying of treatable conditions.
I’m getting older and my long-standing disability and chronic conditions aren’t going away, and new ones are cropping up as they tend to do when we age, and I feel more of a sense of urgency about finding a doctor, when I could be a little more flexible and patient in my younger years.
But medical trauma (cPTSD) is making it impossible to navigate this process of finding a doctor, and all the old tips and tricks don’t seem to work outside the major US metro areas.
It’s really really hard to navigate healthcare as the industry succumbs a little more to its own hate and greed every year.
I am gonna hate myself for saying this because I think capitalism has no place in healthcare, but I almost wish someone would make a startup for fat-friendly telemedicine, the way some have popped up for other oppressed identities (like those startups for trans folks needing safe access to hormones).
Tl;dr: I’d like to talk about how to find medical doctors that treat fat people properly, with a way to get actual names of actual practicing MDs/DOs. And maybe updating the current best-practice suggestions for finding a fat-friendly or weight-neutral provider in rural and suburban areas. Maybe that’s beyond the scope of a convo here. Maybe that’s impossible!
Often in the HAES/weight-neutral medical care arguments, we talk about how the science that "proves" that ob***ty is unhealthy is wrong/biased/inaccurate/misinterpreted. As someone who is not savvy about scientific studies and how to interpret them, why do we think that the studies that show that weight is not a factor in health issues is any more accurate? (I'm wondering how to defend this kind of argument from people who disbelieve that healthcare can be weight-neutral and successful as such). Thanks!