#obesity (disease or medical condition)

[fezaleon]

[headspace-hotel]

I forget why, but I was on the Wikipedia page for polycystic ovarian syndrome, and I started researching hirsutism in women, and I learned the following things in this order:

there's a diagnostic criteria used to evaluate how hairy a woman is

This is important because being too hairy is a diagnostic criteria of most disorders that cause hyperandrogenism

Disorders that cause hyperandrogenism can be diagnosed by...measuring how hairy you are (this is the main and most important diagnostic criterion for PCOS)

Disorders that cause hyperandrogenism are important because they are correlated with obesity, infertility, and...being too hairy?

I think to myself, wait, what is a normal range for testosterone in women? I find this article...which set reference ranges for "normal" testosterone levels in women...EXCLUDING WOMEN WITH PCOS?

Quote: "Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is another notable condition in genetic (XX) females, which is characterized by excessive ovarian production of androgens. This condition is included for comparison with DSD, as the affected females with PCOS are genetic and phenotypic females. The elevated levels of testosterone in these females can lead to hyperandrogenism, a clinical disorder characterized variably by hirsutism, acne, male-pattern balding, metabolic disturbances, impaired ovulation and infertility. PCOS is a common condition, affecting 7%-10% of premenopausal women."

So: the study claims to demonstrate a clear distinction between the normal range of hormone levels in "Healthy" men and "healthy" women...with "healthy" being defined in the study as...having hormones within the "normal" range.......................

So I researched what the clinically established "normal" range for testosterone in women is

THERE ISN'T ONE????

Quote from the above article: "Several different approaches have been used to define endocrine disorders. The statistical approach establishes the lower and the upper limits of hormone concentrations solely on the basis of the statistical distribution of hormone levels in a healthy reference population. As an illustration, hypo- and hypercalcemia have been defined on the basis of the statistical distribution of serum calcium concentrations. Using this approach, androgen deficiency could be defined as the occurrence of serum testosterone levels that are below the 97.5th percentile of testosterone levels in healthy population of young men. A second approach is to use a threshold hormone concentration below or above which there is high risk of developing adverse health outcomes. This approach has been used to define osteoporosis and hypercholesterolemia. However, we do not know with certainty the thresholds of testosterone levels which are associated with adverse health outcomes."

What the fuck?

What the fuck?

It's batshit crazy to make a diagnostic criteria for medical disorders by placing arbitrary cutoffs within 2-5% of either end of a statistical distribution. What the actual fuck?

"The results came back, you have Statistical Outlier Disease." "What treatments are available?" "Well, first, we recommend dietary change. You should probably stop eating so many spiders."

Another article which attempted to do this

Quote: "Subjects with signs of hirsutism or with a personal history of diabetes or hypertension, or a family history of polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) were excluded."

"We're going to figure out the typical range of testosterone levels that occur in women! First, we're going to exclude all the women that are too hairy from the study. I am very good at science."

Anyway I got off topic but there are apparently race-specific diagnostic tools for "hirsutism." That's kinda weird on its own but when I looked more into this in relation to race I found this article that straight-up uses the term "mongoloid"

[69yard]

Binge-Eating disorder Causes, Symptoms and Remedies

Over-Eating BED: Causes, Symptoms, Remedies Binge-eating disorder (BED) is a serious eating disorder characterized by recurrent episodes of consuming large amounts of food within a short period of time, accompanied by a sense of loss of control and distress. Here are some causes, symptoms, and remedies associated with binge-eating disorder: Causes: Genetic Factors: There is evidence to…

[fatliberation]

hi, i'm a fat person who is just starting to learn to love and appreciate my body and i'm very new to the fat community and all that.

i was wondering if you could maybe explain the term ob*se and how it is a slur. i've never heard anything about it being a slur before(like i said, i'm very new here) and was wondering if you could tell me the origin and history of the word or mayy provide links to resources about it? i want to know more about fat history and how to support my community but i'm unsure of how to start

Welcome!

Obesity is recognized as a slur by fat communities because it's a stigmatizing term that medicalizes fat bodies, typically in the absence of disease. Aside from the word literally translating to "having eaten oneself fat" in latin, obesity (as a medical diagnosis) straight up doesn't actually exist. The only measure that we have to diagnose people with obesity is the BMI, which has been widely proven to be an ineffective measure of health.

The BMI was created in the 1800s by a statistician named Adolphe Quetelet, who did NOT sudy medicine, to gather statistics of the average height and weight of ONLY white, european, upper-middle class men to assist the government in allocating resources. It was never intended as a measure of individual body fat, build, or health. 

Quetelet is also credited with founding the field of anthropometry, including the racist pseudoscience of phrenology. Quetelet’s l’homme moyen would be used as a measurement of fitness to parent, and as a scientific justification for eugenics.

Studies have observed that about 30% of so-called "normal weight" people are "unhealthy" whereas about 50% of so-called "overweight" people are “healthy”. Thus, using the BMI as an indicator of health results in the misclassification of some 75 million people in the United States alone. "Healthy" lifestyle habits are associated with a significant decrease in mortality regardless of baseline body mass index.  

While epidemiologists use BMI to calculate national "obesity" rates, the distinctions can be arbitrary. In 1998, the National Institutes of Health lowered the overweight threshold from 27.8 to 25—branding roughly 29 million Americans as "overweight" overnight—to match international guidelines. Articles about the "obesity epidemic" often use this pseudo-statistic to create a false fear mongering rate at which the United States is becoming fatter. Critics have also noted that those guidelines were drafted in part by the International Obesity Task Force, whose two principal funders were companies making weight loss drugs. Interesting!!!

