Obesity costs soar tenfold to $36.5 billion in US

[DemsUnite]

Americans' losing battle against the bulge also bears a burgeoning price tag, with the amount of money spent treating obesity-related health problems increasing tenfold over 15 years, a study said on Monday.

Between 1987 and 2002, private spending on obesity-linked medical problems mushroomed from $3.6 billion, or 2 percent of all health spending, to $36.5 billion or 11.6 percent of spending, the study, published in the journal Health Affairs, found.

Obesity is a major risk factor for many chronic illnesses, including diabetes and heart disease. With about 30 percent of U.S. adults now obese, treating these conditions is a leading driver of double-digit health care insurance premium hikes...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050627/hl_nm/health_obesity_dc;_ylt=AjAE865M_hLsfDsRRkRVI4.s0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTA3czJjNGZoBHNlYwM3NTE-

[Another Bill C.]

1. An alternative explanation for obesity.

http://www.new-visions.com/msgandaspartame.html

[Mairead]

12. Maybe not a good choice--she thinks HVP is MSG

which it isn't: http://www.wholehealthmd.com/print/view/1,1560,AQ_34,00.html

[notadmblnd]

2. It's that damn surgery everyone is having

I have two cousins that have had the surgery. One has done great and looks good. the other one looks like death warmed over. My first reaction upon seeing her was... her face looks like that mask from the movie "Scream"

[undergroundpanther]

3. What if the real cause of obesity isn't

Eating too much..Ever notice how diets don't work.. Fat isn't a MORAL issue. It's a body's protective response..and defense.
We only have a certain amount of fat cells when we get fat it's not because we get more cells the cells we have already swell up.What process makes swelling? Inflammation causes swelling.Could fat people be swollen because of the toxic stew we exist in?

Child abuse can lead to a fat adult future
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retri...
What sorts of toxins and chemicals get in the body when the brain is scarred by trauma and chemical traumas? PSTD is when the body cannot shut off the vilagence ,long term stress can deteriorate health.

http://www.lef.org/protocols/prtcl-125a.shtml

How long has chemicals like DDT or Xylol or whatever been around and how much of it is contaminating us? Isn't strange how when anient tribal people get exposed to American Chemical food they blow up so fast? Maybe it's not calories maybe it's CHEMICAL Traumas. Nobosy wants to consider this,especially the big money corporations making us sick.Tort reform anybody?

Fat might be a symptom of inflammation? Is Inflammation Part of the Neurodegenerative Process? ..scroll down http://home.goulburn.net.au/~shack/updates.htm
Consider how botox works cosmetically..
http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.ns...

Could fat be a stressed out poisioned bodies reaction to processed polluted chemical laden food? In recent years toxins have been getting in higher saturations in the environment. People react to toxinns differently depending on the chemical stew they have in thier bodies. Already you can detect hundreds of chemicals in human blood. Don't tell me all this pollution does not affect our health!

http://www.aresearchguide.com/drktoxins.html
http://www.ourstolenfuture.org/

[Lindacooks]

15. How fat you were as a baby can determine obesity as an adult.

Because your body is creating fat cells in the first year, if you are an obese baby, odds are very good you'll be an obese adult. Fat cells don't go away, they just shrink and expand.

If you're unlucky enough to have fat cell hyperplasia, your body does create new fat cells as well as keep the ones you started with.

"Rapid weight gain due to overfeeding in the first year of life may be particularly risky for later obesity, experts say.

Major studies over the last few years indicate that about one in three children who are fat in early childhood end up as fat adults. Children who get fat before age 8 tend to end up more severely obese as adults than those who gain weight afterward."

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/8088161/

edited to add link

[Ambrose]

4. What a country

...where people are goated into having part of their insides cut on so they look "pretty" to the rest of the idiots...

No thanks...

[woodsprite]

5. My SIL had weightloss surgery because she was diagnosed

with Hep-C. She contracted it thru her job as a paramedic in VA. They told her that if the drug therapy didn't work, then it was possible she'd need to have a transplant. And, Oh, by the way, you're too heavy to add to the transplant recipient list.

I would never want to go thru it, but sometimes it is due to more than 'cosmetic' reasons.

