Pitter from Pat
Fatty Fatty Two x four…
how long does it take to write a prescription for walking a mile each day, or one for reducing calorie intake by 500-1000?
Now that I have reached the so-called golden years, I am taking my annual checkups more seriously. Recently, after returning from my routine physical, I was watching a news clip about overweight Americans, and it made me wonder…why didn’t my doctor talk to me about my weight? This thought led me on a mission to ask friends about their check-ups. And “no,” they reported, their doctor had not admonished them about their weight either. One friend is at least 60 pounds overweight, and his doctor did not address his weight one iota during his checkup!
Granted, many of us are not in dire straights like a young woman that I saw on a television documentary who weighed in at over 600 pounds! However, a number of us do fall into the category of carrying around an extra 20-30 pounds of fat.
About 97 million adults in the United States are overweight or obese. Alabama ranks the highest—must be that good ole’ southern style fried chicken. So, if that many of us are overweight… why do doctors not treat obesity like a fatal disease? In many cases, our extra pounds may not be fatal, but according to the Center for Disease Control, obesity and being overweight substantially increase the risk of morbidity from hypertension, dyslipidemia, type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease, stroke, gallbladder disease, osteoarthritis, sleep apnea, respiratory problems, and the list goes on. However, despite the enormous public health impact of excess weight, a sedentary lifestyle, at least 300,000 premature deaths and more than $90 billion in health care costs—doctors are failing to capitalize on their unique opportunity to help change the habits of their patients.
Are doctors afraid of making their patients angry? None of us wants to be called fat and it does sting the ego a bit to be called out about our weight… but if it is killing me, then I best get over it!
I have one friend whose doctor was not afraid to address the fat issue with him. He outright said to him, “Take a look at you. Do you really think your wife finds that big belly attractive, and has any desire to lay down with that?” Now…that might be a little extreme, but it did the trick. My friend who is at least 90 pounds overweight has now embarked on his first-time-ever weight loss regime.
I am not placing all physicians into one basket. I am commenting only about the recent findings of my research. The personal experiences of my neighbors are a mere sampling compared to the national picture, but never-the-less holds a mighty truth in that some doctors are missing an important opportunity by not giving us marching orders when it comes to weight control. Many times when an order comes from a doctor…patients will heed the instruction as though it is the gospel and will follow it. Granted, some patients will not follow the advice they receive but a doctor doesn’t stop prescribing a pill to treat high blood pressure just because he thinks the patient won’t take it. So why does he/she not whip out that prescription pad and write a script for IMMEDIATE WEIGHT LOSS?—which is most likely the culprit behind our diabetes, heart problems, aching joints, and so forth.
Are the physicians jam-packed and just too busy? Probably. But how long does it take to write a prescription for walking a mile each day, or one for reducing calorie intake by 500-1000? Or, what about a script for appetite suppressants for obese patients who can’t seem to shed pounds after several months of cutting calories and increasing activity?
Should we blame our doctors for our poor habits? Absolutely not! But, I do believe that healthcare professionals could take a more pro-active approach in helping combat this nation-wide problem. It’s time to take off the kid gloves and tell us that we are fat! Weigh us...measure us...and help us get lean. Don’t coddle us! Tell us like it is…that we really could die…for that extra donut.
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Patricia Kirby, Editor
Patricia Kirby brings several years of journalism, editing, and publishing experience to Radius magazine. She is a published writer and former co-editor of Hoosier Outdoor magazine, with a distribution throughout the mid-west. Patricia is also a former Editor and Publisher of the Hoosier Topics newspaper, distributed countywide in Putnam County, Indiana, and the Springs Valley Herald, French Lick, Indiana. Her tell it like it is writing style offers humor and a bit of satire in her monthly columns, "Pitter from Pat." She has done extensive traveling, including a month in the Outback of Australia to accompany a study group of Aboriginal tribal music.
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