So... how can you diagnose a person with a disease (and sell them medications) solely based upon an outdated measure that was never meant to indicate health in the first place? Especially when "obesity” has no proven causative role in the onset of any chronic condition?

There is a reason as to why fatness was declared a disease by the NIH in 1998, and some of it had to do with acknowledging fatness as something that is NOT just about a lack of willpower - but that's a very complicated post for another time. You can learn more about it in the two part series of Maintenance Phase titled The Body Mass Index and The Obesity Epidemic.

Aside from being overtly incorrect as a medical tool, the BMI is used to deny certain medical treatments and gender-affirming care, as well insurance coverage. Employers still often offer bonuses to workers who lower their BMI. Although science recognizes the BMI as deeply flawed, it's going to be tough to get rid of. It has been a long standing and effective tool for the oppression of fat people and the profit of the weight loss industry.

More sources and extra reading material:

How the Use of BMI Fetishizes White Embodiment and Racializes Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

The Bizarre and Racist History of the BMI by Aubrey Gordon

The Racist and Problematic History of the Body Mass Index by Adele Jackson-Gibson

What's Wrong With The War on Obesity? by Lily O'Hara, et al.

Fearing The Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia by Sabrina Strings

[luiscagreen]

Defeat Obesity

[fitness-not-haes]

#

[epigstolary]

Lecture

TW: References to medical fatphobia and health conditions.

Your eyes dart nervously back and forth, from one side of the lecture hall to another. Surely they’re not going to see you like this and just sit there? Surely someone is going to step in and help?

But your hopes are disappointed. You’re met, to the extent the audience looks you in the eyes at all, with blank or half-bored stares. The uncaring look of people who see you and the half-ton of lard filling your body as a technical exercise, and little more. The lecture drones on next to you, and after a few minutes, you’re finally able to focus on what’s being said.

“…recall that yesterday’s subject exhibited signs of severe morbid obesity with excessive deposits of adipose tissue almost exclusively at the anterior abdomen. Today’s subject, by contrast—” at this, you feel the lecturer’s gloved hand grasp one of your bulging love handles, squeeze a solid handful, and lift as he continues “—supplements this distribution with deposits throughout the inguinal, gluteal, and posterior thigh regions, and to a lesser extent, in the pectoral and inframammary regions.” You feel one of your tits being lifted as the lecturer holds it in the palm of their hand, pointing out further details with the other. “So as you see, adipose distribution can vary significantly, based on a number of factors…”

The audience continues listening and taking notes. Occasionally, you see two of its white-coated members whisper to each other, gesturing at some point or other on your expansive body. Your mind wanders from the lecture again, and you begin to look around the room, to the extent the restraints on your bariatric exam chair allow. Despite the audience’s lack of direct attention to you, you’re keenly aware of how exposed and on display you are.

The angle of the chair allows your wide, doughy belly to spill down your lap and between your knees. It spreads your lumpy, shapeless legs into a split that leaves the bulging sacs of fat on your thighs and calves in full view. Likewise, because of the backward tilt of the seat, your head is also tilted back, bringing your chin level with your triple chins and emphasizing them along with your wobbly cheeks and jowls. Restraints tie your arms against padded extensions on either side of the main chair, holding them in a T-pose that causes the flab on your forearms to hang down in puckered globs and the bulk on your upper arms to pool around your shoulders, further squeezing the fat around your face. It’s a position in which, if there were any doubt, you’re shown off as the thoroughly, completely, and probably irrevocably fattened blob you are.

Eventually, the display screens on either side of the hall catch your eye — specifically, the unfamiliar shape appearing next to some inscrutable pixelated numbers in black and white. Then, suddenly, something in the lecture strikes you and the image clicks into stark comprehension.

“…86% body fat, with the result that additional strain on the musculoskeletal structure produces the characteristic bend in the vertebral column to compensate…”

The ill-defined shape on the screen, viewed through the lens of an MRI machine, is a person — is you. You knew you were huge, of course, but your breath catches in your throat to see your gluttony presented in this way — the cross-section showing the muscles and organs and skeleton of a normal person, but floating, buried, smothered in a sea of white-yellow tissue, spreading out shapeless in all directions. Hundreds of pounds of fat, dominating your body, captured with the indisputable precision of medical imaging. You are an anomaly. A curiosity. A pathology. A disease, needing to be treated.

You barely have time to process all of this before you feel two attendants beginning to undo the restraints holding back your arms and legs. You feel your feet spring forward slightly, no longer held down and now pushed out by the bulk of the fat hanging off your calves and thighs. Your arms fall immediately to your sides — or, at least, as close to your sides as the tremendous piles of rolls fighting your bingo wings and forearm flab for space will allow. You slide down from the tilted half-chair/half-gurney to a standing position, and feel a hot ache radiate through you, your body crying out at your full weight being put on your frame for the first time in a long time.

“We’ll see if we can get a demonstration of mobility. Clearly, physical activity isn’t this subject’s strong suit.” A stifled but derisive laugh ripples through the audience at this first flush of color commentary from the lecturer. You turn to look at the lecturer, standing at the lectern, and they gesture to the far side of the hall. A set of double doors, wide enough for you to go through, with a bright “Exit” sign above them, stand about thirty yards away.

Is this it? Are you free to go? After being fattened and poked and prodded for so long, are they finally going to let you just walk out?

