#obesity (disease or medical condition)

[fezaleon]

[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…

[beauty-funny-trippy]

‘WHO VOTED FOR THIS?’ : TRUMP OBSTRUCTS CANCER RESEARCH FUNDING Trump has given orders to freeze ALL federally funded medical research in America. This includes research to treat: Cancer, Alzheimer's, Diabetes, Arthritis, Obesity, Drug Addiction, Depression, Childhood Leukemia, Heart Disease, etc. All of us know someone who is a afflicted with a medical condition that science is trying to cure, or at least lessen its severity. Who in their right mind would want to put a freeze on such important work? Notice Trump's priorities. He's not interested in lowering the cost of housing, or reducing middle and lower income Americans' taxes, or the price of groceries. Why? Because he's laser focused on more important stuff like: stopping life-saving medical research, worsening the climate crisis, reigniting inflation by mass deportations, increasing prescription drug prices, and of course, America's most urgent need of all — renaming the Gulf of Mexico. The man needs to have his head examined. Oh, ...darn. He just put a freeze on medical research into finding out what the hell is wrong with him!

[tanadrin]

Last week's WITH was about the pursuit of treatments that might do for addiction what GLP-1 agonists do for cravings for food, and the guest had an interesting point about how you can have phenomena with very complex causes (the main examples here being opiate addiction and the general rise in obesity) that do not require you to untangle or address those causes in order to procure solutions. Like, is addiction a disease, a social ill, a product of trauma, a failure of willpower, or all of these things?

It doesn't necessarily matter! It turns out that "craving stuff" is a pretty basic neurological feedback loop and it may be tractable to pharmaceutical intervention. Heck, GLP-1 agonists may be that intervention: people have reported (and clinical trials are being conducted to study) that these drugs, among their many effects, simply blunt cravings, to the point where people have as a side effect of taking them for diabetes or weight loss also found they helped cut down on drinking, or gambling, or using other drugs.

So even if GLP-1 agonists don't have all the miraculous effects reported (there are some reports they may be effective as an Alzheimer's treatment!), it would be crazy if we have discovered a drug that allows us to better marshal our faculties to decide which cravings to give in to, a drug that simply imbues us with self-control. And I think that's really interesting, because it's an outright clash between two ways of seeing the world: a moralistic one in which virtues are the product of individual decisions, and in which taking a drug to achieve some outcome that "ought" to be a product of virtue might be seen as cheating, and one that reminds us that, for better or worse, we are meat, and all our complex behaviors arise as the result of the state of the meat that we are--and from which view, refusing to acknowledge the mutability of your meat in aid of achieving your goals, or even broader social benefit (addiction is really bad and there very few good options to treat it), is simply goofy.

But a lot of people's reaction to the existence of GLP-1 agonists--or for that matter any medical intervention for things which are moralized as willpower problems--includes contempt founded on being wedded to that moralizing framework. I think a lot of moralism develops as a response to conditions of existence being imposed on us that are objectively pretty miserable, and that when we discover the occasional intervention that liberates us from that pretty restrictive framework, our attitude should be one of jubilation: hear, O ye people, that what was long believed to be an implacable trade-off of human existence is no more. But I think a lot of people's reaction is to double down: I had to suffer, or someone I know had to suffer, therefore you ought to suffer as well, or else our suffering has no meaning.

[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

[fitness-not-haes]

#

[corinescorner]

Biases That Doctors Can Have

Doctors, like all people, carry biases. They influence how they perceieve and treat patients. These biases may be unconscious or consious, either way they impact the quality of care that patients recieve from them.

Appearance-Related:

Weight: Patients with obesity might be stigmatized, leading doctors to attribute all health concerns to weight.

Age: Older people might face ageism, with symptoms dismissed as "just aging," while younger people might be seen as less credible.

Disability: Patients with disabilities may have their health issues minimized or overlooked entirely.