[lilymidnite]

6. Not to look "pretty", but to be alive

Most people who have weight loss surgery never get to the "ideal" BMI. The benchmark of success is to lose 50% of their excess weight. The average weight loss is 70-80% lost. This does not equate to "pretty" necessarily, especially for people who start at BMI of 50, 60, or even 70.

If one pays too much attention to Entertainment Tonight, People magazine, etc., then it may be construed as trying to get "pretty".
But this is not all people, not even a small percentage.

Weight loss surgery is and should be a procedure that is done as a last resort. It is intended to improve health. It is not the easy way out.

The cruel joke on people who are only striving to look "pretty" is that obesity surgery is very difficult to adjust to. They will never again be able to eat certain foods, alcohol, or portions much larger than a golf ball.

Trust me, I know from personal experience.

[bicentennial_baby]

7. Thank you

My bro-in-law had the surgery and it was a last resort situation. After falling asleep while driving with his daughter in the car and crashing, due to severe sleep apnea caused by his 400+ lbs., his doctor said it had to be done. It worked out great for him, and his quality of life has improved 100%!

[customerserviceguy]

8. Yes

but think of the money they save in Social Security payments that don't have to be made.

Article says that 2 percent of health spending is on obesity-linked medical problems, what's the breakdown on the other 98 percent? My guess is that most of it is from problems associated with old age. People "choosing" to die early through obesity are just presenting us with the bill now rather than later. With the inflation rate of health care costs being higher than everything else, maybe they're doing society a favor...

[NYC]

13. Years ago, there was a satire on British television.

Instead of a lifespan shortened by obesity (and therefore cheaper for the government), it was a lifespan shortened by smoking. The ministers were discussing the financial consequences and potential savings.

[AndyTiedye]

9. Let People Dance!

The problem is exercise, or lack thereof. Exercise has become a commodity.

For most in our society, the only acceptable forms of exercise are
either sports (but only if you are good enough to compete) or the
"health club", which offers mind-numbingly boring exercises in a
smelly, unpleasant environment, all for hundreds of bucks a year
in membership fees.

When hard times hit, the health club membership is the first thing to go.

Dancing is very good exercise. I'd estimate the percentage of
obese ravers at around 1%. It is not a competitive activity,
so it does not inherently exclude the unathletic the way sports do.

If raves were as acceptable in our society as sports are, obesity
would be much less of a problem.

Indeed, in other countries that are not so dominated by fundamentalists
and their fear and hatred of dancing, obesity isn't as much of a problem.

[mom cat]

10. Obesity found to be linked to Googling.

This information comes from an unscientific study of one person, myself. Does anyone else here suffer from sedentary spread?

[maxsolomon]

11. the cost of the Bariatric clinics hospitals are building

is absurd.

the chairs are bigger, more expensive.
the beds are bigger, more expensive.

the TOILETS are more expensive. they can't be wall-mounted because the patients weigh 250, 300, 400 lbs. they'll break them off the wall. because they can't be wall-mounted, cleaning costs go up.

but, its INCOME, so they're rushing to compete.

[bennywhale]

14. I wonder what foriengers think when they come to the US and see fat people

everywhere.

Why aren't the fundies onto this. Isn't Gluttony a sin.

What a bloated, self serving, introspective, short term satisfaction seeking, Gluttonous and greedy nation the US has become. Greatest country on earth my ass.

[fob]

16. This reveals some pretty base issues this country should be dealing with.

If you look elsewhere in LBN there is a post about Iraq needing $15 Billion for a new water system and the VA needing $2.6 Billion. That's about HALF of the money wasted/spent obesity issues. America where are your priorities?

If we had REAL leadership that showed us the REAL issues that Americans needed to tackle, as a tough, determined bunch I know we could put down that second cheeseburger, get healthy AND save the money to address providing WATER for 25 million Iraqis and healthcare for OUR VETERANS and STILL have $18 Billion left over!!

[Ezlivin]

17. Peak Oil will melt those pounds away

After you park your car, you'll have to walk your fat ass to where you want to go.

[lilymidnite]

18. You so-called-liberal f*cks are hopeless

If you require an explanation you only prove my point.

[Ezlivin]

19. Hold on, I was busy shoveling food into my mouth

If you require an explanation of sarcasm...

[lilymidnite]

20. I *got* your sarcasm

My post was in reply to anyone who claims to be liberal and then wants to jump into others' lives for their obesity. It was not directed at you.