This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! The Ob*sity* Action Coalition (OAC) claims to be a non-profit advocacy group for higher-weight people. The truth from my perspective is that they are anything but.
It’s amazing how industry doesn’t even try to hide its ties to these orgs.
Im not sure it’s an equal comparison using pain management and Purdue pharma as an analogy though.
As horrible as Purdue was, they convinced a ton of doctors that pain was real and deserved treatment. They did this the absolute wrong way, and used bad science to do it. But a lot of doctors were swayed by the sales pitch and PYT drug reps flirting and flattering, and people got pain management. (Not always good quality if they were getting OxyContin, but still.) then the war on drugs backfired and now pain patients are being punished, but still.
There is zero medical benefit to doing this with weight loss. And ultimately, I doubt the government is ever going to intervene and say that fat people deserve evidence based medicine, and ban these terrible drugs and surgeries.
That would be amazing if it happened though. Someday long after we are all gone, historians will look back on this time and be utterly horrified by the things the medical industry used to do to fat people.
Another stupid question, but am I wrong to have a suspicion that the CDC could decide to further restrict the BMI categories, as they did in 1998? Redefine even more people medically obese? Or possibly redefine “overweight” as “pre-obesity”, as they defined “pre-diabetes “?
I’m suspicious because of they way this guideline targets people of Asian decent for no medical or scientific reason, redefining their health risks at separate BMI category.
Maybe you can tell, this stuff really makes me both very upset and heartbroken!
Lindy West wrote a brilliant takedown of "The Whale" in the Guardian which is out today, and that is where I learned that the production team has partnered with The Ob*sity Action Coalition to prove what good allies they are for fat people! One has to wonder, do they even know? Do they care? Or do they just assume this is a legit patient advocacy group? I'm very curious at what point in the production process OAC got involved.
This may seem like a stupid question, but is the goal of getting the medication and and surgery covered by Medicare to inflict these horrors on seniors, or will doing so also expand coverage to both Medicaid and commercial insurances?
I’m a disabled person over 60, living in subsidized housing for disabled/elderly- probably everyone in the building is at least in the lower targeted BMI category(30-34.9),(unless they are sadly underweight from a wasting illness)- plus have the so called metabolic disease, because old age is a very high risk factor for hypertension, T2 diabetes, or cardiovascular disease regardless of weight. But I seriously doubt if the seniors in my building would be on board with fancy new WL meds or WLS.
Their quality of life is likely more important to them than losing weight at this stage.
It’s amazing how industry doesn’t even try to hide its ties to these orgs.
Im not sure it’s an equal comparison using pain management and Purdue pharma as an analogy though.
As horrible as Purdue was, they convinced a ton of doctors that pain was real and deserved treatment. They did this the absolute wrong way, and used bad science to do it. But a lot of doctors were swayed by the sales pitch and PYT drug reps flirting and flattering, and people got pain management. (Not always good quality if they were getting OxyContin, but still.) then the war on drugs backfired and now pain patients are being punished, but still.
There is zero medical benefit to doing this with weight loss. And ultimately, I doubt the government is ever going to intervene and say that fat people deserve evidence based medicine, and ban these terrible drugs and surgeries.
That would be amazing if it happened though. Someday long after we are all gone, historians will look back on this time and be utterly horrified by the things the medical industry used to do to fat people.
Another stupid question, but am I wrong to have a suspicion that the CDC could decide to further restrict the BMI categories, as they did in 1998? Redefine even more people medically obese? Or possibly redefine “overweight” as “pre-obesity”, as they defined “pre-diabetes “?
I’m suspicious because of they way this guideline targets people of Asian decent for no medical or scientific reason, redefining their health risks at separate BMI category.
Maybe you can tell, this stuff really makes me both very upset and heartbroken!
Thank you!
Always amazing.
Lindy West wrote a brilliant takedown of "The Whale" in the Guardian which is out today, and that is where I learned that the production team has partnered with The Ob*sity Action Coalition to prove what good allies they are for fat people! One has to wonder, do they even know? Do they care? Or do they just assume this is a legit patient advocacy group? I'm very curious at what point in the production process OAC got involved.
This may seem like a stupid question, but is the goal of getting the medication and and surgery covered by Medicare to inflict these horrors on seniors, or will doing so also expand coverage to both Medicaid and commercial insurances?
I’m a disabled person over 60, living in subsidized housing for disabled/elderly- probably everyone in the building is at least in the lower targeted BMI category(30-34.9),(unless they are sadly underweight from a wasting illness)- plus have the so called metabolic disease, because old age is a very high risk factor for hypertension, T2 diabetes, or cardiovascular disease regardless of weight. But I seriously doubt if the seniors in my building would be on board with fancy new WL meds or WLS.
Their quality of life is likely more important to them than losing weight at this stage.