You have to try. Slowly, deliberately, and with a shock of pain at every step, you lift your blubber-laden legs one at a time, putting your bare foot down with a wet-sounding plop, as you work your way closer to the door. You look around from the door to the audience to the attendants, eyes widened almost to the point of panic. You see all the audience now paying close attention to you, many of them looking back with genuine surprise, apparently somewhat impressed to see a person as fat as a small cow able to walk at all. But seeing nobody move to stop you as you continue your degrading waddle forward, you try to pick up the pace. Your flabby arms swing in a wide circle, trying to counterbalance the movement of the vast bulk hanging off your midsection, the belly and tits and side rolls wobbling chaotically with each step forward.

“As you can see, mobility is diminished as a result not just of the added weight, but also the severe limitations on range of motion caused by the excess adipose tissue.”

Barely halfway toward the door, you can hear the sound of your heart beating over the drone of the lecture, pounding as if it’s about to burst out of your chest. Sweat dims your eyes, and the heat radiating from your body — but, it feels like, especially from your florid face — makes you realize how fatigued you already are from walking just this limited distance. Walking this distance — but with an extra eight hundred pounds or so more than you’re used to, you think to yourself.

“Note, too, the compounding effect of the excessive weight and the lack of resiliency in the subject’s cardiovascular and respiratory systems due to a prolonged deficit in physical activity. Blood pressure and body temperature rise precipitously, stamina diminishes, breathing becomes labored, blood oxygen plummets. Hence, the elevated risk of cerebrovascular accident, embolism, myocardial infarction…”

You barely have the energy to feel angry at the lecturer’s patronizing indifference by the time you reach the door. Breathing ragged, soaked with sweat, barely able to concentrate and on the verge of collapse, you stumble into a lean against the door frame, desperate to catch your breath so you can finish your escape. It’s right there — you can reach out and touch the push bar, hear what sounds like street noise outside — but your body won’t let you. Your clouded mind won’t focus, your bloated legs won’t lift, your wobbling arms hang limp by your heaving, flabby chest. Exhaustion and despair rise within you in equal measure as you hear the gurney chair being rolled across the room, feel your body being jiggled and manhandled back into a sitting position, and see the exit doors and all hope of help receding as you’re rolled back to center stage, defeated.

Numb and indifferent now, you offer no resistance, sensing the tube and mask being fitted into your mouth as if watching it happening to someone else from a distance. You utter little more than an involuntary groan of complaint or protest — it doesn’t concern you, any more than does the flow of something cold you can feel pooling in your stomach.

“…typical example has a maximum capacity of barely two to four liters. However, consistent overfeeding with a diet that includes a sufficient volume of fiber at appropriate intervals has demonstrated the ability to reliably expand stomach volume to a maximum capacity of 14-16 liters, with p of .05 in our internal studies…”

The sound of the lecture flows past you, mixing with the buzz of the pump filling you with more and more of the chilly slop, and the low creak of the gurney as it takes the added weight. Your eyelids droop, drowsy with the food and your exertions; and you drift away to sleep, the gaze of the audience trained on the slow, relentless expansion of your tumescent belly the last thing you see before your tired eyes close shut.

Credit to the incomparable Mairari/@hyenaddict for the original post that inspired this story

[macgyvermedical]

can you talk a little about wegovy and muonjaro for weight loss?

The answer is maybe.

If it were just the drugs themselves, I'd say absolutely. But there is a surprising amount of cultural baggage associated with these medications, and I don't really know that I can do them justice.

So first, let's talk about weight. There's a fantastic book called "Fat Talk" by Virginia Sole-Smith, about being overweight or obese in an age that prioritizes thinness, and how diet culture in particular is a threat to young people. Another, called "Intuitive Eating" by Elyse Resch, discusses how calorie restriction- commonly cited as the "way" to lose weight along with exercise- only works once or twice, because our bodies get wise to it and want to hold onto fat.

Humans evolved to gain weight. Fat is how we store energy for times when we might not have enough to eat. And if "not having enough to eat" (whether because of famine or because of calorie restrictive dieting) happens repeatedly, we have evolved to change hormones and metabolism so we a) don't need as much food to stay alive and b) are primed to eat more food than we need when it is available.

Aren't human bodies cool?

In the medical world, there are a lot of things tied to weight. For example, statistically, being overweight or obese means you're more likely to have health conditions like high blood pressure, diabetes, and heart disease. It is unclear, though, if those problems are caused by the weight itself, or other dietary, activity, and behavior patterns that may also happen to contribute to the weight gain. Things like a sedentary lifestyle, frequent consumption of foods with low nutritional value, avoidance of medical care due to stigma, or even chronic calorie restrictive dieting.

Unfortunately, due to this statistical tie, there is a lot of effort made in the medical world to get patients to "lose weight at any cost" instead of recommending dietary, activity, and behavior changes for health reasons alone.

Culturally as well, we prioritize thinness as attractiveness. I remember in high school there was a poster in my health classroom that read "Ideal weight- or it might be hard to get a date!". There are lots of negative associations with people who carry more weight, including that they are lazy or stupid- things that have nothing to do with body size.

Now, that doesn't mean that there aren't things that could be benefits of losing weight. For example, joint and back pain can be improved with weight loss. But weight loss is probably not the end-all be-all cure-all it's touted to be.

Because it is really hard for most people to meet this standard of "lose weight at any cost", there has long been medications that purportedly help people lose weight. Most of these medications have been stimulants, which decrease appetite and make it more comfortable to engage in calorie restrictive dieting. They also increase energy, which can make it easier to exercise or tolerate more exercise than would otherwise be possible.

