Study: Obesity Costs $93B Per Year...

[sixate]

LINKY

Obesity Reported to Cost U.S. $93B a Year
LAURA MECKLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Obesity is costing not only American lives, but dollars too. A study tallies that $93 billion per year goes to treat health problems of people who are overweight.

About half that tab is picked up by the government through Medicare, which provides care to the elderly, and Medicaid, which serves the poor.

Overall, spending attributed to excessive weight made up 9 percent of all medical spending in 1998, researchers reported Wednesday on the Web site of the journal Health Affairs.

They arrived at the figure by comparing the medical expenses of adults who are not overweight with the expenses of those similar in most ways but who were overweight or obese .

The difference in spending on people who are overweight and those of normal weight were, for the most part, not statistically significant by themselves. But major differences appeared for those who were obese: The average increase in spending over a person of normal weight was $732 per year - 37.4 percent more.

Altogether, medical spending attributable to extra weight totaled $78.5 billion in 1998, or $92.6 billion in 2002, inflation-adjusted dollars.

The financial burden now rivals that attributable to smoking, the authors say, arguing that government and health insurance companies should offer incentives to help people lose weight.

"Although some insurers subsidize memberships to health clubs to promote physical activity, most do not include incentives to encourage weight loss," wrote authors Eric Finkelstein and Ian Fiebelkorn of RTI International in North Carolina and Guijing Wang of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

The study examined a representative sample of 9,867 adults ages 19 and older, with data from the 1998 Medical Expenditure Panel Survey and the 1996 and 1997 National Health Interview Surveys. The research was paid for by the CDC.

Weight was assessed using body-mass index, a height-to-weight ratio. People with a BMI of 30 or above are considered obese; those between 25 and 30 are considered overweight.

Someone who is 5 feet, 5 inches tall who weighs 150 pounds would have a BMI of 25. At a weight of 180 pounds, this person's BMI would be 30.

It's not the money that bothers me.
I guess I just hate to see people not care about their health.
You only have one body. Treat it right. Your body will thank you for it when you're older.

Calculate your BMI.
Check it out to see how you stack up if you're interested.
I personally don't care for this too much because it should be different for men and women. I'm 6'8" and weigh 223 lbs. My BMI is 24.5. That's .5 away from being overweight. That is complete crap in my book. I work out a ton and muscle weighs more than fat. Even though I go to the gym I'm very tall and lanky. People tell me I'm skinny as hell so for this to say I'm almost overweight is laughable. If you don't lift weights I think it's way more accurate. I think people who work out will get a better descrption of your health by knowing what your percentage of body fat is. I'm guessing that mine is around 11-13%. Just a guess though.

[RAMONES!!!]

i just got done reading that article when i found this thread,


BMI- 23.2

[kurty[B]]

BMI 22.6 WOOT!

[WhoaitsZ]

26.5 and i cannot burn off calories the way normal people can. that makes me feel much better. (and I also estimated my weight to be five lbs more than last time i checked it)

obesity in america is frightening. it amazes me what people can do to themselves and it is people like that who make drug use and such so bad: they don't control the substance, the substance controls them.

i'm sick of people abusing food or alcohol or drugs and the making a little sad clown show because their life is poor.

we need some Get A Fucking Clue, You Fatass Retard pills....

[Cynthetiq]

25.5... I know that I'm carrying a little more than I need to...

[jujueye]

long and lean....like gramps was: 22.1! I used to be 20.7, but getting to my age, things change that you can do NOTHING about. crap. I'm gonna go eat a cake.

[Double D]

Just a counter-point. Count your blessings if you are naturally slender.

Do your research. There is not a single diet or procedure (weight reduction surgery, for example) - not a one- that has a proven long-term effectivness rate of more than 10-15%. JAMA just devoted a recent issue to the efficacy of diets. One of the most popular, Weight Watchers, had an average effectiveness of a SIX POUND weight loss after being on the program for TWO YEARS.

Most of you replying to this thread sound college-age. I sincerely wish you the best in maintaining those fine physiques as the ageing process kicks in and your metabolism slows down.

