This is the Weight and Healthcare newsletter! If you like what you are reading, please consider subscribing and/or sharing! One of the disturbing things fat* people experience when working with healthcare providers is aggressive sales pitches for weight loss interventions. These can occur either because the healthcare practitioner believes that weight loss will improve health generally, or that it will treat some health issue (that thin people also get) specifically.
I'm in a bad place with this now. I have severe lung disease and am oxygen, and the only way I will not die of this is to get a double lung transplant. However, every transplant center in the country has a BMI requirement - in my center it's 30. I need to lose about 70 lbs for them to even talk to me about the transplant. Like that's easy to do in general, let alone when you're 60, ill and on prednisone. I don't know if it's true, but there's supposedly some research that shows that people over 50 with a BMI over 30 will die within a year of transplant. So every time I see this specialist I have to listen to a lecture on my weight, and there are no other options of specialist for my rare condition. I'm sure they honestly don't care how I lose it, which is scary in itself. I told them I refuse to do stupid things and I'm not focusing on it. But it makes me furious that if I don't qualify and I then die, they'll just say "she brought it upon herself - she could've just lost the weight."
Sue, can you pin them down and make them show you the research? If they can’t produce it, you can rightfully point out their approach is not evidence-based but just vibes. If they can produce it, you might be able to point out flaws in the study (so often these things have bad methodology or tiny sample sizes!), or it might contain buried info on the relative risk of other approaches you can discuss. In any case, I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this and I’m wishing you the best possible outcome.
I'm in a bad place with this now. I have severe lung disease and am oxygen, and the only way I will not die of this is to get a double lung transplant. However, every transplant center in the country has a BMI requirement - in my center it's 30. I need to lose about 70 lbs for them to even talk to me about the transplant. Like that's easy to do in general, let alone when you're 60, ill and on prednisone. I don't know if it's true, but there's supposedly some research that shows that people over 50 with a BMI over 30 will die within a year of transplant. So every time I see this specialist I have to listen to a lecture on my weight, and there are no other options of specialist for my rare condition. I'm sure they honestly don't care how I lose it, which is scary in itself. I told them I refuse to do stupid things and I'm not focusing on it. But it makes me furious that if I don't qualify and I then die, they'll just say "she brought it upon herself - she could've just lost the weight."
Sue, can you pin them down and make them show you the research? If they can’t produce it, you can rightfully point out their approach is not evidence-based but just vibes. If they can produce it, you might be able to point out flaws in the study (so often these things have bad methodology or tiny sample sizes!), or it might contain buried info on the relative risk of other approaches you can discuss. In any case, I’m sorry you’re having to deal with this and I’m wishing you the best possible outcome.
Ragen - the title of the column says it ALL - it ought to be available for posting in every doc's office
where weight loss as panacea has EVER been promoted to a patient.