Before we talk about the drugs, I want to say- there are risks and benefits to all medications, including these! The discussion you should always have is what risks are you and your healthcare provider willing to tolerate for the potential positive outcome. Also, this is a discussion of the drugs when used for weight control. The same drugs used for diabetes are at different dosages and have potentially different risk/benefit comparisons.

Ozempic/Wegovy (semaglutide) and Mounjaro/Zepbound (tirzepatide) are both a type of medication called a GLP-1 agonist. GLP-1 agonists are also called incretin mimics, because they mimic a type of hormone (incretin) that tells the brain and body that it is full. This makes it easier to eat a small amount of high nutrition food and feel satisfied. They also work by increasing metabolism. Between the decreased consumption and the increased metabolism, weight is lost.

Over the course of a year and a half, tirzepatide causes about 15-20% average reduction in body weight with continued use. Over the course of about the same time, semaglutide causes an average of about 15% body weight reduction with continuous use. Say, for example, you weigh 100kg. A year and a half on one of these medications could get you down to 85kg.

The problem is, as soon as that drug is withdrawn, the body realizes it was starving, and tries to compensate. These drugs are good at getting rid of weight, but maintaining a new weight usually means staying on a lower dose of the drug perpetually. Most people regain all weight (and potentially more than they lost) within 5 years of stopping the drugs.

Some studies suggest that repeatedly regaining lost weight may be more detrimental to health than remaining overweight or obese when it comes to statistical risk of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and other "weight-associated" illnesses.

The main side effects are GI-related. Most of these are nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, gas/bloating, constipation, dizziness, and abdominal pain. More severe side effects include pancreatitis (inflammation of the pancreas) and gasteroparesis (paralysis of the stomach and part of the digestive tract).

[covid-safer-hotties]

Experts Call Long COVID in Kids a Public Health Crisis. Why Is It Being Ignored? - Published Aug 26, 2024

For years, public health experts have said that COVID-19 infections in children are “mild.” According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the most common symptoms of COVID in kids are a fever and cough. While some children with the coronavirus are admitted to the ICU and there are pediatric deaths, studies have found that underlying medical conditions including obesity, diabetes, cardiac and lung disorders, increase the risk of severe outcomes.

This research has contributed to how COVID is managed in schools. However, a new study in the Journal of the American Medical Association sheds light on the effect a coronavirus infection can have on children over a longer period. While many people recover quickly from COVID, some don’t, experiencing symptoms that can last for months or years. This condition, known as long COVID, not only affects adults but also children. The new research helps us understand the extent kids experience these debilitating conditions — and how we can treat it.

“This is one of the first large-scale national studies to do research related to long COVID across the entire lifespan, with a particular focus on children and understanding the differences in long COVID in different aged children,” Dr. Rachel Gross, an associate professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Population Health at NYU Langone and the study’s principal investigator, told Salon.

In the study, led by the National Institutes of Health’s RECOVER Initiative, researchers asked caregivers to tell them about the symptoms that their children or teenagers had been experiencing more than four weeks after a coronavirus infection. For some children in the study, that meant their symptoms went on for three months after their COVID infection. For others, it was up to two years. Researchers looked at the symptoms in those children with persisting symptoms and compared them to children who had never been infected with the coronavirus in the past. They then identified similarities in the prolonged symptoms and found they were distinguishable based on age.

“In school-aged children, we heard commonly that children were experiencing trouble with their memory, focusing, headaches, having trouble sleeping, and stomach pain,” Gross told Salon. “And in the teenagers, we were hearing about symptoms related to fatigue and pain, having body or muscle or joint pain, being very tired or sleepy, having low energy, as well as having trouble with memory and focusing.”

A unique symptom the researchers saw in the teenage group was changes in or a loss of smell or taste. Additionally, researchers found clusters of symptoms that are unique to school-aged children and teenagers. The first were symptoms that affect every organ system in the body.

“These are the children with the highest burden of symptoms,” Gross said, adding that caregivers described these children as having a “lower quality of life and more impact on their overall health.” “The second type of long COVID we also saw across both the ages was predominantly characterized by fatigue and pain.”

Studies estimating its prevalence in pediatric populations are limited and conflicting, estimating up to 25% of children infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus could go on to develop long COVID. A study published in 2024 estimated that up to 5.8 million young people have long COVID.

“This is a public health crisis for children,” Gross said. “We know that child health is so critically important for how children grow and even as they become adults, that chronic illness during childhood and adverse experiences during childhood greatly affects the adults that they can become.”

Gross said the U.S. will see the “long-term impacts of experiencing long covid In childhood for decades to come.”

Dr. Dean Blumberg, chief of pediatric infectious diseases and associate professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, Davis, told Salon he agreed long COVID is a “public health crisis” for children.

“Some of these kids with long COVID, they are severely affected, they can’t do their normal activities, they fall behind school, they can’t go to school,” Blumberg said. “And then in this study, they highlighted a lot have had some neurocognitive effects, and that really interferes with with learning.”

For Blumberg, the takeaway from this study, he told Salon, is a “call to arms to increase vaccination rates,” which among children, he said are “abysmal.”