BOSTON (March 19) - Binge-eaters who say they can't help it may be right.

(AP) A study suggests a weak gene, not feeble willpower, may be the cause
for some people. The research may point the way to a future pill to tame
their appetites.

The joint Swiss-German-American study makes the strongest case yet that
genetic mistakes can cause an eating disorder, researchers say.
Traditionally, eating behavior has been viewed as complex and cultural in
its causes.

"Willpower is not always important to reduce weight. Some people can by
willpower. Some cannot, and I think these patients have a hard time,'' said
Dr. Fritz Horber, the leader of the binge-eating study at the Hirslanden
Clinic in Zurich, Switzerland.

Researchers have been trying to understand the reasons for an epidemic of
obesity, which raises the risk for heart disease, diabetes and many other
ailments. About 30 percent of American adults are obese, up from 14 percent
25 years ago, according to government data. The surge is widely blamed on
abundant high-calorie foods and sedentary lifestyles.

However, some researchers have also begun to link several genes to obesity,
implicating heredity as an important underlying factor. Increasingly, eating
problems are thought to stem from a subtle interaction of lifestyle and
multiple genes.

Probably the most common eating disorder, binge-eating strikes up to 4
million Americans, according to the National Institutes of Health.
Binge-eaters, who are usually but not always overweight, frequently and
compulsively stuff themselves - often in secret - and feel ashamed
afterward.

In this study, which was published Thursday in The New England Journal of
Medicine, the researchers focused on a gene linked to obesity in earlier
studies. Known as the melanocortin 4 receptor gene, it makes a protein by
that name that helps stimulate appetite in the brain's hunger-regulating
hypothalamus. If a mutated gene makes too little protein, the body feels too
much hunger.

The researchers considered 469 severely obese white adults - a quarter of
them binge-eaters. However, the disorder was much more common among the 5
percent with the mutated gene. All of them were binge-eaters, compared to
just 14 percent of those with no mutated gene.

In another study in the same journal issue, a British team reported finding
mutations of the same gene in more than 5 percent of 500 severely obese
children. The genetic link was so strong that the researchers could use
results from chemical tests on their genetic DNA to predict how much the
children would eat at a meal.

Horber, the Swiss researcher, said other eating disorders, including other
types of bingeing, probably stem from a variety of genes and environmental
factors. However, he said the still-unnamed binge-eating syndrome tied to
this gene is especially important because it is perhaps the most stubbornly
resistant to dieting and exercise.

Horber said the binge-eaters in his study felt a wave of relief from guilt
when they learned of the genetic cause behind their compulsion. Dr. Stephen
O'Rahilly, one of the British study's researchers at the University of
Cambridge, said one family in that study was so ecstatic over evidence of a
physical cause that they made themselves T-shirts saying, "We've got an MC4
mutation.''

Eric Ravussin, a Louisiana State University researcher on obesity genetics,
said, however, that without more biochemical proof, he remains "a little bit
skeptical'' that these mutations - and not others located nearby on the same
chromosome - are the syndrome's precise cause.

But Dr. Joel Habener, a diabetes expert at Boston's Massachusetts General
Hospital who co-wrote an accompanying editorial, said the Swiss-led study
demonstrates either the "genetic cause or a very strong association.''

And he agreed with the researchers, who said future drugs acting like the
melanocortin 4 receptor protein may compensate for the genetic defect.
Habener said such chemicals are apt to be small molecules that can be
delivered as pills.

03/19/03 18:00 EST

[WhoaitsZ]

oh, fuck diets and pills. most people in America are what you call "lazy".

go walk or do some sit-ups... and those who don't have time.... if you can't spare a minimun of 20 minutes every other day for the benifet of your health, you seriously need to re-evaluate your priorities... i'm not trying to be an all knowing smart ass..... it's that your health is important. very important!

[Halx]

Aside from my weekly basketball workout, I have the fastest metabolism this side of the ethiopean border. I am doomed to be helplessly slender for the rest of me life!! Help help help!

Ok, I was being mean. Girls usually punch me if I mention my metabolism.

I cant say anything for the overweight, but I honestly have never met a heavy person who eats healthy.