Hygiene: Disheveled appearance or poor hygiene can lead to assumptions about the patient's responsibilities or mental health issues.

Identity and Demographic:

Racial and Ethnic: Patients of color, especially Black, Indigenous, and Hispanic individuals, often report being dismissed or disbelieved. Research shows that they might recieve little to no pain medication or aggressive treatments for serious conditions.

Gender: Women may have their pain minimized or attributed to emotional cases. Men, on the otherhand, might have emotional concerned dismissed as physical.

Queer: Queer individuals may face ignorance, prejudice, or assumtions about their health based on their identities. For example; trans people often have barriers when seeking gender-affirming care.

Socioeconomic:

Income: Patients with a low-income may face assumptions about their ability to follow treatment plans, access medications, or prioritize health.

Insurance: Those without insurance may experience rushed care or not have their concerns taken seriously

Behavioral and Communication:

Mental Health: Patients with psychiatric conditions might have their physical symptoms dismissed as psychological.

Substance Use: Individuals with a history of substance use may struggle to have their pain or concerns validated.

Communication: Patients who are overly assertive, passive, or emotional may be judged negatively.

Bias Based on Health Status:

Chronic Illness: Patients with chronic conditions may be viewed as "complainers."

Rare Diseases: Symptoms of rare conditions may be dismissed as "all in their head."

How Can We Combat This?

To limit the biases in healthcare, it is crucial to promote sensitivity and cultural competency training for medical professionals. It would help them recognize and address their own implicit biases. We should also increase the diverisity among healthcare providers. Patients should be encouraged to advocate for themselves, ask questions, and seek second opinions when they feel like their needs aren't being met or addressed.

Remember, not every doctor is trustworthy and free of bias. We shouldn't be ignorant against the healthcare that people can receive. This is why research self-diagnosis is very important.

[fatphobiabusters]

I'm starting to see "if you are someone with obesity" on drug ads more and more and I do not like that.

-mod squirrel

(If you don't fully understand the implications: "with" implies a condition or disease. Such as "if you are someone with asthma" you can also word it as "asthmatic person" however the issue here is obese is a body type. You don't see "with underweight" or at least I haven't. The grammer only works if you are treating it as a disease/condition. These things are important to notice because medical standards are used for fatphobic rhetoric, it signals a further medicalization of bodies for existing based on terminology from the BMI chart which is already discredited.)

(Also if this breaks containment please check out our FAQ in the pinned post or our "Medical fatphobia" tag and educate yourself before being annoying in our notes)

[covid-safer-hotties]

Also preserved in our archive (Check out all of our long covid resources!)

BY Rhys Richmond

Research reports and detailed case studies from doctors and other providers can tell us a lot about Long COVID. But to understand the full scope of the disease and its impact, we must also listen to the experiences of patients who are suffering.

Today’s post features a contribution from one of our readers, who details his experience with Long COVID and a preexisting illness—in his case, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). As someone who suffers from both ME/CFS and Long COVID, Billy Hanlon—in his role as the director of advocacy and outreach at the Minnesota ME/CFS Alliance—also advocates for advancing research into these conditions.

While researchers and clinicians have noted parallels between ME/CFS and Long COVID, as well as among other post-acute infection syndromes, much more research is needed to fill the knowledge gaps. Some researchers hypothesize that multi-organ damage wreaked by COVID-19 might explain how people with preexisting disease in certain organs (such as the heart, lung, liver, and kidney) might be at higher risk of severe COVID-19 affecting those same organs. Furthermore, research has linked an increased risk of developing post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 (Long COVID) to having a preexisting medical condition prior to SARS-CoV-2 infection

In a sense, we’re beginning to see that COVID-19 infections might take advantage of less-than-perfect health to cause persistent symptoms. While other viruses have exhibited similar opportunistic patterns—for example, influenza has been shown to cause more severe illness and hospitalizations in patients with obesity and heart disease—the long-lasting and poorly understood manifestations of Long COVID merit particular attention. In Hanlon’s account below of his own struggles with ME/CFS and Long COVID, he also details how you may be able to help advocate for more research into both of these conditions.