According to a recent KFF survey, while both flu and COVID vaccines are recommended for school-aged children, flu vaccination rates were over three times higher than COVID vaccination rates. While COVID-19 vaccines are recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices in the pediatric immunization schedule, they aren’t required for school attendance. According to one study published in the journal Pediatrics, vaccination reduced the risk of an acute infection, but it is less clear whether it protects against long COVID. The latest COVID vaccines were approved by the Food and Drug Administration last week, which the CDC recommends for anyone six months or older.

Now, researchers will be tasked with figuring out why long COVID affects children differently based on their age. When it comes to adults, some studies have shown that subsequent COVID infections increase a person’s risk of getting long COVID. The CDC estimates that one in 13 adults in the United States currently have long COVID symptoms.

Gross told Salon she hopes this research raises awareness for both healthcare providers, as well as schools and educators, that “long COVID in children is not rare.”

“That they are likely to have children experiencing these prolonged symptoms within their healthcare systems and their schools,” Gross said. “And that many of the symptoms that I’ve described, trouble with memory and focusing, headache, trouble sleeping, these are symptoms that you know can impact a child and their schooling.”

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Ramon Antonio Vargas at The Guardian:

Kamala Harris on Saturday released a report on her health and medical history which found that “she possesses the physical and mental resiliency required to successfully execute the duties of the presidency” if voters elect her in November. A senior aide to Harris, 59, said the vice-president’s advisers viewed the publication of the health report and medical history as an opportunity to call attention to questions about the Republican White House nominee Donald Trump’s physical fitness and mental acuity. The 78-year-old Trump would be the oldest president elected if Americans give him a second term in the Oval Office. Saturday’s report – in the form of a two-page letter from the vice-president’s physician, Joshua Simmons – described Harris as being in “excellent health” and asserted that her medical history was notable for seasonal allergies and hives. Harris manages those conditions with over-the-counter medications such as Allegra, Atrovent nasal spray and Pataday eye drops, and she has also been on allergen immunotherapy for three years, the letter said.

Otherwise, Harris is mildly nearsighted and wears corrective contact lenses as a result, had abdominal surgery when she was three years old and has a maternal history of colon cancer. “She has no personal history of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cardiac disease, pulmonary disease, neurological disorders, cancer or osteoporosis,” said the letter from Simmons, who added that the vice-president’s most recent physical examination in April was “unremarkable”. The statement on Harris’s health came on Saturday as Trump has become increasingly incoherent at campaign rallies, something the Guardian US reported on earlier in October. He has been slurring, stumbling over his words, hurling expletives – and showing signs of cognitive decline consistent with someone approaching his 80s, according to medical experts.

Recent speeches have seen him rant about topics ranging from his purportedly “beautiful” body to “a million Rambos” in Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Harris campaign aides pointed to Trump’s backing out of an interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes that the vice-president granted and his refusal to debate her again after their 10 September face-off. They argue that the former president is “avoiding public scrutiny” and giving voters “the impression … that he has something to hide and may not be up for the job”. “Contrast her age and vitality with his,” the senior aide to Harris, 59, said early on Saturday. Trump has repeatedly declined to release detailed information about his health during his public life. For instance, before winning the White House in 2016, he only offered a four-paragraph letter from his personal doctor which bragged that Trump would be “the healthiest person ever elected to the presidency”, as the New York Times recently reported.

Trump’s first physical as president resulted in perhaps the most detailed overview of his health to date. According to the Times, the physical flagged “worryingly high” cholesterol and a body mass index that left him 0.1 points below the threshold for medical obesity. Nonetheless, in a statement on Saturday, a Trump campaign spokesperson claimed the former president regularly distributed medical updates and that all “have concluded he is in perfect and excellent health to be commander in chief”. “It is said [Harris] does not have the stamina of … Trump,” the campaign spokesperson’s statement also said. Questions over whether he was too enfeebled forced Joe Biden to halt his bid for re-election to the presidency during the summer. The 81-year-old Democrat dropped out of a rematch with Trump on 21 July and endorsed Harris to succeed him.

Kamala Harris releases her medical report, reveals that she is in an excellent health state.

Dementia DonOld, however, has yet to release his, and he has a massive cognitive and mental decline.

See Also:

HuffPost: Harris Releases Medical Report, Putting Pressure On Trump

[riflebrass]

My sister is pissed off because a friend she's known for 20 years went on some big rant about how awful fat people are, how it's leading to an early grave, and how we as a society need to stop glorifying obesity. She got upsetti spaghetti and blocked him because "he doesn't know their story".

Yeah fat guy here and I can clue you in. I spent most of my life eating massive meals and mindlessly munching on snacks while getting zero exercise whatsoever.

I'm sure there's stuff in the American diet that complicates matters and there's definitely some medical conditions that contribute but ultimately the biggest problem is too many calories consumed and not enough burned. It's that simple.

I try not to be an asshole about the problems surrounding obesity but this crap where we have to coddle and enable it has to stop. The #1 cause death in this country is heart disease. Diabetes has to be in the top 10. We tell people this long laundry list of health problems related to smoking to deter people from it but that kind of attitude towards obesity is "rude".

[timewarpagain]

God I hate FA/HAES mindsets so much.

Before you all start screaming at me, no I don't think it's okay for people to make fun of overweight/obese people. Yes I am aware of certain conditions and medication that can affect a person's weight (more on that later), but those are very very rare. The reason why people are so big is because they eat more calories than they burn. That's it. It's simple thermodynamics, you are not above science lmao.

