In a long piece in what seems in my opinion to have become the world's paper of scientific record,
The Huffington Post, a major contribution to humanity brought to you by
Verizon, is a lengthy article on obesity, and apparently why all of science and medicine
are in error[1]. Now
the current view is that for the most part, significant endocrine pathologies
excluded, obesity is a simple input less output issue. Eat more, burn less,
gain weight. Second, obesity triggers a plethora of cell pathway damages and
assaults, including but not limited to an explosion of reactive oxygen species.
We have written about this extensively[2].
One simple and continuously provable result is in Type 2
diabetes. Drop the BMI below say 23 and the HbA1c drops back to a normal range
below 5.5. The net result is the sequella common in that disease also often
disappear. That is just one provable example.
In the UK a recent report by Cancer Research UK notes[3]:
And if these trends in the number of cases caused by
these risk factors continue, overweight and obesity could overtake smoking as
the biggest preventable cause of cancer in women by 2043. While the gap between
obesity and tobacco as causes of cancer in men is also expected to narrow in
the next 20 years, there’s still a way to go before they cross over. And it’s
too soon to estimate when this might happen. The crossover is likely to happen
earlier in women for two reasons. First, more men smoke than women. And that
means there are more smoking-related cancers in men. In 2015, 18% of cancer
cases in men were caused by smoking, compared with just 12% in women. And while
men are also more likely to be overweight or obese than women, obesity has a
bigger effect on women in terms of cancer. Some of the most common types of
cancer caused by obesity are breast and womb cancer, which predominantly affect
women.
The writer in the above mentioned Huffington Post peer
reviewed (?) scientific article goes at length to argue that obesity is not
self-inflicted and that obese people are more often healthier than those of
lesser girth. That would be just fine if and only if the clear and demonstrable
costs of obesity were not borne primarily by those who themselves struggle to
maintain a reasonable weight and avoid the multiplicity of sequella to high
BMI. Frankly if health care costs were borne by each individual as they occur
to that individual, and there is no secondary effect of their behavior on
others, no externalities so to speak, then frankly anyone should be able to do
anything. Unfortunately the same people demand Medicare for all, as such those
costs would explode.
The same people who felt no compunction to shaming smokers,
a truly valuable action considering the decline in death rates in males, seem
now to think any form of negative connotations regarding an often self-inflicted
condition which also all too often results in massive health care costs, borne
by all, is not only socially unacceptable but tantamount to criminal.
Furthermore, like so many of the "unacceptable" position it is also
worthy of assault on those who demur.
We seem to entering a generation tsunami where what one says
must be true no matter what and facts be damned. Even more so, anyone who dares
to use science and facts, other than to reinforce the position of the week is
anathema.
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