A patient’s chronicle of life with ME/CFS and Long COVID I’m a resident of Minneapolis, living with ME/CFS and Long COVID.

In 2017, at age 28, I suffered from an acute viral-like illness. Before long, I began experiencing severe neurological complications, such as difficulty with concentration and comprehension, as well as heart palpitations. The newfound, crushing exhaustion was unlike anything I had ever experienced. Physical or mental exertion seemed to exacerbate these complications, a phenomenon called post-exertional malaise (PEM), the cardinal symptom of ME/CFS and now Long COVID. In 2022, following a second COVID-19 infection, my symptoms worsened, leading to a Long COVID diagnosis.

As my personal experience can attest, ME/CFS and Long COVID are multi-systemic diseases involving pathologies of the brain, immune system, autonomic nervous system, and energy metabolism system. Many patients report that the onset of the illness (ME/CFS) is preceded by a viral infection, such as Epstein-Barr virus, H1N1 flu, or SARS-CoV-2.

Despite my best efforts, I have never recovered from ME/CFS and Long COVID. There’s no cure or FDA-approved treatment for these conditions, which affect people of every age and background. Very few American medical schools include ME/CFS and Long COVID care in their curricula, so only a handful of specialists in the country are trained to treat these diseases. As a result, many patients are disbelieved or discredited in medical settings, leaving essentially no system of care to lean on. I learned firsthand about the barriers and inequities faced by patients with ME/CFS and infection-associated chronic illnesses. Care for these conditions is vastly under-resourced, under-funded, under-studied, largely overlooked, and highly marginalized.

I anticipated these formative years of my adulthood to be marked by time spent with friends and family (my wife and nephews), new homes, job promotions, and vacations, but instead I find myself in a twilight world of this medical enigma. My life trajectory was headed one way, then viral illness has completely redirected it. I now spend the majority of my time horizontal, forging ahead as best as my body will permit, advocating with the will that still endures. ME/CFS and Long COVID rob futures and confine lives. Coming to terms with losing my career, my independence, and so many hopes and dreams has been as difficult as the chronic illness.

A lot more could be said about the profound loss I’ve felt professionally, physically, personally, and socially, but I instead want to focus on actionable items that anyone reading this can do to help support future care for this rapidly growing group of people affected by these illnesses.

First, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) recently announced a legislative proposal for The Long COVID Moonshot Act. This proposal is aptly titled as the advancements needed surely warrant a moonshot—the term used when Congress marshals resources across the federal government to expedite progress. These infection-associated chronic illnesses have historically been left at the end of the queue for research funding.

You can reach out to your elected official and ask for their support on this proposal, which will help accelerate and prioritize research, diagnostics, and treatments. This proposal would provide $1 billion in mandatory funding per year for 10 years so that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) can respond to this crisis with the sense of urgency that it demands. Recently, Reps. Ilhan Omar (MN-05) and Ayanna Pressley (MA-07) have also introduced a companion bill for the Long COVID Moonshot in the House of Representatives.

Second, an ME/CFS Research Roadmap Report was approved in May by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This is a step in the right direction toward clinical trials, but now we need the NIH to robustly fund it. You can contact your elected officials and ask that the NIH help make this a reality. These are also efforts that could pay dividends toward an ME/CFS platform clinical trial. This was recently recommended by Senior Investigator and Clinical Director Dr. Avindra Nath following the completion of the NIH ME/CFS Intramural Study. A platform trial or advancements in the Research Roadmap Report could potentially yield a lot of intel for Long COVID treatments and help inform the RECOVER Initiative, a research program by the NIH that aims to understand, diagnose, prevent, and treat Long COVID..