You are not being discriminated against if you can't fit in an airplane/movie theater seat. Those buildings and seats were there centuries before the world started to get bigger and fast food places were everywhere and junk food was always within reach. Not being able to find cute clothes is such a huge First World Problem, and that's also not how sewing works. It entails so much more than, "well just make it bigger" like you're resizing a picture. Rollercoasters have height and weight requirements for a reason, you can't outdo physics. People not wanting to date you sucks and can be hurtful, but it is not discrimination.

No, you can't be ""fat"" and healthy at the same time. Fat is just a few pounds over the maximum normal BMI range. Dozens or hundreds of pounds over that is not fat, it's overweight/obese. The medical field do have a lot of outdated views and conceptions about certain groups (women, PoC, disabled, etc.) and to an extent this is no different for obese people. There are a lot of doctors who can be assholes and dismissive. And if you're a woman it's 100x worse. But not being able to do certain procedures, or asking their patients to lose weight when they have concerns about pains is not discrimination. They need to rule out that the symptoms you're having is caused by your weight and it'll be easier to see things inside the body if they aren't blocked by excessive adipose tissue. I think people hear "you need to lose weight" and assume that's the only treatment plan instead of the first step to make things less complicated.

FA/HAES activists are really young, in their early - late 20s. Of course they aren't going to see a lot of health problems. But they need to be PREVENTED before they get worse. You (hopefully) won't be seeing a lot of issues at the moment but bad eating habits will catch up with you as you get older and they will be harder to treat. We're already starting to see prolific FAs dying young (late 30s - early 40s) and way too early. T2D is devastating. An extremely high weight puts you at risks for multiple conditions and problems like HBP, coronary artery disease, cancer, pre-diabetes, etc. Being on tons of medication and constant doctor appointments aren't fun.

Body positivity means that you shouldn't feel ashamed or bad about how you look. It doesn't mean that you are unable to try and keep yourself healthy as much as possible. HAES doesn't mean "I'm obese but I'm healthy because I have good bloodwork". It means that being obese shouldn't stop you from getting exercise, losing weight, eating healthy, and treating your body well.

[thediktatortot]

Hey!! I just learned something today. My brother has been a medical professional for about fifteen years (He started as a nurse but I have no idea what his qualifications are now, he's just really good lol) and he showed me something I didn't even know existed.

So, I've been avoiding asking my doctors about PCOS as I don't fit one of the common symptoms of weight gain from my hormonal issues, but my brother said that there are other types of PCOS that don't make you gain weight, so I should check out a diagnosis ANYWAY.

It's called Lean PCOS and is often hard to diagnose because of the lack of weight gain within the symptoms. Please check this out if you have been thinking the same thing as I have.

(copied medical text under the cut)

Lean PCOS is a type of PCOS that does not involve overweight or obesity. Because of differences in body composition in the types of PCOS, lean PCOS may need different treatment approaches.

Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a complex metabolic endocrine condition that affects 1 in 10 adult females. It can cause a diverse range of features, including an irregular menstrual cycle, an excess amount of androgens (a predominantly male sex hormone), and physical features such as cysts that may show up on an ultrasound.

PCOS can cause various symptoms depending on an individual’s body weight. There are two types of PCOS: overweight or obese PCOS and lean PCOS.

This article explains lean PCOS, including symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment.

PCOS typically occurs in people who have obesity or overweight. However, it can affect people with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or less. The “healthy weight” BMI range recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is 18.5–24.9Trusted Source.

Lean PCOS differs from overweight or obese PCOS in body composition and other factors. This means that doctors need to tailor treatment options to the individual needs of a person with lean PCOS.

Lean PCOS vs. PCOS

Most occurrences of PCOS involve at least one of the following characteristics:

high androgen levels

irregular periods or a lack of ovulation

small cysts on one or both ovaries

People with obese or lean PCOS typically have similar metabolic profiles, as there are similar levels of visceral adipose tissue (body fat), which is a hormonal feature of body fat that affects processes within the body.

Other characteristics that apply to both lean and obese PCOS are low grade inflammation and oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is an imbalance of free radicals and antioxidants in the body.

However, characteristics of lean PCOS can differ from those of obese PCOS in body composition and other factors, such as hormonal profiles.

Insulin resistance in lean PCOS

Insulin resistance is when cells within the body do not respond to insulin, so the tissues do not use insulin correctly during glucose metabolism. Insulin resistance can occur in either form of PCOS. Even if body fat levels are low, people with PCOS can have high blood insulin and insulin resistance.

However, rates of insulin resistance are lower in people with lean PCOS, with one study showing insulin resistance to affect 83.3% of participants with lean PCOS compared with 93.1% of participants with overweight or obesity.

Research in this area is ongoing, as it is still unclear whether insulin resistance affects people with lean PCOS to the same degree as those with overweight or obese PCOS.

Symptoms of lean PCOS

Symptoms of PCOS may include:

irregular menstrual cycles

excessive hair growth on areas of the body, such as the face, called hirsutism

acne

thinning hair

skin tags

areas of darkened skin, such as in the groin, underneath the breasts, and along neck creases

People with lean PCOS are particularly likely to experience symptoms similar to ones that affect females during puberty, such as acne, irregular periods, and depression.

[wildissylupus]

topic I think should be discussed: omnic diseases and medical conditions. Humans get colds, the flu, COVID, internal bleeding, diabetes, apendectomies, rashes, carpal tunnel, cancer, alzheimer's, asthma, dementia, epilepsy, allergies, insomnia, obesity, anorexia, depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, etc. What sort of problems do omnics get that could be equivalent to this?

