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Experts in obesity have struggled for years to have obesity recognized as a disease that deserves medical attention and insurance coverage as do other diseases.
...the AMA is a respected representative of American medicine. Their opinion can influence policy makers who are in a position to do more to support interventions and research to prevent and treat obesity.
So, is obesity due to an energy imbalance (i.e. lifestyle choices) or factors beyond an individual's control (i.e. disease)? Obesity is certainly influenced by our genetics, but at the end of the day, weight control comes down to what WE CHOOSE to eat, how much of it WE CHOOSE to eat, and how much WE CHOOSE to exercise or otherwise expend surplus calories. Diet and exercise need to be individually tailored and adapted for your personal tolerances and requirements.
Obesity as a disease is far more profitable than obesity as a consequence of lifestyle. Or maybe obesity is also a mental illness, seeing as a person cannot control their cravings to consume certain foods and are unable to adjust their portions. Again, like addicts who unwillingly drink, gamble, or shoot heroin, they have no say in the matter. They are "ill".
So, is obesity due to an energy imbalance (i.e. lifestyle choices) or factors beyond an individual's control (i.e. disease)? Obesity is certainly influenced by our genetics, but at the end of the day, weight control comes down to what WE CHOOSE to eat, how much of it WE CHOOSE to eat, and how much WE CHOOSE to exercise or otherwise expend surplus calories. Diet and exercise need to be individually tailored and adapted for your personal tolerances and requirements.
Obesity as a disease is far more profitable than obesity as a consequence of lifestyle. Or maybe obesity is also a mental illness, seeing as a person cannot control their cravings to consume certain foods and are unable to adjust their portions. Again, like addicts who unwillingly drink, gamble, or shoot heroin, they have no say in the matter. They are "ill".
Someone has to draw a line between being sick and being a fncking idiot.
Substance addiction is more of a physical dependency; I would not classify it the same as a true mental illness, such as schizophrenia, due to the fact an addict can willfully stop their addiction, whereas a schizophrenic cannot wake up one day and just decide not to be schizophrenic anymore.
No one is saying that substance addiction and schizophrenia are the same. ToKidd was just pointing out that the in the medical profession, they are both classified as a mental illness.
This is true for many conditions that appear to have very little in common (to the average person with limited medical knowledge), but the treatments and diagnoses can be very similar. One example that comes to mind is dementia: it is a category that includes diverse conditions like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Lewy bodies and even trauma to the head. Now, this does not mean that AD and Lewy bodies are the same?!?!
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Originally Posted by NorthYorkEd
It's absolutely true that certain individuals are more prone to addictive behaviour, for reasons that are varied and spread among biological, psychological, and environmental factors. But some people are more prone to anger, despondency, or are extremely energetic or frantic. Are they also mentally ill? Where do we draw the line between eccentric and "crazy"?
Hmm ... you are clearly missing the Science here. I am not going to go into the whole debate of personal responsibility, etc etc .... we did that for a few days. So, forget for a moment the reasons (or lack of reasons) behind a person experimenting with substances. But once a person is addicted to a substance, the morphology of the brain changes ---> it is not a normal brain anymore.
For example, heroin is structurally similar to chemical messengers called neurotransmitters. This allows heroin to mimic the effects of the neurotransmitter and essentially fools the brain receptors and sends abnormal messages to the nerve cells. A person using heroin does not have a normal brain anymore. And therefore it makes sense to classify the patient as one with a mental disorder.
So comparing addiction to obese and angry people is nothing but a show of scientific ignorance.
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Originally Posted by NorthYorkEd
For those touting medical science as irrefutable and beyond question, read up on the role of saturated fat in heart disease, or high cholesterol, or any of the other holy grails of medicine that are now being re-examined and found to be lacking in conclusive proof. Psychiatry has always been a field where treatments and classifications are always in debate, and where opinion plays a larger role that experimental conclusions.
Is this supposed to be an indirect shot at me? Yes, the medical industry has pushed indications and meds to increase profits ... but that should not be a reason to discredit everything that comes out of medical science.
And no-one suggested that medical science is irrefutable and beyond question. However, issues in medical science should be debated by doctors and scientists only. Right now, there is enough scientific consensus over classifying substance addiction as a mental illness.
Last edited by sandman249; 06-19-2013 at 01:53 PM..
Substance addiction is more of a physical dependency; I would not classify it the same as a true mental illness, such as schizophrenia, due to the fact an addict can willfully stop their addiction, whereas a schizophrenic cannot wake up one day and just decide not to be schizophrenic anymore.
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As these are the people we trust to provide conclusive scientific evidence regarding diagnostic criteria, are we so wrong to be cautious or question their conclusions, especially when there is such staggering profit to be made by classifying everyone as sick?
You just keep missing the point. Obviously addicts cannot wilfully stop their behaviour or they wouldn't be addicts and relapse rates wouldn't be 90%+ like it is with drugs like opiates. Physical dependency is only part of the problem, and only exists with opiates, alcohol, and sedatives, for the most part. It is the psychological aspect that is most difficult to overcome.
You just keep missing the point. Obviously addicts cannot wilfully stop their behaviour or they wouldn't be addicts and relapse rates wouldn't be 90%+ like it is with drugs like opiates. Physical dependency is only part of the problem, and only exists with opiates, alcohol, and sedatives, for the most part. It is the psychological aspect that is most difficult to overcome.
I do understand the point, I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with the concept of addiction as a "disease". Maybe a less-loaded word, like "condition", would be easier to accept. But I disagree that addicts cannot willfully overcome their addictions. Many have overcome their issues through personal determination and/or by seeking treatment.
Look at Frank O'Dea, one of the founders of Second Cup coffee chain. Homeless and addicted to alcohol, he heard a radio ad offering treatment, sought help, and cleaned up to eventually become a business success. If addicts cannot willfully choose to quit, why did he seek out help for his condition? Wouldn't his mental illness prevent him from making that choice or decision?
Addicts CAN stop. They just have to choose to do so. No one is saying it is easy or not excruciatingly difficult to overcome. But it can be done.
I do understand the point, I'm just not sure I'm comfortable with the concept of addiction as a "disease". Maybe a less-loaded word, like "condition", would be easier to accept. But I disagree that addicts cannot willfully overcome their addictions. Many have overcome their issues through personal determination and/or by seeking treatment.
You obviously ignored my point about a brain on heroin having altered and abnormal morphology.
The knowledge that signals are sent from the intestine to the brain and that they can be modulated by a dietary change is likely to lead to an expansion of research aimed at finding new strategies to prevent or treat digestive, mental and neurological disorders.
As the son of a functioning alcoholic, disease is exactly the right word for it, NYEd. I assure you, it's a disease and needs to be treated as such. It infects, spreads, and coloured every day. And this is a man that never hit me, never took his belt off... but could turn on you on a dime when he was 'relaxing' as he called it. He's been sober 6 years and because of it, has a relationship with my son (his grandson) he woulnd't otherwise have. He's 81.
Just came in to say that I just arrived into Toronto this Tuesday after living in NYC all of my life, and I was SHOCKED by how many homeless people are here. Yes, we have more in NYC, but here they just seemed more concentrated and thus easier to see every block, or every other block.
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.... now when did I say that they were the same? It was just being pointed out that they are both classified as mental disorders