Lastly, Long COVID and ME/CFS were highlighted in May at the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Subcommittee FY25 NIH Hearing. During the hearing, NIH Director Dr. Monica Bertagnolli stated, “… I want to say about Long COVID and ME/CFS—we are so grateful for our partnership with the people that are affected by this. They have taught us over the last two years what we needed to do. Now we just need to deliver for them.” Millions of people would agree. A crucial step would be to establish a dedicated Center at the NIH focused on Long COVID, ME/CFS, and infection-associated chronic conditions and illnesses.

Rhys Richmond is an MD candidate at Yale School of Medicine

[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).

[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

[tteessiiee]

Feedism health - Diabetes Mellitus

TW: feederism, feedism reality, medical issues, explicitly explained medical conditions

Hi! This post gonna be long, it is a bit more medical again. We are feedists, right. Many of us are overweight or obese, some also have high blood pressure and many other comorbidities. We overeat a lot, stuffing so much sugar and fat into our bellis or bellies of our feedees so that we gain as much as we want. Therefore we are at HIGH risk of developing diabetes.

I am a student of physical therapy, NOT A DOCTOR. But I kinda feel the need to educate our community a bit 📚. So there are some facts (from medical literature which i study for my exames) about diabetes that I think should be commonly known. It may scare you, it may make you horny (we are weird, especially death feedists, hi guys 🖤), I just want you to know this, if you feel strong enough:

What it is and important vocabulary:

It is a disease caused by malfunction of insulin secretion from pancreas, or by insulin resistence of target tissue (such as muscles) or combination -> in every case you have a problem with insulin and glucose in your body.

There are two types, type I (DMI) that is caused by autoimunne reactions and you can not prevent it. And type II (DMII) which is hella important for our community because you can literally eat yourself into it. The more you over eat, the more you weight, the less you move, the higher the probability of developing that disease. This post is mainly about DMII.

Glycaemia = how much glucose (form of sugar) is in your blood

Norm is 3,9-5,5 mmol/l. After eating usually max 7,8 mmol/l

Hypoglycemia = less than 3,3 mmol/l

Hyperglycemia = over 11 mmol/l

Insulin causes that glucose goes from blood to your cells so it can become part of your metabolism. On the other hand there are hormones that causes the opposite - more sugar in your blood (by various mechanisms) and those are adrenaline, kortisol, growth hormone and glukagon.

How to get diagnosis of diabetes mellitus type II:

Doctor takes a sample of your blood plasma and tests its glycaemia:

If it is done in two different days and in both cases your glycaemia is over 11 mmol/l

OR if it is over 7 mmol/l after not eating for at least 8 hours*

OR if you undergo oral glucose tolerancy test and it is positive (you drink 75 g of glucose in 200 ml of water, wait for 2 hours and your glycaemia is over 11 mmol/l)

...in any of these cases they probably give you a diagnosis of Diabetes Mellitus. This apllies for my country in the middle of Europe, idk about your countries but it could be very similiar.

OR! I know that in USA they are also supposed to measure glucated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and diagnose you with DM if it is over 48 mmol/l.

*if your results are between 5,6 to 6,9 mmol/l, you are prediabetic which means that your body already suffers but you can stop it and go back to full health by changing your lifestyle (read more bellow).

Smyptoms of DMII:

I gonna explain them in "normal" language. You may have just some or all of them:

you are thirsty a lot, you drink a lot, you pee a lot, you are still thirsty though

there is glucose in your urine which definitely should not (you will not notice it, lab will)

you lose weight, you feel tired

your vission is blurred

you have some of acute or chronical complications (more bellow)

Complications of diabetes AKA what may happen to you:

They are usually devided into two groups - acute that actually can kill you pretty quickly and chronic that deteriorate your quality of life. (In the worst hypothetical case you can become blind, with neurological pain, amputated leg and close to a stroke that may kill your ability to move and speak. Nice, isnt it? 🤢) So lets get a closer look into that. These things happen when you do not treat your diabetes well or ignore it at all (for example continue in overeating and gaining even after being diagnosed):

Acute complications:

Hypoglycemia - may occur in patients that are treated with insulin (or glinids or derivates of sulfonylurey), also after drinking alcohol (even when you eat with it or dink juice etc). You do not have enough glucose in your blood so your brain cells become to die and in the worst case you will fall "asleep" (into coma) in the evening at party and will not wake up in the morning because you simply die. Your body fights hypoglycemie by making more glucose from storages in your liver, muscle and fat mass. Symptoms are anxiety, blurred vision, inability to concentrate but also seizure and coma.