[gov135]

I'm not sure if you can actually put a dollar figure on obesity. It should be just as high as smoking though. It just makes sense when you look at all the health problems caused by it.

I have to agree with Hal. Can't really point to an overweight person I know that eats responsibly.

[hotzot]

Tax the fat!

[ARTelevision]

Yes.
As you know I think it's a hopeless situation for our citizens and will inevitably get worse. And you know I don't really think self-control or things like that are the issue. I know it sounds all level-headed to say people need more self control, etc.

But you know, there are highly powerful - historically unprecedented - forces at work to sell things that are terribly fattening. What if these forces are more powerful than the average person's threshold ability to resist? It may be a psychological fact.

When over 40% of the items in a supermarket are unhealthy - yet are advertised the most powerfully - we may have reached a point where it is simply unreasonable to expect the average human being to eat responsibly.

I know this is not a very popular position. I just feel compelled to ask that it be considered. Because - what if it is true that people are psychologically overwhelmed beyond the point of being able to resist the forces that are pitted against them?

[WhoaitsZ]

PS. i cut a paragraph to reduce space. so if it looks funny, that's why
i'm gonna use the test board tomorrow
to try and figure out how to post quotes better. bear with me.

Originally posted by ARTelevision
Yes.
As you know I think it's a hopeless situation for our citizens and will inevitably get worse. And you know I don't really think self-control or things like that are the issue. I know it sounds all level-headed to say people need more self control, etc.

------
i see your point big time. Self control can be difficult, especially this day and age where a few years ago everyone lived the 'the more, the better'. but at some point in time you have to say "I can't be a junkie". if it is food, alcohol, caffiene, drugs, sex.... abuse is abuse. sometimes you just need to try and have limits.

---
But you know, there are highly powerful - historically unprecedented - forces at work to sell things that are terribly fattening. What if these forces are more powerful than the average person's threshold ability to resist? It may be a psychological fact.

--


Let's try to break the cycle! for the next generations, too, so their lives may be less misguided. splurge less, live a better life. If we try and fail we can say. we tried. we really tried: that is honorable.... to say 'i didn't want to' is shameful. (for me)



-
I know this is not a very popular position. I just feel compelled to ask that it be considered. Because - what if it is true that people are psychologically overwhelmed beyond the point of being able to resist the forces that are pitted against them?

fuck popularity, my friend. the popular thing is to be a sheep. I think many of us here are shepherds. continue your beliefes no matter if one person or the whole world agrees. I think, as a human being who's whole life has studied others' behavoires (especially during sickness, icu ect) that the more we discuss a topic, the better we live.

sometimes it sucks to be the one poster who disagrees.... but our voices count in the short and long run.

[sixate]

Originally posted by ARTelevision
what if it is true that people are psychologically overwhelmed beyond the point of being able to resist the forces that are pitted against them?

It's really quite simple to me. It's just natures way of getting rid of the weak. I only wish nature had a quicker way of doing it.

[guthmund]

How is slick advertising and manipulating innate emotions "Nature's Way?"

I'm not going to piss, moan and whine about carrying some extra weight, but neither am I going to be shamed into doing something about it. I get along just fine, I manage to hold down a job, school, and a pretty frantic homelife all by myself and I don't go to the doctor needlessly. When I decide to lose the weight it's going to be for me, not because of society's pity and indifference.

Different people have different reactions to different stimuli. People are addicted to lots of different things; television, the Internet, food, sex, cigarettes, booze, and exercising to name a but a few. While most of the time these 'addictions' can be solved with a simple bit of willpower, sometimes the 'forces that are pitted against them' is too much.

Of the 2 hours of television I watched tonight, I saw 18 of 29 commercials were food related. For a fellow who's particular weakness is food then maybe he is being psychologically overwhelmed.

Don't think your addicted? Take a tally of all the 'extracurricular' activities you participate in.....find the one you spend the most time doing......now don't do it for a week.

If anyone can honestly say they have no vices, or addictions, I apologize, for you are certainly a better person than I.

I said it before and it bears saying again. It's a lot easier find flaws in others than in yourself.