I think the Omnic equivalent would honestly be things that we have to check computers for. We know that computer viruses still effect Omnics both from "Searching" and from "Hero of Numbani", I could also see things like rust, dust, and other elements that often harm technology be things that could make Omnics sick. Especially when considering that Omnics were often made with specific jobs in mind so while one Omnic is effected by one thing other Omnics might not be.

There is also the idea of Omnics memory being corrupted or other issues that could occur with an Omnics programming that isn't affected by the awakening. We also know that nuclear radiation affects them negatively from Hammonds short story.

[tzifron]

A review of hundreds of epidemiological studies published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday has found that higher exposure to ultra-processed foods is associated with an increased risk of 32 damaging health outcomes including cancer, major heart and lung conditions, mental health disorders, and early death.

These outcomes span mortality, cancer, and mental, respiratory, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal, and metabolic health outcomes.

The report carried out an “umbrella review (a high-level evidence summary) of 45 distinct pooled meta-analyses from 14 review articles associating ultra-processed foods with adverse health outcomes.”

These review articles were all published over the last three years and involved nearly 10 million participants.

“Greater exposure to ultra-processed food was associated with a higher risk of adverse health outcomes, especially cardiometabolic, common mental disorder, and mortality outcomes,” the report said

The report noted that ultra-processed foods, which include packaged baked goods and snacks, fizzy drinks, sugary cereals, and ready-to-eat or heat products undergo multiple industrial processes. As a result, they contain colours, emulsifiers, flavours, and other additives.

According to the review, ultra-processed foods were linked to a 50 per cent increased risk of cardiovascular disease-related death, a 48-53 per cent higher risk of anxiety and common mental disorders, and a 12 per cent greater risk of type 2 diabetes.

Not only are such foods associated with a 40-66 per cent increased risk of heart disease-related death, obesity, and sleep problems, and a 22 per cent increased risk of depression, they are likely shortening lives.

Higher consumption of ultra-processed food meant that there was a 21 per cent greater risk of death overall, from any cause, according to the study.

While the report found “limited evidence” of a link between such foods and breast cancer, pancreatic cancer and prostate cancer, it found “direct associations with a risk of colorectal cancer.”

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

The ineffable Charles P. Pierce on truth and presidential health.

From the CPP Weekend newsletter:

The First President To Tell The Truth About His Health

On July 1, 1893, a certain Commodore Elias Benedict prepared his yacht, the Oneida, for an unusual mission out on Chesapeake Bay. The yacht’s saloon was repurposed as a surgical suite. A team of six was recruited to perform the surgery, including a dentist named Ferdinand Hasbrouk, who would serve as the anesthesiologist. The patient, a rather obese man, 56 years of age, was suffering from a carcinoma of the mouth.

The patient was named Steven Grover Cleveland, and he was the 24th president of the United States, having already been the 22nd president of the United States, guaranteeing him a place in every trivia contest until the end of time. The operation was performed under maximum security. From the Health Sciences Library of the University of Arizona.

However, there were political considerations. A nationwide depression had just gotten underway and in the name of strengthening the economy, the president was leading a movement to repeal the Sherman Silver Purchase Act and uphold the gold standard. In August, the president had to address Congress and thus, he had to be able to recover from the surgery’s effects by that time. It was already late June. Furthermore, the president was concerned that reports of his condition could prove even more unsettling, so the surgery would have to be done in secret.

The economy was sinking into the bust cycle of the boom and bust financial system of the age. (Today, we know it as Project 2025, section 4.) The Panic of 1893 had struck in February, and it would last for the next four years. In addition, it was gradually coming to light that Chester Arthur, Cleveland’s predecessor the first time around, had been debilitated by Bright’s disease throughout his term of office. Arthur, in fact, was already dead. Cleveland’s political concerns were well-taken, but he never was the same after the surgery.

Twenty-six years later, in the middle of a barnstorming railroad trip aimed at raising support for the new world he wanted to build, President Woodrow Wilson collapsed in Pueblo, Colorado, and then collapsed entirely six weeks later with a stroke that permanently disabled him. The rudimentary political spin system of the time went into action almost immediately. Wilson was said to have suffered an attack of medical gobbledegook–“a nervous reaction in his digestive organs.” Upon returning to Washington, Wilson went into seclusion, and his wife, Edith, pretty much ran the country. From PBS:

Everything changed on the morning of Oct. 2, 1919. According to some accounts, the president awoke to find his left hand numb to sensation before falling into unconsciousness. In other versions, Wilson had his stroke on the way to the bathroom and fell to the floor with Edith dragging him back into bed. However those events transpired, immediately after the president’s collapse, Mrs. Wilson discretely phoned down to the White House chief usher, Ike Hoover and told him to “please get Dr. Grayson, the president is very sick.” Grayson quickly arrived. Ten minutes later, he emerged from the presidential bedroom and the doctor’s diagnosis was terrible: “My God, the president is paralyzed,” Grayson declared.

Protective of both her husband’s reputation and power, Edith shielded Woodrow from interlopers and embarked on a bedside government that essentially excluded Wilson’s staff, the Cabinet and the Congress. During a perfunctory meeting the president held with Sen. Gilbert Hitchcock (D-Neb.) and Albert Fall (R-N.M.) on Dec. 5, he and Edith even tried to hide the extent of his paralysis by keeping his left side covered with a blanket. Sen. Fall, who was one of the president’s most formidable political foes told Wilson, “I hope you will consider me sincere. I have been praying for you, Sir.” Edith later recalled that Woodrow was, at least, well enough to jest, “Which way, Senator?” A great story, perhaps, but Wilson’s biographer, John Milton Cooper, Jr. doubts its veracity and notes that neither Edith nor Dr. Grayson recorded such a clever rejoinder in their written memoranda from that day.

