Obesity is Now a Disease


Image: Suzanne Tucker/Shutterstock

Obesity is now officially a disease.

The American Medical Association has formally declared obesity as a disease, a move that effectively defined one third of adults and 17% of children in the United States as being sick.

The Los Angeles Times report:

The AMA's decision essentially makes diagnosis and treatment of obesity a physician's professional obligation. As such, it should encourage primary care physicians to get over their discomfort about raising weight concerns with obese patients. Studies have found that more than half of obese patients have never been told by a medical professional they need to lose weight — a result not only of some doctors' reluctance to offend but of their unwillingness to open a lengthy consultation for which they might not be reimbursed.

Past AMA documents have referred to obesity as an "urgent chronic condition," a "major health concern" and a "complex disorder." The vote now lifts obesity above the status of a health condition, disorder or marker for heightened risk of disease — as high cholesterol is for heart disease, for instance.

"As things stand now, primary care physicians tend to look at obesity as a behavior problem," said Dr. Rexford Ahima of University of Pennsylvania's Institute for Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism. "This will force primary care physicians to address it, even if we don't have a cure for it."

The decision, which was voted for by the members of the AMA, was controversial - it overrode AMA's own committee who recommended against reclassifying obesity as a disease (it noted that many people with high BMI are actually quite healthy).

Would it lead to "medicalizing" obesity and lead to more reliance on drugs and surgery rather than lifestyle changes? Does this mean that you have a pre-existing medical condition that would lead to higher medical insurance costs or denial of coverage altogether?

What do you think? Did the AMA do the right thing?

Should we classify obesity as a disease?




Well, by looking at the photo and caption we all know how Neatorama feels. Very serious problem disease or not. To put the blame entirely on the individual is not fair or accurate. The societal and even governmental pressures are more to blame than ever.
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If we classify it as a disease, then we should treat it the same as other diseases. Which is to say, when someone has cancer we don't tell them to stop being lazy and start eating right and exercising to get rid of that cancer, we give them medicines or surgery to cure or at least stop the cancer. If obesity is a disease, then doctors should stop blaming the disease on the patient. Especially since we have the hard scientific evidence that no one who loses weight ever keeps it off for the long term except through surgery.
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Great. Now, in a country where it is acceptable to discriminate against the sick (not legal, but, oh, so acceptable), I am officially sick. Even though my blood pressure, blood sugar, cholesterol, and any other condition that has been tied to weight are within normal range, I am sick.
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Cancer from cigarette smoking and mesothelioma from asbestos inhalation are both diseases that happen due to voluntary human behavior. Why should obesity not also be considered a disease? The bottom line is getting help for people that have a health problem, not placing blame.
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New Diseases Coming Soon! Nail biting, farting, shower-phobia, introvertedness, extrovertedness, tallness, shortness, white skin, black skin, low IQ... and more!

Doctors will be forced to tell you you are stupid, smelly or awkward even if we don't have a cure for it and with no regard for offend you or getting paid.

I think some cases are related to disease.. but obesity is not a disease itself.
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So now they'll be able to force "treatment" on fat people, whether their weight is effecting their health or not. Which will be terrible because in the vast majority of cases, obesity is NOT curable any more than tallness, or pale skin is curable because it is just a physical feature that is sometimes related to diseases, not a disease itself.
I seem to remember another marginalized group of people who were told that it was their own fault and that it was a disease and a choice and they could be cured if they just tried hard enough. Ask any gay person how that all worked out for them.
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