Diabetes
Pack That Fat! Why Weight Loss Is Important
In Helen Fieldings’ cult novel Bridget Jones’s Diary, frustrated singleton Bridget Jones seems to wage an endless battle against the bulge, and if you will permit me to quote a longish paragraph, sums up very nicely what it is that most of us hate about being fat. Here it is: “I hate communal changing rooms. Everyone stares sneakily at each other’s bodies, but no one ever meets anyone’s eye. There are always girls who know that they look fantastic in everything and dance around beaming, swinging their hair and doing model poses in the mirror saying, ‘Does it make me look fat?’ to their obligatory obese friend, who looks like a water buffalo in everything.” Read Full Entry
How does obesity link to diabetes?
In September 2006, a journal called Critical Care published the results of a study on diabetes and obesity. The study revealed that diabetes – more than obesity on its own – was responsible for the increased risk of death among the obese. To make that slightly less convoluted, if you have diabetes, you increase your chances of developing a critical illness and/or dying early; merely being obese does not make you vulnerable. Yes, obese individuals do experience certain physical problems, but these are as likely to afflict the non-obese, is what the study seeks to establish.
The researchers, from the University of Kentucky’s Chandler Hospital and Emory University School of Medicine, reviewed the health of a 15,000-strong sample group, the members of which had originally been studied 20 years ago. They looked for the presence of diabetes (Type 1 and Type 2), analyzed the body mass indices and reviewed the members’ histories of critical illness (such as organ failure) and mortality. Read Full Entry