Edith Wilson insisted to her dying day that her role in the last two years of the Wilson administration was nominal. This is almost assuredly a barefaced non-fact, as the work of subsequent historians has shown.

Everyone knows about how FDR’s people, aided by an acquiescent press, kept a lid on the president’s inability to walk. What they were less able to conceal was how truly sick the president was during his last years in office. From the University of Arizona:

On March 28, 1944, Roosevelt received a complete physical including a cardiac examination. Dr. Howard G. Bruenn handled this. Bruenn’s diagnosis was that the President was suffering from “hypertension, hypertensive heart disease, cardiac failure (left ventricle), and acute bronchitis. (Bruenn, p. 580). Bruenn recommended a week or two of rest, the use of digitalis, a lighter, salt-free diet, and codeine for the cough and a moderate loss of weight. However, given the president’s schedule, this was not carried out right away. McIntire thought the use of digitalis was going too far. In Ferrell’s account, Bruenn found himself against the Surgeon General and a team of leading doctors at Bethesda, including Officer in Command John Harper, Executive Officer Robert Duncan, radiology head Charles Behrens, and Paul Dickens, a professor of medicine at George Washington University. Also involved were two honorary medical consultants, James Paullin and Frank Lacey. These latter two conducted another examination of the president on March 31st. Bruenn held firm on the need for digitalization and after three meetings and a threat to remove himself from the case, he was authorized to begin. Within ten days, Roosevelt showed remarkable improvement. Bruenn found himself making frequent visits to the White House.

Since then, we’ve had Eisenhower, whose doctors were relatively upfront about his major heart attack, in 1955, but buried the news of his stroke two years later. John Kennedy’s myriad concealed medical conditions would fill a book, and indeed has filled several. What’s less well known is the fact that Kennedy’s successor, Lyndon Johnson, felt so ill that he had to be talked into running for his own full term in 1964. From The Political Effects of Presidential Illness: The Case of Lyndon B. Johnson:

More serious, Johnson was rushed to the hospital at 2:26 a.m. suffering from chest pains and a cough. Vice President Humphrey was telephoned at 3:30 a.m. in Minnesota with the news that the president had been hospitalized with chest pains. Humphrey was not alone in his fears that Johnson had suffered another heart attack, a prospect he found "particularly frightening because Lyndon had suffered a serious one ten years before." Many years later, Humphrey complained that Johnson “for some bizarre reason, refused to let any medical facts be given to me immediately. Instead. The orders came to me that he wanted me to fulfill my scheduled weekly commitments so that no one would think his illness was serious." When Humphrey left home later that morning, he still did not know whether Johnson had suffered another heart attack, how critical his condition might be, or whether he would soon be succeeding Johnson as president. He later wrote that "it was an awesome prospect, a terrible shock, compounded by not knowing what precisely was happening" (Humphrey, 1976, p. 314). Perhaps the shock was further compounded by the fact that although Johnson had intended to enter in arrangement with his vice-president, he had not, at that time, done so.

More recently, it was an open secret in Washington that President Ronald Reagan was probably a symptomatic Alzheimer’s patient throughout his second term. Interestingly, given our current state of affairs, the first real public manifestation of it came in his first debate against Democratic presidential nominee Walter Mondale in 1984. From the AP (via the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette):

For Reagan, the age issue faded in his first term as any health questions focused on his recovery from a nearly fatal assassination attempt in 1981. He seemed headed for an easy reelection. And debates seemed natural settings for the smooth-talking former Hollywood actor. But his performance in the first showdown with Mondale in the 1984 campaign brought the age issue roaring back. The president, then 73, rambled and hesitated. He seemed to lose his train of thought at one point, and appeared tired at others. No one had seen him perform publicly in such a way, recalled Jaroslovsky, who co-authored a story headlined: “New Question in Race: Is Oldest U.S. President Now Showing His Age?”…

…Then, as now, Mr. Jaroslovsky said, the embattled president’s supporters provided vigorous spin. Reagan’s operation said he had been tired. There was sniping about the staff overpreparing him, Mr. Jaroslovsky said. Mr. Biden’s team cited fatigue from two overseas trips that had exhausted even younger staffers. It was a bad night, they said. Blame flew at the president’s aides. Democrats on Capitol Hill griped that Mr. Biden's performance had damaged their chances at the polls. And press critics asserted that reporters had failed to hold the president and his staff to account.

Reagan managed to deliver a spoon-fed wisecrack at the beginning of the second debate, and everybody loved good ol’ Dutch again. But, in Washington, there were real concerns. In their book Landslide, an account of his second term, authors Jane Mayer and Doyle McManus revealed that an aide to then incoming White House chief of staff Howard Baker named James Cannon had been dispatched to discreetly investigate whether or not the provisions of the 25th amendment regarding forcible presidential abdication might be in order and, more spectacularly, Cannon believed that it should be considered.

I bring all of this up to prove a point–namely, that the next White House that is completely honest about the president’s health will be the first. (Do people really believe the big ship of fools that was Donald Trump’s medical team?) The concocted melodrama around the president’s dismal showing in the campaign’s first debate–Hi, Dutch!–has served nothing but to obscure the clarity necessary to make what is a terribly difficult call. If I seem to wax overly historical, it’s because I find it more edifying than the hysterical.