Is obesity a disease?(Pro & Con)

YES Many people think of eating as a matter of choice, but there is a complex biologic system that controls food intake and makes it hard to lose weight.

Studies suggest that there are at least 40-50 difference substances--hormones, neurochemicals, gastrointestinal peptides, and others that regulate eating and body weight. This complex system of eating and weight control breaks down spontaneously in some people. This breakdown, in the form of obesity, is a disease. The obligation to eat less is much more complicated in patients whose regulating system is driving them to eat more.

To say that being overweight is a result of only poor choices makes little practical sense. Advising an overweight patient to eat less and exercise more is like telling depressed patients to pull themselves together or an asthmatic to breathe easier.

Being overweight or obese is an illness with cardiac, endocrine, metabolic, blood pressure, bone, and joint complications. The symptoms may be mild in some individuals, but they represent the early stages of a chronic and incurable disease.

Treating obesity with a reasonable, sustained disease management strategy can improve blood pressure, blood sugar, pain, arthritis, back symptoms, and breathing. It can decrease the likelihood of developing coronary artery disease and many other conditions. The, will feel better and function better.

The medical community has become skillful at treating the complications of obesity, but it is time to shift that focus to treating obesity, itself and preventing these other serious health conditions. Unfortunately, obesity is difficult to manage, in part because the treatment is difficult and demanding and must be sustained for a lifetime. The medical care costs are not necessarily high, but they are rarely covered by health insurance.

Physicians need to find ways to manage obesity by altering lifestyle issues like diet and exercise and eventually with the use of more effective medications.