Diabetic ketoacidosis - occurs in patients with DMI, very dangerous, also can lead to death. If you dont aplicate insulin when you should, you become hyperglycemic, dehydrated and your body catabolise fat into ketone bodies.

If you overdo it with your stuffing session while you are diabetic you may hypothetically cause yourself a hyperglycemic hyperosmolar coma. You are dehydrated, pee a lot, your blood pressure is very low, so low that it can reach hypovolemic shock and you faint. Also you kinda damage your kidneys.

Cronic complications:

Instability between insulin and glucose causes damage to your blood vessels and nerves which may result in

Retinopathy - you slowly lose your vision or even become completely blind

Nephropathy - if you ignore that you have diabetes, you damage your kidneys, it is asymptomatic for a long time but may result in need of dialysis or even transplantation if not treated.

Neuropathies - very common and very annoying. Harms your nerves - all kinds of nerves which means motor (problems with movement), sensoric (problems with feeling anything - touch, pressure, pain, cold, warmth, vibrations etc. and "problems" means you feel it less, more or differently so for example contant pain tha cannot be stopped) and autonomus (causes erectile dysfunction and decrease of libido, slows down motility in your stomach and gut, makes you feel sick, causes vomiting, constipation and diarrhoea and many more)

Diabetic foot - tissues in your leg are so damaged that it may literally start to rot and in the worst cases leads to amputations. This complication is related to many things from little injuries to ulcerations to gangrenes with bacterias that kinda eats your fat, muscles and bones.

Aterosclerosis - higher risk for ischemic heart disease (angina pectoris, heart attack), lower limb ischemia (may cause pulmonary embolism) and stroke.

Other problems such as: inflamation of thyroid gland, celiac disease (you can not eat anything with wheat, barley and others), diseases of skin, mycotic infections, urological infections etc.

Treatment:

I hope you are at least a bit frightened now... So what can we do when we are prediabetic or even diabetic? Three things!

Diet - if you are overweight or obese then it is weight-loss diet plus diet counting how many carbohydrates and fat you eat. Losing weight really works honestly.

Physical activity - helps so much!!! In general you should walk at least 10k steps per day and do some aerobic exercise for at least 30 minutes 3-4 times per week. And it should be on 75 % of your maximal heart rate (how to count that at home: "220 - your age = ideal load") plus ofc any sport you like. If you do have diabetes, be very careful about any injuries because it can lead to the diabetic foot.

Meds - DMI insulin for sure. DMII usually gets first oral antidiabetics and only in some cases insulin. But over all meds are only part of the treatment, it reallly does not work well without taking care of your food or exercising. You need to change your lifestyle if you wanna get better (I know that some of you don't).

______________________________________

I hope this post gave you something, tought you something new and you know the risks of our kink better now. I do not want to tell you not to do it - I have that kink too and love it, gonna continue gaining. Just be aware about the consequences 💕

Uffff... that was long and complicated, I actually did my research for that and spent few hours making that post 😂. But it is still possible that i did some mistakes, did not understand something well etc - I am NOT a doctor, please believe more your health proffesionals than me, thank you. Im sorry if anything does not make sense or if I use some words in a strange way - english is not my native language and I do not know many medical terms and phrases, know them only in czech and latin so I translate it somehow based on that XD

Enjoy the candy that our kink brings to our life and stay as healthy as you wish 💕💕💕

~ Your Tessie

[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

[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.

[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".

[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.